• by Sarah Mahoney , Staff Writer @mahoney_sarah, July 19, 2024

When Gail Hollander took over as the chief marketing officer of the J.M. Smucker Co. last year, it was an easy transition -- in some ways. She’d spent the previous five years of a long agency career working on Smucker-owned brands at Publicis.

But as the CPG universe grapples with an increasingly fractured and fragmented universe -- and the looming toxicity of national elections -- connecting with the right targets in the right ways is ever more challenging. Hollander tells CPG Insider what’s on her mind these days.

Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

CPG Insider: What has the transition from agency to client been like?

Gail Hollander: I am a brand girl. I think I love it so much here because of the strength of belief about brand building, so there's a mind meld. And the marketing team here is strong. Over the last five or six years, we've gone from having 22% of our brands growing or maintaining share to more than 80%. That just doesn't happen often.

There are some big differences, though. You're not focused on one campaign but on long-term growth throughout the enterprise. And you’ve got to imbue a passion for creativity at every level.

CPG Insider: How so?

Hollander: This may get weird, but I love sour pickles. Once I take a bite, I want more. Creativity is the same way. Once an organization has experienced it, there’s always a hunger. You want more and more people to be super bold without being reckless. We need to push the boundaries responsibly.

CPG Insider: And that can drive growth?

Hollander: Historically, Smucker had grown through acquisitions. At some point, you can't continue to grow that way. Marketing can be and should be a growth driver. So there's been a significant shift over the last six years, and now everything we do is about growing our brands and maintaining their health for today and tomorrow.

CPG Insider: The most creative and disruptive CPG brands, typically, aren’t owned by big companies like Smucker. They’re small, like Liquid Death or Ollipop. How can you match them without taking too much risk?

Hollander: Advertising has long been about knowing the heart and soul of your brand. And you looked for ways to fulfill a consumer need. Companies would then look for a formula, and that's when things get dull. Formulas don’t work in this fractured media environment, where people expect different things on different platforms. It doesn’t make sense to put the same creative on Instagram that you do on X.

We’re looking hard at who our targets are and how our brands can fulfill consumers’ needs. But we also add cultural insight, and that triad gets us to braver work. We make sure that everything we do pays rent back to the brand and drives innovation. That cultural piece is what gets us past the formulaic or the tried-and-true.

CPG Insider: Got an example?

Hollander: Yes, take Jif. Our target is peanut butter lovers. We were excited about the prospect of being able to play in the Super Bowl, but didn't have Super Bowl dollars. Super Bowl is the biggest dip day of the year, and there is a rising interest in dips and spreads. And while Americans eat something like 81 million chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday, only 14% of people eat the celery sticks with those wings. Our “Save the Celery” activation told people if they went to our website, we’d deliver a jar of Jif in 30 minutes. We sold out in less than an hour!

Another Jif example is our recent Jif Peanut Butter & Chocolate spread launch, with two iconic flavors coming together. We recognized a real uptick in consumers engaging in business-related shows like “Succession” and “Suits.” We leaned into those tropes and introduced it as “PBC, the merger America craved.”

CPG Insider: What changes are you seeing in your core audience?

Hollander: There’s value. We have a lot of conversations about value and how consumers feel about food prices—and snacking. People are skipping three meals a day to graze. And everything needs to be shoppable -- the consumer is on her phone in stores, so you have to communicate the right things as she walks down the aisle. Another change is this idea of enjoyment and even escapism. It’s a new social movement.

CPG Insider: In what way?

Hollander: Brands are responsible for being a bright light, providing entertainment and uplifting people. People feel these are uncertain times and are pinched because of high food prices. We want to be a source of positivity -- like the Meow Mix remix, quirky and fun, or Uncrustables. And Café Bustelo, which has been a rocket ship for us.

CPG Insider: We’re about to head into massive amounts of negativity, with political ad spending projected at $10.2 billion, driving up costs as brands compete for inventory. Do you need to dial up the positivity?

Hollander: It's not that we're ramping anything up. This is what we believe that we need to do. It's our responsibility as a brand to contribute positivity to the culture. We want to be that brand that puts a smile on people’s faces. And as far as media, we've bought a lot of inventory upfront to mitigate some of that crazy cost.

CPG Insider: Any other strategies?

Hollander: We talk about the “art of the and,” and our playbook is built on that. We talk about breakthrough creative and positivity. And then there’s the science, the data-driven choices in media investments. That’s the other half of my job. It is two sides of the same coin. You can't get anywhere with great creative if you don't have great media thinking, and vice versa.

We’re a reach-driven organization, and you must be in many different places. We’re currently at about 85% digital, which continues to climb. There’s been a significant shift with retail media networks.

CPG Insider: There are more than 200 of them now. How do you decide?

Hollander: Once, companies would have a chunk of money out there with partnerships with retailers, then look at what was left over for brand building. That doesn’t make any sense.

You should put all the money in one bucket and think about what each brand needs for awareness, consideration and conversion, then look at the channels that will allow you to achieve that. At that point, it makes sense to ask, “Is it better for me to spend on the retail media network or a national network?” and “Which media network are you getting more from?”

CPG Insider: What’s ahead?

Hollander: We recently acquired Hostess and are excited about that opportunity. It’s a snacking powerhouse. Not long ago, Smucker was never in the conversation when it came to marketing, and now we are. We're proud of that -- and having retooled 11 brands, we’re looking forward to that with Hostess.