Barclays appoints VMO2’s Simon Groves as global brand boss
Simon Groves joins Barclays after almost 25 years working at O2, and will report into former O2 colleague Nina Bibby at the bank.
Barclays has appointed Simon Groves as its global managing director of brand, creative and media. Groves joins from Virgin Media O2, having been at O2 for almost 25 years.
Groves has been leading marketing at the merged venture as director of brand and marketing since 2021. He has been leading the merged company’s brand and marketing activities, including creative and campaigns, customer marketing, media, sponsorship and brand strategy.
Prior to that, he was director of brand and marcoms at O2, while his previous roles include CMO of Tesco Mobile, which is a joint venture between Tesco and O2. Groves joined O2 back in 2000. Before this, he worked for three years as a consultant at PwC.
In his new role as global MD of brand, creative and media at Barclays, Groves will report into group CMO Nina Bibby. Bibby was appointed to the newly-created role last year following her departure from O2 after the merger.
Barclays appoints Nina Bibby to new group CMO role as part of restructure
Bibby and Groves previously worked together at O2, where the former was chief marketing officer for eight years between 2013 and 2021. As director of brand and marketing for VMO2, Groves took on Bibby’s role, as well as that of Virgin Media’s marketing head Cilesta Van Doorn, after they departed the business following the merger.
Speaking to Marketing Week back in 2022, Groves said his role leading marketing at the combined business was to “strike a balance” between promoting a joint association between Virgin Media and O2 and promoting the two distinct brands.
“The combined proposition is really exciting and we’re seeing some great results from that,” he told Marketing Week at the time. “But then we still have a job to do on the two brands individually.”
Groves joins Barclays following a restructure of the organisation last year, which saw Bibby take on the newly-created CMO role. The bank invests heavily in sports sponsorship, in particular football, having been a long-running sponsor of the Premier League. It is also the title sponsor of the Women’s Super League (WSL) and has worked to promote girls’ and women’s involvement in football more generally. It has partnered with the FA to encourage girls to play football through schools.
