ACCOUNT SERVICE STAFF

JEFF GRINDROD
Jeff cut his teeth on the client side at P&G and Nestle, and moved to Heublein in 1992. Initially he was Director of Marketing and Sales in National Accounts working with all the spirit and wine brands, and subsequently moved over to the brand side to run Black Velvet and then Smirnoff. He started Nova Marketing when Diageo moved to Stamford, and built a client list that included marketing service support for Warsteiner, Allied Domecq, Caravelle Imports (Mouton Cadet) and Banfi. Jeff is a highly visible industry spokesperson, annually presenting the on-premise state of the industry report at the Cheers Conference, and is one of the founders of the U.S. Drinks Conference. Jeff manages BAT’s beer and spirits clients and also heads up the proprietary market research practice for brands including Applebee's, Brinker International and Darden Restaurants. Jeff is a West Point grad and served as a US Army officer in Germany.

 

STEVE RAYE
Steve started on the agency side of the business working on accounts including Subway and Heublein. He moved to the client side as Brand Manager at Heublein working on Smirnoff, and then moved to Palace Brands handling Finlandia. After stints at Carvel and General Cigar, Steve started S.P. Raye LLC with clients including McCormick Spices, German Agricultural Marketing Board, Twinings Tea and Drinks.com. Steve has spearheaded BAT’s leadership in Social Media Marketing developing innovative consumer engagement programs using tools such as Facebook, Twitter and Google, as well as ecommerce. Steve’s focus is on the agency’s wine and spirit brands. He is a graduate of Cornell University where he majored in Communication Arts.

You can see more from Steve and his point of view on the industry at BATblog.

 

MEG CASEY
Meg brings years of wine and spirits marketing expertise to work for BAT’s clients. At Heublein Meg gained experience in three disciplines through management positions in market research, brand management and promotions for brands including Inglenook, Lancer's, Black Velvet, TGI Friday's, Yukon Jack and Jose Cuervo Tequilas. Meg manages accounts directly and also functions as our market research guru. She has particular expertise in online research methodologies that allows us to deliver quantitative results in a fraction of the time compared to traditional tools. Meg grew up in upstate NY and graduated from Syracuse University.

 

LIZ BENYON
Liz came to BAT from Schieffelin & Somerset where she managing brands including Moet & Chandon, Ruffino, and Casa Lapostolle. She traces her roots back to Heublein as well working on Lancer’s, Torresella and Croft. An excellent writer, Liz authors many of the newsletters that BAT produces, handles trade PR and also manages client relations for our wine and spirit clients. Liz got her bachelor’s degree at Villanova and earned her MBA from UConn.

 

SAM HARRIGAN
Sam joined us from UConn in 2008 to work on our Social Media Marketing initiatives. She’s a recent grad of UConn and brings a boatload of new capabilities to our team. Sam has helped us pioneer a system to review and quantify the major influencers among the burgeoning list of blogs, social networks, and category-relevant websites. Sam’s in daily dialog with these folks and is developing both a presence and voice in the digital drinks world on behalf of our clients and is widely recognized among bloggers as one of the best in the business. But Sam’s not all talk, she’s about numbers too and has established some very simple, easy to understand systems to measure the results of everything she does online in Social Media Marketing.

Check out her blog at Drinks for the House.

ANTHONY KING
Anthony is the Marketing Coordinator responsible for Online Search Marketing (Google AdWords) Media Planning, Direct Marketing, and POS Procurement. He also has a great deal of sales experience having come to us from LensCrafters and subsequently earned his tech chops at Best Buy. He has shown a real flair and insight for ecommerce that has enabled us to dramatically increase direct-to-consumer sales on behalf of our clients.

 

CREATIVE SERVICE STAFF

ANDREW RYAN
Andrew is Creative Group Director at our partner agency HCA and brings a level of energy and style coupled with a unique sense of humor to the business creativity.