Diageo is introducing its first marketing director for the ready-to-drink (RTD) category in the UK, as the spirits giant looks to drive growth in the area.

Kirsten McPherson will take on the newly created role at the end of November. She joins from food business Mondelez, where she was the UK and Ireland marketing director for the meals category.

She will sit on Diageo’s UK and Ireland leadership team and report into marketing and innovation director for Diageo GB, Ursula Mejia Melgar, who took on the role in April, having led marketing in Southern Europe for the business.

Mejia Melgar told Marketing Week previously that GB is a “priority market globally” for the RTD category. She also spoke about her focus on innovation to take the business’s spirits brands, which include Smirnoff, Gordon’s and Captain Morgan, into new occasions, something which the RTD category lends itself to.

McPherson will therefore be responsible for driving an important growth lever at the business.

Diageo’s top GB marketer on growing the spirits category ‘beyond historical boundaries’

While it has been far from smooth sailing for the total spirits category as it has emerged from pandemic trends, the RTD sector has been one that has consistently grown.

Diageo has already sought to tap into this; for example, with the relaunch of its “classic” RTD proposition of Smirnoff Ice. It was motivated to do this because of the potential it sees in the growing RTD category.

“It’s been the fastest growing category in [total beverage alcohol] for the last three years and is expected to be the fastest growing for three more,” senior vice-president for vodkas, Stephanie Jacoby told Marketing Week earlier this year.

Indeed, according to alcohol industry data provider IWSR, RTD was the only major alcohol category globally to record volume growth last year.

In addition to being an area of ongoing growth, Diageo also sees the RTD category as an opportunity to introduce its brands to new audiences. Speaking during its most recent results in August, the company’s interim CEO Nik Jhangiani highlighted RTDs as a “key recruitment channel” for Gen Z young adults.

Prior to taking on the marketing director role at Mondelez, McPherson was a director for commercial planning on the Cadbury brand. Previously, she spent almost 12 years at consumer goods giant P&G, working across commercial roles, as well as market strategy and planning.