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Time of India
17-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
CMOs at Cannes 2025: Balancing creativity, data, and consumer connection
What does it take to be a Chief Marketing Officer in 2025? The 'CMOs in the Spotlight' series at Cannes Lions 2025 provided some compelling answers. The popular session brought together top brand leaders, Claudine Cheever, VP, Global Brand and Marketing, Amazon, Gülen Bengi, lead chief marketing officer, Mars; and Gail Horwood, chief marketing and customer experience Officer, Novartis, moderated by Jim Stengel, host of The CMO Podcast with Jim Stengel, The Jim Stengel Company. They dissected today's most challenging marketing issues and shared their vision for the future, highlighting the critical interplay of creativity, technology, and genuine connection. Bengi, highlighted the company's transformation journey, focusing on a new approach to brand building. 'We are moving from messaging to two-way engagement,' said Bengi, emphasising co-creation with communities and building ongoing, personalised experiences. Mars has restructured its brand teams by integrating data analytics, digital capabilities, and human insight placing the consumer truly at the heart. Horwood, shared her pride in the company's intentional focus on creativity despite regulatory hurdles. 'We focused on what we can do, not what we can't,' she explained, referencing their award-shortlisted campaign Your Attention, Please, which tackles breast cancer awareness. This initiative includes a unique partnership with the NFL—demonstrating how creativity can thrive even in highly regulated sectors. Cheever, reflected on the company's global-local balance. 'We're making Prime a global brand while staying locally relevant,' she said. She cited a notable holiday campaign that harnessed AI to mine millions of customer reviews for comedic gems, brought to life by actor Adam Driver. Cheever credited the blend of creativity and technology as critical to the campaign's success. Stengel encouraged the panel to consider Cannes not only as a celebration but as a space for reflection. The CMOs agreed on the value of flexibility, collaboration, and intentional pauses. As Bengi advised, 'See something unexpected. Be flexible.' Cheever, with nine years at Amazon, highlighted the company's deeply ingrained corporate culture rooted in creativity, risk-taking, and experimentation. "If you know it's going to succeed, it's not an experiment," she stated, underscoring the importance of providing a "safe space" for teams to make mistakes. Cheever explained Amazon's concept of "two-way doors" versus "one-way doors," encouraging quick decisions for reversible actions. For her, fostering creativity within the culture means delegating decision-making, enabling speed, and getting out of the way. She proudly noted that she no longer reviews content for Amazon's vast out-of-home network , considering her involvement a "defect." Her ideal scenario is when a team confidently takes ownership, reducing the need for her oversight and building courage throughout the organisation. Bengi expressed Mars' fortune in having curiosity as a core cultural tenet, where creativity is deeply cherished. While leveraging the legacy of iconic brands built by past generations, Bengi acknowledged that the world has changed, transforming "creative" from a title for a select few into a "verb for everyone" within their culture. She believes good ideas can emerge from anywhere and must be approached with a mindset of learning, iteration, and scaling. Mars achieves this through what they call "learning journeys," such as immersing teams in new technologies. They've expanded their partner ecosystem beyond traditional collaborators to include tech giants like AWS and visionary entrepreneurs. Bengi champions an "iteration to scale" mindset, where there are no failures or successes, only continuous iterations aimed at solving the right consumer problems, a fundamental part of their brand-building culture. Horwood emphatically stated that at Novartis, their company culture begins with purpose, drawing people to healthcare with the shared mission of "reimagining medicine together" to help others live better lives. She stressed, "the culture is us," highlighting that their culture isn't defined by one person but is a collective strength. Novartis actively enables this by encouraging every associate to contribute to their shared vision for creativity, which is not optional but multifaceted. Participation can range from workshops and trips to agency shadowing. Horwood underlined the significance of allowing associates to reflect on what's important to them within this shared mission, reinforcing that while frameworks exist, the principle of "the culture is us" remains the most important aspect of their organisational ethos.
Associated Press
10-02-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Novartis Wins at the 2025 Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review
Tubi and Squarespace Fumble during the Big Game EVANSTON, Ill., Feb. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Novartis took home the top spot in the 21st Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review with its 'Your Attention, Please' ad putting a spotlight on breast health and encouraging cancer screening – the first time a pharmaceutical company has come in first in the two decades of the strategic advertising review. Other brands that earned top marks included Michelob Ultra's 'The ULTRA Hustle' and Google Pixel's 'Dream Job.' Not every advertiser hit the mark this year, including Tubi and Coffee-Mate, which received low grades during this year's Ad Review. 'Novartis took a risk to really break through the clutter with its unexpected focus on breast cancer screening,' said Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing and co-lead of the school's Ad Review. 'The ad started out with a playful tone to then deliver a serious message,' added Derek Rucker, the Sandy & Morton Goldman professor of entrepreneurial studies in marketing and co-lead of the school's Ad Review. Nike made a triumphant return to the Super Bowl after nearly 30 years with a 90-second spot entitled 'So Win' and featuring WNBA stars Caitlin Clark, A'ja Wilson and Sabrina Ionescu and Olympic gold medalists Jordan Chiles and Sha'Carri Richardson. Nike was one of several ads targeted towards women and girls, capitalizing on the recent increased popularity of women's sports. Dove, which earned top marks last year with its spot on body confidence, ran an ad focused on keeping girls in sports, while the NFL ran its own spot advocating for girl's flag football to be made a varsity sport in all 50 states. 'Nike and Dove both championed women's sports and female empowerment, consistent with the equality-focused messaging these brands have had in the past,' said Calkins. While brands like Michelob Ultra and Google Pixel had strong showings with their ads, others fumbled a huge opportunity and a multi-million-dollar investment, like Tubi, which aired three spots over the game and failed to deliver a compelling benefit resulting in a low rating from the Kellogg panel. Coffee Mate's ad for cold foam, which featured a dancing tongue voiced by Shania Twain, also received a low grade. 'Coffee Mate broke one of the often-golden rules of advertising – don't be off-putting when people are trying to enjoy an event,' said Rucker. 'You can see the creative pitch behind it – but the moving tongue provoked a visceral and negative reaction from our panel.' Following the trend of recent years, many ads featured celebrity spokespeople, with likes of Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck and Jeremy Strong (Dunkin'), Orlando Bloom and Drew Barrymore (MSC Cruises), Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pratt (Meta/Ray-Ban), and Matthew McConaughey pulling double duty and appearing in ads for both Salesforce and Uber Eats. Michelob Ultra, which saw a top ranking from the panel, featured Willem Dafoe and Catherine O'Hara. 'Michelob Ultra saw a strong use of celebrity in what was a classic Super Bowl beer ad,' noted Rucker. Several candy and snack brands made appearances tonight, including Reese's, Pringle's, Doritos and Ferrara's Nerds, the latter of which made its second consecutive Super Bowl appearance spotlighting the Nerds Gummy Cluster. Lay's also aired a heartwarming ad featuring a little girl nurturing a potato plant. After Coca-Cola's AI-generated holiday ad sparked discussion in December, there was speculation among viewers and the panel that advertisers might rely on artificial intelligence for their Super Bowl spots. While AI-generated art wasn't overtly apparent this year, there was a noticeable increase in ads that promoted AI tools. Salesforce promoted their Agentforce AI platform while made its Super Bowl debut with a 60-second spot promoting ChatGPT. Meta also ran two commercials demonstrating usage of its AI glasses, a collaboration with Ray-Ban, while GoDaddy returned to the Super Bowl after eight years to debut GoDaddy Airo, its AI-powered platform for entrepreneurs. 'There was a lot of excitement for to run its first Super Bowl ad, but our panel was left wondering what the goal was, and it came across as lackluster,' said Rucker. The Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review uses an academic framework known as ADPLAN to evaluate the strategic effectiveness of Super Bowl spots. The acronym helps viewers grade ads based on Attention, Distinction, Positioning, Linkage, Amplification and Net Equity. This year marks the 21st anniversary of the experiential event which has become a longstanding and cherished tradition in the Kellogg marketing community. A full list of the rankings is available here.
