Bupa Global's 'Three-Year Swoosh': How a Broken Team Became Marketing Team of the Year
TL;DR: Bupa Global rebuilt a struggling, freshly-restructured marketing team into the 2025 Marketing Week Marketing Team of the Year, delivering an 84% rise in sales and leads over three years via a sequenced 'fix, invest, go global' plan.
When Pardeep Duggal joined Bupa Global as global marketing director in January 2023, the picture was grim: two directorates had just been merged, the business was struggling financially, and the team had been through voluntary redundancy a month earlier. Her own description of the period is refreshingly blunt — it “wasn't strategic.”
The 'three-year swoosh'
Rather than demand a budget on day one, Duggal sequenced the turnaround across three years — what the team calls the 'three-year swoosh': “you fix and earn your seat at the table.” Year one was delivery: with most spend on lead generation, the team doubled down on making that work and building commercial credibility. Year two was investment: credibility earned, they secured funding for the 'We Can' campaign and serious segmentation work. Year three went global.
The results speak plainly: an 84% increase in sales and leads over the three years, the 2025 Marketing Week Award for Marketing Team of the Year, and a seat for Duggal on the executive leadership team — won, she says, by aligning marketing KPIs with commercial and operations goals.
Why the sequence matters more than the spend
Most marketing leaders inherit the opposite instinct: ask for a big brand budget immediately, then spend years defending it. Bupa Global did it backwards and it worked. By proving commercial value first, the team converted scepticism into investment, and investment into permission to build brand. Our read: in a year when CFOs are scrutinising every line, 'earn the seat, then spend' is the most transferable turnaround pattern in marketing right now.
The people move most teams skip
The least glamorous detail is the most instructive. Duggal rebuilt the team from a blank slate — famously working through the new roles in a Cairo hotel room — with one goal: make every marketer a leader, technical or functional. Quarterly 'Achieving Your Potential' sessions cover career paths and even how the grading structure works. Development focused on influencing, commercial and P&L skills rather than chasing the newest technical specialism.
That is the quiet engine behind the numbers. A team that understands commercial levers and feels ownership will out-perform a better-funded team that does not. For any SME marketer: before you ask for more budget, make your team fluent in the P&L. It is the fastest route to being believed.
Quick FAQ
What was Bupa Global's headline result?
An 84% rise in sales and leads over three years from 2023, plus the 2025 Marketing Week Marketing Team of the Year award.
What is the 'three-year swoosh'?
A sequenced plan — fix and prove commercial value in year one, earn investment in year two, go global in year three — so marketing earns its budget before spending big on brand.
This is the turnaround story I wish more marketers studied. Duggal didn't march in demanding a brand budget — she earned it by proving commercial value first, then taught her whole team to speak the language of the P&L. That sequence is why the board listened. 'Earn the seat, then spend' works for a global insurer and a ten-person SME alike. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
The takeaway: earn your seat at the table by proving commercial value first — brand investment follows credibility, not the other way round.
Could your marketing team explain, right now, how its work moves the P&L?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Marketing Week, The Marketing Society / WARC, and Festival of Marketing 2026 commentary.
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
