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What has your Diageo career journey been like?
I’ve worked at Diageo for 7.5 years now and from the very first day, I felt proud of what we do. We work with the best brands in the world, and it feels fantastic to say that it is us standing behind these global giants.
I started my career at Diageo as an Executive Assistant, and after I had the opportunity to lead event management for Diageo Budapest. After a short period, I took on new challenges and led our internal communications and employee engagement agenda for an organisation of 1400 people. Currently, I continue to manage all of these, plus the local external communications, and the CSR strategy for Diageo Budapest.
Tell us more about your current role at Diageo? What’s the most exciting thing about it?
At Diageo Budapest, we employ 1400 talented and passionate people. My role is to deliver excellent communication and engagement activities internally and externally for our employees and our stakeholders. My work helps Diageo Budapest become the best employer in Hungary, from an internal and external perspective as well.
Since we launched Diageo’s Spirit of Progress agenda, I’ve invested significant efforts in delivering the Corporate Social Responsibility strategy for Hungary through exciting projects that promote responsible drinking. These included the Smashed project, which is developed by Collingwood Learning and proudly sponsored by Diageo; the DRINKiQ project - helping people combat myths about alcohol consumption; and the Wrong Side of the Road drink-driving online campaign. With these fantastic initiatives, I was able to work on bringing our messages to thousands of people within the country by creating several online and offline campaigns and promoting the importance of knowing when to stop and responsible drinking at events such as the most famous music festivals within the country.
Tell us more about Diageo’s Smashed initiative.
Smashed is a multi-award-winning alcohol education programme for young people developed by Collingwood Learning and proudly sponsored by Diageo. It was developed to meet the global need for effective alcohol education in schools. Smashed uses powerful and immersive storytelling to explore the dangers of underage drinking and empowers young people to make safer and more responsible choices regarding alcohol.
Smashed Live combines a powerful live theatre performance in schools with follow-up interactive workshops, delivered by professional actors. This is backed up by teaching resources for the school and an online guide for parents.
Smashed Online is a highly visual and engaging e-learning experience, re-telling the Smashed story through highly dramatized film clips with points of interactive learning, student assessment, and teacher guides.
What has been your involvement in Smashed?
In 2019, I initiated the project and launched Smashed Live in Hungary by targeting 3000 students as a pilot project. Before that, my role was mainly focused on internal projects, and I felt that with Smashed I’d be able to excel and develop myself in different areas within communications and CSR that have always been an aspiration.
I led the selection of the most suitable vendors who could help us to deliver this fantastic programme, worked on local translations and script adaptations, and created internal and external communications plans. I was then responsible for the engagement of our 1400 employees to promote the programme among their networks, schools that they once attended, or their children do today.
The online project has launched in Hungary in November 2021 mainly as a response to the pandemic. I have had the pleasure of continuing my work on the project with my colleague Gergely Abraham, Head of CR for Europe’s Partner Markets, and together we continue bringing Smashed to as many young people as possible in Hungary.
Why is the ‘Smashed’ initiative important to you?
The Smashed Project is very close to my heart. This was the first CSR project led by myself, and I am very proud to see how its reputation and awareness are growing day by day in Hungary. Giving something back to the world has always been important to me, and I believe nowadays more than ever, it is critical to make sure children are aware of the consequences of underage drinking, and know where to look for help. I truly believe that with Smashed we are making a positive impact within society, addressing the young generation on the language they use and can best relate to.
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