We’ve launched Distilled 2025 - our annual Consumer Trends Report.
This year, Shanghai hosted the World Class Final, a week-long extravaganza featuring the world's most talented industry professionals. In this interview, Kevin Delaney and Andy An share insights on how a truly international team effort made the 2024 World Class Final unforgettable.
Q: Tell us about your current role at Diageo and your involvement in World Class 2024.
Kevin: As Global Senior Brand Manager for World Class, I oversee two main areas. First, I support our 55+ participating markets, helping them execute the competition locally, from strategic planning to providing the right tools. My other responsibility is leading the planning and execution of the World Class Global Final. This event brings together the top bartenders from each country for a week-long competition to crown the World Class Global Bartender of the Year. It’s a massive event involving a cocktail festival, workshops, and thought leadership forums that take over the host city.
Andy: As the Assistant Customer Marketing Manager in Shanghai, I focus on enhancing our bar business through national activations, including World Class. My role in the World Class 2024 Global Final was to support Kevin’s global team in delivering a memorable event in China while maximizing local activations. This included brand promotions and the World Class Cocktail Festival to connect with consumers and elevate the local bar scene.
Q: Tell us more about the World Class Global Final in Shanghai. How did you collaborate effectively across teams and borders?
Kevin: Collaboration is an absolute must. Whether it is working closely with the team in our host country to connect with the best bartenders and venues for our programming or working with brand teams to create boundary-pushing activation spaces for our attendees, World Class simply can’t be planned in a silo. Close collaboration across the business helps us create the most impactful experiences for our attendees while pushing ourselves to think differently about how we can bring our brands to life in the on-trade for venues, bartenders, and consumers.
Andy: In Shanghai, our success stemmed from seamless collaboration. We coordinated with Kevin’s team to bring global talent into the World Class Cocktail Festival, introducing international trends and strengthening bartender advocacy. Our cross-functional efforts in China included brand experiences, partnerships with local influencers, and livestreaming to expand reach. This collaboration boosted both brand visibility and sales, showing the powerful impact of a unified team across markets.
Q: Kevin, what stood out for you this year?
This year was a major learning experience for me - it was my first time leading the Global Final and working directly with the Chinese market. China’s dynamic e-commerce and livestreaming scene presented unique opportunities, including our first-ever livestreamed Final where viewers could buy Diageo products instantly. Andy and the wider Diageo China team were incredible partners in educating me on the local landscape and collaborating to make the event as interesting and impactful as possible.
Getting to know our host market throughout the year and finding these unique opportunities is one of the most interesting parts of this job. Over the past few years, I've worked on this program in Australia, Brazil, and China - each year I take learnings from these regions forward and can see the benefit in the new iterations of the Global Final. Working on such a cross-functional project has strengthened my adaptability and expanded my network across the business.
Q: Andy, why has working at World Class been significant for your career growth?
Andy: Starting from a commercial management trainee in Diageo China to a cross-region project leader, this project has been transformative.
It taught me the value of a holistic, cross-functional approach. Working with marketing, e-commerce, and sales teams, I learned to maximize the campaign's local impact for consumers, customers, and our brands. This experience underscored the importance of flexibility and collaboration—skills I’ll carry forward in my career. I've gained a toolkit of skills in strategy, adaptability, and teamwork that will be invaluable in future projects and leadership roles.
The 2024 World Class Final was a testament to the power of global collaboration. With teamwork like Kevin and Andy’s, we’re able to create extraordinary experiences for our customers, consumers, employees, and communities.
