This chemical engineer, who once described his arrival in the world of marketing as “accidental”, is today an unavoidable reference when it comes to rethinking brand messages in the face of the hyperconnected environment in which most consumers live.
My meeting with him during the Mastercard Innovation Forum in Miami quickly became a true “masterclass”. I am facing a tireless entrepreneur, but also a lucid analyst who understands how emerging technologies are reshaping the ecosystems in which brands and consumers interact continually.
What do companies need to understand some phenomena in time and respond with an appropriate strategy?
– I don’t have a definitive answer to that. But I think it’s about putting marketing as the true heart of the business and not just another department. It’s a philosophy that doesn’t even have to do with budget. You can spend a lot of money on an ad that has no real impact on people’s emotions or think in terms of creating and recreating experiences.
Speaking of experiences, 25 years have passed since the Priceless campaign and that slogan about “the things money can’t buy…” still lives on. How do you explain the power of that message?
– The message is still alive because the emotional connection we established with consumers was very strong, but also because we knew how to adapt it to the pace of technological changes. Let’s keep in mind that the campaign was born in a world without social networks and without iPhone, a world in which consumers had more time and were more passive. Today everyone wants to star in their own experiences. So we took the campaign to a multi-sensory marketing platform and instead of celebrating priceless moments we set out directly to generate them.
– Is multisensory marketing the answer to this hyperconnected world?
– It’s more than that. It is about providing “360 degree” experiences and that is why the five senses are vital for there to be a powerful identification with the brand. We design culinary experiences to reach our values and our identity through taste. We did it in restaurants in Mexico, Brazil and the United States. How much more valuable and unforgettable can that experience be for a person compared to the ephemeral 15 seconds in which a commercial, as we know very expensive, takes place during a Super Bowl halftime? I think it is a discussion that we still owe…
I follow very closely the innovative startups that want to make the leap to be the next “unicorns”. What would you say to the men and women who lead those companies? Can they learn from Mastercard’s multi-sensory experience?
– I would not only say that they can, but that must. First they have to put their mindset in the fifth paradigm of marketing. After product marketing, emotional marketing, digital marketing and social marketing, it was time for quantum marketing. If I had to summarize it, I would say that it is about designing marketing strategies in line with the “tsunami” of emerging technologies that surround us, from artificial intelligence and augmented reality to drone deliveries, 3D printing and holograms, to name just a few. .
It sounds like a lot of things need to be rephrased. Where should they start?
– Actually, the first recommendation is not strictly technological but cultural. You have to understand that the brand concept itself needs a “rebranding”. Building and sustaining trust in certain brand values is perhaps more difficult than ever. People, both online and offline, are asking if your brand is trustworthy, if it is inclusive of minorities, if it respects privacy, if corporate actions are environmentally sustainable. And all that can be affected by the bad response of a single community manager…