Guinness rejig as Spooner moves

Julian Spooner, Guinness Brewing’s marketing director for Great Brit-ain, is leaving to take up a new management role with Guinness Africa.

Spooner will become operations director on the board of Guinness Africa, a region which includes its third largest global market, Nigeria. So far, a replacement has not been found, says a Guinness spokeswoman.

He has been marketing director of Guinness GB for three years and has also worked for Smith’s Crisps, Sterling Health and the National Dairy Council.

Earlier this year, he oversaw a review of Draught Guinness out of Ogilvy & Mather, its advertising agency of 12 years. The 12m account was awarded to Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO.

Spooner has also overseen the introduction of Guinness Extra Cold, a super-chilled version of the famous stout, and a promotional campaign called Maverick, in which drinkers were given vouchers for free pints. He has been responsible for other beers in Guinness Brewing’s portfolio: Harp, Kilkenny, Pilsner Urquell and Enigma.

This week the company confirmed that Guinness Extra Cold, already listed in 1,000 outlets, is to be rolled out nationally into 3,000 pubs, clubs and bars, although it says there are no plans to replace normal Guinness with the new version.

The brand was originally called Guinness Coldflow when it was on test, but the name was dropped because the brewer did not want to launch a sub-brand.