Carsales has promoted its GM of consumer marketing, Priya Kanniappan, to group director of marketing following the recent departure of CMO, Kellie Cordner.
Kanniappan will report directly to Australian managing director, Ajay Bhatia. The news comes a month after the group confirmed the departure of Cordner after seven years in the position.
“Carsales has a philosophy of building and promoting talent from within and Priya is a prime example,” Bhatia said in a statement. “We were extremely impressed by the calibre of applications for the role, but Priya’s experience, innovation and strong appreciation of what makes carsales Australia’s number one made her the clear choice.”
Credit: Carsales
Kanniappan has been the GM consumer marketing since October 2020, leading the group’s digital, brand and partnership teams. It’s her second stint with the automotive marketplace, having initially joined the group as a marketing coordinator in 2012. Inbetween tenures, she was a senior strategic marketing manager for Eventbrite.
As group marketing lead, Kanniappan will head Carsales Australia’s full marketing effort including a growing emphasis on trade and B2B.
“Carsales is an exceptional business with an incredibly strong brand. Our category is undergoing rapid change and with our culture of innovation we are well setup to broaden our addressable market,” she commented. “I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to build our future positioning, take our brand to new heights and lead such a talented team of marketers.
“We will launch some exciting initiatives in early 2022 including a significant upgrade of carsales’ consumer favourite, Instant Offer, and the next stage of our ‘buy online’ offerings via carsales Select.”
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