As a seasoned global marketing leader, Andrea Sengara is passionate about the opportunity to unleash the potential of brands and people – and is fortunate to be able to do that every day with the great people at Campari Group.
She joined Campari America in 2020 with more than two decades of experience within the beverage alcohol industry in senior leadership roles across Diageo, Combs Enterprises, and Most Hennessy LVMH.
She enjoys connecting her brands with culture in powerful new ways, pushing boundaries, uncovering and leveraging insights, and launching innovative strategies that ignite transformational growth.
Currently, she oversees all facets of marketing for Campari Group’s premium portfolio of 30+ brands in the US, such as Aperol®, Campari®, Espolòn Tequila®, Grand Marnier®, SKYY Vodka® and Wild Turkey® – from data & insights to experiences, communications, innovation & digital transformation.
Her recipe for success is simple: Build trust with colleagues & stakeholders, be curious about all parts of the business to build holistic management acumen, search out diverse perspectives to inform your decision-making, and actively pursue new ways to engage with consumers and customers to surprise and delight them.
She is a big believer in bringing diverse perspectives into industry leadership circles, putting inclusivity at the heart of all that she does. This is the cornerstone of how she approaches brand building to deliver transformational results in the marketplace.
In an interview with Insights Success, Andrea shares valuable facts highlighting her professional tenure and the journey so far in the modern business arena.
Below are the excerpts from the interview:
Tell us something more about Campari Group and its mission and vision; how does your company thrive towards enabling advancements in the dynamic business arena?
We are a humble and hungry organization filled with passionate brand builders who work hard to ensure our globally iconic brands are at the heart of consumer celebrations worldwide. We value creative thinking, open-mindedness, curiosity, and commitment, strong learning agendas and a test-and-learn environment.
We share knowledge and best practices across the organization, inspiring each other to challenge the status quo in pursuit of excellence, all with the spirit of collaboration.
Enlighten us on how you have been impacting the F&B sector through your expertise in the market.
Impact used to be about channel disruption, but now the focus is integrating organically into the stream of culture. In addition to Campari having two of the top 10 cocktails in the world (Negroni and Aperol Spritz), the Negroni Sbagliato was the top trending cocktail in Google searches in the U.S. last year, fuelled by the viral TikTok video featuring House of Dragons stars Emma D’Arcy and Oliva Cooke. If you’ve watched season two of HBO’s White Lotus, no doubt you noticed how frequently – yet naturally – Aperol Spritzes were integrated into the majority of episodes. Embedding our brands into the cultural zeitgeist in an authentic and relevant way is a big part of the work our Marketing team does – from partnerships with the Screen Actors Guild Awards with Campari, Coachella with Aperol, the Ocean Foundation with SKYY Vodka and NASCAR on Cabo Wabo Tequila to The Longbranch Ranch in Texas, we bring our brands to audiences in distinctive ways that add value to their experiences. I am also a big champion of digital acceleration and integration across our business – working across Sales, Trade Marketing and Brands to make it as easy as possible for consumers to discover, experience, enjoy and purchase us, both on and offline.
Describe in detail the values and the work culture that drives your organization.
We’ve always referred to ourselves as “the smallest big company in the spirits industry, building iconic brands and superior financial returns, together with inspired and passionate Camparistas.”
We bring that philosophy to all that we do as an organization. We value developing and rewarding employees that work with the utmost respect and transparency by ensuring that fairness, honesty, and consistency are guiding lights for our employees’ professional careers.
As a company, we’re passionate about our brands and go the extra mile to create a positive experience for our consumers, customers and partners every day. Lastly, we believe that pragmatism and working together to bring unique perspectives to every table (across departments, regions, and countries) allows us to avoid silos as we move together in the same direction to achieve our shared goals.
Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in almost every sector. How are you leveraging technological advancements to make your solutions resourceful?
Technology plays a significant role in the lives of our consumers, customers, and employees. In the B2B space, we work closely with our distributor partners in support of digital ordering solutions for retailers, providing operators with more flexibility.
Through multiple digital channels, we now have a better view of the industry landscape, more often enabling faster, more informed decision-making. In the B2C space, we are actively working with numerous tech partners who help us reach out to consumers more efficiently and effectively. Overall, the role of digital interactions, including social media, owned content and e-commerce, has exploded in the last few years – we are active across all these channels in an effort to seamlessly curate exceptional experiences for our consumers across all of our brands.
What, according to you, could be the next significant change in the global F&B sector? How is your company preparing to be a part of that change?
I see two primary things driving change in the global beverage alcohol industry: consumer preferences and technology. We anticipate consumer tastes will continue to drive more flavour innovation, everything from the growth of flavour-complex spirits like tequila, mezcal and premium whiskies to the introduction and growth of new formats and categories altogether.
Technology and an evolving media landscape will continue to push boundaries on how brands reach and engage with consumers. Digital marketplaces with more robust data
will unlock new connection points for our brands and help us reach more of our target audiences. Campari Group has several specialists across the globe, enabling our digital acceleration agenda to result in added growth opportunities for our brands.
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run, and what are your future goals for Campari Group?
My focus is continuing to build our brands in culture and creating meaningful, long-lasting connections with consumers. Campari Group has several globally iconic brands with Aperol®, Campari®, Grand Marnier®, Espolón® and Tequila to name a few; where we are just beginning to scratch the surface with fandom in the U.S.
What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the F&B sector?
Don’t be afraid to lead. It can be easier to follow someone else’s path of what appears to be right, but it can be more rewarding to blaze your own path forward.
