Laura Thomas

Laura brings over 15 years of experience across marketing, e-commerce, digital strategy, and innovation, having held senior roles at global giants like WPP, THG, and Unilever. Currently, she serves as Global Marketing Transformation Lead at Unilever's Home Care division, where she supports global markets in evolving their marketing capabilities. Laura is passionate about leveraging digital to create meaningful customer experiences—whether that's via the most perfectly timed advert you've ever seen, an impeccably curated beauty advent calendar bought online or ASMR cleaning content on TikTok! She's also a keen mentor and dedicates time to support women at all stages of their career to play their bigger games and be guided by their future selves, recently delivering a four-part course on Leadership and Management that was specifically designed for women in tech. Laura brings a sharp commercial lens, a deep understanding of digital ecosystems, and a strong belief in marketing's power to drive business transformation.

What do you think the biggest challenges are currently facing the industry?

The biggest challenge is the economic situation leading to squeezed budgets. It's putting talent at risk which is a huge challenge and risk for companies as they're under resourced and distracted in an area that requires absolute focus. It also means that there's more pressure on performance marketing budgets to work harder, but to also do the job of the other marketing lines being cut - therefore potentially diluting focus and results.