Heineken appoints InBev's Iain Newell as new marketing director

by Sam Solley and Julia Pearlman, Brand Republic 15-Mar-05, 16:00

LONDON - Heineken has named Iain Newell from InBev as its new marketing director, following the departure of Leslie Meredith, who has left the company after three years.

Newell, who is innovations manager at InBev, will be officially confirmed in the role tomorrow.

The job had been tipped to go to former Scottish Courage marketer Simon Rhodes.

Newell will take over from Meredith, who was brought in three years ago to spearhead the UK launch of the brewer's premium-strength 5% lager.

She is understood to be moving to Leo Burnett Chicago to work on the agency's flagship Kellogg account.

The appointment follows the announcement in February that Heineken plans to spend an extra €100m (£70m) on marketing after seeing profits slump by a third and forecasts of further falls this year. The Dutch brewer reported a fall in net profit for the year of 32.7% from €798m in 2003 to €537m.

The €100m extra on marketing will be spent in the key markets of the US and Western Europe, bringing Heineken's total marketing spend to €850m.

Following the expiry of Whitbread's licence to brew the 3.5% ABV Heineken in February 2004, the brand relaunched in the UK as the 5% premium lager, which is the strength sold in the rest of the world, to take on the likes of Carling and Stella Artois.

The relaunch brought an end to the brewer's 30-year relationship with ad agency Lowe because of a conflict with rival premium lager Stella.

In 2002, Meredith held a pitch for a UK ad agency to launch the beer domestically instead of running international work by one of Heineken's global agencies. Clemmow Hornby Inge picked up the £9m task.

The agency's most recent work stars the Hollywood actor Ray Liotta and a new campaign stars John Travolta.

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