‘Don’t terrify, motivate’: How Diageo is ‘mobilising’ its marketers on sustainability
Diageo’s global marketing sustainability director Deb Caldow says it’s important for marketers to have a sustainability framework and agenda created by fellow marketers.
Diageo is creating a sustainability agenda “for marketing created by marketers” to ensure its brand-builders can continue to drive growth while also making a positive impact on the planet.
Global marketing sustainability director Deb Caldow is leading the “centre of excellence” within the organisation, designed to “mobilise marketing” on sustainability.
Caldow, who has spent most of her career as a brand marketer at the likes of Costa and Britvic before moving into the intersection between marketing and sustainability, stresses that embedding sustainability practices within marketing should be led by marketers. It should be treated in the same way as marketers would embed any other aspect, but must be bespoke to marketers’ needs. The contradiction marketers feel between growth and sustainability should be taken into account rather than it being a one size fits all approach, for example.
“This is not a learning and development programme, which a training team delivers, it’s actually designed by marketers for marketing,” she tells Marketing Week.