Millennial, Gen-X Opps: Diageo taps new marketing lead amid strategy shifts (Score 44)

Sales Lead: In June 2023, Laura Merritt joined Diageo as the CMO of its beer business and the SVP of its convenience business.

• Merritt joined from Tacombi, where she was most recently a president.
  • Before her hire at Tacombi, she was the marketing, new ventures, and innovation VP at KIND.
• The company will likely:
  • Implement additional strategy shifts
  • Ramp up spend
  • Conduct agency reviews
• Target demographic: 
  • Millennials and Gen-X

Recent strategy insights:

• Diageo has started investing more ($1.5b of capital expenditure) in things sustainability, digital capabilities, consumer experience, and supply capacity.
  • ​​​​​​​Thanks to the company's sustainability commitment, the company has reduced its Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 54% YOY.
  • This increase also reflects a 14.7% improvement from its 2020 baseline.
  • ​​​​​​​Fiscal 2024 will reportedly be "the start of Diageo's next stage of evolution," so new work will likely roll out soon and continue doing so.​​​​​​​​​​​
• Diageo has started shifting its strategy already, having increased its global marketing investment by 5.6%, per financial results for the year to June 30, 2023.
  • The company's ad spend increased to $3.8b.

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance); digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • View recent national TV and digital spend for top brands here.  
• Additional channel insights  
  • Diageo also utilizes Google Ads along with OOH, digital, local broadcast, print, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (albeit minimally), and online video (primarily via Youtube.com) ads.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Merritt's appointment may lead to agency reviews, so reach out soon to remain top-of-mind.
  • An advantage may go to those able to offer brands-specific services for Diageo's beer and/or convenience businesses.
• Current agency roster:
  • PHD USA: Media AOR
  • Outdoor Media Group - Omnicom: Media AOR
  • Posterscope: Creative, media, and digital AOR
  • 360i: Digital AOR
  • AnalogFolk: Digital AOR
  • R/GA: Digital AOR
  • FIG: Creative, digital, and social AOR
  • McCann NY: Creative AOR
  • Crispin Porter + Bogusky: Creative AOR
  • Anomaly: Creative AOR
  • Erich & Kallman: Creative AOR
  • Hunter Public Relations: Social and PR AOR

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; podcast insights by Podchaser.