Snack attack: How Kellanova’s CMO Julie Bowerman is future-proofing Pop-Parts and Pringles

Summary

Podcast Summary: Snack Attack - How Kellanova’s CMO Julie Bowerman is Future-Proofing Pop-Parts and Pringles

Published on May 27, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of The Speed of Culture Podcast, hosted by Matt Britton, Founder and CEO of Suzy, listeners are welcomed to an insightful conversation with Julie Bowerman, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Kellanova. Julie shares her extensive experience in guiding some of the world's most iconic snack brands, such as Pringles and Cheez-It, through the ever-evolving consumer landscape.

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Understanding Kellanova's Evolution

Timestamp: 02:48

Matt begins by providing context about Kellanova, highlighting its recent spin-off from Kellogg. Julie explains, "Think of us as kind of otherwise known as Kellogg. We were originally Kellogg and we spun off about a year and a half ago... our remaining business is a global snacking business" (02:59) valued at approximately $13 billion, encompassing beloved brands like Cheez-It, Pringles, Rice Krispie Treats, Pop Tart, and more.

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Adapting to the Omnichannel Market

Timestamp: 03:35

The conversation delves into the seismic shifts in the snacking market, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Julie emphasizes how the surge in online grocery shopping has transformed their strategy:

"It's changed kind of much more broadly how we think about not just the shopping part of our business, but the marketing, how we engage consumers." (04:10)

Kellanova has invested heavily in omnichannel capabilities, allowing consumers to interact with their brands both in-store and online seamlessly.

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Embracing Full-Funnel Marketing and Data Utilization

Timestamp: 04:02

Matt highlights the importance of full-funnel marketing in Kellanova's strategy. Julie elaborates on their robust first-party data initiatives:

"We have a first party database of about 45 million records... from our loyalty program, Kellogg Family Rewards." (05:38)

Through partnerships with firms like Publicis and Epsilon, Kellanova effectively segments audiences, gains deep consumer insights, and enhances performance metrics, thereby driving more precise and impactful marketing campaigns.

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The Power of Personalization and Lookalike Modeling

Timestamp: 06:25

Julie discusses the shift towards personalization in marketing, crucial for engaging the upcoming Gen Alpha consumers:

"They are the AI generations... the way they're going to be reached has to be completely personalized to them." (07:09)

By leveraging lookalike modeling, Kellanova ensures they maintain both precision and scale in their marketing efforts, reaching the right audience without compromising on reach.

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Retail Media Networks and Strategic Partnerships

Timestamp: 09:12

The dialogue covers how major retailers like Walmart, Amazon, and Target are evolving into powerful advertising platforms by utilizing their vast consumer data:

"Retail media networks have done a better job with it over time... they position themselves as a media partner." (09:36)

Julie explains that this strategic positioning allows Kellanova to collaborate more effectively, using these networks to penetrate markets and optimize their campaigns based on comprehensive consumer intelligence.

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The Evolving Role of the CMO

Timestamp: 11:03

Reflecting on her career, Julie articulates the transition in the CMO role from being predominantly creative to becoming highly technical and data-driven:

"The skills of a CMO have to be more technical as well... you have to really tailor to the platform." (12:05)

She underscores the necessity for modern CMOs to manage complex, fragmented marketing landscapes while continuously updating their skills and nurturing their teams.

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Brand, Culture, and Consumer Trust

Timestamp: 13:00

Matt and Julie explore the enduring importance of brand as a marker of trust in a crowded market:

"Consumers don't love choice. They want things brought to them. And what removes choice is trust." (12:05)

Julie shares successful cultural integrations, such as Pringles' collaborations with Crocs and their prominent presence in Super Bowl campaigns, which have reinforced brand relevance and differentiation.

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Leveraging Sports for Brand Engagement

Timestamp: 15:32

The discussion shifts to the significant role of sports in Kellanova's marketing strategy:

"Sports enables the consumption occasion of our brands... you're snacking during those moments of sports viewing." (16:04)

Julie highlights how partnerships in major sporting events like the Super Bowl and collaborations with athletes like Jimmy Butler have been instrumental in maintaining brand visibility and consumer engagement.

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Integrating AI into Marketing Strategies

Timestamp: 18:31

As the conversation progresses, Julie touches upon the nascent stage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in marketing:

"We're keeping a really close pulse of it... content optimization and content development." (19:05)

She discusses ongoing efforts to educate her team about AI and its potential to enhance real-time data analysis and audience segmentation, positioning Kellanova to leverage AI-driven insights as the technology matures.

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Building Strong Partnerships

Timestamp: 22:32

When asked about forging meaningful partnerships, Julie emphasizes the importance of understanding Kellanova's business needs:

"Partners have to understand what we're trying to do as a business... they've positioned themselves in a way that I think I've got to talk to them because I need to understand that capability." (21:01)

She cites the example of Fetch, a company that aligned with Kellanova's shift towards full-funnel marketing, resulting in a successful pilot and ongoing collaboration.

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Talent Development and Leadership

Timestamp: 27:28

Julie shares her insights on nurturing rising talent within the industry:

"Curiosity... scrappiness... resourceful." (27:28)

She advocates for empowering young professionals to take initiative, embrace diverse experiences, and learn from both successes and failures, fostering a culture of continuous growth and adaptability.

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Career Milestones and Influences

Timestamp: 28:25

Reflecting on her two-decade tenure at Coca-Cola, Julie highlights the foundational lessons learned about brand marketing and the value of a broad skill set:

"I learned the fundamentals of brand marketing... the network that you build from that." (28:36)

She credits her diverse roles and global experiences at Coke for equipping her with the expertise and confidence necessary to excel as a CMO.

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Embracing Risk and Growth

Timestamp: 32:03

Julie emphasizes the importance of stepping outside comfort zones and embracing risk:

"Taking some courage and taking a bold move is really important." (32:24)

She recounts her entrepreneurial role in launching Kellanova's e-commerce division, highlighting how navigating uncharted territories significantly propelled her career forward.

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Closing Thoughts and Leadership Philosophy

Timestamp: 33:51

In her closing remarks, Julie shares the leadership principles instilled by her father, focusing on personal engagement, vulnerability, and accountability:

"I feel much more accountable to the people that work for me." (33:51)

She underscores the importance of building strong, transparent relationships within the organization to foster a supportive and effective leadership environment.

---

Conclusion

This episode of The Speed of Culture Podcast offers a comprehensive look into the strategic initiatives and leadership philosophies that Julie Bowerman employs to steer Kellanova’s iconic brands through a dynamic market landscape. From leveraging data and AI to fostering strong partnerships and nurturing talent, Julie provides invaluable insights into building resilient and future-proof brands in the snacking industry.

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Notable Quotes:

• "It starts with kind of understanding what your consumers care about, what their passion points are." – Julie Bowerman (02:25)

• "Curiosity is a big part of it... resourceful." – Julie Bowerman (27:28)

• "Taking some courage and taking a bold move is really important." – Julie Bowerman (32:24)

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Key Takeaways:

1. Omnichannel Strategy: Embracing both online and in-store experiences is crucial in today's snacking market.
2. Data-Driven Marketing: Building and leveraging a robust first-party data database enables precise audience targeting and personalization.
3. Retail Media Networks: Collaborating with major retailers' media platforms enhances market penetration and consumer insights.
4. AI Integration: Staying abreast of AI advancements can significantly optimize marketing strategies and consumer engagement.
5. Leadership and Talent Development: Fostering curiosity, resourcefulness, and a supportive leadership style cultivates future-ready teams.

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This detailed summary encapsulates the pivotal discussions from the episode, providing listeners and non-listeners alike with a thorough understanding of how Julie Bowerman is adeptly navigating and future-proofing Kellanova’s premier snack brands.

Transcript

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[Matt Britton]

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Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching.

[Julie Bowerman]

Over.

[Matt Britton]

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[Julie Bowerman]

It starts with kind of understanding what your consumers care about, what their passion points are. Sports is right in our sweet spot. More importantly, sports enables the consumption occasion of our brands. So both whether you're at the venue or you're at home, you're gathering with friends, you're watching it by yourself, you're snacking during those moments of sports viewing. And so it becomes kind of a really relevant way in which we market of bringing our brands to life, keeping the relevancy, differentiating them, but also really tying into the appropriate consumption occasion.

[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 Suzy. 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 are here live at the Possible conference in Miami, thrilled to be joined by a very special guest, Julie Bowerman, who's the CMO of Kellanova. Julie reads marketing for some of the world's most iconic snack brands, driving growth through data, creativity and culture while helping Kellanova stay deeply connected to the Evolving consumer. Julie, so great to see you today.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, you too. Thanks for your nice introduction.

[Matt Britton]

Absolutely. I know it's a busy time, especially being at a conference like this. For those in the audience who don't know what Kellanova is, because I know it's sort of the output of some recent M and A activity.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah.

[Matt Britton]

Would you mind just explaining about the business?

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, sure. So think of us as kind of otherwise known as Kellogg. We were originally Kellogg and we spun off about a year and a half ago, maybe almost two years now, our US Cereal business and created that carve out as a standalone public company called wkkc. And then the remaining business is a global snacking business. We're about a $13 billion business. Some of the most amazing brands that you probably grew up with. Cheez It, Pringles, Rice Krispie Treat, Pop Tart, Eggo, Morningstar Farms, RX Bar, and a great snacking business that we have around now.

[Matt Britton]

The snacking categories obviously had tectonic shifts over the last five years, largely accelerated through Covid. I mean, there were so many households who never bought food and groceries online and then when left with no choice, they adopted it. And now we really have sort of an omnichannel market in the snacking category where in the past it was largely just in store. How has that impacted your overall strategy in driving your brands forward?

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, I mean, dramatically. I say we saw the trends of online grocery and the way that consumers were shopping kind of starting to shift pre Covid. And we were fortunate enough because it was actually in the chief global digital officer role at the time. And we were fortunate to really kind of see the trends. And our CEO said, let's make a big investment here. This is going to be a growth driver for the business. And so we spent 2019 kind of unknown to what was going to come, making a lot of investments in omnichannel capabilities. And so we really accelerated through that time. But what I'll tell you is it's changed kind of much more broadly how we think about not just the shopping part of our business, but the marketing, how we engage consumers. And so a big shift of our marketing strategy is towards full funnel marketing. And it's connecting our investments that are the big reach and scale all the way through kind of the transaction. So we've made a lot of changes and investments and pilots in being able to do so.

[Matt Britton]

So a big part of full flower marketing is obviously data.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah.

[Matt Britton]

And having data. And unlike the big box retailers who you sell through and other companies, it's not like you collect first party data from who you sell directly to because you are relying on selling through the retailers. What does that mean? Because as data becomes more important, how do you look at getting your hands on first party data either through partnerships or direct so you can be more precise in your go to market strategy?

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, well, also I think this is probably one of the areas where we actually are very advanced in the CPG industry. We have a first party database of about 45 million records we started.

[Matt Britton]

That's unique.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, it is. That comes from years ago. We started Kellogg Family Rewards. It was a loyalty program that you started to engage with us through our packaging and buying our products. And at the time it was just collect points. But we had this vision of collecting data around our consumers that now fast forward today has become such a competitive advantage for us. So we've got through our partnership with Publicis and our and Epsilon, a big database of our consumers. But then we marry it with the benefits that Epsilon brings and they're third party and then we take that with to retail partners or media partners. And we've been able to do a lot with that in terms of audience segmentation, insights, performance, just intelligence about our consumers.

[Matt Britton]

Yeah. To decode that for the audience. Basically what that means is if Julie Smith from Minnesota signing up for Julie.

[Julie Bowerman]

Julie Smith is my maiden name by the way.

[Matt Britton]

Wow.

[Julie Bowerman]

Okay, there you go. Did you know that?

[Matt Britton]

Did not know that. I probably took Julie because that's your first name and I use it very common last name. So let's just say Julie Sanders to remove any coincidence signs up for the call rewards program and she lives in Minnesota. And there's other attributes. There are companies out there that can match that information with other databases. You can learn more about Julie in terms of what are her other interests, what hers, her income bracket, etc. And that can allow you to kind of create a profile of who your customer is for that brand and then model and look like that to reach the right audience.

[Julie Bowerman]

Right. And it allows you to take. Because a lot of brands, particularly brands that are in the B2 B2C space, we don't sell direct to consumers for the most part. A lot of brands don't have the benefit of a large first party data capability. So that lookalike modeling allows you to get scale and so you can still have the benefits of precision.

[Matt Britton]

Right.

[Julie Bowerman]

And segmentation, but still have reach.

[Matt Britton]

And that's, that's because you need reach. You're selling to every American household. Yeah, yeah. And I think where the world is changing right now is a. You're going to see a lot of personalization. So I think consumers are going to increasingly expect and demand. Like you think about gen alpha, age 0 to 15. They are the AI generations where I just wrote my book about. They're going to know no other world, but a world they.

[Noah Michaelson]

Yeah.

[Matt Britton]

When 10 years from now, when the 15 year old's 25 years old and they started to become the head of their household and they're deciding what snack brands and cereals to bring in the house, the way they're going to be reached has to be completely personalized to them. And in order for you to personalize, you actually have to know who they are.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah.

[Matt Britton]

So I think over time it's going to be a mandate for brands to do the sorts of things that you are doing. Otherwise they're going to be spoken to in a way that other brands aren't and they're going to be left behind.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, for sure. And I think it does become kind of the standard now versus a test and pilot because there's so many media partners. I mean, look at the world of retail media.

[Matt Britton]

Yeah.

[Julie Bowerman]

That is such a wonderful source of understanding about shoppers, consumers, households that you can market to them in ways like most brands, particularly in snacking, have a recruitment goal or objective. And so you can use databases like a Walmart or an Amazon or a Kroger and really understand like who has not bought your product or if they have and maybe only bought it once or twice, what's the composition of their household, what's their buying frequency, what else is in their basket. And that really just starts to give you kind of intelligence that allows you, I think, to even be wiser, even outside their ecosystem and how you target.

[Matt Britton]

Yeah. I mean the market's changing so much. You have Walmart saying we have tens of millions or hundreds of millions of consumer profiles because they are selling direct to the consumer. They're allowing brands that you oversee to leverage that data not just in store, not just on Walmart.com, but throughout the whole web. Because they're essentially creating a strategy where they're finding their customers who buy your products everywhere around the web. It's incredibly powerful.

[Julie Bowerman]

It is. And I mean they don't think about them as we're using Walmart as an example.

[Matt Britton]

Right.

[Julie Bowerman]

A lot of retailers are like this way.

[Matt Britton]

Yeah.

[Julie Bowerman]

You know, they're not just the lower funnel, like they've gone out and aggregated partnerships with networks that give them that reach to bring them into the funnel. All the way down to purchase.

[Matt Britton]

Yeah. Kroger, Albertsons, Target. Yeah, they're all doing it. And it's on live display here at this conference. It begs the question because in addition, so not only them, Chase now has a retail network because they have spending information. PayPal rolled one out. So these companies that were traditionally advertisers are now selling advertising services. And if I'm a publisher who just pushes out content, I don't have any of that shopping data, I don't have any of that spending data. And that's why, you know, Amazon has Prime. They're kind of connecting the entertainment aspect with data to piece it all together. And I just wonder over time if you're going to see the Walmarts and targets of the world start to acquire content companies like Paramount, etc. To connect it because obviously you need to garner the eyeballs. Right. And Walmart does it because they obviously people are going to their stores, but Amazon has the added benefit of having prime and I think over time you're also going to start to see products in shows because it's all about attention when it comes down to it.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, I mean certainly I think that's, that's very realistic. I mean, because if you think like Walmart wants to compete with Amazon, right, The billions of investment they've made in terms of their omnichannel and their online capabilities. Yeah, they're going to have to, to compete. I would agree.

[Matt Britton]

Yeah. And the other piece that's interesting is Walmart acquired vizio which makes TVs. And I was always in shock that companies like Netflix or even Apple didn't roll out their own physical television because just like how Apple has so much benefit with the phone because it's the last mile and you have the device in people's hands.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah.

[Matt Britton]

The TV is in the home. It's biggest, most important piece of real estate for brands in the home. And to be able to control the screensaver on the tv, the buttons that are actually on the remote control, it really allows you to dictate a lot of behavior. And TVs have become a low margin business and ultimately it could be a loss leader. Almost like the razor blade model. These companies, I think Walmart is probably where they're going to start to take things. It'd be interesting to see where it all goes.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, I think that's very smart to think that way. I think it's possible. Yeah.

[Matt Britton]

I mean the world has changed a lot. Right. Like you look at your time at Coca Cola over two decades There. And when you were there, marketing was so different.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah.

[Matt Britton]

Than it is today. What are some of the biggest ways you think it's changed from earlier in your career to being a CMO today?

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, I mean, when I started off in marketing, just creative was everything. And creating a 30 second spot or a great billboard creative, piece of creative was kind of the silver bullet to great marketing. And now it's so much more complex, fragmented. I think the skills of a CMO have to be more technical as well. I've learned a lot about data technology, how it works. Then you've got multiple platforms in which you're putting your content and your media assets into that have different benefits. And so you have to really have to tailor to the platform. And so that just creates just a vast amount of fragmentation and complexity. And so it's really about kind of how do you prioritize, how do you manage through that complexity, how do you keep your skills fresh, how do you develop your team so that they're able to compete and understand how this works? It's a much different role as a CMO today, for sure.

[Matt Britton]

Yeah. And I would argue not everyone believes this, but I certainly believe this brand is just as important today as ever been. Right. Because it's a marker of trust. And consumers don't love choice. They want things brought to them. And what removes choice is trust. And that ultimately comes from brand. And a big part of brand is culture. I know a lot of your brands have already leaned in the culture, one of which is Pringles. Lots of great work in terms of collaboration with Crocs as well as their recent super bowl campaign. Talk to me about what culture means and maybe let's talk about some of the examples that have worked in injecting culture into our leveraging culture on behalf of your brands.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, I mean, culture is broad, a broad term. Right. And what it really for us means, like how do you stay relevant with consumers? And so for us, this started several years ago of really thinking about how do we do that? Like, what are the capabilities we need, what's the intelligence and data we need, what's the right agency partner, what are the right team members? And we just started to make really, I'd say a lot of investments around building our ability to understand how our brands are going to be able to maintain relevancy. And then the second thing we've really done is then how do you operationalize that? And that is all about removing all of the barriers so that you can move quick. When it happens, you respond or Take advantage of the opportunity. So it's some of the weedy things and not the interesting things to deal with like legal and process and approvals. All of that stuff has to be able to be done really quickly without multiple decision makers and enabling it to happen really quickly. And so I think we've done a great job making those investments and those changes. And it's paid off in, I mean, not just what you've seen in Pringles, but look at Cheez It. Cheez it's been named Ad Age brand of the year. It was in the top 10 of the only non food brand or the only food brand of other non foods that was named kind of popular brand of the year. And it's just done it well. So well because it's done big things like the Cheez it bowl and really tied into sports. But it's also done these kind of small moments. We've taken advantage of kind of the food scene online where everybody's talking about food and recipes. We've unlocked that and made Cheez it part of an ingredient and helped enable recipes. Or we've done really cool things like our latest collab with Jimmy Butler and just really made the brand cool and hip and relevant. But we've done it in a way that kind of all of that wiring underneath has enabled us to take advantage of it.

[Matt Britton]

Yeah, you mentioned Jimmy Butler and we actually yesterday had Tim Ellis, who's the chief marketing officer of the NFL here. The NFL is remains to be so important in US and increasingly global culture. Like 90% plus of the top 100 shows watch live on television every year are NFL games showing their power. And obviously you mentioned earlier Pringles took place in the super bowl. And I know you've done a lot of work with brands in super bowl in the past. How important is something like sports for your brand in terms of garnering eyeballs and continuing to activate? Because I know it's a big investment.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, it's huge for us. I think first of all, it starts with kind of understanding what your consumers care about, what their passion points are. Sports is right in our sweet spot. I think more importantly, sports enables though the consumption occasion of our brands. So both whether you're at the venue or you're at home, you're gathering with friends, you're watching it by yourself, like, like you're snacking during those moments of sports viewing. And so it becomes kind of a really relevant way in which we market of bringing our brands to life, keeping the relevancy, differentiating them. But Also really tying into the appropriate consumption occasion. And so everything we've done cheese it, bowl or all of our bowl game activations, super bowl, basketball, we've tied a little bit into women's sports. And we've got a few other things in the mix coming next year that you'll hear about.

[Matt Britton]

Can't wait to see. Yeah, we'll be right back with the Speed of Culture after a few words from our sponsors.

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[Matt Britton]

Obviously, AI is a huge topic here and it's impacting not only the way that you do business, but also your consumer. You know, your consumers, their lifestyle is going to change. Their daily habits and rituals over time will change as well. So sitting from you sit, you have to think about how does your business leverage AI and going to market as well as what does it mean for your consumer. How are you thinking about AI here in 2025 in terms of your role overall and your approach to driving and continuing to build the brands you oversee?

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, I mean, I'd say we're at the nascent stage in this. Right.

[Matt Britton]

As are most companies.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, I mean, we're not doing anything that would be kind of earthbreaking that you probably haven't heard of. But I think what's important is that we're keeping a really close pulse of it. In fact, I have a marketing town hall next Tuesday and we're bringing in a couple of AI experts in just to educate the marketing organization of how does AI work? Not the, what are the marketing use cases but like what's the kind of the way in which it works, how is it powered, what are the different agents and platforms and how does the data come together? What are use cases as an individual versus not just a marketer. And so it's just that I think constant kind of understanding, kind of for us have the knowledge, but we're doing a lot, we're doing some in the digital shelf space around content optimization and content development. I'd say that's the most common use case. I do think though, as we get more advanced in what we were just talking about earlier in terms of audience segmentation and lookalike matching, that's going to all leveraging data that's going to happen, all automated. And I think that's where the real benefit's going to come over time and the optimization of that and in a real time nature is all going to be enabled by AI and machine learning. I think it's important that we stay close to it, but the scale is not quite there yet for us to fully leverage.

[Matt Britton]

Yeah, I mean even you think about your 45 million data points, your ability to crawl through that data and extract meaningful insights.

[Julie Bowerman]

Definitely. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Britton]

Which in the past might have taken far longer.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, for sure. Absolutely.

[Matt Britton]

And just curious, this is like a side question, but you're a CMO and a CMO is on a pedestal in the advertising industry, right? There's like probably like 15 CMOs and 5,000 people here, right. And everyone's like, I want to meet with the CMO and it must be manding. You probably get solicited all the time and I get solicited and I run a small software company so can't imagine what you must get. My question for you is if you're a partner that wants to do business with Kellanova, what does it take to break through to get somebody like your attention?

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, and you're right, we do get a lot of solicitations being a big brand and it is hard as a CMO to say, gosh, who should I talk to? I really make an effort to make sure I'm kind of reading the reach out to understand like is that something that should be relevant to us? Should I understand that? But I think more importantly is that the partner has to understand what we're trying to do as a business. I think oftentimes they can get caught up in She's a CMO or Find and Replace. They're a Fortune 500 company. Like we have to talk to them and I think understanding really what the needs are of our business. And so the ones that break, break through to me are the ones that understand that and they position themselves in a way that I think I've got to talk to them because I need to understand that capability. And like a good example would be, I'd say two years ago, there's a company called Fetch. Do you know Fetch? Of course, yeah. Small, right? Not as meaningful as they certainly are. They've grown very fast and kind of had that hey, we understand the importance of loyalty. They knew about our first party database. They understood that we were kind of in that model. But we're trying to get out of it and replace it with more types of data and intelligence in a way to do our full funnel marketing strategy. And they approached us and they just kind of in that manner of saying, hey, we've heard you talk about this, here's our capabilities. And it really opened the door for a pilot and a lot that we've done with them and they've been a very meaningful partner.

[Matt Britton]

Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. What a lot of people who are in new business try to do is they just find and replace. I'm going to have a list of Fortune 500 companies. Julie, Jeff, Joe, John, it doesn't matter, I just want to go. And that's what doesn't work. Like you have to put in the work to understand and really have a vested interest in wanting to build your partner's business, not just close a deal.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, definitely. I think the retail media networks have done a better job with it over time. A few years ago it used to be like, hey, you put your products on our shelves, we need you to invest, we need brand money. It was a little bit more of a strong arm approach. I think now they understand that they have to position themselves as a media partner and say, okay, you are about penetration for example, or reach and scale. Like how do we solve the needs of your brand and understand the needs of your brand, not just create leverage because we're also your retail partner where you sell. And they've done a much better job, I think of kind of changing the way in which they position us or come to us, us with ideas or partnership mentality around kind of here's what we're trying to do to help you solve your problems of your business.

[Matt Britton]

Of course competition helps as well. Like when Walmart is the Only strong retail media network in town, it's one thing, but now Target is building and Kroger is building. So now you have more choices to make. So they have to up their game as well, just like any other market.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, for sure. They've all been great partners, so.

[Matt Britton]

Sure.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah.

[Matt Britton]

Let's zoom out a little bit in terms of just the trends you're seeing with the consumer in the snacking category, obviously GLP1S has a major impact. Consumers, tastes are changing. Coming out of COVID we saw health become far more important.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah.

[Matt Britton]

How is that impacting the way that you look at your products, your packaging, and the way that you go to market for your brands?

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, I mean, dramatically, kind of the need states and occasions of which consumers are using snacks has changed dramatically. You know, kind of used to be an after school, late evening thing. Now it's all throughout the day. It's meal replacement, it's a late morning snack. It's after my gym workout, I need to get protein into my system because now I've been educated to know that's important to refuel my body. And so kind of just that expansion of the needs and occasions of consumers. And so for us, it's really about having a really close pulse of that and then building our innovation strategy around it. Absolutely. The GLP1 trends are important. They're coming even fast. And wellness, broadly is coming very fast. And so for us, about how do we take the brands in our portfolio and meet those needs? So it could be pack form, it could be formulation or ingredient additions or new ingredients. It could be portion sizes. There's a lot of ways in which we're looking at doing that so that we have the spectrum of the indulgent to the kind of the more health version of snacking. And so that for us is kind of how we look at it broadly. We watch every single trend, but we don't just jump on a trend as can. Yes, exactly, exactly.

[Matt Britton]

Because you're not a company that can necessarily. Yes, you can change your messaging very quickly, but in terms of changing what's on shelf, there's a process in doing that. So you have to be pretty measured in the decisions you make. In terms of every inch of shelf space matters, you need to make sure you're setting yourself up for success.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah, definitely.

[Matt Britton]

And when you look at something like Instacart or Amazon or other places where people are buying groceries online, does that change also just merchandising? Because obviously if you're at a cvs, you can have your snacks at checkout and you can grab one, but that doesn't really exist the same way online. So how does that change in terms of your merchandising strategy as consumers are buying online? Do you have to have different packaging and products online versus in store?

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah, I mean, not you can.

[Matt Britton]

Right.

[Julie Bowerman]

But the reality is the majority of the online shopping is coming from in store just the way that the retailers are fulfilling it. Right. And so that pack variation, I think early, early in the days of online buying, that what seemed like a logical strategy. And the reality is it kind of only serves the Amazon model of, you know, shipping to your home. But there are compliments of that checkout kind of behavior online. There's add to carts, add through the checkout process. So you're thinking about the same shopping behaviors, but you're using more media and data and targeting to get that.

[Matt Britton]

Because you can in a digital environment.

[Julie Bowerman]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Matt Britton]

Awesome. Shifting gears a little bit as we wrap up here. Would love to. Because you obviously have worked with some of the most prestigious brands and obviously companies like Coca Cola and Kelanova, they hold high standards. You can't just go walk off the street and get a job overseeing one of these brands. And I'd love to know from you, throughout your career, what have been the hallmarks of like a great rising talent? When you look at attributes where you see somebody early in your career and you're like, they're going to make it one day, what has, I guess, been true more often than not?

[Julie Bowerman]

Great question. One of the things I think, think for sure is curiosity. Not a sense of, I know the answer, I want to learn the answer. I think curiosity is a big part of it. I love to use this word, scrappiness. I love when people are. They figure things out and if you empower them as a leader and you help them kind of remove their barriers, but they run with it. They figure it out. Resourceful, very resourceful. I think that becomes kind of a marker of a future talent as well. And then I think the other part of a young talent is someone who's really keen to take it advantage of getting experiences and not just chasing titles and really looking at the opportunity to say, let me learn a lot of different things so that later on it'll benefit me. But I'm not worried about later on. Right now I just want to get those breadth of experiences and I think all of those kind of things make up, you know, someone who probably later on will be pretty successful.

[Matt Britton]

So in terms of taking experiences throughout Your career. You know, you spent over two decades at Coca Cola.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah.

[Matt Britton]

What are some of the biggest takeaways you had from that, that organization that you still think remain with you today?

[Julie Bowerman]

That is where I learned the fundamentals of brand marketing and just how important a brand and building a brand's emotion with a consumer really is. So that, I think, has stayed with me kind of throughout my career. But one of the things I got at Coke was a lot of breath. Just as I talked about, I was in digital, I was in media, I did shopper, I did E Commerce. I had a whole breadth of experiences pretty early in my career, and that really translated to me kind of later on. I worked in the US a good bit, but I worked around the world. And so I just kind of opened my mind to a lot of great opportunity and Coke enabled that for me. But there's other great companies just like a Coca Cola. But I think part of is not only just the learning and the capabilities they have, but the people and the network that you build from that, that then translates later on as well. It's a massive network.

[Matt Britton]

Yeah. And finally, Joe, I mean, obviously you wouldn't be in this position if you didn't make a lot of right decisions along the way. I'm sure not all your decisions in the rearview mirror were right. No ones are. As you look back on your career and all the different roles you've had, what are some of the right decisions you've made to put you in the CMO seat today? Whether it's relationships, skill sets, or just things that you focused on that allowed you to take this path?

[Julie Bowerman]

I had been pretty much embedded in marketing at Coke. I'd done multiple marketing roles I was talking about and the organization to me and said, hey, there's this thing called E Commerce that's getting ready to happen. Amazon's knocking on our door. They want to start up a grocery business. You've done brand, you've done sales, you know, digital marketing. How about if we put you in this incubator role? You're going to go work for our chief strategy officer. We'll give you a couple of headcount, but can you go figure it out? And at the time I was running digital marketing, I had a pretty big team, pretty big budget, responsibility, and. And I was like. But I did it. And it became, I think for me, something that just unlocked so much more in terms of it forced me to build a business inside of a company. So I had to think end to end. I had to think, how do we make money, how do we manufacture and supply? How do we negotiate the deal with retail customers like Amazon? How do we convince the bottlers that we need to operate? How do we build the marketing capabilities? So it was really, truly a GM role, but was starting a business. It was very much an entrepreneurial kind of role. And I had to be scrappy, like we talked about, and I had to figure things out. And no one in the organization knew, but I also had to influence the organization around. This was important, why it was important. Here's the future of what this means for us in our business. Here's how we're going to create value. And that gave me so much more confidence, skills, capability, that I think that leapfrogged for me in a lot of ways that. That grew my career from there. And a lot of people would have looked at that as kind of, why is she doing something? E commerce is nothing. Cpg. There's no sales associated with it. And then I got to go do it globally for Coke as well. And that just really opened a door for me that differentiated me and my profile and the skills that I had that I think that without that, I wouldn't have become a cmo.

[Matt Britton]

It also takes a lot of courage and conviction to do that, to dive in, because it's not like you had all the answers either. You were kind of figuring out as you went along.

[Julie Bowerman]

Definitely. And I worked for an amazing leader, a woman who's still my dear friend and probably number one mentor who really pushed me and pushed me, challenged me, and I had to kind of rise up to that. Again, very uncomfortable throughout the process. Many times thought, why did I do this? But it turned out to be an amazing experience.

[Matt Britton]

Yeah. I think that's a perfect example of just going outside your comfort zone, taking a leap and owning something. I think in times of change, like now, everyone just wants someone to lead, take their hand and show them the way.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah.

[Matt Britton]

And even if the person that's showing them the way doesn't know all the answers, it's better than just sitting and waiting for changes to happen to you.

[Julie Bowerman]

Absolutely. I mean, particularly earlier in your career. I mean, I think you don't realize until you reflect back. I mean, you probably can look at this yourself. Well, you've done some really bold moves in your career, but, like, when you look back, you're like, gosh, it's okay to fail. It's okay to make some bad decisions. You learn so much from those, those points that you become better as a result of it. You almost want to go look for those kinds of opportunities, that might be a bad mistake because you grow from it. And so, yeah, I think taking some courage and taking a bold move is really important.

[Matt Britton]

I think it's important to say, because the difference now is when we grew up, there was no Instagram. Right. And now kids growing up see everybody, quote, unquote, killing it. They don't have patience. They want to make it right away. And they also feel like they can't, can't fail in private. They're failing in public.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah.

[Matt Britton]

I think what that does to a lot of younger people is it makes them very risk averse.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah.

[Matt Britton]

And I think over time, that would be to their detriment. Well, we had that growing up.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah. So true. That's such a great point. Yeah.

[Matt Britton]

Awesome. Well, this has been an amazing talk. I'm so thankful you took the time. We always ask our guests to wrap up if there's a saying or a mantra that has guided their professional journey. Just what comes to mind for you?

[Julie Bowerman]

I wouldn't say I'm a sane person, but I have a father who was a very successful senior leader in business. And his style of leadership was to touch everyone in the organization, the most junior people, all the way up to his direct reports. He knew them personally, he talked to them. He made an effort to be engaged, get to know them personal, be vulnerable and transparent. And that has, like, instilled in me what I believe and want my leadership style to be like. While I'm very accountable, I have a boss and feel very accountable to my boss, I feel much more accountable to the people that work for me. And I think my father is really the one that gave me that value.

[Matt Britton]

It's clearly a strong influence on you.

[Julie Bowerman]

Yeah.

[Matt Britton]

Definite congrats on your success and wishing you nothing but the best of luck this year as you continue to drive this journey forward.

[Julie Bowerman]

Thank you. Nice to meet you for the invite.

[Matt Britton]

Absolutely. On behalf of Susan II team, thanks again to Julie Bowerman, the CMO of Kellanova, for joining us today live at the possible conference here in South Beach. Be sure to subscribe rate review the Speed of Culture podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Till next time, C M1 take 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 Adweek's podcasts by visiting adweek.com podcasts to find out more about Susie, head to Suzy.com and make sure to search for the Speed of Culture in Apple Podcasts Spotify. Or 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. Listening.

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