“I like to think about the CMO as actually the chief consumer officer. So I guess marketing people should always be the people with the best knowledge about consumers,” says Marcel Marcondes, U.S. CMO, Anheuser-Busch. “Marketing needs to deliver on creativity on advertising and everything. But if you really want to drive growth, we must lead the conversation on innovation as well. Because this is how we fulfill their needs through our products.”
In this interview with Beet.TV at the recent Masters of Marketing conference, Marcondes explains A-B’s quest for agility and why it’s no longer enough to simply steal market share from competitors.
“First and foremost, we’re radically changing the way we do innovation. We’re reducing lead times by half so we can really bring great beers and great products to life in a much faster way,” says Marcondes. “We’re really trying to bring more people to the category” in order to expand the category, he adds, citing health and wellness beverages. “And we’re developing new kinds of beers that can really address that in a very effective way.”
Whereas beer brands are used to planning and delivering “whatever we want to do” to drive business, that strategy has gone flat, according to Marcondes. “Now it’s all about listening to consumers first. So it’s harder to plan. You must pay attention on a daily basis to what’s going on out there, what’s relevant in culture, what people are talking about. This is really time sensitive.”
Asked about A-B’s longtime use of brand-building television advertising, Marcondes says TV still occupies an important place in the company’s communications. “I still believe in TV to support innovation. It’s all about driving fast awareness. This is exactly what you need when you’re launching something new to the market.
“Nowadays, that’s the beginning of the conversation. We need to have TV and we need to go way beyond that because either we are part of the conversation or we’re irrelevant. I cannot allow this to happen to our brands or to our categories.”
This segment is from CMO Growth Council presented by the ANA and Cannes Lions. Beet.TV coverage is sponsored by the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. Please find more videos from the series here.
]]>“Talent is critical to the journey of transformation for marketing these days. As we all know, many of our organizations have been disrupted and are all undergoing transformation to drive growth,” Sison says in this interview with Beet.TV at the recent Masters of Marketing conference of the Association of National Advertisers.
“We talk about how we build brands in this new world, we talk about marketing technology, data and analytics. But we often forget about the importance of people and talent as a critical component to driving successful growth and change within the industry itself.”
Within J&J, the marketer has decided that “All of our marketers need to be better scientists,” along with better strategists to sort out data that can drive business success and better storytellers “to make sure that we’re able to tell a consistent brand story across screens.”
The final “s” is for socializers, “because we need to create that relationship that’s much more social with our consumers and our brands,” Sison says.
J&H’s engagement with its consumers reveals that they are expecting “a great deal of value exchanged with our brands these days in terms of not just the education but also a broader set of experiences.”
It goes beyond mere products to services powered by technology, for example apps or the Internet of things.
“We at J&J have begun to recognize this and are building new engagement touch points, if you will, with our consumers to make sure that our brands are relevant in that exchange of value.”
This segment is from CMO Growth Council presented by the ANA and Cannes Lions. Beet.TV coverage is sponsored by the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. Please find more videos from the series here.
]]>“We put a lot of effort on remodeling restaurants and making sure that the restaurants have the latest design. We always study the type of guests who come to our restaurants and we try to offer a layout to accommodate them,” Machado adds.
In this interview with Beet.TV at the recent Association of National Advertisers Masters of Marketing conference, Machado talks about a company culture focused on design, good service and modern technology.
The “design bucket” includes being able to accommodate, say, families who need four seats or people who need a power outlet and WiFi to get some work done at a Burger King location. “Try to understand who is the guest of that particular location or the country so that we make sure we offer that experience,” Machado says.
Bucket #2, “guest friendliness,” covers seemingly simple concepts like getting someone’s order right and serving food while it’s still hot. “It’s basic stuff, but if you don’t get that right, the experience will not be great. It’s one of the biggest challenges we have to make sure that our culture permeates to the restaurant.”
Rounding out Burger King’s trio of priorities is using technology to change the way that people interact with the brand. “I’m not even talking about advertising or social media, I’m talking about at the restaurant,” Machado says, citing amenities like self-ordering kiosks, mobile ordering/payment systems and CRM. “The basic things that we have to do at the restaurant because today technology is empowering us to do that.”
Asked about his participation with the ANA’s CMO Council in conjunction with the Cannes Lions, Machado calls it a “huge opportunity and responsibility. I want to learn and I also want to contribute.”
Noting that things are “just getting started” with the CMO Council as people continue to get to know each other and decide what to pursue, he shares his hopes for the next gathering in June of 2019 at Cannes. “My expectation for Cannes would be to have even more clarity in each of the work streams, in each of the pillars that we have as part of this initiative” along with having better connections with Council members “because I think that’s also part of the benefit of having a council is the networking.”
This segment is from CMO Growth Council presented by the ANA and Cannes Lions. Beet.TV coverage is sponsored by the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. Please find more videos from the series here.
]]>Whereas shoppers’ in-store experiences might once have involved interacting with a cashier or other employee, now they’re researching and buying products online, engaging in customer service follow-up and making a lot more returns, Rogers explains in this interview with Beet.TV at the recent Association of National Advertisers Masters of Marketing conference.
“All of that has really changed the nature of the relationship with the customer and now what we have historically defined as marketing or the communication piece is really a small piece of the overall pie now,” says Rogers, who had been Chief Marketing Officer at Walmart. “Structurally, what we’ve done is we’ve made the job of the chief marketer bigger. And so now it’s chief member officer instead of chief marketing officer. Every customer touchpoint digitally and physically along the way now resides within the marketing team, and that’s a big change.”
Rogers is one of many marketers who are involved with the ANA’s CMO Council along with the Cannes advertising festival. He likes the opportunities to brainstorm, think and ideate with other marketers who are experiencing similar challenges.
“The challenge is when you’re in your own organization, everybody kind of already expects you to know all this stuff. So it’s cool to have a safe place where you can go and network and think and be around a bunch of smart people to cultivate ideas that you can then bring back to your company. This group has a high ROI in terms of the things that I’m able to take from it and bring back to my company.” Rogers adds.
When the CMO Council convenes again at Cannes in June of 2019, Rogers hopes to see guidelines or recommendations “about what companies can do in terms of their org structure, to position themselves to really go and address customer experience broadly.” He thinks it’s a “good idea for this group to provide guidance to corporate America on how to do that.”
This segment is from CMO Growth Council presented by the ANA and Cannes Lions. Beet.TV coverage is sponsored by the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. Please find more videos from the series here.
]]>“You need to nurture it and you need to sort of grow and develop that talent. I’m a firm believer of great marketing talent is going to lead to great and big growth for our companies,” Rutledge adds in this interview with Beet.TV at the recent Association of National Advertisers Masters of Marketing conference.
Rutledge had a key role in two sessions at the conference: Leading Disruption To Drive Growth, wherein she shared the stage with executives from Procter & Gamble, Deloitte and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, and Leveraging An Iconic Brand To Fuel Business Globally.
“American Express does a lot to nurture its talent,” Rutledge explains. “We have great learning programs that help our marketers understand and grow as well as we’re really caring so much about leadership and personal leadership and are really caring about their career development and how we can be there for them and have their back every step of the way of their career.”
Reflecting on one “fabulous” conference session, she cites examples of action items that can be taken both as individuals and as a group in terms of furthering the marketing industry, from partnering with universities together, from clearly defining and expanding the definition of marketing.
Also a firm believer in the need to “market the marketing,” Rutledge says “that’s what I think we need to do.”
This segment is from CMO Growth Council presented by the ANA and Cannes Lions. Beet.TV coverage is sponsored by the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. Please find more videos from the series here.
]]>It’s a situation that many retailers would love to find themselves in, Gomez explains in this interview with Beet.TV at the recent Association of National Advertisers Masters of Marketing conference.
“The retail industry is going through a massive transformation,” Gomez says. “If you read the headlines, what you’re reading about is there are so many retailers that are on the verge of bankruptcy or actually going bankrupt. They’re closing stores.
“Those retailers that are going to survive are going to be the ones that can invest to create a differentiated, compelling guest experience.”
For Target, whose brick-and-mortar locations and online presence Gomez says are frequented by 80% of Americans, investments are made with an eye toward creation a shopper experience that can’t be found elsewhere. “We’re remodeling our stores, we’re opening new stores in urban locations, on college campuses, we’re investing in supply chain so we can get product to you faster than anybody else and we’re launching a ton of new owned brands,” he says.
So the Target challenge is “how do we come across as small? How do we come across as local? How do we come across as your Target?”
While mass-targeted advertising across the country is a given, Target also invests in such a way that’s “very bespoke for that community.” Tactics can include charitable works and local events to “make sure that we’re showing up in a way that’s going to be relevant for that neighborhood.”
Asked about the work he does with the CMO Council partnership of the ANA and the Cannes advertising festival, whose representatives gathered in Orlando recently, Gomez points to common issues as a binding element.
“It doesn’t really matter what industry you’re in or how big your company is. We’re all dealing with the same challenges. And Cannes gives us a great forum to get together to talk about the solutions and that’s what I expect to happen in June.”
His hope for the agenda next June in Cannes is “that it becomes very clear, specific and tangible and that we have some early wins so it can build some momentum.”
This segment is from CMO Growth Council presented by the ANA and Cannes Lions. Beet.TV coverage is sponsored by the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. Please find more videos from the series here.
]]>At a gathering in Orlando, Cannes Lions and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) convened more than 200 chief marketing officers to inform how a new CMO Growth Council will debate key issues at next year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
The Growth Council was formed earlier this year, chaired by P&G’s chief brand officer Marc Pritchard, to share best practice. Now things are ramping up again.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Cannes Lions VP of creative excellence, Simon Cook explains how Orlando and the south of France are converging.
“The council was established in June this year, the very first time it took place,” he says. “And that was 25 global CMOs giving up their time to attend a meeting, a very important meeting in Cannes, where they would discuss the future growth of marketing.
“Through a shortlist of priorities, (they) picked five things that they’re going to focus on for the year that are really going to … drive growth in our industry.
“The next tent pole event was here at the ANA. And again, the 25 CMO’s have come together in partnership with Cannes Lions and the ANA, but this time drawing in a wider community of over 200 CMOs, to discuss and to debate, and to contribute their expertise to the cause.
“I think an amazing amount of progress has been achieved in just two days. And I think it’s very rare these people get to meet on a peer to peer basis to discuss some of their challenges, learn from each other, but ultimately come up with a set of actions which are going to push things forward.”
Outcomes will be discussed at next year’s Cannes Lions, which has also tabled another new strand called CLX, in partnership with MediaLink.
This segment is from CMO Growth Council presented by the ANA and Cannes Lions. Beet.TV coverage is sponsored by the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. Please find more videos from the series here.
]]>But is a passion for good things any more than a marketing stunt? To Brad Hiranaga, sustainability is anything but.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, the chief brand officer of breakfast cereal maker General Mills says aiming for “good” has multiple pay-offs.
“We have this motto that the ‘G’ is for ‘good’ and it’s kind of been built on that principle of doing good, not just good for sales but good for people, communities, the planet,” Hiranga says. “And so, that resonates really strongly with me because that is such a critical part of I think what consumers expect companies and brands to deliver.”
So far, so good. “Good for the planet” is a standard benefit of sustainability overall. But “good for sales”, and good for General Mills?
“That conversation (is) being really connected down into how we think about talent and organizations and culture within our companies,” Hiranga explains. “People want to come work for companies that believe in that and then not only believe in it but actually take action behind it.
“So I think that there’s a tremendous amount of getting better talent, a better kind of passion in people’s jobs when you’re trying to achieve a mission that’s about doing good.”
Sustainability was one of the key priorities discussed by CMOs of global brands convened in Orlando by CMO Growth Council, a group formed by Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Having heard the views of more than 200 chief marketers, the group will go on to digest those views in a discussion during the June 2019 Cannes Lions festival.
This segment is from CMO Growth Council presented by the ANA and Cannes Lions. Beet.TV coverage is sponsored by the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. Please find more videos from the series here.
]]>Like many marketers, Rahul Malhotra wishes there were one for brands.
He is the head of brand strategy and stewardship at Shell, one of the largest oil companies – in fact, one of the largest companies of any sort – in the world.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Malhotra says he is searching for ways to better connect with customers.
That is why he enjoyed the recent meeting of the CMO Growth Council, a group convened by Cannes Lions and the Association of National Advertisers.
“I would love a playbook,” Malhotra says. “I would love to have a set of core principals and best practices laid out among the 150 odd CMOs in the CMO Growth Council and say, ‘Here’s what works guys’.”
The Growth Council was formed earlier this year, chaired by P&G’s chief brand officer Marc Pritchard, to share best practice.
But, despite Malhotra’s search, he already has a good idea for what brands need to prioritize: customer–centricity.
“Customer-centricity at the core is about respect,” he says. “It’s about respecting the customer, treating them as human. I believe that has a few elements to it –
This segment is from CMO Growth Council presented by the ANA and Cannes Lions. Beet.TV coverage is sponsored by the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. Please find more videos from the series here.
]]>“I don’t think we should try to mimic business models that aren’t necessarily thriving,” Hammer adds in this interview with Beet.TV at the recent Association of National Advertisers Masters of Marketing conference.
“The media and publishing world themselves are trying to figure out how to evolve. I don’t think the right model is actually trying to be a publisher where KPI is quantity at scale and trying to be in everyone’s lives all the time.”
A better approach is to determine whether brand-generated content has a purpose, an audience need and desire plus brand purpose and an ability to help drive KPI’s, according to Hammer.
For IBM, it’s about “making less matter more, as people want to have fewer but higher quality impressions, engagements, experiences with brands.”
The company tries to figure out the right number of engagements, which could be between four and 10. “It might not be fifty, it might not be a daily publisher per se that maximizes our relationship with the audience, because we’re only creating stuff that matters to them.”
Hammer led one of the conference’s three kickoff sessions titled The End Of Advertising As We Know It: Now What? One of the session’s talking points was “The key is to stop selling and do a better job of connecting.”
Asked about his work with the ANA’s CMO Growth Council and its client-centricity vertical, he says that driving the most effective ways of engaging with consumers needs support at the C-suite and board levels “to really drive the change. But then it’s mostly a people and change-management exercise than a technology based thing that needs to happen.”
Hammer doesn’t doubt the power of television as it continues to evolve and shift. “If it wasn’t powerful, you wouldn’t see digitally first companies actually going into TV. It just is a medium that needs to be explored the right way. Just like any medium.
“If we just focus on making great stuff, the channel, no matter what channel it is, will continue to perform. If we focus on just making a bunch of stuff and lower budgets, then we’ll ruin the experience and every channel will continue to erode.”
This segment is from CMO Growth Council presented by the ANA and Cannes Lions. Beet.TV coverage is sponsored by the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. Please find more videos from the series here.
]]>But, in this video interview with Beet.TV, Deloitte Digital’s chief marketing officer Alicia Hatch says marketers are suffering at the hands of technology, and need to reboot their perception.
“Marketing was this force, for decades, as a shaper of culture and an arbiter and purveyor of meaning in so many ways,” she says. “And it’s lost some of that glamour, some of that power. Technology’s emerged to be the new sexy for talent, so we’re losing some of our best minds and some of our best talent.
“We really have to remarket marketing. We, ironically, have a marketing problem with marketing.”
Over the last couple of years:
Each of these issues is undergoing various states of repair. But Deloitte’s Hatch says the time is now to, well… “remarket marketing”.
That starts with ensuring marketing is technology-led and “a hotbed of innovation”, Hatch says.
Another industry trend? For for the last year, consulting firms like Hatch’s Deloitte have been coming to the advertising and marketing party, offering advice and even technology to help the transformation.
She says the industry can do that by hiring people who aren’t necessarily marketing specialists but who bring a diverse range of skills.
The interview was conducted at the annual ANA Masters of Marketing conference in Orlando earlier this week.
This segment is from CMO Growth Council presented by the ANA and Cannes Lions. Beet.TV coverage is sponsored by the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. Please find more videos from the series here.
]]>But those qualities are not just nice-to-haves or boxes to tick – they also lead to natural uplift in business effectiveness.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Mastercard chief marketing and communications officer Raja Rajamannar shows how adequately balancing the gender of his team produces positive results.
“Seventy-five to 85% of all purchase decisions in the world are made by women – how strange would it be to not focus on them as the primary target audience?,” Rajamannar asks. “Who can sell things better and communicate things better to a woman than another woman?”
The trouble is, women are not necessarily as equally well represented at the levers of marketing power as they are in the general buying population, Rajamannar says.
So, five years ago, MasterCard began a program to more adequately represent females in senior echelons of Rajamannar’s marketing and communication team. Now more than 70% of that team is female, including at senior level, he says.
But diversity goes beyond gender.
“You need a diversity of thinking,” Rajamannar adds. “That comes from people with different cultural backgrounds, different mindsets and that’s what you have to bring to that if you have to be successful.”
Similarly, the very role of the marketer itself is becoming diverse.
“Marketers are no longer specialists,” Rajamannar says. “They have to be general mangers. They need to understand PR. They need to understand technology. They need to understand numbers. You have to be a consumer advocate.”
The interview was conducted at the annual ANA Masters of Marketing conference in Orlando earlier this week.
This segment is from CMO Growth Council presented by the ANA and Cannes Lions. Beet.TV coverage is sponsored by the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. Please find more videos from the series here.
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