BrewDog names CMO amid trio of appointments

BrewDog has promoted brand and marketing director Lauren Carrol to chief marketing officer, reinstating the role after nearly four years.

Brewdog has not had a CMO since the departure of Jon Evans in January 2019. He had joined in November 2018 but spent just three months in the role (a successor was never appointed and the role was apparently shelved) before freelancing and, in September 2019, becoming CMO of System1.

BrewDog chief executive and co-founder James Watt – posting on LinkedIn – described Carrol as having been outstanding in all the roles she has worked across our business", adding she has contributed "massively".

"As our new CMO she has huge potential to positively impact our growth as well as play a very important role in our senior leadership team."

Carrol was made brand and marketing director in June last year. Before that she was special projects director and held posts including group continuous improvement manager.

She was instrumental in BrewDog's repositioning as a "brand for all", which kicked off in August 2021 with the debut work by Droga5 London. The campaign's 90-second spot used a series of short video clips and still shots of the varied cast of characters BrewDog is suitable for. They included "meat-eaters, vegetarians, vegetarians that lie", "people who believe in aliens, in god, in nothing", "people with dogs that sort of hate them", "shoplifters", "guys who almost certainly own a snake", and "Chiara Davis, who's working at a funfair until she works out what she wants to do with her life".

As well as announcing Carrol's appointment, Watt also revealed the promotion of BrewDog Bars managing director James Brown to CEO of the bars business. He joined BrewDog in 2015 as retail director.

Thirdly, group digital director Tom Reding has been promoted to chief digital officer, having spent three years at the brand.

Watt wrote: "Lauren, JB and Tom are all world-class senior leaders who have developed brilliant careers for themselves as they have progressed through the ranks at BrewDog. We are all very lucky to have them as part of our team and to be able to work with them on a daily basis.

"Their progression is also testament to The BrewDog Salary Cap and our philosophy of developing the next generation of senior BrewDog leaders through our own teams as opposed hiring these leaders externally."