About

Rhian is a senior marketing leader, with 14 years’ experience of transforming the social media, content and e-commerce strategies of global brands within entertainment, FMCG and automotive.

She currently works at Mattel, Inc., where she leads the social strategy and roadmap across Europe, Middle East and Africa for their entire portfolio of brands, including Barbie, Fisher-Price, Hot Wheels, Monster High, Scrabble, Pictionary and UNO.

When she joined at the end of 2018, Mattel recognised that their existing approach wasn’t working but they were unsure of what success looked like or how to achieve it. Using her extensive knowledge of social and change management, Rhian quickly identified and established the right processes, tools and agency partners, defined a robust social strategy and roadmap, and persuasively communicated with stakeholders at every level to ensure a “One Team” approach that delivers success across all brands and markets.

Under her leadership, social has become a key driver of both short- and long-term sales. She has achieved this by spearheading a shift away from bland content and ineffective media, to build an organisation that’s purpose-driven, audience-led and creatively curious.

Prior to this, Rhian spearheaded a sustained transformation of social media at Nissan Motor (GB) Ltd over more than five years. In this role, she oversaw a team of in-house content and community managers, external agencies (including social, moderation, media, creative, sponsorships and listening) and worked closely with counterparts at Nissan Europe and Global to ensure everything was delivered to the highest standard.

Rhian has extensive knowledge of social platforms and media planning, and a proven track record in conveying this across other Sales and Marketing functions, as well as to a network of 200 dealerships and 7,000 employees at the factory in Sunderland.

She has led on everything from product launch and event amplification, to designing and delivering large-scale, cross-channel, high-impact campaigns to maximise the potential of Nissan's partnerships with the UEFA Champions League and Manchester City to deliver maximum value for their audiences.

Rhian's key achievements include proving sales from social as a Meta Alpha partner, identifying and piloting new tools and strategies for global roll-out, and Nissan's Rio 2016 campaign being named “best performing of any GB sponsor” by many marketing titles, including Marketing Week, Campaign and City A.M.

She also led on a social partnership that delivered incremental sales of Nissan's flagship GT-R supercar, and was named the most viewed automotive campaign globally during the first quarter of 2018 by independent analytics company TubularLabs.

Rhian has also established a successful career as an automotive journalist. She edited AutoExpress.co.uk for two years, and has also worked at Auto Trader, What Car?, Top Gear, The Guardian and F1 Racing.

In 2009, Rhian became only the third female to be awarded the Sir William Lyons Award, and was also awarded the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Phil Llewellin Award - winning these accolades at only 21 years old helped secure her place within the industry, and she feels incredibly lucky that her name sits alongside some of the most talented writers in the country.

Rhian loves motorsport and hip hop. She is qualified as both a Pilates and yoga instructor, and holds Diplomas in trauma counselling, psychology and cognitive behavioural therapy. She is also (slowly) working her way through the Guardian's list of 1,000 novels to read.

Get in touch by emailing rhian.angharad@gmail.com.