Food and Drink

Former managing director international, Liquid Death US water brand Liquid Death has seen a meteoric rise, with a valuation of $700m (£555m) in just five short years. Its bold brand positioning and quirky, disruptive marketing style has been a major contributor to that rapid growth, with the team leveraging shareable content and humour to achieve the type of connection with shoppers that’s typically much harder for healthy products. Ben Dando first worked at drinks company Liquid Death in a freelance consultant capacity, advising the team on international expansion while still CEO of Karma Drinks. But so good was his advice that the company asked him to come on board and lead as the brand hit UK shelves for the first time, appointing him international managing director in March 2023, a role he has recently departed from. In his time at the brand, Dando built on that solid foundation, securing a number of UK retail listings, hinting at product development in adjacent categories and - of course - rolling out some viral ads, including a fake trailer for a cartoon featuring decapitation and disembowelling.■

Vice-president of marketing, UK&I, Mondelēz International “Growth is our obsession,” according to David Clements, who looks after brands including Cadbury, Belvita and Grenade in his role as vice-president of marketing at Mondelēz International, a role he was promoted to in June. Clements has been with the business for 12 years, with stints focused on chocolate, biscuits and crisps, as well as looking after major retail accounts such as Tesco and Asda. All that knowledge and experience will surely help Clements navigate what remains a challenging climate for the FMCG giant, which includes walkng the “tricky tightrope” between short-term and long-term growth. In the last year, Clements has leveraged the heritage of many of Mondelēz’s brands to strike that balance, marking Cadbury’s 200th anniversary with an integrated advertising campaign, including a nostalgic TV ad, while also ensuring it remains relevant to modern consumers. In June, for example, Cadbury also unveiled its plans to launch co-branded chocolate products with Biscoff to drive excitement. It followed a raft of recent innovations rolled out under Clement’s leadership, including a Crème Egg sharing bar and a duo of milkshakes in partnership with Müller.■

food & drink

David Clements

Ben Dando

Strategy and innovation director, Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate Dom Dwight - who has been marketing director at Taylors of Harrogate since 2016 - took on the newly created role of strategy and innovation director in January as part of a restructure designed to embed greater resilience in the Yorkshire Tea maker. The appointment sees Dwight focus more closely on strategy and innovation at the company, as it seeks to prepare for any upcoming “uncertainty and change”, with a greater emphasis on product development and business diversification to combat its exposure to a tea category in decline. Under Dwight’s leadership, Taylors has scooped various accolades for its marketing, most notably the long-running ‘Where Everything’s Done Proper’ brand platform. This has translated into commercial success, with Yorkshire Tea now the UK’s biggest black tea brand, holding 38.9% of the market (as of the 12 weeks to the beginning of December 2023). In his new role, Dwight will be relentlessly focused on how to continue that strong track record. “We have got to find a way to keep stretching; to work out if there’s something we’re not saying. Is there something else we could be doing?” he told Marketing Week.■

CMO, Diageo As CMO of Diageo, Cristina Diezhandino has an incredibly big job, responsible for 1,200 marketers across 200 brands. A marketing effectiveness cheerleader, she has worked at Diageo for the past 18 years and has been a key driver behind instilling a culture of effectiveness at the business, aided by the introduction of proprietary tools like Catalyst, all the more important during challenging times. Key, too, is adopting a “mindset of possibility”, which Diezhandino says enables the marketing team to be “open”, to constantly challenge itself and “to keep driving forward”. In only a few years she’s also been instrumental in enhancing greater diversity of talent within Diageo’s marketing team, while also prioritising marketing excellence. Sustainability is also high on the agenda at Diageo, which has built a framework within the organisation designed for marketing by marketers with the aim of mobilising the team on sustainability. Diageo has also been exploring the AI opportunity, using it to better understand real customer behaviour to drive innovation. Diezhandino will now be using these strong foundations to drive a return to growth for its portfolio of brands despite a volatile consumer climate.■

Cristina Diezhandino

Dom Dwight

European director of commercial development for global brands, Heineken UK After more than 12 years at brewer Heineken - and four years as marketing director for its UK business - Michael Gillane was promoted in February to become its director of commercial development for global brands, a job that sees him take on a strategic role in steering the fortunes of Heineken’s portfolio of more than 300 brands. Prior to Heineken, Gillane worked at P&G where he spent more than a decade working across brands including Flash, Pantene and Fairy, before being appointed marketing manager for UK haircare. Since joining Heineken in 2012, Gillane has been responsible for driving uptake of Heineken’s premium brands. He has also developed its UK craft beer portfolio. Praised by colleagues for his leadership and commitment, he’s credited with building a world-class marketing function during his tenure so far. Gillane will need to draw on all of that experience in his new role. The Dutch brewing giant hailed a return to “balanced growth” in the first half of its financial year, with net revenue growing organically by 6%, while revenue per hectolitre increased by 4.3%.■

CMO, Premier Foods A boost to marketing spend was instrumental to Premier Foods' bumper year. The Batchelors and Mr Kipling maker posted revenue growth of 15.1% to £1.12bn in the 12 months to March, with UK branded revenue up 13.5% despite the impact of an inflationary environment, thanks in no small part to the work of CMO Yilmaz Erceyes, who has been the business’s top marketer since 2019. Under Erceyes’ leadership, the ambient foods maker has focused on ensuring its brands stay relevant to consumers during challenging times, with campaigns that drill down into affordability, value and nutrition. Extension into new categories is becoming a solid “source of growth” the business said this year. Ambrosia Deluxe and its venture into breakfast porridge pots has been singled out as a key contributor to top line growth. Sales of its porridge pots doubled since last year, giving the brand a 10% market share in the new category. Going forward, Erceyes and his team will continue to make use of a toolbox of levers, including price promotion, brand investment and new product development, to continue the business's current success.■

Yilmaz Erceyes

Michael Gillane

Head of marketing UK&I, Tony's Chocolonely Until very recently Nicola Matthews, head of marketing at ethical confectioner Tony’s Chocolonely, hadn’t spent a penny on paid media to build brand awareness, opting to use earned and organic channels instead. Even with that restriction in place, Matthews helped grow the brand to net revenues of €133m (£114m) and - far more importantly - reduce the number of children involved in modern slavery in cocoa production to less than 5%. She described her approach as “pull marketing versus push” - bringing people into the brand directly and starting conversations rather than “shouting at them through ads and billboards”. However, as the brand looks to “turbocharge” its mission, Matthews has now changed tack, with the brand investing in paid media for the first time last year. So far that’s included experimentation with OOH and social channels, including “big, impactful banners” positioned in major UK cities. Though it’s early days for the brand’s new approach, given what Matthews has achieved so far with a tiny budget, there’s little doubt she’ll use the investment to achieve great things for the disruptive Dutch chocolate company. Indeed, the brand reported a record 23% rise in chocolate revenue reaching an annual revenue of €150m (£126.32) last year.■

Marketing and ecommerce director, Lucky Saint At a time when major drinks players like AB InBev, Heineken and Diageo are battling to claim a chunk of the thriving low- and no-alcohol category, Lucky Saint has made it look veritably easy. Launched in 2018, it is now the UK’s biggest dedicated alcohol-free beer brand, with sales revenue growth of 180% year on year as of 2023 and more than £10m in Series A funding secured last year. Kerttu Inkeroinen has been central to that meteoric rise, having led its marketing since 2022. She was promoted to her current role last year, with an unabashed mission to turn the brand into the “Guinness of alcohol-free”. In May, Lucky Saint rolled out its first above the line campaign outside of Dry January, as it pushes for alcohol-free occasions to extend way beyond the New Year period and tap into opportunities like the summer of sports. Though it might not have the marketing dollars of some of its competitors to push this message across, Inkeroinen has a strong track record in making every penny count. As part of this drive, she ensures her team adheres to two mantras: “fresh consistency” and “break rules, honour traditions”.■

Kerttu Inkeroinen

Nicola Matthews

CMO, Britvic Cindy Tervoort joined Robinsons squash maker Britvic in June 2023, bringing with her 20 years of experience in FMCG. Prior to Britvic, she spent seven years at The Heineken Company, including stints spent as its CMO and - most recently - CEO of its ecommerce platform Beerwulf. Tervoort believes in using creativity to drive business impact and is not afraid to make tough choices when it comes to what to prioritise. “I really believe in creativity to drive impact,” she told Marketing Week earlier this year, stating that creating a culture that can “consistently” drive impact through creativity is something she is striving to do. Since taking on the top job effectiveness and efficiency have become a big focus for Tervoort, who believes both are necessary for success. She is also particularly interested in how AI could play a role in “filtering” the most effective iterations of ads, for example. The strategy already seems to be paying off, with the company reporting an “excellent” performance in the first half of the year, including a 4.4% increase in volumes over the six months to March.■

Marketing director, KP Snacks The positive impact of Kevin McNair’s three-year plan to transform how marketing is approached at KP Snacks continues to reverberate throughout the business. When he first joined in 2018, McNair set about streamlining processes, embedding the principles of Ehrenberg-Bass and creating an “engaged marketing community” in order to reposition the snacks manufacturer as a brand-led marketing organisation. Those changes have allowed the maker of Skips, Nik Naks and Hula Hoops to go from strength to strength despite a challenging market. In its most recently published financial results, revenues grew by 9.5% to £524m in the year to 1 January 2022, but even more impressively gross profit margins were up 1.3% to 47.7% on the previous year, at a time when many food and drink suppliers watched their own margins get steadily eroded by cost increases. The former Britvic marketer has kept up the pace in the last year too, investing in a new campaign at the start of this year to reinvigorate its Hula Hoops Puft brand, rolling out new grab bags for Nik Naks and better-for-you popcorn formats for its Popchips range. ■

Kevin McNair

Cindy Tervoort

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