Neil Shah becomes global brand director of Johnnie Walker at Diageo

AMSTERDAM: Neil Shah has stepped up to global brand director (SVP), Johnnie Walker, at Diageo, taking the reins of a brand worth $8.4bn in retail sales value, the world’s number one international spirit and, by Diageo’s own reckoning, its largest and highest priority brand. It caps a decade at the drinks giant that has taken him from graduate trainee at Virgin Media to the top job on its most valuable whisky label.

Shah’s immediate previous role, global brand director (VP), whiskey portfolio, saw him lead a turnaround of Diageo’s global whisky business, worth $2.2bn in net sales value with a $327m marketing budget, representing 34 per cent of NSV in Diageo’s number one priority category. The portfolio spanned more than 35 brands across origins including Scotch, single malts, American and Irish whiskey, price tiers from value to luxury, and business models ranging from global to regional to emerging, with end-to-end accountability for strategy, P&L, brand marketing, commercial and innovation across markets as varied as the US, Mexico, Brazil, India, China and Kenya. He led, coached and developed a direct team of seven senior brand, innovation and commercial leaders spanning seven nationalities and four countries.

Before that, Shah spent over three years as head of Guinness, GB, a brand worth £293m in NSV with a £54m marketing budget, accounting for 30 per cent of Diageo’s total GB profit and loss. He was recruited by the GB CMO to contemporise the brand and grow its at-home business through and after Covid, and delivered what the company calls a highly publicised performance transformation, growing Guinness GB by £94m NSV to the biggest it has been in its 264-year history, including 48 per cent NSV growth versus pre-Covid levels, three consecutive years of double-digit growth, and the brand’s first-ever climb to the number one beer position in the on-trade, up from number seven. Under his watch, Guinness launched its biggest innovation pipeline in 30 years, including the blockbuster Guinness 0.0, refreshed its £45m Six Nations sponsorship to include the Women’s Six Nations, and won Marketing Week’s 2023 Brand of the Year, along with the President’s Prize and Gold IPA Effectiveness Awards.

Shah’s earlier Diageo career included three years and four months as global marketing director, Smirnoff, leading consumer marketing for the brand across more than 130 markets with £1.4bn NSV and a £226m marketing budget, and steering Smirnoff back to growth for the first time in a decade. He led the brand’s first global campaign in 25 years and negotiated its multi-million pound partnership with the James Bond film “No Time to Die.” Before that, he spent under two years as Europe senior brand manager for Diageo’s RTD portfolio, including Smirnoff, Captain Morgan and Gordon’s, turning around a £38m premix P&L from decline to 10 per cent NSV growth.

Shah began his career on Virgin Media’s Marketing Graduate Programme, one of four selected from over 3,000 applicants, before joining Splendid Communications Group as a digital account executive on the Diageo account, and then joining Diageo itself in 2015. Alongside his executive roles, he has served as a board member of music licensing start-up SoStereo, sat on The Drum’s editorial advisory board, and was a scholar on The Marketing Academy’s US programme.

Announcing the move, Shah said he was happy to share that he was starting a new position as global brand director, Johnnie Walker, at Diageo, describing himself as driven by the energy that unconventionally unlocks possibilities in people and situations.