John Lewis hires N Brown online chief to lead new unit

John Lewis is beefing up its online shopping expertise by drafting in a senior marketer from N Brown to spearhead a new team as head of customer planning and channels.

Andreas Nicolaides joins from his role as general manager of N Brown brand Simply Be, having held a number of group-wide roles at the former catalogue giant since joining in 2019, including group head of SEO, director of digital marketing and group marketing director.

Prior to that, Nicolaides was group digital transformation director at iProspect, and has also held senior digital roles at MBNA, MEC and Moneysupermarket.

His main focus at John Lewis will be to maximise impact of marketing budget across channels, including modernising and optimising marketing across online as well as stores to deepen relationships with customers.

John Lewis Partnership’s customer director Charlotte Lock said: “Andreas brings a wealth of experience as a data driven media and marketing specialist across a very wide portfolio of successful brands.

“John Lewis already has huge loyalty from our customers, and we are delighted that Andreas will be driving forward our marketing planning to deepen this relationship further.”

In May, Saatchi & Saatchi scooped the John Lewis Partnership advertising and marketing account, with a brief to produce and develop all campaigns for the brands.

The agency took over from Adam & Eve DDB, with the first campaign is expected to launch in the autumn for Waitrose. It was the first time the company has carried out a creative agency pitch process in 14 years for John Lewis and in eight years for Waitrose.

At the time, Lock said: “We’re thrilled to be partnering with the talented team at Saatchi & Saatchi in our next stage of growth. As well as sharp strategic thinking and creative excellence, Saatchi & Saatchi’s culture, commitment to inclusion and social impact makes them a great fit for JLP. We’re very excited about what we’ll achieve together.”