D (2:40)

Wednesday through Sunday, of all the activations.

C (2:43)

And experiential things you saw, what stuck out, what stood out. Which brands do you think were really nailing it?

A (2:49)

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 then hits gen pop.

C (3:12)

Yep.

A (3:13)

So that, that really stood out to me.

C (3:16)

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

A (3:21)

Weekend when the Seahawks destroyed the Patriots in the game?

C (3:26)

Well, that was kind of obvious early. What was my favorite weird game? What? They had four first downs going into the third quarter. I mean, it's just.

A (3:35)

I was thrilled. It wasn't weird to me. I thought the Patriots were incredibly. They play, 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, I thought what, you know, my prediction all week was 44 nothing. Seattle.

C (3:50)

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

A (3:53)

I would say that the individual meetings, you know, you know, 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 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 SOK up in Napa Valley. Pickle ball 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, effective, and so that's what stood out for me.

C (5:22)

Jim, we'll bring in our guests in a minute. But you did a Super bowl out 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.

A (5:41)

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.

C (5:49)

By the way, it was Will Shat, right? Racing.

A (5:51)

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 the, you know, you know, it just. I, I get scared about that. The Rock the Gronk ad. 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 who sent a tweet out that said a lot of brands are gonna be upset this Monday morning, 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, it's doing 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 our 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, 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 brand 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 super bowl 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.

C (8:50)

Yeah, that's good. All right, Gary, that's a good segue for our guests. And we have five of them today and I think they're going to join us out of the green room. Here they come. 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 in the basic stuff, name brand that you advertised in the super bowl so our audience can visualize all this if they're not watching. 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? Steven and Ritz.

E (9:51)

Yes. And Jim, Gary, great to see you again. So, Stephen, I oversee our savory brands, our crackers portfolio at Montalis and we had Ritz in the Super Bowl. So for me, what was special, I had my full team here in San Francisco. Full Ritz, all the Ritz 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. And 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. You know, a little bit. What you were saying, Gary, like, between all the events over the big weekend, like, 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.

A (10:38)

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 a credible economic impact. And so I think 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.

B (11:24)

Right.

A (11:25)

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. Hey, everybody. Hope you're enjoying the podcast right now. Make sure you follow the podcast. That's why I'm interrupting. Let's keep going on this show, but follow the podcast. It'll make my mom super happy.

B (11:45)

100.

C (11:47)

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?

E (11:55)

Probably around one.

C (11:56)

Number eight. Okay, we'll come back and talk about that in a moment.

F (12:00)

Sounds good.

C (12:00)

Okay. So young. Good to see you again.

F (12:03)

Hi.

C (12:05)

Thanks for having yourself. Yeah. The brand that you advertised and. And something special this weekend.

F (12:10)

So, my name's 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.

C (12:48)

On a scale of 1 to 10. 10. Really? You nailed your goals. What would you say?

F (12:52)

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.

C (13:00)

Sounds like a returner. Again next year. Okay, Gail, we'll bring you into.

G (13:07)

Hey, guys.

C (13:09)

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 us what stood out for the weekend.

G (13:20)

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 stretchy and go into experiences. So we had something called the Relax Zone, but I just loved experiencing. You know, I thought Uber Eats 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 people are really going deep into it. We did. And you're really engaging the general public. So that was, that was for me a highlight seeing all of these experiential activations as Gary and you were talking about.

C (14:28)

Super. How did. Were there any tight ends in your Relax Zone?

G (14:32)

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

C (14:38)

So scale of one to ten for you, Gail?

G (14:40)

You know, for us it was a 10. I mean, because 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 a.

A (15:07)

10 if I may. Gail. I just, I thought it was so well done. Like I, I, 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, Gail, 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, I think it was the best.

F (16:09)

Thank you.

A (16:12)

It's really fun though. 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. CFOs 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 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, 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.

C (17:17)

And it had a great opening. I mean how can you not watch? You know the first three seconds were incredible. And as an xpenger I was happy to see side by sides return. Right. We had Coke, Pepsi, we had anthropic against everyone else anyway. Hey Louise, we'll bring, 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.

D (17:40)

Luis Garcia, CMO at Natera International overseeing 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 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. Then 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 shirts, Super Bowls 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 videos. 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.

C (19:05)

I love that. Maddie, 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 to tell me.

B (19:21)

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 weekend. 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.

C (20:39)

So good. We'll talk about that more later. But beautiful, beautiful car, by the way. Incredible.

B (20:44)

Thank you. Thank you. Now we're excited about it.

C (20:46)

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 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. 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 returned to the super bowl this year and to a roundtable. You were in a roundtable this time last year and. And since we've been together, you've been promoted to president. So congratulations.

A (21:41)

Thank you so much.

C (21:42)

That must have worked last year.

A (21:43)

See what the super bowl can do.

E (21:45)

For you and the roundtable.

C (21:48)

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 Ritz 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?

E (22:15)

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, etc. 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.

A (23:37)

Stephen, you know, I brought up earlier my concern of one celebrity. You guys, you guys. I have a funny feeling they were not a couple of dollars each, you know, and there was many of them.

E (23:52)

Yeah.

A (23:52)

You know, 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% transparent. 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 salt?

E (24:10)

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.

C (24:21)

Right.

E (24:21)

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.

A (24:34)

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

E (24:39)

Exactly. And then this. Yes. So we had to evident. And the fact that they have the chemistry between them amplifies 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.

F (25:11)

Right.

E (25:11)

And then we are very deliberate about having all the right branding cues all throughout the spot. So, you know, making sure that people actually attribute what we do to Ritz. And so far from what we're seeing, you know, so so far so good, that's really important to us.

C (25:28)

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?

E (25:35)

I think it's year over year.

D (25:37)

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

E (25:40)

Then you have the surround.

B (25:40)

Right.

E (25:41)

We're trying to amp up the creative and dialogue, 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.

A (25:56)

And for you. Right. 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, 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 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. And 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, it's a way to reinforce and trial is incredibly underrated by us consumer package. Good people. Like just like once, you know, there's a lot of people who haven't had a Ritz in seven years. And they're like, wait a minute, this is salty 100.

E (26:53)

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

D (27:01)

So for the record, I have lots.

C (27:02)

Of Ritz in my house, Steven. I have lots of Ritz because I have granddaughters now. And it's a perfect cracker for a baby. Yeah, 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 you've nailed that. So I want to bring in soyang 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.

F (27:40)

There you go. We need a club celebration.

C (27:43)

Stephen, you need to do something about that.

A (27:44)

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

C (27:51)

It's definitely an accelerator. Thank you, Gary. So listen, you also came back two consecutive years, like, right Ritz. And I want to channel 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?

F (28:19)

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's an unbelievable ROI that you can get. And we do know that through all of 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 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 did this partnership with Mikey Day and with the Is It Cake? Franchise, 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 looked 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 EOs 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.

C (30:21)

Gary, do you want to smell like a cake?

A (30:23)

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

C (30:45)

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.

F (30:58)

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 sample a bowl 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 and 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.

C (31:51)

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?

G (32:32)

It does have an impact. And thanks. And, you know, behavior change at scale, there's nothing harder. And particularly with 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 Elements 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 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 the colleagues on this podcast, we really start with the insight, what is it? And then what is the 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 and 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 and 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 expressing intent to be screened. Millions came to the website to get reminders to be screened and to nudge their friends. So 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 the 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.

F (36:07)

Wait a minute.

G (36:08)

Yeah, it's an important tool once you get screened. But the point is you can get screened, screened and. And get peace of mind as an initial first step. 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.

A (36:36)

I'm sorry to interrupt you. I just. You just got me so excited. 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 gonna 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, 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, you did both things, right, Gail, you guys did full awareness. I, 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.

F (38:14)

Yeah, thanks.

G (38:15)

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 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 taken 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 legends. So there were a lot of layers in it. But I Go back to, we built a marketing philosophy at Novartis and a. And a set of tools that help us get to these deep insights, but then activate it skills. 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.

C (39:34)

It was beautiful storytelling, by the way. Bad Bunny's halftime show was beautiful storytelling. So there was. It was a great night of storytelling on many fronts. And speaking of storytelling, Maddie, 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?

B (40:03)

Yeah, End of October. Yeah, October 20th.

F (40:05)

Right.

C (40:07)

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.

B (40:14)

Yeah, absolutely. Right.

C (40:17)

So you did it. Congrats to you and your team. But let's start out with. Are you happy with how everything went?

B (40:24)

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 was 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 thus 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 the livery 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 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 I got to get to Wednesday afternoon. And I'll be able to give you a proper answer. But there's a lot that had to be done in a very short amount of time. But as I'm learning the world of F1, everything happens under a lot of pressure at the last minute.

C (42:23)

So tell us about this idea. How did it happen? I mean, I get it going to the super bowl, 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.

B (42:35)

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, 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. And 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 there are. 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 now. I would hope the. 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 to bring it 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.

F (44:56)

Cool.

C (44:57)

Gary, you must love it.

A (45:00)

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 experiential, 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.

C (46:05)

Yeah. Right.

A (46:07)

So, yeah, I hope, I, I hope brands start getting more bang for their buck.

C (46:13)

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

D (46:18)

Yes.

C (46:19)

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

D (46:28)

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.

A (46:38)

Right.

D (46:38)

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.

C (46:46)

Right.

D (46:46)

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.

A (46:59)

Love.

D (47:00)

Right. 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.

C (47:14)

So I have a question from one of our community, Melanie Seaborn, 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. When did you get, and how did you get the confidence to do it?

D (47:37)

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

C (47:41)

Right.

D (47:41)

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.

C (47:50)

Right.

D (47:51)

We started in social media, so we need just to amplify that platform.

C (47:54)

Right.

D (47:55)

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.

B (48:04)

Could be.

D (48:05)

Could we go wrong?

B (48:07)

Right.

D (48:08)

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 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.

A (48:32)

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 give you a lot of credit to take that risk.

D (48:47)

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.

B (48:58)

Again, because we.

D (48:59)

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.

E (49:20)

That was it.

D (49:20)

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.

C (49:38)

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?

E (49:58)

I have a question.

B (49:59)

Yeah.

E (49:59)

If you don't mind. For you, Maddy. So I think it's very cool, 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?

B (50:16)

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. 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 a high level of importance to keeping some foundational excellence and 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 innovating with intention. So where are the moments that we can change things? Livery reveal, is that something we can change when it comes to off track entertainment and hosting, is that something we can, 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 and personally focus with our team.

E (51:17)

Nice.

C (51:20)

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

B (51:22)

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, in importance and engagements. Elevating importance. How are you guys talking about that shift internally? Right? Are you guys still thinking about that's.

A (51:52)

Better, you know, like, like somebody following you or signing up for your newsletter doesn't mean they're an actual fan.

B (52:00)

Right?

A (52:00)

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.

B (52:14)

So. 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?

A (52:23)

Yeah, ticket selling stuff, you know, showing up for like impact. Right. I think we, you know, the pr. 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 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 we're 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 irrelevance. 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?

F (54:22)

Right?

A (54:23)

This is measurable for them, your Jets T shirt, you know, but it's not going to be based on, do I follow them on Snapchat? Like I know for 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, it's. It's pebbles that 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 of 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 so young.

C (56:27)

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

F (56:31)

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 own 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.

A (57:28)

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 100 years. We do day to day marketing for 100 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 and was in. 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 20, 26. 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 clearer than 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 if some brands send it all the way up to the Super Bowl, I think.

C (59:02)

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. You've all done it. Some of you have done it more than once. What's your one or two sentences of advice to someone considering for next year?

G (59:19)

Yeah, I mean, Jim, I'll just say build an experience. I mean, we, we all sort of said it in different ways, but the, the, 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 the a year. It's not a one moment. It's, 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.

E (59:44)

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

C (59:49)

Beautiful.

F (59:50)

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

B (59:57)

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.

D (60:12)

Remain true to your brand.

C (60:13)

Right.

D (60:14)

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.

C (60:20)

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

A (60:25)

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.

C (60:37)

Love it. Love it. 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.

A (60:50)

We will. Nine's a good number. Take care, everyone.

C (60:52)

Bye bye. All right, bye now, everybody.

A (60:55)

If you enjoyed this podcast, please go back and look at the prior episodes. They're loaded. I appreciate your attention and thanks for being part of this journey. See you later.