Inside Scoop: Career Insights from the Committee

In this series, we get up close and personal with our Greater London Committee members, delving into their career insights and experiences. Our latest guest is Vice Chair Communications, Annabel Elliott-Browning. Check it out!

How would you define success in your career, and what steps have you taken to achieve it?

For me, success has been about doing work that has genuine value and impact for a business - whether helping an organisation communicate more clearly, translating business strategy into an actionable marketing strategy, supporting people through complexity and change, and contributing to long-term, sustainable outcomes for an organisation. It’s also about being trusted - as an advisor, a leader and a collaborator - and knowing that my work has genuinely helped others make better decisions or feel more confident in what they’re doing.

Firstly, I’ve been intentional about having breadth as well as depth as a marketing and communications professional - working across different sectors, disciplines and organisational cultures so that I understand how communications operates in different contexts. It’s helped me build perspective, not just technical expertise.

Secondly, I’ve also focused on continuous learning. Whether that’s formal professional development, staying close to industry best practice, or learning directly from colleagues, I’ve made a conscious effort to evolve alongside the profession.

Finally, I’ve sought out opportunities to give back and lead beyond my day job, including through my role with the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Being part of the Greater London board allows me to contribute to the profession more broadly - helping to shape the profession, support emerging marketers, and strengthen the community that underpins our industry.

Ultimately, success for me is about leaving things better than I found them - teams, organisations, conversations, and hopefully the profession itself.

Your careers spans international marketing across complex sectors, like infrastructure, technology and climate services. How has working in these technically driven industries shaped your approach to brand and communications strategy? 

Working in technically driven sectors has taught me that strong brand and communications strategy has to start with deep understanding and clarity. In those environments, credibility is everything - so brand can’t be superficial. It needs to be grounded in technical understanding, evidence and long-term value.

That experience has shaped my approach to focus on translating complexity and specialist subjects into clear, human narratives - respecting the technical detail, but framing it in a way that stakeholders, clients and communities can understand, trust and engage with, without oversimplifying or losing rigour. It’s about respecting expertise while making it accessible, whether you’re speaking to clients, stakeholders, policymakers or the wider public.

It’s also shaped a more disciplined, long-term view of brand. In sectors where outcomes are measured over years rather than campaigns, reputation, consistency and integrity matter more than short-term visibility. As a result, I see communications as a strategic function that builds confidence, alignment and sustained impact over time.

In what ways has being a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing influenced or supported your career progression?

Being a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing has played an important role in shaping both my confidence and credibility as a marketer. It’s given me a strong professional framework - not just in terms of technical capability, but in how I think about ethics, standards and the wider responsibility of marketing as a discipline. 

I’ve been a member of the CIM for over 10 years - I joined as soon as I focused on a career in marketing - and I’ve benefited from the access to continuous learning and a community of peers who challenge and broaden my thinking. Engaging with marketers across sectors and career stages has helped me stay grounded, current and outward‑looking, particularly as the profession continues to evolve.

Achieving Chartered Marketer status in 2020 was a particularly meaningful milestone. It validated my experience at a senior level and reinforced the importance of continuous professional development, reflective practice and impact - all of which have influenced how I approach leadership roles.

You are accredited with CIM's Chartered CPD programme and hold a CIM Professional Diploma, alongside an MSc in International Business Management. How was your continuous learning contributed to your growth, and what would you say to marketers debating whether formal qualifications are worth the investment? 

Continuous learning has always been important to me and has played a key role throughout my career. It’s enabled me to develop new skills, challenge my thinking, and helped me to continue to grow in an evolving profession.

The CIM’s Chartered CPD programme has been particularly important in ensuring I’ve made a sustained commitment to continuous learning throughout my career. It’s helped embed reflection and development as an ongoing practice, rather than something that happens at fixed points, and has supported my growth.

Continuous learning comes in many forms - sometimes a professional qualification and formal learning is the right option, but continuous learning can also mean taking on new projects, learning from peers and colleagues, and saying yes to opportunities that stretch you. Throughout my career, I’ve actively sought out opportunities that push me to learn new skills and think differently.

There’s a wealth of resources available - from journals and webinars to online courses and professional communities, such as the Chartered Institute of Marketing - that play an important role in supporting continuous learning. These routes can be incredibly effective in keeping skills current and perspectives fresh, and can complement more formal training options.

You have worked on high-profile campaigns, including projects with the World Health Organization during the pandemic. What did those experiences teach you about communicating complex, high-stakes messages to diverse audiences? 

Working on global campaigns reinforced just how critical clarity, trust and empathy are when communicating complex messages. In those environments, the margin for misinterpretation is very small, and the audiences are incredibly diverse - so communications have to be rigorous and accurate, but most importantly, human.

Those experiences taught me the importance of grounding communications in evidence and accuracy, while also translating complexity into language that people can understand and act on. It was a real career highlight to work on initiatives that actively shaped community response and helped inform approaches to improve future preparedness in times of crisis.

As Vice Chair Communications for CIM London, what are you most passionate about delivering for members in the region, and how will you further leverage your CIM involvement to give back to the profession? 

I’m most passionate about building a strong, inclusive professional community that reflects the breadth and richness of marketing across the region. The CIM helps bring together marketers working across a broad range of sectors and acts as a convenor, creating opportunities for marketers to come together to learn, share perspectives, and help shape the future of the profession, not just locally but as part of the wider marketing community.

Mentoring is a key part of that for me. Creating opportunities for experienced marketers to support those earlier in their careers - and for knowledge to flow both ways - is one of the most powerful ways to strengthen our profession.

By Kamila Miller MCIM Chartered Marketer, Communications Ambassador, Greater London Regional Group and author of 'Data-Driven Marketing Strategy' (Kogan Page). She is also a doctoral researcher at Henley Business School, University of Reading.