Transforming brand communications with Brown Forman

Christian Ozzati wins at the SBR Management Excellence Awards 2022.

Connecting with customers requires exceptional communication strategies, and for Christian Ozzati, trimming and transforming Brown Forman’s disjointed and fragmented messaging into one that resonates with customers have earned Brown Forman’s Marketing Director for Asia the Innovator of the Year - Brand Marketing Award at the 8th SBR Management Excellence Awards.

The awards programme recognises key players and major innovators and companies in Singapore, and Ozzati’s brand of leadership that essentially refitted Brown Forman’s communications within Asia has elevated their status amongst their competitors within the region.

Ozzati is a British marketing executive who has worked in various consumer goods for the past 15 years, with eight of those being with Brown Forman in London. As the new Marketing Director for Asia, he is currently based in Singapore and has set his sights on turning Asia into the best region for consumer activity in the company.

A big part of his strategy going into the initiative was the overhaul of brand communication within Asia, removing all the barriers that have been set and reinventing the company’s approach towards consumer engagement with communication, employing the likes of BDDO Asia to deliver world-class, contextually-relevant communications in a calculated manner.

With the recent consolidation of the company’s communication management to BDDO Asia, a large amount of layered, disconnected messaging to customers has been cut down and more contextually-relevant brand messaging has been pushed to the company’s consumers within the region. Brands benefiting from this long-term communications handover partnership include Jack Daniels, Woodford Reserve, BenRiach, and Glendronach, as these brands are set to hit a new level of consumer engagement across Asia.

On the internal side of communications, Christian has achieved strides in pushing the company to over-invest in communications within his first three months in Asia, despite the financial struggles experienced post-COVID. His team, especially the Asia IMC manager Joycelyn Seow and BBDO team consisting of Hans Lopez-Vito and Darryl Juinio who have thrown every effort towards the initiative and made an impact, have all made this possible.

For more than 150 years, the Brown Forman Corporation has enriched the experience of life by responsibly building fine quality beverage alcohol brands, and Ozzati’s recent successes in Asia with his overhaul of the brand’s communication strategy have cemented their position and potential within the market.

The SBR Management Excellence Awards is presented by Singapore Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2023 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's employee engagements and management initiatives, please contact Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected].