Voiceover (00:00):

Welcome to the Taylor Ten. A fast-paced, 10 minute deep dive into the minds of those shaking up the marketing world, bringing you the sharpest insights, boldest ideas and breakthrough trends driving the industry forward. So tune in, get inspired, and stay ahead.

Mike Costabile (00:17):

Hello everyone, I'm Mike Costabile and welcome to the Taylor Ten. I'm here with Sari Brecher from beverage alcohol giant Diageo to learn as much as I can in 10 minutes about how brands can effectively cut through the marketing clutter with impact at major cultural events. Sari, thank you for joining me today.

Sari Brecher (00:38):

No, this is so fun to do a podcast with you. Normally I'm listening to them, so it's really fun to be on one and see how I sound versus listening to other people all the time.

Mike Costabile (00:48):

Sari, as a director on Diageo's brands in culture team — internally and externally known as BIC — this role has more or less taken her to every major and minor cultural event you could think of many times over during her tenure and her conceiving and management of high impact executions for some of the most beloved and well-known beverage alcohol brands in the world is unmatched. Smirnoff Vodka, Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum, Johnny Walker scotch, Guinness, Crown Royal Canadian Whiskey, Kettle One, Vodka, Don Julio… the list goes on and on. And Sari, I believe has seen it all. Would you mind just briefly talking a little bit about the Diageo brands and culture team and what they do for Diageo's portfolio brands? For those who aren't aware…

Sari Brecher (01:37):

The brands in culture team is really responsible for embedding our brands, which you mentioned, into culture. We do it through breakthrough partnerships, talent and then utilizing the trends in sports entertainment and in the influential communities that we are a part of. So, we really try and shape how our brands work with combining insights with consumer behaviors to ultimately tell creative stories, and we truly ensure that our brands remain a key part of the cultural conversation. So we're truly like a center of excellence working with the marketing team to really create stories and memories for people our consumers to be able to tell and be a part of.

Mike Costabile (02:17):

Yeah, yeah, it's an incredible internal function and one that I think when it was conceived was ahead of its time. I feel like a lot of major companies have some semblance of this.

Sari Brecher (02:27):

When brands in culture first started, culture was an HR term.

Sari Brecher (02:31):

Now culture is just a regular speak, especially within marketing and what culture is and where culture has come from HR to everyday language of creating and making who and what people do and a big part of the marketing mix, which it was never really a part of before. So when I used to tell people I was in brands in culture like, oh, are you in HR? Where now it's like, oh, you do that and sort of the cool aspect of the job.

Mike Costabile (02:57):

What do you think are some of the main principles to keep in mind when a brand is trying to break through the clutter and have impact at a major event or a major footprint? What would you say are some of the key principles to keep in mind?

Sari Brecher (03:11):

Everyone is always trying to break through and the one thing as a brand that you need to continue to do is be genuine and really align with your brand values. Know your values, know your key parts of the brand and be able to really expose them while knowing your audience so that you can engage with them in a meaningful way and give them something as a takeaway. And then the fun part about it is to be able to be creative, be bold and truly try and generate buzz, which is a lot easier said than done, but it's always trying to push yourself and be able to continue to do it year over year and think about what you've done in the past and really try and continue to sort of break your own mold.

Mike Costabile (03:52):

Let's talk about maybe some recent examples of where you felt you as a brand leader was able to effectively bust through the clutter at a major cultural event.

Sari Brecher (04:03):

Since we're talking about cultural events, the two most recent ones are Super Bowl and Oscars and I think they both have had with our brands had amazing clutter, breakthrough if you will. Two years ago we launched the 1942 minis at the Oscars and it was sort of the biggest coming at Diageo and it was a big moment with Jimmy Kimmel, with Guillermo, with Coleman, and we weren't sure if there was a possibility to do that again and how do we break our own excellence? And the team was really pushed and this year we again work with Coleman and he had a behind the scenes dance party that we were able to leverage at the Oscars and get earned media from. And so we were really trying to evolve what we can do and I think we did a great job from a viral perspective versus a true integration. I think at the Super Bowl, our brands are an official NFL sponsor and it's hard being a spirits brand at the Super Bowl because it's not only a drinking occasion and how do you truly break through, whether that's with the longest tailgate, changing a street name from Bourbon Street to rum for Captain Morgan and really following the captain along the way or partnering with a local Popeye's chicken, right, who is from Louisiana and doing an event with something more localized that causes buzz.

Mike Costabile (05:27):

The two cultural events you chose to draw from are probably the two most cluttered from a brand standpoint. Everybody wants a piece of the Oscars, everybody wants a piece of the Super Bowl. I was reading something like a hundred plus brands were activating on the ground at Super Bowl in New Orleans this year. I mean that's just on the ground. Forget about who's activating from remote locations.

Sari Brecher (05:50):

Truthfully, our stuff was up this year, right? Like the Oscars, we had a 20% uptick from last year, which was something that we didn't think would be possible. I don't think the company did either. That would be something that we were able to conquer. The biggest problem that everybody always has is like what's next?

Mike Costabile (06:07):

Absolutely. And I encourage anyone listening who is somehow not familiar because I feel like these examples were everywhere. The Oscars integration with Don Julio 1942 from last year that evolved into this year. So you could do a quick Google search, literally the A-list celebrities in the front row of the audience were drinking from the mini bottles of 1942 on air, which is just unheard of. The boldness you need to show the nimbleness, the creativity to be able to break through such cluttered brand environments. But circling back to what we spoke about earlier about risk taking, being bold, how much risk taking do you feel is involved to be effective or needs to be involved? And I’ve got to imagine most companies, a lot of stakeholders, how do you manage internal resistance or maybe some more conservative marketing mindsets that might not have the same stomach for risk that others might have? Is there any advice you can give?

Sari Brecher (07:00):

I mean, I think calculated risk is always the best kind of risk, especially in a corporate environment. Transparency is also good in the calculated risk and making sure that the right stakeholders know what you're doing so that there are really no surprises. I think for us, when we were working with the Oscars as a different partner, making sure the legal team knows, making sure the CMO knows and sort of having the plan B and a backup plan is super important because as long as you're managing on all fronts, most of these risks can probably be mitigated. It's when people don't know that it becomes the hardest part. You're caught off surprise. I also think test piloting and doing things in a smaller way, the Oscars may not be the best way to test that out, but doing big things on a smaller scale for those who are not as ready to be bold and creative and don't have the support like we do at Diageo to do that. I think doing smaller test pilots and learning from that experience and then being able to use the data to continue is an easy way to do that versus going so bold.

Mike Costabile (08:04):

What advice would you give the marketers out there who are looking to activate at an upcoming major event for the first time? The first foray, any advice you can give?

Sari Brecher (08:13):

Go for it. The year before that you are not activating in it, so going in blind isn't always the best. So plan early, understand sort of the event logistics, the audience behavior, who's there, what's happening. So if you can go to an event prior to activating it, and I think that's a great way to start. I think you want to figure out how you want people to interact with your brand, what do you want to be known for? What do you want people to tell you once they leave and what do they remember? I think leveraging influencers is always a great thing to do in these types of places because they give you an earned piece, they give you a different audience, and they're really able to help you leverage and then to be successful, which isn't always the fun part, is sort of m and e and being able to measure it and seeing what is successful versus you have data to prove it versus just being like, oh my God, I had such a great time. So I think those are sort of the big things to think about for a marketer who wants to activate at a major event.

Mike Costabile(09:07):

Great. That's great advice. Thank you. Well, that was a quick 10 minutes that went by super-fast. I do want to thank you for your time and the amazing discussion, Sari, and thank you to everyone for tuning in. This is Mike Costabile and you've been listening to the Taylor Ten. Bye everyone.

Sari Brecher (09:24):

Bye.