Former Samsung marketer Damien Cummings joins Philips
Digital marketer Damien Cummings has joined Philips, Mumbrella can reveal.
He takes on the role of regional vice president and chief marketing officer, ASEAN and Pacific, at the consumer electronics and lifestyle brand.
He starts on 1 February, and will report to Philips regional CEO Harjit Gill.
Cummings worked at Samsung for just under a year and a half as regional marketing director, digital and social media until a restructure of the company’s marketing department in Southeast Asia at the end of last year.
His role at Philips will focus on three areas – brand, communications/social media and digital marketing.
On Cummings’ blog, he wrote: “I’ve been blessed with a great career at some of the most amazing brands in the world. In 2012, I joined the biggest brand in Asia and the world’s largest technology company, Samsung. It was a great ride. I had the great pleasure of working with some of the best and brightest minds in marketing on some of the best products ever created. My role matched my passions – leading marketing transformation in Asia, doing great work in digital, changing the game in social business, introducing e-commerce to the region (for Samsung) and building a great brand. Unfortunately, at the end of 2013, I was retrenched by the (at the time) new regional leadership at Samsung as part of a management restructure.
“It’s tough going through such a sudden change, both professionally and personally. For the last couple of months I’ve taken time out to reassess and focus on what’s important in life – friends, family, being healthy, giving back to the community and sharing my knowledge. It also gave me a unique opportunity to focus on finding a new role at a company that was more closely aligned to my values – a company that focuses on helping people and improving people’s lives. I was fortunate to be approached by Philips. I’ve always been a huge fan of the Philips brand, which I believe is one of the most innovative and caring companies in the world.”
Prior to Samsung, Cummings worked as global social media director at Del for almost three years. Before that, he was general manager of Ogilvy’s digital media planning and buying unit Neo@Ogilvy.com in Singapore.
The Australian has also worked at Citibank, insurer NRMA and Coca-Cola in senior marketing roles in his home country. He began his career at McKinsey in Sydney, and he moved to Singapore in 2008.
In a recent interview with Mumbrella, Cummings said he admired Xiaomi, AirAsia, Scoot, SingTel and Samsung for their activities in social media.
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