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WARC Talks: CMOs on 2024: Mondelez's Jon Halvorson on the future of CPG marketing
WARC Talks: CMOs on 2024: Mondelez's Jon Halvorson on the future of CPG marketing
In an exclusive podcast interview for WARC’s Marketer’s Toolkit, Mondelez’s Global Senior Vice-President for Consumer Experience and Digital Commerce, Jonathan Halvorson, spoke to WARC’s Anna Hamill about pricing strategies through inflation, the artificial intelligence revolution, and brand purpose in a polarized world.
- If brands want to ultimately win in the CPG environment, they need to be very closely following their pricing and hitting key price points as well as investing in revenue growth management or RGM.
- Brands looking to win market share need to look firstly at winning in the digital commerce space, which is constantly adapting, and marketers must adapt with it.
- Brands that don't have a plan to be building their upper funnel assets through Gen AI over the next 1-2 years are going to lose.
Listen to the episode in full here
Timestamps
01:51 – Jonathan’s role at Modelez.
02:27 – What’s driving Mondelez’s optimistic growth?
03:37 – How has inflation affected Mondelez brands?
09:58 – Branding building in digital commerce.
14:39 – Brand purpose at Mondelez
19:52 – Media and technology priorities for Mondelez.
22:54 – How is Mondelez using Gen AI?
30:07 – New skill sets that future marketers will need.
33:13 – Sustainability challenges facing Mondelez.
Further reading
Why Mondelez’s bullish growth is driven by the strength of its brands
Introducing The Marketer's Toolkit 2024
Introducing The Marketer's Toolkit 2024
The Marketer’s Toolkit 2024 has now landed: the thirteenth edition of the report dives deep on five emerging trends for the coming year using a new proprietary methodology alongside an extensive global survey – here’s what you need to know.
WARC members can read the full report right here.
If you’re not yet a member, you can find a sample of the report here.
Why the Toolkit matters
Based on a survey of 1,400+ marketers, in-depth interviews with CMOs, and WARC’s GEISTE methodology for trendspotting, the Toolkit provides strategic support for planning and decision-making to understand the challenges and opportunities for the year ahead.
Why it’s useful
Not just another forward-facing trend report, the Toolkit identifies five major trends for the year ahead, exploring the quantitative and qualitative data that WARC analysts used to establish these ideas.
We then put these in context by surfacing highly effective examples of a brand response to each trend, CMO viewpoints, and practical takeaways.
Five trends
- Unlocking the potential of Gen AI: Nearly three-quarters (70%) of marketers plan to unlock the potential of AI in their marketing.
- Preparing for the age of polarisation: 13% of marketers said the best strategy is to “drop all ‘purpose’ driven strategies and political positions”.
- Masculinity in crisis: Almost two out of three marketers (63%) agree that the way they communicate with young men needs to change.
- “Sportswashing” is a growing concern: 61% of marketers concur that it is “very important” for sports organisers and owners to avoid being politically divisive.
- Sustainability should be locally relevant: Nearly two-fifths (38%) of marketers are investing in local communities.
Taking on economic uncertainty
“Marketers globally continue to be concerned about the economic picture with 64% of survey respondents seeing it as the biggest factor in 2024 planning. But a majority (61%) of firms expect improved business performance next year, up 10% from last year,” explains Aditya Kishore, Insight Director, WARC, and principal author of the report.
You can read Aditya’s introductory essay to the Toolkit, Capturing growth in the YOLO economy, on WARC Opinion.
The evolution of marketing
The Marketer’s Toolkit 2024 is part of WARC Strategy’s The Evolution of Marketing program, offering a series of practical reports designed to help marketers address major industry shifts to drive marketing effectiveness in the coming year. Look out for a series of podcasts and a webinar on the Toolkit in the coming weeks.
Research shows how to win at the Super Bowl ad game
With a US audience of approximately 100 million, the Super Bowl can be a showcase for breakthrough creativity, but winning at the Big Game also means paying close attention to what has worked in the past – and four years’ worth of System1 research gives advertisers an idea of what success looks like.
Why past Super Bowl ads matter
From its expensive price tag – at $7 million for a 30-second ad – to the size, scope and game-day mindset of its audience, the Super Bowl is a unique yearly event and advertising moment. It requires advertisers to pay particularly...
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Young fanbases are shaping the luxury industry
The luxury industry is undergoing a youth-led surge driven by a seismic demographic shift, with those over 50 not just the ones with premium spending power, and it’s ushering in an era that caters to emerging fanbases.
Demographic changes in luxury
Millennials and Gen Z have rapidly assumed their rightful place as shapers of emerging luxury – so much so that, in 2022, they accounted for nearly all of luxury market growth. It’s a trend towards precocious premium spending that is only becoming more pronounced with time, according to a recent report by Bain & Company.
The rise of...
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CMO focus shifts from sustainability to AI
CMO focus shifts from sustainability to AI
Sustainability was a stated focus of marketers in 2023, but it is being pushed down the list of priorities for 2024 as CMOs turn their attention to implementing AI technology.
That’s according to the 2024 CMO Barometer from Germany’s Serviceplan Group, based on responses from 767 marketing decision-makers across 11 countries in Europe and the Middle East.
Key findings
When asked how important they think certain (prompted) marketing trends will be in the year ahead:
- 83% of CMOs identified AI, machine learning, and marketing automation as the biggest focus for 2024 (compared to 65% for 2023)
- 82% cited content creation
- 82% cited emotional branding
- 78% cited sustainability (compared to 85% for 2023, when it was the top priority).
Why marketing trends matters
CMOs face an increasingly complex marketing environment and are having to juggle multiple considerations. It will be important for them to not to lose sight of sustainability issues even as they grapple with the implications of AI.
Sourced from Serviceplan
WW isn't rebranding, says the CEO
WW isn't rebranding, says the CEO
WW, the wellness brand formerly known as Weight Watchers, has changed tack again, moving into the new area of prescription weight-loss drugs, but CEO Sima Sistani rejects the idea that it’s rebranding for the second time in five years.
“I think of it less as rebranding and more that we should be changing, we should be evolving,” she told CNN. “You can’t be around for 60 years and still be the same thing – our whole world has shifted.”
A reappraisal
- Back in 2018, there was a definite rebrand as the company shifted from a diet-based business to a wellness-focused one and changed its name.
- The current move seems similarly significant, not least since it comes with an apology for past mistakes: “contributing to the shame” that some members would have felt if they followed a WW program but found it didn't work for them.
- “For many who are living with obesity, it’s a chronic condition, and therefore it is not a choice,” said Sistani. “We got it wrong: in the past, we’ve been treating these medications like it’s a vanity, and it’s not – it’s lifesaving.”
Why WW?
- While weight-loss drugs can be obtained from a doctor, patients won’t get the sort of package that WW will be offering.
- “Many doctors don’t have training in nutrition, obesity care management, and nor do they have the support system to basically help throughout the journey,” said Sistani.
Sourced from CNN
[Image: WW International]
H&M explores the ‘avatar economy’
Fashion brand H&M is seeking to connect with the next generation of consumers and stay ahead of the competition as the web starts to evolve from a flat to an immersive architecture.
Why digital innovation matters
New tech is arriving faster than ever and placing increased demands on marketers. While it might feel impossible to address all options out there, those brands that can embrace new technologies and test them early are far better placed for success when mass adoption comes.
Takeaways
- Younger consumers are likely to shape the sort of interactions that brands develop in Web3; gaming platforms like...
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Netflix gets serious about gaming with Grand Theft Auto
Netflix gets serious about gaming with Grand Theft Auto
Netflix will bring one of the biggest gaming franchises to its subscribers in the form of three hugely popular Grand Theft Auto titles for mobile, a move indicating that the streaming giant is applying a similar theory of growth-driving IP as in its TV content.
Why gaming matters
Netflix has been testing the water in gaming since 2021 and has just shy of 250m subscribers. The conversion of even a fraction of these to its gaming services would make it one of the world’s largest players outside of the console realm. Whether or not Netflix shows people ads, the cultural sway of gaming is colossal and the opportunities to engage are both broader and deeper than putting ads around content.
What’s really interesting about this move is that its typical gaming output has typically centred on its own IP while the strength of its content library is deeply dependent on licensed content.
By licensing one of gaming’s biggest and most narratively rich franchises, Netflix is expanding its theory of content to new and important markets.
What’s going on
According to a press release from the company, “Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition is coming to Netflix on December 14 for Netflix members on the App Store, Google Play, and in the Netflix mobile app.” As yet, games are only available to full subscribers rather than ad-supported users.
- This includes GTAs III, Vice City, and San Andreas, and will be available to Netflix members “without any ads, in-app purchases, or extra fees”.
- So Netflix isn’t going to carry the most up-to-date version of the game, but it will bring its subscribers access to three cult gaming hits of the 2000s.
- But with anticipation building toward the release of GTA 6, and a deeper transition toward live games that persist with add-ons over a number of years, Netflix is well placed to catch a wave of GTA interest.
In context
Netflix’s gaming activity began in earnest in 2021 – bolstered by the acquisition of a games studio in 2022 – so the opportunity for the service to seriously enter gaming, cloud-based or otherwise, has been clear. Some studies have found that those who have downloaded its games have been satisfied, even if they have remained a minority.
“We’ve got ambitious plans [in gaming]”, explained Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters in a Q3 call with investors. “We want to really grow our engagement by many multiples of where it is today over the next handful of years.”
This includes across devices, with the company announcing tests of games on connected TVs and computers back in August of this year, using phones as the controller.
Sourced from Netflix, WARC, Variety, Financial Times
[Image: Netflix/Rockstar Games]
Trust will be vital to financial services marketing
With so many competing financial services providers offering different services, smart brands will need to start emphasising the unique role they can play in consumers’ lives in 2024.
Why financial services matters
As inflation and the cost-of-living crisis continue to reshape consumers’ relationships with money, financial services brands need to find ways to adapt to new consumer motivations, behaviours and expectations.
The year ahead
When 2024 dawns, it will be 15 years since the end of the “Great Recession”, the global financial crisis that scuppered growth, crunched incomes and shattered trust in banks and other financial services organisations. The crisis upended the...
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The importance of overlap: Sharp
Byron Sharp’s influential book How Brands Grow sets out how brands compete in terms of mental and physical availability, “but I didn't talk about the need to overlap those two”, the head of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute admitted recently.
“There should have been a chapter on that,” he told Meta’s Business, Innovation & Technology Podcast.
Why mental and physical availability matters
- “Whenever you get physical availability, but you’re not in the minds of customers, you just don’t get seen and you get a terrible return on that physical availability investment,” Sharp explained.
- Likewise, there’s little point in building mental availability of a brand if people then find it hard to actually buy it.
- “You’ve got to put the two together,” Sharp stressed. “Overlap is really crucial.” In particular, “it’s life or death for new brands”.
What to do
- If the budget is there to get overlapping mental and physical availability nationally, then “go for it”, is Sharp’s advice.
- If that’s not possible, “select a geographical area, or a time, or what have you, because you have to get overlapping mental and physical availability. You can’t succeed without it.”
- Get properly creative – too many ads within categories are similar in look and style. And they’re boring.
Sourced from Meta
[Image: Byron Sharp, Ehrenberg-Bass]
What sustainability marketing will mean in 2024
What sustainability marketing will mean in 2024
In 2024, more businesses will adopt sustainability as a key growth driver because it will materially affect profit centres, stakeholder management and market share – but it needs to be intrinsically embedded at the core of the business before being used as a marketing pillar.
Why sustainability in marketing matters
Sustainability is not a short-term marketing trend, it should be a long-term commitment that starts in the boardroom and runs through every strand of the business. Those who get it right will see brand equity, profits, talent, and loyalty soar.
CMOs have powerful tools at their disposal to drive large-scale consumer behaviour change, normalising climate friendly products and making it easier for industries as a whole to adopt more eco-friendly ways of working.
Takeaways
- Marketing can help increase demand for sustainable products and brands, and make it easier for brands to invest in fast-tracking their own sustainability ambitions.
- Collectively, the focus in 2024 and beyond must be on using marketing as a tool to progress conscious production and consumption from niche to normal. We need to increase adoption with mainstream consumers to reach the tipping point.
- Purpose-driven brands will experience higher growth over the long term. McKinsey reported earlier this year that sustainability-related claims helped products average 28% cumulative growth over the last five years. Products that made no ESG claims only grew 20%.
Key quote
“Those brands who find clever ways to align on values and value-driving will be rewarded with new customer acquisition who are more likely to become advocates and have increased loyalty and market share” – Nick Hoskin, Founder & ECD, Something™ and TMRRW.
Go deeper
- For a library of WARC’s research and insight on sustainability in marketing, check out our Sustainability Hub.
- Explore the best practice on the topic through What we know about sustainability marketing.
[Image: Guillaume de Germain from Unsplash]
How marketers can achieve net zero
How marketers can achieve net zero
The latest climate report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finds that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are not decreasing fast enough; all industries need to minimise harm, but it isn’t easy and requires radical transformation. Here’s what you need to know.
What is Ad Net Zero?
Ad Net Zero, a project that aims to achieve carbon net zero by 2030, launched in 2020. Backed by a coalition of UK advertising industry bodies, its mission is to bring about collective, industrywide action to cut carbon emissions associated with advertising. This is across the whole process of development, production, and media placement. Ad Net Zero launched in the US in February this year and plans to expand into other markets.
Why sustainability agendas matter
The climate emergency is the industry’s most important and urgent brief, and marketers and advertisers are well placed to respond. From using creativity to drive behavioural change and reducing the climate impact of advertising production, to ensuring ad investment does not support climate disinformation. The brief requires a radical rethink and means placing equal importance on environmental protection and financial growth.
For a library of WARC’s research and insight on sustainability in marketing, check out our Sustainability Hub.
Explore the best practice on the topic through What we know about sustainability marketing.
Takeaways
- Reduce the climate impact of advertising production. This means rethinking how adverts are made: can the ad be made locally, for instance?
- Decarbonise media plans. Advertisers should adopt a lean mindset as the demand for net zero media plans grows, including rethinking ad lengths – a 10-second ad will likely have less carbon impact than a 30-second ad. In this context, brands that can generate quick recall will have an advantage. Do less and do better.
- Drive behaviour change. The industry can use its renowned creativity to tell stories about the benefits of sustainable behaviour and lifestyles, and close consumers’ say-do intention gap,
- Incorporate climate impact metrics. In 2021 the purpose disruptors and econometrics agency Magic Numbers introduced a new metric, Advertised Emissions. The goal is to help the industry measure emissions to establish a baseline, and then track their performance in reducing them.
- Avoid greenwashing. It’s dangerous. As the number of companies setting net zero targets increases, brands must beware the perils of greenwashing, which will be called out by consumers, employees and regulators.
The WARC Guide to Net Zero Marketing provides a roadmap to help the industry achieve net zero targets, providing frameworks and strategies that can be adopted and applied.
What shoppers want from their sustainable products
Consumers are interested in the sustainability credentials of product packaging, but views on this topic differ significantly by country, a study by consultancy McKinsey has found.
Why consumer views on packaging matter
Packaging has a multifaceted role in shaping consumer attitudes towards a brand and its products. Factors like design and labeling retain their importance, but sustainability concerns have grown in significance.
Takeaways
McKinsey surveyed over 11,500 consumers in 11 countries: Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, the UK and US. It found:
- Consumers across the world were not aligned on which type of packaging they perceived...
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How major brands are measuring their sustainability performance
How major brands are measuring their sustainability performance
Advertising can be effective beyond the ability to measure it, but that’s not going to win it any future support or make an investment case to do more of it; something similar is happening in sustainability, new research finds, with big increases in the use of widely accepted external standards.
Why sustainability performance matters
A significant topic in the 2024 Marketer’s Toolkit, sustainability is becoming a serious consideration for businesses. Regulatory scrutiny and the recognition of sustainability’s importance means that performance measurement is no longer a nice-to-have.
What’s going on
- According to WARC’s survey, nearly a third (29%) are working towards measurable objectives in conjunction with recognised external standards – an increase of 12pp from 17% last year.
- External standards allow brands to confidently stand out in a crowded marketplace by offering products and practices that meet widely accepted sustainability benchmarks.
Go deeper
- For a library of WARC’s research and insight on sustainability in marketing, check out our Sustainability Hub.
- Explore the best practice on the topic through What we know about sustainability marketing.
Availability, not price, is the main barrier to sustainable buying
Sustainably marketed products are underperforming, despite a vast majority of consumers wanting to buy environmentally sound products - availability and price, rather than demand, are the critical barrier exclusive new research for WARC finds.
Why sustainable product availability matters
Consumers want to buy goods that are better for the environment, but scattered availability is constricting growth, Circana research finds.
Brands and retailers that wish to retain their position should make sustainability a strategically relevant part of the product portfolio and brand meaning, especially with younger consumers for whom sustainability is part of their ethos.
What’s going on
- Many brands assume...
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How to ensure the brain receives your brand’s sustainability message
As brands create sustainability messages in response to environmental problems, there’s an urgent need to understand their effectiveness and whether consumers link them back to brands; using the metric of long-term memory encoding can help marketers assess brand impact and message receptivity.
Why sustainability messaging matters
Brands must ensure that credibility, context and congruency are understood in relation to their sustainability message, but be mindful that subtle nuances in content and delivery can cause consumers to disengage, which inhibits the message and any link to the brand.
Takeaways
- Viewers connect with the idea of sustainability issues but switch off when...
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Industry snapshot: Five trends shaping B2B marketing in 2024
Industry snapshot: Five trends shaping B2B marketing in 2024
The latest WARC industry snapshot report examines key macro B2B drivers, identifying five trends that will shape marketing strategies in 2024, including: influencer marketing, B2B’s transition to hybrid sales, AI-driven personalisation, marketing’s efficiency drive, and ESG as a catalyst for value creation.
Why the snapshot matters
Based on WARC’s GEISTE methodology, the snapshot reviews the macro drivers expected to impact marketing across six pillars: government, economy, industry, society, technology, and environment.
The report, which WARC members can read here, combines the analysis of these factors with sector-specific research to generate a comprehensive picture of the trends shaping the B2B industry and charts how marketers can respond. It also contains a series of hypothetical scenarios to help businesses plan and prepare themselves for different potential futures.
Five B2B trends
- Doubling down on influencer marketing: Businesses are amplifying their influencer marketing campaigns as customers increasingly turn to third-party sources to inform purchasing decisions.
- B2B sales are increasingly hybrid: B2B selling will continue to transition to a hybrid model, combining online and offline interactions to meet changing customer behaviours and preferences.
- Enhancing personalisation with AI: Customers increasingly expect to receive personalised experiences, and businesses are utilising AI in an attempt to meet this demand.
- B2B marketing’s focus on efficiency: Mirroring a wider trend in the marketing industry of stalling budgets and rising costs, B2B marketers face growing pressure to achieve more with less.
- ESG as a catalyst for value creation: Businesses are taking a more proactive approach to environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) as they link these practices to long-term value creation.
Key statistics
- Three-quarters of B2B marketers are currently utilising influencers, and 93% of CMOs plan to use influencers more frequently.
- B2B buyers spend roughly two-thirds of their time engaging with suppliers online – either through digital self-service or remote human interactions. The remaining one-third of interactions occur via traditional channels such as face-to-face meetings or direct mail.
- A majority (93%) of B2B executives plan to increase their investment in generative AI within the next 12 months.
- Less than half (47%) of SaaS licenses are actively used, and roughly three in five (61%) B2B marketers think their current martech stack is too complex.
- Nearly half (46%) of B2B decision-makers think that ESG has become more important as a consideration in procurement decisions over the past two years.
Go deeper
- WARC members can read the full report here.
- See all other reports in the Industry Snapshot series here.
The opportunities of APAC’s functional drinks market
Amid the post-pandemic demand for functional drinks, or beverages with a beneficial effect beyond the essential nutrients, three very different markets in Asia Pacific – India, Indonesia and Japan – offer brands a range of opportunities.
- APAC witnessed a 40% increase in demand for functional drinks following Covid-19 as more people focused on self-care.
- The distribution network is especially important for functional drinks brands to reach customers and grow market share.
- High and variable import costs can hamper sales for larger and overseas brands with high price sensitivity.
Why functional drinks matter
The boom in the functional drinks market is...
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China woos foreign tourists
A political thaw, more visa-free travel and new marketing campaigns are expected to boost inbound tourism to China.
What’s happening
- Earlier this month, Presidents Xi and Biden agreed on the need to improve air connectivity between China and the US and to hold “a high-level dialogue on tourism”.
- Following a recent visit to China by Australia PM Anthony Albanese – the first such visit in seven years – travel agencies in Australia are offering huge discounts on package tours to China, the South China Morning Post reports.
- Passport holders from more than 50 nations can now stay in most parts of China for up to six days visa-free as transit visitors.
- Trip.com, China’s biggest online travel firm, is investing in marketing and product integration over the next three years, and is teaming up with the government-affiliated programme ‘Nihao China’ (Hello China) which features promotional videos and digital communications.
Why Chinese tourism matters
Foreign tourism spending will be a welcome boost to the local economy: before Covid-19, overseas tourists were spending $130bn a year.
“The Chinese inbound travel market has substantial growth opportunities, as it currently accounts for 0.3 per cent of China’s GDP,” said Trip.com in a statement. “This leaves ample room for expansion, which will ultimately boost various sectors such as hospitality, transport, retail and entertainment, leading to an increase in our business growth in the future.”
Sourced from South China Morning Post, Skift
Towards a new sponsorship agenda
Brands can make more use of sponsorship to drive sustainability and social equity, according to the WFA.
What happening
The WFA’s Evolution of Sponsorship* report found that:
- Around half of brands surveyed (49%) say they are using sponsorship to promote sustainability or social equity.
- Four in ten (42%) are not yet using their sponsorships to advance and demonstrate their sustainability and/or social equity agendas; 9% don’t know what, if any, use is being made of sponsorship to drive values.
Why sponsorship agendas matter
There’s a gap between values and engagement, a space brands can inhabit to demonstrate how they can be a force for good.
Further, as traditional consumer connections splinter, it has grown more challenging for brands to reach particular audiences, such as the younger Generations Z and Alpha. Sponsorship is an opportunity to establish an emotional connection with audiences by engaging with their passions and enhancing their experiences.
Key quote
“Sponsorship offers brands a unique chance to connect with consumers while they’re doing what they like the most … It’s a great opportunity for brands to pave the way for a better world, live up to their purpose, and lead positive change rebalancing inequalities” – Laura Forcetti, Director of Global Marketing Sourcing at WFA.
* The report is based on responses from 34 multinational companies with a total global advertising spend of US$51.3bn.
Sourced from WFA
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