Episode 233 / Qaiser Bachani / Mondelēz International / Consumer Experience Lead, Europe & Global Brands
The Case for Big Ideas
In a world where marketers are spending too much time focusing on the mechanics of their work rather than on big innovation, Qaiser Bachani of Mondelēz International sees the resurgence of the big idea.
It’s the emergence and rapid growth of AI and automation that will enable marketers to focus on the big idea - Qaiser’s Shiny New Object. The Consumer Experience Lead for Europe & Global Brands at Mondelēz International shared why big ideas and creativity will be top of the agenda for the future of marketing.
Until now, in the last few years, the continued development of new tech, new platforms, and new communications channels has put pressure on marketers to consider logistics before creativity. Qaiser thinks that’s about to change thanks to AI and automation.
By allowing marketers to scale their work and by speeding up the process of tailoring ideas to platforms and channels, AI is enabling us to be more creative and focus on what AI can’t do: produce original content.
For Qaiser, this is a turning point in marketing and creative effectiveness. Defining the big ideas when it comes to any product makes a marketing team more effective. Once the brand identity and vision is clear, all the details that take too long to move fast start to fall into place quicker.
Qaiser’s examples of how Mondelēz have used the big idea for Cadbury and Toblerone show that one clear focus can permeate through all the marketing for one product. For years, Cadbury Chocolate has been defined by driving generosity. Recently, Toblerone’s messaging is focusing on “never square.” These big ideas then infuse all the creative and AI and technology are enabling innovators to go back and focus on new ideas - rather than spend time doing the logistical work that AI can take care of.
Listen to the full episode to hear more from Qaiser and the big idea.
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Transcript
The following gives you a good idea of what was said, but it’s not 100% accurate.
Qaiser Bachani 0:00
We will go back to the era where ideas will be the key and whoever comes with big ideas for their brands and products will eventually win.
Tom Ollerton 0:08
This holiday season marketers are facing their biggest decision so the point of maximum pressure delivery fatigue and budget crunch are real. And it's leading to complacency around creative effectiveness in digital marketing and that could make or break campaigns. So what can you do about it? Well, you should read the automated creative white paper called compounding creative an urgent q4 Wake up call. So you can get this on this bitly link which is bit.ly/Q4XMAS2023. Enjoy.
Hello, and welcome to the shiny new object podcast. My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of the creative effectiveness ads platform, automated creative and it's my pleasure and a privilege to interview our leaders about their vision for the future of this industry. And I'm on a call with Qaiser Bachani, who is consumer experience lead Europe and global brands at Mondelez. So Qaiser for anyone who doesn't know you and what you do, could you give the audience a bit of an overview?
Qaiser Bachani 1:28
Sure. Thank you. Thank you, Tom. Pleasure to be here. I'm Qaiser Bachani. As you said in my, in my introduction, I oversee the consumer experience team for Europe, and global brands here at Mondelez. You know, after spending first 15 years of my career, with various media agencies around the world, from Dubai, to China to Malaysia, and move to the client side, you know, in 2013, with GSK, consumer healthcare in Singapore, when I was running the Asia, Middle East Africa region and did some work around digital media transformation. I moved to Bayer consumer healthcare in 2019. In their, in their, in their Switzerland HQ, where I was leading the digital transformation area for them. And for the past two, nearly three years now, I've been with Mondelez you know, working on these two fantastic scopes, one where I get to lead the European team, amazing 20 People across the region, driving our consumer experience agenda, and also working with our global brand teams, teams that are responsible for Cadbury or, Oreo, and together with them to help define and set the vision for the future. And again, you know, two kids married and live in Basel and which is an hour from from Zurich.
Tom Ollerton 3:02
So I'd love to know, what is the best investment of your own time, energy and money that has benefited your career?
Qaiser Bachani 3:13
That's a good question Tom. I would say spending time with people in person, be it friends, be it family or be be my colleagues and be my team members has always have have paid so much in return. You know, I was during I think during during COVID everyone sort of learned that how, how, under estimating we were in terms of the in person engagement. And that has always been my goal comfort area, that's always my my interest area, even in my previous roles before COVID And after COVID as well. I have always made sure that I spend time with my team in person with them in their own markets to really understand and get that pulse like know what exactly they are up to how they you know the how they run or how they manage their business or their work. It's not about micromanagement. It's all it's all about just having that empathy to understand what's what they go through every day for me to kind of help them guide them a system assist them in every every way possible. So I would say spending time with with the team in person is so so valuable, that sometimes you are unable to quantify that but it's, it's it that is exactly the thing that drives empathy. It drives that connection between the people and between your teams, and Um, and the vision that you are trying to deliver together. Because unless you don't understand the people, you won't be able to go far. And you won't be able to deliver the objectives or the vision that the organization has given you to kind of lead and deliver. So that has always been my, I would say, you know, an important area for me, and I'm very blessed, that in every organization that I have worked with, that particular value has always been there. So it has become easier for me to kind of, you know, action on that, as well.
Tom Ollerton 5:37
So when do you know, it's time to see someone in person?
Qaiser Bachani 5:42
So, so there is no set time time, to be honest, I think you need to be careful, you need to make sure that the time you choose to go and see people and meet them. Don't go of course see them when they are extremely busy, when there's a full, you know, annual planning process going on, or they are, you know, swamped with work, because I think then you might end up creating a lot of distraction for them. But at the same time, I think in your regular engagement with them, you will find out or you are in a lot of times, they will also ask you to kind of come and visit them or come and sit with them while they are going into a very important meeting in the next two weeks, or they are preparing something which is extremely critical, and it will be good if I'm there with them in support. So there is no perfect timing. The only thing that is I try to avoid the peak times when I know my teams are extremely busy in the markets. You know, and if you avoid those, then it all depends, you know, what is the event, they would also like you to be there as well. So, so that's how, that's how I plan my market, which is all I think I was telling you, as well for the broadcast is, I was in London last week. This is a you know, September tends to be that month, where a lot of preparations are underway for the work for 2024. So I think the timing was simply perfect. I sat with the team, I sat with the agency as well, and achieved so many things in just one week. So going back to your to simply answer your question, I don't think so there is a perfect time. But yeah, just avoid the peak times where you know that things will be super busy and so much work.
Tom Ollerton 7:50
So, assuming you are in front of your teams, what is the top marketing tip that you share with your teams most often?
Qaiser Bachani 8:00
Personally speaking, and also, you know, telling my team and also the way at least the way we approach marketing at Mondelez. And that was one of the key attraction I had when a marketer reached out to me a couple of years ago to take this role is try to think you're the users of your brand or the consumer of your brand as people and that's extremely important and critical. And every time I'm sitting with my team and we are either we are reviewing any plans and new strategies, any analysis that we even we are doing and any kind of conclusion that we are drawing from various analysis, we try to always look every piece of information from a people perspective because that provides you a lot of empathy in terms of if if consumers and people are taking any certain action or if they are if they are they are engaging with your brand across the spectrum of media touchpoints why exactly they are doing it what are their motivations? Why they are not interacting enough? Is it something that we are not taking into consideration? Are we simply trying to put our messaging out there or we are looking at how a normal person when sees our comms or see our messaging, what kind of reaction that person will have and what kind of next action he or she will will make after seeing that comms. So I think my one marketing tip is always is think from a lens of empathy, think from a lens of considering you're the users of your brand, as people and not consumers or data points, or personas for that matter. Because that's where I believe the brands can drive significant amount of value compared to looking in any other way, for that matter.
Tom Ollerton 10:21
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Now we're going to move on to your shiny new object, which is one we've never had before in 250 episodes, is the big idea. So I think I know what a big idea is in our industry. But why have you chosen the big idea as your shiny new object and help your audience understand exactly what you mean by that?
Qaiser Bachani 11:18
Sure, sure. So I think this requires a bit of a context. And I think your listeners, you know, definitely would empathize with it that in the last, I would say the last five to eight years, since the emergence of digital media, I think a lot of marketing activity, one could argue have become very technical, in terms of in terms of comms in terms of marketing, activation, etc. And I think with the recent emergence, and I think we are still in the very early stages of that conversation around generative AI or AI in general, I firmly believe that the kind of technical nature of marketing activations and comms that we saw in the last five to 10 years will be taken over by big ideas. And the way I when I say big idea, I talk about that the people who, who drive this big idea, generations being the marketers, or the agencies, partners that we work with, I think they will have far more, I would say, time and space, to think about how to reach people through those big ideas and less worrying about the scale and speed at which they should be doing this work, because a lot of the scale and the speed of delivery will be taken care of by the AI tools that are currently at our disposal, or the tools that will be available in the future. So they don't have to worry about any more, or how many assets I have to produce or how many creators I have to kind of produce now for different platforms and whether my messaging will fit this platform versus the other, their focus and effort will be far more on how my big idea can be differentiated enough, which can then travel across many spectrum of, of media touch points, and the scale and the speed. All the important technical matters will be will be taken care by the AI tools that are currently or will be available in the future. And therefore I strongly believe that thanks to the emergence of AI, we will go back to the era where ideas will be the key. And whoever comes with big ideas for their brands and products will eventually will not people with just AI tools. AI tools will just be an enabler for you to disseminate those big ideas at speed and scale. But the big ideas will be the one which will differentiate your brand in the eyes of a lot of people versus Was anyone else so that that's how I feel. And every with every passing day, I'm becoming more and more confident about this shiny object you may call it or this vision for the future.
Tom Ollerton 14:49
So help me understand that the problem that generative AI is solving for the industry here so I understand that there will be automation in place to produce all the variables platform will sizes that it's so is the problem that agencies and creative teams don't have enough time to think about big ideas or that they're distracted by, you know, what does the display banner look like? What does the paid social ad look?
Qaiser Bachani 15:15
I think it's a, it's both, I think both the one, there is over indexing in terms of spending too much time on things, which are important. But at the same time, you know, you can't be spending 100% of the time on on on just few things, you need to make sure that you manage your time effectively. And if you are spending too much time on less time on idea, the idea generation and more time on how that idea will land into different comms channels, then I think you are missing the boat, I think we always have talked about media and neutral ideas, right. But like, you know, especially in the CPG sector, the examples would be very limited in the last few years. Because again, as I said, one, we are spending too much time on how an idea will land in a specific channel or a platform. And I think as the fragmentation of these channels, or as the consumer has become more and more fragmented in terms of their consumption of these various media channels, we have spent more and more time in making sure that the message in the idea lands. And I'm not saying that we should not be doing that, don't get me wrong, I'm just saying that there is a right balance that is required. And I think in the last five to 10 years, I would say more focus has gone into the into that part other than idea generation and making sure those ideas are powerful enough. And they can can and they should be able to land seamlessly, regardless of the of the platform or the channel that we're talking about.
Tom Ollerton 17:25
So assuming this automation is in place, and all that distracting stuff is taken care of what do you look for in a big idea in 23-24? How do you know it's a big idea when the audience is distracted, is fragmented. And sure media neutral, that's a that's a great thing to have on a slide and to put in a brief, but the reality of what will work on TikTok isn't gonna be the same thing that works on YouTube, that isn't gonna be the same thing that works in in a banner. So what is a big idea for you? And what makes a brilliant one? And what are you going to give the thumbs up to, as you see them moving forward?
Qaiser Bachani 18:03
Yeah, I think let me perhaps use use an example, I think that probably will help people to kind of understand what I'm talking about idea. And again, I know it's our it's one of my ideas from Mondelez. But I think there are many other ideas that are also there in the industry. I think if you, since you are based in the UK, and you know, that for our brand, Cadbury chocolate, the platform, or the big idea that came it became a bit a few years ago was all about driving generosity, right. And that idea, you know, from a, from a research perspective, from all the work perspective scored very well. And for the past many years, that idea has, you know, really fueled the brand growth. Apart from generosity, we haven't done any big things in the last few years on that particular brand. But if you look at generosity as a platform for the brand, that idea has been translated into a very, very seamless manner, across all the channels that you are just referring to, whether it's YouTube or Tik Tok, or, or Instagram or you know, Snapchat. And that's where I talk about how brand can find a voice, how a brand can find that kind of one thing which connects them, you know, with their, with the people that they're trying to kind of reach on an ongoing basis. And once you have those kinds of powerful big ideas, it becomes integral, it took a lot of time because in the past, you know, Cadbury did struggle with in terms of finding their voice and finding that why they exist and what they stand for. But once they were able to kind of find that the translation of that idea into different comms channel became relatively easier And but it became relatively easier the amount of time, you know, our partners are spending on on those channels in terms of making sure the creative and the messaging and the asset is learning properly, automatically got balanced as well. So that's just one idea that I'm just referring to. But there are many others as well, that we are currently working on. You know, even our new recent idea around Toblerone, when we talk about never square, and how we are activating this idea, it has become relatively straightforward to kind of choose the comms channel, which will deliver this idea of never square. Because we spent a lot of time and effort and we gave the time and space to our agency partners to come up with those big ideas. And then of course, we were also internally were bold enough to take those ideas forward. So I think when you talk about that, yes, you know, every idea still needs to be translated into various comms channels or platforms. Absolutely. But I think once you crack the idea, once you have that idea from a brand lens, the work then it's the quantity of work that is required to translate that into specific comms channels or platforms becomes reasonable compared to in other cases.
Tom Ollerton 21:29
So unfortunately, we are at the end of the podcast now. But thank you for sharing a unique view on this podcast and about no one talks about big ideas and creativity, and the relationship between that and generative AI. So thank you for bringing that to the table. That was enlightening. So if someone wants to carry on talking to you about the things we've discussed in this podcast, where's the best place to reach out to you? And what makes a message that you reply to?
Qaiser Bachani 22:00
Well, you know, I'm very active on LinkedIn. So you know, feel free to reach out to me drop me a message on LinkedIn, I'm a very, I do read the messages, I do get a lot of messages, but I do read them. And I do reply them as well. Because I always believe and feel that, you know, if somebody has taken a time to write to me, whether it's a one line or a full paragraph, it's my duty to kind of, you know, reply to them, because I like the same thing, perhaps. So, you know, doesn't matter what kind of headline you want to put in that message. But as I said, I'm, I'm very active on LinkedIn, and feel free to reach out to me, and I'll make sure that I read your message and reply to them as well.
Tom Ollerton 22:48
Brilliant. Qaiser, thank you so much for your time.
Qaiser Bachani 22:49
Thank you so much, Tom, really appreciate it.
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