Recruitment strategies

HOW DIAGEO CHANGED ITS CULTURE--AND YOU CAN, TOO Schultz, E J . Advertising Age ; Chicago  Vol. 87, Iss. 22,  (Nov 14, 2016): n/a.

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ABSTRACT  

DURING HIS FIRST TWO months as Diageo's North American chief marketing and innovation officer, James

Thompson counted every single presentation slide he was exposed to in meetings. The final tally was 12,000,

which to him was way too many. FULL TEXT  

DURING HIS FIRST TWO months as Diageo's North American chief marketing and innovation officer, James

Thompson counted every single presentation slide he was exposed to in meetings. The final tally was 12,000,

which to him was way too many.

"It stops conversation. It makes people feel secure they've communicated what they wanted to. But, in fact, it

doesn't move anything on," he said. So he has instituted a PowerPoint ban in some meetings. "Just talk to me,

please" is his plea. His goal is to ensure his marketing team is "not totally buttoned-up all the time," he said. "We

just want people to be at their best, and that is usually when they are able to think and respond and build rather

than sell."

It is one of the many cultural changes Mr. Thompson has instilled since August 2015, when he became CMO at

Diageo, the marketer of brands including Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Cîroc vodka and Don Julio tequila. Mr.

Thompson is hardly an outsider. He joined Diageo in 1994 from Unilever and has held multiple roles at the

company, including six years as CMO for Asia-Pacific. But when he took the North American role, he realized

changes needed to be made, including recruiting new and more diverse talent into Diageo's marketing department.

When he arrived, "it was frustratingly difficult to attract great talent to come want to join us," he said. "Not only had

we had a difficult couple of years, which were well publicized, we hadn't created in those couple of years the sort of

marketing or innovation that spans out and people go, 'Wow, I really want to work for that organization.'" But by

looking outside of Diageo's historical recruiting pipeline of MBA programs and other spirits companies, Mr.

Thompson has been able to assemble a new team, including recently luring some high-profile talent. Of the roughly

100 people on the marketing team, all are either new to Diageo or have moved into a new role in the past year, he

said.

"I've got nothing against MBA programs," Mr. Thompson said. But Diageo's recruiting strategy had "too much

conformity to a single source of talent where people came into the organization in a very conventional way and

worked their way up in a very conventional way. And that didn't seem to reflect our consumer base."

Campaigns emerging from Mr. Thompson's new team include a Spanish-language spot for Buchanan's whisky that

got general-market airplay during the World Series. In June, Smirnoff broadcast a same-sex wedding on Facebook

Live from a Las Vegas electronic dance music festival. And last week as election news spiked, Johnnie Walker

drew headlines when it debuted an ad called "Keep Walking, America" that set a reading of Woody Guthrie's classic

folk tune "This Land Is Your Land" against scenes of hardworking modern citizens.

The changes appear to be working. In a report to investors last month, CLSA noted that while Diageo's U.S. share

of spirits remains "pressured by newer brands like Tito's vodka and Fireball liqueur," organic sales grew 3% in the

year through June, turnabout from a 2% decline the year prior.

In July, Diageo lured former Procter &Gamble marketer Vince Hudson from Samsung, where he had been VP-U.S.

marketing and mobile business unit. He is now global brand director for Smirnoff vodka. Another former P&G

marketer, Jay Sethi, joined the liquor marketer several months ago as VP of Smirnoff.

Then in September, Diageo made a splash with its hire of Sophie Kelly, the former CEO of digital agency the

Barbarian Group, as senior VP-marketing for whiskey brands in North America. Her arrival marked a shift for

Diageo, which had traditionally shied away from hiring agency executives for top roles because there had "been a

suspicion that they might have only been able to do half the job," Mr. Thompson said. But "we asked her to come

and help lead a complete change in how we do marketing and the culture of our marketing department--a culture

which is more entrepreneurial, more experimental, does not fear failure," he said.

Mr. Thompson has also stripped away layers of bureaucracy, saying "nobody is more than three reports away from

me." He asked brand leaders to earmark 5% of their budgets for marketing experimentation. "As long as they learn,

they can fail as much as they like," he said, adding that "I've been quite open in talking about my own failures."

Sarah Van Dyck, a consultant with executive search firm Egon Zehnder, which has placed candidates at Diageo,

said the company has sought marketers that have a "general manager mindset, as opposed to marketing as a

creator of creative assets."

When interviewing, Diageo ensures that at least one candidate is a woman or is ethnically diverse, and the

company makes certain that at least one interviewer has those same traits. Mr. Thompson says he is involved in

every new hire. He puts a premium on curiosity, looking for people "who are open to the world, who are interested

in things and don't have to be right all the time." DETAILS

Subject: Marketing; Liquor industry; Meetings

People: Thompson, James

Company / organization: Name: Diageo North America Inc; NAICS: 312140

Publication title: Advertising Age; Chicago

Volume: 87

Issue: 22

Pages: n/a

Publication year: 2016

Publication date: Nov 14, 2016

Publisher: Crain Communications, Incorporated

Place of publication: Chicago

Country of publication: United States, Chicago

LINKS Check for full text in other resources

Publication subject: Advertising And Public Relations, Business And Economics--Marketing And

Purchasing

ISSN: 00018899

CODEN: ADVAAQ

Source type: Trade Journals

Language of publication: English

Document type: Feature

ProQuest document ID: 1840804694

Document URL: https://search.proquest.com/docview/1840804694?accountid=8289

Copyright: Copyright 2016 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Last updated: 2016-12-01

Database: ProQuest Central

Bibliography Citation style: APA 6th - American Psychological Association, 6th Edition

Schultz, E. (2016). HOW DIAGEO CHANGED ITS CULTURE--AND YOU CAN, TOO. Advertising Age, 87(22), 34-n/a.

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