Daria Cavalli is a Senior Brand Manager for iconic Diageo brand Cîroc.
Daria discusses the launch of Cîroc Summer Citrus and her career journey at Diageo.
What has your Diageo experience been like since joining to your current role now?
I’ve been at Diageo for two years now working across the Cîroc and DeLeon brands. Prior to my time at Diageo, I was in the beauty industry with L’Oréal Paris cosmetics. I have loved my experience at Diageo so far. The culture is incredible, and the people really make each day so fun and energising.
Tell us more about your current role as Cîroc Senior Brand Manager?
Cîroc is a unique brand in our Diageo portfolio given the nature of our partnership with Sean “Diddy” Combs. The day-to-day is incredibly dynamic and fast-paced. The brand team manages each consumer touchpoint from on-shelf presence, social media channels, PR and partnerships. In my role I am the team lead who manages our integrated agency teams as well as the lead for our annual marketing planning cycle. No two days are the same at Cîroc!
How did Cîroc Summer Citrus come about and what has it been like behind the scenes to get this to launch and into consumers’ hands?
For the past four-years, Cîroc has launched two limited edition, seasonal flavors per year. The purpose of ‘limited-time only’ products (LTOs) is to drive innovation and excitement for Cîroc among our consumer base. Messaging for our LTOs is always centered around “get it while it’s here!” which drives a sense of urgency and exclusiveness. The creative process typically kicks off with our innovation team. We work to identify flavour trends and how they line up with gaps in the Cîroc portfolio. Once we’ve identified the flavor, we’ll work with our creative agency teams to align on the visual world, core occasion and key serve that the flavor variant should own during the respective season. It’s a very iterative process but we always land in a space we feel will inspire our consumer. We identified the citrus flavor profile as a huge gap within the Cîroc flavored portfolio. Citrus flavored spirits are preferred by more than 50% of consumers and citrus flavors are driving growth within the flavored vodka category. As a vodka brand that owns flavors, we knew citrus was a must for Cîroc.
What are the most exciting and challenging aspects of launching innovation?
Cîroc is an incredibly unique and dynamic brand. It is a brand raised by culture, music, and celebration. Everything about Cîroc goes against status quo and this drives all that we do from marketing planning to creative direction. Working on Cîroc really allows you to challenge conventions, disrupt categories and inspire consumers in different ways to other brands. Our innovations and LTOs always need to reflect this.
How does innovation have a personal impact as well as affect business performance?
Innovation in Cîroc does a lot to help us continue to drive cultural relevancy and reach a broader consumer demographic. They tend to have a halo impact on the rest of our core flavoured variants as well.
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