Coombe replaces Richard Pash, who left the mobile operator last month, and will report to Dominic Chambers, the UK head of brand and marketing communications at Vodafone.
As marketing communications manager at Honda during its long run of highly acclaimed ads such as "cog" and "grrr", Coombe helped devise communication strategies including a "mini book of help" and a Honda podcast, as well as media standouts such as being the first advertiser to use interactive ads on Channel 4 and Five.
Coombe is following his former boss Simon Thompson into the telecoms sector. Since former Honda marketing director Thompson left in January to become pan-European marketing director for Motorola, Coombe has been working under new Honda marketing director Jeff Dodds, who ended Honda's four-year relationship with communications planning agency Naked three months ago.
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