Some of the most evolved marketers are constantly changing the way they are approaching consumers. Syl Saller, Chief Marketing Officer, Diageo, believes that in today’s age, one of the most important aspects of reaching consumer is to pack right and pack light. Lara Balazs, SVP & Head of North America Marketing, Visa on the other hand is an advocate of campaigns that manage to have a universal language successfully.
Packing right: Syl Saller, Diageo
Elaborating on her philosophy of packing light and packing right, Ms Saller explained that the most important thing for a brand is to pack its strongest asset and marketers need to know what that is. “Companies need to be liberative in their approach,” she said, adding, “The best brands go beyond simple transactional messaging and go deeper in cultures. This allows a brand to have a purpose for the consumer, which is critical in today’s age.”
Ms Saller cited the example of the Johnnie Walker campaigns that are essentially about individual progress. “Regardless of nationality and gender, this is important to people so the idea resonates across geographies,” she remarked.
“A great purpose can vary from a family spending time together to inspiring. There has to be a consistent platform for creatives and for good inspiring work,” Ms Saller stated.
She also spoke about the value of education stating that like many business systems, marketers can open source creative like Google started executional templates. However, it was important for global business to seek execution that is dipped in local culture.
“You have to find a way to work across your geography,” she said. Diageo achieves this by steering its global brand teams to work with local markets take a decision together on final execution.
A universal language: Lara Balazs, Visa
Focussing on effectiveness and efficiency, Ms Balazs is of the opinion that campaigns should have a universal language. She pointed out to examples such as Snickers from Mars Food to elucidate her point. “It is all about the execution and how you can connect ads to consumer’s daily lives. Ideas and execution can travel better,” Ms Balazs said.
She also quoted examples from platforms such as Olympics that tap into the emotional side of people. She said, “Biology trumps geography hands down. At the end of the day all humans are the same, and great communication influences audience alike. You can achieve this great communication and visual appeal with easy to grasp messaging without drumming it down.”
Ms Balazs reiterated the importance to dip into the talent in local markets. “Not all great work comes from great markets. We have to be nimble and organised. Global brand thinking does not come from headquarters,” she said.
The two marketers were speaking at the ongoing Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, where the session was moderated by Mike Schalit, Co-Founder, Network BBDO. He summed up the conversation in five takeaways:
Pack right, pack light
Travel with purpose
Biology trumps geography
Dip in local culture
Have no fixed plans
