Name: Georgia Woodward
Age: 26
Job title: Senior brand manager – M&M’s
Company & location: Mars Wrigley, Slough
Education: English & Philosophy at University of Birmingham
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? When I was very young I wanted to be a dancer! But in my teenage years I was toying with a TV presenter, chef, lawyer and marketeer – a real mixture.
Why did you decide to go for a career in food & drink? I have always been really passionate about food. Eating, cooking, and trying new things is my biggest hobby!
Through school and university, I became really interested in branding and consumer behaviour, so I started to explore marketing as a career path. I secured work experience at a creative agency when I was 17, and then an internship at a digital marketing agency, and fell in love with marketing. So, after university, I started looking for marketing jobs in the food industry to bring these two things together.
“I really enjoyed working on our M&M’s Halloween creative campaign with Jedward”
Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): My role is so varied, but essentially I look after all things M&M’s within the business (apart from Easter and Christmas). This can look different every day, from customer meetings to talent management and copywriting, and I get to do it with lots of fantastic people to help bring our campaigns to life.
What does a typical day look like for you? The thing I love most about my job is how varied every day is! One day I might be managing logistics for a technical project or discussing how the industry is adapting to HFSS, and the next I might be at a shoot with talent! This year, I really enjoyed working on our M&M’s Halloween creative campaign, challenging pop twins Jedward to watch a spooky film inside Britain’s most haunted house!
Tell us how you went about applying for your job: I applied through the Mars graduate scheme; a brilliant programme that enables you to try three different roles over three years to gain breadth and experience across different functions. After my third year I knew I wanted to stay in marketing and secured my role as a senior brand manager working in the gum team, and then in January 2025 I moved to M&M’s.
What’s the best part about working for a food & drink company? Definitely the people and the brands. I am lucky that everyone I work with is genuinely lovely and passionate about what they do. And we get to work on delicious chocolate brands that bring joy to people’s lives every day!
And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? I think people might under-estimate how interesting, dynamic and fluid the market is. Consumer behaviour is always changing and this is what makes my job so interesting, you are constantly having to adapt and learn.
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What advice would you give to other young people looking to get into the food & drink industry? Apply and move around! I have gained so much from every role I’ve had, from category management to dairy buying and marketing. There are so many roles within this industry to suit everyone, so I would recommend just starting and then moving around. You never know what you might end up loving.
What’s your ultimate career dream? I’m very open-minded about how my career will develop, but I know that I’d love to be leading a team, working on incredible brands that people love, all while doing something really creative.
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