Chobani's Leland Maschmeyer on Achieving Top-line Growth Through Creativity

ANA39s Bill Duggan recently interviewed Maschmeyer covering topics ranging from inhouse agencies to abductive reasoning and from the importance of being quota factoryquot to energizing inhouse agency talentBill Dugganamp160 Give us the background on Chobani39s inhouse agencyLeland Maschmeyeramp160 To understand our operation it39s important to understand why I always hesitate to describe what we39ve built as an quotinhouse agencyquotamp160 The strategic imperative for Chobani is to achieve topline growth through creativity amp8212 not necessarily to build an inhouse agency Given that nuance we39ve spent two years experimenting with many ways to maximize the expression and impact of creativity within the organizationamp160 It39s why our model which I affectionately call the Accelerator Model is more accurately described as a creativityled consumer marketing department that resides within Chobani39s larger demand departmentWe are a 60person souptonuts operation inclusive of the strategy creativeamp160and production across all consumer marketing activity brand management traditional campaigns performance campaigns experiential design partnerships loyalty content and mediaamp160 We are also deeply integrated into corporate growth strategy and product innovationamp160 For innovation we shape not just the gotomarket approach but the food as wellamp160 We have outside partners for backend digital development and media buyingDugganamp160 What39s the greatest benefit your inhouse agency providesMaschmeyeramp160 The greatest benefit affects company decision makingamp160 Abductive reasoning is now a coequal to deductive and inductive reasoningamp160 That sounds super headyamp160 Nonetheless in a time when organizations are moving from a quotsteady hand at the wheelquot model of growth to an quotadapt and innovatequot one in which they demand their departments conjure winwin outcomes from overwhelming amounts of alwaysinsufficient information while handcuffed by severe resource and time limitations understanding this ADI triad is in my opinion a mustDeductive reasoning is the logic of sorting based on knowledge of the general it defines the specificsamp160 Inductive reasoning is the logic of predicting it finds relationships between specifics to arrive at a generalized patternamp160 Abductive reasoning is the logic of wondering it observes data or even a single data point that doesn39t fit with the existing models then makesamp160a logical leap to the best explanation amp8212 akaamp160a new ideaamp160 Its purpose is not to say what is true or false but to posit what could be true beyond what data can tell prove or even reachamp160 This is the core function of the creative mind and the only way companies can reach new worlds of ideasA perfect example of this is our Chobani Gimmiesamp160 At noon for seven days we releasedamp160limitedrun merchandise supporting our new line of kids39 yogurtamp160 There was little data to support the effort and there were many doubtersamp160 Yet the drops were insanely successfulamp160 Tens of thousands of people queued up on the drop website at 1159 am each dayamp160 Each drop sold out in secondsamp160 In seven days a total of 1700 pieces of merchandise disappeared in a total of 64 secondsamp160 Beyond the earned media impressions we grew our loyalty program39s firstparty database by a significant amountamp160 We39re now scaling our learning from this into several other exciting projectsDugganamp160 What is the financial model for your inhouse agencyMaschmeyeramp160 We are a funded modelamp160 Each year the company entrusts us with a budget inclusive of the full media budget to spend as effectively and creatively as possible to help reach that year39s growth goalsDugganamp160amp160You39ve spoken previously about the inhouse agency being quota factory not a servicequotamp160 Please explain thatMaschmeyeramp160 quotBeing a factoryquot means creating something monetizable and scalableamp160 quotBeing a servicequot means creating oneoff and therefore unscalable solutions that help people better do something they39re already doingWhile our Accelerator Model does provide services to the organization we39ve rooted my department in the factory analogyamp160 We create the brand to increase its financial valueamp160 We create new scalable revenue streams for the company amp8212 be it food products or otherwiseamp160 We create programs that aggregate valuable consumer dataamp160 And we create scalable programs that save the company moneyquotBeing a factoryquot isn39t necessarily better than quotbeing a servicequotamp160 The factory analogy happened to best fit Chobani39s culture and ambitionsDugganamp160 A recent study that ANA conducted in partnership with Boston Consulting Group and Reed Smith found that keeping inhouse agency talent energized is a key concern for many inhouse agenciesamp160 How do you keep inhouse talent energized at ChobaniMaschmeyeramp160 Beyond ensuring that people work across a wide diversity of projects we have three major principles we strive to implement1 Keep the story aliveamp160amp160Our team began two years ago with a clear and ambitious narrativeamp160 We regularly situate our daytoday efforts into that storyamp160 With each retelling that story becomes richer and more motivating2 Push power to the edgesamp160amp160This means bestowing small teams with meaningful responsibility significant decision rightsamp160and shared context and challenging them to work toward high clear expectations3 Dig up dream projectsamp160amp160Our department39s leadership works hard to create meaningful projects that our team wouldn39t get anywhere elseIn short we do our best to offer trust growth inspiration impactamp160and dream briefsDugganamp160 How is the success of your inhouse agency measuredMaschmeyeramp160 We measure business impact by awareness purchase intent media ROI firstparty data growthamp160and household penetration as well as brand health measuresClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Chobani's Leland Maschmeyer on Achieving Top-line Growth Through Creativity

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Bill Duggan

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Chobani's Leland Maschmeyer on Achieving Top-line Growth Through Creativity

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