Neil Shah is Head of Guinness in GB, where he leads this iconic brand in its biggest market globally based at Diageo’s HQ in London. More recently, he was Global Marketing Director – Smirnoff at Diageo, based in NYC. In this role he was an instrumental part of the team who built the strategy and engineered the performance turnaround of the world’s biggest premium spirit brand, Smirnoff across 130+ markets, leading to the brand getting back into growth for the first time in 10 years. Other highlights included leading the development of the “Infamous since 1864” TTL campaign – the first truly global campaign on the brand, which has won numerous effectiveness and creative awards.
Neil started his journey with Diageo as Europe Senior Brand Manager – Ready Drinks. In the role he turned around the Ready Drinks portfolio of brands, including Smirnoff, Captain Morgan and Gordon’s, from decline to double digit growth and earned himself a place on Diageo’s coveted Global Future Leaders Program. Prior to Diageo, Neil held various marketing roles at Virgin Media, starting on their first-ever Marketing Graduate Program and rising to Marketing Manager. At Virgin Media, he worked across one of the UK’s largest marketing budgets and delivered award-winning campaigns and disruptive product launches. Neil’s earlier career was spent agency-side at Splendid Communications.
Neil is passionate about embedding brands in culture, brands with purpose and brand turnarounds. He is a regular contributor to the marketing industry, for example he is on the Editorial Advisory Board of The Drum, is a regular speaker at industry events e.g. Advertising Week and is a mentor to aspiring marketers on how to break into the industry.
Neil is a culture obsessive and outside of work he can be found digging through vinyl at a record store, checking out and exhibition at an art gallery or watching one of his favourite bands at a gig
