Brands Must Define Audio Identity, says Pepsico's Alonso

From creative experiential pop-up shops to unprecedented influencer partnerships, the consumer packaged goods industry has continued reinventing its marketing efforts to stand out in a crowded space. It is no secret that Gabe Alonso, head of digital platforms and community, energy drinks at PepsiCo has remained busy—the company just unveiled its brand new Mountain Dew Rise Energy drink, in a partnership with LeBron James. From handling a new debut now within the DTC space and King James, Gabe shares his learnings from MTV, Oreo and more. Check out our discussion with Adweek's Social Media Council member on the pivotal role that audio is playing for major brands, why getting Oreo to take a stance for Pride Month was a career highlight and why more companies should prioritize idea planning. ADWEEK: How did you get to where you are today? Any noteworthy aha-moments along the way? When I worked at MTV, I was part of a group of young employees (read: could use social media) who were tasked with being unofficial MTV Twitter ambassadors. At the time, I blogged and wrote music reviews on the side and used Twitter to publish and promote my RSS feed (remember those days?). I didn’t realize until I joined 360i that I had become a community manager. And I loved it, feeling like I found my calling. I was hooked on social media, content strategy and creation. What's the most innovative thing you're currently working on? Figuring out with my team how to run DTC for Mountain Dew Rise Energy. We got it up and running in March (go buy!), which was completely out of my comfort zone. This challenged how I look at our ecosystem and where our future opportunities lie. This is only the beginning so stay tuned. https://twitter.com/MountainDewRise/status/1392873513694863362 What new or up-and-coming innovation(s) are you most excited about and how do you think it will change the future of marketing? Audio. Brands will have to think about how they sound and what sounds exemplify who they are. From podcasts to live audio, to choosing the right track on TikTok, there’s an additional element now. And if that song you can’t get out of your head is any indication, when brands choose the right sounds or audio, it can be even stickier than a piece of content or an ad. Case in point—the Law and Order sound. That’s part of their brand. How will your brand sound? If you could only do organic social on one platform for your brand, which would it be and why? TikTok for Rockstar Energy because it provides the most opportunities across creators, video and audio in all our key passion points–music, gaming and sport. Especially in long-form innovations. For Mountain Dew Rise Energy: Twitter. With the product’s focus on the morning and bridging intention and motivation, Twitter provides that positive influence in your feed when you’re doom-scrolling. Also, with the onset of Twitter Spaces, I think there’s an opportunity with Mountain Dew Rise Energy to drive more conversations around the intention, motivation, morning routines and more. https://twitter.com/MountainDewRise/status/1395937877360447490 What’s one piece of work from your career that you’re the proudest of? In the summer of 2012 when I was Oreo’s community manager in the thick of the 100 Days of Daily twists, I convinced our teams to use “Proudly support love” for the social copy on the now infamous rainbow Oreo image. I scheduled it and made sure it went out to US-only, as we knew that the image would be a controversial one. The next day, I woke up to the cookie going viral due to someone reporting it to Facebook. Because they reported it, Facebook took the post down, but then realized there wasn’t an issue and put it back on with the page’s default targeting settings: Global. That caused the image to go to a much wider audience and the rest is history. While this caused our approval process to get even more complicated, it was by far one of my proudest moments. Few brands were willing to make that kind of statement. I was proud of our team and our client for letting us make that kind of statement and leave it up after all hell broke loose. It set the tone for Oreo’s new cultural identity. Was there ever a time where you questioned your career path? How did you handle that? At 25 when I had just left MTV, I had friends making twice what I was making. Meanwhile, I pivoted to social from production and I was regretting my decision to follow my desire to get into the music industry and felt like I was falling behind. But I learned so many formative lessons at MTV that I’m glad I started my career there. I made a lot of mistakes that I’m not sure a more traditional job would have let slide. MTV weirdly taught me how to be an adult (sort of) and being in production turned me into a more solution-oriented person. Nothing like being five minutes from going live-to-air and having an artist say they won’t perform without a dressing room to really test your creative problem-solving. El Pollo Loco’s VP of Digital Takes The Brand (And Its Food) To New Heights What is one skill that you think is currently underdeveloped in Marketing? Companies should invest more time in creative training to get the best creative thinking. You won’t always have the resources to have an agency creative lead take you through an exercise to get your creative juices flowing. If you’re leading creative work in-house, learn how to drive these sessions—you and your teams will become better for it and the consumer ultimately wins. How do you pick and develop the talent on your team? I ultimately try and find people from whom I can learn. As I’m building out the digital discipline for the Energy portfolio, I don’t pretend to know everything about social strategy, influencers or analytics. I’ve found some incredible leads that are inspiring and teaching me things every day. My job then becomes not to tell them how to do theirs, but to nudge and prod their ideas to get the best out of them every day. I once had a friend and colleague tell me what he tells his teams: “Put me out of a job.” He felt it inspired his team to push their limits and in response forces him to push his, raising their own potential collectively. I do my best to push the leads on my team to think big and boldly go after what they feel will bring our business success. What is one thing marketers who are not in social should know about? You can’t create a community overnight or in six months. You need time, consistency and a capacity to evolve. What’s the first post to come to mind when you hear “best-in-class social”? Spotify’s “Wrapped” annual activation is my favorite social content every holiday season. Every year they make it more shareable, community-driven and insightful. Their best content is inherently content the community made themselves—they’ve just given us the tools to share it with the world. If that’s not best-in-class social, then I don’t know what is. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? From my father—“Life’s a game. No one’s looking out for you.” It’s so simple. I realized that I’m the only one who can control my career and circumstances. This was not an easy thing to realize—thinking that companies owe you something for your loyalty. The earlier you realize that will never be the case, the freer that makes you to choose the best opportunities to advance yourself and your career. Bumble Puts Black Love Front-And-Center Of Britain’s Dating Scene

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Brands Must Figure out Their Audio Identity, Says PepsiCo's Gabe Alonso

Head of digital platforms and community, energy drinks, advises marketers to think about how their products sound to consumers

Julian Gamboa

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Julian Gamboa