As THG gears up for its biggest moment of the year, Senior Brand Executive Oakley for Myprotein offers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to bring Peak to life.  

Sitting at the heart of the global brand team, Oakley plays a key role in shaping strategy, guiding creative execution, and ensuring that every channel and region is aligned for one of the most high-impact period in the online retail calendar. From insights gathering to the final rollout of global campaigns, she shares how the brand team prepares for Peak, and what grads can expect from their first Black Friday season. 

What does your role as a Senior Brand Executive involve? 

In the brand team, we set the global brand strategy and own the end-to-end global campaigns from insights and planning to delivering the campaign to all channels & regions ready for go live! We work closely with all channels and regions and sit as a central team to ensure everything aligns with the brand and to support regional moments throughout the year and channel execution. We also work closely with THG Studios, managing all end-to-end brand assets and video delivery for BAU and campaigns. 

What kind of work goes into preparing for Peak from a brand perspective? 

A lot of behind-the-scenes work goes into peak planning from the brand team, and our planning starts in the summer. From insights and data gathering, building the campaign brief, to kick off calls with creatives. We ensure all channel and regional considerations and requirements are included. Next steps include photoshoot planning, working closely with the talent team, then shoot week, post-production and delivery.  

How does your team start planning, and when does the prep really kick off? 

Planning for the Black Friday campaign starts in summer from gathering insights, trend analysis and sales dates to build into the business & creative brief. We then work closely with THG Studios and Creatives on campaign creative strategy and photoshoot planning, all the way to the day we deliver all assets and videos to channels.   

What advice would you give to this year's grads who are about to head into their first Peak season? 

My advice for peak would be to throw yourself into it! It can be busy and overwhelming at times, but you learn so much along the way. You are in it together with your team, so the feeling when you deliver and it’s a success is great. There’s a lot of fun to be had over the peak period too so definitely get involved with office activations and Move Clubs! Your team and grad cohort will be there to support each other so lean on that support and check in on your friends and team. And of course, enjoy your first Black Friday at THG - it’s something I’ll always remember! 

As part of the graduate scheme, how has working on Peak helped you develop your skills or confidence? 

I was able to develop my brand and campaign skills so much, so quickly from working on our 2024 Black Friday campaign and throwing myself in at the deep end! From working closely with the channels and regions I learnt so much about our role to support all these teams through peak period, and ensure they have everything they need for a successful campaign. My confidence developed a lot throughout the period and now allows me to think back to Peak and remind myself when times get tough or overwhelming throughout the year on different campaigns and brand projects, we can get through it! 

What has been your favourite Peak moment? 

My favourite peak moment was watching the whole campaign go live globally across YouTube, paid media, organic socials, site and CRM! It was a real achievement for our team - everything we had been working on for months coming together and seeing it set live!