Mondelez outlines plan to make 10% of all media buys break even or profitable by 2020
Mondelez International has formalised plans to make media investments on apps, videos and content partnerships generate money under a “fearless” media strategy it hopes will ensure that 10 per cent of all those investments break even or turn a profit by 2020.
The Oreo-maker believes this tact could be a potential revenue source as it looks to push its media budgets harder amid company-wide cost-cuts.
Mondelez has made no secret of its desire to bring media and commerce together to fuel this growth, but hired Laura Henderson as its first global head of content and media monetisation last year in an effort to speed up the process.
Moving forward, Henderson has revealed that the company will now focus on forming partnerships “to acquire, develop and distribute content properties” that will not only build its so-called 'Power Brands' but also generate revenue.
These ‘Power Brands’ (which command over 80 percent of the company's marketing spend) include Milka, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk and Oreo.
"Capturing audience attention is more difficult than ever. As audiences become more empowered to control their viewing experience, the old model of interruptive advertising is rapidly becoming irrelevant," said Henderson.
"This new approach will hold us to a higher standard of creating content that earns attention and is good enough to make money. By developing content that people want to watch, we can begin to monetize our investments, offsetting costs, improving return on investment and making our media spending more sustainable."
The goal is for up to 10 percent of the company's global media investments to break even or turn a profit by 2020.
The First Initiatives
The first example of how it aims to do this will be revealed on July 30 by the Stride Gum brand. In what it promises will be a “historic” live event, professional skydiver Luke Aikins will jump and land safely from a plane at 25,000 feet without a parachute. The event will air exclusively in the US on FOX but Mondelez International is looking to make the event available across the globe through broadcast, online streaming and pay-per-view platforms.
Next up is a BuzzFeed partnership that will extend across the portfolio of brands. The initiative will see the co-creation of a new original content brand in the well-being area as well as continue integrations like food and recipe content on platforms like Tasty.
Finally, Mondelez will ramp up its investment into gaming. The brand was given its first taste of what success looked like in this competive sector with the launch of the ‘Twist, Lick, Dunk’ mobile app for Oreo in 2012, which reportedly helped Mondelez make twice as much money through in-app purchases and ads as it had invested in it.
A suite of branded games will now be rolled out the aim of being as commercially viable as ‘Twist, Lick, Dunk’.
"Make no mistake about it, this is the future of how brands and advertisers will connect with consumers and drive real growth," said Bonin Bough, chief media and e-commerce officer at Mondelez.
"More importantly, this is how brands can continue to help elevate the ecosystem for all of their partners from broadcasters to publishers. This is a different model that is in service of the entire industry."