What George Best taught Nestlé Purina about marketing effectiveness

Brian Carruthers

Nestlé Purina has embarked on building a marketing effectiveness program across its EMENA division.

What does George Best have to do with marketing effectiveness? Well, back in the 1960s, when the footballing genius was in his prime, he had a gig advertising sausages for a local Northern Irish manufacturer, but that’s not it.

Years later, after he’d wound down his career and became a regular on chat shows, he explained that he’d “spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars – the rest I just squandered”. And that’s where the answer lies. “He knew where his money was going and what gave him value,” explained Ricardo Prieto-Ortiz, marketing director...

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