The managing director of Campari’s Home of Aperitifs tells Tim Healey how an area Italian ritual was scaled globally, why Aperol’s rise required persistence as a lot as ambition, and what model leaders can be taught from constructing long-term cultural relevance.
Your profession spans Duracell, 10 years at Procter & Gamble, then Campari group, the place you’re now managing director of the Home of Aperitifs. Might you stroll us by way of your profession and the way you found advertising and marketing?
I’m Italian – I used to be born and dwell in Milan. I’ve managed to dwell and work in several international locations in Europe and I really feel like I’m a European citizen. I’m a marketeer by mistake: I studied philosophy at college – a special self-discipline, however one the place the flexibility to assume critically, put issues in perspective, problem your beliefs and be attentive to folks and the way folks assume has been very, very helpful in my profession.
I began as a junior marketeer: a junior model supervisor for Duracell, in Italy. At the moment, as an American multinational, they had been chopping prices domestically, centralizing actions, and working promoting from their heart of excellence. They invited me to work in London for 2 years and at the moment, Duracell was acquired by Gillette. I labored by way of Duracell’s transformation from a single, standalone model firm right into a a lot larger group.
Then I returned to Milan and began engaged on one of many 4 key manufacturers of Gillette on the time, Braun. Initially a German firm, Braun made and bought small home home equipment, together with electrical shavers and hair dryers. Procter & Gamble then acquired Gillette. So we turned a part of an excellent larger multinational firm – gigantic to be sincere.
Working inside an area market typically meant feeling a bit faraway from the model’s strategic decision-making. This might restrict alternatives to totally apply one’s advertising and marketing experience, as model plans usually adopted established patterns from earlier years, and, not unusually for FMCG companies, single-digit progress was celebrated.
Then I met Campari. At the moment, 2008, Campari was just about nonetheless an organization that was targeted on Italy. It was pushed by one model: and the model was not Aperol – it was Campari itself. It was an enormous export enterprise powered by distribution that enabled it to achieve all of the markets on the planet.
On the time, they had been hiring from completely different multinational firms, [thinking] that bringing expertise, experience and the flexibility to navigate multicultural environments and sophisticated organizations into the Campari enterprise would drive their aspiration of turning into larger by way of acquisition and rising manufacturers that had been a part of the portfolio. I joined and it has been an incredible, nice experience.
As somebody that when owned my very own restaurant, drinks provenance was a giant factor for me and I used to be very conscious of the return of Campari. Campari was not so modern 20 years in the past; it was a drink of the 70s and early 80s. Whereas now, to you and your group’s credit score, you’ll discover a negroni cocktail, whose key ingredient is Campari, on most menus. For the good thing about our readers, may you inform us what merchandise are in your portfolio?
Within the group portfolio, we’ve over 50 premium and super-premium manufacturers. We just lately divided our portfolio into 4 homes. We’ve the Home of Cognac & Champagne, the Home of Agave, the Home of Whiskey & Rum, and the one which I’ve the pleasure of main is the Home of Aperitifs. Aperitivos (or aperitifs) are by far the most important and most vital class inside Campari Group.
The Campari model itself was based in 1860 in Milan, Italy. At its core, the corporate is an aperitif enterprise that has expanded into completely different portfolios and completely different manufacturers and classes that you just see immediately.
Internet gross sales for the primary half of 2025 for Campari had been €1.53bn. With such robust gross sales in thoughts, what does 2026 appear to be?
A giant focus can be devoted to Aperol, which remains to be rising quickly internationally. It’s a model that the corporate acquired round 20 years in the past, which had been a little bit of a ‘sleeping gem’ for few years, and since 2006 we began growing the model. We’ve been exporting Italian aperitivo tradition world wide.
2025 noticed the launch of our new world advertising and marketing marketing campaign, business platform and TV marketing campaign: ‘L’unico. Per tutti’ – an Italian phrase which means: “The one one. For everybody.” The engagement platform is linked just about to music and to music festivals. We’ve been a part of Coachella, USA for the final two years and Primavera Sound in Barcelona.
Aperol continues to be a key precedence for us, however many manufacturers contribute to the spritz portfolio at Campari Group. The Campari model spans negroni to Campari spritz in leverage and flexibility. The negroni is essentially the most bought traditional cocktail and was as soon as once more rated the primary cocktail on the planet in 2025, once more, after three years of being in that place. There are additionally different traditional cocktails the place Campari is a protagonist, from the Americano to the boulevardier to Campari shakerato.
We’ve two manufacturers within the portfolio which might be in all probability much less identified. One is Crodino, a non-alcoholic drink created in Italy within the Sixties and which was bought nearly completely in Italy (with some gross sales within the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria). We determined a few years in the past to construct out our non-alcoholic choices and positioned Crodino as tapping into the need of the youthful era who favor moderation and infrequently select non-alcoholic drinks.
They’re approaching consuming habits in what we name ‘the zebra stripe’ strategy, the place you could have in the identical night one alcoholic and one non-alcoholic drink, the place moderation and staying in management is the secret. We’re rolling out Crodino throughout Europe and internationally and just lately launched within the UK and the US.
The fourth one is a newly created aperitivo known as Sarti, additionally known as Sarti Rosa. ‘Rosa’ in Italian means pink. It’s a sweeter aperitivo for customers who discover Campari just a little bitter for his or her palate and could be appreciated as a spritz. Having launched in Germany three years in the past, it’s taking Europe by storm, and the worldwide rollout of Sarti Rosa can be a part of our 2026 plan.
How is your advertising and marketing group structured?
We’re a world group. In ‘the Home’ that I take care of, the group is structured alongside the strains of what I confer with as model constructing. We’ve gone past the buyer, commerce and buyer advertising and marketing. We handle manufacturers in all their sides, together with shopper or shopper understanding. We even have a group engaged on class and insights.
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In consequence, we’ve vertical competence. We’ve model managers and we’ve buyer advertising and marketing managers, however we are inclined to handle the model as an entire. We’ve a world finance group, as a result of worth chain and the P&L of the model are essential. We even have groups for analysis and improvement, innovation and provide chain.
All of this model administration then works with native advertising and marketing groups which might be sitting within the particular person market firms, and that could be a essential component. Having two-way communication and a fruitful relationship with them is essential.
Drawing in your management experience, what has your profession taught you that helps to make an incredible group?
Having belief within the group is vital. Offering empowerment to your group can be essential. After I take a look at new candidates for roles, I are inclined to worth potential and ambition greater than the present and particular ability set.
Within the job market, you should buy any stage of competence. However if you see a particular mild within the eyes of a candidate, that could be a magic component. Then you’ll be able to engineer empowerment and supply freedom inside a framework. As a pacesetter, you could be an enabler; you design the imaginative and prescient, however let your group execute and transfer the undertaking ahead.
How do you surf the tidal wave of selling know-how?
Given my age, I began working in enterprise earlier than the web was generally used and earlier than e mail. I think about myself, and people from my era, as being mentally agile sufficient to have gone by way of many know-how adjustments. That being stated, there comes a degree the place it’s a must to acknowledge {that a} 25-year-old is aware of extra a couple of kind of know-how than you do, after which it’s a must to depend on them and their experience.
I think about something associated to digital know-how a instrument, not an finish in itself. So, with that in thoughts: regardless of the know-how will give us as a chance to raised perceive – the buyer insights, shopper wants, shopper wants – is tremendous welcome. However our enterprise exists in a world of bodily and private relationships, and never one that’s fully digital. At Campari Group and the Home of Aperitifs, we worth real-world interactions.
Might you please inform us a couple of buyer analysis discovery that you’ve made that you’ve discovered shocking?
The Aperol model hails from the northeast of Italy: it was bought between Venice, Padova, Verona and Treviso. We developed it into a world model. The journey has been spectacular. However as you’ll be able to think about on the very starting, it was not a simple one.
In 2010, we ran analysis in London: we needed to check how the viewers discovered our orange liquor when combined with Prosecco. On the time, Prosecco was not broadly accessible, and I keep in mind receiving very vital but additionally insightful solutions from the folks interviewed. For instance: ‘You’ll by no means see a bloke holding a glass, a stem glass outdoors the pub.’ Additionally ‘It will by no means work. It’s orange like Lucozade.’
And but, when you stroll round London immediately, you see many males consuming from stem glasses and having fun with it. Now I’m not saying that we must always not depend on shopper analysis – in no way. However I do assume we have to apply the suitable stage of intention and interpretation to analysis. On the identical time, we must also hearken to the long-term technique that we’ve designed typically and transcend it.
When requested, typically customers reply by staying of their paradigm. It’s our goal as model leaders or class leaders, to acknowledge current paradigms after which to design new paradigms: to outline a brand new body of reference or supply of enterprise, and pave the way in which to future success. Eye-opening as that analysis was, and I’m glad we did it, I’m glad that we didn’t cease on our mission to develop the Aperol market.
What delusion about advertising and marketing would you most wish to bust?
After I hearken to folks speaking about advertising and marketing, more often than not advertising and marketing is spoken about in a really damaging sense. Advertising and marketing stands accused of being ‘a disguising and typically even misleading promoting method, that forces or persuades customers to do what they don’t need to do however what you need them to do’. I believe that is absolute nonsense.
Advertising and marketing is all about model administration – attending to the core of what a model stands for. It’s about understanding shopper insights and desires. We’re all pushed by a number of key and really comparable wants. We give these wants completely different names, and present these wants in several kinds, however finally, these wants are very, very comparable.
This turned very obvious when exporting our aperitivo tradition. I keep in mind going to markets outdoors of Italy and considering: ‘Yeah, that is excellent for the aperitivo.’ Typically folks would say: “What’s an aperitivo? We don’t have any aperitivo tradition.” I might then ask if folks meet after work? Do they socialize? Do they drink one thing at these occasions? Are they in a light-hearted temper? If the reply is ‘sure’, then they’ve an aperitivo tradition.
Perhaps they don’t name it aperitivo – for them it’s a ‘each day social gathering event’. We give comparable wants completely different labels: ‘pub time’ within the UK, ‘tapas time’ in Spain, “feierabend” in Germany… so on and so forth. On the finish of the day, advertising and marketing is about understanding customers’ wants and and shaping your model promise and product provide to fulfill these wants.
What recommendation would you give your youthful self when you may return in time?
To begin with, I might advise ‘youthful me’ to be just a little bit extra affected person in my profession development and take that magic time if you find yourself aged 25-30 to construct experiences that you could be not be capable of construct afterwards. For instance, if you wish to be marketeer, it’s vital that you just perceive how the business group, prospects and salespeople assume.
Having the privilege of spending one or two years in a business function firstly of your profession isn’t wasted time; fairly the other – that is golden time. When youthful, many people would need to turn out to be a senior model supervisor quick. You would possibly assume shifting horizontally to a business function is a waste of time. It’s not.
Secondly: don’t spend an excessive amount of time within the closed rooms of an workplace. Go outdoors. Speak to prospects, speak to customers and to consumers. In my trade, go to bars and pay attention, watch, see how folks behave, see what folks drink. Speak to bartenders. That is way more insightful than simply staying in entrance of a display and limitless PowerPoint shows.
These are two issues I might inform my youthful self, or to any youthful marketer I come throughout immediately.
What would you want me to ask the subsequent senior marketer or enterprise chief that I interview?
What have you ever discovered about advertising and marketing in the previous few years? How are your core ideas of selling performing within the fast-changing world? Have you ever been in a position to cease, take a step again and get into the psychological mode of studying once more?
If there’s one factor you recognize about advertising and marketing, it’s…?
Advertising and marketing is a marathon and never 100 meters. It’s a long-term sport. It’s about having a imaginative and prescient and a technique; and as at all times: shopper is king. All of it comes again to understanding customers’ insights and desires, growing merchandise to fulfill these wants and fostering long-term relationships between your manufacturers and your prospects.
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Tim Healey listens, learns, and synthesizes real-world greatest practices from tons of of selling professionals and serves them up in his weekly interviews for The Drum. Tim’s Little Grey Cells Club is a trusted, no-sales, peer-driven community the place senior-level advertising and marketing administrators unite to change genuine insights, confront challenges, and drive management ahead.
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