Job Description
Position Overview
This role forms part of the Credit,Banking and Rewards Cluster within SLS and is responsible for leading the end-to-end marketing strategy, brand positioning, and go-to-market execution for the Sanlam GOtyme Banking-led ecosystem proposition — positioning Sanlam as a credible, modern, digital, and accessible financial services ecosystem. This role drives brand reappraisal, customer adoption, ecosystem habit formation, and commercial growth across banking and insurance propositions, integrating seamlessly across clusters, branches, intermediaries, and digital channels.
What will you do?
1. Banking Marketing & Communication Strategy
- Develop and take the lead/focus on the integrated marketing and communication strategy for the Sanlam GOtyme Banking-led ecosystem.
- Position Sanlam as a credible, scaled entrant into digital banking — modern, accessible, aspirational, and human.
- Support brand reappraisal across mass, emerging middle market, and affluent segments.
- Translate ecosystem strategy into executable go-to-market plans across all channels in close collaboration with the Head of Customer Strategy and Proposition and Head of Distribution
2. Leadership & Ecosystem Adoption
- Lead marketing and communication planning for the banking-led ecosystem, with collaborative support across Booost, Credit, and Blue App adoption.
- Establish the Blue App as the primary digital gateway into the Sanlam ecosystem.
- Create early customer habit formation through rewards, engagement journeys, and usage-led primacy strategies.
3. Digital Marketing Capabilities
- Lead the full digital marketing stack: performance marketing, SEO/SEM, paid social, programmatic, email, push notifications, and in-app messaging.
- Lead app growth marketing — user acquisition, onboarding optimisation, activation, and retention campaigns across the Blue App.
Collaborate with relevant teams to build and manage CRM and marketing automation capabilities to drive personalised, lifecycle-based customer engagement at scale. - Implement conversion rate optimisation (CRO) across digital touchpoints — app stores, landing pages, onboarding flows, and in-app journeys.
- Leverage data analytics and attribution modelling to measure campaign effectiveness and optimise spend across digital channels.
- Drive A/B and multivariate testing culture to continuously improve messaging, creative, and digital UX performance.
- Oversee digital content strategy — ensuring brand-consistent, channel-appropriate content across owned, earned, and paid digital media.
- Champion customer data platform (CDP) development and first-party data strategy in partnership with technology and data teams.
4. Customer Growth & Commercial Performance
Accountable for marketing contribution to:
- Customer acquisition volumes and cost-per-lead (CPL) / customer acquisition cost (CAC)
- Blue App downloads, onboarding completion, and monthly active user (MAU) growth
- Banking account openings and funding rates
- Credit product uptake and utilisation
- Rewards programme engagement and retention
- Cross-sell penetration across insurance and broader Sanlam products
- Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer experience metrics
5. Channel Integration (Physical + Digital)
- Integrate ecosystem marketing across branches (dual servicing model), intermediaries and sales managers, digital platforms, contact centres, and worksite and community channels.
- Co create and support the business unit enablement plans for go to market activities across the various sub clusters across the Sanlam Group.
- Ensure a consistent, high-quality customer experience across all physical and digital touchpoints.
- Design phygital journeys that bridge in-person engagement with digital activation and ongoing app usage.
6. Brand, PR & Communication Leadership
- Work with Group Brand, PR and Comms to shape the external narrative of Sanlam in banking.
- Drive thought leadership and reputation positioning across media, industry forums, and digital channels.
- Align ecosystem messaging across internal and external audiences, including staff, intermediaries, and the public.
7. Agency & Partner Management
- Lead the full agency ecosystem: creative, media, digital, performance, PR, and influencer partners.
- Manage joint marketing initiatives with TymeBank / GoTyme, ensuring brand alignment and shared accountability for outcomes.
- Govern large-scale GTM budgets with strong ROI discipline and transparent reporting.
8. Governance & Stakeholder Alignment
- Align with Sanlam Group, Fintech, other clusters, Legal, Compliance, and Procurement.
- Operate within delegated authority (DOA) and governance frameworks.
- Present regularly to Exco on marketing performance, progress, budget utilisation, and ROI.
What will make you successful in this role?
This role is pivotal to Sanlam’s entry into banking and credit, the success of the Sanlam Ecosystem strategy, and the repositioning of Sanlam for the next generation of customers.
This is a senior, highly visible leadership role. The successful candidate will:
- Operate comfortably at Exco and Board level, presenting with clarity and confidence.
- Inspire and influence cross-functional teams without direct authority.
- Translate complex ecosystem strategy into disciplined, measurable execution at scale.
- Build alignment across complex stakeholder environments — internal and external.
- Lead with a growth, innovation, and customer-first mindset.
- Navigate the tension between long-term brand building and short-term commercial performance.
Qualification and Experience
Qualification
- Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Commerce, or a related field.
- Postgraduate qualification in Marketing, Business Administration, Strategy, or Digital Business (advantageous).
Experience
- 10+ years of senior marketing leadership experience.
- Proven track record in digital, fintech, banking, or financial services marketing.
- Experience leading large-scale GTM programmes with budgets exceeding R100m.
- Demonstrated success in app growth marketing — downloads, activation, retention, and monetisation.
- Deep experience with performance marketing, CRM, marketing automation, and digital analytics platforms.
- Experience integrating physical and digital customer journeys in a multi-channel environment.
- Executive stakeholder management experience, including Exco and Board engagement.
Technical Skills and Competencies
Digital and Technical:
- Performance marketing and paid media (Meta, Google, programmatic)
- App store optimisation (ASO) and mobile growth
- CRM, marketing automation and lifecycle marketing
- Customer data platforms (CDP) and first-party data strategy
- Digital analytics, attribution, and A/B testing
- SEO/SEM, content strategy, and owned media
- Data-driven decision making and ROI governance
Strategic and Leadership:
- Strategic thinking and commercial acumen
- Brand strategy and repositioning
- Deep understanding of mass market customer behaviour
- Cross-functional leadership and influence
- Executive communication and stakeholder management
Personal Attributes
Build a successful career with us
We’re all about building strong, lasting relationships with our employees. We know that you have hopes for your future – your career, your personal development and of achieving great things. We pride ourselves in helping our employees to realise their worth. Through its five business clusters – Sanlam Fintech, Sanlam Life and Savings, Sanlam Investment Group, Sanlam Allianz, Santam, as well as MiWay and the Group Office – the group provides many opportunities for growth and development.
Core Competencies
Turnaround time
The shortlisting process will only start once the application due date has been reached. The time taken to complete this process will depend on how far you progress and the availability of managers.