BrewDog's CMO lasted three months - here's why
BrewDog's first, and to date only chief marketing officer, lasted three months in the role. He says it was "too early in the evolution" of the 12 year old brand (Marketing Week).
Key points:
- Jon Evans became UK craft beer company BrewDog’s first CMO in October and exited in January
- Evans has significant drinks expertise with senior marketing roles at Britvic, Purity Soft Drinks and Lucozade Ribena Suntory
- “Gutted (of course) that I will never see the difference I could have made but left with huge respect for the business,” says Evans
- “Experienced so much in a very short space of time”
- BrewDog “counts in dog years, by the way”
An instructive tale for marketers thinking about a new challenge at a challenger brand where the founder is still very much the driving force.
Former CMO Jon Evans anticipated taking on his "dream job" when becoming BrewDog chief marketer. He is very polite, and retains a sense of humour, but it’s clear from his comments that there was no room for a CMO when the founder remains so hands on.
Evans tells Marketing Week that founder James Watt had a “very clear idea of what he wanted to do and how he wanted to do it”, which meant “it didnʼt work having two people trying to shape the strategy and execute it”.
Founders, he suggested, need to let go, let somebody else try new things and accept that nobody would “do it in exactly the way you would.”
It will be interesting to see whether BrewDog hires another CMO any time soon, and which brave soul takes it on. But as insurgent and DTC brands continue to disrupt the status quo and become acquisition targets, it could be a challenge that more marketers, CEOs and founders find themselves facing with increasing frequency.
