Jonathan Harley, Lee Rolston and Rankin Carroll joined the Variety Studio presented by Canva, at Cannes Lions for a discussion about incorporating distinct partnerships, notable assets and attracting new consumers.
Harley, head of global strategic partnerships at Canva, Rolston, chief growth officer at Jones Knowles Ritchie (JKR) and Carroll, chief brand officer at Mars, discussed how their three differing companies have connected to collaborate and grow each company.
At the beginning of the conversation, Rolston spoke to JKR’s recent study which surveyed over 500 brands, over 5,000 assets and 26,000 people across nearly 30 countries, to examine the brands’ ability to invoke consumers’ brand recognition and recall. The study found only 15% of all assets were distinctive to consumers, including Mars’ M&Ms.
Carroll spoke to the company’s efforts in creating distinct branding, “We’ve been building distinctiveness on that brand for eight decades, always evolving to keep up with the times, but always being clear and being distinctive. Obviously our brand, our word mark the ‘M&M,’ but even the single M, that shape, when put in front of consumers unprompted, they will spot and say, ‘That’s the M&M’s brand.’ We have the luxury of now seven characters, which is fantastic, who keep evolving. And even the lentil shape of the M&M, but that is recognizable and iconic in that sense.”
Carroll continued to explain how these visual strategies have aided the 20-year partnership with JKR, as the two “work to protect that and guard it.” Carroll added, “[We] guard it preciously, because it adds value, it has business value, it has balance sheet value.”
While Carroll and Rolston spoke to the insights from the study, Harley elaborated on how companies, such as Canva, work to develop and distribute the distinct branding and “the consistency of the creative.” Harley said, “At Canva, our focus has been really about building out an environment that is effectively a home for every brand. A brand hub, which has multiple brand kits where you’ve got all of your fonts, your logos, your assets, all of that key collateral that then combined with brand controls means that anyone who is deploying on that is staying within the clear brand lane.”
Carroll added how M&M has brought forth the creation of an expansive branding environment, through the M&M characters. “They have full back stories. It was actually very cool to go through this because in order to re-offer them or represent them. Let’s say, we made some shifts along with the purpose in not just how they looked, but also the story they told and the jokes they told. Maybe some things we were presenting weren’t ideally set up for today, so we rewrote the backstory.”
As for the shifts in backstories, these revisions have worked in the company’s favor, with Carroll noting that Mars is ranked as one of the top five Gen Z brands. Attributing that success to the brand’s inclusion of conversations that are “incredibly relevant” to Gen Z consumers, as well as their efforts for inclusion.
While Carroll takes pride in their growth, he recognized that some consumers may not favor their new branding or perspectives, “whenever you take a position, you’re going to have some level of opposition.”
Carroll noted, “We took flack, from famously folks like Tucker Carlson, et cetera. But honestly, our reaction to that was to just stay with who we are.”
Watch the full conversation above.
