Claire Heys, Director, Commercial Brand Partnerships ITV
Claire is one of the UK's leading practitioners at the forefront of advertiser related content deals over the last 10 years, having shaped content strategies forwww.very.co.uk, Morrisons, Camelot, Orange, General Mills, The British Army, Waitrose, Levi's, Nintendo, Australia Tourism, Aquafresh and Ocado.
Claire joined ITV in July this year to head up all commercial brand partnerships within Brand Extensions, a role that comprises brand partnerships, licensing, sales promotions, live events, consumer products and merchandising. Her role is to add value to ITV's commercial sales deals and drive strategies to commercialise IP from ITV Studios owned properties - I'm A Celebrity, Dancing on Ice, Saturday Night Takeaway, Coronation Street and The Big Reunion and third party TV brands Splash, Alan Titchmarsh and Downton Abbey.
She recently moved over from Endemol UK, where she ran all commercial activity around The Money Drop, Big Brother, Deal or No Deal, Superscrimpers, Ready Steady Cook, I can cook and Pointless.
Going back further, Claire was Controller of Commercial Partnerships at Virgin Media Television and UKTV. Her role was the first time a UK broadcaster had hired someone specifically to work in the area of branded content. And previous to that she was Head of Business Development for Initial, part of Endemol UK.
Claire has international TV experience as she spent four years in Hong Kong as the Channel Manager of Channel [V], STAR TV's music channel.