Pull the levers: How Ryu Yokoi is powering Unilever's data-driven, social-first future - The Speed of Culture Podcast

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[00:00]
Capital One Bank Guy
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[00:29]
Ryu Yokoi
Race the rudders. Race the sails. Race the sails.
[00:32]
Matt Britton
Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over.
[00:35]
Ryu Yokoi
Roger, wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution?
[00:40]
LinkedIn Ads Guy
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[01:00]
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[01:27]
Ryu Yokoi
That's the desire and that helps me sleep at night because I know if something isn't working right today, you can learn from that and you can make the thing better in a way that you couldn't make things better for a long time before. I don't have to live with that anymore. I can do something about it. So I find that really empowering.
[01:45]
Matt Britton
To thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape, brands must move at an ever increasing pace. I'm Matt Britton, Founder and CEO of suz. Join me and key industry leaders as we dive deep into the shifting consumer trends within their industry, why it matters now, and how you can keep up. Welcome to the Speed of Culture. We're here live at the Possible conference in Miami. And today we are thrilled to welcome Ryu Yokoi, the Chief Media and Marketing Capabilities Officer for North America at Unilever. With an impressive career that spans leadership roles at Unilever and Schmidt's Naturals, Ryu is at the forefront of driving digital transformation, leveraging data, and creating purpose driven campaigns at scale. Ryu, so great to see you today.
[02:29]
Ryu Yokoi
Wow. Thanks so much for having me.
[02:30]
Matt Britton
Absolutely.
[02:31]
Ryu Yokoi
Yeah.
[02:31]
Matt Britton
Quite the introduction, but quite the career you've had.
[02:33]
Ryu Yokoi
I need to have you with me at all times, my hype man.
[02:36]
Matt Britton
I could be your little AI person that everyone has joined. There you go.
[02:40]
Ryu Yokoi
Yes.
[02:40]
Matt Britton
I'll take It. I'll take it. So tell me about your current role at Unilever. You've been there for a while and have had a variety of different roles and tell me where your focus is right now.
[02:50]
Ryu Yokoi
Yeah, so I came up within the organization, all brand stuff for like the first 13, 14. So I've been with the company for 19 years now.
[02:57]
Matt Britton
Wow.
[02:57]
Ryu Yokoi
So it's been a minute. Yeah. And a great experience. A whole start of the journey, just brand roles. You mentioned Schmidt's. That's sort of one foot in, one foot out thing where I went to actually lead an acquisition that we had done of Schmidt's into the Unilever world and integrating it in. I did that for a couple years and then I've been on a slightly different journey. So I came back in during COVID I came in to lead our transformation into E ecommerce marketing. The whole world was changing how they were shopping. We really needed to take a step up there, transform our capabilities like direct to consumer. Well, we don't do direct to consumer primarily. Yeah, we have some of our acquisition brands have direct to consumer practices, but for the most part it's omnichannel and some pure play. Obviously with Amazon is a massive source of our growth, but we needed to really ship up our act in order to be competitive and drive growth and.
[03:46]
Matt Britton
Compete in that space in places like Amazon, walmart.com.
[03:48]
Ryu Yokoi
Exactly right, exactly. So at the same time that was happening, we've had this massive convergence thanks to data of the commerce and the media space. And so as natural, I started doing more and more in digital marketing, first taking on, then media. And now I'm the chief Media and marketing capabilities officer which means I look after everything from our digital marketing, our media, our digital commerce practice, our shopper marketing sort of other, say at scale sort of practice. So I get to look after and it's a privilege. You know, I joined Unilever 19 years ago. I wanted to work at the company that I thought was the best marketing company in the world. And this is just incredible honor now to be in a position where I get to kind of shape what our marketing practice should look like and what we think good marketing looks like. So I get up out of bed every day, really fired up about it.
[04:31]
Matt Britton
So how is marketing as a CPG company like Unilever different today than it was two decades ago when you joined? Obviously lots of ways. But what comes to mind.
[04:40]
Ryu Yokoi
Well, I think the biggest one that fits into sort of into your world, I would say is so I went to B School at Penn. And there's such an emphasis there. Data driven marketing. Data driven marketing. I had, like, amazing professors there, and we ran all these simulations, and in all of them, you know, you'd be with your team thinking, what should the marketing plan be? And then they would give, like, different this happens. And then, oh, I go to that. And it seemed like the kind of thing where you could make all those changes so fast. And when I graduated, this is like 20 years ago now, had the stark realization that the data didn't flow that fast.
[05:09]
Matt Britton
Right.
[05:09]
Ryu Yokoi
The data wasn't constructed and structured the way that you were seeing it there. And so it was just much less iterative. And today I think data is this incredible equalizer. So I'm just thinking about this over the weekend, where I feel like now so much of the stuff I did, like, academically is, like, really possible for everybody all the time now, where the data is sort of rewarding you with that signal all the time in terms of how you can make better, you can make changes. And now with AI, you can actually respond to them so much faster. And so I think in both fronts, it's easy. Academically, as a student when I was first graduating, saying, oh, you know, those are the signals. Then I'll do this and we'll come up with a campaign that does that in practice, between waiting for those signals to come in, to using whatever tools we had available to process those, to then doing whatever the prep would be for the next mix that we would go to respond against that. Those are cycles that were really different. So I would say cycle time is the biggest change.
[05:59]
Matt Britton
But even that being said in cpg, it's not like you can learn something new and have a new product evolution on the shelf tomorrow. There's a whole supply chain. There's a lot of steps in between. So how do you feel that jump position? Yeah.
[06:11]
Ryu Yokoi
From a product standpoint, I think from.
[06:12]
Matt Britton
A creative, messaging, media investment, what's working, what isn't?
[06:16]
Ryu Yokoi
Absolutely right. I think about the stuff that you guys do, being able to understand what the trend is and how to react to it nowadays, all of that is so much more democratized and happening in real time.
[06:25]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
[06:25]
Ryu Yokoi
That.
[06:25]
Matt Britton
That changes so much more quickly. Right.
[06:27]
Ryu Yokoi
It's a huge change.
[06:28]
Matt Britton
Yeah. I mean, you think what AI is obviously doing for business, I think one thing it's not talked about enough is what it's doing to the consumer, especially the younger consumer, who's being born to a world where no longer is there a gap between their imagination and what's Possible, whether it's something that you want to create visually or something you want to write or whatever it may be. And it also is changing, in my opinion, what it's going to take to really future proof in this new world. So what skill sets do you think are most valuable moving forward at a place like Unilever, let's say, to allow somebody to really optimize their potential.
[07:05]
Ryu Yokoi
Look, you know, I made the same reference to when I first graduated school that we were just talking about. And if I think about it today, it's such an amazing time to come into marketing.
[07:12]
Matt Britton
Yeah, scary, too.
[07:14]
Ryu Yokoi
Yeah, it's intense.
[07:14]
Matt Britton
It's actually a scary time to be in marketing. Probably more so than it is to come into marketing.
[07:18]
Ryu Yokoi
It's disrupted, but it's disrupted by all the good. It's disrupted because we were used to a certain way of working.
[07:23]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
[07:23]
Ryu Yokoi
But in practice, just as you're saying, we can now ideate concept and come up with things so much faster than we used to before. You can then illustrate and have. You can really visualize it the way that you couldn't before. You can then share and collaborate with people in ways that you couldn't before. And then we can bring things into market and understand how they're performing at a rate that we couldn't before. So all of that is just so much more rewarding. And for me, I used to think of you used to gear up, prepare to go to war once a year, you know, the shelf set is getting landed and then you kind of know within the first six, seven weeks, the first a hundred days, whether you got something right. And then it's either going to be a great year or it's a slog. And while you get to do again the next. And that would fill me with all kinds of Ajita.
[08:08]
Matt Britton
Because you're using a valuable shelf space for a product that's not moving off the shelf. Yeah. That packaging's wrong.
[08:14]
Ryu Yokoi
Or the opposite. Right. Or you have a winner and you know, you've got several months before the competition. And we compete against the best in the world too, you know.
[08:21]
Matt Britton
Yeah, you do.
[08:22]
Ryu Yokoi
Before they have a chance to come in and do something different also. Right. So I think you're right. I guess you can look at it one of two ways. Right. For me, I sleep easy at night knowing I've got an awesome team. We've got absolutely have some of the best marketers in the world at the firm. And we have fantastic measurement and data work that allows us, we think, to be able to optimize you know, I don't know about the speed of culture.
[08:42]
Matt Britton
Right.
[08:43]
Ryu Yokoi
But you know, at speed and hopefully at the speed of culture. Yeah. And that's the desire and that helps me sleep at night because I know if something isn't working right today, you can learn from that and you can make the thing better in a way that you couldn't make things better for a long time before.
[08:57]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
[08:58]
Ryu Yokoi
I don't have to live with that anymore. I can do something about it. So I find that really empowering. Now the opposite side of it to your point is until you crack it, that iterative cycle of doing it over and over again until we land something that's meaningful. But I think more and more we're getting more insightful about what we need to pay attention to and distinguishing signal from noise so that we can be productive. Because I see it all the time that we're putting to your point. You know, comms into market and understanding how to make them stronger. But not just that. I mean we get signal now off of response to communication. That's really helpful for us to understand more insights into what's really working with our packaging. Just the difference for example, between you know, we see sometimes people off take of product off a physical shelf versus what's working in a listing online and what it is that we're featuring there versus what we got on the pack.
[09:42]
Matt Britton
Super interesting.
[09:43]
Ryu Yokoi
Those kinds of signals that you have now that you can play with it. We never had anything like that.
[09:46]
Matt Britton
Right. I mean just manifesting a physical retail environment online. I mean I know there's some purchases also people normally grab right at checkout.
[09:55]
Ryu Yokoi
Yeah.
[09:55]
Matt Britton
Where that's not really the same thing. Where they're much more intentional when someone goes online in terms of what they're looking for. So then passing by something. So I imagine all those things are different now in terms of how you look at where you're focusing, where the opportunities are different, packaging sizes, things like that.
[10:10]
Ryu Yokoi
Absolutely. And a large part of what we do is try to earn those secondary placements that you're talking about in a physical environment. Because those things are really sort of massive in terms of bringing in an additional impulse shop and driving additional mental awareness of the things that we're bringing into the market. And so we think about all of that.
[10:27]
Matt Britton
Yeah. So as we spoke earlier, so I know you don't do direct to consumer for the most part yet having your own first party data right now arguably is more valuable than ever before.
[10:36]
Ryu Yokoi
That's right.
[10:37]
Matt Britton
And you're a bit. Because AI can unlock so much more without the needs of tons of analysts and obviously it can do a ton for your targeting, et cetera. So when you say data is incredibly important, how does Unilever get its hands around data if you're often not selling to the consumer direct?
[10:53]
Ryu Yokoi
Well, we try to make sure that we're capturing the right signals at every interaction point that we do have with the consumer. Right. So it's really important for us to have the right tagging, pixeling in place.
[11:03]
Matt Britton
That we're really with your ads and other messaging marketplace.
[11:06]
Ryu Yokoi
Yeah, anywhere. But not just right. If we're doing an activation irl, making sure that we're capturing signal there and understanding getting feedback from the shopper in that instance. Anywhere is a source today.
[11:19]
Matt Britton
Interesting.
[11:19]
Ryu Yokoi
If you're thinking about it and being proactive in that way. And you're right, the 1P asset is a massive asset. Depending on our categories, we have some that are really high engagement where people are very open to sharing data.
[11:31]
Matt Britton
Right. Sign up for a newsletter or something like that. Yeah, yeah.
[11:33]
Ryu Yokoi
You know, like people. I worked on Hellmans for a long time. People love recipes. They will gladly give you consent for data for recipes. It's a different kind of challenge when you're operating in categories that are lower engagement or that traditionally have been. And it really becomes the job of the marketer to understand how we're creating value that should earn that kind of content so that we can keep building on that. Right. You know, I'd also say our publishers and platform partners are sitting on mountains of data too. And it's important that we operate intelligently to understand how to stitch those things together so that we can make the best decisions.
[12:05]
Matt Britton
Yeah. One company that's sitting on a ton of first party data is Walmart and we just spoke to their retail media group and Ryan who runs that, he was here for an interview just before you and we were talking about.
[12:17]
Ryu Yokoi
I just spent the morning with him.
[12:18]
Matt Britton
Oh, there you go. There you go. So world's colliding. But obviously companies like Walmart has such tremendous first party data because they're obviously the front end for companies like yours. And now what they're doing smartly so is they're unlocking that first party data to allow brands like yours to reach consumers not only just in store, but really throughout, everywhere that they interact with any type of content, including television. How important is retail media in a data driven approach to be able to drive your business since they are so important to the overall funnel?
[12:50]
Ryu Yokoi
Our mantra is we want to be social first, yeah, we really want to connect with our shoppers through the communities that they're in, in ways that are relevant so that we can be sort of the most desirable to them and truly reach them authentically. The critical thing with the data is that it allows us, as I was saying before, to stitch together the journey so that we're then rewarding their interaction with us with the right next message to them along the path so that we're trying to get them through to closing, helping find exactly what they need so they can close out and convert as soon as possible. As you were just referring, the team at Walmart and lots of these retail media partners at this point are really beginning to harness that for power. And it's a real great tool for us as marketers to be able to drive people all the way down the journey. And I think you mentioned the work that Ryan's doing. I think his team at this point, they are a full media shop.
[13:43]
Matt Britton
Right. Isn't that fascinating? Because they used to be the advertiser and now they're the platform competing with traditional media platforms.
[13:49]
Ryu Yokoi
Right. And they're a real partner. And I think you got to recognize they're bringing now not just a data product, but also more and more opportunities to interact a real canvas wherein we can reach their shopper across physical and sort of digital environment. And I'm really intrigued with their acquisition of Vizio. I'm curious what that's going to be.
[14:10]
Matt Britton
Yeah, we discussed that as well.
[14:11]
Ryu Yokoi
Ton of opportunity for them.
[14:12]
Matt Britton
I'm surprised that companies like Netflix and others didn't do the same thing because if you think about it, the last mile is where you really control the power and the consumer. You can put whatever you want on the remote control and on the interface, et cetera. And TVs, these companies that produce the components, televisions, it's a very low margin business. The power of the margins in the data. And the data powers content that runs through the tv. And I think that's why that acquisition was so brilliant, because now they're having a device in someone's home where the person is that's making the buying decisions on what type of mayonnaise they're going to buy. So it really does close the entire loop.
[14:49]
Ryu Yokoi
I think as a marketer, it's exciting. Between what the Walmart team is doing, you see what's happening at Amazon, at Roundel, with Target, really across the gamut, Sam's, you have work that's happening and there's a race to the top amongst these guys, to truly earn that and we try to nurture that. Our approach to this is always that retail media is media and we hold the retail media partners to be media and to deliver against our KPIs. And in doing so what we find is that they're continually bringing more sophisticated ad product and that it works harder. So I think it's exciting because to your point, it opens up a whole avenue for closing that journey with the shopper and converting the shopper that wasn't there just a few years ago.
[15:30]
Matt Britton
It's so interesting because 10 years ago we would have been talking about a whole different slew of companies that, that were vital to a company like yours to reach the consumer, whether it be in the past Viacom or News Corp or traditional publishers. And now we're talking about Walmart, we're talking about Amazon. Chase rolled out a media network because they have first party data on how people spend money. PayPal did as well. So it's like there's a whole new realm of companies that traditionally were more like advertisers. But since they have first party data they can power media platforms. Maybe not the extent Walmart can because your products actually on their shelves. But it's interesting to see how this is evolving. Just wondering where you think it's all headed.
[16:08]
Ryu Yokoi
It, I think Paramount, you know, you just referenced Disney, Warner, they all have incredible high quality but you can only.
[16:15]
Matt Britton
Spend money in so many places.
[16:17]
Ryu Yokoi
Right.
[16:17]
Matt Britton
It's.
[16:17]
Ryu Yokoi
They do. But I think I'm saying you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, one can. But I think the point that I would make is I tend to think of these at a certain point it's all media and we're making the decision on what works the hardest.
[16:28]
Matt Britton
Yeah, of course.
[16:29]
Ryu Yokoi
I think there's been a ton of really interesting collaboration between those ideas. And so for example, we partnered just last year on doing several, we say like sort of three way deals with Paramount and Walmart wherein we're leveraging sort of Walmart data to power reaching shoppers. Our shoppers we know based on the thing in really high quality inventory on Paramount and Walmart because they have the content exactly right. Right. And so I think it's around finding what the right values like. As I said, the key thing for us is how do we use data to then interconnect these things so that we can be reaching people where they are in moments of culture where that matter to them in ways that are relevant and then we use the data to make sure that we're bringing them through and the next time we talk to them, bringing them the right message.
[17:11]
Matt Britton
We'll be right back with the speed of Culture after a few words from our sponsors.
[17:14]
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[17:42]
Capital One Bank Guy
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[18:09]
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[18:43]
Matt Britton
So one place that's relevant content is coming out every single day, especially for Gen Z who is staring at their phone all day is new creators, right? They're staring at their phone. They're the iPhone generation and when they're looking at their phone, it's normally from content from other people. And I'm just wondering what your take is on creators, how important they are as part of the overall planning cycle, and what are some of the ways that you're leveraging that?
[19:04]
Ryu Yokoi
Oh man. I mean, they're more and more important. I think you got to think of them two ways, both highly relevant. You know, as I started out again, for us, the whole game is how can we drive more desirability against our products at scale in a way that can have a meaningful business impact for us. And today the creator brings both massive reaches and they are increasingly arbiters of desire and relevance in a world where people are more and more cynical about any kind of messaging that they're receiving.
[19:34]
Matt Britton
Well put.
[19:35]
Ryu Yokoi
And the more relevant, the more especially contextually relevant someone is that's delivering them a message if they have a voice or sort of known use case for this kind of a benefit. And Then they're the ones that are communicating that to you. That has a different impact. And so it's of huge importance. And our creator and influencer practice over the past few years has been one of the things that we've been really building up. I need to continue to do so.
[19:58]
Matt Britton
Do you find that hard to scale just because you're dealing with people versus platforms?
[20:03]
Ryu Yokoi
There's different models for doing so. I think that they're humans.
[20:07]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
[20:07]
Ryu Yokoi
And so there's different sort of considerations that one has to, of course, has to have because you're really developing a partnership with a creator over time.
[20:14]
Matt Britton
Yeah. And you're putting your brand.
[20:16]
Ryu Yokoi
It's not a spot in the dot. Right. That's what I say. When they're humans. Right. Like they're real people. And it's also different because the best creative work comes when you really understand that creator, their voice, how they're delivering. If you want this to work, you want to come across authentically from them or why are you doing it?
[20:30]
Matt Britton
Y.
[20:30]
Ryu Yokoi
And so people need to receive that and feel that it's really coming in their voice and that they believe it.
[20:35]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
[20:35]
Ryu Yokoi
You know, you got to choose the guys and gals that you work with the right way. So ideally, you're finding creators who really do find value in your work. And we're lucky. We have great products. So that's not hard.
[20:43]
Matt Britton
Yeah. So another area I know that you can really drive a lot of engagement through is through sports. When you talk about television, it's arguably the less like, kind of fashion of life, entertainment at scale. Right. We just had Tim Ellis here earlier this morning, the CMO of the NFL talking about all the things they're doing active.
[21:00]
Ryu Yokoi
It was not him. All more.
[21:01]
Matt Britton
Okay, there you go. I was like, oh, do you call yourself. But obviously it's a big part of your go to market strategy and your partnerships, like the 2026 FIFA World Cup. So talking about sports and how it plays a role in overall how you activate.
[21:15]
Ryu Yokoi
I think sports is culture.
[21:16]
Matt Britton
Yeah. It is.
[21:17]
Ryu Yokoi
It's massive. Right. As you were just saying today, it's harder and harder to find sort of those monoculture things that really sort of transcend because of the social age, time.
[21:26]
Matt Britton
Shifting, the way that we spend our.
[21:27]
Ryu Yokoi
Time and time shifting. We're all in our own bubbles. There's only so many things that interconnect those. And it's like, you know, it's. I think you were referencing it something crazy. It's like 96 of the top 100 broadcasts are sports. And Then the others, like the Thanksgiving Day parade and the Oscar. Right.
[21:43]
Matt Britton
Maybe the Grammys or Oscars or something.
[21:45]
Ryu Yokoi
Those are the few moments that connect. And thanks to sort of the digital age, it's not just the event itself, it's everything that surrounds it. Right, right. Athletes are kind of their own digital product media channels themselves these days. Everything has become sort of an entree into culture. And we see fans now who don't watch the game. They're just doing it for the fantasy side of it. Highlights, tons and tons of them who only watch highlights, don't watch the games. Right.
[22:11]
Matt Britton
Video games. Gambling. Fantasy sports.
[22:14]
Ryu Yokoi
Gambling, fantasy sports. The Taylor Swift of it all. People who are tuning in just for halftime shows because that's going to become part of the discourse. You need to have seen it. So it's a whole different environment and not to ment. And this. The massive turnout that you also have physical. It's like one of the rare instances where you can have sort of efficiently reach an audience in person and give.
[22:31]
Matt Britton
Them an experience in global language. Like I was just in Saudi Arabia for speaking about the book and in two of the executives homes because they invited me to their homes. There's Kobe Bryant posters in their homes. It just shows like is a global phenomenon. And especially American athletes increasingly in Europe, FIFA and UEFA, like these athletes really command global reach.
[22:51]
Ryu Yokoi
That's right, yeah. And so we have been participating in the big game for a few years now with Dove and with our Hellman's brand. And our single biggest partnership that we have is the partnership for the 26 World Cup. We did the Women's World cup in 23, which is wonderful. We'll have the Women's cup again in 27. But we are all focused right now on preparing for just a massive opportunity. You know, it's something like every one of these games is like a Super bowl for a market in the world, of course. And this is going to be the biggest.
[23:22]
Matt Britton
It goes deeper in the game.
[23:22]
Ryu Yokoi
Biggest sporting event in living history. Right. So it's really exciting. And I think in general, sports and these sort of spectator cultural moments just create really sort of unique opportunities for us to show the value of our products in ways that are really special. And if we can deliver them in ways that are authentic, they can be meaningful. I'll give you an example. So we were activating in New Orleans around the big game this year and and had the opportunity to really activate the Dove brand, which we activate in sports. With Dove, we were really consistent with our message to drive self esteem that we've had for more than 20 years now.
[23:56]
Matt Britton
Great campaign.
[23:57]
Ryu Yokoi
A huge element of that in the past few years, which we've celebrated in the beginning of the past few years, is research that we did together with Nike, actually, to get a bit of more understanding of this question of why we see girls dropping out of sports specifically. I think it's as they move into their teen years, a much higher rate than what. And boys, I think the participation rates are much closer until that window. And the research shows you that the leading cause of that is body confidence. And so much of that can just be addressed with the way that coaches talk to their players. And so we've developed this body confident curriculum, and we've been utilizing our activation around these events as a way of raising awareness of that, and it's really meaningful. You know, one of the audiences that we find has had the biggest connection to this stuff is girl dads. And a lot of those girl dads are coaches. Right. So we feel like if we really do reach them, you know, this is something that's meaningful and different to them, according to. That's the kind of thing where we can have a positive and hopefully on this and hopefully encourage and keep.
[24:52]
Matt Britton
Yeah, I'm one of them. So I'm behind this big. Fantastic.
[24:55]
Ryu Yokoi
Yeah, fantastic. That's the whole mission. And so we look very much to try to make sure that we're continuing to build that over times in ways that are meaningful. We just signed our first kit sponsorship, so we're official sponsors of Gotham fc, which is in our backyard in New Jersey. They are the NWSL team for the New Jersey area. And they had a mission around keeping girls in the game. Keep her in the game is their mission. And we were like, my God, we're. Our mission's about keep her confident. This is incredible.
[25:20]
Matt Britton
Right? Perfect.
[25:20]
Ryu Yokoi
So you couldn't find a better fit that way. And so in general, we think these events create just an awesome canvas for us to deliver our brand stories in ways that are meaningful in categories and in spots where you build a much deeper connection, understanding of what a brand can stand for and how you can relate to it.
[25:36]
Matt Britton
Awesome. So shifting gears, we wrap up here. I'm just curious. Like, we've spoken about such a wide panoply of topics today, from data to retail to sports, the culture, et cetera. And that's rare. And in these interviews, where often they go down sort of a unique rabbit hole of whatever they're focused on, which probably is reflective, I would imagine, of your role at Unilever and That you wear many hats. Tell me about what is a week in the life like for you? Where do you spend your time? Where do you like to spend your time and why?
[26:03]
Ryu Yokoi
That's a great question. I really try to focus and I'm trying to bridge two worlds.
[26:09]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
[26:09]
Ryu Yokoi
The mantra is we want to be three steps ahead and be as externally oriented as possible so that we continue to drive our capabilities and stay at the forefront in terms of understanding how we can be using whether it's technology or the right practice so that we can be more efficient. We want to be the most outcome oriented advertiser in the industry. That's like the mantra I try to push to my team at all times. And so that requires us to both be really external and thinking about what's going on outside and at the same time really focused on driving impacted scale.
[26:40]
Matt Britton
Internally and having your finger on a pulse of data. Make sure you. That's exactly what you're driven.
[26:44]
Ryu Yokoi
But you know, it's less me having my finger on the. And I do do that because I'm clearly like really obsessive about this stuff. But for me it's more making sure that we at scale are implementing and establishing the right practice so that my organization is consistently doing. That's when it becomes a real competitive advantage for us. And we've seen that pay off for us, especially recently with a lot of return as we've been shifting into social first.
[27:08]
Matt Britton
Yeah, for sure. So obviously, I'm sure a big part of your role is also building a team, managing team, finding great talent, what is true amongst people who turn out to be real stars, rising stars at a company like Unilever, what attributes they normally possess. And maybe some advice for some of our younger listeners in areas they should focus on.
[27:26]
Ryu Yokoi
Man, I always say forgive a damn. This is my number one within Unilever.
[27:31]
Matt Britton
So many people don't give a damn. Yeah.
[27:33]
Ryu Yokoi
Unfortunately at all stages I'm blessed because I've really, I recruit for that. And this is like the emphasis for me. If you talk to anybody on my team, these are people that are, you know, they care. And this is one of the attributes from overall Unilever standpoint where looking to really highlight is sort of the importance of caring deeply and putting that in. And so the advice I always give to folks because it's a lot easier to care deeply when the work that you do feels meaningful and when the work that you do isn't something that you feel passionate about. And so that's really what I look for is do I Believe that this person cares about this and would find meaningful this outcome. Outcome, like a lot of this stuff is data analytics, rigor, understanding an audience. What is the right ad tech I should be using to identify the trend or to be making this thing better? It can feel like a lot of inside baseball, and people use the term inside baseball, but inside baseball is like, fascinating to people that really care about baseball.
[28:28]
Matt Britton
Right, of course.
[28:29]
Ryu Yokoi
So ultimately, like, this was the point I'm trying to make. You know, I think the more that you find whatever you're doing fun or interesting, the better you are as a partner to other people, the more time that you'll want to spend. You know, if it's the thing that you would be doing anyway, you're going to be better.
[28:42]
Matt Britton
All right, and what are some of the ways going back to AI? Like, do you think it's going to play a role in the development of future talent? Like 20 years from now, as I continue this podcast, 20 years from now and gray walking in here, I'm already a little gray interviewing people. And the new stars 20 years from now will have used AI to power themselves. And what ways do you think they will have done it?
[29:02]
Ryu Yokoi
I think of two ways. I think the first is I can think of, and I know the zeitgeist right now is agentic AI, but in principle, I think there's really something to it in that in almost every state you can find ways to leverage AI to bring either more rigor or to bring more speed into something that you would have been doing.
[29:20]
Matt Britton
Force multiplier.
[29:21]
Ryu Yokoi
Right. And so because of that, I do think it's the kind of thing that has a major impact and that we need to think of it from an end to end standpoint in terms of where it can help. I was talking about a second ago around how I want to make sure that we're implementing practice across the organization. So it really has impact. And I think this AI is one of those things that can really help us to do that because I think find it potentially really empowering. So many things in the past have been the purview of subject matter experts or had major barriers to entreated people being able to do them. And I think if we do it right, it can be a huge sort of unlocking moment where people can take on different kinds of work.
[29:58]
Matt Britton
You can democratize a lot of things. Yeah, yeah.
[30:00]
Ryu Yokoi
And it really becomes about the power of your thinking and how much you care. It's well put.
[30:05]
Matt Britton
So to wrap up here, is there a saying or mantra that you think guides your professional journey? Journey to date or personal?
[30:11]
Ryu Yokoi
Right now I've been thinking a lot. I have a dear friend we work with at WPP named Janet Levine who works in strategy there. She wrote this article like a year and a half ago that really struck me and her big headline was Build Worlds, Don't Chase Moments. And I haven't stopped thinking about it since.
[30:27]
Matt Britton
Why is that?
[30:28]
Ryu Yokoi
Because I think we lose so much by not being proactive and by not taking the moment to step back and think about what it is that we want to make. Build.
[30:36]
Matt Britton
Yeah. And then we're in the grind of every day. We're reactive.
[30:39]
Ryu Yokoi
You end up in the grind when you don't know what it was that you wanted to do.
[30:42]
Matt Britton
Urgent versus important. Like a lot of people focus on what's urgent versus what's important. What you're talking about is what's important.
[30:47]
Ryu Yokoi
Right. Once you figure out what's important, then you're prepared for all those things that are going to come at you later. And it's something I have been trying more and more in my life and with my team to think about. How do we take those moments to take a beat and think about what is the world that I want to build?
[31:01]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
[31:01]
Ryu Yokoi
For my team, for myself, for my brand.
[31:03]
Matt Britton
And so yeah, it's so easy to be reactive in the fire alarms of the day, but if you're only doing that, you're never really moving yourself forward and getting ultimately where you want to be.
[31:11]
Ryu Yokoi
Exactly.
[31:12]
Matt Britton
Awesome. Well, thank you so much. This has been a fantastic discussion as I knew it would. I know you're really busy here at the conference, but I really appreciate you taking the time to speak this.
[31:19]
Ryu Yokoi
Oh, it's my pleasure. Thanks so much for having me.
[31:21]
Matt Britton
On behalf of Susie and Edwy team, thanks again to Ryu Yokoi, the Chief Media and Marketing Capabilities Officer for North America at Unilever, for joining us today live at the possible conference in Miami. Be sure to subscribe rate review the Speed of Culture podcast on your favorite podcast platform the next time. See you soon. The Speed of Culture is brought to you by Susie as part of the Adweek Podcast Network and a guest creator network. You can listen subscribe to all Ad Week's podcast by visiting Adweek.com podcast To find out more about Suzy, head to Suzy.com and make sure to search for the Speed of Culture in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any anywhere else podcasts are found, click follow so you don't miss out on any future episodes. On behalf of the team here at Suzy, thanks for listening.
[32:21]
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Summary5 min read

Podcast Summary: The Speed of Culture Podcast Episode: Pull the levers: How Ryu Yokoi is powering Unilever's data-driven, social-first future
Release Date: June 3, 2025
Host: Matt Britton, Founder and CEO of Suzy
Guest: Ryu Yokoi, Chief Media and Marketing Capabilities Officer for North America at Unilever

Introduction

In this engaging episode of The Speed of Culture Podcast, Matt Britton welcomes Ryu Yokoi, a seasoned executive from Unilever, to discuss the dynamic intersection of data-driven marketing, social-first strategies, and the evolving landscape of consumer packaged goods (CPG). Recorded live at the Possible Conference in Miami, the conversation delves deep into how Unilever is navigating and shaping the rapidly changing market through innovation and strategic partnerships.

Ryu Yokoi's Career and Current Role (02:28 - 04:30)

Ryu Yokoi shares insights from his impressive 19-year tenure at Unilever, highlighting his progression from brand management roles to leading significant acquisitions, such as integrating Schmidt's Naturals into Unilever. Currently, as the Chief Media and Marketing Capabilities Officer for North America, Ryu oversees Unilever’s digital marketing, media strategies, digital commerce practices, and shopper marketing at scale.

Notable Quote:

"I get to look after and it's a privilege. You know, I joined Unilever 19 years ago. I wanted to work at the company that I thought was the best marketing company in the world. And this is just incredible honor now to be in a position where I get to kind of shape what our marketing practice should look like and what we think good marketing looks like."
(04:30)

Transformation into E-commerce and Digital Marketing (02:50 - 03:48)

Ryu discusses Unilever's strategic pivot during the COVID-19 pandemic to enhance their e-commerce and direct-to-consumer capabilities. While Unilever predominantly operates through omnichannel strategies and leverages platforms like Amazon for growth, the pandemic underscored the necessity to upscale digital marketing efforts to remain competitive.

Data-Driven Marketing and AI (04:39 - 05:58)

Exploring the evolution of data in marketing, Ryu reflects on his academic experiences where data-driven decisions were more theoretical than practical due to slower data flows. Today, he emphasizes that data has become an "incredible equalizer," enabling real-time insights and rapid iterative changes powered by AI.

Notable Quote:

"Data is this incredible equalizer. So I'm just thinking about this over the weekend, where I feel like now so much of the stuff I did, like, academically is, like, really possible for everybody all the time now, where the data is sort of rewarding you with that signal all the time in terms of how you can make better, you can make changes. And now with AI, you can actually respond to them so much faster."
(05:08)

Retail Media and Data Partnerships (12:05 - 17:10)

Ryu highlights the pivotal role of retail media in Unilever’s data-driven approach. By partnering with retail giants like Walmart, which possess extensive first-party data, Unilever can reach consumers both in-store and across various digital touchpoints. These partnerships enable a seamless integration of consumer interactions, allowing for targeted messaging that aligns with shopper behavior.

Notable Quote:

"Our mantra is we want to be social first, yeah, we really want to connect with our shoppers through the communities that they're in, in ways that are relevant so that we can be sort of the most desirable to them and truly reach them authentically."
(12:49)

Creator and Influencer Marketing (18:42 - 20:43)

Discussing the importance of creators in modern marketing, Ryu underscores their role as authentic messengers who can drive desirability and relevance for Unilever’s products. He emphasizes the need for genuine partnerships with creators who align with the brand’s values, ensuring that marketing efforts resonate authentically with audiences.

Notable Quote:

"They're the ones that are communicating that to you. That has a different impact. And so it's of huge importance."
(19:34)

Sports Marketing and Cultural Engagement (20:43 - 25:35)

Ryu elaborates on Unilever’s strategic involvement in major sporting events, such as the FIFA World Cup. He explains how sports serve as significant cultural touchpoints, providing unique opportunities to connect with audiences on a global scale. These partnerships not only enhance brand visibility but also allow Unilever to champion meaningful causes, such as promoting body confidence among young athletes.

Notable Quote:

"Sports is culture. It's massive. Right. As you were just saying today, it's harder and harder to find sort of those monoculture things that really sort of transcend because of the social age, time."
(21:14)

Building and Managing Teams (26:03 - 28:42)

Ryu shares his philosophy on team building, emphasizing the importance of hiring individuals who "care deeply" about their work. He believes that passion and meaningful engagement drive excellence, making team members more effective and committed to delivering impactful results.

Notable Quote:

"I always say forgive a damn. This is my number one within Unilever. If you talk to anybody on my team, these are people that are, you know, they care."
(27:25)

The Future of AI in Marketing (28:42 - 30:04)

Looking ahead, Ryu envisions AI as a transformative force that will democratize marketing processes, enabling faster and more rigorous decision-making. He anticipates that future marketing professionals will leverage AI to enhance their capabilities, making marketing more efficient and impactful.

Notable Quote:

"AI is one of those things that can really help us to do that because I think find it potentially really empowering. So many things in the past have been the purview of subject matter experts or had major barriers to entry."
(29:02)

Professional Mantra: "Build Worlds, Don't Chase Moments" (30:10 - 31:11)

Concluding the conversation, Ryu shares a guiding principle that shapes his professional journey: "Build Worlds, Don't Chase Moments." He advocates for proactive, strategic thinking over reactive measures, encouraging a focus on creating meaningful and lasting impacts rather than merely responding to immediate challenges.

Notable Quote:

"Because I think we lose so much by not being proactive and by not taking the moment to step back and think about what it is that we want to make. Build."
(30:28)

Conclusion

This episode provides a comprehensive look into how a leading CPG company like Unilever is leveraging data, AI, and strategic partnerships to stay ahead in a fast-paced cultural landscape. Ryu Yokoi’s insights offer valuable lessons on the importance of authenticity, the power of data-driven decision-making, and the necessity of building passionate teams to drive sustainable growth.

For those interested in the future of marketing and the integration of technology with consumer engagement, this conversation underscores the critical elements needed to thrive at the intersection of culture and commerce.

Listen to the full episode here on your favorite podcast platform.

Loading summary

Transcript159 lines

[00:00]
Capital One Bank Guy
Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees. Just ask the Capital One Bank Guy. It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way. He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast too. Ah, really? Thanks. Capital One Bank Guy. What's in your wallet? Term supply. See capitalone.com bank capital1na member FDIC.
[00:29]
Ryu Yokoi
Race the rudders. Race the sails. Race the sails.
[00:32]
Matt Britton
Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over.
[00:35]
Ryu Yokoi
Roger, wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution?
[00:40]
LinkedIn Ads Guy
Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title and more. We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Get started today at LinkedIn.com results. Terms and conditions apply.
[01:00]
Philo Ads Representative
This episode is brought to you by Philo Ads. Want to get your brand in front of the right audience? Philo Ads is the way to go. With 98% of viewing on connected TVs and over 900 million monthly ad impressions, Philo gives advertisers unmatched accessibility, flexibility and results. Power your next campaign with Philo Ads. Today, head to Ads Philo TV to get started.
[01:27]
Ryu Yokoi
That's the desire and that helps me sleep at night because I know if something isn't working right today, you can learn from that and you can make the thing better in a way that you couldn't make things better for a long time before. I don't have to live with that anymore. I can do something about it. So I find that really empowering.
[01:45]
Matt Britton
To thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape, brands must move at an ever increasing pace. I'm Matt Britton, Founder and CEO of suz. Join me and key industry leaders as we dive deep into the shifting consumer trends within their industry, why it matters now, and how you can keep up. Welcome to the Speed of Culture. We're here live at the Possible conference in Miami. And today we are thrilled to welcome Ryu Yokoi, the Chief Media and Marketing Capabilities Officer for North America at Unilever. With an impressive career that spans leadership roles at Unilever and Schmidt's Naturals, Ryu is at the forefront of driving digital transformation, leveraging data, and creating purpose driven campaigns at scale. Ryu, so great to see you today.
[02:29]
Ryu Yokoi
Wow. Thanks so much for having me.
[02:30]
Matt Britton
Absolutely.
[02:31]
Ryu Yokoi
Yeah.
[02:31]
Matt Britton
Quite the introduction, but quite the career you've had.
[02:33]
Ryu Yokoi
I need to have you with me at all times, my hype man.
[02:36]
Matt Britton
I could be your little AI person that everyone has joined. There you go.
[02:40]
Ryu Yokoi
Yes.
[02:40]
Matt Britton
I'll take It. I'll take it. So tell me about your current role at Unilever. You've been there for a while and have had a variety of different roles and tell me where your focus is right now.
[02:50]
Ryu Yokoi
Yeah, so I came up within the organization, all brand stuff for like the first 13, 14. So I've been with the company for 19 years now.
[02:57]
Matt Britton
Wow.
[02:57]
Ryu Yokoi
So it's been a minute. Yeah. And a great experience. A whole start of the journey, just brand roles. You mentioned Schmidt's. That's sort of one foot in, one foot out thing where I went to actually lead an acquisition that we had done of Schmidt's into the Unilever world and integrating it in. I did that for a couple years and then I've been on a slightly different journey. So I came back in during COVID I came in to lead our transformation into E ecommerce marketing. The whole world was changing how they were shopping. We really needed to take a step up there, transform our capabilities like direct to consumer. Well, we don't do direct to consumer primarily. Yeah, we have some of our acquisition brands have direct to consumer practices, but for the most part it's omnichannel and some pure play. Obviously with Amazon is a massive source of our growth, but we needed to really ship up our act in order to be competitive and drive growth and.
[03:46]
Matt Britton
Compete in that space in places like Amazon, walmart.com.
[03:48]
Ryu Yokoi
Exactly right, exactly. So at the same time that was happening, we've had this massive convergence thanks to data of the commerce and the media space. And so as natural, I started doing more and more in digital marketing, first taking on, then media. And now I'm the chief Media and marketing capabilities officer which means I look after everything from our digital marketing, our media, our digital commerce practice, our shopper marketing sort of other, say at scale sort of practice. So I get to look after and it's a privilege. You know, I joined Unilever 19 years ago. I wanted to work at the company that I thought was the best marketing company in the world. And this is just incredible honor now to be in a position where I get to kind of shape what our marketing practice should look like and what we think good marketing looks like. So I get up out of bed every day, really fired up about it.
[04:31]
Matt Britton
So how is marketing as a CPG company like Unilever different today than it was two decades ago when you joined? Obviously lots of ways. But what comes to mind.
[04:40]
Ryu Yokoi
Well, I think the biggest one that fits into sort of into your world, I would say is so I went to B School at Penn. And there's such an emphasis there. Data driven marketing. Data driven marketing. I had, like, amazing professors there, and we ran all these simulations, and in all of them, you know, you'd be with your team thinking, what should the marketing plan be? And then they would give, like, different this happens. And then, oh, I go to that. And it seemed like the kind of thing where you could make all those changes so fast. And when I graduated, this is like 20 years ago now, had the stark realization that the data didn't flow that fast.
[05:09]
Matt Britton
Right.
[05:09]
Ryu Yokoi
The data wasn't constructed and structured the way that you were seeing it there. And so it was just much less iterative. And today I think data is this incredible equalizer. So I'm just thinking about this over the weekend, where I feel like now so much of the stuff I did, like, academically is, like, really possible for everybody all the time now, where the data is sort of rewarding you with that signal all the time in terms of how you can make better, you can make changes. And now with AI, you can actually respond to them so much faster. And so I think in both fronts, it's easy. Academically, as a student when I was first graduating, saying, oh, you know, those are the signals. Then I'll do this and we'll come up with a campaign that does that in practice, between waiting for those signals to come in, to using whatever tools we had available to process those, to then doing whatever the prep would be for the next mix that we would go to respond against that. Those are cycles that were really different. So I would say cycle time is the biggest change.
[05:59]
Matt Britton
But even that being said in cpg, it's not like you can learn something new and have a new product evolution on the shelf tomorrow. There's a whole supply chain. There's a lot of steps in between. So how do you feel that jump position? Yeah.
[06:11]
Ryu Yokoi
From a product standpoint, I think from.
[06:12]
Matt Britton
A creative, messaging, media investment, what's working, what isn't?
[06:16]
Ryu Yokoi
Absolutely right. I think about the stuff that you guys do, being able to understand what the trend is and how to react to it nowadays, all of that is so much more democratized and happening in real time.
[06:25]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
[06:25]
Ryu Yokoi
That.
[06:25]
Matt Britton
That changes so much more quickly. Right.
[06:27]
Ryu Yokoi
It's a huge change.
[06:28]
Matt Britton
Yeah. I mean, you think what AI is obviously doing for business, I think one thing it's not talked about enough is what it's doing to the consumer, especially the younger consumer, who's being born to a world where no longer is there a gap between their imagination and what's Possible, whether it's something that you want to create visually or something you want to write or whatever it may be. And it also is changing, in my opinion, what it's going to take to really future proof in this new world. So what skill sets do you think are most valuable moving forward at a place like Unilever, let's say, to allow somebody to really optimize their potential.
[07:05]
Ryu Yokoi
Look, you know, I made the same reference to when I first graduated school that we were just talking about. And if I think about it today, it's such an amazing time to come into marketing.
[07:12]
Matt Britton
Yeah, scary, too.
[07:14]
Ryu Yokoi
Yeah, it's intense.
[07:14]
Matt Britton
It's actually a scary time to be in marketing. Probably more so than it is to come into marketing.
[07:18]
Ryu Yokoi
It's disrupted, but it's disrupted by all the good. It's disrupted because we were used to a certain way of working.
[07:23]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
[07:23]
Ryu Yokoi
But in practice, just as you're saying, we can now ideate concept and come up with things so much faster than we used to before. You can then illustrate and have. You can really visualize it the way that you couldn't before. You can then share and collaborate with people in ways that you couldn't before. And then we can bring things into market and understand how they're performing at a rate that we couldn't before. So all of that is just so much more rewarding. And for me, I used to think of you used to gear up, prepare to go to war once a year, you know, the shelf set is getting landed and then you kind of know within the first six, seven weeks, the first a hundred days, whether you got something right. And then it's either going to be a great year or it's a slog. And while you get to do again the next. And that would fill me with all kinds of Ajita.
[08:08]
Matt Britton
Because you're using a valuable shelf space for a product that's not moving off the shelf. Yeah. That packaging's wrong.
[08:14]
Ryu Yokoi
Or the opposite. Right. Or you have a winner and you know, you've got several months before the competition. And we compete against the best in the world too, you know.
[08:21]
Matt Britton
Yeah, you do.
[08:22]
Ryu Yokoi
Before they have a chance to come in and do something different also. Right. So I think you're right. I guess you can look at it one of two ways. Right. For me, I sleep easy at night knowing I've got an awesome team. We've got absolutely have some of the best marketers in the world at the firm. And we have fantastic measurement and data work that allows us, we think, to be able to optimize you know, I don't know about the speed of culture.
[08:42]
Matt Britton
Right.
[08:43]
Ryu Yokoi
But you know, at speed and hopefully at the speed of culture. Yeah. And that's the desire and that helps me sleep at night because I know if something isn't working right today, you can learn from that and you can make the thing better in a way that you couldn't make things better for a long time before.
[08:57]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
[08:58]
Ryu Yokoi
I don't have to live with that anymore. I can do something about it. So I find that really empowering. Now the opposite side of it to your point is until you crack it, that iterative cycle of doing it over and over again until we land something that's meaningful. But I think more and more we're getting more insightful about what we need to pay attention to and distinguishing signal from noise so that we can be productive. Because I see it all the time that we're putting to your point. You know, comms into market and understanding how to make them stronger. But not just that. I mean we get signal now off of response to communication. That's really helpful for us to understand more insights into what's really working with our packaging. Just the difference for example, between you know, we see sometimes people off take of product off a physical shelf versus what's working in a listing online and what it is that we're featuring there versus what we got on the pack.
[09:42]
Matt Britton
Super interesting.
[09:43]
Ryu Yokoi
Those kinds of signals that you have now that you can play with it. We never had anything like that.
[09:46]
Matt Britton
Right. I mean just manifesting a physical retail environment online. I mean I know there's some purchases also people normally grab right at checkout.
[09:55]
Ryu Yokoi
Yeah.
[09:55]
Matt Britton
Where that's not really the same thing. Where they're much more intentional when someone goes online in terms of what they're looking for. So then passing by something. So I imagine all those things are different now in terms of how you look at where you're focusing, where the opportunities are different, packaging sizes, things like that.
[10:10]
Ryu Yokoi
Absolutely. And a large part of what we do is try to earn those secondary placements that you're talking about in a physical environment. Because those things are really sort of massive in terms of bringing in an additional impulse shop and driving additional mental awareness of the things that we're bringing into the market. And so we think about all of that.
[10:27]
Matt Britton
Yeah. So as we spoke earlier, so I know you don't do direct to consumer for the most part yet having your own first party data right now arguably is more valuable than ever before.
[10:36]
Ryu Yokoi
That's right.
[10:37]
Matt Britton
And you're a bit. Because AI can unlock so much more without the needs of tons of analysts and obviously it can do a ton for your targeting, et cetera. So when you say data is incredibly important, how does Unilever get its hands around data if you're often not selling to the consumer direct?
[10:53]
Ryu Yokoi
Well, we try to make sure that we're capturing the right signals at every interaction point that we do have with the consumer. Right. So it's really important for us to have the right tagging, pixeling in place.
[11:03]
Matt Britton
That we're really with your ads and other messaging marketplace.
[11:06]
Ryu Yokoi
Yeah, anywhere. But not just right. If we're doing an activation irl, making sure that we're capturing signal there and understanding getting feedback from the shopper in that instance. Anywhere is a source today.
[11:19]
Matt Britton
Interesting.
[11:19]
Ryu Yokoi
If you're thinking about it and being proactive in that way. And you're right, the 1P asset is a massive asset. Depending on our categories, we have some that are really high engagement where people are very open to sharing data.
[11:31]
Matt Britton
Right. Sign up for a newsletter or something like that. Yeah, yeah.
[11:33]
Ryu Yokoi
You know, like people. I worked on Hellmans for a long time. People love recipes. They will gladly give you consent for data for recipes. It's a different kind of challenge when you're operating in categories that are lower engagement or that traditionally have been. And it really becomes the job of the marketer to understand how we're creating value that should earn that kind of content so that we can keep building on that. Right. You know, I'd also say our publishers and platform partners are sitting on mountains of data too. And it's important that we operate intelligently to understand how to stitch those things together so that we can make the best decisions.
[12:05]
Matt Britton
Yeah. One company that's sitting on a ton of first party data is Walmart and we just spoke to their retail media group and Ryan who runs that, he was here for an interview just before you and we were talking about.
[12:17]
Ryu Yokoi
I just spent the morning with him.
[12:18]
Matt Britton
Oh, there you go. There you go. So world's colliding. But obviously companies like Walmart has such tremendous first party data because they're obviously the front end for companies like yours. And now what they're doing smartly so is they're unlocking that first party data to allow brands like yours to reach consumers not only just in store, but really throughout, everywhere that they interact with any type of content, including television. How important is retail media in a data driven approach to be able to drive your business since they are so important to the overall funnel?
[12:50]
Ryu Yokoi
Our mantra is we want to be social first, yeah, we really want to connect with our shoppers through the communities that they're in, in ways that are relevant so that we can be sort of the most desirable to them and truly reach them authentically. The critical thing with the data is that it allows us, as I was saying before, to stitch together the journey so that we're then rewarding their interaction with us with the right next message to them along the path so that we're trying to get them through to closing, helping find exactly what they need so they can close out and convert as soon as possible. As you were just referring, the team at Walmart and lots of these retail media partners at this point are really beginning to harness that for power. And it's a real great tool for us as marketers to be able to drive people all the way down the journey. And I think you mentioned the work that Ryan's doing. I think his team at this point, they are a full media shop.
[13:43]
Matt Britton
Right. Isn't that fascinating? Because they used to be the advertiser and now they're the platform competing with traditional media platforms.
[13:49]
Ryu Yokoi
Right. And they're a real partner. And I think you got to recognize they're bringing now not just a data product, but also more and more opportunities to interact a real canvas wherein we can reach their shopper across physical and sort of digital environment. And I'm really intrigued with their acquisition of Vizio. I'm curious what that's going to be.
[14:10]
Matt Britton
Yeah, we discussed that as well.
[14:11]
Ryu Yokoi
Ton of opportunity for them.
[14:12]
Matt Britton
I'm surprised that companies like Netflix and others didn't do the same thing because if you think about it, the last mile is where you really control the power and the consumer. You can put whatever you want on the remote control and on the interface, et cetera. And TVs, these companies that produce the components, televisions, it's a very low margin business. The power of the margins in the data. And the data powers content that runs through the tv. And I think that's why that acquisition was so brilliant, because now they're having a device in someone's home where the person is that's making the buying decisions on what type of mayonnaise they're going to buy. So it really does close the entire loop.
[14:49]
Ryu Yokoi
I think as a marketer, it's exciting. Between what the Walmart team is doing, you see what's happening at Amazon, at Roundel, with Target, really across the gamut, Sam's, you have work that's happening and there's a race to the top amongst these guys, to truly earn that and we try to nurture that. Our approach to this is always that retail media is media and we hold the retail media partners to be media and to deliver against our KPIs. And in doing so what we find is that they're continually bringing more sophisticated ad product and that it works harder. So I think it's exciting because to your point, it opens up a whole avenue for closing that journey with the shopper and converting the shopper that wasn't there just a few years ago.
[15:30]
Matt Britton
It's so interesting because 10 years ago we would have been talking about a whole different slew of companies that, that were vital to a company like yours to reach the consumer, whether it be in the past Viacom or News Corp or traditional publishers. And now we're talking about Walmart, we're talking about Amazon. Chase rolled out a media network because they have first party data on how people spend money. PayPal did as well. So it's like there's a whole new realm of companies that traditionally were more like advertisers. But since they have first party data they can power media platforms. Maybe not the extent Walmart can because your products actually on their shelves. But it's interesting to see how this is evolving. Just wondering where you think it's all headed.
[16:08]
Ryu Yokoi
It, I think Paramount, you know, you just referenced Disney, Warner, they all have incredible high quality but you can only.
[16:15]
Matt Britton
Spend money in so many places.
[16:17]
Ryu Yokoi
Right.
[16:17]
Matt Britton
It's.
[16:17]
Ryu Yokoi
They do. But I think I'm saying you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, one can. But I think the point that I would make is I tend to think of these at a certain point it's all media and we're making the decision on what works the hardest.
[16:28]
Matt Britton
Yeah, of course.
[16:29]
Ryu Yokoi
I think there's been a ton of really interesting collaboration between those ideas. And so for example, we partnered just last year on doing several, we say like sort of three way deals with Paramount and Walmart wherein we're leveraging sort of Walmart data to power reaching shoppers. Our shoppers we know based on the thing in really high quality inventory on Paramount and Walmart because they have the content exactly right. Right. And so I think it's around finding what the right values like. As I said, the key thing for us is how do we use data to then interconnect these things so that we can be reaching people where they are in moments of culture where that matter to them in ways that are relevant and then we use the data to make sure that we're bringing them through and the next time we talk to them, bringing them the right message.
[17:11]
Matt Britton
We'll be right back with the speed of Culture after a few words from our sponsors.
[17:14]
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[18:43]
Matt Britton
So one place that's relevant content is coming out every single day, especially for Gen Z who is staring at their phone all day is new creators, right? They're staring at their phone. They're the iPhone generation and when they're looking at their phone, it's normally from content from other people. And I'm just wondering what your take is on creators, how important they are as part of the overall planning cycle, and what are some of the ways that you're leveraging that?
[19:04]
Ryu Yokoi
Oh man. I mean, they're more and more important. I think you got to think of them two ways, both highly relevant. You know, as I started out again, for us, the whole game is how can we drive more desirability against our products at scale in a way that can have a meaningful business impact for us. And today the creator brings both massive reaches and they are increasingly arbiters of desire and relevance in a world where people are more and more cynical about any kind of messaging that they're receiving.
[19:34]
Matt Britton
Well put.
[19:35]
Ryu Yokoi
And the more relevant, the more especially contextually relevant someone is that's delivering them a message if they have a voice or sort of known use case for this kind of a benefit. And Then they're the ones that are communicating that to you. That has a different impact. And so it's of huge importance. And our creator and influencer practice over the past few years has been one of the things that we've been really building up. I need to continue to do so.
[19:58]
Matt Britton
Do you find that hard to scale just because you're dealing with people versus platforms?
[20:03]
Ryu Yokoi
There's different models for doing so. I think that they're humans.
[20:07]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
[20:07]
Ryu Yokoi
And so there's different sort of considerations that one has to, of course, has to have because you're really developing a partnership with a creator over time.
[20:14]
Matt Britton
Yeah. And you're putting your brand.
[20:16]
Ryu Yokoi
It's not a spot in the dot. Right. That's what I say. When they're humans. Right. Like they're real people. And it's also different because the best creative work comes when you really understand that creator, their voice, how they're delivering. If you want this to work, you want to come across authentically from them or why are you doing it?
[20:30]
Matt Britton
Y.
[20:30]
Ryu Yokoi
And so people need to receive that and feel that it's really coming in their voice and that they believe it.
[20:35]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
[20:35]
Ryu Yokoi
You know, you got to choose the guys and gals that you work with the right way. So ideally, you're finding creators who really do find value in your work. And we're lucky. We have great products. So that's not hard.
[20:43]
Matt Britton
Yeah. So another area I know that you can really drive a lot of engagement through is through sports. When you talk about television, it's arguably the less like, kind of fashion of life, entertainment at scale. Right. We just had Tim Ellis here earlier this morning, the CMO of the NFL talking about all the things they're doing active.
[21:00]
Ryu Yokoi
It was not him. All more.
[21:01]
Matt Britton
Okay, there you go. I was like, oh, do you call yourself. But obviously it's a big part of your go to market strategy and your partnerships, like the 2026 FIFA World Cup. So talking about sports and how it plays a role in overall how you activate.
[21:15]
Ryu Yokoi
I think sports is culture.
[21:16]
Matt Britton
Yeah. It is.
[21:17]
Ryu Yokoi
It's massive. Right. As you were just saying today, it's harder and harder to find sort of those monoculture things that really sort of transcend because of the social age, time.
[21:26]
Matt Britton
Shifting, the way that we spend our.
[21:27]
Ryu Yokoi
Time and time shifting. We're all in our own bubbles. There's only so many things that interconnect those. And it's like, you know, it's. I think you were referencing it something crazy. It's like 96 of the top 100 broadcasts are sports. And Then the others, like the Thanksgiving Day parade and the Oscar. Right.
[21:43]
Matt Britton
Maybe the Grammys or Oscars or something.
[21:45]
Ryu Yokoi
Those are the few moments that connect. And thanks to sort of the digital age, it's not just the event itself, it's everything that surrounds it. Right, right. Athletes are kind of their own digital product media channels themselves these days. Everything has become sort of an entree into culture. And we see fans now who don't watch the game. They're just doing it for the fantasy side of it. Highlights, tons and tons of them who only watch highlights, don't watch the games. Right.
[22:11]
Matt Britton
Video games. Gambling. Fantasy sports.
[22:14]
Ryu Yokoi
Gambling, fantasy sports. The Taylor Swift of it all. People who are tuning in just for halftime shows because that's going to become part of the discourse. You need to have seen it. So it's a whole different environment and not to ment. And this. The massive turnout that you also have physical. It's like one of the rare instances where you can have sort of efficiently reach an audience in person and give.
[22:31]
Matt Britton
Them an experience in global language. Like I was just in Saudi Arabia for speaking about the book and in two of the executives homes because they invited me to their homes. There's Kobe Bryant posters in their homes. It just shows like is a global phenomenon. And especially American athletes increasingly in Europe, FIFA and UEFA, like these athletes really command global reach.
[22:51]
Ryu Yokoi
That's right, yeah. And so we have been participating in the big game for a few years now with Dove and with our Hellman's brand. And our single biggest partnership that we have is the partnership for the 26 World Cup. We did the Women's World cup in 23, which is wonderful. We'll have the Women's cup again in 27. But we are all focused right now on preparing for just a massive opportunity. You know, it's something like every one of these games is like a Super bowl for a market in the world, of course. And this is going to be the biggest.
[23:22]
Matt Britton
It goes deeper in the game.
[23:22]
Ryu Yokoi
Biggest sporting event in living history. Right. So it's really exciting. And I think in general, sports and these sort of spectator cultural moments just create really sort of unique opportunities for us to show the value of our products in ways that are really special. And if we can deliver them in ways that are authentic, they can be meaningful. I'll give you an example. So we were activating in New Orleans around the big game this year and and had the opportunity to really activate the Dove brand, which we activate in sports. With Dove, we were really consistent with our message to drive self esteem that we've had for more than 20 years now.
[23:56]
Matt Britton
Great campaign.
[23:57]
Ryu Yokoi
A huge element of that in the past few years, which we've celebrated in the beginning of the past few years, is research that we did together with Nike, actually, to get a bit of more understanding of this question of why we see girls dropping out of sports specifically. I think it's as they move into their teen years, a much higher rate than what. And boys, I think the participation rates are much closer until that window. And the research shows you that the leading cause of that is body confidence. And so much of that can just be addressed with the way that coaches talk to their players. And so we've developed this body confident curriculum, and we've been utilizing our activation around these events as a way of raising awareness of that, and it's really meaningful. You know, one of the audiences that we find has had the biggest connection to this stuff is girl dads. And a lot of those girl dads are coaches. Right. So we feel like if we really do reach them, you know, this is something that's meaningful and different to them, according to. That's the kind of thing where we can have a positive and hopefully on this and hopefully encourage and keep.
[24:52]
Matt Britton
Yeah, I'm one of them. So I'm behind this big. Fantastic.
[24:55]
Ryu Yokoi
Yeah, fantastic. That's the whole mission. And so we look very much to try to make sure that we're continuing to build that over times in ways that are meaningful. We just signed our first kit sponsorship, so we're official sponsors of Gotham fc, which is in our backyard in New Jersey. They are the NWSL team for the New Jersey area. And they had a mission around keeping girls in the game. Keep her in the game is their mission. And we were like, my God, we're. Our mission's about keep her confident. This is incredible.
[25:20]
Matt Britton
Right? Perfect.
[25:20]
Ryu Yokoi
So you couldn't find a better fit that way. And so in general, we think these events create just an awesome canvas for us to deliver our brand stories in ways that are meaningful in categories and in spots where you build a much deeper connection, understanding of what a brand can stand for and how you can relate to it.
[25:36]
Matt Britton
Awesome. So shifting gears, we wrap up here. I'm just curious. Like, we've spoken about such a wide panoply of topics today, from data to retail to sports, the culture, et cetera. And that's rare. And in these interviews, where often they go down sort of a unique rabbit hole of whatever they're focused on, which probably is reflective, I would imagine, of your role at Unilever and That you wear many hats. Tell me about what is a week in the life like for you? Where do you spend your time? Where do you like to spend your time and why?
[26:03]
Ryu Yokoi
That's a great question. I really try to focus and I'm trying to bridge two worlds.
[26:09]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
[26:09]
Ryu Yokoi
The mantra is we want to be three steps ahead and be as externally oriented as possible so that we continue to drive our capabilities and stay at the forefront in terms of understanding how we can be using whether it's technology or the right practice so that we can be more efficient. We want to be the most outcome oriented advertiser in the industry. That's like the mantra I try to push to my team at all times. And so that requires us to both be really external and thinking about what's going on outside and at the same time really focused on driving impacted scale.
[26:40]
Matt Britton
Internally and having your finger on a pulse of data. Make sure you. That's exactly what you're driven.
[26:44]
Ryu Yokoi
But you know, it's less me having my finger on the. And I do do that because I'm clearly like really obsessive about this stuff. But for me it's more making sure that we at scale are implementing and establishing the right practice so that my organization is consistently doing. That's when it becomes a real competitive advantage for us. And we've seen that pay off for us, especially recently with a lot of return as we've been shifting into social first.
[27:08]
Matt Britton
Yeah, for sure. So obviously, I'm sure a big part of your role is also building a team, managing team, finding great talent, what is true amongst people who turn out to be real stars, rising stars at a company like Unilever, what attributes they normally possess. And maybe some advice for some of our younger listeners in areas they should focus on.
[27:26]
Ryu Yokoi
Man, I always say forgive a damn. This is my number one within Unilever.
[27:31]
Matt Britton
So many people don't give a damn. Yeah.
[27:33]
Ryu Yokoi
Unfortunately at all stages I'm blessed because I've really, I recruit for that. And this is like the emphasis for me. If you talk to anybody on my team, these are people that are, you know, they care. And this is one of the attributes from overall Unilever standpoint where looking to really highlight is sort of the importance of caring deeply and putting that in. And so the advice I always give to folks because it's a lot easier to care deeply when the work that you do feels meaningful and when the work that you do isn't something that you feel passionate about. And so that's really what I look for is do I Believe that this person cares about this and would find meaningful this outcome. Outcome, like a lot of this stuff is data analytics, rigor, understanding an audience. What is the right ad tech I should be using to identify the trend or to be making this thing better? It can feel like a lot of inside baseball, and people use the term inside baseball, but inside baseball is like, fascinating to people that really care about baseball.
[28:28]
Matt Britton
Right, of course.
[28:29]
Ryu Yokoi
So ultimately, like, this was the point I'm trying to make. You know, I think the more that you find whatever you're doing fun or interesting, the better you are as a partner to other people, the more time that you'll want to spend. You know, if it's the thing that you would be doing anyway, you're going to be better.
[28:42]
Matt Britton
All right, and what are some of the ways going back to AI? Like, do you think it's going to play a role in the development of future talent? Like 20 years from now, as I continue this podcast, 20 years from now and gray walking in here, I'm already a little gray interviewing people. And the new stars 20 years from now will have used AI to power themselves. And what ways do you think they will have done it?
[29:02]
Ryu Yokoi
I think of two ways. I think the first is I can think of, and I know the zeitgeist right now is agentic AI, but in principle, I think there's really something to it in that in almost every state you can find ways to leverage AI to bring either more rigor or to bring more speed into something that you would have been doing.
[29:20]
Matt Britton
Force multiplier.
[29:21]
Ryu Yokoi
Right. And so because of that, I do think it's the kind of thing that has a major impact and that we need to think of it from an end to end standpoint in terms of where it can help. I was talking about a second ago around how I want to make sure that we're implementing practice across the organization. So it really has impact. And I think this AI is one of those things that can really help us to do that because I think find it potentially really empowering. So many things in the past have been the purview of subject matter experts or had major barriers to entreated people being able to do them. And I think if we do it right, it can be a huge sort of unlocking moment where people can take on different kinds of work.
[29:58]
Matt Britton
You can democratize a lot of things. Yeah, yeah.
[30:00]
Ryu Yokoi
And it really becomes about the power of your thinking and how much you care. It's well put.
[30:05]
Matt Britton
So to wrap up here, is there a saying or mantra that you think guides your professional journey? Journey to date or personal?
[30:11]
Ryu Yokoi
Right now I've been thinking a lot. I have a dear friend we work with at WPP named Janet Levine who works in strategy there. She wrote this article like a year and a half ago that really struck me and her big headline was Build Worlds, Don't Chase Moments. And I haven't stopped thinking about it since.
[30:27]
Matt Britton
Why is that?
[30:28]
Ryu Yokoi
Because I think we lose so much by not being proactive and by not taking the moment to step back and think about what it is that we want to make. Build.
[30:36]
Matt Britton
Yeah. And then we're in the grind of every day. We're reactive.
[30:39]
Ryu Yokoi
You end up in the grind when you don't know what it was that you wanted to do.
[30:42]
Matt Britton
Urgent versus important. Like a lot of people focus on what's urgent versus what's important. What you're talking about is what's important.
[30:47]
Ryu Yokoi
Right. Once you figure out what's important, then you're prepared for all those things that are going to come at you later. And it's something I have been trying more and more in my life and with my team to think about. How do we take those moments to take a beat and think about what is the world that I want to build?
[31:01]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
[31:01]
Ryu Yokoi
For my team, for myself, for my brand.
[31:03]
Matt Britton
And so yeah, it's so easy to be reactive in the fire alarms of the day, but if you're only doing that, you're never really moving yourself forward and getting ultimately where you want to be.
[31:11]
Ryu Yokoi
Exactly.
[31:12]
Matt Britton
Awesome. Well, thank you so much. This has been a fantastic discussion as I knew it would. I know you're really busy here at the conference, but I really appreciate you taking the time to speak this.
[31:19]
Ryu Yokoi
Oh, it's my pleasure. Thanks so much for having me.
[31:21]
Matt Britton
On behalf of Susie and Edwy team, thanks again to Ryu Yokoi, the Chief Media and Marketing Capabilities Officer for North America at Unilever, for joining us today live at the possible conference in Miami. Be sure to subscribe rate review the Speed of Culture podcast on your favorite podcast platform the next time. See you soon. The Speed of Culture is brought to you by Susie as part of the Adweek Podcast Network and a guest creator network. You can listen subscribe to all Ad Week's podcast by visiting Adweek.com podcast To find out more about Suzy, head to Suzy.com and make sure to search for the Speed of Culture in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any anywhere else podcasts are found, click follow so you don't miss out on any future episodes. On behalf of the team here at Suzy, thanks for listening.
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