January 14, 2020 • 10 mins
James Kotecki of C Space Studio speaks with Marc S. Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer, Procter & Gamble.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, I'm James k Techie. You're listening to the C
Space Studio podcast interviews with technology, media and marketing leaders
from CS. Hi. I'm James Kotechi. You're here with me
in the C Space Studio at CS here with us
Mark Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer, Proctor and Gamble. Welcome to
(00:23):
the studio. I thank you good to be here. Thank
you so much so. Chief Brand Officer is one of
my favorite titles. What does that mean in your case?
And how is that different than being a CMO. The
reason why we chose ch brand officers because PNG is
a company of brands first and foremost. So what we
felt was most appropriate is to focus on what we do,
which is Bill Brands. We want to be the best
(00:45):
brand building company in the world, not just CpG but everywhere.
So that's why he thought it's just made sense to
focus on the brand aspect of that because that's what
we do Bill Brands. So, off the top of your head,
what are some of the brands that that PNGL? I mean,
how many how many brands are we talking about here? Actually?
What's we we operate in in ten categories? In their
household and personal care categories Uh. They the brands are brands.
(01:08):
I'm sure you're familiar with. There's pampers, Um, Tied Crest, Gillette, Venus, Vix, Oral,
b u, l A, you name it, bounty, you use
them all. I hope, I hope they're all in your home.
They really should many of them probably? Are they good?
Is there an overall PNG brand that kind of unites
(01:30):
all of them together? Does it mean something to be
a PNG brand? I think it means something to be
a PNG brand, and that what we do at PNG
as we focus on creating products and services of superior
value uh and superior performance that make people's lives better.
That's that's really the purpose of the company. It's not
really a brand. PG is a company and p and
(01:52):
and p and is a company of brands. So what
we do with PNG, though, is that it does provide
a platform for brands. So, for example, many of our
citizenship activities come emanate from PNG's point of view on
how we want to improve gender quality, diversity and inclusion,
environmental sustainability, ethics, and corporate responsibility, and so that provides platforms.
(02:14):
The other thing is we provide platforms such as the Olympics,
the NFL sponsorship Global Goal Alive and which is Global
Citizens major platform is going to be focusing on ending
extreme poverty, where we're going to be a major part
of that. So that's that's how the p and platform
comes in. But first and foremost people are familiar with
our brands like like Tide and Sharman and Bounty and
(02:37):
all those others. So let's talk about building a brand
and the challenges of doing that in the digital era,
when a single wrong move can kind of blow up
into this huge viral moment. How do you approach that?
It's just reality? You know. The reality is what technology
has enabled us to do is to be connected around
the world instantaneously. So what you have to think about
(02:58):
as a as a brand is what's your point of view?
What is it that you're trying to offer to people,
and what's what is uh uh the insight you have
in the consumer's life, and then how can you make
that better? And uh you know, what we do, for example,
is first and foremost, we focus on making sure people
know how why our products are better. We also do
(03:18):
things like promote equality, promote diversity and inclusion, promote sustainability,
and we periodically take stands on things, and when you
take a stand sometimes you might take some heat and
you just need to be ready for that. Well, let's
talk about one instance of that. There was a Gillette
add I think it was almost exactly a year ago
on kind of toxic masculinity that you did take some
(03:39):
heat for. What did you learn from that? Would you
do it again the same way? How do you think
about that? You know, it's really interesting. It actually debuted
here at C Space Storytellers, was the first time it
was ever shown. Uh. The interesting thing about is that
it was about being a role model for the next
generation of men, so the men could be the best
they could be. And that's really what the whole thing
(04:01):
is about. It was universally um liked by most people.
In fact, people here, people here loved it. What it
did happen, though, is that it was essentially hijacked um
through some editorial comments from just a few sources that
then really shifted the narrative um and and that that
shifted to the narrative then picked up by the press,
(04:23):
became part of what was about. The vast majority of
people saw that just a great head. Now, the good
news is is that the storm passed by. Then when
people started taking a looking at that, they started realizing
this is a good message. And and in fact, what
has happened is that now we have especially people under
the age of thirty five, have woken up and they
(04:44):
see you letting an entirely new light and that business
is growing now. So going back, you would do it
again in the same way I would do it again.
We might do something a little differently. The thing about
it that's interesting is that if we had done something differently,
I'm not sure it may not have happened the way
it happened. I think it happened for a reason. So
you know, the good news is is and this is
what brands have to do. They have to have to pivot,
(05:06):
you know. So what we decided to do is we said, okay,
what were gonna do about this? We said, we're gonna
double down. This is a good message. People like this ad,
they like what this is talking about, and Gillette has
a responsibility and an opportunity to talk about what it
is to be the best a man can be. They
combined that now with some of the new products are
coming out with I'm sure you saw your lot heated
razor which also came out at the same time. They've
got a new product called skin Guard that is just
(05:27):
killing it right now. So you know, you put all
those things together and the brand's growing again. Anything that
you're announcing this year at CS, is there going to
be another kind of is there another Gillette add equivalent
of being debuted here or themes that you're looking at
for twenties? Yeah, well, from an advertising standpoint, we're not
doing anything here here uh this this time. But what
we are you will see some new stuff that's gonna
(05:49):
come out for the Super Bowl. You should be pretty exciting.
What we're focusing here is really on day doing our
how we're really reinventing the superior consumer experience with our products.
So you saw some of the examples that I showed
in the C space storytellers like cop Day and the
Oral b Io toothbrush and those kinds of things. So
when we talk about creating experiences in a world where
(06:10):
marketing is increasingly digital, but you're selling products that are
almost expressly physical, tangible consumer products, how does that connection
work for you with That's something that you have to
think through very carefully. There's two things. One, we use
data and digital technology to help us reinvent how we
do marketing, particularly in media. So we have our own
(06:30):
UM you know, privacy compliant consumer centric database that allows
us to be able to do far more precise um
uh serving of advertising, so we eliminate excess AD frequency
and make it better for consumers. That's one use of
application that we've been able to use because in the
past you couldn't do that. You just blasted it out there.
The second piece, though, is that we're embedding cutting edge
(06:51):
technology into our everyday products, and what that is giving
us is an entirely new way of operating. So if
you think about the IO Power toothbrush, which has as
you know, first of all great technology that gives you
a much better too tooth brushing experience because of the
way the way it's built. It also has UM kind
of some three D technology built in and artificial intelligence
(07:12):
that allows you to be able to learn how you're
brushing and give you instantaneous feedback, so that completely changes
that that experience. Opdate, which is a micro scanning UM
product that scans literally like two hundred photographs a second
over to find tonal imperfections, then also learns provides data
that can then give back to the consumer to be
able to make things better better for them. So we
(07:34):
that's how it's changing. And the way we see it
is that these everyday products that have technology embedded in
them could completely change how we do advertising. We could
see technology could could eventually replace ads in many instances
because you're giving an everyday connection with consumers on data
and so you don't need the blasting away all the
(07:56):
time because you basically have a one to one experience
with a consumers used to see how I'm brushing some
I'm already with that brand every day. You already know? Yeah,
and is that what you mean? I saw a quote
that you had. We're here to reinvent advertising as we
know it? Is that what you mean by that? Yeah?
We can imagine a world without ads as we know
them today. Yes, I mean the thing about ads, what
advertising means is to turn toward It's a Latin root
(08:16):
called that vert. You're just getting people to turn towards
your brand. Ads have over time been defined as thirty
second TV ads. We see that there's still gonna be
ways that we're going to be getting people to turn
towards our products, But we need we can do it
now in different ways with how we're operating. We're talking
to Mark Pritchard, Chief brand Officer Procter and Gamble. If
you change advertising in that way, are there going to
(08:36):
be some people here at C Space who are in
the media side of the business who get nervous saying, look,
I need P and G thirty second spots to support
all the content that I'm creating. They're still gonna be
thirty second spots. I really believe that we still have
a very huge portion of our business in TV and
broadcast TV. We still have our a lot of of
(08:57):
of our advertising and radio now and and and so
what's old is new again because radio has reinvented itself,
so there's still they're also is going to be more
over the top. What I think will happen is while
there's still be thirty second as you saw what I
showed at that as a storytelles, I showed a thirty
second infomercial because people still want to know how products
are used. That still works. What's gonna happen, though, is
(09:20):
we're gonna see more and more advertising that's going to
be organically integrated into programming or really clever ways in
which in which brands can come together, like what I
did with Sunday Night Football. They actually integrated there. They're
six weeks worth of advertising into the into the Sunday
Night Football where it looked like it was it was
NBC doing it, and it was actually NBC and Tied
doing it. Um As we closed out here, what is
(09:42):
something that you're really excited about for twenty Wow, I'm
so I'm excited about so many things. I think that
we're on the custom of a really big, exponential level
of disruption that's going to happen in both innovating innovation
and creativity and brand building. And what I'm excited about
is is continuing to lead what we call constructive disruption,
(10:03):
you know, disrupt in a way that builds the market,
that builds value and creates value. And using technology and
these new ways of of of creativity by merging the
ad world with multiple worlds and putting technology into our products.
That is some really really interesting innovation and I think
it's going to really bode well for the market, most
important for the consumers we serve. So we had creative
(10:25):
destruction and now here comes constructive disruption. Constructive disruption you,
bet Mark Pritchard, Chief Bread Officer, Procter and Gamble, thank you,
thanks so much for being here. This podcast is in
partnership with the iHeart Podcast Network
Hi, I'm James k Techie. You're listening to the C
Space Studio podcast interviews with technology, media and marketing leaders
from CS. Hi. I'm James Kotechi. You're here with me
in the C Space Studio at CS here with us
Mark Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer, Proctor and Gamble. Welcome to
(00:23):
the studio. I thank you good to be here. Thank
you so much so. Chief Brand Officer is one of
my favorite titles. What does that mean in your case?
And how is that different than being a CMO. The
reason why we chose ch brand officers because PNG is
a company of brands first and foremost. So what we
felt was most appropriate is to focus on what we do,
which is Bill Brands. We want to be the best
(00:45):
brand building company in the world, not just CpG but everywhere.
So that's why he thought it's just made sense to
focus on the brand aspect of that because that's what
we do Bill Brands. So, off the top of your head,
what are some of the brands that that PNGL? I mean,
how many how many brands are we talking about here? Actually?
What's we we operate in in ten categories? In their
household and personal care categories Uh. They the brands are brands.
(01:08):
I'm sure you're familiar with. There's pampers, Um, Tied Crest, Gillette, Venus, Vix, Oral,
b u, l A, you name it, bounty, you use
them all. I hope, I hope they're all in your home.
They really should many of them probably? Are they good?
Is there an overall PNG brand that kind of unites
(01:30):
all of them together? Does it mean something to be
a PNG brand? I think it means something to be
a PNG brand, and that what we do at PNG
as we focus on creating products and services of superior
value uh and superior performance that make people's lives better.
That's that's really the purpose of the company. It's not
really a brand. PG is a company and p and
(01:52):
and p and is a company of brands. So what
we do with PNG, though, is that it does provide
a platform for brands. So, for example, many of our
citizenship activities come emanate from PNG's point of view on
how we want to improve gender quality, diversity and inclusion,
environmental sustainability, ethics, and corporate responsibility, and so that provides platforms.
(02:14):
The other thing is we provide platforms such as the Olympics,
the NFL sponsorship Global Goal Alive and which is Global
Citizens major platform is going to be focusing on ending
extreme poverty, where we're going to be a major part
of that. So that's that's how the p and platform
comes in. But first and foremost people are familiar with
our brands like like Tide and Sharman and Bounty and
(02:37):
all those others. So let's talk about building a brand
and the challenges of doing that in the digital era,
when a single wrong move can kind of blow up
into this huge viral moment. How do you approach that?
It's just reality? You know. The reality is what technology
has enabled us to do is to be connected around
the world instantaneously. So what you have to think about
(02:58):
as a as a brand is what's your point of view?
What is it that you're trying to offer to people,
and what's what is uh uh the insight you have
in the consumer's life, and then how can you make
that better? And uh you know, what we do, for example,
is first and foremost, we focus on making sure people
know how why our products are better. We also do
(03:18):
things like promote equality, promote diversity and inclusion, promote sustainability,
and we periodically take stands on things, and when you
take a stand sometimes you might take some heat and
you just need to be ready for that. Well, let's
talk about one instance of that. There was a Gillette
add I think it was almost exactly a year ago
on kind of toxic masculinity that you did take some
(03:39):
heat for. What did you learn from that? Would you
do it again the same way? How do you think
about that? You know, it's really interesting. It actually debuted
here at C Space Storytellers, was the first time it
was ever shown. Uh. The interesting thing about is that
it was about being a role model for the next
generation of men, so the men could be the best
they could be. And that's really what the whole thing
(04:01):
is about. It was universally um liked by most people.
In fact, people here, people here loved it. What it
did happen, though, is that it was essentially hijacked um
through some editorial comments from just a few sources that
then really shifted the narrative um and and that that
shifted to the narrative then picked up by the press,
(04:23):
became part of what was about. The vast majority of
people saw that just a great head. Now, the good
news is is that the storm passed by. Then when
people started taking a looking at that, they started realizing
this is a good message. And and in fact, what
has happened is that now we have especially people under
the age of thirty five, have woken up and they
(04:44):
see you letting an entirely new light and that business
is growing now. So going back, you would do it
again in the same way I would do it again.
We might do something a little differently. The thing about
it that's interesting is that if we had done something differently,
I'm not sure it may not have happened the way
it happened. I think it happened for a reason. So
you know, the good news is is and this is
what brands have to do. They have to have to pivot,
(05:06):
you know. So what we decided to do is we said, okay,
what were gonna do about this? We said, we're gonna
double down. This is a good message. People like this ad,
they like what this is talking about, and Gillette has
a responsibility and an opportunity to talk about what it
is to be the best a man can be. They
combined that now with some of the new products are
coming out with I'm sure you saw your lot heated
razor which also came out at the same time. They've
got a new product called skin Guard that is just
(05:27):
killing it right now. So you know, you put all
those things together and the brand's growing again. Anything that
you're announcing this year at CS, is there going to
be another kind of is there another Gillette add equivalent
of being debuted here or themes that you're looking at
for twenties? Yeah, well, from an advertising standpoint, we're not
doing anything here here uh this this time. But what
we are you will see some new stuff that's gonna
(05:49):
come out for the Super Bowl. You should be pretty exciting.
What we're focusing here is really on day doing our
how we're really reinventing the superior consumer experience with our products.
So you saw some of the examples that I showed
in the C space storytellers like cop Day and the
Oral b Io toothbrush and those kinds of things. So
when we talk about creating experiences in a world where
(06:10):
marketing is increasingly digital, but you're selling products that are
almost expressly physical, tangible consumer products, how does that connection
work for you with That's something that you have to
think through very carefully. There's two things. One, we use
data and digital technology to help us reinvent how we
do marketing, particularly in media. So we have our own
(06:30):
UM you know, privacy compliant consumer centric database that allows
us to be able to do far more precise um
uh serving of advertising, so we eliminate excess AD frequency
and make it better for consumers. That's one use of
application that we've been able to use because in the
past you couldn't do that. You just blasted it out there.
The second piece, though, is that we're embedding cutting edge
(06:51):
technology into our everyday products, and what that is giving
us is an entirely new way of operating. So if
you think about the IO Power toothbrush, which has as
you know, first of all great technology that gives you
a much better too tooth brushing experience because of the
way the way it's built. It also has UM kind
of some three D technology built in and artificial intelligence
(07:12):
that allows you to be able to learn how you're
brushing and give you instantaneous feedback, so that completely changes
that that experience. Opdate, which is a micro scanning UM
product that scans literally like two hundred photographs a second
over to find tonal imperfections, then also learns provides data
that can then give back to the consumer to be
able to make things better better for them. So we
(07:34):
that's how it's changing. And the way we see it
is that these everyday products that have technology embedded in
them could completely change how we do advertising. We could
see technology could could eventually replace ads in many instances
because you're giving an everyday connection with consumers on data
and so you don't need the blasting away all the
(07:56):
time because you basically have a one to one experience
with a consumers used to see how I'm brushing some
I'm already with that brand every day. You already know? Yeah,
and is that what you mean? I saw a quote
that you had. We're here to reinvent advertising as we
know it? Is that what you mean by that? Yeah?
We can imagine a world without ads as we know
them today. Yes, I mean the thing about ads, what
advertising means is to turn toward It's a Latin root
(08:16):
called that vert. You're just getting people to turn towards
your brand. Ads have over time been defined as thirty
second TV ads. We see that there's still gonna be
ways that we're going to be getting people to turn
towards our products, But we need we can do it
now in different ways with how we're operating. We're talking
to Mark Pritchard, Chief brand Officer Procter and Gamble. If
you change advertising in that way, are there going to
(08:36):
be some people here at C Space who are in
the media side of the business who get nervous saying, look,
I need P and G thirty second spots to support
all the content that I'm creating. They're still gonna be
thirty second spots. I really believe that we still have
a very huge portion of our business in TV and
broadcast TV. We still have our a lot of of
(08:57):
of our advertising and radio now and and and so
what's old is new again because radio has reinvented itself,
so there's still they're also is going to be more
over the top. What I think will happen is while
there's still be thirty second as you saw what I
showed at that as a storytelles, I showed a thirty
second infomercial because people still want to know how products
are used. That still works. What's gonna happen, though, is
(09:20):
we're gonna see more and more advertising that's going to
be organically integrated into programming or really clever ways in
which in which brands can come together, like what I
did with Sunday Night Football. They actually integrated there. They're
six weeks worth of advertising into the into the Sunday
Night Football where it looked like it was it was
NBC doing it, and it was actually NBC and Tied
doing it. Um As we closed out here, what is
(09:42):
something that you're really excited about for twenty Wow, I'm
so I'm excited about so many things. I think that
we're on the custom of a really big, exponential level
of disruption that's going to happen in both innovating innovation
and creativity and brand building. And what I'm excited about
is is continuing to lead what we call constructive disruption,
(10:03):
you know, disrupt in a way that builds the market,
that builds value and creates value. And using technology and
these new ways of of of creativity by merging the
ad world with multiple worlds and putting technology into our products.
That is some really really interesting innovation and I think
it's going to really bode well for the market, most
important for the consumers we serve. So we had creative
(10:25):
destruction and now here comes constructive disruption. Constructive disruption you,
bet Mark Pritchard, Chief Bread Officer, Procter and Gamble, thank you,
thanks so much for being here. This podcast is in
partnership with the iHeart Podcast Network
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