- 99% of the world doesn't know who the CMO of anything is.
And I want people to get to know more
of the people that I admire,
whether I know them well or I don't know them at all.
You got your perspective. (upbeat music building)
(crowd cheering)
I just wanna be happy.
Don't you wanna be happy?
(upbeat music)
- Kenny Mitchell joins us
as chief marketing officer for Snap.
He's their first ever chief marketing officer.
And he oversees everything from consumer and product
to all the marketing programs.
Thanks so much for joining us, Kenny.
- Thanks for having me.
How can I beat that and clean up
when A Rod was on the count?
Like I don't even understand this.
- Because Kenny, you led the nation...
Everybody is watching, this is real.
This man, this handsome man
who's lost like 10 pounds visually.
I'm impressed, I need to talk to you about that.
You look in shape during this time.
I'm impressed.
You've lost some weight, I can tell.
This man led the nation in assists, the NCAA.
This is- This man...
led the nation in assists.
This is a talented, multi-dimensionally talented man.
And that's why you get to do cleanup
because you also are a world-class athlete
and had your moment to shine.
Tell- Tell the details Kenny.
Don't be humble and then I'll do the full intro.
- So I love your diversity of going from a MLB Hall of Famer
to an Ivy league, you know, point guard.
(Gary laughing)
But yeah, yeah, my senior year in college,
I had the distinction of leading the nation in assists,
NCAA in assists.
And I love to...
- Big shout out to your school.
- Big shout out to Dartmouth, eh, Big Green.
I love to tell the story that that same year
the person who led the nation in scoring
was none other than Tim Duncan,
who went on to play 19 years in the NBA,
make 200 and some odd million dollars, five championships.
And I became a marketer.
So we're like essentially...
- The same.
- [Kenny] The same, yeah.
- Kenny, what is your Twitter handle for everybody?
Because the quotes and the screenshots have been crazy.
The hashtag is marketing for the now.
- @KMitch
I was an early enough adopter to actually have my nickname.
K Mitch, M I T C H.
Kenny, giving everybody one minute in the incredible hall
of fame marketing career at Gatorade at McDonald's,
now Snap.
Anything else I missed?
- Yeah. Yeah.
So I've spent the preponderance of my career actually
at Pepsi Co.
I was leading a marketing or a variety of marketing roles
at Gatorade, most notably
where I got to the, the, the, the, the,
the humbling experience
of leading an iconic brand and working with some
of the best athletes of the world, best properties
in the world.
Some of the sharpest marketing minds of the world.
Spent a little bit of my career as well at McDonald's.
Spent some time actually at NASCAR.
- Only a- Literally a cup of coffee.
And on the record, shout out to McDonald's.
I like the coffee, not too...
because then you had a big opportunity.
- Yeah. Yeah.
And, you know, I got a big opportunity here at Snap.
It's a platform that I've been a believer
in as an advertiser since the very beginning.
And it started during my time at Gatorade.
Gatorade is such a consumer driven company
that it was not uncommon for us to be spending time directly
with our, our, our consumer, which are competitive athletes.
And they were telling us back in 2011 and 2012
like this Snap, this, this is where it's at.
This is how I communicate with my friends.
We, we actually would get questions
from a Gatorade's version of influencers
which are like athletic trainers, nutritionists, dieticians.
And they're like, is this just for sending nudes?
Like, what's this thing about?
So our team had to kind of do a deep dive to just learn
about the platform and really believed
in this notion of this generation
kind of transforming the way that they communicate
and communicating visually as being
like the primary format of doing that,
whether it be sending photos or sending videos.
And, and it's just like an incredibly sticky use case
and doing it with your friends was something
that we just thought was like super compelling.
So the moment Snap started allowing advertising-
I think it was 2015.
We were, you know, one of probably the first five
or 10 to market.
and really learned the platform incredibly well.
Saw a tremendous amount of value in the creativity
of the, the ad products, the reach of the, of the consumer.
They were a pain in the ass to work with,
to be honest, especially-
- They were so young.
They were so young, you know?
- (laughing) Exactly.
- But these big companies, I mean, this is what's happening
with TikTok and it's what's going to happen
to the next four- like when you're so young, right?
- You're trying to- you're trying to fit-
you figure things out.
So we, we were-
- Kenny I- Kenny I apologize for interrupting,
but I'm dying.
I'm just like too anxious for this question.
'Cause I'm real curious.
I actually don't know the answer to this.
What's the biggest thing that marketers
and the consumer world doesn't know about Snap?
- I'd say the one insight
that you would find really interesting
that's probably not well known is
that the- the scale of the platform, one example
of that is that in the US, Snap has more-
A- a larger community of 25 plus people than Twitter has
in all of the US.
- Say it one more time for people to hear it.
- I'll say it one more time for the people in the back.
'Cause Snap is known as a platform for, for
for younger folks.
We have more people in the US 25 plus
than Twitter has in all of the US, all ages.
So-
- And what is that grounded in?
Is that grounded in downloads US active?
- That's down, that's down, that's grounded
in daily active users versus Twitter's version
of the monetizable daily active users,
So it's, it's an apples to apples comparison.
So the scale is actually tremendous.
And, and part of the reason
for that is that it's a private platform.
Snap is a closed platform.
So understanding the user experience only happens
when you're actually using the platform,
which is not true for Twitter,
not true for Instagram, not true for Facebook.
They're all feed based platforms.
- Which changes the viral loop, which makes it deeper
but maybe not as wide potentially
but to your point, wider than most think.
- Wider than many think.
It, it allow-
- What about Snapchat originals?
Talk to me about that.
- Awe, Snapchat Originals, amazing.
So it is essentially, you know, us working directly
with talent with production companies and, and
and basically building out original programming.
And one of my favorites that, that we recently did was
with Will Smith and his production company,
the Westbrook production group,
basically thinking about what's happening right now.
Will wanted to find a way to kind of like inspire
and uplift people,
so he created this program "Will from Home"
where he was literally at home and, and,
and kind of connecting with his friends, former cast mates,
other talent and just kind of like telling the story
of what it's like to be at home right now,
reminiscing on different, you know,
activities that they've done together.
It performed incredibly well for us.
It reached like 35 million people over the course
of the program.
And Will, himself, like he, he's done an incredible job,
him and his production company,
of understanding how to build for mobile.
- He's a communication beast and communication beasts
win on all platforms.
- Absolutely. - [Gary] End of story.
- So, you know, we have across originals, you know,
we have them that are created not just in the US.
We have originals in Europe, originals in Asia.
And we, this, the scale of it is actually really phenomenal.
We have somewhere between 50 or 60 different shows
that reached 10 million community members during
during a given season, which, which is
which is pretty darn miraculous.
- What's been the difference between marketing a platform,
'cause your job is to market the platform,
versus marketing a beverage or a QSR?
Like what's been the biggest shift?
'Cause that is a, that is a shift.
- It is, it is.
I'll tell you that the places where I think it's,
it's been really, really fascinating.
One is having been an advertiser
and now having accountability both for the consumer side
as well as the advertiser side,
I know the sales pitches that have come in
when I've been on the other side of the table.
And also what that means in terms
of where the gaps may be in terms of the way that, that
that Snap has told its story.
So that, that's been I've, I've I think, benefited
from having that, that perspective in that point of view.
But that's also been wildly different.
I've never had as many stakeholders to think about
as you're building out messaging,
one from a consumer perspective,
one from an advertiser perspective,
another from an agency perspective,
maybe some from a DR advertiser-
So it's the, the, the stakeholders and trying
to find messaging that is that that's addressing the variety
of their needs has been, been pretty different.
- What what's on your mind through this thing?
What what's like, what's like
what is a top priority for Kenny and Snap
during this six, seven, eight, 12, 18 week period?
Like, what's kind of, when I say what's
on your mind and putting on your professional hat,
what, what kind of comes to the top?
- You know, the, the thing that's been the biggest priority
for us has been kind of embracing the responsibility
that we have to support our community.
- A communication highway,
which it's important.
It's a responsibility.
- Well also with the Snapchat generation, right?
So they're, they're, they're, they're younger folks, right?
So think of, of Gen Z.
Think of younger millennials.
That's kind of like the bread and butter of
who makes up our, our, our community.
And making sure that we are providing them the education,
providing them the inspiration,
providing them the engagement-
It, it actually has as a leadership team,
and as a company,
we've actually felt a tremendous responsibility
to help ensure that we're, we're
we're providing the right tools, the right education,
the right information to, to make sure that our,
our community is well supported
during such like a tricky time.
If it's a platform that's actually built for communication
for those that are closest to you,
like god damn it couldn't be a more important time
to be communicating with those closest to you
than right now.
So that's been a big focus of ours.
- Kenny, what was the biggest, exciting thing
in your career from a star struck?
Because I think about Gatorade.
I just, this is now, I'm just being selfish now,
listen I've been going hard here for two hours,
so I'm just going selfish now.
Like, what was the most, like,
I cannot believe I'm hanging out with D Wade
would be the one I'm guessing,
but there, there's some other crazy stuff.
Snap now to McDonald's-
Like you've been in some places my man.
So I'm trying to think about like, just on some honest shit.
On some honest human shit,
'cause one of the fun things about marketing
for The Now for me is we want the world to, you know,
I'm a marketer that real people know.
And the lineup that we're putting
over the next six weeks is really,
I want the world to know marketers.
We have an inner industry that knows who these people are.
99% of the world doesn't know who the CMO of anything is.
And I want people to get to know more
of the people that I admire, whether I know them well
or I don't know them at all
on this marketing, you know, now program.
So I'm trying to go into Kenny, the human,
for all the people that are following you now
that are going to build a real relationship with you.
Give me a true human story.
Where were you like, whoa, like calling your moms
or a girl, or like, like, you know, like a buddy,
like you will not believe the commercial I'm doing about.
Like give me the truth.
Probably when you met Gary V I get that
but besides that.
By the way, for the record
when he met Gary V, he was like, who the is fuck this dude?
So go ahead.
(laughing)
- So first of all, I have actually hung out with you
in public and have watched scores of people request a photo
or so, like, you know, don't, don't, don't-
- Poor change.
- [Kenny] Don't suggest that we're, that,
that you got you're something other
than a celebrity yourself, but, you know,
I've really been fortunate.
I've had a chance to work with the likes
of Michael Jordan or Serena Williams or Peyton Manning
or Usain Bolt,
but I'll tell you one of my absolute favorites is um
Dwayne, Dwayne Wade.
- [Gary] He's the best human.
He's a, a, just a great human being.
He has a great team around him.
And I've actually had the, the privilege of traveling
with him for some international programs that we've done
on the Gatorade business.
And one that was like incredibly incredibly eye opening is-
actually both of them had this, this dynamic to it,
but we went to China and then we went to Australia
over the course of about a year and a half.
And when we went to China and we landed
there were a thousand people at the airport waiting,
and I've actually-
it felt like the Beatles were kind of coming to town.
And I personally had never seen anything like that.
So like, to kind of be wading
through the exit of the airport
and seeing all of the love and adoration and folks crying
like it just, it was, it was really insane.
- [Gary] That's nice.
- And then when we went to Australia, this was-
It was during the NBA lockout.
So I think it was like 2011, I think was the year.
And I remember him, we were doing like this appearance
and some dinners and a few other things.
And this cat tweets out like,
Hey, I'm going to be at this place, doing this thing.
He tweets it out, maybe like a half hour
or an hour before the actual appearance happens.
And I swear to god, there's like 5,000 people outside.
- [Gary] It's amazing.
- It was insane.
So we, we, you know, we do, we do the appearance and the,
the media stuff inside.
He walks outside and it was just-
It looks like Lollapalooza, and it was pretty remarkable.
- Kenny, you're one of my favorites.
Keep up the good work.
I really, really appreciate you.
Thanks for being a part of this.
We're going to definitely ask you to be back on.
- Thank you so much for having me, brother.
- Love you bro. Talk to you soon.
- [Carolyn] Okay, take care. Bye bye.
- Bye bye.
YouTube watcher, what's up?
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