Getting into the consumer mindset is something that Laura Jones is familiar with. In this episode, we talk with the Instacart CMO on the company’s recent innovations around their data-driven holiday campaign and AI-powered search experience. Plus, Laura walks us through how shoppable ads enhance the customer experience and the strengths of co-marketing campaigns.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good Company is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I think that there will always be such a need
and in some ways an increased importance of true human creativity.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Hi, I'm Michael Casson. Welcome to Good Company. We're all
explore how marketing, media, entertainment and tech are intersecting, transforming
our lives and the way we do business at a
breakneck speed. I'll be joined by some of the greatest
business minds at strongest leaders who will share how they've
built companies from the ground up or transformed them from
the inside out. My bet is you'll pick up a
(00:37):
lesson or two along the way. It's all good. Today,
I have the pleasure of speaking with Laura Jones, the
CMO of Instacart. Since joining in twenty twenty one, Laura
has spearheaded the creation of a full brand identity refresh,
launched the company's first ever integrated brand campaign, built out
its creative studio, and developed a full fun in house
(01:00):
media team, and most recently celebrated Instacart's IPO. So, Laura,
it's been a busy time for you since June of
twenty twenty one. You know what I'd love to do
is say welcome.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, thank you so much for having me. And yes,
definitely a busy few years and a lot of changes
in the world and the business that have occurred in
that period.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Absolutely, Laura, what I would love to do is just
kind of kick off by giving our listeners a bit
about your background and how you've chartered your path personally
in terms of your experience and you know what led
you to the exciting role you've got now at instacart.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Absolutely so. As you mentioned, I am currently the CMO
here at Instacart, and for those who are not yet
using our service, we are the leading grocery technology company
in North America and we work with grocers and retailers
on transforming how people shop. So, as I've been in
this role for the past two and a half years,
(02:03):
my focus has been really on building out the brand,
building out the team, and fueling the company's growth. Prior
to Instacart, I spent six years at Uber and while
at Uber, I founded the global product marketing team and
scaled that as the business scaled and too from you know,
(02:24):
when I started, we hadn't even done a billion trips yet,
and today Uber is doing three to four billion trips
a quarter. So a real kind of hyper growth journey there,
and then most recently was leading the global rides marketing
team at Uber. Prior to that, I spent four years
at Google worked on Google Express, which was an early
(02:46):
Instacart competitor that we that Instacart certainly certainly beat pretty thoroughly.
But had a great time at Google working on commerce,
shopping and that entire industry space. And before that was
at Visa where I got my start in marketing, and
(03:08):
before that got my MBA from Stanford Business School and
started my career back in the day in consulting. So
have done kind of a full tour of duty across
and multiple parts of the you know, professional sphere, from
consulting to marketing, and now have the privilege of leading
this incredible team here on Instacart.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Well, there you go, and that's quite a journey, Laura.
I'd love to dial dial into you know. I mentioned
in the intro the co marketing that you've led, and
it's been a big focus for you at instacart this year,
including the Shoppable TV and whatnot. And look, I think
you and I have talked about the fact that rarely
(03:51):
anymore do I see or hear the word commerce not
modified by the word content. You know, I throw that
out to you as a thought starter. But you've been
debuting these TV commercials around the NFL playoffs and whatnot,
and you know, tell me how you've kind of selected
(04:13):
those tent pole moments and you know what, what what
the results look like?
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I think that this is an area that makes a
ton of sense on both sides of the relationships. So
the way we think about these co marketing initiatives is,
you know, there are so many incredibly beloved CpG brands
out there that have strong resonance with customers, that make
incredible ads, and in many cases they don't have any
(04:41):
kind of direct to consumer capability. They're selling through retailers
and there isn't a great path to conversion from an
online standpoint, Right, So, you watch a CpG ad, you're
motivated to go try this new flavor of PEPs here,
this new beer.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
How do you what do you do with that intent? Right?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
And maybe you know are going to the grocery store
next week, But what if instead we could actually just
enable that purchase in real time and get that item
into your hands in under an hour. That's incredibly compelling
from both an advertiser standpoint and from a consumer standpoint
because now you can really fulfill that intent instantly. So
(05:20):
that's kind of the premise of our CpG co marketing program.
How do we take the incredible strength of these CpG
brands and this incredible real time fulfillment capability that we
have and really shorten that distance from inspiration to action.
So when we think about going to market and with CPGs,
we're really looking at what are their priorities, what are
(05:42):
their tent pole moments for the year, and where do
we think we can play a big role in helping
to accelerate those campaigns or where do we have campaigns
that we're making where we really need those products to
play a starring role. So it's really about thinking about
that kind of you know, to use a painful worad
synergy between the two brands and always.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Love that word and hate that word.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah yeah, but I think in this case it's real
because again, each party is bringing something that the other
party couldn't do without them. So it's really looking at
those respective calendars, those respective messaging priorities, what's on the
roadmap in terms of products that the CPGs want to promote,
and for us, this has been a big priority, especially
(06:27):
in twenty twenty three, and you know, we just had
our earnings and shared that advertising and other revenue was
up nineteen percent year over year, and this was driven
by stronger than anticipated advertiser spending, especially with respect to
our back to school campaign and our Fall football campaign.
So you're starting to see this program really driving company
(06:49):
results for us and driving results for the CpG brands
that partner with us. So we've had and again kind
of these ten pole moments. You mentioned the NFL playoffs
and we partnered, you know, on back to school with
brands like Baby Bell, Giovanni, Lunchable, Skippyo Plate. All make
(07:09):
a ton of sense for that moment and really helped
us slash out our campaign as we're creating this kind
of set of stories about what families need in that moment.
And similarly Fall football, you know, partnering with folks like Gatorade,
bud Light, Toistitos and others. So it's really about thinking
about the consumer mindset. What does a consumer want in
(07:30):
that moment, what can we meet their needs with and
then how can we deliver it in a really breakthrough
way that tells a great story and then has that
path to conversion, that path to getting product into their
hand in under an hour.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
And the opportunities for those co marketing with the brands
that you kind of highlighted.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
It's brilliant.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I mean, it's it's good that it's working. Let me
switch to what you've recently debuted with the Holiday Rescue
you app. Talk about that because I love I love
the seduction of that, the Holiday Rescue just the name
of it.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Can you talk.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
About the role that data and as well partnerships per
se are playing in the Holiday Rescue app and give
us a little you know, highlight if you wouldn't mind.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Well, I think we all know the data aside that
the holidays are a stressful time of year, they're busy
time of year, They're time of year that's really defined
by food and family, which really puts it in our
sweet spot as a brand. So we're really thinking about
how can Instacart show up for that head of household
in moments that matter so that we can facilitate more
(08:40):
moments of connection. So that's very much kind of the
strategic premise of how we're thinking about showing up in
Q four and holiday and so, of course, you know,
as as one does, we thought a lot about kind
of what is the business context for this this season,
(09:01):
what is the consumer context, and how does this come
together in a campaign. And again, you know, as you
would imagine, seasonally, Q four is very strong for the
entire retail sector, it's very strong for instacart. It's a
critical moment in the year of the business, and it's
of course a really critical moment for consumers. Right it's
some of the days that are most meaningful, most emotionally
(09:23):
resonant in the year. And while holidays are meant to
be joyful and fun, obviously there's also kind of some
stress that comes along with that, especially for the kind
of Sandwich generation where you might be looking after kids,
you might be hosting older parents and really feeling like
there's a lot of pressure on you as a holiday
host to make this an amazing experience. But then the
(09:43):
question is kind of, you know, what does that mean
for you?
Speaker 4 (09:46):
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Do you have those moments to yourself, And so we
really were thinking about that kind of mental state and
really just the burden that's being placed on that head
of household. Apparently in twenty twenty one, the average amount
of time that people were spending shopping for gifts and
foods with thirteen hours.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
So that's a lot of time when.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
You think about all the things we're all juggling, jobs, families,
et cetera.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Who has thirty five.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
Thirteen hours back? I'm going to love you forever.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Laura exactly. So we really thought, Okay, we have a
role to play here. We can really help consumers in
this moment, and we can help our own business and
our partner's business as well. So we came up with
this positioning of the holiday Rescue app and just thinking
about all those moments during this period of time where
(10:32):
something where you feel like you need a rescue. So
I think we've all been in that situation where you realize,
you know, when you're kind of in that you know,
making the mashed potatoes and you're covered in all the
you know, ingredients and you're trying to kind of cook
up this storm, and all of a sudden you realize, oh,
I forgot the heavy creamer.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
What are you going to do? You don't want to
run out to.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
The store, And that's a moment for the holiday rescue
app or you get you get invited, or you realize
you forgot that you were going to, you know, a
cocktail party and you need to bring a host gift.
You know, we can get a beautiful bottle of wine
or spirits delivered to your door in many states in
under an hour and sometimes even faster than that. So
again really thinking of those moments when you're gonna, you know,
(11:16):
feel that holiday stress and really need someone in your court.
And that's where Instackhart comes in, really caring for the
caregiver and showing up to support our head of households.
So that idea of just, you know, how do we
help out the person that's taking on all of this
kind of mental burden of planning and making this incredible experience.
So we've come up with a really incredible cross Channel
(11:38):
three sixty campaign. We've got some great CpG partners that
will be including from Campbell's to Edward's Dessert to Hermel,
to Kodiak, McCormick, Hershey, Kellogg's, mulsen, Core's, and many more.
So it will be a real tour de force of
all your favorite brands and really again through both a
TV campaign and some really excited activations will be showing
(12:02):
how instacart can help kind of rescue you in those
critical moments during the holiday, aided by all these incredible
brands that you love and rely on to make your
holiday meals so special.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
Well, look at that.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
It just made me hungry for the holidays, which are
upon us much sooner than we realize. I think, so, Laura,
I want to switch gears for a moment. You and
I talked extensively about what I like to call the
rise of granformance marketing Back in twenty eighteen, when we
were engaged with a financial services institution on reimagining their
(12:36):
organizational structure and whatnot. The CMO in that case said
to me, Michael, why is it that my brand marketing
unit and my quote unquote performance marketing unit are separate.
This was somebody who's newer to marketing and was learning
but in a very very high profile role, and understood
(12:57):
the basics of marketing, but was understanding more and more.
And I said, well, I thought for a moment, I
said they don't have to be actually, because in modern
marketing you could be bringing your brand and performance group together.
I said, you really are looking for brandformance and this
person said, is that a word? I said, but it
is now and I love to make up things, not.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
Literally but words. You were quoted.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Somewhere as calling twenty twenty three the year of brandformance,
and I'd love to drill down with you and see
you know.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
How you view that.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
You've got such extensive marketing experience, and you know, for
our listeners, just to bring it home, you and I
know the difference. But the idea of brand marketing and
performance coming together to me as a long overdue moment
in the marketing structure.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yeah, you're so right on this, Michael, And thank you
for giving us that word, because it really is at
the core of how I believe marketing can be most effective.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Of is really.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Understanding that as much as we might internally, you know,
in the past, have called something performance marketing or something
brand marketing, every impression you put out into the market
shape someone's perception of your brand, and every time you
spend a dollar you should be expecting performance. Now that
performance might show up in different ways. Some of that
will be immediate, observable, measurable. You can apply an incrementality
(14:25):
multiplier and get to your ROI and in other cases
just to.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Be a little more specific, because you're exactly right. Obviously
this was a financial services institution and it was the
example was the credit card. Yeah, Acquiring the credit card
is driven by brand marketing. Using the credit card is
driven by performance marketing. And you have experience in the
credit card industry, as I recall from what your journey
(14:50):
has been, and you know, just having the card in
the consumer's pocket isn't enough. The consumer has to use
the card or the issuer isn't making any money.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Absolutely, I think for every industry, the idea of these
different time prices, these different complementary strategies has to come
into play because of course you can drive sales of activations,
you can deploy promotional dollars and have that a crew
benefit in the next twenty four hours, but you also
(15:20):
need to be driving that long term demand creation and
you do that through building brand equity and so really
looking at your entire media mix holistically and thinking about
every single touch point as having both a brand and
performance component, and making sure that from a brand standpoint,
you're applying that high bar for creative expression, for communication,
(15:45):
for grabbing people's attention, so that you're not just kind
of neglecting the value of those touch points and impressions
is really critical in saying every time I do anything,
I'm shaping the brand. And in many cases, performance budgets
are much lower than brand budget, so you might be
disproportionately shaping the brand. So really applying that brand lends
to your performance marketing. And then on the flip side,
(16:07):
taking channels that might have historically been classified as brand channels.
Let's take linear television or anything in the video space
and saying no, these actually have a value from a
performance standpoint. And of course the way that we measure
that differs by company, differs by even the phase of
the business. But there are so many techniques at our
disposal now as marketers today to measure the impacts, especially
(16:32):
over multiple time horizons. And so when we're out there
thinking about our full funnel mix, we're looking at both
in period metrics as well as long term leading indicators,
you know, perceptual metrics, et cetera, so that we're understanding
both the short and long term value of every dollar
we spend, regardless of where it's spent in the mix.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
As you have to as a marketer, and you know,
with your CFO and your procurement folks getting more involved
in marketing every day and more involved in how you
deploy that investment. The metrics we both know, I'm sure
most of our listeners know are more important than ever.
We're at the point in time when you can actually
(17:14):
answer that famous question about fifty percent. You know, I
won't bother everybody with repeating mister Wannamaker's famous quote, but
we're getting closer to that moment. Laura, I'd love to
continue the drinking game in our industry that's been going
on at least since June, with every conversation having reference
(17:36):
to AI. And now we should take a drink in
honor of the drinking game of AI.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
But all kidding aside, can you give us a little
bit about the AI powered search experience, the ask instacart
that you have launched, and you know, give us a
little view into what's going on on the AI side.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
The drinking game is strong here in San Francisco. Say,
I think you can't even at this point leave your
house and get coffee without the word it's AI coming up.
It's it's definitely a very hot topic and it's actually
been great, you know, from from it's a you know,
it's economic standpoint for San Francisco to see this influx
(18:17):
of new businesses and business models being spawned by this
this new tech and for us at Instacart, again because
we are first and foremost a technology company, this is
something that we have been thinking about, working with utilizing
for years as part of you know, our our kind
of core operations, everything from how we do replacements when
(18:39):
an items out of stock to how we're thinking about personalization,
you know, has always been using mL as a core
component of it. I think, you know, if looking at
the past year, and we're just about a year out
from when when chat Gipt launched, that was just a
year ago, if you can believe it, I think that
this year has it's the generative AI that has really
(19:00):
had to pulted this back into the spotlight and has
us all buzzing. And for Instacart the way that we
have thought about it from a consumer facing standpoint, of course,
as I said, it's already been kind of integrated deep
into our tech stack. We have internal tools that utilize AI,
and from a marketing standpoint, we're using AI for a
(19:20):
lot of our own work and as embedded in key
tools as well as ways that we're kind of playing
around with our internal development team. But from a consumer standpoint,
the big breakthrough this year was our launch of Asking
stick Cart, and so what Asking Stickart is about is
really lightning that mental burden. So we were talking before
(19:41):
about the head of household or the CEO of the household,
whatever you want to call them, and the idea that
there is someone in every family whose job it is
to put food on the table, to meal plan, to
make sure the cabinets are stocked, and that that's actually
a huge mental burden. Rights It's a lot of work
to formulate a shop thing list and to go through
(20:02):
and make sure do I have, you know, every single
thing for this meal. And if you think about the
way that most people are using instacart today, it is
still at that item level. So it's I'm making a salad,
so I need lettuce and I need cucumbers, and I
need tomatoes, and you're having to really do all of
that mental work of formulating tomatoes. I love tomatoes, Love tomatoes,
(20:23):
Love tomatoes, and you're having to think about that. Whereas
with Asking in Steakcart, the pivot we've made is to
make it conversational, make it a question based experience versus
this kind of item based start. So you could say,
what is a spring salad I can make? Or what
snacks are best for a barbecue work? What should I
(20:44):
pack for a nut free lunch for a five year old?
That's a real query because none of these schools let
you send nuts anymore. So it is hard. If you
can't send a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, what are
you sending your kid with to school? And like, actually
coming up with those ideas can be you know, hard,
especially you know after.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
So well I should know that, Laura, and as much
as my daughter has a not allergy, but is that
literally the case now? I mean, I I that's really
I guess there's such a high level of nut, you know, peanut.
I guess that makes perfect sense. I just that's a
new found fact for me.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
So you can't send a kid to school anymore with
peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So so then you know,
what are you going to do?
Speaker 5 (21:28):
And that's where I like that I'm not in school.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I used to love my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Oh well, it turns out, if you ask instacart, it's
probably going to tell you the new thing is sun butter.
So it's like ground up sunflower seeds and it's actually
pretty tasty, But it's exactly those things. It's the idea of,
like help people solve problems and get you know, ahead
of having to kind of go through and make that
list and instead just be more assistive and and let
(21:53):
customers ask questions the way they would to another human.
So just as I, you know, might ask my friend,
what are you packing your kids for lunch this week?
What's what are you making for dinner? You know, it's
these things are you know, questions that we're all spending
a fair amount of mental energy on and really leveraging
the power of AI to help solve that. So it's
really exciting. Again, I think we're early in this in
(22:15):
this journey. It's similar to even that you know, the
voice revolution, right where we were all so used to
type type typing, and then there's been this transformation towards
more voice based queries, and especially you know, I think
about my eight year old when she uses my phone,
she's using it for voice based queries, and that's not
my dominant modality, but I think we may see something
similar over time with how people interact with any kind
(22:38):
of search activity, be it on Instacart or anywhere else,
moving from more kind of keyword based queries to more
natural language queries.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Yeah, no, no, no, I think it's brilliant. And you
gave a very very exhaustive, detailed, and I mean that,
very very complementary expression of it. It distilled it down
to a very basic level. And I love the sunflower
seeds idea, So I'm probably going to run with that one, Laura,
as we wind up here today, I always ask this
(23:08):
as a last question, give me your thoughts on if
we're doing this a year from now, what trend or technology.
Obviously we've talked about AI, but in addition or an alternative,
what trend or technology do you think is going to
have the biggest impact on marketers in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Four AI, as you said, is I think at the
core of influencing the key changes over the next year,
and the way I think that we'll see this manifest
in this next year is really through increased personalization. So
if you take the incredible amounts of data that exists,
especially you know, this push shwarts first party data and
(23:48):
then you think about what is now possible with generative AI.
You can move to a world where everyone's experience is different. Right,
Everyone's experience in these digital channels can be much more personalized,
much more relevant, and that might look like, you know,
emails that are really targeted not just by your from
(24:10):
your purchase behavior, but even starting to take into account
different factors that might shape how you respond to them.
And of course this is already happening in terms of
like optimization of send time, et cetera. But I think
we'll see even more creative optimization occurring. And similarly, in app,
I think we can take what used to be a generic,
one size fits all experience and start to customize it
so that when you open Instacart in a year, your
(24:33):
app in my app may look very different. Already we're
personalizing certain aspects of the app in terms of recommendations, etc.
But I think that it can become much more immersive
and really reflect the environment in which you want to
shop and really start to kind of predict and reflect
your needs in a much more cohesive way. And I
(24:56):
think we'll see that as well playing out across the
broader media lands. You know, there's there's so much that's
possible when you think about what it would look like
if every ad that was served to you was served
specifically to you. And it's something that hasn't been possible,
but I think we're very close to getting to a
place where that is possible.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
No, And and you're exactly right. And you know, I've
always felt my friend David Vierklin back in the day,
he would give a speech that sad part of it
was he gave it too often, so I started to
memorize it. But it was it was his way of
saying addressable and you know where we were going with
addressable advertising. And he said, if I'm poladant, they are
(25:39):
only eight percent of the.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
People in the world who need Poladant.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Apparently was the statistic he said, you know back then
and his his his quote that resonated with me was,
you know, Poladant is on the search for the toothless,
and you know, how do I find the toothless? Well,
today we can find the toothless.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Absolutely, we can reflect to that person, you know, what
their identity is, what their preferences are, and really, you know,
drive that relevance and.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
So you know the dynamic creative that I learned about
early on. And you know Tara Walbert Levy because you
work together at Google. I'm guessing in some you know,
some capacity. When I first met Tara, she too had
come out of consulting and had gone to Visible World,
a company that really pioneered dynamic addressable, you know. And
(26:31):
the premise back then was if you saw a campaign,
it's basic today, but back then it was, you know, breakout.
If you saw a campaign for tourism of the Bahamas,
and because you're a golfer, you would get that commercial
with golf. Because I was a tennis player, I'd get
it with tennis. It was the same commercial. It was
(26:53):
just technically served for my preference and literally to your
previous life. Again, if I was a Visa user versus
a MasterCard or an American Express, you know, target, it
would say, and you can charge this on your Visa
American Express or MasterCard or discovered. But your point is
we're there. We've wanted to be there for a long time,
(27:15):
but maybe we actually are.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, I mean, and now that golf shot could be
shot or it could be rendered, and you know, it's
it really takes down some of the barriers.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
I think the.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Production and some of the things that used to kind
of gate the speed of innovation are being reimagined. And
that's not to say that these things won't be important.
I think that there will always be such a need
and in some ways an increased importance of true human creativity.
Because when the kind of baseline trope is easily available
(27:49):
and you can just immediately generate a picture of a
golfer in the Mohammas, then if you want to break through,
you know, there's always still that opportunity for how do
you turn that on its head and do something unexpected it?
But if you want to be hyper personalized, that will
be nearly effortless. So it will, I think, offer that
opportunity for really really targeted messaging, and then also challenge
(28:12):
all of us as marketers to say, and what are
the moments when we're also going to turn this whole
thing on its head and show up in a really
unexpected way, grab your attention and kind of divert that
behavior and maybe start a new behavior that is less expected.
So I think there'll be an interesting tension between personalization
and then the things that all start to speak to
you in the same way, and then and then also
(28:33):
that opportunity for marketers that can really still surprise you.
And so I think that's that's why it will stay
fun and why there.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Will always you hit on a magic word for me, Laura,
because you know and listeners will have heard this from
me before. But several years ago, during Advertising Week, we
hosted sessions and the topic was the loss of serendipity
in marketing, and the premise was, we're all on the
(29:02):
search for that holy grail. In this case, the holy
grail I'm referring to is the right context, the right person,
the right device, the right moment.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
The right right, right, right right, all of that.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
What you sometimes forget is marketing doesn't always need to
be right. It needs to surprise and delight. Sometimes it
needs to be you know, it needs to be serendipity,
It needs to be ge. You know, Laura Jones was
not in market, as the auto manufacturers would say, for
a new car, and yet I served up an ad
to Laura for a brand new car. And guess what
(29:36):
she all of a sudden said, maybe I'm in market.
And the story I told traditionally was a very true story.
It was a milestone birthday for me, and my wife said,
do you want to watch? Because I collect watches? And
I said, actually no, honey, I don't. I said, thank you,
but no, I've got enough. I don't want another watch.
So I was affirmatively not in the market for a watch.
(29:57):
It wasn't you know, gee, I don't know. It was
definitive No. I don't why I tell this story. As
I arrived in our New York apartment and I opened
a catalog from a department store and there was a
picture of a watch in it, just the way the
page it just opened to the centerfold, and this was
a double trunk picture of a watch. And I went, WHOA,
(30:20):
Now the end of that story, as I own that
watch and I did buy it. So I was definitively
somebody you wouldn't want to serve an ad to for
a watch. And guess what, So you know you said
the magic word for me. You still need some surprise
and delight, You still need that serendipity. Laura Jones, I
want to thank you for giving such a large amount
(30:42):
of your time and incredible thinking to share with our audience.
So I really, really genuinely want to thank you for
joining Good Company.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Well, thank you so much for having me, so much
fun to talk through all of this, and really excited
for all that's ahead.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
I'm Michael Casson. Thanks for listening to Good Company.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
A Good Company is a production of iHeartRadio. A special
thanks to Lena Peterson, Chief Brand Officer and Managing Director
of media Link, for her vision on Good Company, and
to Jen Sealey, Vice President Marketing Communications of media Link
for programming amazing talent and content
Good Company is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I think that there will always be such a need
and in some ways an increased importance of true human creativity.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Hi, I'm Michael Casson. Welcome to Good Company. We're all
explore how marketing, media, entertainment and tech are intersecting, transforming
our lives and the way we do business at a
breakneck speed. I'll be joined by some of the greatest
business minds at strongest leaders who will share how they've
built companies from the ground up or transformed them from
the inside out. My bet is you'll pick up a
(00:37):
lesson or two along the way. It's all good. Today,
I have the pleasure of speaking with Laura Jones, the
CMO of Instacart. Since joining in twenty twenty one, Laura
has spearheaded the creation of a full brand identity refresh,
launched the company's first ever integrated brand campaign, built out
its creative studio, and developed a full fun in house
(01:00):
media team, and most recently celebrated Instacart's IPO. So, Laura,
it's been a busy time for you since June of
twenty twenty one. You know what I'd love to do
is say welcome.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, thank you so much for having me. And yes,
definitely a busy few years and a lot of changes
in the world and the business that have occurred in
that period.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Absolutely, Laura, what I would love to do is just
kind of kick off by giving our listeners a bit
about your background and how you've chartered your path personally
in terms of your experience and you know what led
you to the exciting role you've got now at instacart.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Absolutely so. As you mentioned, I am currently the CMO
here at Instacart, and for those who are not yet
using our service, we are the leading grocery technology company
in North America and we work with grocers and retailers
on transforming how people shop. So, as I've been in
this role for the past two and a half years,
(02:03):
my focus has been really on building out the brand,
building out the team, and fueling the company's growth. Prior
to Instacart, I spent six years at Uber and while
at Uber, I founded the global product marketing team and
scaled that as the business scaled and too from you know,
(02:24):
when I started, we hadn't even done a billion trips yet,
and today Uber is doing three to four billion trips
a quarter. So a real kind of hyper growth journey there,
and then most recently was leading the global rides marketing
team at Uber. Prior to that, I spent four years
at Google worked on Google Express, which was an early
(02:46):
Instacart competitor that we that Instacart certainly certainly beat pretty thoroughly.
But had a great time at Google working on commerce,
shopping and that entire industry space. And before that was
at Visa where I got my start in marketing, and
(03:08):
before that got my MBA from Stanford Business School and
started my career back in the day in consulting. So
have done kind of a full tour of duty across
and multiple parts of the you know, professional sphere, from
consulting to marketing, and now have the privilege of leading
this incredible team here on Instacart.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Well, there you go, and that's quite a journey, Laura.
I'd love to dial dial into you know. I mentioned
in the intro the co marketing that you've led, and
it's been a big focus for you at instacart this year,
including the Shoppable TV and whatnot. And look, I think
you and I have talked about the fact that rarely
(03:51):
anymore do I see or hear the word commerce not
modified by the word content. You know, I throw that
out to you as a thought starter. But you've been
debuting these TV commercials around the NFL playoffs and whatnot,
and you know, tell me how you've kind of selected
(04:13):
those tent pole moments and you know what, what what
the results look like?
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I think that this is an area that makes a
ton of sense on both sides of the relationships. So
the way we think about these co marketing initiatives is,
you know, there are so many incredibly beloved CpG brands
out there that have strong resonance with customers, that make
incredible ads, and in many cases they don't have any
(04:41):
kind of direct to consumer capability. They're selling through retailers
and there isn't a great path to conversion from an
online standpoint, Right, So, you watch a CpG ad, you're
motivated to go try this new flavor of PEPs here,
this new beer.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
How do you what do you do with that intent? Right?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
And maybe you know are going to the grocery store
next week, But what if instead we could actually just
enable that purchase in real time and get that item
into your hands in under an hour. That's incredibly compelling
from both an advertiser standpoint and from a consumer standpoint
because now you can really fulfill that intent instantly. So
(05:20):
that's kind of the premise of our CpG co marketing program.
How do we take the incredible strength of these CpG
brands and this incredible real time fulfillment capability that we
have and really shorten that distance from inspiration to action.
So when we think about going to market and with CPGs,
we're really looking at what are their priorities, what are
(05:42):
their tent pole moments for the year, and where do
we think we can play a big role in helping
to accelerate those campaigns or where do we have campaigns
that we're making where we really need those products to
play a starring role. So it's really about thinking about
that kind of you know, to use a painful worad
synergy between the two brands and always.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Love that word and hate that word.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah yeah, but I think in this case it's real
because again, each party is bringing something that the other
party couldn't do without them. So it's really looking at
those respective calendars, those respective messaging priorities, what's on the
roadmap in terms of products that the CPGs want to promote,
and for us, this has been a big priority, especially
(06:27):
in twenty twenty three, and you know, we just had
our earnings and shared that advertising and other revenue was
up nineteen percent year over year, and this was driven
by stronger than anticipated advertiser spending, especially with respect to
our back to school campaign and our Fall football campaign.
So you're starting to see this program really driving company
(06:49):
results for us and driving results for the CpG brands
that partner with us. So we've had and again kind
of these ten pole moments. You mentioned the NFL playoffs
and we partnered, you know, on back to school with
brands like Baby Bell, Giovanni, Lunchable, Skippyo Plate. All make
(07:09):
a ton of sense for that moment and really helped
us slash out our campaign as we're creating this kind
of set of stories about what families need in that moment.
And similarly Fall football, you know, partnering with folks like Gatorade,
bud Light, Toistitos and others. So it's really about thinking
about the consumer mindset. What does a consumer want in
(07:30):
that moment, what can we meet their needs with and
then how can we deliver it in a really breakthrough
way that tells a great story and then has that
path to conversion, that path to getting product into their
hand in under an hour.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
And the opportunities for those co marketing with the brands
that you kind of highlighted.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
It's brilliant.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I mean, it's it's good that it's working. Let me
switch to what you've recently debuted with the Holiday Rescue
you app. Talk about that because I love I love
the seduction of that, the Holiday Rescue just the name
of it.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Can you talk.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
About the role that data and as well partnerships per
se are playing in the Holiday Rescue app and give
us a little you know, highlight if you wouldn't mind.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Well, I think we all know the data aside that
the holidays are a stressful time of year, they're busy
time of year, They're time of year that's really defined
by food and family, which really puts it in our
sweet spot as a brand. So we're really thinking about
how can Instacart show up for that head of household
in moments that matter so that we can facilitate more
(08:40):
moments of connection. So that's very much kind of the
strategic premise of how we're thinking about showing up in
Q four and holiday and so, of course, you know,
as as one does, we thought a lot about kind
of what is the business context for this this season,
(09:01):
what is the consumer context, and how does this come
together in a campaign. And again, you know, as you
would imagine, seasonally, Q four is very strong for the
entire retail sector, it's very strong for instacart. It's a
critical moment in the year of the business, and it's
of course a really critical moment for consumers. Right it's
some of the days that are most meaningful, most emotionally
(09:23):
resonant in the year. And while holidays are meant to
be joyful and fun, obviously there's also kind of some
stress that comes along with that, especially for the kind
of Sandwich generation where you might be looking after kids,
you might be hosting older parents and really feeling like
there's a lot of pressure on you as a holiday
host to make this an amazing experience. But then the
(09:43):
question is kind of, you know, what does that mean
for you?
Speaker 4 (09:46):
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Do you have those moments to yourself, And so we
really were thinking about that kind of mental state and
really just the burden that's being placed on that head
of household. Apparently in twenty twenty one, the average amount
of time that people were spending shopping for gifts and
foods with thirteen hours.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
So that's a lot of time when.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
You think about all the things we're all juggling, jobs, families,
et cetera.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Who has thirty five.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
Thirteen hours back? I'm going to love you forever.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Laura exactly. So we really thought, Okay, we have a
role to play here. We can really help consumers in
this moment, and we can help our own business and
our partner's business as well. So we came up with
this positioning of the holiday Rescue app and just thinking
about all those moments during this period of time where
(10:32):
something where you feel like you need a rescue. So
I think we've all been in that situation where you realize,
you know, when you're kind of in that you know,
making the mashed potatoes and you're covered in all the
you know, ingredients and you're trying to kind of cook
up this storm, and all of a sudden you realize, oh,
I forgot the heavy creamer.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
What are you going to do? You don't want to
run out to.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
The store, And that's a moment for the holiday rescue
app or you get you get invited, or you realize
you forgot that you were going to, you know, a
cocktail party and you need to bring a host gift.
You know, we can get a beautiful bottle of wine
or spirits delivered to your door in many states in
under an hour and sometimes even faster than that. So
again really thinking of those moments when you're gonna, you know,
(11:16):
feel that holiday stress and really need someone in your court.
And that's where Instackhart comes in, really caring for the
caregiver and showing up to support our head of households.
So that idea of just, you know, how do we
help out the person that's taking on all of this
kind of mental burden of planning and making this incredible experience.
So we've come up with a really incredible cross Channel
(11:38):
three sixty campaign. We've got some great CpG partners that
will be including from Campbell's to Edward's Dessert to Hermel,
to Kodiak, McCormick, Hershey, Kellogg's, mulsen, Core's, and many more.
So it will be a real tour de force of
all your favorite brands and really again through both a
TV campaign and some really excited activations will be showing
(12:02):
how instacart can help kind of rescue you in those
critical moments during the holiday, aided by all these incredible
brands that you love and rely on to make your
holiday meals so special.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
Well, look at that.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
It just made me hungry for the holidays, which are
upon us much sooner than we realize. I think, so, Laura,
I want to switch gears for a moment. You and
I talked extensively about what I like to call the
rise of granformance marketing Back in twenty eighteen, when we
were engaged with a financial services institution on reimagining their
(12:36):
organizational structure and whatnot. The CMO in that case said
to me, Michael, why is it that my brand marketing
unit and my quote unquote performance marketing unit are separate.
This was somebody who's newer to marketing and was learning
but in a very very high profile role, and understood
(12:57):
the basics of marketing, but was understanding more and more.
And I said, well, I thought for a moment, I
said they don't have to be actually, because in modern
marketing you could be bringing your brand and performance group together.
I said, you really are looking for brandformance and this
person said, is that a word? I said, but it
is now and I love to make up things, not.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
Literally but words. You were quoted.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Somewhere as calling twenty twenty three the year of brandformance,
and I'd love to drill down with you and see
you know.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
How you view that.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
You've got such extensive marketing experience, and you know, for
our listeners, just to bring it home, you and I
know the difference. But the idea of brand marketing and
performance coming together to me as a long overdue moment
in the marketing structure.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yeah, you're so right on this, Michael, And thank you
for giving us that word, because it really is at
the core of how I believe marketing can be most effective.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Of is really.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Understanding that as much as we might internally, you know,
in the past, have called something performance marketing or something
brand marketing, every impression you put out into the market
shape someone's perception of your brand, and every time you
spend a dollar you should be expecting performance. Now that
performance might show up in different ways. Some of that
will be immediate, observable, measurable. You can apply an incrementality
(14:25):
multiplier and get to your ROI and in other cases
just to.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Be a little more specific, because you're exactly right. Obviously
this was a financial services institution and it was the
example was the credit card. Yeah, Acquiring the credit card
is driven by brand marketing. Using the credit card is
driven by performance marketing. And you have experience in the
credit card industry, as I recall from what your journey
(14:50):
has been, and you know, just having the card in
the consumer's pocket isn't enough. The consumer has to use
the card or the issuer isn't making any money.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Absolutely, I think for every industry, the idea of these
different time prices, these different complementary strategies has to come
into play because of course you can drive sales of activations,
you can deploy promotional dollars and have that a crew
benefit in the next twenty four hours, but you also
(15:20):
need to be driving that long term demand creation and
you do that through building brand equity and so really
looking at your entire media mix holistically and thinking about
every single touch point as having both a brand and
performance component, and making sure that from a brand standpoint,
you're applying that high bar for creative expression, for communication,
(15:45):
for grabbing people's attention, so that you're not just kind
of neglecting the value of those touch points and impressions
is really critical in saying every time I do anything,
I'm shaping the brand. And in many cases, performance budgets
are much lower than brand budget, so you might be
disproportionately shaping the brand. So really applying that brand lends
to your performance marketing. And then on the flip side,
(16:07):
taking channels that might have historically been classified as brand channels.
Let's take linear television or anything in the video space
and saying no, these actually have a value from a
performance standpoint. And of course the way that we measure
that differs by company, differs by even the phase of
the business. But there are so many techniques at our
disposal now as marketers today to measure the impacts, especially
(16:32):
over multiple time horizons. And so when we're out there
thinking about our full funnel mix, we're looking at both
in period metrics as well as long term leading indicators,
you know, perceptual metrics, et cetera, so that we're understanding
both the short and long term value of every dollar
we spend, regardless of where it's spent in the mix.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
As you have to as a marketer, and you know,
with your CFO and your procurement folks getting more involved
in marketing every day and more involved in how you
deploy that investment. The metrics we both know, I'm sure
most of our listeners know are more important than ever.
We're at the point in time when you can actually
(17:14):
answer that famous question about fifty percent. You know, I
won't bother everybody with repeating mister Wannamaker's famous quote, but
we're getting closer to that moment. Laura, I'd love to
continue the drinking game in our industry that's been going
on at least since June, with every conversation having reference
(17:36):
to AI. And now we should take a drink in
honor of the drinking game of AI.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
But all kidding aside, can you give us a little
bit about the AI powered search experience, the ask instacart
that you have launched, and you know, give us a
little view into what's going on on the AI side.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
The drinking game is strong here in San Francisco. Say,
I think you can't even at this point leave your
house and get coffee without the word it's AI coming up.
It's it's definitely a very hot topic and it's actually
been great, you know, from from it's a you know,
it's economic standpoint for San Francisco to see this influx
(18:17):
of new businesses and business models being spawned by this
this new tech and for us at Instacart, again because
we are first and foremost a technology company, this is
something that we have been thinking about, working with utilizing
for years as part of you know, our our kind
of core operations, everything from how we do replacements when
(18:39):
an items out of stock to how we're thinking about personalization,
you know, has always been using mL as a core
component of it. I think, you know, if looking at
the past year, and we're just about a year out
from when when chat Gipt launched, that was just a
year ago, if you can believe it, I think that
this year has it's the generative AI that has really
(19:00):
had to pulted this back into the spotlight and has
us all buzzing. And for Instacart the way that we
have thought about it from a consumer facing standpoint, of course,
as I said, it's already been kind of integrated deep
into our tech stack. We have internal tools that utilize AI,
and from a marketing standpoint, we're using AI for a
(19:20):
lot of our own work and as embedded in key
tools as well as ways that we're kind of playing
around with our internal development team. But from a consumer standpoint,
the big breakthrough this year was our launch of Asking
stick Cart, and so what Asking Stickart is about is
really lightning that mental burden. So we were talking before
(19:41):
about the head of household or the CEO of the household,
whatever you want to call them, and the idea that
there is someone in every family whose job it is
to put food on the table, to meal plan, to
make sure the cabinets are stocked, and that that's actually
a huge mental burden. Rights It's a lot of work
to formulate a shop thing list and to go through
(20:02):
and make sure do I have, you know, every single
thing for this meal. And if you think about the
way that most people are using instacart today, it is
still at that item level. So it's I'm making a salad,
so I need lettuce and I need cucumbers, and I
need tomatoes, and you're having to really do all of
that mental work of formulating tomatoes. I love tomatoes, Love tomatoes,
(20:23):
Love tomatoes, and you're having to think about that. Whereas
with Asking in Steakcart, the pivot we've made is to
make it conversational, make it a question based experience versus
this kind of item based start. So you could say,
what is a spring salad I can make? Or what
snacks are best for a barbecue work? What should I
(20:44):
pack for a nut free lunch for a five year old?
That's a real query because none of these schools let
you send nuts anymore. So it is hard. If you
can't send a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, what are
you sending your kid with to school? And like, actually
coming up with those ideas can be you know, hard,
especially you know after.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
So well I should know that, Laura, and as much
as my daughter has a not allergy, but is that
literally the case now? I mean, I I that's really
I guess there's such a high level of nut, you know, peanut.
I guess that makes perfect sense. I just that's a
new found fact for me.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
So you can't send a kid to school anymore with
peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So so then you know,
what are you going to do?
Speaker 5 (21:28):
And that's where I like that I'm not in school.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I used to love my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Oh well, it turns out, if you ask instacart, it's
probably going to tell you the new thing is sun butter.
So it's like ground up sunflower seeds and it's actually
pretty tasty, But it's exactly those things. It's the idea of,
like help people solve problems and get you know, ahead
of having to kind of go through and make that
list and instead just be more assistive and and let
(21:53):
customers ask questions the way they would to another human.
So just as I, you know, might ask my friend,
what are you packing your kids for lunch this week?
What's what are you making for dinner? You know, it's
these things are you know, questions that we're all spending
a fair amount of mental energy on and really leveraging
the power of AI to help solve that. So it's
really exciting. Again, I think we're early in this in
(22:15):
this journey. It's similar to even that you know, the
voice revolution, right where we were all so used to
type type typing, and then there's been this transformation towards
more voice based queries, and especially you know, I think
about my eight year old when she uses my phone,
she's using it for voice based queries, and that's not
my dominant modality, but I think we may see something
similar over time with how people interact with any kind
(22:38):
of search activity, be it on Instacart or anywhere else,
moving from more kind of keyword based queries to more
natural language queries.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Yeah, no, no, no, I think it's brilliant. And you
gave a very very exhaustive, detailed, and I mean that,
very very complementary expression of it. It distilled it down
to a very basic level. And I love the sunflower
seeds idea, So I'm probably going to run with that one, Laura,
as we wind up here today, I always ask this
(23:08):
as a last question, give me your thoughts on if
we're doing this a year from now, what trend or technology.
Obviously we've talked about AI, but in addition or an alternative,
what trend or technology do you think is going to
have the biggest impact on marketers in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Four AI, as you said, is I think at the
core of influencing the key changes over the next year,
and the way I think that we'll see this manifest
in this next year is really through increased personalization. So
if you take the incredible amounts of data that exists,
especially you know, this push shwarts first party data and
(23:48):
then you think about what is now possible with generative AI.
You can move to a world where everyone's experience is different. Right,
Everyone's experience in these digital channels can be much more personalized,
much more relevant, and that might look like, you know,
emails that are really targeted not just by your from
(24:10):
your purchase behavior, but even starting to take into account
different factors that might shape how you respond to them.
And of course this is already happening in terms of
like optimization of send time, et cetera. But I think
we'll see even more creative optimization occurring. And similarly, in app,
I think we can take what used to be a generic,
one size fits all experience and start to customize it
so that when you open Instacart in a year, your
(24:33):
app in my app may look very different. Already we're
personalizing certain aspects of the app in terms of recommendations, etc.
But I think that it can become much more immersive
and really reflect the environment in which you want to
shop and really start to kind of predict and reflect
your needs in a much more cohesive way. And I
(24:56):
think we'll see that as well playing out across the
broader media lands. You know, there's there's so much that's
possible when you think about what it would look like
if every ad that was served to you was served
specifically to you. And it's something that hasn't been possible,
but I think we're very close to getting to a
place where that is possible.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
No, And and you're exactly right. And you know, I've
always felt my friend David Vierklin back in the day,
he would give a speech that sad part of it
was he gave it too often, so I started to
memorize it. But it was it was his way of
saying addressable and you know where we were going with
addressable advertising. And he said, if I'm poladant, they are
(25:39):
only eight percent of the.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
People in the world who need Poladant.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Apparently was the statistic he said, you know back then
and his his his quote that resonated with me was,
you know, Poladant is on the search for the toothless,
and you know, how do I find the toothless? Well,
today we can find the toothless.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Absolutely, we can reflect to that person, you know, what
their identity is, what their preferences are, and really, you know,
drive that relevance and.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
So you know the dynamic creative that I learned about
early on. And you know Tara Walbert Levy because you
work together at Google. I'm guessing in some you know,
some capacity. When I first met Tara, she too had
come out of consulting and had gone to Visible World,
a company that really pioneered dynamic addressable, you know. And
(26:31):
the premise back then was if you saw a campaign,
it's basic today, but back then it was, you know, breakout.
If you saw a campaign for tourism of the Bahamas,
and because you're a golfer, you would get that commercial
with golf. Because I was a tennis player, I'd get
it with tennis. It was the same commercial. It was
(26:53):
just technically served for my preference and literally to your
previous life. Again, if I was a Visa user versus
a MasterCard or an American Express, you know, target, it
would say, and you can charge this on your Visa
American Express or MasterCard or discovered. But your point is
we're there. We've wanted to be there for a long time,
(27:15):
but maybe we actually are.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, I mean, and now that golf shot could be
shot or it could be rendered, and you know, it's
it really takes down some of the barriers.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
I think the.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Production and some of the things that used to kind
of gate the speed of innovation are being reimagined. And
that's not to say that these things won't be important.
I think that there will always be such a need
and in some ways an increased importance of true human creativity.
Because when the kind of baseline trope is easily available
(27:49):
and you can just immediately generate a picture of a
golfer in the Mohammas, then if you want to break through,
you know, there's always still that opportunity for how do
you turn that on its head and do something unexpected it?
But if you want to be hyper personalized, that will
be nearly effortless. So it will, I think, offer that
opportunity for really really targeted messaging, and then also challenge
(28:12):
all of us as marketers to say, and what are
the moments when we're also going to turn this whole
thing on its head and show up in a really
unexpected way, grab your attention and kind of divert that
behavior and maybe start a new behavior that is less expected.
So I think there'll be an interesting tension between personalization
and then the things that all start to speak to
you in the same way, and then and then also
(28:33):
that opportunity for marketers that can really still surprise you.
And so I think that's that's why it will stay
fun and why there.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Will always you hit on a magic word for me, Laura,
because you know and listeners will have heard this from
me before. But several years ago, during Advertising Week, we
hosted sessions and the topic was the loss of serendipity
in marketing, and the premise was, we're all on the
(29:02):
search for that holy grail. In this case, the holy
grail I'm referring to is the right context, the right person,
the right device, the right moment.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
The right right, right, right right, all of that.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
What you sometimes forget is marketing doesn't always need to
be right. It needs to surprise and delight. Sometimes it
needs to be you know, it needs to be serendipity,
It needs to be ge. You know, Laura Jones was
not in market, as the auto manufacturers would say, for
a new car, and yet I served up an ad
to Laura for a brand new car. And guess what
(29:36):
she all of a sudden said, maybe I'm in market.
And the story I told traditionally was a very true story.
It was a milestone birthday for me, and my wife said,
do you want to watch? Because I collect watches? And
I said, actually no, honey, I don't. I said, thank you,
but no, I've got enough. I don't want another watch.
So I was affirmatively not in the market for a watch.
(29:57):
It wasn't you know, gee, I don't know. It was
definitive No. I don't why I tell this story. As
I arrived in our New York apartment and I opened
a catalog from a department store and there was a
picture of a watch in it, just the way the
page it just opened to the centerfold, and this was
a double trunk picture of a watch. And I went, WHOA,
(30:20):
Now the end of that story, as I own that
watch and I did buy it. So I was definitively
somebody you wouldn't want to serve an ad to for
a watch. And guess what, So you know you said
the magic word for me. You still need some surprise
and delight, You still need that serendipity. Laura Jones, I
want to thank you for giving such a large amount
(30:42):
of your time and incredible thinking to share with our audience.
So I really, really genuinely want to thank you for
joining Good Company.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Well, thank you so much for having me, so much
fun to talk through all of this, and really excited
for all that's ahead.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
I'm Michael Casson. Thanks for listening to Good Company.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
A Good Company is a production of iHeartRadio. A special
thanks to Lena Peterson, Chief Brand Officer and Managing Director
of media Link, for her vision on Good Company, and
to Jen Sealey, Vice President Marketing Communications of media Link
for programming amazing talent and content
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