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Marketing Vanguard
How to Become a SUCCESSFUL Challenger Brand ft. BodyArmor and Tom Gargiulo
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- [00:01]
Adweek Announcer
Who do you think does more planning for football's biggest game? The coaching staff or the advertising teams? Well, while we may not have insider access to the locker room, we do know just how much goes into fine tuning the perfect brand moment for advertising's brightest stage. On February 6, Adweek House will be touching down at the City Club of San Francisco to huddle up with the industry leaders whose winning approaches have won the competition for consumers attention. Join us to build connections, pick up playbook, defining strategies, and predict which creative work will will have everyone buzzing and quarterbacking on Monday morning. Head to adweek.com for more information.
- [00:42]
LinkedIn Ads Announcer
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- [01:12]
Tom Gargiulo
When you look at the fuel and the recovery mechanisms that were available to athletes, it hasn't really changed. So that's why they created body armor. They wanted a better option for athletes that had more electrolytes, that had vitamins and minerals, that had a great taste.
- [01:31]
Jenn Rooney
Hi everyone and welcome to the Marketing Vanguard podcast. I'm Jenn Rooney with adweek and I'm thrilled today to be joined by Tom Gargiulo. He's the CMO of BodyArmor. Tom, welcome.
- [01:42]
Tom Gargiulo
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
- [01:44]
Jenn Rooney
It's great to see you. Listen, I'm a huge body armor fan.
- [01:47]
Tom Gargiulo
I'll get that out of the way.
- [01:48]
Jenn Rooney
It's one of my go tos, lifestyles, drinks and I love what you all are doing and I know that there's so much product innovation going on and there's lots to talk about in terms of what's happening with the brand and business. But before we get to that, I always love to have our listeners get to know more about you as a person, kind of a little bit more about the who behind the title. And I just would love for you to start by sharing with me your backstory. Tell me a little bit about what got you to this place and maybe start with your education and was it marketing or was it something else?
- [02:21]
Tom Gargiulo
No, I mean my background is full of various unexpected turns all in A very fortunate way. So I actually started. I went to school at Holy Cross up in Worcester, Massachusetts. It's a small liberal arts school. Didn't have the opportunity to learn business or anything like that. I had no idea what I wanted to be. So I studied political science, eventually trying to convince myself I wanted to be a lawyer or something like that, but quickly realized that's probably not the path for me. And then eventually I decided to pursue a career in sports. So it was a very humble beginnings. I started out working for a couple of startup agencies, and this was back when the dot com boom in the late 90s, early 2000s got a lot of equity in. These companies are absolutely worth nothing now. But I got to work at a bunch of agencies and a couple of dot com startups, worked for a couple of minor league teams, and then eventually landed at the NFL, believe it or not. And I started pretty much from the ground up about a year out of school. I was an assistant, so I was answering phones, doing expense reports, scheduling meetings, doing all that important stuff. But I was learning a ton every single day that I walked in that building. And after about a year doing that, they gave me an opportunity and I started to work on a couple of the big partners. I worked on Campbell's Soup, I worked on PepsiCo, I worked on Frit, I worked on Cadillac, you name it, I pretty much touched every single category except for alcoholic beverages during my time at the NFL. And ultimately, after spending about four years there having a blast, going to the Super Bowl, I realized what really drove me and what really kind of created that spark when I was in that building was connecting with brands and figuring out how to work with them to connect with consumers. So at that point I then realized I wanted to pursue a career in brand marketing. So I went back to grad school to get that formal business education that I didn't get, unfortunately in a liberal arts environment, and decided to go to Emory. Tried a different part of the country down in Atlanta, and had a fantastic time. They taught me everything from the basics to presenting skills to, you name it, it was a great experience. And had my first taste of brand marketing at Kimberly Clark over my first summer working on the Kleenex brand team. And then eventually when I graduated, I ended up back at PepsiCo. So I was able to leverage a lot of the relationships and trust that I'd built during my time at the NFL and worked on the Frito Lay business down in Plano, Texas, and got to work on a lot of really great brands and touched A lot of really great customer programs and things like that. After being there for about three years, I started to get homesick quite a bit. You know, at that point, I went to grad school away from home, had my first job away from home and my wife at the time. And I decided to uproot and go back to the Northeast, where we're both from, in the New York City area. And a former boss of mine actually called me and said, hey, I got a gig at this place called Dannon. We make yogurt, and we're kind of an old stodgy brand, but we're trying to do some cool things here. It's not necessarily marketing, but I think you'll have a lot of fun doing it. And after learning more about the experience, I decided to take a leap of faith and join him. Fast forward almost 10 years later, I had such an amazing experience at that company. Went from Dannon to Danone to Danone North America, back to Danone and got to touch everything related to the sales function and the marketing function. Leading category management, leading shopper marketing, leading customer strategy, leading business development. And then my last stint, I was the chief marketing officer for the yogurt business, which was amazing. And I got to experience the Greek boom. And we launched a bunch of really awesome products like Light and Fit Greek.
- [06:20]
Jenn Rooney
And what year was this?
- [06:22]
Tom Gargiulo
This was 2010 to 2018 or so and the whole Jumani thing. But, you know, during my time there, we got share leadership in the category. We took it away from General Mills. We got category captaincy at all the top customers. It was an amazing experience. But that same boss that actually pulled me to Dannon at the time called me again and said, hey, we have an opportunity over here at Kind to lead marketing and sales and to do some really cool stuff. They were just a portion of the business was just acquired by Mars and they had an opportunity to basically amplify the valuation of the company and sell the remainder to Mars over a time period. And that's why I joined. That's why they wanted me there. They knew that I was a fighter. I was very much in the camp of embracing challenger brands and did everything at Kind from marketing to sales again and eventually left leading commercial strategy for the company and had a blast. It was awesome. We sold it to Mars, we got a great valuation, and everybody was paid very well, which was great. And I got a bug to kind of jump back into the startup world and went to a small food tech startup called Nick's and they make better for you Ice cream and bars and things like that. I'll be honest, it was a very different experience than what I had at Kind where we shifted from a very top line focus to a very bottom line focus and kind of stripped away a little bit of the fun that I was having. And that's when another former colleague and boss of mine called me again and said, hey, we just created this new sports division over at Coca Cola. I know you're a big sports guy because it's always been a big part of my life and think you would be a great fit. And once I learned more about the opportunity and obviously having the opportunity to work for Coca Cola, I mean, I just ran to the opportunity. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. That was almost three years ago. So now every day that goes by I stress out about how much longer do I have left in this unbelievable position. Just because I feel like I've kind of hit everything that I've always wanted to do. Marketing, I touch a little bit of sales just through influence at the executive level. Sports. Being able to work with some of the biggest sports leagues and players and everything. It's been truly an amazing experience so far.
- [08:38]
Jenn Rooney
Well, not to mention NFL, PepsiCo and now Coke. I mean arguably, and DeNone too. I mean you can't get much bigger in terms of global marketing brands and except for the NFL, largely in the CPG space, but specifically that niche, I can see that intersection of sports and CPG that has defined you. And also, and it just goes without saying, but yet again, in this business you perform and you prove yourself one place and you know, no surprise, those relationships last. And that's where the navigation through career can come through. I mean the fact that you just got called by people who knew you worked with you, knew what you were capable of, relationships matter. And obviously this industry cares about people who can perform well, improve themselves and then take that to another big brand or business. So fascinating. And by the way, shout out to liberal arts schools and the foundation that they can provide. As a mother of a freshman at a smaller liberal arts school, I absolutely appreciate the fact that that can actually provide an incredible starting point for whatever you want to do, certainly marketing. So now let's talk about body armor. So Coke owns it to your point, yet another incredibly competitive category. Look, I mean Gatorade's been on the other side of that equation for years and years. And by the way, now we're having a lot of better for you beverages. Performance focused beverages that have entered the category that are even more so not necessarily considered. They're not positioning themselves as just sports, but a lot of it is just even getting into health and energy, you know what I mean, for day to day life. So tell me a little bit about the category and how that's been transforming kind of around you and your body armor is finding its sweet spot for.
- [10:25]
LinkedIn Ads Announcer
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- [10:58]
Adweek Announcer
Who do you think does more planning for football's biggest game? The coaching staff or the advertising teams? Well, while we may not have insider access to the locker room, we do know just how much goes into fine tuning the perfect brand moment for advertising's brightest stage. On February 6, Adweek House will be touching down at the City Club of San Francisco to huddle up with the industry leaders whose winning approaches have won the competition for consumers attention. Join us to build connections, pick up playbook, defining strategies and predict which creative work will have everyone buzzing and quarterbacking on Monday morning. Head to adweek.com for more information.
- [11:40]
Tom Gargiulo
Fifteen years ago, this brand was created by a couple of entrepreneurs that had a lot of success in their careers launching other brands and selling. And when they created this company, the whole idea was the sport has continued to evolve over time. Preparation, the active sport, the game itself, you name it, everything, the equipment that you use, everything in sport has constantly evolved. But when you look at the fuel and the recovery mechanisms that were available to athletes, it hasn't really changed. So that's why they created body armor. They wanted a better option for athletes that had more electrolytes, that had vitamins and minerals, that had a great taste by adding coconut water that was natural, that was free of artificials, you know, you name it. They came out with a completely different bottle, they came out with a different package design and everything. And even how they came to market with Kobe and everything. It was all about disrupting the category. Fast forward 15 years, a lot has changed in the category. New players have come and gone, but what I would say is the tried and true competitors are still very much in play. And fortunate enough, we have two of those, Umbrella with Body Armor and Powerade. And the fact that we now have these two brands underneath, one Umbrella gives us this awesome one, two punch to go after the behemoth in Gatorade. And we've been having a lot of fun doing it. You know, we took Powerade from a brand that hasn't really had a lot of success in the most recent years and turned it around and gave it a new identity, gave it a new brand edge, invested money behind it, and now it's the fastest growing traditional sports drink in the category. And then body armor. It took a little bit of time after the Coke acquisition was finalized to kind of turn the business around because obviously you're going through a lot of change and you're going through a lot of adjustment now being owned by a bigger company. And there's positives and some learning experiences coming out of that. But now we're in the process of getting this business back to where it should be as a disruptor in the category. And with the relaunch that we did earlier this year, the new campaign, we're seeing some fantastic results. And our goal is to kind of take this next generation of sports drinks to the next level. And that's our objective.
- [14:03]
Jenn Rooney
So tell me a little bit about the new campaign and tell me also about other tactics and strategies that you're employing now to really kind of supercharge that again.
- [14:14]
Tom Gargiulo
Going back to when Coca Cola acquired this brand, one of the overwhelming positives for this business that we were able to see right off the bat was the access to the tools and resources that we had. Where historically body armor didn't necessarily have the resources to invest in certain things and to do certain things. But now you have Coca Cola and arguably the world's best marketers. Not arguably, I would say they are the world's best marketers now on your side, supporting you, providing you with the resources that you need to succeed. It just opened our eyes to so many different things in terms of how we invest behind media, how we build campaigns, how we track the business, how we influence the bottling community, et cetera. But going back to your previous question about the rebirth, after 15 years being in the category, we wanted to get back again to that disruptor status. You know, you had the likes of other companies coming in and being flashes in the pan and trying to copycat a lot of what we've done in the past. And now we wanted to make a statement of we are the true challenger and we are the True Disruptor. And we are ready to take the reins from the category leader. So what we decided to do was take a look at our visual identity and clean a lot of that up and modernize it. We made it more simple. We made it more bold. We clearly communicated the flavors we differentiated across different product lines that we had. And then when it came to the campaign itself, we went back to our consumers and we asked them, why are you picking what you're picking? And an overwhelming majority basically said, it's because that's what I've always bought. And we wanted to kind of flip it on its head and tell people that there's a better option in the category than what you're used to. And we want them to be aware of that. So that was kind of the impetus of the Choose Better campaign and how we kind of brought it to life.
- [16:07]
Jenn Rooney
That's interesting because there's also like a trust element. And listen, I'm speaking like a consumer, but over time, the repetitiveness of cause you're right, it's a little mind boggling, frankly, the options that exist, especially to somebody who's kind of a layperson in that regard and not sort of an active athlete who might be like, truly a little more knowledgeable about picking. But just speaking as a focus group of one, what I came to realize was your point about the clarity of the flavors and the specificity on the labeling of just like what you're getting consciously and almost subconsciously, that became something that changed my sort of choice at the shelf. And now I know that it's a very. I know what I'm going to get. It's very dependable, and the taste profile is. It's fantastic. In a world where the taste of these things cannot be that great. So it's just like anything over time, you start to build a habit based on a rewarding experience. And tell me about that. Like, are you seeing that on your side that you're able to have the preference start to be directly tied to all the ways you've rejiggered and sort of repositioned to make that clarity?
- [17:10]
Tom Gargiulo
Absolutely. I mean, we've always had a fantastic product. And body armor has gone through evolution from the time the product that they started with is not the product that we have now. So over those 15 years, we feel like we finally got it right. You know, it's a product that not only is enjoyable with the flavors and the fruit forward flavors that we have, but also the functionality that we deliver is fantastic. The fact that we have 800 electrolytes versus a traditional sports drink that has, I don't know, 320 to 350. The fact that we have potassium packed electrolytes, the fact that we have vitamins and minerals that help support your immunity and also support your recovery. So we knew that we had a fantastic product, but we needed to educate people about it. We needed to let people know that this is an option out there in the marketplace. And that's one of the reasons why we've decided to do the rebrand. To really highlight the key benefits that our product stands for and the experience that you can expect, but do it in a very fun and visible way.
- [18:16]
Jenn Rooney
Yeah, talk about brand collaborations, talk about partnerships.
- [18:20]
Tom Gargiulo
It's very important to kind of our DNA is to lean on professional athletes. We don't have the money like some of our competitors do when it comes to locking down sports leagues and franchises and things like that. So we have to be very smart with how we spend our money. And we are very much an athlete forward or athlete first kind of brand where we lean on our athletes to really help tell the story. One thing that this brand has always been really good at is kind of bringing players on before they really hit their stride and before they hit their prime. Go back in time to Mike Trout, James Harden, you can't say Kobe, unfortunately, because he was always in his prime. But there was a number of players that we brought on board to kind of help tell our story, and we got them at the ground level and we're continuing to do that. And now we've built this stable of amazing athletes with Jalen Brunson and Connor McDavid and Joe Burrow and CD Lamb. It's just incredible. But then eventually we had an opportunity that came knocking a couple of years ago with the NHL. And when we dug into it like everything was just like the stars were aligning. It was one of the fastest growing sports leagues in the country. They just got this new media deal with ESPN and Turner and they were bringing in this new flood of youthful talent that was scoring like crazy. And we had an opportunity and we took it and eventually signed on to become the official sports drink of the NHL. So now we have all of our athletes and we have this amazing resource with the NHL and it's been able to really help us grow our brand awareness.
- [20:03]
Jenn Rooney
I love that. I love that. Because obviously, listen, hockey fans are unmatched in terms of their passion. Ever been to a Rangers game or anything else for that matter? So that's a lot of energy to harness. If you will, when you think of that collaboration, very, very exciting. So I know the rebirth, the rebrand, that happened back in the spring, correct?
- [20:24]
Tom Gargiulo
Yep.
- [20:25]
Jenn Rooney
So where are you now? You know, now you've had, what, a half a year under your belt since that. What has come from that that has surprised you and what sort of has come from that that's of kind going to inform how you continue to move forward.
- [20:36]
Tom Gargiulo
You know, I think what has maybe been more than what I expected was the response that we got from the bottling and the sales community or the customer community. The fact that we brought this really cool, dynamic design to not only the bottle, but our design language of POS and everything in store really got our bottling community really excited. And when you excite our bottling community, they're going to execute the crap out of it. So when we're able to kind of bring all of the partners that we have, the media partners that we have, like Barstool Dude, Perfect. And the Savannah Bananas, and pair that with an unbelievable design, they're going to get behind that brand full force. And that's what we've seen over the course of this year. So from that standpoint, it's been a pleasant. I'm not surprised, but it was a much larger deal than we anticipated. And then from a customer perspective, we've taken a very collaborative approach with our customers in terms of like, helping them come along for the journey versus just saying, hey, this is what we're doing. What do you think? So bringing them early into the process, when we were doing our redesign, early in the process with our innovation, and for a brand that's a challenger brand, that's going to set you apart, and that's what's going to make you stand out. You're not going to be able to bring the millions and millions and millions of dollars, but you can bring that thought leadership, you can bring that collaboration, and more importantly, you can feel like they have sweat equity in your business, and that can really unlock some massive doors for growth for your brand.
- [22:08]
Jenn Rooney
I love that. Talk more a little bit about your media strategy. I mean, obviously this has all been very social. First, how are you thinking about beyond your athlete partners, influencers, creators, those kinds of things? Where are you showing up and why? We just had a story today about how marketers are turning more and more to Reddit. I mean, it's just every day you wake up and there's just new ways of thinking about where are people convening, especially the people that we need to reach. So how are you thinking about that.
- [22:35]
Tom Gargiulo
So, like I said, we're a brand that has a fraction of what our competitors have in terms of their war chests and resources. So it's all about constantly punching above our weight and finding unique and creative ways of breaking through the clutter and connecting with our consumers. So a couple years ago when I joined, one of the first things that we did was we started to bring on these awesome media partners. We signed with Barstool Sports, one of the biggest social media sports players on the Internet, became the official sports rank of their properties and all of their shows. We also signed on, Dude, Perfect. This amazing influencer group that family friendly, really does a great job of breaking through, doing really cool things and fun things. That's safe and that's fun. And another way that we can actually bring a lot of our athletes into kind of the fold and do cross collaborations. And then we recently signed the Savannah Bananas. And with all the views and all the clicks that these guys are getting, our brands are organically integrated into a lot of their content now. And we're a household name within their fan base. So not only doing that, but also, obviously, as you mentioned, influencers has been a big part of our strategy. We have kind of a group of influencers that we call the Playmakers that are kind of like our tried and true influencers that really stand for the brand that we continue to leverage time and time again. We've really invested behind Meta and behind Snapchat and a lot of these social media platforms, and the returns that we're seeing relative to traditional media like TV is just. It's mind blowing. And I was looking at the numbers this morning. Some of these social media channels are delivering 4 or 5x what linear TV would deliver from an ROI standpoint. So from where we stand, I mean, we're going to continue to do that because it's working and it's highly effective.
- [24:31]
Jenn Rooney
Yeah, it's interesting. Necessity is what drove you to those channels, and yet the effectiveness is what's keeping you there.
- [24:39]
Tom Gargiulo
Right, Exactly.
- [24:40]
Jenn Rooney
Really exciting. What can we expect to see on the horizon? Obviously, we're coming down to the end of 25. 20, 26 is on the horizon. Anything you want to tease?
- [24:48]
Tom Gargiulo
Well, we still got like 64 days, if I'm not mistaken, left in the calendar year. So we still have a lot to accomplish to help Coca Cola deliver its plan. We're going to be investing heavily over the next several weeks behind our rapid rehydration product, Flash iv. But going into next year, we're going to have an action packed year. We have the Winter Olympics, then we have with Powerade, then March Madness with body armor, and then coming back to the World cup over the summer with Powerade. And then we have the NHL season and we have college football with body armor. I mean, it's like there's not gonna be a time to take a break or a breath in 2026. And we couldn't be more ecstatic about that. That's when we do our best, is when we're consumed with what we have to go do and constantly thinking about ways to break through.
- [25:38]
Jenn Rooney
You're living your dream, Tom. Cause I mean this mashup of sports and this product, it's unbelievable the fact that here you are, given your background, very, very cool. Two last quick questions. How would your team describe you as a leader? And we didn't get into your team in this conversation yet, but maybe you can work a little bit of that in. How's your team structured? How do you think about organizing it in the most effective way? And how would they describe you?
- [26:04]
Tom Gargiulo
Yeah, I can honestly say one of the proudest accomplishments that I've had since I've been here is the leadership team that I've built here in the marketing department. Some of the most gifted, brilliant, hardworking individuals I've ever worked with in my career. You know, that have very different backgrounds as well. Some coming from big companies, small companies that have been here for a number of years. And we're just like an absolute, seamless, efficient machine. But to your question about how my team would view me, I think the first thing that you'll quickly get from me is my sense of humor. I am of the kind of the mantra. If you're not having fun at work, then you're not having fun at all. And if you're not coming into the office and smiling a bunch of times throughout the day, then what the hell are you doing? Why are you doing this? So I always try to infuse some humor and sarcasm into my day to day interactions with the team. In addition to that, I think the team definitely would say that I'm very transparent. So I don't like to hide behind decisions, I don't like to hide behind different forums that people aren't privy to. I'm going to give you all of the facts and everything that I have available at my fingertips to make sure that you're as informed as you possibly could be. Because that's only going to make your job easier. The more information that you have, the better that you can be and the more effective you can be and frankly, the more empowered you can be in your role. And then the last thing is I am the type of person that gives people space, but you have to earn it. So if I'm not seeing the results that I'm expecting and you're not holding yourself to the same level of standard that I think you're able to. I'm going to get into your day to day. But if you're able to do what I think you're capable of doing, I'm going to give you as much space to thrive as possible and I'm going to make sure that you're constantly put in the spotlight.
- [28:01]
Jenn Rooney
I love that. Very well said. The last quick question is, who's next? Who should I have on the podcast? This can be a CMO that you know really, really well and you think they're doing some extraordinary things, or it can be somebody you don't know and you've never met, but you admire them from afar and you think that the brand work they're putting out in the world is inspirational to you.
- [28:19]
Tom Gargiulo
Yeah, that's a really great question. I think I always kind of think about what are those brands that always kind of connect with me or the brands that I always look up to. And you have your kind of your cliche brands like Apple and whatnot. But one brand that I've always been enamored with is the brand Bombas building what they've built from a couple of dudes that wanted to just give back. And now they're selling everything from socks to undergarments to shirts to shoes and all of these things. I mean, I feel like they've done everything the right way. So I don't really know anybody over there. I've heard a couple of the guys speak, but they're definitely a brand that I would look into.
- [29:00]
Jenn Rooney
I will reach out and I'd love to get them on the show. So I will do it and but in the meantime, Tom, thank you so much. I'm so happy that you were here and that we had a chance to unpack some of this. Obviously, lots more to come and we're excited to see what comes from body armor remainder of this year and next. And I look forward to seeing you soon at Brand Week next week in Atlanta. So that's gonna be amazing to spend time in person there. So thanks so much for joining me. And till the next thanks, Jenny.
- [29:28]
Tom Gargiulo
Thank you for listening to Marketing Vanguard, part of the Adweek Podcast Network and Acast Creator Network. You can listen and subscribe to all of Adweek's podcasts by visiting Adweek.com podcasts. Stay updated on all things Adweek Podcast Network by following us on Twitter at Adweek Podcast. And if you have a question or suggestion for the show, send us an email@podcastdweek.com thanks for listening.
- [29:54]
LinkedIn Ads Announcer
Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just speaking into the void? But with LinkedIn ads, you can know you're reaching the right decision makers, a network of 130 million of them. In fact, you can even target buyers by job title, industry, company seniority, skills and Did I say job title? See how you can avoid the void and reach the right buyers with LinkedIn ads. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit for the next one. Get started at LinkedIn.com campaign terms and conditions apply.