How monetising media is helping Mondelez’s marketing team to fuel growth

CMO catches up with global head of content and media monetisation for the snacking giant to talk about brand strategy, cross-functional buy-in and taking risks

Laura Henderson
Laura Henderson

Over the past year, Mondelez International has been building out a media monetisation strategy that transforms the snacking giant from transactional media spender to content investor, producer and owner.

Mondelez isn’t the only brand to reach the conclusion that premium content is a way of fighting against ad blocking and the fragmented, changing media landscape. PepsiCo is another actively investing in content as a way of funding brand marketing and generating a cash return on media investments, and other brands are following suit.

During her presentation at this week’s AANA Reset conference, Mondelez global head of content and media monetisation, Laura Henderson, said her job is to “make content that’s good enough to make money”. She labelled this new discipline of marketing “commercial creativity”.

The beneficial effects of media monetisation are twofold, she suggested.“Firstly, it’s about producing stuff that earns attention,” she said. “Secondly, it’s a new economic model that provides fuel for growth. Generating cash returns means we can invest more in strong, powerful content.”

The biggest example of Mondelez’s monetisation efforts to date is ‘Stride Gum presents Heaven Sent’, a content proposition based around a record jump by skydiver, Luke Aikins, from 25,000 feet without a parachute or wingsuit. The stunt and safe landing was screened on 30 July on live TV via the Fox Network in a one-hour special, as well as streamed globally on YouTube.

The stunt chalked up 1 billion impressions and US$15 million in earned media value, and importantly, marked a turning point in how Mondelez engages both with the media, as well as its partners, by giving the company the opportunity to sell distribution rights, advertising and generate fresh brand integrations.

“It allowed us to penetrate the pop culture in a way we hadn’t been able to do previously,” Henderson said. “For a business that’s struggled to gain share, we started to see a turnaround for the first time in months.

“On top of this, it was a real proof point for the model. We were able to generate reach that we didn’t need to pay for, and that we weren’t able to pay for. It’s a new way of thinking about an ecosystem around content with valuable IP at the core and all the different ways you can exploit that.”

While at Reset, CMO sat down with Henderson to talk about the business triggers behind the content investment, what her media monetisation strategy, and how cross-functional collaboration has been vital.

Why media monetisation

Henderson said the decision to starting looking at content as a monetisable brand asset was triggered by the need to find new ways of delivering growth in the face of disruption and media fragmentation.

“The inflection point for us was when we looked at this in the context of what’s actually happening in the world. You see such fragmentation within the media landscape, it’s no longer easy to reach consumers, and it’s more expensive to reach them too,” she said.

This is changing the economics of the industry, Henderson said. “We also started thinking about what happens 5-10 years down the line to all of these spaces where we used to advertise – as they’re going away, and as people skip and block ads,” she said.

“The question became: How do we create more value for ourselves in that equation so we can reach people in more relevant ways and do so more sustainably?”

What the content mix looks like

Mondelez started investing in its media monetisation strategy just over a year ago, creating what Henderson called a ‘slate’, or collection of properties it could use to build a value-based content proposition. The main aim is to own IP, but the types and formats of content are hugely varied.

One approach is to exploit the group’s own brand IP, and Henderson pointed out Mondelez did this a few years back with a mobile game based around its Oreo cookies called Twist, Lick, Dunk. “It signalled to us that there is a lot of latent equity in our brands and that we can bring it to life in different ways,” she said.

In other cases, it might be creating new IP. ‘Stride Gum presents Heaven Sent’ is an example of Mondelez working with a partner to create a new proposition.

“Then foreseeable we might buy IP,” Henderson continued. “Those three buckets sit on a spectrum of low risk, low reward to high risk, high reward.”

The emphasis in the first 12 months has been experimentation around formats and models. Over the next year, Henderson’s priority is brand-led content development.

“We’re very focused on growing our power brands, and doubling down our investment behind those global, high-margin and growth brands,” she explained. “You’ll see us look at content monetisation through the lens of those global brand briefs: What are they trying to do and how can we bring that to life in new ways.”

Henderson described content as “stuff that audiences see”.

“The reason why it’s so relevant right now is because the explosion of digital and mobile has empowered our audience base,” she commented. “We’ve always been in the business of creating content, it’s just what that content looks like has shifted and it needs to be much more audience-led as opposed to message- led.

“Increasingly, the audience side of the equation is more rich and interesting than before... As we move into this new model, we’ve been leaning on that side of the equation much more and our media agencies, partners and as we look to plan these types of occasions, it’s about marrying media and creative together in new and interesting ways.”

Up next: How Mondelez is leveraging partnerships to monetise media

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