Asia-Pacific Power List 2020: Julie Bramham, Diageo

Julie Bramham

Chief marketing officer, India
Diageo
India

Julie Bramham is the CMO for one Diageo’s fastest-growing markets and its biggest market by volume—a responsibility she takes very seriously. Bramham, who oversees the marketing portfolio and product innovation for more than 100 brands, has used this canvas to build progressive gender portrayals in advertising and create a rule book for others to do so too—characteristics that makes her a stand out in this Power List.

Bramham is truly a Diageo loyalist having been with the drinks maker for more than 21 years. The majority (19 years) of this was in London, where Bramham was marketing director of several of Diageo’s major brands, including Smirnoff and Captain Morgan, and then general manager of innovation, in which she led product innovation across the Diageo portfolio of spirits and beer for Europe.

That was until 2018, when she relocated to Bangalore to become CMO of Diageo India.

Notable campaigns Bramham has overseen in the past year include Johnnie Walker’s ‘The Travelling Billboard’, an influencer-led campaign that harnessed a life-size billboard of the brand's iconic Striding Man logo, growing sales by over 40% year-on-year as a result. There was also a purposeful campaign for Royal Challenge featuring India’s leading women cricketers and men’s team captain Virat Kohli, that aimed to break the gender boundaries that divide the sport. The campaign had a 10 million reach, and was covered in Diageo’s global annual report and UNstereotype alliance’s global newsletter. Diageo owns cricket team Royal Challengers Bangalore (named after the United Spirits brand), where Bramham is a board director. 

Bramham’s work is not limited to campaigns—earlier this year, she oversaw the development of a ‘Hipster’ bottle for Diageo’s four Scotch brands, designed to make them more affordable and appealing to younger consumers. The pocket bottles have so far been launched across 12 Indian states.

Both within and beyond marketing, Bramham describes herself as a “passionate advocate” for diversity and inclusion. She believes it is the responsibility of marketers who “spend billions of dollars telling stories that shape culture” to normalise gender equality. She has shared Diageo’s progressive gender portrayal framework with marketers in APAC through keynotes at events like the Spikes Asia Festival.

Her passion for D&I extends behind-the-screen too: Bramham has actively sought female directors and producers to produce Diageo campaigns and is spearheading a ‘Creative Equals’ programme in India, due to run in 2021, to help women who had to drop out of the industry to retrain. Diageo is also a signatory to the non-profit Free the Work initiative which aims to create a more equal playing field for female directors—when currently only 7% of the world's creative directors are women. 

Bramham can be found on Twitter at: @julesbramham