Changing the Game 2018

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Brainwave: Changing the way a product is marketed

Marissa Solis
VP & GM
PepsiCo

It used to be that if you wanted to find a Frito-Lay product, you’d go to the chip aisle. But today you can get Cheetos dust on your fingers when you’re picking up fast food or enjoying a movie thanks to the novelty mashups that Solis promoted as head of marketing of the company’s away-from-home segment. Her group catapulted Burger King’s Mac n’ Cheetos—which is exactly what it sounds like—into the public consciousness. The comfort food in a finger-friendly, crunchy crust (and its follow-ups Cheetos Chicken Fries and Flamin’ Hot Mac n’ Cheetos) has garnered billions of media impressions thanks to appearances on The Today Show, Good Morning America and The Late Show…plus tons of buzz on the fast food communities of YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat.

Clearly, Solis thinks outside the bag. Go to Regal Cinemas and you can have Cheetos Popcorn. Head to the local 7-Eleven and you can pick up Doritos Loaded (also now available the supermarket freezer). They’re the kinds of activations that people just can’t help talking about. And now Solis is taking her innovative approach to the PepsiCo’s North American beverage business, where she’s moved over to lead Hispanic strategy.

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Amy Baker
EVP, Ad Sales
A+E Networks

For over three decades, Lifetime has served women viewers, but, with Baker leading the charge, the A+E network has recently upped its game with a series of research reports examining the key issues impacting womanhood today. The 2017 study—“One Woman’s Empowerment Is Another Woman’s Burden”—was based on two years of proprietary research, with Baker and her team uncovering what captures the hearts, minds and dollars of contemporary women.

As more brands market to women, these kinds of insights have become indispensable, as it is increasingly obvious that the forces shaping women’s identity are complex and rapidly changing. A follow-up “Women and Money” study covered the societal expectations and cultural contexts that come into play with money, including what money means to women socially, in banking, saving, budgeting, investing and retirement planning.

Last year, Baker launched the SheReports Newsletter for Lifetime, providing of-the-moment content on emerging trends and commentary for agency and brand marketing decision makers. The ANA’s #SeeHer has a regular feature highlighting interviews with ad executives where they look at a topical issue as it relates to female consumers. It has become a must-read for those who want to understand what it means to market to women today.

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Ann Rubin
VP, Corporate Marketing
IBM

IBM may not be top of mind when it comes to couture, but thanks to Rubin’s leadership, the two may forever be intertwined. In 2016 she and her team partnered with high-fashion house Marchesa to design a “cognitive” dress for the Met Gala’s “Man X Machina”-themed-evening. Worn by supermodel Karolina Kurkova and fabricated using IBM Watson APIs, the dress changed color based on what people tweeted about the event.

Rubin’s content activations have been critical to showing the human side of IBM’s Watson AI. For example, last year’s “Art with Watson” program teamed artists with Watson to use data to discover and illuminate the unknown essence of six notable individuals: Charles Darwin, Eleanor Roosevelt, Nikola Tesla, Paul Rand, Josephine Baker and Thomas J. Watson. And at this month’s Masters, Watson created personalized highlights. Says Rubin, “We see this as an invitation to our clients and partners to work together to put smart to work to transform any industry from healthcare to retail to education to energy by applying Watson, cloud, blockchain and security to change their industry and the world.”

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