TRENDSETTERS: Hershey's Charlie Chappell Discusses a Mindset for Growth Amid Changing Times…

The Internationalist Trendsetters is written by Deborah Malone, founder of The Internationalist.
 

Charlie Chappell of The Hershey Company believes that marketing growth comes from having an acceleration mindset. He says, "When you look at change, you can be fearful, or consider an opportunity to grow your business. You can see chaos and cocoon, or simply decide to grow. The marketers that will survive are those who will figure it out and win. And that takes the right people, the right mindset and the right brand."

As Head of Integrated Media and Communications Planning, Charlie Chappell is among the first to admit that we live in a world where we are subjected to advertising from literally every direction. It is estimated that consumers need to filter through 4,000-10,000 ads per day to quickly find what matters to them. "Today," he admits, "decisions move in a matter of 100 milliseconds. And as marketers, we need to shift our mindset and move just as fast."

And while he certainly advocates an "agile" approach to media, he clarifies his perspective by emphasizing that media strategy must now be tech-enabled and data-fueled and people-based. He explains, "Say we want to increase sales for our instant consumable products. We have two options: 1. Use an identity-driven approach to find regular c-store customers, or 2. Use a location-based approach to target consumers when they are near a store location. Which is more efficient? By testing it out and adapting in real-time based on those use cases, we get to our answer faster."

He will also host the upcoming ANA Media Conference (https://www.ana.net/conference/show/id/MLC-MAR20) which brings together media leaders to share actionable insights on the newest ways of connecting with today's consumers. This takes place from March 24 – 26 at the JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort & Spa in Aventura, Florida.

The conference will cover the industry's most critical topics including advanced TV, voice, attribution, influencer marketing, brand safety, in-house media, programmatic, measurement, data-driven marketing and media transformation, and more.

Some of the speakers and subjects that Charlie Chappell will be hosting at ANA MEDIA include:

• Marc Pritchard, Chief Brand Office- The Procter & Gamble Company: BUILDING A RESPONSIBLE MEDIA SUPPLY CHAIN
• Allyson Witherspoon, Vice President, Marketing Communications and Media- Nissan North America: THE CONVERGENCE OF MARKETING
• Paolo Provinciali, Head, U.S. Media-Anheuser-Busch InBev: CAPTURING AND MEASURING CONSUMER ATTENTION
• Atin Kulkarni, Head, Global Media & Content, CoE- Pepsico: CREATING VALUE THROUGH MEDIA OPTIMIZATION
• Lina Shields (@LinaP_Shields), Chief Media Officer- Eli Lilly: DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA
• Ursula Ringham, Head, Global Influencer Marketing- SAP: STRUCTURING A WORLD CLASS INFLUENCER MARKETING PROGRAM

Charlie Chappell also has several other suggestions for his marketing and media peers, which he'll use to kick-start discussion at this month's Media Conference:

• Winning media leaders focus on growth over savings. While an efficient CPM is greatly desired, if it doesn't lead to business growth, what's the point? Growth is harder. Competition is fierce. It's best to invest to grow.
• Media Transformation is VERY hard but necessary work. Internal organization structures and reward systems need to be rethought. Analytics and engineering are new sources of competitive advantage. Marketers and Retailers need to partner in new ways to unlock growth.
• Content at scale is the next big unlock to growth. Today's media world can present endless opportunities to personally connect with consumers, but the content demands put a strain on both cost and time. This is especially true in video where most dollars go.
• You can't just sit back and wait. Fear of failure is the greatest threat to legacy brands. Challenger brands are leveraging this to drive change unencumbered and disrupt categories. Learning fast and pivoting has never been easier, but today's marketers need to stop thinking so much and just go and learn … even if they make a few mistakes along the way.

Charlie Chappell is currently Head of Media & Comms Planning at The Hershey Company where he is leading Hershey's transformation to a Data-Driven, People-Based approach to media. In this role, he oversees all paid media across Hershey's iconic portfolio of brands such as Reese's, Hershey's, Kit Kat, Ice Breakers, Twizzlers and many more.

Charlie brings a marketer's perspective to his role leading media after spending 12 years at Procter & Gamble where he had the privilege to touch many iconic brands such as Pantene, Herbal Essences, Old Spice, Gillette, Secret, Safeguard and Camay. While his career has primarily been based in the US, Charlie has worked in over 25 different countries with a particular emphasis on China, Russia, Egypt & Pakistan. While with P&G he spent 2.5 years based in Geneva, Switzerland covering Central & Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Charlie is a graduate of Purdue University in Chemical Engineering and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He currently lives just outside of Hershey, PA with his wife and four kids.