Episode Summary: The CEO’s Guide to Marketing

Guest: Cristina Diezhandino, CMO of Diageo
Host: Seth Matlins, Forbes
Date: December 4, 2025

Overview

This episode brings Diageo CMO Cristina Diezhandino into conversation with Forbes’ Seth Matlins to break down what CEOs need to know about modern marketing. The discussion explores how to organize marketing for future success, balance investments across a vast brand portfolio, and the obstacles that can prevent marketing from enabling business growth. Cristina shares wisdom from her multi-decade career, reflecting on lessons learned at Unilever and Diageo, while offering frameworks and examples relevant to marketing leaders and CEOs alike.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Cristina's Evolving Approach to Marketing

(00:30–01:26)

• The fundamentals of brand-building remain unchanged: brands must still “conquer the hearts and minds” of people.
• What’s changed most is speed and complexity: “The how and the environment and the technology that we now have at our disposal has changed enormously.” – Cristina (01:15)
• Need for future-proofing: Brands should continually aspire to be iconic and aspirational even as consumer environments evolve.

Marketing as Commercial Leadership

(01:56–05:41)

• Cristina credits her Unilever training with giving her a strong business mindset: “The brand manager is the general manager of the brand.”
• Impactful marketers must navigate C-suites and boards by communicating in ‘business-centric’ terms.
• Cristina observes both commercial and pure specialist paths for marketing leaders:
  • “I believe in diversity of capabilities… some will have that spike on that business angle and others less so, but they will have a spike more on those other aspects.” (04:36)

The Ingredients of a “Big Idea”

(06:40–11:55)

• A big idea must be simple, enduring, and rooted in human truth.
  • “It touches some form of human truth, and for that reason it is enduring.” – Cristina (07:17)
• Emotional resonance and powerful expression are vital:
  • “There’s something about emotionality, emotional connection, for me, that I’ve seen consistently.” – Cristina (10:11)
• The “brand world” nowadays is visual first, due to global reach and fleeting attention spans.

Creating Authentic and Relevant Content

(11:27–14:07)

• Visual consistency and adaptation are critical:
  • “Wherever you go, wherever you encounter, you experience this brand, it’s communicating to you in a way that is consistent…” (13:10)
• Need for adaptable branding to address numerous touchpoints and cultural realities.

Managing an Expansive Global Portfolio

(14:07–24:26)

• Diageo’s portfolio is managed with a balance of science (data, frameworks like the “Consumer Choice” segmentation) and art (intuition).
• Investments are made where consumer motivations and growth trends converge, sometimes leading category development proactively (e.g., tequila outside the Americas).
  • “We want to lead that trend and we’re going to play our brands in those locations, even though for now they’re still relatively small.” (15:57)
• Portfolio architecture leans into consumer needs and intentional brand positioning to avoid harmful cannibalization.

Navigating Category Segmentation and Cannibalization

(21:00–24:26)

• Differentiation by price, product format, or occasion is key when brands share a category (e.g., Tanqueray vs. Gordon’s in gin).
• Willingness to cannibalize within the portfolio, if it means capturing more consumer “share of occasions.”
  • “We can serve different moments in time…if you have X number of occasions, I can gain share of your portfolio of occasions.” (24:21)

Metrics for Investment Decisions

(24:26–27:25)

• Diageo uses a proprietary ROI methodology for both short- and long-term attribution, optimizing investment allocation.
• Short-term metrics (market share, talkability) matter, but are balanced with long-term brand-building metrics.

Expanding and Shifting Occasions

(27:25–32:52)

• The role of “occasion” is both leverage and limitation for a brand’s growth.
• Shifting established perceptions around use cases (like Guinness in summer, or champagne beyond celebrations) requires:
  1. Overcoming internal biases,
  2. Creating new “reasons to believe,”
  3. Drawing inspiration from across the brand portfolio.
  • “The main barrier, oftentimes, is internal. You have to overcome the strong beliefs of an organization that has learned for years that this is how it goes.” – Cristina (30:16)

Organizing for Marketplace Evolution

(33:24–39:14)

• The modern CMO’s pressure: balance effective investment with ever-expanding content demands and fragmentation.
• Diageo’s response: “Conscious Creatives” — global, centralized content creation teams, integrating AI-powered content adaptation (“Virtual Content Studios”) to improve efficiency and reduce duplicated effort.
  • “It does the doing on behalf of everybody else…gathers the funding.” (36:04)
• The biggest challenge isn’t operational, but cultural, as local teams adapt to shared creative processes.

Finding Cross-Industry Inspiration

(39:43–41:53)

• Cristina observes that luxury brands excel at “love for the craft” and deep customer care — a mentality she tries to bring into CPG.
• The intimate knowledge of origin and craft not only informs marketing but inspires the entire organization.
  • “If you go to the place where your product is made and you meet the people who make it today… it’s so inspirational.” (42:03)

The Power and Limits of Origin Stories

(43:27–45:40)

• Origin stories can differentiate—especially with key stakeholders like bartenders—but the importance of provenance must be balanced with understanding of the consumer and the context.
  • “Valuing the product that you’re selling very much…is reassuring and it gives the organization confidence, not just the marketers, everybody.” (44:50)

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On emotional connection:
  “When that emotional connection is really connected to the truth of the brand…it generally is enduring.” – Cristina (10:18)

• On future-proofing brands:
  “How do we future proof our business? How do we make sure that our brands continue to be iconic aspirations?” – Cristina (00:42)

• On segmentation vs. cannibalization:
  “We certainly look at that segmentation…What consumer need are you solving for? …You can very well…create a clear distinction between your existing portfolio brands.” – Cristina (21:00)

• On internal barriers to change:
  “The main barrier, oftentimes, is internal. You have to overcome the strong beliefs of an organization that has learned for years that this is how it goes.” – Cristina (30:16)

• On integrating AI and content creation:
  “The application of content, the adaptation of content, is enabled by our AI work which we have set up. We call it the Virtual Content Studios.” (37:17)

Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:30–01:26 | Cristina’s changing approach to marketing
• 01:56–05:41 | The marketer as business leader
• 06:40–11:55 | What makes a “big idea”?
• 14:07–17:06 | Managing and investing in a massive brand portfolio
• 21:00–24:26 | Handling multiple brands and segmentation
• 24:26–27:25 | Metrics, talkability, and commercial results
• 27:25–32:52 | Occasion-based marketing and shifting perceptions
• 33:24–39:14 | Reorganizing for efficiency (central teams, AI, cultural challenges)
• 39:43–41:53 | Lessons from other categories, luxury, and craft
• 43:27–45:40 | Using (and not over-relying on) origin stories
• 46:24–47:32 | What gets in the way of marketing delivering growth

Organizational and Leadership Advice

• Marketing remains a business growth function—CMOs must communicate fluently in the language of business.
• Portfolio and occasion-based frameworks deliver clarity on investment and innovation.
• Internal mindsets and established beliefs are often the primary obstacles to changing brand perceptions.
• Efficiency in execution, through centralization and technology, must be coupled with local empowerment and feedback.
• Inspiration from outside of category (luxury, insurance) can elevate creativity and consumer engagement.
• Ensuring the entire organization values the product and brand increases the likelihood of brand-building success.

Final Word from Cristina:
“Whatever’s going on in their world, [marketers] keep very present. What is it that only you can do for that business? …Make sure that you bring that to the business every single day.” (47:32)

Listeners’ takeaway:
Whether you’re a CEO, CMO, or aspiring marketer, Cristina Diezhandino’s episode offers a masterclass in commercial leadership, adaptive brand building, and the organizational changes necessary to keep brands relevant, coherent, and impactful on a global scale.