We caught up with Lucy Chan Chappells, Head of Marketing at Skinny Lager.
Lucy is knocking down obstacles in her path and bringing a much-needed woman’s touch to the beer trade, supported by a predominantly female team.
Having grown Skinny Brands average reach per month to 5 million across social platforms, Lucy has years in marketing experience and has entered the alcohol/beer industry with a bang.
As Head of Marketing for UK lager brand, Skinny Lager, my role sees me manage all of our marketing needs -from ATL campaign planning to Social Media influencer campaigns, no day is ever the same which I love! I have a straightforward mission for Skinny Lager which is to make it a household name and for Brits to add it to their repertoire of drinks choices.
Prior to working for Skinny Lager, I lived in the Middle East for 11 years. I made a complete 360 change to my career at the age of 27, to follow my passion for start-ups and business! I had been fast tracked to a leadership role at a leading Middle East airline and the training programme had a life changing impact on me. We underwent courses from the FBI on how to deal with negotiation in a hostage situation, through to emotional intelligence training from leading Harvard Business mentors.
I have always followed my passions, curiosity and instinct. At an age when friends went to University, I was only interested in travelling the globe. I didn’t have a plan or an agenda – I just wanted to see every continent and world wonder before I turned 30. I made it happen (by 27) and I gained an education about current affairs, global economics and world culture through asking questions, listening and being open to my life experiences.
In my 20s I planned to work in travel because it was a passion of mine. However, over time my passion changed to pursuing a path in business and leadership. I took a huge risk giving up a very comfortable life, salary and career, to start from the ground up in business.
My timing was a stroke of luck in the Middle East as Social Media Marketing was in its infancy. SEO in particular was relatively unsaturated and I saw an opportunity to make myself an expert in these emerging marketing fields. In those four years of on the ground learning, I didn’t have a holiday and lived frugally, I put myself on a fast track to get to where I am today. I surrounded myself with entrepreneurs and built a portfolio career, I grafted day in day out due to an intrinsic motivation to become successful at my own merit.
My move back to the UK was the only time I had planned a career move with a vision in mind. I wanted to work at a challenger brand with a clear Route to Market (RTM) into the UK multiples, export and Direct To Consumer (DTC). I have been very fortunate in my move back to the UK, having full exposure to a growing UK brand.
So many along the way, from diplomatic sanctions and currency crashes killing RTM for top selling products, competitors driving #1 ranking websites to the depths of beyond Google – the list was endless, but I’ve learnt to take it in my stride over the years. It is surprising looking back, that for each insane issue, there was usually a straightforward solution.
At Skinny Lager my biggest achievement to date was a 65% year-on-year growth with a 3% Marketing spend of the overall revenue in 2021. Instead of trying to appeal to the masses in Y1 and Y2, I focussed solely on growing a legion of loyal customers with niche targeting. This has built loyalty and trust. Now in Y3 when we take the brand officially ATL, we have a loyal fan base to prove our messaging is authentic. A lot of brands focus on hyper growth at all times, and often push customer retention down the list of priorities.
Through difficult times and failures, I have never lost focus. I am very responsive to feedback and critique, which is so crucial in order to evolve and learn from mistakes so that you can achieve greater success long term. I am always striving to learn and be better.
I love mentoring and instilling confidence in people. I think it is important to give people exposure to different perspectives whilst increasing their own self-awareness to situations.
Encouraging businesses in the childcare and co-working sectors to unite! The existing system for working mothers means that many earning under a certain bracket per year, have very little left after paying bills and childcare (when the child is aged 0-3). Due to this, many talented mums either don’t go back to work, or have to change careers that they love because they simply cannot afford childcare full time. We need a solution to prevent burn out, retain top talent and to ensure families have a happy work/life balance!
There are certain industries that critically need to become more gender inclusive, that have a below average number of females in the boardroom. I would like to see these industries run apprenticeships (not just for females but for non-graduates too), I believe this would most certainly accelerate the pace of change for Gender Parity.
To appreciate that not everyone receives and interprets information in the same way that you do, so learn to recognise different personality types and communicate effectively with them.
Practising self-reflection and understanding your own trigger points is also key to success and personal growth too.
My next challenge (one that I enjoy) is evolving Skinny Lager into a mainstream brand. In the far future I would love to invest my time and expertise in branded consumer companies. I think there is no greater thrill than being at the start of a brands journey and helping to orchestrate its future success.
Above all, I hope that I continue to love what I do, with my daughter, family and close friends by my side all the way.
I think nowadays it’s advantageous to be a female in a male dominated industry, especially when it comes to beer as it adds diversity to views and approaches that otherwise may not have been possible. At Skinny, 80% of our team is female, and we do everything we can to attract more women into the industry as we push for equality and diversity in the sector. While I recognise and appreciate the industry was once male dominated, as the decades have evolved this outlook is becoming outdated.
