In 2016, Diageo committed to delivering an incremental £100m in profit from marketing within three years via an initiative encompassing its wide brand portfolio. This is the story of Diageo's IPA Effectiveness Awards Gold winning case study in 2020.
The approach applied to its many brands such as Guinness, Baileys and Smirnoff, and to both mature and developing markets including in the Americas, Africa, and Australia. Approaches to data were standardised. Marketing Catalyst, a bespoke tool to advise marketers on effective spending, and Creative Sparks, a programme to refocus staff on creative excellence, were used to embed marketing effectiveness into the company culture. It is estimated the initiative produced more than twice its £100m target, returned its investment 16 times over, and enabled Diageo to widen the scope of effective measurement from brands accounting for 30% of its marketing spend to 90%.