Diageo GB Taps Anna MacDonald as New Marketing Boss—Time to Fix the Lager-Driven Hangover

Let’s call it what it is: Diageo has been coasting on the fumes of old TV spots and “iconic” brand equity for too damn long in Britain. Now, on a drizzly Saturday when most of the marketing world is still hungover from their own buzzwords, Anna MacDonald steps in as the new marketing and category director for Diageo Great Britain. If you think this is just another LinkedIn reshuffle, think again—Diageo’s portfolio commands real market gravity, and their recent campaigns have been as limp as the ice in a warm gin and tonic.

You might remember MacDonald from her last stint steering the ship at BrewDog, where she actually managed to get people talking about beer for reasons other than PR stunts or lawsuits. Now she inherits a Diageo GB roster that reads like a bar menu in desperate need of updating: Guinness, Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, and a parade of “innovations” that mostly taste like focus group compromise. The question for autumn 2026 is whether MacDonald can inject some actual relevance, instead of another round of agency-safe nonsense.

The numbers don’t lie. Over the past six months, Nielsen data shows Diageo’s GB spirits sales have plateaued, while challenger brands from the craft and no-alc corners have been eating their lunch—sometimes literally, if you count the proliferation of canned cocktails in every corner deli from Hackney to Glasgow. Meanwhile, digital spend from Diageo has ballooned, but the creative? Peak nothingburger: social posts that look like they were churned out by a Fiverr freelancer with access to Getty Images and a thesaurus.

If MacDonald wants any shot at turning this ship around, she needs to start by firing the agencies sleepwalking through “purpose-driven” campaigns and get her hands dirty with product. Take a page from the challenger playbook: less corporate slop, more local pulse. And yes, that means risking the wrath of whatever grey-suited committee has been approving Johnnie Walker’s “Keep Walking” retreads since the Blair government. It’s time for Diageo to stop marketing to imaginary consumers and start making people actually care—preferably before the Christmas rush, when their competitors will be gunning for every shelf inch in the country.