The Super Bowl Advertiser RoundUp with Gary Vaynerchuk

Summary

The CMO Podcast

Super Bowl Advertiser RoundUp with Gary Vaynerchuk

February 10, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this special Super Bowl Advertiser Roundtable, host Jim Stengel teams up with Gary Vaynerchuk for their eighth annual post-Super Bowl deep-dive, recorded in collaboration with Vaynerchuk’s “Marketing For The Now” livestream. The episode features candid insights from five CMOs who advertised during Super Bowl 2026: Stephen Seinen (Mondelez/Ritz), Soyoung Kang (eos), Gail Horwood (Novartis), Mehdi Iqbal (F1 Cadillac), and Luis Garcia (Natera/Tree Hut). The panel reflects on standout advertising executions, the evolving value of brand experiences and celebrity, and how each activation extended far beyond the game itself.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Super Bowl 2026: Atmosphere & Brand Evolution

Hosts: Jim Stengel & Gary Vaynerchuk

• Gary highlights a shift in brand activations: “Brands are getting smarter… more thoughtful about bringing influencers, creating content and programming at experiential events.” (03:43)
• The Super Bowl city experience was described as more B2B2C than years past, with events serving as production days for both business relationships and content generation.
• Gary notes: “Ten years ago brands spent 5-10X more and got 5-10X less out of experiential; now it’s about smarter, more efficient value.” (04:20)

2. Individual Highlights & Notable Brand Moments

• Raising Cane's & Fanatics: Called out for creating “really cool parties that are content production days.” (05:15)
• Efficient Relationship-Building: Gary emphasizes the Super Bowl as a unique networking opportunity for B2B marketers—not just an excuse for excess, but for productive meetings and team-building. (06:15)
• Experiential & Team Culture: The internal reward of celebrating with the team who created the ad stands out as a top moment. (Stephen Seinen, 11:54; Luis Garcia, 20:20)
• Pickleball as an Activation Theme: Surprising trend among brand events. (06:44)

3. The Evolving Role and Risk of Celebrities in Advertising

• Gary warns: “I’m scared to use celebrities. A lot of brands are gonna be upset this Monday morning on their brand recall, because they paid a lot of money to play second or third fiddle.” (08:04)
• He stresses the importance of not letting the star overshadow the brand, citing successes and pitfalls seen in this year’s spots.
• On his own Raisin Brad (Raisin Bran) campaign: “The brand was really well represented throughout the ad and did not play third fiddle… we masterfully played what we believe in, which is surround sound.” (09:08)

4. CMO Panel: Reflections and Learnings

Each CMO shares: Brand, campaign experience, standout moment, and self-rating (1–10 scale):

Stephen Seinen — Mondelez/Ritz (Ritz Island)

• Highlight: Celebrating with the full in-person team after “a long, intense process.” (11:54)
• Business Impact: Emphasizes the HR and cultural value of these milestone events. (12:40)
• Rating: 8/10. “Always room to go bigger next year.” (13:47)
• Celebrity Usage: “Celebrities bring cultural relevance and nail the comedic timing; but we were intentional to ensure the brand was not overshadowed.” (26:49)
• Next Steps: Wants to further expand the experiential and sampling dimension: “Trial is incredibly underrated… a lot more money should be put into trial and sampling, not just at retail.” (28:23, 29:18)

Soyoung Kang — eos (“Is it Cake?”)

• Highlight: Experiencing the moment of pride with team and family, and motivating the entire organization. (14:00)
• Rating: 8/10
• Campaign Evolution: Shifted creative approach based on feedback and success last year, forming campaigns around human truths from the consumer base.

  “The Super Bowl is a unique moment where, if you have the right creative and strategy, you can make that moment incredibly impactful… the actual lift in-store sales lasts for weeks after.” (30:42)

• Retail Activation: Focused on driving in-store trial via sensory experience (product sniff tests), underlining the importance of retail partner trust. (33:18)

Gail Horwood — Novartis (“Relax your tight end”)

• Highlight: The public-facing, “Relax Zone” experiential activation stood out, as did collaborating with event design luminaries (e.g., Uber Eats’ use of David Stark).
• Rating: 10/10
• Creative Insight:

  “Behavior change at scale—especially with health—is always hard. It’s really about starting from deep insight and finding authentic storytellers.” (35:31)

• Strategic Layers: Leveraged both celebrity (Gronk and coach Arians) and grassroots activations (screening events with the NFL and advocacy groups like Susan G. Komen), making a direct behavioral impact:

  “Millions came to our site to get reminders to be screened and to nudge their friends.” (38:00)

• Gary’s Praise: “I think it was the best of the night… sometimes Super Bowl is for when there’s something you used to know and need to know now. That’s just… incredible.” (17:23)

Mehdi Iqbal — Cadillac F1 (Mission Begins/Livery Reveal)

• Highlight: “Our hope was to innovate and change the way livery reveals are done forever… we matched our Super Bowl commercial to a physical reveal in Times Square.” (21:59, 23:18)
• Behind the Scenes: “90 days to figure it out… didn’t walk into a fully baked idea, just knew we wanted to innovate.” (43:16)
• Integrated Experience: Ongoing campaign with follow-ups, including partnerships (Apple’s “Shot on iPhone”) and timed fan touchpoints all week. (45:14)
• Rating: “Can’t rate it yet… more coming this week, but very happy so far.” (43:16)
• Brand Strategy: “Not innovation for the sake of change, but to modernize and enhance accessible fan experiences.” (54:56)

Luis Garcia — Natera/Tree Hut (“Uncontain Yourself”)

• Highlight: Internal company pride—team “all wearing Tree Hut shirts, the energy in the room was just moving.” (20:20)
• Unique Creative Approach: “We didn't have celebrities, we had creators who really matter to our community. Some people didn't ‘get’ the ad right away, but for those who did, it was incredibly meaningful. Scaling the belief is what we aimed to do.” (51:24)
• Rating: “It was at 11 for us… Super Bowl as a tactic within a full rebrand campaign.” (52:30)
• Key Lesson: “Remain true to your brand. Don’t try to change it just because it’s the Super Bowl.” (63:30)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Gary Vaynerchuk on Celebrity Ads & Long-Term Recall (08:04):

  “A lot of brands are going to be upset this Monday morning on brand recall… they pay a lot of money to play second or third fiddle.”

• Gary Vaynerchuk on Surround Sound Marketing (09:10):

  “We kinda won going into the Super Bowl. It was one of the most talked about campaigns for the 10 days leading up.”

• Stephen Seinen on Internal Culture (11:54):

  “To experience the culmination of that journey with the people who actually made it happen—that was super rewarding for me.”

• Soyoung Kang on Source of Insights (32:42):

  “We look for something we learn directly from our fan base… If it’s not coming from us, but from the outside in, we know it’s true.”

• Gail Horwood on Marketing Foundations (35:31):

  “We built our own system… marketing at Novartis is grounded in creativity and real insights, with a central core approach.”

• Mehdi Iqbal on Brand Experience (47:46):

  “Everything's a production day… once we understand that, we’ll get more bang for our buck.”

• Luis Garcia on Community-Centered Creative (51:24):

  “The confidence came from knowing that we were not going to change the brand… We need just to amplify what we do best.”

• Gary Vaynerchuk on Measuring Fandom (55:57):

  “Let’s measure the punchline… now that we’re in an interest graph framework, we can double down on what matters: relevance with different consumer segments.”

• Gary Vaynerchuk Predicts the Future of Super Bowl Spots (58:47):

  “Within five years, there’ll be a Super Bowl spot that’s an exact replica of a social media post that got 100 million organic views—black bars and all, in its natural sense.”

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 03:30–05:20 – Brands’ smarter use of experiential activations (Gary)
• 07:53–11:00 – Vaynerchuk’s Super Bowl ad strategy, surround sound, and use of celebs
• 11:22–16:47 – CMO introductions, first impressions, internal team impact
• 24:18–29:18 – Ritz’s evolution, celebrity risk, expansion into sampling/experiential
• 30:42–34:16 – EOS on creative insight, retail activation, and true consumer engagement
• 35:31–44:11 – Novartis: Building foundation for breakthrough creative, impact on health behavior, authentic storytelling
• 43:16–47:46 – Cadillac F1: Fast-track campaign, livery reveal in Times Square, blending digital and physical experience
• 50:06–53:19 – Tree Hut: First-timer reflections, creator over celebrity, remaining true to brand DNA
• 54:59–63:37 – Open panel Q&A: Social graph vs content graph, measurement of fandom, advice for next year’s Super Bowl advertisers
• 63:37–END – Closing advice round from panelists and Gary's last word

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Rapid-Fire Advice Round (Final Takeaways | 62:45–63:37)

• Gail Horwood: “Build an experience—the Super Bowl tactic is just part of it; support the initiative all year.”
• Stephen Seinen: “Be bold. Fortune favors the bold.”
• Soyoung Kang: “Be remembered. Make sure it’s your brand that’s remembered afterward.”
• Mehdi Iqbal: “Radical clarity internally; have your North Star before building the campaign.”
• Luis Garcia: “Remain true to your brand; don’t change just for the Super Bowl.”

Gary’s advice:

“Connect with these incredible marketers, extract the secrets—reach out, learn from them.” (63:43)

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Conclusion

This roundtable reveals how the Super Bowl has evolved into a 360-degree marketing moment—a platform for storytelling, culture building, and business impact both inside and outside of the stadium. Balancing creative risk, cultural relevance, and business clarity, the guests provide a blueprint for how brands can both stand out and stay true as the world’s biggest advertising stage continues to change.

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For Further Learning

• Full guest lineup and campaigns:
  • Ritz Crackers: “Ritz Island” (Stephen Seinen, Mondelez)
  • eos: “Is it Cake?” with Mikey Day (Soyoung Kang)
  • Novartis: “Relax your tight end” (prostate cancer screening) (Gail Horwood)
  • Cadillac F1: “Mission Begins” livery reveal (Mehdi Iqbal)
  • Tree Hut: “Uncontain Yourself” (Luis Garcia)

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(For direct engagement and visual/extended content, connect with the guests via LinkedIn as recommended by Gary Vaynerchuk.)

Transcript

[Jim Stengel]

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[Jim Stengel]

I've helped hundreds of major brands discover and activate their purpose. Because when a brand's purpose is clear, compelling and authentic, profit naturally follows. Each week I welcome the CMOs, the chief marketing officers of your favorite brands, to speak to how their job is so much more than marketing. These leaders share their inspiration and challenges along with how they try to build a full, healthy and happy life in and out of the office. And it's that energy that reaches everyone they touch. And we're glad you're here to feel that energy and to learn from these remarkable leaders. And so here we go. Welcome to our 2026 Super Bowl Advertiser Roundtable. The game might have been a dud unless you were a Seahawks fan, but the evening was full of creative storytelling from the halftime show with Bad Bunny to the wider than ever variety of categories and brands. We recorded this episode the morning after the big game in a collaboration with Gary Vaynerchuk's marketing for the now live streaming event. I open up the show with a short chat with Gary about his weekend at the super bowl and and we then move into a discussion with five leaders who advertised in the game. Our guests include Stephen Seinen, category President Savory snacking with Mondelez. And his ad was Ritz island for Ritz Crackers. Next, Soyoung Kang, president, eos with Mikey Day in. Is it cake? Gail Horwood, chief marketing and customer experience officer at Novartis with an ad this year about prostate cancer screening. Relax your tight end. Next we have Ahmed Iqbal, Chief Marketing Officer, F1 Cadillac, with the Mission Begins ad, which revealed their F1 livery. And our final guest is Luis Garcia, chief marketing officer at Natera Personal Care Products with uncontain yourself for the brand Tree Hut. Five leaders at five brands who all felt their effort met their goals and more. Here we go with Super Bowl Roundtable 2026. Chock full of learning. Gary, good to see you. This is our. Damn it. It's our eighth year in a row we're doing this.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

You know, time flies when you're having fun, Jim.

[Jim Stengel]

We haven't changed a bit.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

No. Look exactly the same.

[Jim Stengel]

So listen, I'm, I did not get there. I'm in Cincinnati. It's kind of sort of cold and snowy here. You were out there all weekend, Santa Clara, San Francisco, and you've been at a bunch of Super Bowls. So let's start with what was. What about this one was different?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Well, I was bitter because I'm a big jets fan. And, you know, seeing the Patriots back in the super bowl, you know, that was a little different. Like, this was actually not different, but it was, it was more of the same. Yeah. You know, I would say that being on the ground, especially Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, San Francisco, I think, was a good host city. You know, a lot of activity, a lot of experiential. You know, I think here's something different, Jim, for sure, brands are getting smarter and smarter, in my opinion, of understanding how to get more value out of experiential. You know, more thoughtful about bringing influencers there, getting them to create content they themselves are getting content. More thoughtful programming at the experiential events, something we've been hot at at Vayner for a long time of like, these events are good as production days for creative and social. And you know this because you grew up in the game. People always kind of inherently knew experiential mattered, but it was expensive. I would say it used to be a little bit even more B2B. It's now B2B2C in some ways. So I would say experiential thoughtfulness. I was here 10 years ago, and I would say that brands spent five to 10 times more and got five to 10 times less out of their experiential just 10 years ago, that would be the biggest observation pregame, you know, Wednesday through Sunday.

[Jim Stengel]

Of all the activations and experiential things, you saw what stuck out, what stood out. Which brands do you think were really nailing it?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I think raising canes and fanatics have really figured it out. They've made really cool parties that are content production days. I think those two brands definitely stand out. I can tell you that for the ABC list, you know, individuals in town, that was the. The big stuff. But it broadened into the amount of content that then hits gen pop. So that, that really stood out to me.

[Jim Stengel]

So you had a lot of activities. What was your favorite moment of the.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Weekend when the Seahawks destroyed the Patriots in the game?

[Jim Stengel]

Well, that was kind of obvious early. It was a weird game, but they had four first downs going into the third quarter. I mean, it's just crazy.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I was thrilled. It wasn't weird to me. I thought the Patriots were incredibly, you know, you get to super bowl, you have to do a lot of things right. But I think the ball definitely bounced their way this year. And I thought what, you know, my prediction all week was 44 nothing. Seattle.

[Jim Stengel]

Yeah, I thought it would be a blowout, actually.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I would say that the individual meetings just having, you know, one of my favorite things about super bowl, and this is a very B2B answer for everyone who's watching. I like Super Bowl. I like Possible, I like Can I. I like CES because of the efficiency. You know, everybody can play it the way they want to play their super bowl weekend. For me, the one on one meetings, the one on five meetings, definitely the highlight for me was Wednesday night When we had 15 Vayner X employees together in a private room and just doing family business, you know, and many of them have been at the company for more than 10 years. So, you know, you're doing some team building, right? And then Thursday there's just a lot of one on one meetings with clients and then some group stuff. And then, you know, there's a Vayner X brunch the next day and we went up and Nick Tran did a great job with Ciroc in Napa Valley. Pickleball was a very big theme this weekend. You know, that was, you know, as a pickleball owner in the league, I was very happy to see how often that was being activated and used. And so, yeah, I think, I think for a lot of you that are listening, it's, you know, a lot of you that are real operators you poo poo these events. You think it's people coming to get drunk or not do anything and things of that nature, which is very true for, you know, at these conferences in many different ways. But the real ones really make it incredibly efficient and effective. And so that's what stood out for me.

[Jim Stengel]

Jim, we'll bring in our guests in a minute. But you did a Super bowl ad again. This, over the years, yours got a lot of positive reviews and I think it scored pretty high in the ad meter. I think that's just breaking. So tell us about the spot you did and why you're proud of it. If you are, I assume you are.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I am proud of it, but my team knows. And, you know, I'm funny, Jim, like I always. Here's why I'm very proud this year. I am petrified.

[Jim Stengel]

And by the way, it was Will Shad, right? Raisin Brad.

[Luis Garcia]

Yes.

[Mehdi Iqbal]

Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yes. Raisin Brad, everyone. I. I'm scared to use celebrities. I think a lot of people wake up this morning and they're like, oh, did you see the Scarlett Johansson ad? Or did you see that? You know, you know, it just. I get scared about that. The Gronk ad. You know, we're going to talk to some of the people that used and it'll be interesting to see their insights on it. There's a way to use it and there's a way not. I thought there was. Somebody sent a tweet out that said a lot of brands are going to be upset this Monday morning on their brand recall, you know, because they play second. They pay a lot of money to individuals to play second or third fiddle. But I'm very proud of the team. They felt a lot of pressure for me. If I'm just going to be very vulnerable and transparent. I think the team knew that when I heard the idea that I wasn't completely thrilled, which is fun to say because the ad is. You're right. It's universally, you know, consumed very well by our industry standards. But what I was pumped about was two things. One, the brand really was really well represented throughout the ad and did not play third fiddle. Two, I think we masterfully played what we believe in, which is surround sound. Super bowl surround sound. I mean, we kind of won going into the Super Bowl. It was definitely one of the, no question, forget about subjective opinions, you know, objective data. It was just incredibly talked about for the 10 days leading up, including the fact that we ceded photos to the press anonymously of William eating cereal while he was driving, which was from the shoot, but was interpreted by the general population as a real photo of him eating cereal while he was driving, which created a lot of buzz. And then that allowed, you know, one of the bar advantages is we have a mouthpiece in me. I was everywhere press wise, talking about the spot and these are all just continued reinforcements. Plus we had a very simple value prop around fiber, you know, the poop fiber. Like, it was just very easy for America to digest. I myself can speak to this. I sometimes, you know, overcomplicate things. Obviously, I think my career has worked because I'm good at making complicated things, simple wine marketing. So I, I appreciated the simplicity. I appreciated that raisin brain was in it, not like an afterthought. And I really appreciated all the social, creative and all the PR strategies we put in place to do Subaru surround sound. I'm, I'm really proud of the team. I'm, I'm happy to publicly say, you know, I think a lot of times an owner will come and take credit, you know, for everything. I. Where I started to where we ended up. Kudos to the team on executing on, you know, our two biggest thesis, which is don't let the star overshadow the brand. And if you do not use social media surround sound for super bowl, you're. You're not realizing it's 2026 anymore.

[Jim Stengel]

All right, Gary, that's a good segue for our guests. And we have five of them today. Hi, Gail. So young, Mehdi, Stephen, Luis, you're all smiling. Rest it ready to go. So listen, thanks for joining us. We have two first timers for the super bowl and three returning veterans. So. But what I'd like to do, Gary and I would like to do is have you go around the room here. And that's basic stuff. Name brand that you advertised in the super bowl so our audience can visualize all this if they're not watching.

[Mehdi Iqbal]

And.

[Jim Stengel]

And what stood out for you this weekend? Something that you did might have been at your home on the screen and experiential. So one thing that popped out from the weekend for you. So let's start with our two veterans. Steve, why don't you start Stephen at Ritz.

[Stephen Seinen]

Yes. And Jim, Gary, great to see you again. So, Stephen, I oversee our savory brands, our crackers portfolio at Mondelez, and we had Ritz in the Super Bowl. So for me, what was special, I had my full team here in San Francisco. Full rich, all the rich people who worked on the ad. That was very cool. Honestly, I think all of us around this virtual table. We all know it's a long, intense process. Then to be able to experience the culmination of that journey with the people who actually made it happen, that was super rewarding for me. A little bit. What you were saying, Gary, between all the events of the big weekend, for me, it's the family moments that stand out. When you, like, finally just get five minutes to sit down, have a drink, and just let off some steam with the crew.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And I will tell you, brother, just to jump in on that, like, this is real business. You know, I know a lot of you really well, and some of you not as much. But, like, I think one of the things that I continue to pound at the CEO and CFO level about stuff like this is, like, that stuff matters too. I'm like, look how much money you're spending on HR and training and recruiting and retention. To your point, you sitting down with a team member for five minutes and talking about their family might be the reason that person wants to stay at Mondelez for another three more years, which has incredible economic impact. And so I think, you know, the world has become incredibly data oriented. I'm sure we'll touch on AI at some point, but it's incredible how much the value of old school, 1950s humanity. Right. And I do find that at events like this, it comes up. And I appreciate you bringing that up from your lens as well, because I think you're very right and it really matters.

[Jim Stengel]

So, Stephen, one question before we move on. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being you really nailed it. How did this year meet your goals?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Probably around an 8.

[Jim Stengel]

8. Okay, cool. We'll come back and talk about that in a moment. Sounds good. Okay. So, young. Good to see you again. Introduce yourself. Yeah. The brand that you advertised and something special this weekend.

[Soyoung Kang]

So my name is Soyoung Kang. I'm president at eos. And something special this weekend. You know, it was just really great to, like, Stephen, experience this as a point of pride, both with the team, but also with my family. And I think it's absolutely right that these things really do matter for our teams. And so investing in something like a big campaign moment, big tent pole moment for your brand, it's really incredible how motivating that is to the broader organization just as much as many of the other intangible things that we invest in as business people all the time. So really, really proud of the work that the team put into it.

[Jim Stengel]

On a scale of 1 to 10. 10. Really? You nailed your goals.

[Soyoung Kang]

What would you Say, you know, I'm going to give myself an 8 too. And only because you always have to leave a little room to reach for. Next year.

[Jim Stengel]

Sounds like a returner Again next year. Okay, Gail, we'll bring you into this. Hey, guys, Gail at Novartis. So tell us about your weekend. I mean, you're the second year coming back. I think last year was amazing. This year, in my opinion, you really crushed it. But tell me, tell us what stood out for the.

[Mehdi Iqbal]

In the weekend for you?

[Gail Horwood]

For me, what stood out was the super bowl fan experience and building a little bit about what you and Gary were saying at the beginning. The experiential aspect and how the general public was experiencing the super bowl is really exciting to me. Families, thousands of people going through the super bowl experience. We had a on site activation and experiential activation and we believe very strongly in building platforms that can be supported stretchy and, and go into experiences. So we had something called the Relax Zone. But I just loved experiencing. You know, I thought UberEats did a brilliant job. They had David Stark, an event designer who you would normally see, you know, doing things like the Met Gala or something like that, but did the Uber Eats activation. So the care and the craft of these experiential activations that like, not that long ago were sort of like card tables with people handing out premiums. So. So people are really going deep into it. We did. And you're really engaging the general public. So that was for me a highlight, seeing all of these experiential activations as Gary and you were talking about.

[Jim Stengel]

Were there any tight ends in your Relax Zone?

[Gail Horwood]

We did have some folks come by, but yeah, it was a really fun campaign.

[Jim Stengel]

So scale of one to ten for you, Gail?

[Gail Horwood]

You know, for us it was a 10. I mean. Cause we wanted to show up as an integrated platform and really capture both kind of the attention of the general public and get people to make behavior change. So we did a lot of also other on site activations. We did something with the 49ers, with Claire Kittle, George Kittle's wife, did a coffee. And so we really surrounded the campaign, the super bowl activation. So I'm going to give, I'm going to give our team A10, if I may, Gail.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I just, I thought it was so well done. Like, this is exactly what super bowl is for. I personally, as a human now understand and know that there's a shot. I think that's bananas. I. I think it is. I actually think it's one of the things brands miss too much of like action oriented this goes back to the coinbase bouncing QR code I continue every CPG that's listening free advice don't need to work with us though none of my clients take me up on it so I'm not sure if this is going to land but I think trial and sampling should be happening at super bowl at scale through the spot itself to a destination. Everyone cries about the cost of fulfillment yet we waste money on everything in our industry so but I I you know I've known you a very long time and I have a lot of love for you. This is very fun to give you flowers I think it I think it was the best and listen by the way some of us are selling cereal or crackers it also is they were in the and this is something for all businesses to think about Board members pay attention closely here. Cfo' pay attention. They had the best ingredients to do something they're aware that none of us knew this this is something they have awareness is exactly what Super Bowls for a lot of times and so they also were in a position you know just on the I'm I'm sure they have better data than I have but I'm good at this game Almost no one knows that now shot and we can loosen up our rear ends and now everyone knows shot that's as good as it gets and I would say B2B companies B2G companies B2A company like B2C excuse me, company like this misunderstanding or not aware of is the first people that should be doing Super Bowl. Especially if there's something you used to know and now there's something you need to know. Wow. That's just like incredible.

[Jim Stengel]

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[Mehdi Iqbal]

Right?

[Jim Stengel]

We had Coke, Pepsi, weight anthropic against everyone else. Anyway, hey, Luis, we'll bring, we'll bring you into this. Luis, you're a first timer, a rookie. So introduce yourself. And what was special this weekend? Yeah.

[Luis Garcia]

Luis Garcia, CMO at Natera International overseen brands. One of the brands is Tree Hut. So very excited. First of all, good to see you, Jim. Gary, this panel is just fantastic. My favorite moment actually wasn't on Sunday which is interesting. It started with. It started on Monday. Well, it's like really looking our community and our employees react. We posted on social media. We didn't have celebrities, we had creators and for them they are celebrities right. In their own ways. And they started to really feel that pride that I'm in a super, I'm going to be in a Super bowl ad. And that was continued on Friday with our employees. And I think Stephen, as you were mentioning just that moment with your people, we had a company on Friday, we all wearing our Tree hut shirt, Super Bowls and, and, and the energy in the room of 120 people wearing the same shirts, like the smiles, it was just moving. So seeing that pride, that excitement, the messages then that started and then on Sunday all the messaging that started like slack everything, everybody like tears, jumping video. So moments like this is what really reinforce that your people and your community are your most important assets. And I think when they feel that proud that the brand is building, it just creates a momentum that you can't really manufacture any other way.

[Jim Stengel]

I love that. Mehdi, let's bring you in. Introduce yourself. You had a lot of firsts this weekend and we'll talk about that later when we come back to you. But introduce yourself, the brand and what was special for you. And maybe it was around Times Square. I don't know. You have, you have to tell me.

[Mehdi Iqbal]

Yeah, no, definitely guys, pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here to speaking with you all. But first, Ahmed Iqbal, friends call me Mehdi here from the Cadillac Formula one team and it's, it was a very special week and I think the first thing for us and you guys talked a little bit about it before is making sure that there's a strong plan going into the weekend and coming out of the weekend. For us, it was more about making a statement of how Formula one does livery reveals. And our hope was to innovate and change the way liver reveals are done forever. And so what we did is we ran the super bowl spot and we ran a 30 second spot while we produced a 60. The 30 was really just focused on the livery itself. And in Formula one world, this is really where the season kicks off, where you get to see the first expression of identity of a team and it's taken very seriously. There's a lot of, there's a lot of pageantry to it and I think we took it to the next level and we married it to not just the spot, but doing a physical activation. And we did that a little differently as well. Instead of doing an invite only event in a warehouse somewhere, we actually focused on putting it in the most accessible place possible. In a city that doesn't have a race, but a city that's a global crossroad. Right. It's a global sport that we're trying to ramp up awareness and excitement in America. So Times Square, home of all countdowns, we brought a countdown to delivery reveal there. So we matched our super bowl commercial to a physical reveal in Times Square.

[Jim Stengel]

It's so good. We'll talk about that more later. But beautiful, beautiful car, by the way.

[Mehdi Iqbal]

Thank you.

[Jim Stengel]

Incredible.

[Mehdi Iqbal]

Excited about it.

[Jim Stengel]

So listen, what we're going to do is we actually went out on LinkedIn and asked our community for questions and we got a fantastic response. We're going to integrate some of those questions into our, into our conversation. As Gary and I have done for eight years in a row. We're going to sort of go to each person for a few minutes to talk about what you did. Welcome all of you to come into that conversation. And then toward the end, if you have a burning question for each other, we'd love to open it up to that. So Luis, you might want to ask Soyoung something, you know, so. So we'll come to that. And Gary, you feel free to jump in anytime you want, as you always do. And it's always good. It's always good. So interruptions are welcome. And we're going to start with the, the veterans and then go to the rookies. So. And Stephen, I think we're going to come back to you. So you return to the super bowl this year and to our roundtable. You were in a roundtable this time last year and since we've been together. You've been promoted to president. So congratulations.

[Stephen Seinen]

Thank you so much.

[Jim Stengel]

So the ad must have worked last.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Year for you and the Roundtable.

[Jim Stengel]

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So listen, I listened to our show last year at this time, and this was your first time advertising for Ritz, and you said you had three goals. You wanted the consumers to reappraise the brand. You want to make Grits a more modern, exciting brand, and you wanted to introduce the salty Club as a campaign platform. So let's start there. Any different goals this year? Any evolution of those goals or the same goals?

[Stephen Seinen]

First, Jim, I would say excellent recap of the goals this year. The overarching goal did not change. We're on this journey to modernize the brand, and that's a commitment over the long term. So, for sure, we're also really sticking to salty as a platform. It's working really well for the brand, but it's something that consumers love about the product. This salty, buttery flavor, it gives us a bit of an edge, which we were really lacking as a brand. It also matches an aspiration because we want to put this brand on the map, not just as number one cracker, but as a major salty player. So that works really well. I think what changed for us is we wanted to dial up the energy of the creative, expand that salty world and be a little bit louder, if you will, to really break through in all the noise of the Super Bowl. And I think the other thing, in terms of surround, we had more Runway, and in store, that's a really big focus for us. Obviously, it's the full 360, but in store is really where the magic happens. So we had a really big focus there. And this was all based on the learnings from last year. So last year was successful. You know, we reached our brand goals, household penetration, etcetera, but also our business goals, which is really the first thing we look at, specifically market share. But then we also saw that we have more Runway and we can lean in a little bit more, and this is working for us. But, you know, don't play it safe and just go all in.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Stephen, you know, I brought up earlier my concern of one celebrity. I have a funny feeling they were not a couple of dollars each, you know, and there was many of them. Your personal thoughts? I mean, easier for me. I know there's no board. I don't have bosses, so easier for me to be 100% transpar. But I'm just genuinely curious. Is that a concern at times? Both from a cost standpoint and again, how do you not make it the Scarlett Johansson ad? Right. How do you make it about solved?

[Stephen Seinen]

It's an excellent question, Gary, and it's definitely something we take very seriously. The reason why we went that direction is for us, we go back to the objective.

[Mehdi Iqbal]

Right.

[Stephen Seinen]

They really do bring cultural relevance. They also just fantastic comedians and actors that just nail the comedic timing and that specific salty humor that we're aiming for, like so that's massive.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

So the humor. Humor was the framework that you were the lens you were all thinking through.

[Stephen Seinen]

Exactly. And then this.

[Luis Garcia]

Yes.

[Stephen Seinen]

So we had three. But then the fact that they have the chemistry between them, you know, amplifies a delivery of the humor as well. But then you mentioned brand recall. And so that's really how we're thinking of offsetting the risk of this being the Scarlett Johansson ad for sure. So we are very intentional about starting with the product and the brand. That's. I go back to saltiness as a platform. That's why it's worked so well. And the payoff also has to really resonate in terms of what the brand stands for, which is to bring people together whether they're salty or not. Right. And then we are very deliberate about having all the right branding cues all throughout the spot. So making sure that people actually attribute what we do to Ritz. And so far from what we're seeing, so far so good. That's really important to us.

[Jim Stengel]

So you said you'd Give yourself an 8 out of 10 when we opened it up. What would you do to get it to a 10 out of 10?

[Stephen Seinen]

I think it's year over year.

[Luis Garcia]

I almost think it was like you have the creative at the core and.

[Stephen Seinen]

Then you have the surround.

[Mehdi Iqbal]

Right.

[Stephen Seinen]

We're trying to amp up the creative and dial up that energy, etc. We have a little ways to go there also. But specifically in terms of the surround, there's more for us to do. Gary, you mentioned experiential. I think that's still white space for us, to be perfectly honest.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

And. And for you.

[Stephen Seinen]

Right.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I'm sorry to interrupt. If you decide to do LA for everyone, I mean, to me it's like if you're going to do the super bowl like that, like, I don't know, give away a drillion Ritz crackers, like literally let no human in Los Angeles not consume it during that three, four day window. Because I, I really do. You know, as a marketer, I say this and this might be a little wild, but I think a lot more money should be Put into trial and sampling and not at the, not at the grocery or retail level because they're going to tax you to death more just like experiential. I think super bowl is one of those places, like, if I go to LA next year, and just like Ritz crackers are being handed out by 40,000 people they hired for the weekend, I'm going to be very happy because I think it's right. I think it's a way to reinforce. And trial is incredibly underrated by us consumer package. Good people. Once you know, there's a lot of people haven't had a Ritz in seven years, and they're like, wait a minute, this is salty.

[Stephen Seinen]

100%. And, you know, next year, Super Bowl 61. So maybe we do 61 million crackers or something. We sell 33 billion crackers each year.

[Jim Stengel]

So for the record, I have lots of RIT in my house, Steve, and I have lots of Ritz because I have granddaughters now. And it's a perfect cracker for I, I. You know, it's delicious, buttery, it crumbles. So anyway, we got lots of them around here. And by the way, Melissa Niemeyer at Deloitte had thrown in a question for you, and it was about, how did you build off last year's learning to reach your success? And I think you've. I think you've talked that and you've nailed that. So I want to bring in so Young to this. You're also a podcast alum. You got promoted to president last year as Stephen did. And by the way, here's trivia. You two got promoted the same month.

[Stephen Seinen]

Oh, that's cool.

[Mehdi Iqbal]

Congrats.

[Soyoung Kang]

Yeah, there you go. We need a. We need a club celebration.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Stephen, it sounds like more people need to get on your podcast. It sounds if they're a podcast guest, they get promoted.

[Jim Stengel]

It's definitely an accelerator. Thank you, Gary. So listen, you also came back two consecutively years like Ritz, and I want to channel, you know, Melissa's question from Deloitte. Last year you went out. What did you learn? How did you apply that? And I think what's interesting for you is you have a very different creative execution this year, whereas Stevens, I think, was in the same platform. So let's start with that. Let's look back. What did you learn last year and how did you apply it to this year? So young.

[Soyoung Kang]

Yeah, I mean, I think what we learned last year was, first of all, that the super bowl is a very unique period in time when you have this sort of collective attention of so many people that if you have the right creative and you have the right strategy and you can make that moment incredibly impactful, it, it is an, it's an unbelievable ROI that you can get. And we do know that through all of like the measurement that we did, and we saw actual in store sales lift in our product for weeks after airing that spot last year. And so we were looking to kind of recreate that magic, but we really felt like, you know, sort of similar to the comments that Steven made, that we could create more surround sound opportunities around that singular moment so that you can make that investment last a bit longer. So this year we, you know, we did this partnership with Mikey Day and with the Is a Cake franchise. The whole, the whole insight within it was that EOS products make you smell like a cupcake. And so we took that a bit further and said, well, what if people couldn't actually tell the difference between you and a cupcake and place that within the context of the is It Cake franchise? And so even leading up to the super bowl, we had the surround sound elements. Like we had EOS cakes that actually look like products that we were selling through a partnership nationally and created that like buzz and that excitement around EOs. Like you really can't tell the difference between EOS and Cake. So that drove a lot of social engagement. So we saw this lift in social engagement across all of our platforms and gave us the best possible launching pad for entering into the, into the big game. I think that the, while the creative may have shifted, I think that insight is something that we're always looking for in any of the work that we do, where we look for something that we learn directly from our fan base and then we know it's true. If it's not coming from us, if it's something that we're hearing from the outside in, and then we can create a strategy around that and anchor our creative around that. We feel really good that it's anchoring in a human truth in this cake. In this case, that EOS makes you smell like a cake.

[Jim Stengel]

Gary, do you want to smell like a cake?

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

I do smell like a cake, Jim. I smell like a cake 24 7. So I've been on this cake for a while. You know, I tend to be on trend early, so. Which I smell like different cakes at different times, Jim. But yes, not only do I want to, I've been on this kick for about seven to eight years.

[Soyoung Kang]

You're a trendsetter, Gary.

[Jim Stengel]

Yeah, of course he is. So before we leave you, Stephen, talk about the retail activation and how that works so well for them. And could you talk a bit more, you referenced that a bit more about how you've activated this outside the confines of the weekend.

[Soyoung Kang]

Well, we're a slightly different category because I actually believe, and I agree really strongly, Gary, with you, that sampling and trial is incredibly important. And for us though, our product actually is to some extent sampleable in store in a way that, for example, you can't open up a package of Ritz crackers. But we often see that consumer behavior in store for our product is they open up the bottle, they take a sniff, and if they like it, they'll purchase it. And so for us, that drive to store and that stickiness to actually get into stores and try the product is incredibly important. And the one thing that we need to be able to deliver as a marketing team is that confidence among our retail partners so that they know that we are going to have that kind of pull to be able to push consumers to get into the stores to try the product. So for us, it's really about getting that footfall across into, into our customers.

[Jim Stengel]

Everyone seems to be chasing the next big thing, the fastest answer, the quickest win. But great. CMOs believe the real power isn't in the speed. It's in stepping back to see the bigger picture. That's why everything Deloitte does in their CMO program, from their industry leading capabilities to their connected network of CMOs, is designed to help you zoom out and gain fresh perspective. Deloitte will help you see the bigger picture together. Learn more about the CMO [e-mail]. So, Gail, we're going to move up to you. You've been at Novartis four and a half years as CMO and Chief Experience Officer. Last year you leaned into breast cancer screening with a spunky, direct, excellent execution. I think you did it again this year on prostate cancer prevention. The blood test, just excellent work. So you thread a tough needle two years in a row with tough topics in the creative showcase of the year, right? The Super Bowl. So could you talk a bit about what kind of culture process you have at Novartis that yields this kind of amazing creative work that I suspect you'll tell us has quite an impact.

[Gail Horwood]

It does have an impact. And thanks. And you know, behavior change at scale, there's nothing harder. And particularly with health, health behaviors, really, really tough. But what we've done is we've built a really strong foundation at Novartis. I Had the good fortune to join and was given the remit to build a strong central marketing function. We had been a decentralized marketing function, so strong marketers, but no central core approach. And I don't believe work like this is possible without some of those foundations. So we built our own sort of system. We call it the of marketing. We were all trained and we've been really doubling down on creativity. I myself come from more of the creative side of the business. I started in, in media and worked at brands like, you know, Martha Stewart and InStyle. So an unlikely road for me to be here at a pharma company, but bringing all that I learned and all the best practices around, consumer engagement and really building off an insight. So like, like the colleagues on this podcast, we really start with the insight, what is it?

[Soyoung Kang]

What?

[Gail Horwood]

And then what is the behavior, behavioral barrier? What are we trying to change? Last year, you know, the insight was really simple. Breasts are adored but ignored. So women spend a lot of time, a lot of people spend a lot of time thinking about women's breasts, but not necessarily when it matters most, when they need to make a proactive health decision. You know, one in two women skip their annual mammograms in the US and that's for a variety of reasons. But in this case, women know they should get, you know, they should get screened, but they get that life gets in the way, access gets in the way, and other things. So we put together something that we felt met the moment, you know, you talk about the Super Bowl. 50% female audience or 47% female audience, the whole Taylor Swift effect. So we thought it was the right place to have that conversation at a broad scale. But you're right, it's a. It's a really fine line in threading a needle in order to be humorous, get, get into culture, but not, you know, strike, strike, you know, not be too provocative, but really have the focus beyond the message. And what I was excited to see and what we were really encouraged by is that through our own tracking and reports from our advocacy partners, like Susan G. Komen, for example, women were taking that step. They were, you know, expressing intent to be screened. Millions came to the website to get reminders to be screened and to nudge their friends. So we, we had great confidence that this was a platform that could work. What was interesting is last year we had not announced our NFL partnership, so we were not NFL partners. So we kind of worked with the cheerleading community to bring that message to the Super Bowl. In the subsequent months, we announced an NFL partnership. And as we thought about leaning into proactive health choices for men this year in prostate cancer screening and really digging into why men aren't getting screened, we really wanted to lean into our NFL partnership and the football community. So that's sort of. The two pieces led to this. We did a lot of behavioral and insights research and got to the insight around men are avoiding getting screened because of either fear or misunderstanding or lack of knowledge about the dre, the digital rectal exam. So this idea that you can just start with a blood test and it is a starting point, you may need a DRE if something is uncovered. But the point is.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Wait a minute.

[Gail Horwood]

It's an important tool once you get screened. But the point is you can get screened and get peace of mind as an initial first step. So. So we kept the message really simple. I think the other thing that's important is to have authentic storytellers. So when you talk about celebrity Gary, and we did use Gronk, it was about that relationship with Coach Arians and that player coach relationship and the authenticity of that.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It was such a deep cut. But you also had an audience of 30 million men. You know, they got way more men, but I'm going to say 30 million, maybe 40 million men that knew that that was his coach, you know, and probably another 25 to 30 million that recognize some of the secondary and tertiary celebrity tight ends. But for. But in a lot of ways this is real. This was super interesting. What went through my mind. I appreciated that you used. And by the way, I'm big on this lower cost, you know. You know, sometimes it's awareness. You did both things, right, Gail? You guys did full awareness, you know, which is obviously super bowl important. But I will say that one of the hardest things in television commercials and why I struggle with them outside of this platform is you tend to go vanilla and you're trying to be everything to everyone and you end up being nothing to no one. So relevance is incredibly hard in a 30 second video. Right? It's just hard. And I thought the way you did it, Gail, and obviously, you know, I know you know there's an audience watching. So you go to Gronk, where everyone knew, you know and knows here, but like Vernon, like you used very nerdy, you know, and again, that's the right spot. You've got a lot of die hard football fans. And I, I personally as a human appreciated some of the other characters that were the other tight ends that were in it. And I think some of those were very good cost roi if you negotiated well enough that I think you should have based on where their personal brands are right now, I thought that was really well done.

[Soyoung Kang]

Yeah, thanks.

[Gail Horwood]

We. And we. It was really important to us to have a mix of current players and of legends. And so with Kittle and Colby and it, we have team deals with the rams and the 49ers. So there were a lot of layers to this, because really what we're trying to do is build awareness to the point, but then activate where people are taking action. So we're doing screening events throughout the year. We've worked, in fact, in connection with the super bowl, we did an amazing event with the 49ers where people are actually getting screened or have the opportunity to get screened. And they are. So it's not just the platform, but it's how are we enabling simplicity so people can take an action? And that. That the work with the NFL is so important. We share that proactive health, you know, that. That same value of. Of getting people to make proactive health decisions and then leveraging the team and the current players as well as the legend. So there were a lot of layers in it. But I go back to. We built a marketing philosophy at Novartis and a set of tools that help us get to these deep insights, but then activate at scale with creative at the core. I really believe so strongly in real people, real storytelling, real world experiences, and that's our. We have a create platform, and it's central to that.

[Jim Stengel]

It was beautiful storytelling, by the way. Bad Bunny's halftime show was beautiful storytelling. So it was a great night of storytelling on many fronts. And speaking of storytelling, Mehdi, we're going to bring you into this. Now. This was a first, right? This first super bowl spot for Cadillac's F1 brand. First time, as you said, a Formula 1 team has advertised in the super bowl and revealed a car at the same livery at the same time. And I think you were only hired in October. Do I have that right? Yeah.

[Mehdi Iqbal]

End of October. Yeah. October 20th.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Okay.

[Jim Stengel]

Right, yeah. And I think you did not walk into an idea that was fully baked. You walked into, hey, we're going to be in the Super Bowl. Get to work. So you did it. Congrats to you and your team. But let's start out with. Are you happy with how everything went?

[Mehdi Iqbal]

Yeah. Honestly, I've had the good fortune in my past career to sit, you know, on the side and watch a Super bowl campaign at Audi that I've talked to Gary about in the past get created. So I Know the process a little bit. Right. But that's a four to five month process if you're lucky and you can plan against it. And you're usually building off of a brand narrative that's already been placed. So here, yeah, we come in, you have 90 days to figure it out. Don't have a marketing team, don't have an agency on board. Don't have an idea. Just know that we want to innovate. Livery reveal. So while learning F1 and then getting a team together and getting an agency on board, it was, it was like everything else this amazing team is doing. It's a race against time. Right? The same way the car is being built, the same way the team is being built, the super bowl campaign is being built. So it was a lot, it was a lot of work. And to your point, I think we're really, really happy with the outcome this far. We actually have more to come. We're not done yet. We actually, for the next couple of days, you're going to see some more stuff that connects because really by coincidence, we got really lucky. The we had the super bowl spot in livery reveal connected. That was very much so planned in our control. But the very first time delivery will be on track in preseason testing is actually starting today in Bahrain. And so we were like, we couldn't miss this opportunity to do, let's call it a curtain call and do something interesting to say, hey, as a, as a user, as a consumer or a fan, you see the car, you know, first you see it in a TV spot, then if you're in New York and you know, you see it in person and then you see it in an out of home program. Now you see it running, doing sprints in Bahrain on the track. And so from a fan perspective, it's like, well, you get all this amazing content in, you know, three to four days. And so we wanted to make sure we connected all those dots. So to answer your question, I couldn't even do a 1 to 10 yet because we, I got to get to Wednesday afternoon and I'll be able to give you a proper answer. But there's, there's a lot that had to be done in a very short amount of time. But, you know, as I'm learning the world of F1, everything happens under a lot of pressure at the last minute.

[Jim Stengel]

So tell us about this idea. How did it happen? I mean, I get it. Going to the Super Bowl, I get. But then you said, okay, we're going to do a parallel reveal. So what was the birth of that idea. Tell us about that.

[Mehdi Iqbal]

Yeah. So, I mean, first, Dan and Cassidy Towers had the idea back in August that they wanted to change the way livery reveals were done. This is the first one of the team. So we needed to make it big, we needed to make it important. So the super bowl spot idea was there. Then, you know, moving a little bit down the line, it's like, okay, well, is that enough? Right? Are people going to get it? Are people going to watch, you know, the 130 million people that watch super bowl every year, are they going to see a spot of a Formula one car and understand why they should be paying attention to why they should care? And I think that started the conversation of, okay, well, we should probably invest more from a content perspective. And like Gary said, you know, like raising canes, does they create these environments and where it's really fun to be there in person, but really the goal isn't to make it the most fun in person. The goal is to make it the most fun digitally, and that's to create a lot of great content to create that moment. So that was a conversation we had internally. Is this too much to do a second event? Do we have the bandwidth? Or does this feed into the same goal of what we're trying to do? And at the end of the day, it was, let's come up with an idea that innovates the way this is done, but also changes the sport's accessibility. Right. And F1 is a very, you know, it's a luxury sport. It's an elevated sport. It's the pinnacle of racing. There's only 24 races and they're in cities all across the globe. But so many of the fans across the world don't get a chance to either go to a race or experience it. So we wanted to think about accessible ways to. While still remaining elevated, Accessible ways for people to experience the team. And to me, that comes through physical experience outside of off the track, but also great digital experience and a level of transparency that we can bring people in. And I think that's what we were endeavoring to achieve with the experience in Times Square and what you'll see coming. And the cat's kind of out of the bag. We ran the, you know, ran the headline that we are partnering with Apple on a shot on iPhone campaign around the Bahrain execution. Which. Yeah. Which will be. Which will be running. So the goal really is to find all different mediums to bring the sport and the team to new fans while paying homage to the core fandom. Right. I would hope the core F1 fans see this and they're like, that's cool. They're changing the way liveries are done, while at the same time, new fans that may have just seen the F1 movie maybe watch Drive to Survive, maybe are just getting into it because they have a favorite driver, are like, oh, that's really cool. They're bringing it to me in a platform I like. They're bringing to me in a place I'm comfortable and they're starting to pull me into their world. And that's really the thought behind it.

[Jim Stengel]

Gary, you must love it.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Yeah. Yeah. And I think the thing that I would say is the thing that most caught my attention in that beautiful rant was I hope brands are starting to realize, like, everything's a production day. And I think once we understand that, like, I just, it wouldn't be a, a session with me if I didn't rail on the old way of doing things. I mean, this idea of paying companies to come up with ideas on retainer just feels very antiquated. And then to pay and then the second part gets antiquated is we spend an enormous amount of money to do a production in a fake environment. It just feels like there's a better way. And I think we're starting to get there. And it doesn't. And it doesn't even require the Super Bowl. It just becomes a day to day way of life. And I think whether it's sampling, whether it's experimental, whether it's business meetings, internally, I know weird stuff that I would, you know, that as, you know, Jim, people made jokes of me about, or even when I, you know, called you out of the blue and said, you should do a CMO podcast. To me it's. The podcast is a production day for the social media clips. Right. So I, I hope brands start getting more bang for their buck.

[American Airlines Announcer]

Hi, everybody. I'm Andrea Sullivan, the CEO of Vive and we have produced the CMO podcast with Jim Stengel for many years. And I'm sitting in his seat right now. It's so exciting. I wanted to tell you a little bit about one of our programs. It's called Vive by Vayner. It's a 12 month program that's designed for C suiters and founders. And we want to help people to grow their businesses, but also to grow themselves. And so we bring in people from Shark Tank to talk to our founders, but we also focus on wellness. We want to make sure that people are leaning into becoming their best selves, their Best and happiest selves. So if you are someone that wants to learn how to grow your business and grow yourself, check us out at vive Co. That's V Y V E dot co. We'd love to talk to you.

[Jim Stengel]

Well, Luis, let's turn to you. I think you know how to get bang for your buck, right?

[Mehdi Iqbal]

Yes.

[Jim Stengel]

So this is the, this is your first year. Let's start with that. What compelled you to make that decision?

[Luis Garcia]

We looked at Tree Hut, right. And we clearly realized that the brand is behaving like a big brand. I mean, we're, we're, we're a challenger brand, right. We're smaller, social, first brand. But culturally, which is very, very important, we're behaving sometimes even better than some of these bigger brands. Right. And that's the moment that we realized, okay, we don't have a big mass media moment, but we need to amplify what we currently have. We have this momentum with our community, with our creators building that product. Love.

[Mehdi Iqbal]

Right.

[Luis Garcia]

And at some point it was really more than the belief that we had internally and said like, we need to share this with the masses. And scaling the belief is what we aim to do.

[Jim Stengel]

So I have a question from one of our community, Melanie Seaboard, actually at the research company Humanology, she asked what gave you the confidence that the uncontain yourself creative idea and the integration of your creators was strong enough would work be compelling in that environment of the Super Bowl. So talk a bit about that. How, when did you get, and how did you get the confidence to do it?

[Luis Garcia]

I think the confidence came from knowing that we were not going to change the brand.

[Jim Stengel]

Right.

[Luis Garcia]

We're going to continue to remain authentic to who we are, remain through the really knowledge of our creators, our OGs, as we call it. Right. We started in social media, so we need just to amplify that right platform. Right. Knowing that we will continue to do what we do best. But now we're going to add it to the biggest stage in the world. That's what give us the confidence that there's nothing that could, could be, could we go wrong? Right. Some people actually didn't understand the ad. Not very few. There's an article out there, it's like they didn't get it. And that's exactly what we wanted to. It's like, I want you to not understand what's happening because you don't know this brand. The people that know these brands that love the brand so much that it amplifies and grows and they take to Social to speak for us. So it's a whole momentum. So knowing that really drove the confidence for us.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Was there, was there fear in that? You know, meaning in that you're confusing the audience. It might just be confusing. And it's expensive to do super bowl like that. I, I give you a lot of credit to take that risk.

[Luis Garcia]

Yeah, it was a risky move. So if, I mean to add, to answer Jim's question, this was at 11 for us, which if everything we wanted to do right from a social perspective. Again because we, we looked at the super bowl as a tactic on a full campaign rebrand, which is not many people look at that. People prepare everything to culminate at the super bowl moment. We basically started on Christmas Day and Super bowl, although a very expensive tactic, we were timing it just to have to. It's part of that amplification. That was it. But our game wasn't social. The content creation has been grown substantially and getting then our content creators on the big screen, that's where the magic started to happen. So we just remained really confident of what we wanted to do.

[Jim Stengel]

All right, now I want to open it up to this beautiful panel. You all have great stories, you all feel very confident and happy about your effort, proud of your team, celebrating it internally. So did anything happen in this conversation that compels one of you to ask one of you a burning question?

[Stephen Seinen]

I have a question if you don't mind. For you, Maddie. So I think it's very, very cool what you did and the car does look amazing. So clearly like you wanted to disrupt the way the car is revealed. Is that going to be your identity going forward in F1? Like are you going to continue to disrupt this world?

[Mehdi Iqbal]

Yeah. I mean it's funny, the first thing I wanted to do coming in because I don't have a full F1 background is let me bring in all the experience I have and innovate at every nook and cranny that I can. And I think what I've quickly realized is while that would be fun and exciting, there is, there is a high level of importance to keeping some foundational excellence and, and give, you know, give the discipline of formula one the respect that there's some things that need to stay just foundationally excellent and you do the foundations correctly. But you know, innovating with intention. So where are the moments that we can change things? Livery reveal, is that something we can change? You know, when it comes to off track entertainment and hosting, is that something we can change? Collaborations and the way that happens right so absolutely. And the purpose in the North Star will always be there. So it's not innovation for the sake of change itself, but how can we make something more modern? How can we make something better as a consumer experience and a fan experience? And how can we make things more accessible, right. For more fans? Because the bigger the fandom grows for the sport, better for every team. And I think that's, that's really going to be something for me, a personally focus with our team.

[Jim Stengel]

Anyone else have a burning question? Yeah, Mehdi, go ahead.

[Mehdi Iqbal]

Yeah, I have a question for the group. Especially in the world of social, you know, one of the things we talk about is building fandom at the team, right? That's our North Star is how do we build more fans? And in a world where in social, we've moved away from, you know, the social graph into a content graph world and people are less likely to follow brands, but more likely to stay tuned into their algorithm and views are now, you know, elevating in importance and engagements. Elevating importance. How are you guys talking about that shift internally? Right? Are you guys still thinking about that's.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Better, you know, like, like somebody following you or signing up for your newsletter doesn't mean they're an actual fan. Right? By the way, I am literally, I don't, I don't literally sign up for the jets newsletter, nor do I actually think I follow the jets on every social platform. I will kill people for the Jets.

[Mehdi Iqbal]

So, Gary, question for you then, right? It's like, how should a sports team be looking at calculating fandom? How should brands be looking at calculated fandom? Yeah.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Ticket selling stuff, you know, showing up for impact. Right. I think we, you know, I don't know why this industry is addicted to proxies, to the punchline. You know, let's, let's measure the punchline to your point. And what's really interesting, brother, is now that we're in an interest graph, not a social graph framework, it allows all of us to finally double down on what we've all been missing, which is more relevance with more different consumer segmentations to drive our actual businesses. Right. Like we like Gail, wants every type of guy, you know, a certain age group. You can imagine that if you're, you know, my father is a Russian immigrant that spent his first 25 years in the Soviet Union, grew up in the liquor business, grew up in Jersey. That piece of creative to compel him to be aware, you know, is going to be very different than a Cuban 50 year old who was born third generation Miami family versus, you know, a guy in Iowa who's, you know. And I think I'm so excited for all of you that were in this era because I think we have overvalued proxies and I think weirdly, the social media algorithms are forcing us to a very fundamental place in marketing. It's crazy that the new things are reinforcing the most important thing, which is relevance leads to consideration, which leads to purchase. We're just not accustomed on this call. We grew up in an era where we were vanilla top down matching luggage. Let's roll the dice. Because we were forced to, like it was a TV centric world. There was no technology to really measure creative relevance. These algorithms happen to just align with us as marketers. They want to keep all of us on the platform for as long as possible. Thus they play only on relevance. If we now play on that same game, we win. Right? So, you know, I think fandom is only executed in the end. The hell am I doing with this? Right? This is measurable for them, you know, you know, but it's not going to be based on do I follow them on Snapchat? Like I, I know for a fact actually that I'm not subscribed to the jets on YouTube. Right. So I think there's, I think we're heading in a really fun direction that I think is going to help and I think super bowl is the awareness supernova. But I think for all of you, how you, how you post game from now to win on relevance to different demos, ages, gender, races, income levels and interest graph. It's almost like we're going to go into this world where the big boulder comes, but it's going to be all those pebbles that you do across here. And I would argue done best and not, not always the way we do it at Vayner, but done best.

[Soyoung Kang]

It's.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's pebbles at scale all year and the golden pebble becomes the brief and becomes the framework of the super bowl at the end, not the reverse. We continue to do our best in here with all our talents to guess it based on insights and things that nature, but guess it on the creative. I think we're all going to wake up within the next half decade and do it the reverse. It's going to be the pebbles at scale of relevance all year that come September, October, November, December, if you're late, will become the brief. And I will actually predict here now, because you guys know me well enough to know I'm going to want to clip this in six years and be like, told you. I am going to predict that within the next five years there will be a Super bowl spot that is the exact replica of the social media post that got 100 million organic views by a brand, literally black bars and all aired in its full natural sense. I think between now and then there's an opportunity for a lot of the brands here to use the insights of their winning social media. Organic. Organic. Because when you start using paid to cover it up, you're back in television land on social, which is double bad. So that's where I think things are going so young.

[Jim Stengel]

Comment on that. You've built a beautiful business on those principles.

[Soyoung Kang]

Yeah, I mean we also, our category has the luxury of having pretty immediate data availability from a consumption perspective. And so we see very, very highly correlated when we see organic social engagement with organic search volume with actual consumption and pull through on demand, it all tracks one to one. It's like really an incredible thing to see and I guess to just build on what Gary just said for us, what that means in terms of how we build relevance is to build a highly attuned, always on reactive content creation engine within the team that has its ears to the ground all the time and is constantly churning things out all the time. Because the more at bats we have, the more shots we have at getting the algorithm to do the work for us and deliver our content to as many people as possible. And for us that means things that are like tiny in scale that you never would have placed your bets on, sometimes deliver outsized results. It's really an incredible thing to see.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

It's called advertising. When everybody hears shots on goal, right? And the algorithm is just people's interest, it's just relevance. But this whole shots on gold that is demonized by our industry. We've done print ads and direct mail and billboards and radio for a hundred years. We do day to day marketing for a hundred years. This concept that has been completely grounded in companies that can't deliver on creative day to day demonizing it and wanting to talk about fidelity and all this stuff that is not tangible. We must stop demonizing volume. In our industry we've been doing volume. When I met Gail, she had unlimited fsis and couponing every week in the business. That wasn't bad, that was good. And you know this concept of 30, 40, 70, 150 social media ads a week, it's called advertising. It's 2026. This is not bad. I promise you that she and her team and I can speak for our company and we're at scale now. None of it is spray and pray. None of it is throw against the wall and see what sticks. None of it's even test and learn. It's. We have consumers we're trying to reach. This is our best belief that this will work. Luckily, we're spending so little on the production of that creative that we can make a lot of it. And when the quant and qual is clear data, then we can start the process of what we want to do next, whether for some brands send it to the lower funnel and do performance, or some brands send it all the way up to the Super Bowl.

[Jim Stengel]

All right, we're running time. Last word to our guest. One piece of advice, very short piece of advice for someone considering doing a Super bowl experience next year.

[Gail Horwood]

Jim. I'll just say build an experience. I mean, we all sort of said it in different ways, but the super bowl activation or the tactic is just part of the experience, and you really need to think about that long and hard and support it throughout a year. It's not a one moment. It's. It's a. It's a debut or a moment to get attention, but then it's what you do with it afterwards.

[Stephen Seinen]

I would say in two words, be bold. Fortune favors the bold.

[Soyoung Kang]

I'd say be remembered. Make sure it's your brand that's remembered after.

[Mehdi Iqbal]

I would say radical clarity internally. Make sure before you go into war on this thing, you have radical clarity of what you want to get out of it and use that as your true North Star throughout the pressures of building this campaign. Yeah.

[Luis Garcia]

And then remain true to your brand.

[Mehdi Iqbal]

Right.

[Luis Garcia]

Like, don't try to change it just because it's a Super Bowl. Don't get out of there. Just do what you do best and you'll be successful.

[Jim Stengel]

These are all great pieces of advice. I didn't know what we'd get there, but it was beautiful. Gary, last word.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

Last word on the advice for marketers that are watching is what you said. Please connect with all of these Incredible marketers on LinkedIn and message them and extract the secrets.

[Jim Stengel]

Hey, gang. It was so good to see all the smiling faces. Congratulations to everyone for the great work. It's very inspiring. Thanks for joining us. Very helpful for our community. Gary, thanks again. Eight years in a row, maybe we'll do nine. We'll see.

[Gary Vaynerchuk]

We will. Nine's a good number.

[Jim Stengel]

Excellent. Good. All right, bye now. That's it for this week's episode of the CMO podcast. As always, I would be grateful if you shared and our show with your friends, along with subscribing and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. The CMO Podcast is a Vive Original production. The views and opinions expressed by podcast speakers and guests are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of our sponsors or its personnel, nor do our sponsors advocate or endorse any individuals or entities featured on the episodes.