Badminton England is delighted to announce the appointment of Giles Dunning into the newly created role of Chief Operating Officer. Giles has an impressive track record of senior strategy / digital / customer engagement roles at organisations such as Santander, Barclaycard, Dentsu and Homeserve. He was also Head of Digital at the Post Office where he was responsible for driving the shift to digital.
Giles will join Badminton England on 4 February where he will lead a bold vision to create a new way that participation and the ‘selling of badminton’ to key audiences, will be delivered in the future. Adrian Christy, Chief Executive at Badminton England, said “Our commercial programme, built around an evolving digital eco-system of personalised, segmented, relevant communication, has seen the sport achieve unprecedented reach and engagement in the areas of our contactable digital audience and social media following that has driven growth across our key commercial pillars – Yonex All England major event ticket sales, membership, the National Badminton Centre and sponsorship.
“Our success with this approach, recognising the continued shift in the way consumers expect to be communicated to, and the level of service that they expect, now forces us to think differently about how we reach and engage participants to ensure that badminton remains relevant and a natural choice for people in the future.
“Our belief is that consumer marketing and communications are built around the same premise; that being that every consumer choice is the result of a clear value exchange and therefore the choices made by fans, partners and participants are based on the same factors. “Despite badminton being one of the most participated sports in the UK – circa 1m people play at least twice a month – I am absolutely convinced there is so much more growth opportunity and that this can be achieved by not just following traditional routes to attracting and retaining participants in sport, but by a more consumer focussed, value led approach.
“I am therefore very excited to welcome Giles who will bring a very specific set of skills to drive the further growth of participation in our great sport”.
Giles Dunning said, “I am delighted to be joining Adrian and the rest of the team at Badminton England at such an exciting time for the sport and those that play and love it. “I am looking forward to bringing my customer experience, digital and marketing focus to all elements of the badminton delivery chain as we look to change our traditional thinking and transform the experience for players, members and partners and the way everyone engages with badminton. “For the past 20 years I’ve worked with organisations that have looked to modernise their approaches as the digital age has changed consumer behaviour and market economics.
I am passionate about delivering great customer experiences, and ensuring organisations are set up to succeed in a world that continues to change. “Badminton England has a great platform to deliver an even greater experience to its players, members and everyone involved in the sport and I’m thrilled to be a part of the next stage of the journey.”
