Big brands at the big tournament: How Walmart, The Home Depot and Mondelēz are planning their World Cup summer

0:04David Cushnan:Welcome along to another episode of Leaders Worth Knowing, the podcast where we speak to people worth knowing in the global business of sport. I'm David Cushnan, content director round here at Leaders. Just me today. I am just back from Atlanta, where I was at the Business of Soccer last week. our event with Sports Business Journal, Major League Soccer, CONCACAF and US Soccer, examining all aspects of football soccer in the US before, during and after this summer's World Cup. A great few days, amazing guest list. And one thing that really hit me listening in to the conversations on stage, talking to people across the event is just the size and scale of this tournament, geographically, but also as a revenue generating opportunity.

0:52David Cushnan:It is frankly massive. And although a costly and complex exercise, the World Cup is clearly going to be a golden opportunity for US brands of all shapes and sizes from all sorts of sectors to activate during the tournament. They might be directly involved as tournament partners or more tangentially associated to soccer in America. On the show today, you're going to hear three conversations I had with three US-based brand side executives from storied US brands recorded on the sidelines of the event in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium last week. We're going to hear about their plans for the summer ahead and beyond as they look at the opportunities for soccer in the United States.

1:39David Cushnan:First up will be Alison Kolber, VP of Integrated Marketing at The Home Depot. Home Depot are an official tournament supporter of the World Cup, but also sponsor the US and Mexican national teams. They've also called on David Beckham to help activate their World Cup sweepstakes initiative. After that, you will hear from Lauren Flanagan, head of global brands in the refreshment categories division at Mondelez International. She looks after brands like Halls and Trident. And then we will hear my chat with Kim Tunick, Head of Brand Experiences and Partnerships at Walmart, retail giant, of course, and a more recent entrance to soccer sponsorship with deals signed in the last year or so to partner Major League Soccer and La Liga.

2:25David Cushnan:Three interesting conversations, three big brands, three great executives. Let's start with Alison Colbert, VP of Integrated Marketing at The Home Depot. Alison Kolber, Vice President of Integrated Marketing at Home Depot. Well, I suppose I should thank you for welcoming me to Atlanta. How are you doing? Welcome. We're so glad you're here. Thrilled to have you. It's great to be here. And this is very much Home Depot country, isn't it? It is. It is. Tell us a little bit about, for those who don't know, we've got an international audience, but probably primarily a UK European audience. I think everybody will be familiar with the name.

3:00David Cushnan:Could you just give us a sense of the size and scale of Home Depot? Absolutely. Absolutely. Home Depot is the largest home improvement brand in the world. Here we have over 2 ,400 stores, the 25th most valuable brand in the world. We were founded by three gentlemen, Ken Langone, Arthur Blank, and Bernie Marcus, who have just been incredible contributors in the Atlanta area as well as nationally. And Arthur Blank, and particularly in the world of sport here in Atlanta, where he's engaged with the Falcons, Atlanta United, and many other teams that we're really proud to call home. But Atlanta is our home since the late 70s.

3:41And we're really proud to be part of this market.

3:43David Cushnan:Arthur Blank has just come off stage. Did you watch him? Of course. Absolutely. He's an outstanding speaker. He is. Some of the advice that he was dishing out about leadership and listening more than talking and his approach to meetings and sitting in meetings. An absolute playbook for anybody in the audience who has got any sort of notions of leadership in almost any sector. Yep, that's for sure. When you look at who Home Depot is as a brand, we have a values wheel that tells us to put our customers first and deliver excellent customer service and that will ensure long-term business success. And he talked a lot about that it is as much about behavior as it is thinking and how you lead.

4:25And he has showcased that over the life of his career. So we looked at him with a lot of admiration still, even since he's left the company. Yes.

4:33David Cushnan:Right. There's a World Cup coming up. There is. We're thrilled. And that will be occupying, I imagine, lots of your time. Just tell us a little bit about Home Depot's actually long history in terms of supporting, partnering with various soccer properties and who you're sponsoring at the moment. Yeah. So Home Depot is very deeply invested in sport and it is soccer, but also college football, also NCAA or collegiate athletics here in the United States. And, you know, that's really about the breakthrough moments that sports offer and that connection to fandom. From a soccer perspective, we have been with the Mexican national team here in the United States since 2003.

5:10We have been with the MLS since 2008. So we had a very long history of soccer allegiance and partnership. And we were really thrilled to be able to bring on our World Cup supporter partnership over a year ago, as well as the national teams for both men's and women's here in the United States with the growth that they've been seeing. So just, you know, very deep soccer legacy for us.

5:33David Cushnan:Now, everybody in this country knows Home Depot. So I suppose it begs the question, why sponsorship at all? Sponsorship for us is more than just the brand recognition, because you're right, everyone knows they know the orange, they know the logo. This is about how do you become relevant and really part of customers' lives. I mean, we know what our customers and our associates, frankly, care about is sports. And there's a lot of diversity and preferences. And it's why we have a broad and diverse sporting portfolio, because we want to be there in the moments that matter and that they feel emotionally connected to.

6:04And that gives us a chance to engage them in that environment, either through their TV or physically, you know, in the stadiums and at FanFest and those types of opportunities.

6:13David Cushnan:So World Cup coming up, tournament supporter, which gives you a bunch of rights that I imagine you're thinking and already sort of rolling out. We are. In all sorts of different ways. Give us the headlines of the activation plan as it is at the moment. When we took the sponsorship on, it was really important to us that we were thinking about how to activate it across the entire company. It needed to be with associates, with our biggest B2B pro customers. It needed to be in the store online and then physically in FanFest and stadiums. So this is the part I could go on for hours about. I'm really excited.

6:45We actually have already begun to roll out some of our in-store activations. We had our big sweepstakes that launched last week. We're giving away a trip to the final, you know, whole luxury experience as well as a$10 ,000 Home Depot gift card to get their backyard ready. So that's already in the hands of our customers. And we're seeing amazing engagement so far. We also are rolling out gift with purchase programs. We've got kids workshops coming to the stores physically. And then, of course, FanFest and activations in every market where there's going to be matches, as well as even some programming and more B2B customer hosting, even for markets where there aren't matches, where we know our customers are still excited and they want to be engaged.

7:27So our plans are big and broad and they're already starting to come to market now.

7:31David Cushnan:We had on stage here at Business of Soccer earlier today, American Airlines. And yesterday we had Hilton. And in both cases, similarly recognizable brands, you know, global in nature, but visibility, not an issue. And actually, in both cases, this idea of internal staff engagement, associate engagement has come to the fore. And I just wonder from a Home Depot point of view, because you've got a lot of people, how you're using this to inspire. and also get your workforce to be the advocates for not just the sponsorship itself, but sport and soccer and everything that's going to happen in this country over the next few weeks.

8:11Yeah, it's been a critical component and actually ties back to when we originally sponsored the Olympics in 96. There is so much associate passion from that sponsorship and partnership. And we still have associates that wear their 96 Olympics pins, if you can believe it, like 30 years later. So it was a big piece of, as we were looking at the World Cup and the ability to unite Mexico, Canada, and the United States. We are the, you know, only large home improvement brand that has all three countries. So even that cross-country unification I thought was super interesting. We actually had our store manager meeting last week where all of our store managers are out and they're really there to learn about the newest products that are coming this year.

8:48What are they, you know, bringing to their customers and just hear from our leadership. And we use the World Cup even as a unifying moment in that. We were able to give a lucky store manager a trip to a match, we were able to explain to them all the things that are coming to their stores. You'll see them all wearing their World Cup branded aprons. If you go in a store, they've all got that World Cup branding. They've got some pins, Atlanta pins that are coming. But it's just been that moment of how do you take it from beyond we're all, you know, people in our stores to unifying something we can all get excited about and rally behind for us as associates and for our customer base.

9:22David Cushnan:What's the plan in terms of measurement? It's the obvious question for anybody who works in this field. And I imagine you're going to have a lot of metrics that are coming at you. Yeah, we've been really purposeful about measurement because we didn't want to get past the tournament and then have to read, hey, was this a success or a failure? Because we have so many components of our plan where we do have our sweepstakes and our gift with purchase and our kids workshops in the FanFest. We've set really clear KPIs around each of those elements. This is how many entries we would like to see. This is how many kids we'd love to attend our workshops, as well as are we moving the brand long term?

9:58Are people seeing us as young, modern and incredibly helpful brand that can help them get what they need to do done inside their homes? So we've already actually started measuring success. And good news is seeing a lot of positive traction already. And we're just excited to keep pushing.

10:13David Cushnan:You talked about the geographical spread of this tournament. And I think everybody, whatever role they have in the tournament is sort of trying to work that out because it's huge in every respect. And I wonder from a brand point of view, as you talked about all your activation plans, I imagine you've got stores in all the host cities. We do. Multiple stores perhaps. Indeed, yeah. How you sort of square up, and if we take just the US component of the tournament, the national moment that this World Cup could be, but also make sure that it's localized enough and you're really working in those host cities in particular, but also the cities where teams have training camps, for example, to make sure that local feel, local culture, local engagement is at its highest.

10:54Yeah, it's interesting because when we were working on our activation, one, we have 23 years we've been activating with College Game Day, which is kind of, you know, in the United States, a really iconic partnership that we're really proud of. So we had this high degree of confidence going in that we could put on an excellent activation. The complexity is in the three countries and in the diversity of cities. And, you know, the United States is such a broad and different country, depending on where you are. There was a lot of debate initially around the activation of do we make it feel like the market that we're in or do we make it feel like something that that market isn't used to?

11:31And what you will see is a really unique geographical bent. I mean, we're a company of live goods and patio and making homes feel like home. And so you will see the localization actually pulled through into the FanFest in those markets where Miami's activation looks and feels like Miami. The home feels like Miami. The plants and live goods fit in Miami. And we wanted to make it really pull through the store into that experience. So we're really happy with where that is going and how that's going to pan out.

12:05David Cushnan:How are you finding working within very defined parameters? And actually, how different are you finding it from any other sponsorship partnership engagement that you might be involved in? I mean, this has been bigger and broader, you know, obviously than some of the past engagements and more regimented and what the approvals process looks like and how we go back and get things done. But what I will say is because we have the supporter agreement, we are able to, you know, use the marks and pull that through into everything we've done. It's not a matter of like how big can you dream it? It's like how much can we actually get done with the time that we have and then how do we prioritize what we're going to go and do?

12:43And we haven't really seen a lot of limitations if we've come up with a good idea. I mean, some things are getting traded back and forth a little bit. But when we have a great idea and at the level of caliber that we like to execute, we have been able to, you know, get that approved and push it forward. So we're feeling really good about that.

12:58David Cushnan:And to what extent have you had the headspace, I suppose, to look at what other partners are doing and maybe exchange ideas? I mean, because that's obviously, if not for this tournament, then for future inspiration, innovation. There's quite a valuable opportunity here if you have time for it, I suppose. No, we have taken a lot of inspiration from some of our partner brands. For example, we have a great relationship with Coca-Cola here in Atlanta. They have been our World Cup partner for a very long time. And so we've been they've been very gracious with like helping us learn and understand what we can do to enhance what we're offering.

13:32Even as we've looked at some of our in-store programming in certain local markets, we will actually have Coca-Cola activations in the parking lots of the Home Depot. And how do we create that broader connection from the customer, from the other partners? But to your point, there's a lot of can we make the time and headspace to actually be together? And then how do we learn from each other? I think we've actually heard from some of our partners that they're excited about the way that we're bringing our sweepstakes to life. and learning from us on, you know, what they could do differently next time.

13:59So the great thing is there's a great community of marketers and partners that want to work together and figure out really at the end of the day, how do you make the fan experience as best as possible? How do you make the customer experience as best as possible and really be additive there? And so everybody wants to trade ideas and like trade shop, which is great.

14:17David Cushnan:And for you personally, what does your World Cup itinerary look like? Are you, I presume you're out and about meeting, greeting, what's going to make it most useful and how are you thinking about how you spend your time across what is a lengthy tournament? And as we've talked about, geographically spread tournament, how are you going to prioritize? Yep, that's right. I mean, we're trying to get out early on and make sure we're physically in those fan fests and that the experience that we're delivering to customers and fans is what we expect and make sure we don't need to make any adjustments or modifications early on.

14:45Same for some of our hospitality and hosting programs. Early on, we'll be visiting multiple of those and just making sure, again, that it is really top tier, top notch, which is what Home Depot expects to deliver. Of course, we'll be meeting with other partners while we're there, but we're going to be fast and furious at the beginning of getting our feet under us and just making sure that we're managing through any complications and hiccups. And so that's going to be my early priority that we're hopefully by the end starting to run like a, you know, well oil machine and that the customers who haven't been there yet are and are seeing this for the first time are just as delighted as, you know, they can be.

15:20David Cushnan:And this is getting ahead of ourselves because there's a long summer ahead. But at the end of this, typically what kind of debrief process does Home Depot do on what's worked, what's not? And what's the sort of timing of that? Do you want to wait until you've got all the data, all the information sometime after the tournament? Or are you a more of a sort of snap debrief person? No, I mean, right now we will be making adjustments in tournament as we go and documenting those. And I think that will be really helpful, even with our programming that we already have in stores. hey, this, you know, online experience isn't looking the way that we want it to document it so that we can move on and do it better the next time.

15:56There's, of course, like, how did we impact the, you know, brain preference and brain intent, especially with our core customer base, there will be a little bit of a lag on that. But we'll be taking kind of the learnings as we go and keeping track of those. And then as we get to the end and understanding how we did with our biggest metrics, and we'll be saying, well, what is the next best opportunity? And how do we really modify apply for the future. But some of these programs we've never run before. And so we are hoping to be able to apply even something like our sweepstakes or our gift with purchase as soon as into our college game day program, which starts in the fall.

16:28So we want to be able to take those learnings after action them and then really bring that into our other sponsorships right away.

16:34David Cushnan:And I was just thinking, orange, is orange the official color or is it a more specific name than that? Or would you just say orange? It's our orange, but yes, there is a color on the color wheel. Okay. I'm just thinking the Dutch national team. I know. We're very aware. There is a golden opportunity for some sort of alignment or, you know, working together to create something quite memorable because the Dutch army come in force. You know that we have talked about that and we haven't actioned on it yet, but maybe that's going to be the fire that lights me to go and solve that problem because it is, it's not a problem, but also an exciting opportunity that we don't want to miss.

17:08David Cushnan:Absolutely. They are fun. They are fun fans. Wish you all the best with the tournament, Alison. Thank you. Thanks for speaking to us. Thank you so much for the time. I appreciate it. Lauren Flanagan is with me. And Lauren, we've just stepped off stage after a session. I'm going to say I very much enjoyed. You can give me your verdict on it in a moment. But great to have you with us at Business of Soccer. How did you find it up there? It was amazing. Thank you so much, David, for having me. I think fellow panelists, awesome, great insights were shared across the board. So great. I really enjoyed myself.

17:38David Cushnan:The challenge was quite large in that we were there to discuss Gen Z and the attention economy, which is an enormous topic and can go off in all sorts of directions. Tell us a little bit about, first of all, your role and then a little bit about how you doing what you do at Mondelez. Now, have I been saying Mondelez wrong for years? No, you've got it perfectly. I mean, actually, that is the way to say it, but I feel like everyone just says colloquially now Mondelez. Okay. All right. Tell us a little bit about how Mondelēz looks at Gen Z audiences. Yes. So the way that we think about Gen Z, and maybe I can tell you a little bit about myself, my role, my relationship to the company, and then a little bit about how we think about Gen Z and specifically how I'm thinking about it for my brands.

18:21So as I mentioned on stage, I'm leading global brand marketing across what we call refreshment categories, which is essentially our gum and refreshing candy portfolio. So for the Americans, we know Hall's is a cough drop, but globally, it is really known as a refreshing candy. So I've been with the organization about 11 years, variety of different roles. Between this role, it's been about two years. And then prior to that was leading all of our partnerships business across Biscuit, got to lead our direct to consumer business, and then many other traditional brand roles before that, mostly on Oreos, Sour Patch Kids, and the like.

18:52So across all of those roles, Gen Z has been super important. And in thinking about the gum category, for example, that category really lost a lot of penetration among young consumers during the pandemic. It was the time when they were really in high school and where that behavior of gum as social currency really would have been established. But because they didn't have that in-person social moment, we actually have basically a generation of folks who didn't develop the habit of chew. So Gen Z and then ultimately Gen Alpha, really important target groups for me and my particular brands and just generally across the snacking landscape.

19:25So when I think about Gen Z, as we talked about a little bit on stage, I think about that as a demographic that's important, but also the fact that it is one of the most diverse generations that we've had in history. So how do we think about reaching them more directly? And it's starting with the psychographics. So finding passion points, finding interests of that group that really resonate, that we can speak to and that we can platform, and then finding the right way for my brand to engage in that most authentically for the purpose of my brand, the fit of my brand, and ultimately the product that I'm selling.

19:53So I like to think about who specifically am I reaching within that? What are they interested in? And what's the role my brand can play within that narrative?