Caroline Elton leaves Heart Foundation in marketing division scale back
The Heart Foundation has undergone a restructuring of its marketing team, as the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have taken hold.
Caroline Elton, who was promoted to chief marketing officer last year, after joining the charity in 2019, has left the business, according to a report in The Australian Financial Review today.
The Heart Foundation was also unable to provide comment on specifics regarding the extend of the restructuring, or individuals. Mumbrella understands that the restructure extends company wide, beyond just the marketing team.
Caroline Elton told Mumbrella: “I have loved every minute of my three years with the Heart Foundation, including the past year as Chief Marketing Officer. More people die from heart disease than any other cause, and it has been incredibly fulfilling to help the organisation in its goal to improve the heart health of Australians and save lives, keeping more families together.
“I’m particularly proud of the Saving Hearts campaign, the Foundation’s most successful awareness campaign to date. My team and I led the Heart Foundation to double digit revenue growth, and its highest brand awareness in five years. Off the back of that unprecedented success, I decided it was the right time to leave, which coincided with the end of COVID lockdown, to spend time with my children before they head back to school.”
Interim CEO, professor Gary Jennings issued a statement to Mumbrella stating that despite the changes, “the marketing team will remain central to the reshaped structure of the Heart Foundation and work is ongoing to review how all teams, operations and resources across the board can be realigned to deliver our strategy and essential programs and services, while reducing costs”.
Caroline Elton
Elton replaced Chris Taylor as CMO, who left in November last year following three years in the role. Taylor was the first CMO at the organisation and was tasked with establishing a marketing, brand and digital strategy following nine separate entities coming together to form the Heart Foundation as it known today.
In March this year, Taylor resurfaced at Movember, as chief experience officer, aiding the men’s health organisation in with its five-year strategic plan as leader of the ‘Movember experience team’.
“As a charity, we rely on the support of our donors, and we have a responsibility to spend their money wisely and as efficiently as we can,” said Jennings. “As the realignment process is ongoing, it would not be appropriate to share specific details at this time about individuals within the organisation.”
Last month, the charity posted a public statement, in which Jennings said that similar to many other charities, it had been significantly affected by the pandemic, as a result reviewing the business model, “with a view to raising revenue and cutting costs”. This included “reviewing” a number of employees and positions, as well as freezing recruitment and external spending.
“The Heart Foundation also has several big fundraisers planned for the next few months. We look forward to the generous support of the community during activities such as Give with Heart Day and My Marathon.”
Chris Taylor, now at Movember
The Heart Foundation released a campaign in June at the time of Elton’s appointment, urging Australians to donate, in order to “avoid a lifetime of emotional heartache”.
“The marketing team will remain central to the reshaped structure of the Heart Foundation and work is ongoing to review how all teams, operations and resources across the board can be realigned to deliver our strategy and essential programs and services, while reducing costs,” said Jennings.
During Taylor’s three years, the Heart Foundation produced several pieces of brand work, with the ‘Serial Killer‘ campaign, helping the organisation gain recognition. The campaign ran across the covers of News Corp print titles, leveraging the nation’s true crime fascination, with heart disease being revealed to be the ‘criminal’ causing 51 deaths per day.
He also spearheaded the the more controversial ‘Heartless words‘ campaign, which was received negatively, and subsequently pulled after less than a week.
This article was updated after publishing, to reflect comments from Caroline Elton, and correct an error regarding the date of Elton joining The Heart Foundation.
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Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
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Caroline Elton
Chris Taylor
Heart Foundation
Heart Foundation Australia
Professor Gary Jennings
