Whitbread chief joins Beefeater

Former Pizza Hut marketing director Ann Elliott is to join Beefeater Restaurant & Pub in the same role, replacing Mike Tye who is moving to Welcome Break.

Elliott joins the 280-strong, Whitbread-owned chain on May 1, leaving the post of field operations director for Whitbread Pub Partnership in the North. She was Pizza Hut marketing director from 1988 to 1991.

Elliott says her first task will be to meet Bartle Bogle Hegarty to review the firm’s advertising strategy. There is no suggestion that the company will review its account.

Beefeater has made extensive use of below-the-line work in recent years, including campaigns through BBH’s direct marketing agency, Limbo.

Limbo has developed its work around Beefeater’s core proposition “Discover the world and eat it”, door-dropping leaflets featuring foods from around the globe to consumers in Beefeater restaurant catchment areas. The work aims to stimulate trials of Beefeater restaurants and pubs by shifting people’s perceptions of the restaurant chain and offering them an incentive to visit.