Exit interview: Coca-Cola's regional director of marketing, emerging brands bids farewell

After more than eight years with The Coca-Cola Company, Evgenia Papageorgiou is stepping down as the regional director of marketing, emerging brands.

In her role, Papageorgiou lead brand growth and innovation across Southeast Asia and South Pacific, with a focus on transforming strategic insights into commercial success while building brands that resonate both locally and regionally. 

Papageorgiou leaves the beverage company with a track record of pushing innovation across categories and markets. Her achievements include launching the world's first Coca-Cola Plus Coffee in Australia that saw penetration lift by 3.1% in three months and reviving Schweppes in Southeast Asia, driving 46.5% transaction growth in 2022 and 13% volume growth in 2023. She was also key in steering the brand into alcohol in 2024 to further premiumise its portfolio.

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In conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Papageorgiou said that her departure comes as she seeks for a new chapter in her career. “You know that moment when your favourite song starts to feel like elevator music? After eleven years crossing APAC time zones, I felt that subtle shift,” she said.

“The fizz was still there, but gentler. I've had my heart properly broken by failed campaigns and properly mended by the wins. Now it's time to pack up the learnings and point myself toward the Gulf. It's not about running from something; it's about running toward that terror of starting over, closer to my Mediterranean soul," she added. 

Papageorgiou singles out a few moments that still give her goosebumps such as the Schweppes resurrection, the success of Authentic Tea House in Singapore, an operationally sustainable five-year plastic waste plan for Indonesia, and a 2018 Christmas campaign in the South Pacific that proved nostalgia – properly remixed – beats novelty every time.

Balancing Coca-Cola’s legacy with fresh ideas, she likened the job to “renovating a heritage building – you keep the bones but update the wiring.” From AR surprises in Christmas truck tours to sneaking espresso into Coke and “infiltrating the coffee snob sanctuaries,” her approach was to create experiences people could touch, not just scroll past.

Looking back at her time at Coca-Cola, Papageorgiou said her biggest lesson was:

Brands aren’t dictatorships, they’re dinner parties. People buy feelings, not features. And the best ideas sound mad at 2am.

As she leaves, she’s drawn to new playgrounds: local FMCG heroes who want to punch above their weight; F&B hospitality where “every meal is theatre”; and luxury hospitality that understands indulgence is “that perfect moment when place, taste, and story collide.”

She also dreams of partnering with maverick chefs or visionary hoteliers to build boutique spaces that blur the line between accommodation and art installation, a refreshing change from her career thus far.

Prior to joining Coca-Cola, Papageorgiou was the Australia and New Zealand brand manager at Wrigley and the Western Europe communications manager at Mondelēz Europe. She started her career at Cadbury in Greece, taking on brand and commercial management roles in its confectionary categories. 

When asked what advice she would give to marketers, Papageorgiou said: “Stop trying to be clever and start trying to be useful. Fall in love with the problem, not your solution. And remember, behind every data point is a human being who’s probably just trying to get through Monday.”

As for what success looks like now, she said "it’s waking up in a new city, strong Arabic coffee in hand, with that same terrifying excitement I had at 25. New geography, new challenges, same refusal to let life go flat.”

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