But it's not her first stint with the newspaper brand - in fact it was as a graduate trainee for Times Newspapers Ltd (TNL) in 1996 that she got her first taste of marketing.
"It wasn't the career I thought I'd do," she says. "I thought I wanted to work in the education sector. I taught in Japan for a year and when I came back I wanted go into fundraising for education. They told me to go and get some experience in sales and marketing."
Vanneck's career has since followed a typical marketing route, including roles such as marketing manager at TNL, digital director for Times Online, promotions director for TNL and a two-and-a-half-year stint as marketing director at the Telegraph Media Group, which ended last year.
Since rejoining the Times stable 12 months ago, she has had little time to pause for breath, relaunching the brand's subscription service in August and launching the Culture+ rewards programme last month.
Culture+ is the first of several interest-driven brand extensions that will feature under the Times+ umbrella. It provides subscribers to The Sunday Times and The Times with numerous offers in the arts and entertainment sector including a year's free membership to The Art Fund, a half-price Sky TV subscription for a year and half-price membership of Picturehouse Cinemas.
Three days after it was launched, more than 11,500 of its 116,000-strong subscriber base had activated their membership cards.
"This is an extension of how I think we need to change promotional activity in newspapers," she says. "It's about rewarding the right type of behaviour. Putting on a covermount creates and rewards promiscuity whereas what we're doing is rewarding commitment, relationships and frequency of purchase." The brand's evolving approach to the sector is further demonstrated by the recent rebranding of its promotions department as the Rewards and Partnership team. It was renamed, she says, to "get people to think differently about how you approach added value and promotions in the newspaper market".
Vanneck has criticised the over-use of covermounts but believes they still have their place in the right context. The multifaceted Culture+ launch coincided with an Alfred Hitchcock covermount promotion. A set of DVDs was available throughout the week and featured the Culture+ branding, while also linking through to the brand's partnership with the British Film Institute.
"The point here is that it's relevant. It's got to be integrated," she says. "To be successful in marketing you should never rely on one marketing lever. I don't believe that covermounts are a bad thing per se but I think they are bad if they're the only type of marketing that you do and you become over-reliant on it. The marketing mix is that for a reason, a mix, and you have to blend all of the different opportunities for trial, but loyalty and retention are as important, if not more important, than acquisition." When she came back to the group, it was spending 80 per cent of its marketing budget on acquisition-based marketing and 20 per cent on retention. Her view is that it should be spending "a better blend of that, anything from 50/50 to 80/20 the other way, depending on the marketing objectives".
During her most recent tenure with the brand there have been internal changes too, with News International restructuring areas of its business. "It used to be structured around the operating groups of the brands, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and the News of the World. Now we're much more streamlined at management level and much more structured around the News International function."
News International is in the process of recruiting a chief marketing officer to oversee marketing across the group. "It affects my role in a positive way in that marketing will be on the board of the organisation, which is a really important step forward for marketers. We can share learnings and it's expanded the remit of marketing in the organisation," says Vanneck. "So my job doesn't change, we're just part of a bigger, better staffed and better invested-in marketing function."
Bearing in mind the economic climate, what does she feel the future holds for the world of newspaper promotions? "Value offers are definitely making their way back. Retail is using a lot of price-led and value-led offers to drive sales in a pretty tough time. I'd advise retailers that if they're looking for innovative ways to drive significant footfall - and not just as an acquisition proposition but also as a frequency proposition - then newspapers are probably the best media for them to do that in," she says.
Of course, such promotions can be advantageous for both parties. "If we work with the right partners we can provide great value for our readers but also really fantastic innovative and responsive mechanisms for retailers."
QUESTIONNAIRE
If you weren't in marketing what would you be doing? I'd be a headmistress. I'm passionate about education. It's the transformative thing
Most embarrassing moment? A team-building weekend where we ended up in a hotel complex that doubled as an old people's home/swingers' convention
Favourite film? The Sound of Music
Favourite book? The Magus by John Fowles
CURRICULUM VITAE
2007: Sales and marketing director, Times Media
2005-2007: Marketing director, Telegraph Media Group
2002-2005: Promotions director, TNL
2000-2002: Digital director, Times Online
1998-2000: Marketing manager, TNL
1996: Graduate trainee, TNL
1995: English teacher in Japan