We don’t consume the way we used to. Instead of three square meals a day, we tend to have a series of small eating moments. Snacking has become a growing global phenomenon. On-the-go food consumption is increasing in virtually every market around the world, with the fastest growth in developing nations, such as China, Brazil and Russia. By 2015, the global snack-foods market is expected to reach $335 billion. At the newly created Mondelez International, now the world’s largest snacking company, we are here to address this emerging behavior to meet today’s snacking needs.
But things beyond our food patterns have changed. Consumers don’t consume media the way they used to. In today’s complex media environment, new flexibility is needed to tap into this fast-growing global consumer base. Behaviors, touchpoints and attitudes differ from one person to another, from day to day. It’s time to place media at the center of the business and make it as creative as the creative itself. We are at a unique moment to rethink how we are handling media.
The next 1 billion consumers
The world is now looking at the next 1 billion consumers, an emerging class armed with one device above all others: the mobile phone.
Whether in China, Latin America or Eastern Europe, anyone who’s recently been to a convenience store or supermarket knows shopper behavior has changed dramatically. Before the iPhone, consumers would shop aisles focused on the task at hand or stand in line and actually look up at product displays near the register. Now, the vast majority of consumers are absorbed with their phones, looking down, distracted from in-store point-of-sale displays.
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What does this mean for marketers? We need to rethink our approach to the impulse buy. We must understand the media solutions that drive impulse purchases and seize the opportunity presented by mobile. This is just one example of how we need to better understand today’s global consumer and how consumption habits, both media and food, change from place to place and moment to moment.
That’s why Mondelez has decided to change up our media-agency structure and transform our media capabilities internally.
A global media backbone
A globally focused business needs a strong media backbone — a worldwide footprint, deep consumer insights, strength in emerging markets and the ability to promote knowledge-sharing and storytelling across brands. So the first big step we’re taking is to appoint two core global agencies, MediaVest and Aegis, which will handle the majority of our media buying and planning around the world. This core structure will allow us to refocus our communications planning not only across global brands, but also across markets. More importantly, it allows us to deploy media solutions quickly by building relationships with an emerging group of culturally relevant media titans from the digital universe.
We’ve already begun to deploy culturally focused media investments more quickly with campaigns such as “Oreo Daily Twist” and our global partnership with Viacom. With this new agency-collaboration model, we can increase those efforts and scale them while finding significant financial savings in the process.
Shift from inventory to investment
We’re also taking a closer look at our internal media capabilities, shifting our thinking on media and shaping new competencies. It starts with seeing media as investment, not just inventory, with a focus on increasing overall ROI. By tracking how every touchpoint contributes to a growing communication mix across channels, including paid, owned and earned, we can better equip ourselves to deliver media at the most effective points in the consumer journey. We’re asking ourselves: Where do we have the most disruptive opportunities and how should we leverage them?
Leading on mobile first
Our goal is to become one of the top mobile marketers in the world. By investing 10% of our global marketing budget in mobile, we believe we will open opportunities in the marketplace.
Executing this demands a willingness to collaborate with retailers, startups and established technology companies. So we’re experimenting with near-field communications at scale, bringing in the best young mobile retail-focused startups and working closely with our retail partners to rethink the consumer journey.
Platforms such as Mobile Futures, our first-of-its-kind program, give our brands the opportunity to work one-on-one with some of the best and brightest startups in social TV, geolocation and where mobile meets retail. This lets us to expose our brand marketers to the entrepreneurial spirit and infuse that spirit into our culture. Taking these leaps helps us seize the media and multidimensional opportunity presented by mobile and ensure that innovation remains at Mondelez International’s core.
We’re demanding more of our agencies and more of ourselves. It’s now up to all of us to deliver.