CPG advertising and marketing is on the precipice of change as know-how bears down on the class, with retail media networks revealing extra about shopper shopping for habits. Chobani’s world CMO Thomas Ranese is new to the class and technology-savvy, having beforehand led advertising and marketing at Uber and Google.
His plans embody surprising collaborations, retail media partnerships and information assortment—fashionable advertising and marketing techniques that disrupt CPG promoting stereotypes. Some advertisers take into account the class comparatively outdated, given retailers’ sheer dimension and their historic reliance on in-store purchasing, which might obfuscate promoting’s impression on gross sales.
When he resigned from the worldwide CMO position at Uber final February, Ranese instructed Adweek he hoped to discover a new alternative higher aligned together with his pursuits. Inside two weeks of becoming a member of Chobani this August, he was contemplating how Chobani, the challenger model that disrupted the yogurt market in 2005 and ultimately turned its chief, may disrupt extra classes.
Adweek spoke with Ranese about his new position and what’s subsequent for the model. “We’re truly a lot greater than a yogurt firm, and other people don’t know that,” the marketer mentioned.
This interview has been evenly edited for size and readability.
How has your profession modified over time?
I’m a theater kid-turned-policy wonk-turned-consultant, after which had a profession in advertising and marketing. I convey loads of these abilities to how I take into consideration myself as a marketer. The storytelling from the theater, the neighborhood constructing and buyer advocacy from coverage, and the enterprise technique and drawback fixing from consulting.
I’ve been in tech for the final almost 15 years. I joined Google because it was constructing out the central world advertising and marketing crew below Lorraine Twohill again in 2010. I had an unbelievable decade there serving to to gasoline development for the model, based the Google Model Studio, after which led our entry into the {hardware} class.
Most not too long ago I used to be the worldwide CMO at Uber, the place I helped flip across the status and belief of the model throughout Covid, did some actually essential social impression work and drove development for Uber Eats.
You’ve labored in a number of industries. It’s attention-grabbing, as a result of there’s loads of convergence in promoting. How do you see that convergence enjoying out at Chobani, particularly given your profession’s emphasis on know-how?
One of many issues that stunned me essentially the most was how a lot Chobani truly feels extra like a tech firm than a CPG firm. It’s obtained a very visionary founder with a product-led story, the place innovation and design are on the core. It’s very growth-oriented, it’s disruptive to the class, and it’s trying to be agile and transfer quick. These are all traits you affiliate rather more with tech than you do CPG. … The actually mission-driven ethos that’s right here may be very a lot at locations like Google and Uber.