Arun Silva

Arun Silva now works as the E-Commerce Manager for UK and Ireland at Sylvania Lighting, where he leads the company's digital and e-commerce initiatives. He graduated from Kent with a BMus in 2019 and an MSc in Management in 2021. Arun credits his time at Kent for providing practical work experience and leadership opportunities, such as serving as President of the Medway Music Society.

Tell us about your career path since graduation.

Since graduating from Kent with an MSc in Management in 2021, I have worked in various sectors. My first graduate job coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, was Marketing Coordinator & Analyst for Europe at Aetna International (CVS Health) - a Fortune 10 company, that provided international private medical insurance to employees through employers and brokers. This role involved coordinating digital campaigns, liaising with agencies, creative management and reporting. 

After completing a 9-month contract at Aetna, I was approached by a recruiter for a Digital Ad Support Specialist role at Snap Inc. (Snapchat). This role involved liaising with the sales team to provide clients with post-campaign analysis reports and optimization tips for campaigns on the Snap Ads Manager platform.

Whilst at Snap, I was offered a permanent role at Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) as a Digital Marketing Executive for the UKI consumer market. Signify are the world leaders in lighting and IoT devices, they are known for manufacturing Philips branded lighting products for business and consumer markets. They are the largest lighting manufacturer in the world. The consumer brands I was responsible for were: Philips Hue, WiZ, Philips Smart LED & Philips LED. In this role I covered everything digital, from managing the digital marketing agency, developing and executing multichannel digital marketing campaigns, managing all the e-tailers that sold Signify products, creating content for use in digital marketing campaigns, managing the Philips-Hue.com D2C shop, aligning digital activities with cross functional teams such as the CRM team and the Web team, managing all consumer brands' digital presence and lastly compiling quarterly business reviews.

Two years into the role at Signify, my role came to an end. Following this, I accepted a role as the new E-Commerce Manager Role for UKI at Feilo Sylvania, known as Sylvania Lighting, a 100 year old lighting company, one of the heritage brands alongside Philips, Osram & GE. As this was a new role, it involved starting up the E-Commerce division in the UKI under consumer, understanding the whole process from customer purchase to delivery and developing Sylvania's digital visibility in the consumer space. This role is an exciting opportunity to bring my knowledge of digital marketing and e-commerce from various industries to build Sylvania's digital and e-commerce presence.

What does a typical work day look like for you?

Work days at Sylvania vary each day, but a typical day starts off by checking how many orders we have received overnight and checking each marketplace message centre to ensure we have responded to all our customers. After this, I usually check in with the wider e-commerce team and the Head of Consumer. I also ensure I set my priorities for the day, which includes setting up new products across all marketplaces, working on optimising our current listings on marketplaces and creating new content for our e-commerce listings (copy and pictures/video). I also have brainstorming meetings with the marketing team to discuss new ideas and plans for marketing campaigns. I keep an eye out regularly for new opportunities to sell our products on e-commerce marketplaces that we aren't on yet. The last and most crucial task is keeping an eye on stock levels and liaising with the Commercial Director to ensure we have enough stock to keep each product online and also to plan for extra stock for the promotional periods. I am also responsible for crafting e-commerce ideas and strategy for the UKI markets along with the Sales Manager and Commercial Director.

Can you share a professional highlight from your career so far?

I would say that working with my manager back in December 2021 – February 2022 at Signify (formerly Philips Lighting), along with the Key Account Manager for Philips-Hue.com to build a proposition to help increase new Philips Hue bridge activations, new users and household penetration and allowing the customers start with Philips Hue the way they wanted, through a campaign was a key highlight. The “Create Your Own Starter Kit” initiative was created by us in the UKI as a pilot initiative and implemented in the UKI market.This ended up being a great success and was adopted by the Global team and rolled out to all 70 or so markets that had a Philips-Hue.com shop. This ended up being 11% (2022-23) of the total revenue through the Philips Hue UKI shop. I had also created a paid media strategy around this to support the initiative utilising video and carousels to create awareness online.

How did your time at Kent help you achieve your current career?

My time at Kent allowed me to explore my career options by giving me opportunities to work whilst I studied, not only for work experience to gain valuable skills, but also to figure out what line of work I wished to pursue. Working on events at GK Unions (now known as The Hub Medway) and as a Social Media Assistant for the department, Corporate Communications and Unions were useful experiences that helped put into practice the academic knowledge I gained on the MSc Management course. Taking on various leadership roles in societies and in the various workplaces gave me an opportunity to build my CV leading to a digital marketing career.

What advice would you give to our current/prospective students who are looking to get into the same line of work?

Ensure you start building your network through LinkedIn, through attending events and careers fairs. Build your experience and portfolio to ensure you have plenty of examples to talk through at a job interview. I have found that a digital portfolio works very well to showcase work done especially in marketing, media, design and creative technical projects.

Did you get involved in any extracurricular activities as a student?

Yes, I took part in many extracurricular activities throughout my time at Kent. I was the President of the Medway Music Society (2017 – 2019), President of the Medway College (2019 – 2020) and also worked 7 part-time jobs whilst I was at Kent in Event Management, Hospitality, Digital Marketing & Communications and AV Technology support.

Do you have a favourite memory from your time at Kent?

My favourite memory from Kent was when I worked with GK Unions at the time (now The Hub Medway), to plan the very first Medfest arts festival. In April 2018, I pitched the idea of an arts festival to GK Unions. The management was enthusiastic, though we only had a few weeks to put this together. Our team pulled everything together for Medfest on the 23rd  of May 2018, which resulted in a very successful day of activities, allowing the student community to mix with the local communities.

Is there anything you would do differently if you could repeat your time at Kent?

I believe the only thing I would do differently is to involve myself in the university experience earlier on, in the first year and spend a bit more time living in the present rather than thinking too much ahead!

Are you still in touch with other Kent alumni or academics?

I am still in touch with other Kent alumni and do catch up quite regularly with a few. We also had put on some virtual music concerts during the pandemic together, as the Kent Music Collective, bringing festive Christmas and spring music to people in their homes.

What are your future ambitions?

My future ambition is to progress up the digital marketing leadership pathway within the consumer electronics sector and continue to develop my knowledge in digital marketing and e-commerce as it evolves in the upcoming years. Beyond all, I intend to enjoy the work I do and hope that I continue on to exciting projects whilst developing knowledge and networks across the corporate sector. Last, but not least, making a difference in the world!