How Núria Antoja Builds Brands—and the Teams Behind Them – ML Stories

We spoke with Núria Antoja, Regional Marketing Director at Essity, one of the world’s leading hygiene and health companies breaking taboos on people’s health like Bodyform and Tena. With a career spanning global brands like Cadbury, Nurofen, and Suchard, Núria brings deep experience in building high-performing teams, shaping purpose-led campaigns, and adapting marketing strategies to meet the demands of today’s fast-moving consumer landscape.

We sat down with Núria to talk about her career journey, how to lead with heart, and the evolving role of marketing in an AI-powered world.

What inspired you to pursue a career in marketing?

At uni, I loved both maths and literature – science and storytelling. Marketing is the perfect blend of both. You need creativity, but also the numbers. You’re running a business, but it’s about people. That combination describes me, and that’s why I’m passionate about marketing – it lets me use the best of both worlds.

How would you describe the role of marketing within a business?

Marketing isn’t just digital or communication – it’s the heart of a company. It’s everything: your product, pricing, positioning, your brand. Marketing should be at the center of operations because your brand is your biggest asset. And it’s about making it accessible to people and explaining why it’s right for them.

If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?

When you’re young and something goes wrong, it can feel like the end of the world. But in the end, as I used to say when I was at Mondelez, we’re selling chocolate – we’re not saving lives. Nothing is so serious that we cannot find a solution or learn from it. It’s so important to put things in perspective and remember that everything has a solution. You can always learn and move forward.

And don’t try to push yourself to be good at things you don’t love. Sometimes we try to fix our weaknesses too much. But we grow more when we focus on our strengths. That doesn’t mean not learning – but it’s important to embrace who you are and build from there.

What does it take to build high-performing marketing teams?

First, you need belief in the role of marketing. It feels like in the last years, Finance and Sales have taken a much stronger role in organisations and many marketing teams don’t feel proud or entitled enough to believe what they do is important. If you don’t know your purpose and get a seat at the table, it’s very difficult to change anything.

Then you build capabilities – because the skills you needed 10 years ago aren’t the same now. We need to continuously learn. But mindset is just as important: storytelling, curiosity, and the ability to ask the right questions. When teams combine that with real belief in what they do, that’s when the magic happens.

And finally, try to have fun. In recent years, it’s been hard – budget cuts, pressure, less creativity. But teams with energy and belief always perform better.

How do you think about brand building vs. performance marketing?

That’s always the million-dollar question. I think it depends on your brand’s maturity and your objectives. But if you’re only focused on short-term performance, you miss the 95% of consumers who aren’t in-market right now.

You need brand building to create awareness and emotional connection, or you’ll never grow long term. That doesn’t mean promotions and performance don’t matter – but it needs to be a balance. And that balance isn’t the same for every business.

What’s a marketing risk you’ve taken that paid off?

You need to take risks. If you don’t, you’ll never do anything different. But they need to be controlled. I’ve often started small – testing on a smaller brand or portion of the budget – then scaling once it proves effective.

Sometimes we’ve done things totally differently – like dropping TV altogether or partnering with gamers in an FMCG environment. It was a risk, but we had a plan, and it worked. Understand the worst-case scenario, prepare for it, and move forward anyway.

What role will AI play in marketing?

I think it can be very useful in many parts of marketing – from managing data, to forecasting, to content adaptation. It doesn’t mean we kill creativity. But there are so many routine things AI can help with – things that aren’t the most fulfilling part of our jobs.

If we use it right, AI can free up time so we focus on what really matters – thinking strategically and connecting with people.