Brewdog Reprises CMO Role to Drive Business Forward

BrewDog has reinstated its chief marketing officer (CMO) role, promoting marketing director Lauren Carrol to lead its team. Though it's known for its provocative marketing stunts, the move marks the first time the brewer has filled the position since its first (and only) CMO left the business in January 2019 after just three months. The brand's chief executive (CEO) James Watt confirmed the news in a LinkedIn post, outlining a series of internal promotions designed to help BrewDog "build a new type of business, one that rejects the status quo and turns normal business assumptions on their head." Carrol has been with the Scottish-founded company since 2018, working on its supply chain and special projects. She took on the marketing director title at the Scottish-founded challenger 18 months ago. "Lauren has been outstanding in all the roles she has worked in across our business and contributed massively to everything we have done over the last few years," said Watt. "As our new CMO, she has huge potential to positively impact our growth as well as play a very important role in our senior leadership team." According to headhunting firm Spencer Stuart, the average tenure of a CMO currently sits at 40 months. However, when BrewDog's last CMO Jon Evans joined the business at the end of 2018 from drinks giant Suntory, his stint was even shorter-lived. The marketer, who is now chief customer officer at ad effectiveness consultancy System1, recently reflected on his time there, saying Watt has his own creative vision and liked to move at pace. An internal rethink Watt recently stated that one of his "biggest mistakes" as a founder had been recruiting a 12-strong all-star external management team that clashed with the IPA-maker's self-styled "punk" culture as it grew. Within months, the business "parted ways" with seven of the hires. "Despite being fantastic people and leaders, they just did not integrate into our BrewDog culture," he wrote in 2020. "Installing a whole new senior management team in one foul swoop was always destined to fail. It was an expensive lesson." Now, the founder is pursuing a talent strategy focused on promoting from within. Along with Carrol's new role, the company has announced James Brown as CEO of its retail bar business, which includes overseeing 60 global locations in the U.K. and U.S. with more set to open in Europe. Elsewhere, Tom Reading will take on the new title of chief digital officer (CDO) having held positions in BrewDog's content and e-commerce teams. Though Watt once declared he'd take his money and “set fire to it” than pay for advertising, the Aberdeen-headquartered startup is best known for its provocative marketing stunts which have included a recent campaign declaring itself "proud anti-sponsor" of the FIFA 2022 World Cup and the 2018 launch of Pink IPA—a mock “beer for girls” released on International Women’s Day. No, BrewDog, Beer Doesn’t Count as a Serving of Fruit and Veg In 2021, the business was rocked by allegations from ex-staff citing a "toxic" working environment, with an open letter alleging the company’s rapid growth had involved cutting corners on health and safety and compromising its values. The fallout from the claims spread to some of BrewDog’s 130,000 "equity punks"—a small, loyal group of shareholders who have helped fuel its growth. Watt eventually issued a full apology, saying, "I am ultimately responsible for the culture of our business. The letter that ex-colleagues wrote to us is 100% my fault," saying he was committed to becoming a better employer. As part of this BrewDog has recently introduced a salary cap, meaning all salaries are capped at a maximum of 14 times the entry-level position, increasing by one for each year of service. In addition, those joining from another business can not be paid more than seven times the level of an entry level position. In 2021, BrewDog revenues increased by 21% to £348 million as U.K. sales continued to grow. However, this growth was offset by an $11 million investment in people and resources, combined with Covid-19-related losses. EasyJet Reprises CMO Role After Axing It at the Height of the Pandemic

Leadership & Talent

BrewDog Reprises CMO Role to Drive Business Forward

The brewer's first, and last, CMO was on the job for just three months

Rebecca Stewart

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Rebecca Stewart