Culture-Driven Brand Innovation

In an era where traditional marketing strategies are losing their edge, Kellanova is pioneering a fresh approach to consumer engagement. David Lee, Sr. Director of Global Licensing & Cultural Marketing at Kellanova, shares insights on how the company is leveraging cultural relevance to connect with the elusive next-generation consumer. From unexpected collaborations to viral sensations, Lee reveals the strategic thinking behind Kellanova's innovative partnerships and how they're reshaping the landscape of brand marketing. In this exclusive interview, we explore the delicate balance between maintaining brand identity and pushing creative boundaries in the pursuit of authentic cultural resonance. David and Kellanova are the recipients of a 2024 Innovation Strategy award in the Infectious Messaging category.

Tell us your name and a little bit about your role at Kellanova?

David Lee, Sr. Director, Global Licensing & Cultural Marketing at Kellanova. In my role, my mission is to recruit the hard-to-reach consumers of the next generation. Alongside my team members at Kellanova, I strive to make strategic consumer passion points come to life with our brands in ways that are culturally relevant and authentic to the consumer. This can be through the world of fashion, innovative foods, or through strategic lifestyle areas within music, sports, and entertainment.

As some traditional marketing areas have waned in effectiveness and efficiency, Kellanova takes a unique modern marketing approach to infiltrate influencer groups to elevate our brands and drive growth.

How do you define cultural relevance in the context of brand strategy, and why is it crucial for Kellanova's success in today's market?

Culture pervades everything around us – what we see, what we hear, and what we love. When enough people show deep enough passion for the same thing, you start to see culture forming around it. It happened in surf culture, street wear culture, gaming culture, and so on. These cultural groups have their own lingo, their own communities, and their own super stars.

When a brand tightly defines its strategy, including core values, personality, and the consumer they’re trying to reach, consumer passion points and culture become very relevant to strategic imperatives.

As a result, culture becomes evident in how brands see future growth with consumers, how they brief their agencies, how they organize their annual calendars, and even sometimes how they organize their teams. In some ways it’s like coming back to the basics – focusing on the consumer. We’ve developed many specializations in marketing over the years, and rightfully so. Yet in the process, it can be easy to lose sight of the consumer and what
means the most to them. Getting back to culture, focusing on its meaning to consumers, and how it intersects with our brands is what marketing is all about in some ways.

What are some unexpected sources of inspiration that have led to successful brand collaborations for Kellanova?

Great inspiration is whenever we see young adults and teens demonstrate what they care about most, what they want to talk about with their friends, what they look forward to doing, what they want to wear, what they consider important events, or what they consider as entertaining. We want to know what delights and excites them.

The more we understand this, the more we can offer value to them, and then creatively unlock meaningful storytelling. Sometimes that can be the difference that makes a collaboration successful or buzzworthy.

Figuring out who to partner with is far less important, then many would believe, and how to execute partnerships is actually far more important, as few believe. For example, what marketer wouldn’t want a collaboration with Nike? Consumers might care less about a collaboration with amazing brand Nike if, for example, the execution would be unimaginative, purely functional, or just a simple logo slap. In contrast, consumers might care far more when a collaboration spills with emotion, insight, and inherent uniqueness, even if it was with a relatively unknown brand.

For example, Pringles and The Caviar Co. was an amazing partnership for Kellanova. The Caviar Co. may not have been a household name at the time, but together we exploded on the scene with over 10 billion impressions. Consumers can see and feel when a partnership is more meaningful for the parties involved because more of that combination uniqueness comes through.

How do you balance maintaining brand identity with pushing boundaries in partnerships to create that "viral magic"?

I don’t always think these two are mutually exclusive – maintaining brand identity and getting deeper into culture, especially when you have a clear strategy everyone’s aligned to. For example, when I watch the show Friends, each character has a strong identity that is very different from the others. Scientist Ross, tragic comic Chandler, and loveable adolescent Joey. However, they all seem to share similar values, similar lifestyles, and shared rituals of meaning. They gravitate towards each other despite not having the exact same demographics, ethnicities, or upbringing.

Brand partnerships should have the same approach and allowance – maintain a unique core identity, but also celebrate with others who have shared values and personalities that help expand your popularity base. Sometimes two unlikely friends like Eggo and Sugarlands Distillery can collaborate to create a viral sensation, earn several billion impressions, and drive household penetration at the same time.
If I use the previous example, Pringles is very different from The Caviar Co. One is more accessible, while the other is more haute. However, they both love music festivals like when we launched together at Coachella, both have great senses of humor like with our recent National Caviar Day disco party, and both have a love for culinary playfulness. Right away, there’s a start for a solid friendship.

The more we can articulate a brand’s cultural strategy, the less the concept of “pushing the boundaries” is relevant. Our team prides itself on working with brands to help clarify how culture is part of the overall brand strategy and how to map a logical pathway that unlocks unique strategic value for the brand. If boundaries are being pushed too far, then perhaps the culture strategy is not clearly defined or there’s misalignment among key stakeholders or brand owners, and the strategy needs to be addressed.

How do you navigate the fine line between capitalizing on current trends and creating timeless brand experiences through partnerships?

To me, timeless is a descriptor for iconic, enduring brands. It’s less a descriptor for branded experiences, which tend to focus on a point in time and generally are more contextual and trend relevant. As long as those experiences are rooted in core brand identity, they can be in service to each other.

For example, a lifestyle fashion collaboration is inextricably linked to trends. Our recent global Pringles x Crocs fashion boot is not only massively successful for the brand strategy across regions, but also is capitalizing on specific culture trends relevant for our consumer. The designs were rooted in haute fashion which may not be en vogue a year from now, but the execution is showcasing the brand’s values and personality which will endure for years to come.

What makes an innovative culture in the context of brand partnerships? How do you foster a culture that consistently produces culturally relevant collaborations?

Consumer first, marketing second. I’m exaggerating, of course! But the provocation is to remind us to listen to the consumer with respect to culture – what consumers are doing, how they’re changing, how they think, and why they’re opening up their wallet or purse. If we can understand that with whatever insights we can gather, then we have a good chance to move at the speed of culture. And since much of what we’re trying to do with culture isn’t often taught in schools or fancy MBA programs, being consumer focused is not only often what remains, it is often what is right.

Another way to foster more is to celebrate wins. That starts with assessing how your launches went – what was the impact, did it deliver on the strategy, did our target consumer care, what was the total value we created for the organization, and what learnings can we apply cross functionally? If a launch was particularly successful, we also want to celebrate everyone that was involved – from integral brand teams, communications, the finance team that sees the ROI up close, and many others. There’s nothing like success begets more success, where people all over the organization not only understand what you’re doing, but they understand their role in the shared mission, how they personally help make a difference, and they have ample opportunities to be recognized and celebrate with you.

And even if those celebrations include occasional learnings, it’s important to keep pushing and growing our global partnerships program forward with the appropriate amount of risk. Some of our biggest successes in culture have been in uncharted territories with risk. That unknown can sometimes make folks ask an extra question or two, but that’s part of the culture-driving strategic process as we keep pushing forward to new heights of growth.

Looking to the future, how will Kellanova continue to be a leader in creating partnerships that shape and embrace today's culture?

We will continue to be relentless about the consumer, build smart strategies that align with our brands’ strategic imperatives, and make sure creativity is at the heart of the execution. If we do all these things, I believe that Kellanova will continue to see massive success with both cultural impact and business impact. And everyone from within the organization, our retail partners, and the ever-important consumer will continue to ask for more!