‘Make Work That Makes You Nervous’: Suntory's Regan Clarke on Creative Bravery

Regan Clarke always wanted to be a marketer. Ever since she wrote her application for her MBA on Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ slogan 20 years ago, she has built a career around her natural curiosity of consumer behaviour. 

Now, as vice president of the American whiskeys portfolio at Suntory Drinks (including Jim Beam, Knob Creek, and Maker’s Mark) - Clarke still looks to Nike’s ongoing brand campaign as a measure of how motivational a brand marketing can be. 

“This is a brand that inspired and motivated me to be the best possible athlete - it’s such a powerful campaign,” she explains, describing it as both “personal” and “relevant”. And she still runs in her Nike Vomeros trainers, showing her long lasting loyalty. 

A spirited career

Clarke began her brand marketing career at Colgate, where she spent three-and-a-half years before moving into brand development with Victoria’s Secret and then her on/off career in alcohol marketing took off after a stint in consultancy, joining Pernod Ricard. Over a near 10-year period she would hold various marketing positions, ultimately rising to become VP of marketing leading the Absolut Vodka, Malibu Rum, and Smithworks American Vodka teams in the U.S. 

Following a year heading up marketing for third party auto marketplace CarGurus, Clarke returned to the world of spirits at Suntory Global Spirits (then Beam Suntory). 

“What drew me to them [CarGurus] was they were working in a really crowded category where everything was called the same prefix in that space. And I was like, ‘Oh, wow, it's all about cars. But how are you going to drive differentiation in that space?’ It's about emotionally connecting with the consumer. And so when you think about what unites all of those sectors [auto and alcohol] - it's how are you carving out and solving the consumer challenge as a brand and bridging the functional and the emotional to make that connection, to make your brand distinct and matter for consumers. So that applies whether I was in auto retail, ALC Bev or working on a wood floor cleaner, which was one of my first roles when I came out of my MBA - Murphy's oil soap,” she outlines. 

Cultivating consumer connections

After two decades, Clarke continues to be passionate about driving emotional connections with consumers and has found that across spirit brands she is able to convey the functional benefits to build emotional resonance. 

She knows that emotional advertising is far more effective in driving consumers to purchase and remembers growing up in New York where all her family homes - grandparents and parents - included a wet bar within them as they hosted and entertained at home. 

“When you think about the ALC Bev space, we are bringing together a lifestyle and people over a shared experience. And there's something extraordinarily powerful in what connections you build and the bond you build over a shared experience, over a drink,” Clarke believes. And she is motivated personally by that belief, keeping her working within the industry. It also makes her slightly more popular during the holidays, she jokes. 

Her current role as VP of American whiskey portfolio US brands means she takes responsibility for differentiating the role each of the various whiskeys within the portfolio can play for different occasions. Jim Beam is framed as an approachable entry point to whiskey, while Maker’s Mark is a premium step up, Basil Hayden is a “surprising” option, and Knob Creek is the “bold, authentic choice” for bourbon lovers. Together, they complement one another and reflect how consumers engage with the category.

This view was reflected in the Jim Beam campaign ‘Best Enjoyed Together’ released in Spring 2025.

Clarke explains the marketing structure, revealing that the biggest selling brands, Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark operates within a ‘global brand‑house’ model that sets the vision, identity and tone for how each brand appears worldwide, driving consistency across international markets. The US team works closely with these global brand houses, while local market teams feed into them. For the smaller brands such as Knob Creek and Basil Hayden or the heritage brands, the US team operate as the global brand house, acting as the centre of excellence and managing the brands end‑to‑end because of their strong US focus.

For the very competitive UK market, the American association comes with a cache for the brands, which have their own distinct taste profiles through Suntory’s distillation methods. This offers an alternative experience for drinkers, allowing the marketing team to tap the curiosity and discovery factors. 

“That is a common thread across consumers in the category, whether they're in the UK or they're in the US,” she reveals. 

The ‘Just Do It’ Factor

Drawing back to her initial sporting inspiration, Clarke has led the whiskey brands to tap the growing sports sponsorship opportunities. For the 2025 Super Bowl, Jim Beam activated around the big game with ‘The Seven Stages of Defeat’ which saw it comedically reference the seven-year aging process of Jim Beam Black, through a care package to help football fans deal with disappointment. 

“Football season is about bringing people together even when your team doesn’t come out on top. With a little bourbon, some good laughs, and great company, even the toughest losses become easier to handle. At Jim Beam, we believe people are good for you - no matter the score,” says Clarke, recognising the power of live sport to bring audiences together as attention becomes harder to grab across a highly fragmented media landscape.

In December, Maker’s Mark was named as the first official spirits partner with women’s basketball league Unrivaled, allowing ticketholders access to brand experiences within hospitality spaces and fan areas. TV ads for Maker’s Mark will also run through media partnerships during coverage of the league, promoting the global ‘Perfectly Unreasonable’ campaign. 

Elsewhere, Jim Beam has three sports sponsorships in place; the U.S. Soccer Federation as the exclusive spirit sponsor, a longstanding affiliation with six Australian Football League and National Rugby League clubs, and most recently, ahead of the 2026 F1 season, with the new Cadillac entry that will see branding, both on and off the car. 

In recognition of the power of sport and tying it to her lifelong views on alcohol during social occasions, Clarke is steering a modern strategy to build awareness and trial of Suntory Global Spirit’s whiskey portfolio with another of America’s most passionate past times - supporting their teams through the good and the bad times. As a marketer, she is the living embodiment of ‘Just Do It’. 

The world of marketing according to Regan Clarke

What makes a good agency partner? 

Communication is number one. Two - depending on what type of agency is - there's always, different parts of how you can think about this, but ultimately, work that is grounded in the consumer from an agency standpoint, grounded in the strategy, and then from an output standpoint, really. I always tell my team, ‘You want to see work that makes you a little nervous’. That really pushes the boundaries. That can come up in many different ways, but work that is designed and able to really raise the bar, and agencies who seek that and want to deliver that based on a strong insight - a strong strategy to get to that kind of work. 

And then ongoing communication. You have got to be able to communicate, because you have to be on the same page as the agency partner. And that also comes from the brand side. It's two-way street being a good brand partner and having a good agency relationship. It's on both of us to basically come to the table and have the right expectations and the right discussions throughout the journey. 

What would you say has been your boldest creative play?

I think about Jim Beam and ‘The Seven Stages of Defeat’, I'll tell you why. I think it was one of the boldest, creative plays for Jim Beam. So - the big game, AKA the Super Bowl, is probably the most watched sporting event in the US. Last year, more than 191 million people watched it. It's a place where many brands show up. So our brief was; How do you show up in a disruptive way that will resonate and break through with consumers knowing that you're probably not going to be on air for a big game spot? Oftentimes brands run their commercial, they get in the roundup, and that’s a known. So the brief was; ‘Let's do it in a disruptive way’.

Coming on TV during the big game is actually not part of the repertoire. How do you show up and make Jim Beam relevant when you have when you're not an official partner of the league? And coming back with the idea of ‘Seven Stages of Defeat’, which is grounded in such a strong insight around loss, was actually a really big deal, and bold, if you think about what's going on during the football season. The fact that 95 per cent of football fans will experience the same thing, that one thing, which is a loss during the season, and then how do you take that loss, reframe it and bring people together to say, ‘Here's the next season’? And that feeling of essentially ‘family-found’ during moments that can be anxious or tough, etc - that was pretty bold. Most of the time, messages around that are much positive. And it was a positive message, but going in a different direction. But it was taking something that you could see as being potentially negative and actually turning into a positive. And that, when you think about the space and you think about consumers, was actually pretty bold for the occasion.

What is feeding your imagination lately? 

All the collaborations that are happening out in the wild, everywhere, brands that inspire me, that are in that space, and just because, when you think about what they're doing, they're finding new ways to show up and be relevant for consumers. 

So for me, I'm really inspired by how Crocs continues to show up with their different collaborations. Everything from where they started with [Justin] Bieber, all the way through to DC and Batman Crocs - they've done so many different things for a product that functionally is quite accessible and utilitarian. They're comfortable, and they started when people were on their feet all day. So that for me - I'm always looking at what is the latest collaboration that's unexpected, that are bringing people together in new and interesting and disruptive ways, because it goes back to consumers not having a lot of attention and having a lot of choice. 

What would be your advice when developing a strong creative brief? 

It goes back to the consumer insight. That is the most important thing. So to me, without a strong insight, backed by a strong strategy, without that, you will not get the best creative. When we do our creative briefs, and I work with the team on this, we sweat the insight, making sure it's sharp, it's tight and it's really, really precise. I gave you the example of the Jim Beam, Big Game work. The reason that work was so successful was because it was grounded in an extraordinarily strong insight around that occasion and around fans. Jim Beam was all about fandom and understanding fans within sports and what makes them tick and what drives them, and that spirit of contagious connection, we like to call it. And so that was the insight that made ‘The Seven Stages of Defeat’ as strong as it was from a creative standpoint. And so all of our creative briefs have to start with a strong insight and strategy around that. For our consumer, without that, your creative is not going to do the job you need it to do in a world where, when you think about media dollars, 50 per cent of effectiveness is driven by your creative.

What frustrates you most as a marketer? 

I'm kind of a glass half full person. Frustration is not a pain point for me. I think for me, it's trying to get it all done. That's what I'm always trying to balance. I'm someone who will be walking and I'm like, ‘Oh, we should go do this. It's a great idea. Think about this.’ I'm always ideating. It inspires me. I love to think in that way. So I don't get frustrated, I'll be honest, I kind of get, ‘I'm not gonna be able to do it all. So how do I ruthlessly prioritise?’ Yeah, that for me is a challenge I’m always working through and helping my team.