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With nearly a decade of marketing experience under his belt, James has held the role of marketing manager for skin health at GSK for two and a half years, since the consumer business first acquired the Oilatum brand

What's a typical day for you?

I don't think there is a typical day! I have a nine-month-old baby boy, so my days tend to start early and are often followed by a 10-mile cycle into work. From there, it is quite varied. One minute I can be dealing with NHS and pharmacy projects and the next talking about TV sponsorship deals.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

I enjoy the variety. The availability of Oilatum makes my role interesting. We have to deliver against the prescription side of the business in the right way as well as the consumer side.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

The biggest challenge is probably the complexity of the role. The NHS has gone through some big changes in the last couple of years and we have to work round that to support GPs and pharmacies.

How is GSK supporting pharmacy at the moment?

We're supporting pharmacy in two ways. Firstly, we have the mypharmassist.co.uk website. It is really important for pharmacy to give good recommendations to customers, and this site is a great way for us to provide pharmacy with that information and training. We also launched our eczema service pack in April-May this year. The pack contains patient support booklets, with treatment advice and information on how to use our products; a patient orientation eczema measurement tool for patients to assess their symptoms on a weekly basis and form the template of a conversation with the pharmacy team; plus unbranded material and tools to promote good conversations between the pharmacy team and patients. And secondly, we're continuing to deliver new product development, such as the Oilatum Daily products launched this year.

How important is the skincare category to pharmacy?

The skincare category is very important to pharmacy. Research shows that at least one person a day will visit a pharmacy for skincare advice and 25 per cent of a GP's time is spent on dermatology. Twenty per cent of children suffer with eczema €“ and this is a growing trend €“ plus, 40 per cent of adults have dry skin. It's a huge category and educating and supporting pharmacy to deliver the right advice to customers is really important.

Is there more that pharmacy can do to engage with customers and help them with their conditions?

The biggest area for pharmacy to get involved with is education and intervention. A patient may go to a pharmacy to get their emollients on prescription but they may not get advice from their GP on how to use the emollients, how much to use and how frequently, which are some of the biggest problems for sufferers. Also, patients are often only prescribed one product €“ either a wash or a cream €“ instead of both, as per the NICE guidelines, which recommend Complete Emollient Therapy (CET) with a soap substitute and an emollient cream or ointment. Pharmacy staff can play a big role in making sure customers and patients understand the CET message and give them the confidence to use the products correctly. There is a real need to explain these key messages.

What does the future hold for Oilatum and GSK's skin health programme?

We have big ambitions. Oilatum has a really strong heritage as well as a really strong range of products. We're enhancing that range €“ with the launch of the Daily products €“ to provide solutions for dry skin as well as eczema. It's important to us that patients get the right products and there is more new product development in the portfolio, which we'll continue to communicate with pharmacy and the public.

And finally, what would you be doing if you weren't a marketing manager at GSK?

It sounds like a cliché, but I loved playing football as a kid, so it would be a dream to walk out at White Hart Lane and play for Tottenham Hotspur.