Guinness GB hands top marketing role to Haigh

Gary Haigh, Guinness brands portfolio director and former Pizza Hut marketing head, is to become the new marketing director of Guinness in Great Britain.

Haigh takes over responsibility for Guinness, Guinness Extra Cold, Harp, Kilkenny, Pilsner Urquell and Enigma. He replaces Julian Spooner, who has been promoted to operations director on the board of Guinness Africa, as exclusively revealed in Marketing Week (October 1).

Haigh has been brands portfolio director for Guinness’ international arm since March. Prior to that he had a two-year tenure as marketing director of Pizza Hut, where he oversaw a series of celebrity advertising campaigns starring Luke Perry and Ruud Gullit.

This followed six years with PepsiCo International in various roles, ranging from franchise general manager to marketing vice-president for Eastern Europe. Before this he worked at Procter & Gamble.

The new appointment continues a round of changes at Guinness which started with a review of advertising for Draught Guinness earlier this year. The 12m account was taken from Ogilvy & Mather, the brand’s agency of 12 years, and awarded to Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO. A new campaign using the tagline “Good things come to those who wait”, is now underway.

Saatchi & Saatchi was last week appointed to the advertising account for Guinness Extra Stout in Africa, the first above-the-line activity for the brand in that region.

A replacement to fill Haigh’s existing role has not yet been found.