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Heart Foundation’s Chris Taylor joins Movember as chief experience officer

The Heart Foundation’s Chris Taylor has been named chief experience officer of Movember.

Taylor has already stepped into the role and will be aiding the men’s health organisation in with its five-year strategic plan as leader of the ‘Movember experience team’. Taylor’s role involves integrating marketing and distribution, data and insights, innovations, digital engagement, channel and product design, and customer experience.

Chris Taylor is joining the Heart Foundation

Taylor announced his departure from the Heart Foundation in November after almost three years as its chief marketing officer, where he was responsible for establishing a marketing, brand and digital strategy after nine separate entities combined to form the organisation as it is known now.

At the time, Taylor said that 2020 had provided an opportunity for reflection and he had decided he needed a new challenge. The announcement alluded to a new role in financial services, payments and fintech.

“I am sorry to leave behind one of the best marketing teams in the country whose passion, dedication and experience have led us to achieve some amazing results. Not only did we support each other as a team, but we were able to have fun along the way,” Taylor said in November.

Taylor’s appointment at Movember comes as the organisation seeks to bolster its overseas presence. Last week it was announced that Movember had appointed the rebooted SMART to its global brand strategy following a competitive pitch.

Taylor’s experience team will partner with the programs, fundraising and technology teams to realise Movember’s vision of helping men live happier, healthier lives.

“I am excited to join the Movember team at such a critical time with the new strategic direction,” Taylor said.

“Movember is more than a great brand, it’s an important brand that has helped put men’s health on the map globally. Movember is consistently ranked among the most innovative not-for-profits in each of its key markets. Its fresh and engaging approach to encouraging people to give and participate, continues to help raise important issues and ultimately, save lives through evidence-based impact programs.”

Taylor is based in Australia and will be reporting directly into Movember CEO Michelle Terry as a member of the executive leadership team.

“Strengthening our connection with audiences is key to Movember delivering on our five-year strategy to significantly increase our impact, grow and diversify our income, and drive positive behaviour change that improves men’s health outcomes in our priority markets,” Terry said.

“Chris’ experience in building high performance marketing and customer experience teams, plus his proven ability to help us navigate through organisational change means he is the ideal candidate to lead our growth and transformation agenda. Chris has been widely recognised as a behaviour change expert for his work at the Heart Foundation, which showcased health intervention impact and resulted in increased audience engagement and revenue.”

In Taylor’s tenure at the Heart Foundation he spearheaded a number of award-winning and controversial campaigns including  the ‘Serial Killer’ campaign which helped the organisation make a name for itself. The campaign launched across the covers of News Corp titles, leveraging the country’s fascination with true crime by alluding to a story about ‘Australia’s worst serial killer’. The ‘criminal’ that caused 51 deaths per day was revealed inside the pages of the papers was revealed to be heart disease.

Serial Killer was followed up by the short-lived ‘Heartless Words’ campaign, which led with a film featuring people telling family members they no longer cared for them, their feelings or their hearts. The campaign immediately received widespread criticism for treating families who have lost loved ones to heart disease insensitively. In response the Heart Foundation pulled the campaign film the following day and cancelled the entire campaign later in the week.

Terry concluded: “The next five years will be significant for Movember as we continue to evolve and grow the organisation and we are excited to be able to attract some of the best talent in the industry to guide us on that journey.”

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