Marketers sometimes must take research with a grain of salt. And sometimes a grain of salt is all it takes to get an insight.
For Mondelēz, it was salt that helped craft a message to reach new audiences and explore new directions for a legacy brand. Those little grains of salt atop the classic cracker inspired The Salty Club, the Ritz brand’s first entry into Super Bowl advertising.
The spot, featuring music phenomenon Bad Bunny, is part of an effort to widen the appeal of the 94-year-old brand. It became part of a larger activation built around the musician’s August residency in his native Puerto Rico, which includes event marketing, a contest and social media activity.
“This is 90-year-old history. We’re in 47% of American households. We do about $1.5 billion in retail sales,” says Steven Saenen, category president, savory snacking at Mondelēz. “We’re very proud of that foundation, but for the next growth chapter, what we really want to do is evolve it from this trusted classic cracker to a modern savory snack.”
Mondelēz wants to take Ritz from a leader in entertaining occasions – the cracker that always appears on the party platter – and expand its reach to on-the-go munching, meals and other opportunities. It is riding food trends such as hot honey and queso flavors – Saenen noted research shows 44% of Gen Z wants bolder flavors – as well as reinventing its packaging to make it conducive to new lifestyle opportunities and broadening its generational and multicultural appeal, as witnessed by the Bad Bunny sponsorship.
“We start from the fact that we’re already the number one multicultural cracker, something that we’re very proud of, but it’s really important for us that we keep that going,” says Saenen.
Prior to joining Mondelēz, where he has worked for more than 17 years, Saenen also worked for Danone and AB InBev. Brand Innovators caught up with him just days after being promoted to category president from VP of Ritz. This interview was edited for clarity and length.
Where did the idea for Salty Club come from? How did that evolve?
With everything we do, we always start with the consumer and the product. There’s something that our R&D friends call “drivers of liking.” For the Ritz products, there’s a number of things: It’s the crispy, flaky texture. It’s the fact that it’s baked and nice and round, with the scalloped edges. The perfectly salted aspect of it, with the visible salt crystals, is something that just delights them.
We started there, and then creatively that took us to salty people. The Salty Club is a place where people can get together, salty or otherwise. Because ultimately we do have to ladder up to our brand mission, which is to bring people together and creating connections.
Why Bad Bunny? Is this a pitch to new demographics, or a reach to the boldest, widest audience?
Of course, we’ll take the amazing reach that he has, but where we’re coming from is driving cultural relevance, specifically with younger and multicultural demographics.
This is not an isolated thing we’re doing; we’re stepping out across the board. We have a longstanding partnership with the NCAA, for example. We have some individual athlete collaborations, such as (USC guard) Juju Watkins, as one example.
We signed a partnership with Inter Miami (Football Club) this year. Their local fan base is 70% Hispanic. So we’re very focused on this audience.
And then, of course, Bad Bunny is not only one of the most successful Latin artists, but a true cultural icon for this demographic. He’s also a self-professed Ritz fan. We’re honored to start partnering with him during our Super Bowl commercial, our debut this year. This is kind of the continuation of that.
Is your media strategy evolving, as well?
There will always be a place for more upper-funnel, big equity campaigns, such as a Super Bowl. We’ll absolutely still be investing there, but I think more and more we’re moving towards the lower funnel, as well. Ecommerce, for example, is a place we’re really investing, as we see more and more of our core consumer going online. Shopper marketing, to really be more impactful in-store, is another one.
Historically, this brand has been very focused on its core product, the cracker as you know it, in the entertaining occasion. That’s another thing that we’re evolving. More and more, we’re focused on other occasions as well. So while the core will always be the center of the brand, occasions like on-the-go and meal bridge are very important to us. More and more, we’re investing some resources there as well, with a little bit more product-forward messaging.
With all of that brand strength, why the need to reinvent the brand?
We really think that the frame of reference for these brands is much bigger than crackers. It’s really the total savory space, and we believe that’s a space that’s up for reinvention. We want to be leading the way and may be at the tip of the spear there, maybe the flagship. We have an amazing portfolio of other savory brands such as Triscuits and Wheat Thins and some smaller brands such as our new Sargento Cheese Bakes, that would also play their part.
And that’s your new remit: not just Ritz, but you’re now in charge of all the snacking.
I’m personally, of course, very excited about it, but I think it’s a great opportunity for our Savory portfolio as a whole. It’s a real shift for the company. It allows us to step out of the shadow of our amazing sweet brands and it will allow us to be laser focused on serving the needs of the consumer in the savory space.
What we want to do is bolder innovation: Bigger activations, faster speed to market, ultimately just serving the consumer better. Specifically, what we want to do is offer more value, more convenience, more better-for-you options, more flavor, more moments to celebrate. All of these savory-specific needs. I think we’ll be able to go about it in a much more focused and agile way.
