Having joined Lion in 1994, Craig Baldie has worked on every one of its brands and became managing director in February 2021. He is the YouTube NZ Marketing Awards Hall of Fame inductee for 2025. Here he chats with NZ Marketing.
Tell us a bit about your career
My career has been exclusively with Lion.
Lion is obsessed about people – they’re our greatest asset – so we focus on creating conditions where you truly can thrive. That’s allowed me to venture all around the business.
I started as a sales rep in Dunedin and while marketing was my passion, I felt that to be a great marketer it was important I understood sales. From there I moved into marketing as an assistant brand manager. I have worked on all of our brands – I just worked my way slowly through the business.
I’ve been with Lion for 31 years now. I consider myself extremely fortunate for the opportunities along the way.
What are you most proud of?
When I was younger, working on iconic brands – Steinlager, Speight’s – and being able to build on great work, filled me with pride.
But as I’ve moved more into general management, I realised that what fills my cup even more is continuing to build this incredible achievement-oriented culture.
A great culture gives you energy and lifts the business as a whole. A culture that’s running hot is a formidable competitive advantage, and during the past four years in this role, I’ve seen us hit our stride. It really is special and humbling.
Who won, who they were up against and what the judges had to say.
We bring you all the details for every category in the YouTube NZ Marketing Awards 2025.
Tell us about your work with the Graeme Dingle Foundation
At Lion, we believe intensely in the good the Graeme Dingle Foundation creates for New Zealand.
The foundation is all about building key life skills, resilience and self-belief in areas of society where there’s disadvantage, helping create the conditions so young people can thrive.
It fills us with joy as a company to play a role in this way.
What role do leaders play in brand building?
It’s one thing creating an environment where people feel energised, but you also need the technical capability to harness and shape that energy.
That’s why Lion has a way for brand building and we run a significant and structured capability programme. We know that if our marketers are schooled up on it and apply it, our brands will grow and we will be successful. We know when our brands are strong and our people and our culture are strong, the results will come. It’s inevitable.
Who’s doing great work right now?
Often great work doesn’t get to endure because some marketing person comes along and convinces everyone that a platform’s worn out. It kills me! I think you should treat advertising like a capital investment.
Think: how does this last for 10 years or more? I think of Pak’nSave’s Stickman and wonder how many times a new marketing person has been tempted to change it. And the resolve for the business to push back.
The evidence tells us more than ever: great advertising doesn’t wear out, it wears in.
Great advertising that endures is particularly impressive because it has to ward off all these people who want to change it. I’ve been guilty of that, but experienced marketers who have the scars are gold, because of their wisdom and patience to avoid these mistakes.
Advice for the next generation?
The best marketers spend time out of marketing. They are curious and always learning.
Go into other departments and get on projects that expose you to those areas. The more you understand all the other stakeholders, the better.
Brand building’s not just about ads. You need to understand all the levers you can pull to ensure the business is growing in a profitable and sustainable way.
That’s advice I give marketers when they come and have a chat. They want to go straight up. Instead, I say: “Treat your career like a jungle gym, not a ladder.”
This story comes from NZ Marketing magazine issue 84, Sept-Nov 2025. Why not subscribe? Get four issues a year for just $50 (including delivery) if you autorenew.
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