Anheuser-Busch picks UK marketing chief to lead US-based Bud Light brand team

Anheuser-Busch UK marketing director Randall Blackford has been moved to the US to lead the Bud Light brand team based in St Louis after two years in the job. He has been replaced by brand manager of Bud Light in the US, Jim Gorczyca.

Gorczyca will take control of the drinks company’s &£10.8m advertising budget and its entire brand portfolio, which includes Budweiser, Bud Ice and Michelob. He will report to vice-president and managing director Andrew Day.

Blackford, previously the company’s north-east Asia marketing controller, was promoted to the UK marketing director role in 2002 (MW March 28, 2002). As the marketing chief he was responsible for the launch of Michelob Ultra, a low-calorie, low-carbohydrate American variant of the beer brand, in the UK last year (MW July 31, 2003).

Blackford took over from David Dryden, who was promoted to the new role of regional director of licensed markets for France, Ireland, Italy and Spain.

Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser brand signed up as a sponsor of Formula One team BMW Williams last year in a five-and-a-half-year deal worth about &£10m (MW July 3, 2003).