First Drinks Brands, the wine and spirits distributor owned by Bacardi-Martini and William Grant & Sons, has hired ex-Unilever marketer John Grieveson as its new marketing director.
Grieveson takes over from drinks industry veteran Tony Scouller, who came back from retirement last March to take charge of the company's marketing on a temporary basis. Grieveson starts his new job on February 5, and will work alongside Scouller until the end of March.
First Drinks, which handles the Glenfiddich whisky, Disaronno, Stolichnaya vodka and Campari brands, has not had a permanent marketing director since April 1999, when Chris Meredith left to join a marketing consultancy.
Grieveson joins from Basic American Foods, a manufacturer of potato products, where he was marketing director Europe. He joined Basic American Foods a year ago from Unilever after 12 years with the company. He had various marketing roles at Unilever, including head of marketing for Van den Bergh Foods' out-of-home division.
Grieveson will work closely with First Drinks managing director Chris Mason in strategic planning and business development.
Scouller is understood to be considering similar consultancy roles within the drinks industry. His career so far has included a stint at J Walter Thompson, the launch of Kodak's Pocket Instamatic Camera in the US and positioning Gillette razor blades in Venezuela. He also spent many years at UDV and its predecessor IDV, working on brands such as Smirnoff and Southern Comfort.
Scouller's period as caretaker at First Drinks will be remembered primarily for his efforts to reposition Glenfiddich as a more contemporary brand.
Ads through BMP DDB in men's glossies and broadsheets at the end of 2000 sought to draw parallels between the creativity that spawned classic products, and the inspiration behind Glenfiddich Special Reserve.
Scouller said the pounds 1.2m campaign aimed to 'move the category and brand away from the leather armchair and fireside imagery, or the windswept Highlands that have characterised whisky advertising for so long'.
First Drinks uses Grey Advertising for Campari and Claydon Heeley Jones Mason handles Disaronno.
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