Bookmark Awards Marketer of the Year: Andrea Quaye

Publicis Groupe Africa is proud to celebrate the recognition of Andrea Quaye, who has been named Marketer of the Year at this year’s Bookmark Awards. The win recognises Andrea’s leadership and her contribution to advancing marketing excellence, innovation and industry growth across Africa.

Andrea has spent her career championing digital-first marketing, from Carling Black Label’s “Be the Coach” to more recent work including Heineken’s “Social Screens” and Savanna’s “Try January.” 

After serving as Global Vice President for the Coffee Category at Coca-Cola in Ireland, she returned home to join Heineken Beverages as CMO in late 2024, tasked with aligning the business post the Distell acquisition and driving digital transformation across the group’s marketing delivery. Her insistence that every plan pair creativity with a digital-first focus has given agency partners a clear mandate: digitally integrated, creatively effective work.

That approach shows up across the portfolio, from a data-reactive billboard mirroring Max Verstappen’s race-day speed at the Dakar rally, to a Returnable Star Bottle initiative using QR codes and WhatsApp to reward consumers, driving the return of more than four million bottles. It also underpins campaigns for Windhoek, Bernini, Amstel, J.C. Le Roux and Savanna, each built on digitally led ecosystems that turn ideas into participation at scale.

Koo Govender, CEO of Publicis Groupe Africa, credits Andrea’s partnership with agency LePub as a driving force behind this integrated work: ‘It’s her ability to drive a digital-first marketing approach with clarity and courage that aligns stakeholders and creates the conditions for brand and agency partners to deliver breakthrough, integrated work. Andrea raises the standard of how modern marketing should be done in South Africa.’

Luca Gallerelli, Group CEO of TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris, echoes the sentiment: ‘Andrea leads in a way that makes digital transformation practical and scalable. She is rigorous on strategy, but equally committed to the craft of digital ideas. That leadership elevates the client-agency relationship, accelerates the digital agenda and sets a benchmark for the wider industry.’

Her impact reaches beyond her own brands. Andrea has championed emerging talent through Heineken’s sponsorship of the Cannes Young Lions Digital category over the past two years and her team’s digital work helped Heineken Beverages secure a strong share of honours at the Loeries 2025, where she ranked as the festival’s second-best marketer in her first year in the role. Coenie Grebe, ECD at Brand Halo, points to Klipdrift’s “Legends” work as further proof of the digital-first thinking now spreading across the wider Heineken Beverages portfolio.

Andrea embodies a marketer who not only champions a digital mindset in her own role, but actively drives that ethos industry-wide and this recognition celebrates the impact she has delivered in a remarkably short space of time.