By combining two of its own brands (Oreo and Creme Egg) and branding it the "Nepo Cookie," Mondelez cleverly taps into a current pop culture conversation. This strategy serves as a blueprint for how large companies can generate buzz and cross-promote internal brands by being self-referential and culturally relevant.
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Nutter Butter, a 55-year-old brand, successfully engaged a younger audience by embracing absurdist, meme-style humor. This risky strategy, while potentially alienating some, is effective for generating deep brand love because it requires taking a bold, creative stand.
To avoid an inconsistent, 'all over the place' approach, companies must establish a common brand-building philosophy or framework. This shared point of view, like Molson Coors's MUSCLE framework, ensures organizational alignment and helps build a cohesive marketing culture.
The "candy salad," a consumer-driven trend on TikTok to combat candy inflation, was quickly adopted and productized by Ferrara (owner of Nutella) with a dedicated kit. This shows how major CPG brands now monitor social platforms to rapidly identify and capitalize on organic consumer behavior.
The 124-year-old candy brand Sweethearts stays culturally relevant by crowdsourcing new messages annually. This year's phrases like "split rent" and "share login" directly tap into the current economic anxieties of its customer base, turning a simple confection into a timely cultural commentary and generating buzz.
Instead of a standalone ad, Elf Beauty and Duolingo collaborated on a commercial that tapped into the hype around Bad Bunny's performance. This allowed them to split costs, target a similar demographic, and capitalize on a massive, pre-existing cultural conversation.
Frito-Lay's Flamin' Hot brand moves beyond simple influencer marketing by studying and collaborating with obsessed subcultures. This approach informs not only marketing campaigns, like a song with Megan Thee Stallion, but also its core product innovation pipeline, making marketing a byproduct of deep cultural integration.
High-stakes campaigns like a Super Bowl ad are significant team-building moments. Mondelez's Stephen Sainan highlights that celebrating the culmination of this work together creates strong bonds and pride, which directly impacts employee retention and provides a powerful, often overlooked, economic return.
Despite being an iconic global brand, the origin of the name "Oreo" remains a complete mystery, even to its parent company. This demonstrates that for consumer products, a clear value proposition and consistent experience can be far more important for long-term success than a meticulously crafted or even known origin story.
A powerful brand story serves as an internal rallying cry. By sharing marketing assets like brand videos internally, teams like product, engineering, and finance become inspired by the mission. This raises the internal bar and motivates them to build a product that lives up to the brand's promise.
The primary benefit of internal marketing isn't just self-promotion; it's making the marketing team a visible and approachable destination for ideas from across the company. The best campaign concepts often originate from unexpected sources like SDRs or engineers who, because of internal hype, know who to share their insights with.
