The System New Business Pitch · Generated 11 Apr 2026
01 / 06 · The Brief

AI Marketing Transformation · $3M · 24 months

Diageo wants to build AI capability into the global marketing function — not as a tool layer, but as an operating model. 200+ brands. 180+ markets. The brief is: how do we maintain premium brand governance while using AI to make content production, localisation, and personalisation scalable? They want a partner who understands what premium brand governance actually means when AI is in the production loop.

87% Match
02 / 06 · Point of View

The hardest thing about AI in premium marketing isn't the technology. It's knowing what not to automate.

The Diageo brief is fundamentally a brand governance question. Johnnie Walker and Gordon's are the same company. They should never feel like the same creative process. AI in a multi-brand premium marketing function isn't about efficiency — it's about knowing which parts of the creative process can be accelerated without changing the outcome, and which parts define the brand.

The answer is different for every brand in the Diageo portfolio. That's the expertise this brief needs.

we know where the line is. we've built 20 products that prove it.
03 / 06 · Proof

AI at scale, with brand discipline.

01
The System

Brief-in, four outputs out, 90 seconds. Brand-matched per brief — the Mastercard output looks nothing like the Granola output. Demonstrates AI production with brand-specific governance built in. The Diageo challenge at a smaller scale: one pipeline, many brand identities, no loss of fidelity.

02
EVERYWEAR

55 editorial feeds, automated curation, consistent brand voice across all outputs. Demonstrates AI content at scale with a single editorial standard enforced throughout — the governance model Diageo needs replicated across a portfolio of 200+ distinct brand voices.

03
Surreal GTM Pack

A full go-to-market pack (strategy, press, brief, competitive map) for a premium challenger brand entering a new market. Brand voice maintained across four output types simultaneously. Demonstrates the multi-format localisation challenge Diageo faces, at a smaller scale.

04 / 06 · The Approach

Start with the brand that's hardest. Everything else is easier after that.

01
Brand Audit
Months 1–3

Select the two Diageo brands at opposite ends of the AI-readiness spectrum — one premium with complex brand governance, one volume brand with high content output. Map the creative production workflow. Identify where AI can accelerate without risk, and where it can't. Define the governance framework that protects the premium brand while enabling the volume brand to move faster.

02
Workflow Redesign
Months 4–12

Redesign the content production workflow for both pilot brands. Human creative directors govern the brief and the final output. AI handles exploration, adaptation, and localisation. Measure: content production time, cost, and quality assessed by creative directors and market teams. Six markets, live pilots, real briefs.

03
Framework & Rollout
Months 13–24

Build the Diageo AI Marketing Framework — the toolkit, governance model, quality bar, and training programme that scales across the portfolio. Rollout to 10 additional brands. Year-two recommendation built on pilot evidence, not assumptions.

05 / 06 · The Team

Senior. Practitioner. Done the work.

Mike Litman
Brand Strategy · AI Systems · Emerging Technology

15+ years at the intersection of brand strategy and emerging technology. P&G, Unilever, Gucci on the client list. Built 20+ AI-native products. Understands premium brand governance from agency experience — R/GA, MediaMonks — and from building AI systems that enforce brand standards in production. The person who can sit with a Johnnie Walker brand director and explain where AI helps without compromising the brand, and where it doesn't.

For a 24-month engagement at $3M, we'd bring in a production design partner for the execution layer and a market lead for each pilot region. Strategy and AI system design stays with us.

06 / 06 · Next Step

Give us one Diageo brief. We'll show you two versions.

Give us one active brief for any Diageo brand — global or market-level. We'll return two versions of the content workflow: the current process mapped, and the AI-assisted version with governance checkpoints marked. It takes us one week. It costs nothing. If the AI-assisted version doesn't protect the brand standard you'd approve it to, we haven't earned the engagement.