A structure fit for effectiveness
Mondelēz’s European marketing team is structured similarly to that of its global brand portfolio, with around 10% working within the centralized team based in Zurich, while most of the department is based across the regional markets to keep them close to consumers, all of whom report ultimately to Seymour. The job of the centralized team is to create the big scalable brand ideas that run across Europe.
The local teams are internally named “The Crown Jewels,” as they activate each of the brands locally, bringing specialist knowledge and insights to each campaign that would not be possible if the entire team were centralized. Seymour also believes that large-scale campaigns cannot be run as if entirely localized, too.
“You have to find the structures, the organizations, the agency support and the processes to be able to flourish at many levels,” he added.
Meanwhile, one of the company’s largest marketing shifts has been to consolidate its agency partnership. Its agency setup now sees WPP and Publicis leading a global creative framework, with the former overseeing work produced for the chocolate, candy, powdered beverages and cheese divisions, and the latter the biscuits and gum divisions. VCCP, however, is the global agency of record for Cadbury, and it produced its latest work, released Jan. 8, as a result.
Publicis also shares the bulk of the company’s global media responsibilities, alongside VaynerMedia and WPP.
“[This] shouldn’t work, because we have this pool of local brands, [so] how do they get looked after by very big network agencies? I have the data behind it: We have stepped up in the performance of our creative work over the past three years. And it’s because we managed to run [our] WPP and our Publicis relationships at multiple levels,” Seymour believes.
To do so, the marketing team monitors the quality of work through a scorecard system of the performance of every local office and big brand. If there is a fall in the score, the leadership teams, including at both agency networks, will step in to help overcome any difficulties around collaboration.
Having worked on the original Cadbury campaign, “Mum’s Birthday,” which led to its shift to focus on generosity, Seymour admits his surprise to find that the brand team has since gone on to better it since.
“What I love about this job is when you think you’ve reached the top, you can always get better,” he stated. “That’s why I love being in a creative job.”
Measuring up to expectation
Creative performance across the stable of brands is tested and measured structurally to assess emotional and rational engagement, as well as the overall impact a piece of work might have across various formats.
