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Market Leader Interview – Peter Sandström, Marketing Director of Maxxium UK

Tom Holmes talks to Peter Sandström, Marketing Director of Maxxium UK.

Peter’s international marketing career spans over 20 years, including senior regional and national marketing roles at Monsanto, Diageo and Beam Global Spirits.

Peter is now Marketing Director for Maxxium UK and heads up a 30 strong marketing team achieving outstanding results. The Famous Grouse and Courvoisier now enjoy their highest market share in history and Maxxium is one of the top performing spirit companies in the UK.

TH: As Marketing Director of Maxxium, the UK’s 3rd largest spirits company, what is your primary focus?

PS: I am focused on delivering our company vision which is to be the most dynamic, respected and passionate brand builders within the spirits industry. Over the past three years we have step changed our business by adding over £127 million, with Maxxium now delivering £965 million in sales value across the On and Off trade.

Since Maxxium became a local operating unit for Beam and Edrington, our marketing has transformed with a consolidated consumer and customer marketing approach. This enables my team to really build a range of marketing skills, be that creating through the line campaigns or building focused customer strategies with some of the best On and Off trade outlets in the world.

So, I am essentially focused on profitably building great consumer brands, while creating a dynamic environment where people can build an exciting marketing career.

TH: What are the main brands in your portfolio and what makes them so successful?

PS: Within Maxxium we are fortunate to have an excellent and varied portfolio as well as a number of category leading brands. While every brand is important to us there are a few brands that have really transformed over the past few years.

The Famous Grouse is an exceptional brand and we have grown the brand into the UK’s second largest spirits brand and the No1 scotch brand. This has been achieved by consistently building consumer demand, whilst taking a dynamic approach to innovation. We have seen Black Grouse, Naked Grouse and more recently Ginger Grouse invigorate the brand.

Courvoisier, the UK’s No1 Cognac is a great brand and continues to pioneer and drive the category. We are revolutionising the way consumers think about Cognac and our focus on quality and dynamic marketing has enabled the brand to grow its value share to 63% as we continue to draw new consumers into the brand.

Jim Beam, the World’s No1 Bourbon and the first to introduce flavoured whiskey. The brand has really step changed its performance by being extraordinarily brave in its innovation pipeline. Within the UK we have been first to market with Red Stag, a black cherry infused Jim Beam and more recently Jim Beam Honey which brings natural honey into our Bourbon. This is all helping make Bourbon ‘hot’ in the UK and the Jim Beam is leading the conversation. This was brought to life recently when we brought our distillery to London as a Stillhouse Experience.

Finally another dynamic brand is Sourz which is really leading the way in terms of bringing fun and flavour into the shot category. The brand has grown into a major brand worth over £133 million in sales value and continues to grow by +10%. We have been building this brand by being on trend and simply bringing a lot of fun to our consumers with a high quality brand that tastes exceptional.

I really could be here all day as every brand has a unique story to tell which makes the portfolio so interesting, exciting and fun to work with.

TH: What advertising campaign have you done recently makes you really proud and why?

PS: I think our most recent work has been incredibly fun to develop with my team. We have worked in harmony with our regional and global teams to ensure we deliver strategically aligned work. This has enabled us to work as a team and partner our agencies on the creative and their dynamic executions.

A ‘Famously Unpredictable Summer’ from The Famous Grouse saw a simple idea transform into a full through the line campaign which consumers and trade loved. It’s simply not something they would expect from a Scotch.

The great news is that we are taking this disruption a step further by enabling consumers to personalise their own The Famous Grouse bottle this Christmas.

I love these ideas because we are taking them through the line from television down to the shelf and creating conversations about our brand.

Sourz has also been an exceptionally rewarding as the team has taken real insight into action to create ‘This is our Shot’ campaign.

We know the shot occasion is more about the bonding with friends and it is this moment we want people to enjoy with an exceptional flavour and an unique taste. The teams have worked so well together to deliver a great campaign which is proving to be very successful. Again, this demonstrates the example of one idea that is flowing across multiple touch points.

A slightly more daring piece of work has been with Courvoisier, where the team created the ‘Here’s to Now’ campaign.

We have delivered a compelling campaign that is unlike anything ever seen from a Cognac brand and is designed for consumers to reappraise their Cognac moments and include the brand within more occasions. We have spent over 200 years perfecting the liquid, so the time to enjoy it is Now.

Red Stag has been another outstanding brand to work with and we took a global piece of work, adapted it for the UK and gave the brand a unique voice for Bourbon. We have created a range of extraordinary BTL activations from O2 sponsorships to Kigu parties whilst supporting the brand above the line. Our commitment to the brand and the campaigns has helped transform the conversations on Bourbon and position Jim Beam as the fastest growing brand in the category.

Within the team we are continually creating and building engaging ways to bring our brand to our consumers. We are also highly focused on commercial return, resulting in great balance of creative and effective marketing.

To read the rest of the interview please click here

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