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- [00:01]
A
Hi everyone, Tim LaBelle here. I'm with Mars Wrigley North America, President of US Sales and you are with the CPG Guys Podcast.
- [00:13]
B
Hello and welcome to the CPG Guys Podcast. Set at the intersection of commerce and tech. Your hosts Sree Rajagopalan and Peter V S Bhan explore how brands and retailers engage consumers in a digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG Guys.
- [00:33]
C
Hello and welcome to the CPG Guys. I'm of course Sree, your co host and also CRO and co founder of Think Blue Consulting, your trusted partner in your omnichannel development journey. Get in touch with me at sri@thinkblueconsulting co. Please do listen to my older daughter's music at www.sriraaj.com who's on tour December 2nd through the 9th five cities and follow Laura Rajma, younger daughter, as a member of the world's fastest growing global girls group, Cat's Eye, winner of the MTV VMA this year. This episode is special because she is also partnered via Cat's Eye with a brand called 5. Com, which is of course a Mars Wrigley Bland. And if you don't know all the girls avatars that have been put out so far, they sold out within seconds or maybe minutes. So do check it out. Come and Cats partnership already well out in the marketplace of course joined today with my co Host and founder PVSP, Mr. Ban, who also moonlights his head of industry Incline Engagement Flywheel, the commerce acceleration division of Omnicom. Peter, how excited are you to record a Halloween special three.
- [01:35]
B
It gave me yet another reason to regale myself in all my dodgerdom as we get ready for the fall classic the World Series. It's happening. And you know, sh. If the Blue Jays win tonight, I'm going to Toronto this weekend.
- [01:52]
C
Would that be Game 4?
- [01:53]
B
That would be Game 4 when the Dodgers complete their sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays.
- [02:00]
C
It's two, three, two, correct. So you could make a game three or game four. So good luck to the Dodgers. Hopefully I'll pull it through again, catch up with 27 and then we'll discuss Dynasty. But make sure you're subscribing to a podcast on your preferred listening platform where you can get our latest episodes. Even go back to consume some of the 530plus episodes we've already published. Today's episode is a Halloween spooktacular special and sure to be sweet indeed. If you make it sweet indeed. I'd love to share some stats with all of you. Halloween spending in 2025 is expected to reach a record US$13.1 billion and all of these stats come to you straight from NRF. Top holiday activities this year include hanging out candy 66 dressing up in a costume 51 for those of you that haven't checked out my Instagram and TikTok, I was slash from of course one of your favorite groups, gums and roses and decorating some some some of your homes or yards 51% candy continues to be the most popular purchase with total spending expected to reach $3.9 billion dominating Halloween shopping. Of those who celebrate Halloween, a whopping 95% buy candy Mars Trick Streets and Trends report so do check that out. Chocolate reigns supreme amongst all candy purchases. 80% of those buying Halloween Halloween candy go for chocolate. Again, through the report that I just mentioned, Gen Z and Millennials are more likely to purchase gummy, fruity and sour treats. Again, check out those details in the report that I just mentioned. Hence we decided why not invite someone who this time of the year is known as Chief Halloween Officer. So let's welcome Tim LaBelle, President of Sales, Maz Wrigley North America. In this role, he leads sales and customer collaboration for the world's largest manufacturer of chocolates factions, governments. Tim also has the title of Chief Halloween Officer for the org. With a team of dedicated associates. He leads partnerships with retailers who bring millions of loyal consumers, a portfolio of iconic global brands that includes M and M, Snickers, Skittles, Starbucks, Orbit, and Altoids, amongst many more. Tim, welcome and happy Halloween. How you doing man?
- [04:14]
A
I'm doing great. Good to be here. This one's a long time coming. I've been, I've seen you guys at many shows, fmi, you name it. And it's great to finally be on the program today.
- [04:25]
C
Looking forward to it. So we're excited to have you on the podcast Pina. I would particularly like to mention and also thank your team for sending us an assortment of Mars Halloween confections to help us get prepared for today's conversation. Some of that has already been consumed in my household. Digital show notes of this episode, links to your LinkedIn profile, and then a Mars, of course course. So let's jump right in. Of course. Everybody now wants to know, what does Chief Halloween Officer mean to you and to the company?
- [04:54]
A
Well, I'll start off with this, you know, is the greatest title in corporate America. I get that every single week. I was at NAX last week in Chicago and I was boarding the plane and someone came up to me. Cho, how are you doing? And it was so random. This thing has definitely gone viral. Maybe, maybe not cats viral, but it's getting big and I'm pretty excited about it. And really the reason behind it is I get to represent 8,000 Mars Wrigley Associates every day in North America. The Halloween season is our Super Bowl. It takes multiple years to pull it together. I get to be the voice in the authority on Halloween and I take that very seriously. It's really to help bring awareness to the season, how it's growing, where the consumer's shifting and how Mars Wrigley treats are coming into that environment each and every day in each season. It's been tremendous honor and a lot of fun to be honest.
- [06:00]
B
Hey Tim, thanks for joining us. You know here at the CPG guys, we couldn't be happier to know that Katz has partnered with Mars Wrigley through the Gum Association. That's just, just what a perfect match to bring those two incredible entities together.
- [06:16]
C
Say sold out in like seconds.
- [06:19]
B
It was crazy.
- [06:20]
C
It was crazy looking at you know, you know that I actually am Instagram right now.
- [06:25]
B
Oh, there we go. Tim's holding something up.
- [06:27]
A
So this is how popular the tie in is. I asked for samples this morning in our headquarters. Shut me down. I got a picture I have to.
- [06:39]
C
Leave on LAR to get some. So we souvenirized some of these things just for her to remember decade later.
- [06:48]
B
Perhaps Tim's inability to get the samples is what would be classified as a high grade problem.
- [06:55]
C
You think I should sell Tim one back?
- [06:57]
B
I think you can. I think you can do get the Venmo out Sri.
- [07:01]
C
They'll go into the hall of fame.
- [07:03]
B
It's going to be crazy. All right, Tim, you made reference to the fact of how important Halloween is to the Mars Wrigley business. Give us kind of dimensionalized for this. Like when does it actually start and what is involved in the process of getting ready for this monumental annual event for your company?
- [07:21]
A
Yeah. So surprisingly to some it actually takes takes us two years to plan out the season and we do it in in two waves. So on November 1st we'll start line reviews with our with our key retailers and we'll look at the trends. How did Summerween impact back to school baking season? Watching your favorite spooky movie, whatever the occasion may be. There's so many micro seasons within Halloween. So we'll look at all that data and we'll determine what sold the best and why. So what consumer shifts may have happened within the season and we'll make our adjustments for 2026 season. So that will happen in just a few short weeks. But then we spend a lot of time through our joint business planning sessions and really start to look at what flavor profiles resonated with consumers. And we'll start to think about where do we need to double down on textures or different type of variety bags and mixes. I like that you, Mr. Bronze, you're already jumping right into the products. That's a good sign for the program. But yeah. So then we go through that and if we need to add new profiles, new flavor profiles or new packaging, we'll work with the retailer. And that takes a little longer to plan out. So that's why it says takes about over two years to really bring it all together.
- [08:52]
C
I know you talked about the retail partnerships there, but what about inside the house, working with the brands, et cetera? I'm guessing you have to go through the strap plan exercise before you get into the AOP with the retailer.
- [09:06]
A
Yeah, very much so. And we call it in our house, we call it the one demand strategic exercise. And one demand for us is a four stool pillar. And number one is sales, marketing supply in our digital team. And we collaborate together to formulate our go to market strategies for each and every season. Today we're talking about Halloween, but we obviously have three other major seasons and you guys know this better than most. Summer's becoming a major season in itself. So we're very, very much focused on summer. Specifically for Mars Wrigley, we're focused on summer road trip and how do we bring our portfolio to life within the summer road trip, Memorial Day to Labor Day, where you guys know people are on the road, they're busy, and our treats play a critical role in that journey.
- [10:00]
C
So I want to get the seasons right for audience. So there's Valentine's at the beginning of the year, then there's Easter. Now there's a fifth one summer. Then there's spooktacular Halloween and then the holidays. Correct. Thanksgiving through to the end of the year.
- [10:15]
A
Exactly right. The big five, we call it.
- [10:19]
C
And so we weren't going to jump into anything digital today, which we typically do every single conversation here on the cpg. Guys, we love talking omnichannel, but since you mentioned it, I'm going to go a little out of script here and actually ask you, how important is digital to Mars Wrigley, especially around the Halloween season?
- [10:38]
A
Yeah, absolutely. So the first thing is at Mars we say the consumer is our boss. So we need to be where the consumer interacts with Our product products and digital is a critical, critical role and we do a lot of things to bring that to life. A couple that I'd love to share with you is one we know 35% of our consumers shop confectionery online for Halloween. So they're moving in that direction. So we need to be there with them. And we look at everything from tying in if we're doing a test and learn, we'll work with a partner like Amazon to learn in a very controlled, disciplined environment and we'll get some key learnings for maybe launching a new product the following year. We've had a lot of fun over the last year launching items with TikTok for the very first time. We launched skittles popped on TikTok and it sold out in eight days. From there we just launched a new product called Skittles Fuego, which a spicy gummy and that did fantastic on TikTok. And right around the corner we're about to launch our very first chocolate freeze dried product called M&M's popped, which is M&M's caramel popped. So taking the traditional M&M's caramel freeze drying them into a whole different texture experience. So we're pretty excited. And digital plays a critical role in meeting the consumer where they're at.
- [12:12]
C
So Peter, the M&M's freestyle pops, we got to have an unboxing session. We can be the adult influencers. What do you think, Peter?
- [12:19]
B
Absolutely, SRI. And might I mention also that the CPG guys are regular purchasers and consumers of customized CPG guy logo M&MS. Those are in our swag repertoire. Oh yes they are.
- [12:35]
C
Especially for events. And you can see one such event right here. But in any event, him. So you are following Paparaj on TikTok, right? Since you're still. Since TikTok means such a big deal to you guys, you know who Paparaj is, right?
- [12:48]
B
Are we talking, are we talking about ourselves in the third person again, Sri?
- [12:52]
C
Are we? Yeah. Do you know Paparaj? You know the CPG guys? Have you met him? Would you like an intro? In any event, Peter, let me bring it back to data and insights here which have dictated a lot of our actions in the industry. So let's talk about consumer behavior around Halloween. So you said it's a two year planning cycle. So what shifts have you seen in Halloween in the last two, three years that has influenced this year's portfolio for Halloween? And then in particular, what trends are you seeing now which will influence what comes out two years from now? If I got the timing right, yeah, absolutely.
- [13:27]
A
So I'll start off with some of the biggest shifts. Halloween is starting in June for us now we have a contest at Mars with our retail team. The first display goes up in June. So when you talk about Summerween, it's a big, big deal. And at Mars, we have a factory in Topeka, Kansas. We call that the Halloween headquarters. And in the summer, in mid May, we kick off our Halloween Summerween Festival. And we bring all our associates in. We do trick or treating for them and, and we really signal the season not only for our associates, but for all consumers. And why is that really important? Because these seasons are becoming a full calendar event for us. When I talk, you're talking now June to October 31st. And there's a lot of micro occasions that come to life during that. And I'd start with we talked a little bit about the summer road trip program. So a bag of Snickers, which is certainly applicable for Halloween, also plays a critical role in the summer road trip. But then you go into Summerween from a perspective. You got a couple of other events you can have. Trick or treat, that's obviously our biggest event in October, but you can have Halloween parties at home. That's become a very, very big trend. It's becoming adultoween, I would say, maybe a new word I just coined on the moment. But adults are looking at more and more ways to celebrate the season. Specifically Gen Z and Millennials. They are planning Halloween much earlier than ever. So we're trying to meet them where they're at and celebrate with them. Whether that's through adult parties, watching your favorite spooky movie night with friends and family, or. Or baking with some of our products. This year we introduced M&M's color blend. Very traditional Halloween black and orange, M&MS. So great for baking cookies, cupcakes, etc. Sharing with friends and family.
- [15:38]
C
Peter, can you imagine how much fun it must be to be in a chocolate making factory? Reminds me of Willy Wonka.
- [15:44]
B
All right.
- [15:44]
C
Sri June, Topeka.
- [15:46]
B
As important as that is, the Topeka got my got my brain working right. What's the one stadium I have never been to, the Royals Stadium. And I'm already thinking how I'm going to parlay this into Tim getting us a tour of the Topeka, Kansas Halloween headquarters. Unfortunately, the Dodgers aren't going back to Kansas City until 2027. So we've got two. It's a two year planning cycle. That's what we heard about Sree that's what. That's what I'm thinking. But you knew where my head was going. I love the fact that, that you nailed that. All right, so, Tim, Halloween is big. It's big for Mars Wrigley. How do you segment your portfolio around Halloween and what is the innovation cadence around thinking about what new products are right. To mix into the portfolio for this very special event every year?
- [16:45]
A
Yeah. So I'll start with the portfolio because it's a balance of seasonal relevant products. So specialty products, but also leveraging core and the blend is critical. I always say to my team, you do not want to win Halloween on November 1st. Right. That's not good for. It's probably good for consumers because they're getting product at a significant markdown, but it's not good for our strategic strategic planning process, our customers or Mars Wrigley. So we really work on our portfolio to have a nice balance of core and for our seasonal graphic products like Ghoulish Green. I know you guys might have a couple of those. We got Skittle Screechers. Those are core seasonally graphic products that are designed for Halloween. And we're looking for a sell through of 85% or better by call it 8pm on October 31st. And by the way, I don't know if you guys know this, but Halloween is on a Friday night this year. First time in 11 years as a cho. This is, this is like the perfect.
- [17:58]
B
Perfect storm here, Tim. It's a perfect storm.
- [18:00]
A
25. Yeah, we're super excited. But going back to your question, it's really important we get the core right because we have everyday variety bags. We have straight bags of Snickers and they play a role in those summer moments and building up to back to school and right into the trick or treat season. So we want to leverage those appropriately. And also we just recently introduced some products and hopefully you maybe got a couple of these. But this is our Snickers pumpkin. We also have Twix ghost and they actually look like pumpkins and ghosts. So we're pretty excited about that and they are fantastic. So definitely try those. But what we use those for is two things. Their immediate consumption. So they get on the front end of retailers. It's really important place for impulse categories. It's high margin for the retailers. It signals to all our consumers Halloween has started. And what I always like to say about these, these you want to sell out of, not sell through. So you want the consumer wanting more, wishing they would have bought it last week and then they can't Find it any any longer and it's, you know, we'll see you again next year. So that's a really, really important element. How we leverage our novelty products for sellout and then our core products to supplement a good profitable season for the retailer and for a manufacturer.
- [19:32]
C
So one of the things when I was at General Mills as CCO I would think about constantly like every Monday morning is distribution and shelf space. So when you think of novelty, I don't want to say the products that we've referred to and the ones that Peter and I have consumed over the last week since your team was generous enough to give us some are novelty. But how do you balance scale for the existing portfolio that's fully around versus some of these seasonal SKUs? And then how do you think of that, Tim, as the CCO and the chief officer of shelf Real estate, since planogramming is how our industry runs even to the day and how do you parse that out and say, hey eight I'm just making it up. But whatever it is like 12% of seasonal self space should really go to the Halloween season should be mars. Like what's the thinking behind getting there?
- [20:28]
A
Yeah, this is a great example where my cho hat in the CCO hat are one because it really is the same answer that helps win with our core portfolio and our seasonal items in the example I'd give you. Over the years, our category team has done a great job of creating a selling story that gives our retailers a reason for being in the season. And what that means is seasons are now a destination for the largest retailers in the U.S. what does that mean from a planogram standpoint? They are creating seasonal aisles, dedicated aisles that are over 100ft long dedicated to the season. So that gives us an opportunity to do a couple of things. One, our regular in aisle portfolio remains intact. So we're not shrinking that set to bring in seasonal. It also signals to the consumer that you can get your costume, you can get your snacks, you can get your favorite decorations for your outside. If we had more time, I'd tell you about my outside. My house lives up to the chief Halloween officer role in my neighborhood. I give out full size bars. There's no messing around as a Cho in my town and I built quite a reputation in doing that, so it's been a lot of fun. But you can get those decorations and your products for baking and your products for spooky movie night all in one aisle and that's become a destination and a huge selling point for our retailers. To bring foot traffic back into the store.
- [22:07]
B
Sree, I don't know about you, but I think I need to hire a real estate agent in New Jersey because I want, I want some of those full size bars. That's what I'm talking about. All right. If it isn't readily apparent, Tim, the CPG guys are just big kids at heart, but that brings up the topic of kids versus adults. How do you think about that consumer dynamic? Because we certainly love all this stuff. How do you, how do you think about that from an assortment and a marketing and a merchandising perspective?
- [22:39]
A
Yeah, I'd start off with this. So chocolate, when you think of Halloween products, chocolate is still 80% of the sales. But this new generation, when you think about Generation Z and Millennials, they love fruity confections. So we're creating variety bags that have both fruity and chocolate. We have items that are very specific too. I can't find it. Skittle Shriekers. Somewhere around here somewhere. But yeah, you can help me out right there. But. So the younger generation, they are loving fruity products, but it's still a very small part of the overall season. So we stay really close to each generation. What their flavor profiles, what textures they're looking for, what polarizing flavors they're looking to indulge in. And that's really, really important because that's where a lot of our growth is coming from. Though it's off a much smaller base. So it's a very, very important part.
- [23:45]
C
And I have a very. I have a curiosity question, Tim. Not having come from the candy category myself or from confections, do you ever find, find that seasonal items become so huge that they find their way to all your distribution? Has that ever happened?
- [24:02]
A
Yeah, I would say our everyday variety bags are that exact example because they're not seasonally graphics. They don't have seasonal graphics on them, but they end up on every seasonal display. It's a top five Halloween item, but in some of our biggest retailers, it's a top two item on the everyday shelf. And that's really because of the permissibility of the product and all those moments and occasions that I've described to you that it, you know, whether it's that summer road trip or, you know, a party at home, our key products, our core SKUs, play in both arenas very, very well.
- [24:41]
C
Awesome. Let me remind our audience that we're Speaking with Tim LaBelle, the Chief Halloween officer from Mars Wrigley himself. So we're going to. Oh, love that T shirt. You shouldn't have shown it to Peter and Sree because you know what's going to happen next? There's going to be an ask. I know we spoke briefly about digital and E commerce and the importance of digital and that Mars boss is at the end of the day the consumer and you follow the consumer. But we'd love to jump a little bit into e Commerce, specifically DDC Omnichannel. You know, the M&M's customization Peter spoke of earlier has been doing so well for you guys already for special events, et cetera. So how do you see e comm DTC omnichannel evolving for Halloween? Candy subscription boxes, online exclusive SKUs DTC, perhaps click and collect, you know, cross channel promos, whatever it is. We just love to know how E commerce works for you.
- [25:35]
A
Yeah, I mean it's an Omni world, right? And we know that that's how consumers are acting and behaving each and every day. So we work very closely. 360 holistic marketing campaigns to bring our products to life. Making sure we have that perfect digital store for Halloween in everyday products are certainly a number one principle. We believe it's so blurred today that when we sit down with our key retailers, we're not sitting down with the physical buyer or the digital buyer. We're sitting down with the Omnibuyers and we're building a full digital plan that comes to life on screen and in the store. And where I'm really proud is how we're integrating the two together in store and online. So it's been a lot of fun on that journey. And I'll give you one example that's been a lot of fun. But it also solves a big problem for consumers. So you never want to be that house at 6pm on Friday night, from first Friday night in 11 years on Halloween when suddenly you realize you're going to run out of product. Right? See, I see that. That's a fear of all fears, right? So come to the rescue. The M&M's Rescue Squad will be available at 5pm on Halloween night in areas that GoPuff.com serve. And if you're in a jam and you still want to be the best house on the block and you need to pick up some Eminem treats or Mars Wrigley Treats, you can go online, call the M and M Rescue squad and they will deliver for free our products to make sure you remain the best house on the block. And you have the great Morris Wrigley treats to share. And this year you talk a little bit more about the digital influence. We went to one of the best moms we know, our headquarters in New Jersey. So I'll go to Jersey Shore Reference mom. Snooki is our official mom spokesperson for our Eminem rescue squad this year. So we're putting Snooki to work. What do you think of that?
- [27:49]
B
The Jersey Shore. My mind is just exploding. I can't believe you landed Snooki. That is phenomenal, by the way. First of all, there's a T shirt swap that's going to happen after this. I'm just going to say there's some CPG guys merch coming your way. I. I'll also tell you this. If I show up to pick up my daughter at the end of the day and there isn't a little fun sized pack of Skittles in the mix, it's not going to be a fun drive home. I'm just going to tell you that the option has to be there for her. All right, so you brought up Gopuff, which I think is great. I've got their app on my phone. I now know you have the Halloween day part problem solved. So that's really good to know. How do you align with your retailer customers? Because you deal with supermarkets, mass merchants. My time at CVS, I know Halloween was a huge part of CVS's front of store business, dollar stores, even convenience. How do you align with them on Halloween strategies and what do you do? What is the basis for securing, making premium shelf and display space during this critical season for your business?
- [29:04]
A
Yeah, you're unpacking a really, really important part of the process because every channel you just described has a different intent for the season. And so what we try to do through our regular joint business planning process, we find the strategic intersections that make the most sense for their consumer and, and the role they want the season to play within, within their store. So for some it's destination and it's full on and they're taking every single SKU we make. Then there's others that really want to make sure they're, they're shouting value. And you think of the value channel or the dollar stores and we work with them, we spend more time with them working on price pack architecture designs for the next year out, two years out. So we have SKUs for Halloween from as low as a 15 count all the way up to a 350 count variety bag. So we'd like to believe we have a pack for every economic situation for a consumer, but also every strategy by retailer because that call it $5 price point in a value channel is mission critical. It's as important as a mass merchant's 300. So it's really, really important we understand their consumer, the role, the strategic role they want the season to play. And working internally with our sales and marketing team, which we call One Demand to make sure we're creating those packs that resonate for the retailer and ultimately the consumer. It's one of my favorite parts to do because it is a combination of art and science and really leverage data and analytics after each season and then optimizing the set for the following year. It's a lot of fun and it's tricky, right, because the key is you want sell through at a level where if you I always tell my team, you can't win Halloween in September, but you certainly can lose it. So you need a portfolio that can work June through October 31st. And that's really, really important because if you're on track in the season's doing very well this year. It's on track collectively as a category, we're well positioned for the next two weeks. We're going to have a very, very strong Halloween 2025 as an industry and as a CHO, that's super important to me.
- [31:35]
C
I'm going to say congratulations and good luck as we are deep. You know, we're on the end side of the Halloween season right now. Like you said, this has started all the way in June. So at this stage, it's the markdowns that as a company and as a brand you don't want to see at this point. So I'll certainly be out on the street in store next week. I'm in store in Minneapolis, several stores. So I'm definitely going to look out and actually walk the team that I'm with through the confection. I have a reason now to also go to the confectionery aisle. We're going to do salty snacks only. But now we have a reason. You know, you've given us snippets of over two years how products are developed, but can you walk us through the innovation pipeline for Halloween? Skus ideation to shelf you mentioned it takes two years. And then most importantly, how do you actually test ideas that come by before you put them into the marketplace for the Halloween season?
- [32:31]
A
Yeah. So I'll use really Snickers pumpkin as a really good example. So we were at one time in the shapes business and honestly our shapes were not performing at the level we wanted them to and we thought we're going to revisit the price point, the formulation, the launch strategy, et cetera. So we bring in our R and D food scientists. We sat down with some of our strategic partners at retail and we walked them through what's working, what's not working, what consumers enjoying about molded shapes. Is it the price point? Is it the indulgence? Is it the immediate consumption that it doesn't make it to the car and your pumpkin is gone by the time you fire up your car in the parking lot? And we take those insights and we sit down with our one demand team, our marketing partners, and we map out what brands are most applicable to meet that consumer need. And for us, this year, and this is now year two of Shapes, it's Snickers and it's Twix, two items that are iconic in the confectionery industry but were untapped in the immediate consumption seasonal play. So we're super excited. You're now going to see at Christmas, you're going to see Santa's Valentine's, you're going to see cupids and hearts, Easters, you're going to see eggs. And this is a platform we can build off. And it all started with really our food scientists joining us in these collaboration meetings to understand the consumer trends at the next level and making sure we're building the brands, the portfolio, and ultimately the right value proposition for consumers each season. And what I always tell my team, I'll leave you with this one too, as far as this question goes, is when you think about Halloween, if you have north of 80, 85% sell through, that gives you permission to build 2026 planning. When you have a tough Halloween, and I call it in the industry, a Halloween hangover is not good for the immediate season, but it's certainly not good for the following season. So mutuality is one of our five principles at Mars, we want to make sure we have a mutual sell in the right amount. So it leaves them with limited markdowns and sets up the 2026 buy. You get that right? Don't tell anyone, but it makes the CHO job really, really easy.
- [35:06]
B
Wow, that's absolutely terrific. Very, very helpful. All right, so what I'd like to talk about is how this all comes together in an activation. What role does marketing, you know, your advertisement, your pr, your investment in retail media play in your overall programs, particularly around the leveraging of social media influencers in today's day and age and tying this all into the activations you have, how does that all take the basis and the Fundamentals you've built with very traditional kind of in store activations and really plus it up into a major event.
- [35:49]
A
Yeah. And that's the amplification process we're always working on. And I teased one out. You know, we got Snooki on the payroll for this Halloween and how she'll help bring it to life through the M and M rescue squad. But we're also doing a lot of social ads that we created this year, Ghost Roommate. So if you have the opportunity, Google that one. Ghost Roommate is running now and that is very specific just to social platforms. We also have our national media which plays a critical role. So yeah, we're trying to tap into every media element possible to us, including influencers, including people like Cat's Eye. Who knows, next year, Papa, we could be talking about a Halloween tie in with Cat's Eyes.
- [36:41]
C
I just checked out the Ghost Roommate rainbow skittles. It's pretty cool actually. You know, you know, Nadia is going to love it.
- [36:49]
B
I will, I will.
- [36:51]
C
Original chewy single. Original gummies. She loves gummies. The choice, plenty of choice and made for birthday parties. So there we go.
- [37:02]
A
I love it.
- [37:04]
C
All right, so let me close this out, Tim, with, you know, you talked about a two year cycle of developing these. You got to get the retailer involved. You're obviously following the customer to get the trends going. But now let's look at a long term horizon. Right. We're early in what I would say transforming for five years out. But if you look at risks and opportunities, you've been very clear to say, you know, planning starts way in advance. You want to win this season, you got to get your mind to it a couple years in advance. And then you don't win the season in October and September, you win the season in June with the execute, the flawless execution you bring to the marketplace. Right. Displays things of that nature. But what do you see as the biggest opportunities and risks for Halloween confectionery over the next five years? And do you think confectionery will stay strong with the record numbers we announced earlier on the show thanks to a report that you guys were able to share in nrf?
- [37:58]
A
Yeah, what I'm really excited about is when I look at even the season over the last four or five years, they the season was contracting in sales still the last week of Halloween, you're talking 45, 50% of the sales are still done in that window. But now adults are making the seasonal experience much more longer in nature. So we're creating micro moments that I think are going to unlock opportunities for our products to engage with consumers in different ways. So we're super excited about that. So adults, I think, are the reason why you're going to see seasons continue to grow and become more and more important. When you look at Gen Z and Millennials and how they're behaving and how they're planning differently than they did before. So I think that's a huge opportunity to continue to leverage that growing interest in season through the adult lens. When I think about it from a risk perspective, I always go back to we got to make sure our portfolio can be touched by all our consumers. And we all know about the pressures of whether cocoa pricing, et cetera. So you want to make sure you're trying to create as much value for our consumers as possible to have packs they can touch, reach and afford. And that's really, really important. So we do a lot of work on price pack architecture to make sure we're creating packs that are affordable for all our consumers. And that's a really, really important piece. It's a part of the business that Mars wants to play a critical role in continuing to support those consumers and meeting where they're where they are.
- [39:42]
C
You talked about the micro moments. Does that also include micro influencers in the process, or is it more about the moment itself? No, I think it's 11pm and I want to get a product. Or is it also micro influencers through TikTok and things of that nature?
- [39:59]
A
No, I think it's a blend of the two for sure. And I would say if I was going to say which one I think is growing faster, it's how do you tap into micro influencer influencers faster to unlock accelerated growth? We saw it with Skittles Fuego and you know, it's not selling out in seconds like Cat's Eye, but it's selling out in days. And that's some new learning, new behavior and new technology that we're tapping into and finding that micro influencer that can really help unlock that is something our sales and marketing team are working very, very hard on to unlock.
- [40:37]
C
How awesome. What a fun conversation, Peter. I thoroughly enjoyed this. I love that we're doing this. This was planned quickly and we're doing it in season. This is the best case scenario. Let me thank our audience for listening to this wonderful episode. A sweet one indeed. Do leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify favorite listening platform in terms of how we're doing, as well as having the right conversations with our guests. To all of you thank you from Peter and me. You make the show happen to all our sponsors. Whether this episode of parties, events, hosted dinners, having us panels get speak especially at those town halls and national sales meetings. We can't say thank you enough times. Peter. It's been fun doing this with you. Week or week? Episode, episode, episode of episode. A reminder that we now have three episodes a week including the Tuesday weekly E Commerce rift that Peter and I do. On the foremost note will be happening. So last week, what's your quote?
- [41:33]
B
You this is a power pack episode full of learnings and knowledge. But I think what I'm actually going to do is boil it down to, you know, how we love to immortalize relevant sayings of industry luminaries on T shirts. You ready?
- [41:48]
C
T shirt coming up with Tim Lavelle.
- [41:51]
B
If you win, if you win Halloween on November 1st, you've lost. That is what's going on. The T shirt that is what if you haven't sold through your inventory and you haven't sold it out. It's not a good winning strategy to be winning all the discounted merchandise on the day after Halloween. Don't win it November.
- [42:13]
C
Don't win Halloween in November. That's good learning. That's facts. I think for me it's a reiteration of the importance of the discipline of execution. And really for me that is it begins two years earlier in the cycle. You know, as consumers and even retail to some extent Chief merchants and SVPs of merchandising, they take it for granted that you can just jump on demand, create something where a planning process actually takes data, insights, information, line reviews. And it is a two year planning process. And just saying that enough times on the show is important so people get the plot understand that flawless execution equal to flawless planning. So that was awesome. Thank you. Peter, Tim, thank you for joining us on the show at a very timely seasonal moment in the year. Thank you for joining us.
- [43:05]
A
It's my pleasure. And we would love to host you in Topeka at our Halloween headquarters. It would be an honor. We can maybe do a live podcast from there.
- [43:15]
C
We look forward to it, especially as we get to next year. That's a wrap of this episode. See you soon on another episode of the CPG Guys.
- [43:37]
D
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