Brand Manager - Smirnoff

About Us

With over 200 brands sold in more than 180 countries, we’re the world’s leading premium drinks company. Every day, over 27,000 dedicated people come together at Diageo to create the magic behind our much-loved and timeless brands including Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Baileys and Guinness.

Join us, and you’ll collaborate with versatile people from all corners of the world. You’ll innovate and push boundaries, shaping a sustainable and more inclusive future that we can all be proud of. 

With diversity at our core, we celebrate our people's individual passions, commitments and specialist skills. In our supportive culture, your voice will be heard and you’ll be empowered to be you. Just bring your ambition, curiosity and ideas, and we’ll celebrate your work and help you reach your fullest potential. 

About the role

Look no further as the Smirnoff team is looking for an experienced marketer to play a key leadership role in developing and implementing strategic marketing plans for one of our key brands in Australia.

This is a very rare opportunity to steer market leading and successful global icons into a new stage of accelerated growth through next generation recruitment.

Established in 1865, Smirnoff is a much-loved brand with an incredibly rich history and is our number one recruitment brand for 18–24-year-old consumers. 2024 will see Australia launch a global strategic re-set for Smirnoff in addition to major innovation projects, making it an exciting time to be joining the brand as we take it to the next stage of growth.

As the Smirnoff Brand Manager, you will be focussed on building a share winning and recruitment-based strategy to grow Smirnoff in the highly competitive alcoholic beverages category. This will need to be done in partnership with the Smirnoff Global Brand Team and there is a significant opportunity for Australia to play a leading role in shaping the development and deployment of winning strategies and tactics.

Light Spirits are Diageo’s number 1 driver of growth and represent more than 1/3 of the Diageo Australia NSV delivery. Smirnoff is the number one brand in Vodka in Australia and globally, by both volume and value.  Australia plays a leadership role in the ‘holistic’ or conscious consumption category trend for Smirnoff globally, and so plays a key role in the development of this pipeline.

So, what does this role look like for you? 

• Working with a Senior Brand Manager and Assistant Brand Manager, you will be leading the Smirnoff brand agenda in this role and will jointly act as the face of the brand into the business and where required, in front of customers

• Partner with and influence the Global Brand Team (based in New York) to deliver global strategy, innovation and assets maximised for the Australian market

• Leading a cross-functional team to develop the Australian brand strategy and complete tactics for growth including ATL communication, PR & Culture, NPD, customer and shopper marketing activity and commercial programs

• Build step changing connection strategies and deploy brilliant communication assets, partnerships and experiences to market

• Inspiring the wider Diageo business and our agency partners to create world class strategies and campaigns.

• Crafting passion and advocacy across the business for the brand vision and drive momentum across all customers and team members

So, what about you?

• Extensive Industry Experience - relevant experience including 8+ years in CPG Marketing

• Formally Educated - Degree or MBA qualification in relevant subject area. (E.g. Business / Commerce / Marketing)

• Strategic – Strong proven experience creating strategies for growth.

• Insight Driven – Curious about consumers and what drives them, and can unlock insights to change consumer relationships with brands

• Creative – Proven experience inspiring and collaborating with agency partners to deliver breakthrough communications thinking. Thinks outside existing paradigms and nurtures big ideas.

• Relationships – Builds strong cross-functional relationships.

• Inspiring – Brings energy and passion to the business and creates mass followership.

What are the benefits?

We are an organisation that creates products that are part of celebrations, and our culture reflects this.  At Diageo, you will have the ability to work flexibly to ensure you can unlock your own potential through creating bold plans and implementing your vision. Some of our industry leading benefits include:

• Competitive base salary

• Bonus scheme

• Professional Development, Training and Capability Opportunities

• 6 months full pay Parental leave

• Mental wellbeing and fitness subscriptions

• Flexible leave entitlements

• Product allowance

Our commitment to inclusion and diversity:

We know that for our business to thrive and for Diageo to realize its ambition, we depend on having diverse talent with a range of backgrounds, skills and capabilities in each of the 180 countries in which we operate and to reflect our broad consumer base. We view diversity as one of the key enablers that helps our business to grow and our values, purpose and standards set the conditions for us to respect the unique contribution each person brings.

Flexibility is key to success in our business and many of our staff work flexibly in many different ways, including part-time, compressed hours, flexible location. Please talk to us about what flexibility means to you and don’t let anything stop you from applying.