Todd Kaplan
101 Great Minds on Music Brands and Behavior
Todd Kaplan, Vice President of Marketing, PepsiCo
Todd Kaplan is the Vice President of Marketing at PepsiCo. Mr. Kaplan has been part of PepsiCo for 15 years. A transformative leader, Todd has reignited and established a challenger mindset at the company. With over 20 years of experience building dynamic brands, launching transformative innovation, and inspiring teams to have a winner’s mindset, Mr. Kaplan’s passion in connecting brands to culture has created, architected, and launched over $1Billion in new brands and products. Business Insider acknowledged him as one of the top 25 most innovative CMOs in the world. Todd is a phenomenal brand strategist, advertiser, storyteller, innovator, and strong proponent of cultural relevancy, diversity, and inclusion.
“As the world has become more digitized and brand messages are being consumed while multitasking, brands need a sharper point of view on the role of audio to break through and connect on another level.”
— TODD KAPLAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING, PEPSICO
Uli Reese: Can you tell us a little about your role at Pepsi?
Todd Kaplan: I head up marketing for the Pepsi brand in North America, which includes everything from leading brand creative communications, to new product innovation, to retail execution and everything in between for the trademark. I’ve been in the role for about two and a half years, but I’ve been at Pepsi for much longer in a variety of other different roles. It’s been a lot of fun.
Reese: Moving through the past, to the present, to the future, how important is audio in your sector?
Kaplan: Audio is really important for a brand like Pepsi. When you think about the role that music plays in driving emotion with consumers, it’s no surprise that Pepsi has had a great heritage in the music space over the years – having worked with artists like Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Madonna, Britney Spears, and Beyoncé. It’s been a staple of our brand for so long, and it allows us to connect with our consumers on an emotional basis. You’ve seen it manifest regularly throughout our creative work, our TV spots, the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show, and even – dare I say the word – even through brand jingles in the past. But we’ve always leaned into music and the power that it has to drive emotion, and we’ll continue to do that in the future.
Reese: Can you give us a peek into that future in terms of voice and talk about your challenges and opportunities today?
Kaplan:
”The future of audio is really interesting and, frankly, under-prioritized in brand-building given the relative importance it plays in the overall marketing mix. When you look at the ability of audio to drive a very quick, shorthand brand communication or emotion – specifically right now in screenless ecosystems like Alexa or Google Home – it’s clear that it is growing in adoption. It’s certainly the way of the future, and audio will be a key component. What will be interesting is trying to understand how your brand will show up in these spaces and within these tools – really trying to articulate what kind of ‘voice’ your brand will have, and how can you convey your brand through audio. Specifically, in cola, I know that audio plays a huge role for us in triggering refreshment cues – so when you think of sounds of the crack of the can, the ice cubes falling into the glass, the pour of the cola, the fizz, the bubbles – all of these are sensory cues that drive physical reactions and emotions with our audience, and we regularly utilize them in our brand communications. These sorts of elements will continue to be part of the communications mix as we look at media tools like Alexa and evolve alongside them.”
Reese: You mentioned audio being under-leveraged and under-used, why is that changing now?
Kaplan: Simply, people are starting to realize the power of music and storytelling – how a certain track laid upon a certain picture can dramatically change the impact of the story, and how it dials up your emotions and all the things that it all represents. It’s a good shortcut if you only have 30 or 15 seconds.
Reese: There’s certainly more intimacy now and more dollars are being spent…
Kaplan: Yes – and it all comes down to how marketing has evolved over the years and where it is heading with new mediums and formats. If you think about it – as you look at the evolution of marketing – it all started at some point in time with one-to-one word of mouth to convey information. Then there was TV, allowing people to scale the reach of their audience, and then the internet brought in a layer of interactivity and two-way dialogue with consumers. But the latest piece – mobile – has dramatically changed the rules – where context now becomes a much bigger part of the equation, as people are no longer having appointment viewings or focused sit-down moments staring at a TV or computer screen. And because of that, consumers are most often multitasking when engaging on mobile – on the train, cooking dinner, watching TV at the same time, or whatever – so you have someone listening while they are doing three other things at the same time. Audio is really interesting in this context, as it allows consumers to be more efficient and do all of the other things at the same time while only requiring one of the five senses. If you look at the emergence of new tech platforms like Clubhouse, there’s something appealing about being able to listen in and be anonymous, without committing your face, without having to watch, etc. Like being on a Zoom – you can get the info just from hearing while doing other things and still being efficient. This is the same principle behind the rise of podcasts as well. These analogue formats create a level of simplicity in people’s cluttered lives that allows them to be adopted more effectively.
Reese: One of the central themes in my interviews with CMOs is how to make their brand futureproof. What are your thoughts on that?
Kaplan: Audio has been undervalued by the marketing community. There are so many other things that brands focus on in the near term, such as your media buy or how you’re positioning your brand or what’s the new innovation? But if you were to ask the long lead question about your brand’s audio strategy, it’s something that’s now become really important.
“The idea of visual identities and design systems within brands isn’t a new idea – but as the world has become more digitized and brand messages are being consumed in the context of consumer multitasking, brands are going to need to form a sharper point of view on the role of audio in order to break through and connect on another level. “
The sound of your brand is one thing, but there are also more subtle ways a brand can gradually integrate certain audio principles into their ecosystems over time, to tell consistent brand stories. It’s going to be interesting to see how it all comes to fruition. Also, frankly, it’s not just about strategic importance, but also from a creative standpoint, it’s going to be about how brands and agencies will embrace this new model. One of the barriers right now is that some are still running an outdated playbook.
Reese: Ivy Ross, the VP of Design at Google, says, “If you don't have confidence in yourself to figure out what that sonic watermark is, it's much easier to grab something that will make you popular like a hit tune or a pop star, but it doesn't last over time because culture changes”. What are your thoughts on that?
Kaplan: She’s spot on.
“With Pepsi, a brand that’s very much connected to pop culture, we know that culture is also fleeting, fluid and constantly changing. You need to make sure your brand shows up consistently, with the same brand point of view in culture rather than just chasing or connecting to the next big thing. So how you show up as a brand – both visually and audibly – are some of the consistent things that brands can bring to the table.”
Even down to the execution of a TV spot – the end card, the tagline. Do you have a voiceover? What does it sound like? Is it the crack, the fizz, the ‘aaah’, of our product? What are all those elements? And how do they work with the picture and overall story?
Reese: What would your advice be to any of your colleagues out there who are grappling with this issue right now?
Strubel:
“Don’t underestimate the importance of sound. It is often more important than many other aspects we spend a lot of time looking at. And if you are not absolutely confident in your decisions, get some assistance.”
Seek out people who have the expertise, such as agencies or individuals who are specialised in helping you make the right decisions.
Reese: Mark Phillips, the VP at McKinsey Digital Labs, said, “My analogy is that a sonic logo is like a name badge, while a DNA driven sonic identity is like meeting somebody in person”. Does that resonate?
Kaplan: This all goes back to the higher-level concept behind why brands matter and why companies build brands. The idea of branding in general stems from the need to help the human brain process in shorthand, a variety of inputs and information all at once. So, if I went to the beverage aisle, or frankly any aisle at the grocery store, and all that the products had on them were just the labels that list out every ingredient – size, taste, flavor, color, etc – I could evaluate all that information quite rationally. But because of how deep and involved that evaluation would be, I depend on brands to tell me clusters of that information and more in shorthand. There are endless differences and endless similarities between products – so what branding does is help identify what’s for you. Effective brands build that shorthand muscle memory system into the consumer thought process, and those inputs that go into the consideration set is how you know you have cut-through as a brand. I like to talk with my team about that, especially in a low involvement purchasing category like beverages where it only costs a little over a dollar. You can compare every brand input almost like a painter with this technique called pointillism – it’s like lots of little dots that create a big painting or image. Every brand interaction or touchpoint you have, whether you see a commercial, drink the product, walk past a sign, or see your friend drinking it, become little points in people’s minds that, over time, shape pictures around a brand. Audio is a big part of the equation, and so when I hear the crack of a can opening, does my brain think Pepsi or something else or nothing? Over time, it’s those little pieces we’re trying to build to help better connect with consumers using their shorthand.
Note: The interview took place in New York, on the 23rd of April 2021.
Copyright regulations apply when using material from this document and when using the supplied video or audio files. This document is intended to be exclusively viewed by the recipient and its subsidiaries. Under no circumstances may the content or part of the content made available or forwarded in any form orally or in writing to third parties, in particular to competitors or affiliates. The publication, reproduction, distribution, reproduction or other utilization of the presented ideas, texts, layouts, concepts, films or audio files without express written permission by amp GmbH.
