As CMO of Suntory Beverage & Food Europe (SBFE), François Bazini shaped some of the region’s biggest beverage brands, from Schweppes to Ribena.
Now, after 11 years working in various roles across seven countries for the business, he’s leaving to write, teach, and support startups.
Bazini joined sister business Beam Suntory in 2014 as vp of marketing for the company’s global spirits division, overseeing brands such as Jim Beam before rising to international CMO and then global managing director of Scotch, gin, and Irish whiskey. He took on his most recent role in 2022, helping revive sales of legacy brands, and developing a framework for marketing excellence across the business.
As he looks to the next chapter, ADWEEK reflects on some of Bazini’s most recent game-changing campaigns, rooted in nostalgia and honest customer insights.
2024: La Casera | ‘Si No Hay La Casera, Nos Vamos’
When one of Spain’s most iconic sodas, La Casera, faded from the cultural spotlight, Bazini and his team decided to revive the brand’s classic 1980s tagline, “Si No Hay La Casera, Nos Vamos,” which literally translates to: “If There’s No La Casera, We’re Leaving.”
The result was a funny 40-second cinematic ad produced by Little Spain that felt straight out of a Pedro Almodóvar film. It shows a family dining in a traditional Spanish restaurant and suddenly revolting when the signature drink is revealed to be unavailable.
Bazini’s insight was simple: the brand’s legacy and emotional connection to Spanish culture were its strongest assets.
“We gave the brand confidence again,” he told ADWEEK. “Suddenly it wasn’t apologising for being there – it had a point of view on Spanish culture and on what quality means.”
He said System1 testing placed it in the top 1% of ads tested in Spain, and the commercial drove the first growth in share and penetration in over a decade.
2025: Ribena | ‘No Taste Like Home’
A staple of British childhood since 1938, by 2022, purple-hued juice Ribena had slipped out of the top 20 U.K. supermarket soft drink brands following years of inconsistent targeting, flavored water experiments, and rainbow rebrands.
