Mike Ginley

Co-Founder and Partner
Next Level Marketing

Mike Ginley is co-founder and partner of Next Level Marketing, an on-premise marketing and promotion agency dedicated to building premium brands. Next Level specializes in managing promotional teams that execute brand-building activities for client brands as well as providing a full array of consulting services, training, custom research and strategic insights.

Widely recognized as a passionate champion of the beverage industry, Mike has an extensive marketing background that includes brand management positions with Tetley Tea, Kraft General Foods and Campbell Soup Company. He joined the spirits industry in 1992 with Heublein (now Diageo), as marketing manager for Jose Cuervo Tequila. He successfully managed the introduction of Jose Cuervo Four Pack Margaritas which earned Mike the AMA’s 1992 Edison Award for best new product. Mike was promoted to category manager of Imported Spirits, where he managed three brands, including Finlandia Vodka. He reversed volume declines on Finlandia, helping to make Finlandia the World’s Fastest Growing Spirit for 1995. 

Mike joined Allied Domecq in 1996 as the international marketing director for Sauza Tequila. His efforts helped reverse a negative volume trend on Sauza, helping to make Sauza the World’s Fastest Growing Spirit for 1997. In 1998, Mike led the development of Sauza’s award-winning U.S. ad campaign which drove volume double digit volume growth and helped Sauza earn the Fastest Growing Spirit Brand in the U.S. award from Adam’s Media and the 1999 Hot Brand award from Impact.

Mike then led Allied Domecq’s highly acclaimed on-premise national accounts team and created the renowned, 50-person First Choice team to manage the top 5,000 independent on-premise accounts. Mike’s leadership helped his team to be recognized by Cheers as the industry’s Best On-premise Supplier an unprecedented three years in a row.

Among his many accolades, Mike was named one of the country’s most prominent marketers by Adweek and selected as one of the Best and Brightest in Marketing by Reveries Magazine in 2005. He has served on the Cheers Editorial Advisory Board and Nightclub & Bar Advisory Board.   He is a contributing writer for both Cheers, Nightclub & Bar and Drinks magazines, and is the publisher of the Beverage Authority training and education newsletter.

Mike earned his undergraduate degree in business administration and his MBA in marketing from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1985 and 1987, respectively