Jeremy Baxter knew from an early age that he wanted to be in marketing “and influence the way people think.”
“Most people would watch TV spots and say, ‘Oh that was cool,’ or ‘I enjoyed that,’” says Baxter, senior manager, marketing communications at Telus Communications in Burnaby, B.C. “As a kid, I would watch a TV spot and say, ‘Why are they doing that?’”
That interest led him to the marketing management program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, which Baxter describes “as an unapologetic baptism in the world of business.” After graduating in 2007, Baxter became one of the youngest people ever to join Telus’s Leadership Development Program. In just a few years, he was a corporate spokesperson in the media relations team, a brand manager responsible for corporate sponsorship marketing communications, a channel manager rolling out quarterly campaigns to various internal stakeholders, and an adviser to the senior vice-president of customer experience.
In 2010, Baxter joined Telus’ marketing communications team as a specialist, and two years later he was appointed senior manager, marketing communications. Baxter now leads the marketing communications strategy for Optik TV, Telus’ flagship TV service in Western Canada. Since Optik TV launched in 2010, it has grown to nearly 750,000 subscribers, making it one of the fastest-growing TV services in the world (286% year over year growth after year one), according to Telus. Baxter manages a $40 million budget in annual advertising spend for the Western provinces, a region which generates about $2 billion in annual revenues to Telus.
“Jeremy was an integral part of the success of Optik TV, [demonstrating that] when he takes something on, he doesn’t just deliver on it, he surpasses expectations,” says Anne-Marie LaBerge, vice-president of brand and marketing communications at Telus.
Another key part of Baxter’s job is communicating with 100+ internal team members and five agency partners on how Telus positions itself in the market and gains the trust of audiences. Baxter says one of his biggest successes has been making customer advocacy a focus of Telus’s internal culture.
“Jeremy is proof that true leadership is when people follow you because they want to and not because they have to,” says LaBerge. “Jeremy is a magnet for that.”
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