Marketing Happy Hour - How Raisin Bran Owned the Super Bowl After a 15-Year Hiatus | JP Severin of WK Kellogg Co

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's about leaning into that kind of social first creator mindset. VaynerMedia's model is rock solid. It's like we treat our social like a real-time lab for content. We move very fast. We create a lot of content. And then you look at what's resonating and scale it or iterate and pivot. And the beauty is with the model you can validate what is relevant for your brand organically. And so we listen to those signals and that helps.

Starting point is 00:00:30 helps us move at the pace in the right direction. Welcome to Marketing Happy Hour, a weekly podcast helping marketing professionals and entrepreneurs build better strategies and hit career goals. I'm Cassie and I'm Allie. We're marketers and your hosts through these unfiltered convos with your peers and experts in the space. Let's dive in, grab your favorite drink and let's get to this week's episode. We are continuing the conversation on all things. Super Bowl, the big game. We have JP here. who is the brand manager of WK Kellogg Company. Super excited to have you on the show, JP,

Starting point is 00:01:10 just to talk all things, campaigns, Super Bowl commercials. Welcome to Marketing Happy Hour. Yeah, thanks for having me. You know, happy to be on the pod. I love what you guys are doing, so excited to chat. Yeah, no, likewise. It was super exciting to hear about this campaign that you all did. And I'm sure if anyone here is listening, watch the Super Bowl.

Starting point is 00:01:32 They most definitely saw it, so we're going to break down what that campaign looked like to build for you all, kind of the strategy behind it. But first, of course, I have to ask you what has been in your glass lately. Yeah, so I've got a little pumpkin spice cold brew today. I usually am just a black coffee guy, but they had some fancy coffee in the office today. So a little out of season, but pretty good. What about you? Hey, that's all right. I unfortunately have water for right now. I already drink my coffee for the day. I'll probably have one in a little bit. But I am all four out of season coffees. I typically will do peppermint syrup or something like that year round. So totally support it. I love it. So JP, if you don't mind, just kick us off here by sharing a little bit about your journey and how you ended up at the brand today.

Starting point is 00:02:27 Yeah, so I'm J.P. Severin, the brand manager for Frosted Mini Wheats and Raisin Brand. And yeah, like you said, we just launched the first ever Kellogg's Raisin Brand Super Bowl ad with the legend William Shatner. So, like, that's by far the biggest highlight in my career. And I got here with, like, a very non-traditional marketing background. So started as a designer in the... the tech industry at Nokia and I was making these kind of beautiful origami boxes for their phones so great experience kind of building design thinking

Starting point is 00:03:08 creativity and skills there and then did structural design for for a few years in the packaging industry at R.R. Donnelly and that was before coming to Kellogg's in a technical role so eight years ago I started in their R&D department as a packaging engineer so good experience in production the process of developing new products and end-to-end and that was before getting into marketing I kind of had great mentors and was just really passionate about making making new food and so made the jump and and just fell in love with the the marketing world you know for me it's the right role the right place and my my career path has just been the

Starting point is 00:03:56 of chasing my interest, building skills, and it's worked out. And W.K. Kellogg-Co, it's like the perfect company. Great culture. I've loved cereal since I was a kid. Love the brands, the history. The operation and the management of the business is fascinating to me, and I love our food. So that's how I got here. It's so fun. I also have a past in just kind of the food and beverage space. It's such a fun space to play in and creativity is endless. And so I can imagine how exciting that is. Yeah, it's so great. It's like such a dream to be able to shape the grocery store in some small way.

Starting point is 00:04:37 It's like my happy place. So being able to impact that is just, it's awesome. Absolutely. So I have to ask, it's been over a decade since a cereal brand. And specifically 15 years since WK. Kellogg Co has done a super, commercial, right? So why was 2026 the right year for you all to come back to that stage? And why was Raisin Brand the brand to do it? Yeah, good question. So honestly, like an incredible opportunity, you know, it's once in a lifetime to make the first Raisin Brand Super Bowl ad. So, you know,

Starting point is 00:05:17 we took it really seriously. You know, it's historic for us. It's big for the cereal industry. And we knew like we need to nail this. And it's it's obviously you know we took a big swing and we we took it for for a few reasons. One is fiber is having a massive cultural moment right but fiber and gut health are really starting to build this this momentum as kind of the next dietary wave. And we've we've been prepared for that. We know that two thirds of people are looking to add it to their diet, but 95% of Americans aren't getting enough. So it's that gap combined with that cultural interest that gave us this really interesting opportunity to highlight that kind of important health message during the biggest cultural moment of the year. That also happens to be

Starting point is 00:06:13 like heavy indulgent snacking, so wings, pizza, nachos, no fiber around. And fiber can get you your gut back on track after game day. So that core insight was really solid. It's a real problem. Raisin brand is a great solution. And the message is about like, you know, the power of improving your daily diet. High fiber cereal, great, tasty, easy way to start the day. And then Raisinbrand as the hero, you know, we have many different high fiber cereals. Obviously, everyone knows Raisin brand. It's a household name, synonymous with fiber, so the nutritional benefits there, but also there's this amazing amount of latent love and this kind of beautiful nostalgic connection. And so when we thought about cultural relevance,

Starting point is 00:07:05 we saw this like tremendous amount of upside in rekindling that love. We just needed to revive the equity and share that core promise of the brand in a new fun way and really just like remind people. There's a lot to love about Raisin Brand. and it's a great way to give fiber. Yeah, and it's so true, like taking a legacy brand and being able to insert yourselves into more modern conversations is such a powerful place to be. And you guys were absolutely able to do that. So you guys specifically worked with our friends at VaynerMedia with this campaign and leaned

Starting point is 00:07:42 into some pretty cheeky and fun humor with William Shatner, as you mentioned. So how did you kind of balance this irreverent, viral style humor with the heritage of the brand. You know, something that's been around for so long. What did that, that kind of marrying of the two concepts look like for you guys? Yeah, that's a great question. Honestly, like I love how our creative came to life. It's just so funny to me.

Starting point is 00:08:10 And it was a tremendous amount of work getting it over the line because, like you said, when you have a brand with the legacy of Raisin brand, you just have to be extreme. extremely intentional. There's a lot of equity that's then been built over generations and so just being very very thoughtful with with the message was important. When we first heard the idea, you know, we knew Will Shatt had real viral potential but there was this like clear line for us between making a great memorable joke and taking it too far. We didn't want just shock value

Starting point is 00:08:51 you for the sake of it. We had to be strategically disruptive and give people something to laugh about, keep it positive. And, you know, the world needs to laugh a little bit right now, and Raisin Brand is good at keeping things light, keeping things optimistic. And so the lead-up for us, you know, one of the roles of the lead-up was obviously maximizing eyeballs and getting some curiosity and buzz going and the paparazzi photos just like wow they went crazy and so like by the time the spot aired people were in on the joke which kind of allowed the humor to to instead of feeling like bought or broadcast it felt really earned and people were able to participate in it and then as we kind of walked that that fine line we had to stay rooted in the

Starting point is 00:09:47 in the brand promise and the product's truth. So you note that every joke links back to either the fiber deficit or the fiber and raisin brand. And the construct was really simple for us. It's like use the jokes to open the door. And then the clarity of the fiber deficiency problem and raisin brand's fiber as the solution to really like land the message. And then you look at who's delivering the joke. It's William Shatner. It's like this guy's an icon.

Starting point is 00:10:18 And he's a master of the craft. He's a master of finding the humor. And so the jokes are coming from a great place. It's just hard not to love the spot, honestly. It's just so fun. Oh, yeah. It absolutely is. And kind of to your point, it's finding ways to infuse humor that makes sense for the brand, right?

Starting point is 00:10:39 I can't tell you how many commercials I've seen where it's funny, but there's almost this disconnect. You know, you're like, well, how does this relate? to the messaging or whatever. And so the fact that you guys were able to do that is so powerful. And hopefully helps, of course, lead back to your goals for the campaign too. Yeah, absolutely. It's easy to lose sight.

Starting point is 00:11:01 One of the things that I've learned in Super Bowl, it's like easy to lose sight of you're making an ad. You know, you're not making a piece of entertainment. And so like keeping the brand at the heart, keeping the message, staying disciplined on the messaging was really important. I think we landed it. Yeah, you guys absolutely did. And one of the other elements, of course, is just placement for these ads, right?

Starting point is 00:11:24 I can imagine that's a whole science in and of itself. And so we'll talk about that here for a second. But instead of a traditional national linear spot, you all prioritized a couple different channels, including Peacock, NFL Plus, and six different specific regional markets. What was kind of the reasoning behind that and what kind of data or brains? storming, do you and the team go through in order to discover and pinpoint exactly where this ad should show up? Yeah, so I would say, like, credit to the Starcom and Vayner Media team for just building a brilliant plan. And the strategy behind the media buy is actually, like, one of my

Starting point is 00:12:05 favorite pieces of our execution that most people aren't aware of. Really, it boiled down to, you know, following where the fans are. I mean, you know, like, people, People aren't watching the game on linear TV like they used to. They're streaming, they're on Peacock, they're on social at the same time. So we met people where they actually watch the game and then how they engage. So thinking of it as like this ecosystem of screens, we wanted to make sure that we had a great presence and support plan across channels and devices, both leading up to and during the game and then coming out of the game. So on game day specifically our regional linear approach, we really focused on optimizing the scale for our business.

Starting point is 00:12:57 And so we hit the big three, which is New York, L.A. and Chicago. And that was to kind of maximize coverage and reach. And then we complemented that with several other important markets for our retail business specifically. And I think what worked was the efficiency of our game day media and the effectiveness of our social surround plan. So again, thinking about the ecosystem of screens, that that approach helped us to show up in a meaningful way, tap into that cultural moment in an efficient way. And we know the strategy was affected because we're hearing pretty consistently, both from media and the industry, that the buzz was so strong.

Starting point is 00:13:41 people didn't realize it wasn't a national ad. So tremendous viral moments, the earned pickup, the quality of the creative gave us the impact we were looking for. And honestly, I think you're going to see a lot more brands adopt to this model because of the combination of efficiency and effectiveness. Although the key ingredient there is for the strategy to work is really like you have to build around incredible creative. and we had that. Yeah, absolutely. So with this too, there's, of course, a lot of younger viewers consuming Super Bowl content, commercials, etc. And so how are you all just kind of staying agile enough to execute to be able to serve that audience?

Starting point is 00:14:32 What does that look like? And how are you kind of pinpointing who exactly to serve with a campaign like this? Yeah, I mean, keeping paying. with culture is tricky for anyone, any organization. It just moves at warp speed. I think like the right team with the right mentality makes a big difference. Our team is really great. And it's it's about trust. It's about leaning into that kind of social first creator mindset. VaynerMedia's model is rock solid. It's like we treat our social like a real time lab for content. We move very fast. We create a lot of content. And then you look at what's

Starting point is 00:15:18 resonating and scale it or iterate and pivot. And the beauty is with the model you can validate what is relevant for your brand organically. And so we listen to those signals and that helps us move at the right pace in the right direction. And then as far as, you know, a Peele, to younger audiences, first it's like people have no interest in corporate or overly branded jokes and so we kept, we deliberately kept elements of the plan a little quirky, bizarre, unpolished, particularly on social. And then we pushed the humor to the line without going too far. We knew like we need to be really funny, not just marketing funny. And so, you know, we were looking for that that broad balance because like for us in cereal 95% of of

Starting point is 00:16:18 households are are eating cereals so like walking the line is very important for us because we're not just speaking to a younger audience particularly with Raisin brand so you can see how we thought about that kind of multi-generational appeal in our casting our talent with William Shatner how we wrote the script all very intentional to make sure that we're maximizing that generational appeal while also bringing in that younger cohort to reappraise the brand and drive real relevance and and so happy and relieved that it worked and now we we need to build on that momentum yeah absolutely i would love to know to jp just as a marketer yourself i can imagine how exciting a project like this would be to work on

Starting point is 00:17:08 So would love to know, you know, what was your favorite part of putting together this campaign, working with the team to build it? Just would love to kind of put ourselves in your shoes for a second and learn what that was like. Yeah, it was a very interesting experience. I would say the best part of it was the team engagement and collaboration. I think, you know, building a Super Bowl ad is a really unique experience and having it as a, shared experiences is um was really special and you know it was it was one of those things where the work required is very intense and so I was very conscious to do do the work

Starting point is 00:17:55 but also recognize like recognize and appreciate the experience as we were going so I was you know journaling and making sure I was you know taking notes along the way so I could go back and keep the memories clear. It was very, very exciting to see the reception. I didn't really realize, like, I wasn't allowing myself to think about the outcome because you just have to focus so deeply on the work, but when the outcome was positive, it was just this wash of relief and happiness. Yeah, I can only imagine, and kudos to you and the team and just your partners for pulling this together. Again, it's fantastic. We'll have it linked below, so please go check out the ad if you have not already. But I would love to know, too, you know, we infused some career

Starting point is 00:18:47 conversations here on the podcast. And so for the marketers listening, who want to manage some of these iconic household name brands, like a raisin brand, for example, what do you feel is one skill they should be honing right now that isn't necessarily taught in a textbook per se? Yeah, that's a really good question. I think first, it's like find an industry and work that you love and admire and that you feel has like a genuine purpose is aligned with your values. And your intuition will tell you when you're in the right place. And then you need to do the hard work to build skills that are valid. and differentiated. You know, and some of that comes from organizational experience saying yes to new opportunities and then following that intuition. And then one of the things that I wish someone had told me was you need to take risks. They need to be calculated, but growth really only comes from discomfort and risk. And there's no way around that. So those would be a couple pieces. of advice and then tactically working to become a great communicator and then developing skills on social and in AI are obviously very important areas to focus on right now. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for that advice, you know, as we close out here. And this has been wonderful hearing more

Starting point is 00:20:24 about the campaign and what you all created for this year's Super Bowl. And so stoked to just hear what you guys do in the future as well. And can't wait for next year to potentially see Raisin Brand or another related brand pop-up. So congrats again to your team and all the work you all did with with everything this year. It was amazing to watch. Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you. Of course. We got a lot more fun in store. Yes, can't wait. Well, speaking of that, JP, if you don't mind, just let us know where we can follow along with you personally on LinkedIn, for example, and also at all things, WKK Kellogg Co. Yeah. Yeah, you can connect with me, follow me on LinkedIn, and then follow Raisin Brand. And we're across all socials. We're at Raisin Brand underscore U.S. And we're putting out some fun, fiber-rich content. I think you'll like it. So yeah, please, please give us a follow. Awesome. We'll have all the links below in the show notes. Again, please go check out the ad there. It was amazing. And again,

Starting point is 00:21:26 And congrats, JP. Thank you so much for joining and just sharing all things about the campaign. Yeah, thanks for having me. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Marketing Happy Hour. If you enjoyed it, make sure you're subscribed to the show and sign up for a weekly newsletter with insights and marketing resources. We also invite you to check out the MHH collective, our community for marketers looking to connect, grow, and learn together. Check out the links in the show notes. We'll see you next time.

Marketing Happy Hour - How Raisin Bran Owned the Super Bowl After a 15-Year Hiatus | JP Severin of WK Kellogg Co

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