Diageo GB appoints Anna MacDonald, the marketer behind the Guinness revival, as marketing director

Diageo has made Anna MacDonald its top marketer in Great Britain. She becomes marketing and category director for Diageo GB, the business that sells Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Gordon’s, Captain Morgan and Baileys in the UK market, replacing Ursula Mejía Melgar, who is leaving for Coca-Cola.

Who is Anna MacDonald?

MacDonald has been at Diageo for more than 20 years, most recently as global brand director for Captain Morgan. Before that she ran Guinness in Great Britain for five years, the period in which it rose to become the number one beer in the market, as Marketing Week reported. Her appointment puts the person most associated with the Guinness revival in charge of the whole British portfolio.

Mejía Melgar had held the job since April 2025. She joins the Coca-Cola Company as vice-president of marketing for Spain and Portugal.

What she inherits

The job is a mixed picture. Guinness is still the brightest part of Diageo’s British business, strong enough in recent results to offset weaker spirits sales, and its non-alcoholic Guinness 0.0 has given it a foothold with people drinking less. Spirits are harder, with younger drinkers drinking less and the cost of living pushing people towards cheaper bottles. The task is essentially to do for the spirits range what was done for Guinness.

Why it matters

The Guinness story in Britain was not built on a single big advert. It was built on consistency, on sport, on the pint itself becoming content, and on a brand team that resisted the urge to reinvent it every year. Promoting the person who ran that to the top job is Diageo saying it wants the same discipline across the portfolio.

It is also a counterpoint to last week’s finding that no FTSE 100 board has a marketer on it. Diageo’s biggest recent win in Britain was a marketing win, and it has just promoted from within to protect it. For Guinness’s longer run of great work, see our ranking of the best Guinness adverts, and for its latest move beyond advertising, the Mason London collection.