- Chris Walton and Anne Mozinga are at the Fusion Group booth at the World Retail Congress
- Anton Vincent, President of North America and Global Ice Cream at Mars Wrigley, is interviewed
- Anton discusses his background, role at Mars, and focus on targeting Gen Z consumers
- He talks about Mars Wrigley's approach to Omni Channel retail and the importance of consistent brand experiences across all touchpoints.

- The speaker emphasizes the importance of collaboration and learning in the retail industry
- Technology, data, and analytics are valuable tools for improving the consumer experience
- The partnership between retailers and technology aids in creating a smoother ecosystem
- The interview was conducted at the World Retail Congress in Paris by the Fusion Group

Omni Talk Retail provides news, analysis, and commentary on the latest trends and issues in the retail industry. It covers a wide range of topics related to retail, including e-commerce, technology, marketing, and consumer behavior. The podcast regularly features industry experts, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga, as well as retail thought leaders who all share their insights and perspectives on the latest developments in retail.

Hello everyone this is Omni Talk Retail I'm Chris Walton

are coming to you live from the Fusion Group booth at the World Retail Congress booth number 1 in the networking area and

That's an easier booth number to remember than in years past I feel like there was a lot of trouble that we had.

And thanks to Fusion Group for helping support our work at this conference.

Now, I am pleased to introduce our first guest of the afternoon, and that is the man standing between us, Anton Vincent, the President of North America and Global Ice Cream at Mars Wrigley.

I've had my session and really trying to enjoy some of the other sessions as

And so, yeah, I think I'm doing the European thing pretty good.

Well, Anton, I'd love to hear a little bit about your background, especially the ice cream part in your current role right

I spent most of my professional career at General Mills.

Yeah, I came right out of grad school, was there for 20 plus years, ran 3 divisions by the time I left.

And then came over to Mars a few years after that.

1 of the things that's interesting about ice cream and me is that when I was at General Mills, I actually acquired, it was on a team that acquired the Pillsbury ice cream business.

They were in a JV with Nestle at the time, and

acquired them and ended up actually selling it back to Nestle as well.

So my history with ice cream goes way back to my corporate development days as well.

You know how we say in Minnesota, 25 plus winters.

So now what are you doing in your current role at Mars?

Yeah, my current role at Mars, I have a bit of a dual role.

So I run all of our North American business for our confections business, right?

Then I have global responsibility for our ice cream business.

Ice cream is a business we've been in for about 40 years.

We probably got very serious about it about 10 years ago and so we decided to actually expand it globally.

Big US footprint, big European footprint and we just went into China about 18 months ago.

Oh my gosh, so what are some of the ice cream products that we might be developing?

Well, I'm hoping both of you guys have in your freezer.

So our number 1 brand is actually the Snickers ice cream bar, which is really incredible.

So part of our platform is really around bars.

We really leverage it from our ambient business.

So think about bars in an ice cream format that we bring over as well.

And so we really try to narrow our format.

Oh man, do you need any taste test support?

You know, I think it's a fantastic conference.

And, you know, we're trying to do more as Mars.

So we're just trying to do more around just getting our name out, getting our brands out, and making sure all of our leadership is making sure that we are bringing influence to the space and doing it in a way that's credible.

You know, we think we've got some pretty cool brands that are global in nature and we think we contribute to the consumer conversation, the retail conversation.

Everyone's trying to learn from each other, trying to network here.

1 of the things I find is that it's attracting, I think, quite a diverse group of leaders as well.

Everybody from tech to retail to the brand side as well.

And I think what we all know, absolutely.

What we all know is that all this thing stuff is connected.

And then how do we connect it for our consumers and our customers?

What do you kind of hope that the audience took away from

Well, part of our discussion, a big part of it was around Gen Z, which is obviously a big target for anybody who sells anything.

Just getting some understanding around what different formats, how are we attacking them, how are we trying to understand what their value system is, how are we connecting what we have to offer, service, product, experience, and connect it with their value system.

Because we know with that consumer group, they're very much values-based, and they take those values into transactions, big transactions, small transactions.

So it's really important for us to understand that and build ecosystems to make sure we're targeting and serving those consumers.

What are some of the ways that you're doing

You know, it's fortunate because we have so many big brands and so many iconic brands, And so our brands are known.

And so for a person like us or a business like us, our stuff is making sure that we're relevant to those consumers.

Because it's not a function of they've been around for some of them for 80 plus years.

And so 1 of the things we do is make sure that we're very active in our digital channels, making sure we're really pushing the influencer piece, making sure when people are buying in M&Ms, they're coming to an M&M store, it's not just a transaction, but it's an experience.

And how do we customize and personalize that experience as well, and so these are not new things, but in terms of how do you bring that to this particular audience is very new, and I think we're all still learning.

So we just, we recorded our weekly podcast this morning and we were talking about like brands going direct to consumer.

How do you think about that, having such a popular brand and being in charge of ice cream another thing that can be a challenge To get somebody but it's a craving that I have like I want that in 15 minutes

think there's a couple ways 1 our central concept is just trying to go from a brand transaction to a brand experience.

Because obviously at the end of the day we want them to purchase and repurchase those type of things, but they have to be attracted to the brand.

They have to make sure that brand works in the context of their life.

It's not just a manufacturer like us pushing messages as well.

So we have our M&M stores in which we try to make sure we attract them into as well.

Very large cities, 7 around the world, 4 in the US, 3 outside the US, 1 in Beijing, 1 in Berlin, and then 1 here in London as well.

So we have these big set pieces for the stores.

Then in those stores you can do a lot of things.

Obviously Transact, you can customize your M&M's, you can do a lot

We also have musical tours that we actually sponsor with M&M's so we can tailor a music choice to a certain set of folks as well.

So all types of ways to not just sell product but to create experience.

And that experience we hope creates loyalty over

So I'm gonna click into that a little bit more too because we're Omni Talk, so we're all about Omni Channel retail and the future of Omni Channel retailing.

So first off, what does that word mean to you?

And then how do you think about trying to make Mars Wrigley more of an Omni channel brand, particularly with the DTC question that Anne was talking about, like how do you think about all that?

What's important and what's not in your mind?

I'm glad you asked that question because Omni is 1 of those words where it's like, okay, your version of it, my version might be 2 different things.

And so I would tell you, as a manufacturer, We look at Omni as multiple transaction environments.

Second thing is it's all types of commerce.

There's social commerce, so on and so forth.

So for us, where can we actually insert transactions?

do we try to build the right kind of environment in those transactions?

And in many of those transaction environments, we don't control it.

We're going through a retailer on brick and mortar.

We're still going through a retailer on DTC, so on and so forth, or DCOM, Peer Play.

And then on DTC ourselves, on our own channels, we can actually go and push directly as well So it's interesting because look if we're building a new product or a new idea We have to think about not just how to shoot it vertically a message We had to shoot that message vertically horizontally then we have to work through Third parties to make sure that message has clarity and consistency as well.

So it's a different way to think, it's a different way to plan, it's a different way to execute, and it's a different way to make sure that those things are connected across those channels.

Particularly coming out of the pandemic too.

Did that speed up this whole thought process or this line of thinking as well?

Well, you know, coming out of the pandemic sped up a lot of things, as you guys know.

But I think what we learned is brands have resonance, And that resonance has to show up in multiple places, right?

And there has to be consistency around that resonance and consistency in terms of how it shows up.

The second thing we learned is people want to make sure that their brand experiences are very consistent wherever they decide to actually experience it.

So if they experience it in a Wal-Mart, in a brick and mortar, in a Target, in sort of an online situation, or if for some reason they're out at our own M&M stores, that experience needs to be fresh, needs to be new, but it needs to be consistent.

And the second thing on the planning pieces as we're going to our marketplaces with our wholesale partners and making sure we're working through their systems.

So for instance, retail media has become big.

We do about $520 billion of media in the United States.

40000000000 of that today is retail media.

That's going to double very shortly as well.

So how do we as marketers start to think about that other piece of how we form audiences within somebody else's sort of closed media system as well?

So I don't want to put words in your mouth too, but I want to say back to what I heard from what you said.

So if I take it based on what you're saying, you would tell me, it's not as important to you to control the experience from a direct to consumer standpoint as it is to make sure you have the consistent experience across every touch point with your end consumer.

It's just sort of saying, Omni means your experience can be replicated in many ways.

And so for a manufacturer and for a person who owns a brand, we got to make sure that we have as much control as we can, but that experience is consistent.

Yeah, and the partners live up to the expectation that you have for

And it's a space where we're all learning.

It's not like we know it all, the retailers don't know it all, but the fact that we can get together and we have technology and data and analytics that can actually help us and aid us, I think it helps us to be better practitioners, helps us to have better experiences for our consumers.

I think it just makes the whole ecosystem work a little smoother.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share that with us, to answer all of our questions that we have as this space continues to evolve so quickly.

Thanks to all of you who joined us and who have been watching all of our content Brought to you by the Fusion Group live from the World Retail Congress in Paris.


Speaker 0: Hello everyone this is Omni Talk Retail I'm Chris Walton

Speaker 1: and I'm Anne Mozinga

Speaker 2: and we

Speaker 0: are coming to you live from the Fusion Group booth at the World Retail Congress booth number 1 in the networking area and

Speaker 1: number 1. That's an easier booth number to remember than in years past I feel like there was a lot of trouble that we had. But no, number 1.

Speaker 0: Number 1, easy to remember. If you're here, stop on by, say hello. We'd love to meet you. And thanks to Fusion Group for helping support our work at this conference. Now, I am pleased to introduce our first guest of the afternoon, and that is the man standing between us, Anton Vincent, the President of North America and Global Ice Cream at Mars Wrigley.

Anton, how are you today?

Speaker 2: I'm doing very good today. I'm really excited. It's been a very energetic day. I've had my session and really trying to enjoy some of the other sessions as

Speaker 0: well. Yeah, when did you

Speaker 2: get in? I got in yesterday morning. So I managed to stay awake. And so, yeah, I think I'm doing the European thing pretty good.

Speaker 0: You're doing it also?

Speaker 1: Challenge number 1. Yes. Well, Anton, I'd love to hear a little bit about your background, especially the ice cream part in your current role right

Speaker 2: now. Yeah, so a couple things. I spent most of my professional career at General Mills. Oh, really? Yeah, I came right out of grad school, was there for 20 plus years, ran 3 divisions by the time I left.

I had a really great career there. And then came over to Mars a few years after that. And so it's been fantastic. 1 of the things that's interesting about ice cream and me is that when I was at General Mills, I actually acquired, it was on a team that acquired the Pillsbury ice cream business. Really?

Exactly. They were in a JV with Nestle at the time, and

Speaker 0: so we

Speaker 2: acquired them and ended up actually selling it back to Nestle as well. So my history with ice cream goes way back to my corporate development days as well.

Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh. So you're a Minnesotan. You were a Minnesotan like us.

Speaker 2: I was a Minnesotan for 25 plus years.

Speaker 0: Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2: You know how we say in Minnesota, 25 plus winters.

Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. Exactly. Wow. That's amazing. So now what are you doing in your current role at Mars?

Speaker 2: Yeah, my current role at Mars, I have a bit of a dual role. So I run all of our North American business for our confections business, right? All North America. Then I have global responsibility for our ice cream business. Ice cream is a business we've been in for about 40 years.

We probably got very serious about it about 10 years ago and so we decided to actually expand it globally. Big US footprint, big European footprint and we just went into China about 18 months ago.

Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, so what are some of the ice cream products that we might be developing? I might have

Speaker 0: in my freezer at home.

Speaker 1: Yeah, right.

Speaker 2: Well, I'm hoping both of you guys have in your freezer. So our number 1 brand is actually the Snickers ice cream bar, which is really incredible. So part of our platform is really around bars. We really leverage it from our ambient business. Snickers, Twix, so on and so forth.

So think about bars in an ice cream format that we bring over as well. So we're in bars, we're in

Speaker 1: sticks,

Speaker 2: we're also in sandwiches as well. And so we really try to narrow our format.

Speaker 1: Oh man, do you need any taste test support?

Speaker 2: I get that a lot.

Speaker 1: I bet you do.

Speaker 0: So What brought you to WRC? What brought you to the World

Speaker 2: Retail Congress?

Speaker 0: This is

Speaker 2: your first time, right? This is my first time. You know, I think it's a fantastic conference. And, you know, we're trying to do more as Mars. You guys know we're a private company.

So we're just trying to do more around just getting our name out, getting our brands out, and making sure all of our leadership is making sure that we are bringing influence to the space and doing it in a way that's credible. You know, we think we've got some pretty cool brands that are global in nature and we think we contribute to the consumer conversation, the retail conversation. So this is a natural piece of it. And I was also at NRF last year as well. You were?

Exactly. Oh, nice.

Speaker 0: Have you found it very collegial? It seems very collegial here. Everyone's trying to learn from each other, trying to network here. It's a very small, intimate group too.

Speaker 2: Yeah, very much so. 1 of the things I find is that it's attracting, I think, quite a diverse group of leaders as well. Everybody from tech to retail to the brand side as well. And I think what we all know, absolutely. What we all know is that all this thing stuff is connected.

And so what is your piece of it? What is somebody else's piece of it? And then how do we connect it for our consumers and our customers?

Speaker 1: Well, you spoke on stage today. What were you talking about? What do you kind of hope that the audience took away from

Speaker 0: that?

Speaker 2: Well, part of our discussion, a big part of it was around Gen Z, which is obviously a big target for anybody who sells anything. I was going to say that in this way. Just getting some understanding around what different formats, how are we attacking them, how are we trying to understand what their value system is, how are we connecting what we have to offer, service, product, experience, and connect it with their value system. Because we know with that consumer group, they're very much values-based, and they take those values into transactions, big transactions, small transactions. So it's really important for us to understand that and build ecosystems to make sure we're targeting and serving those consumers.

Speaker 1: What are some of the ways that you're doing

Speaker 2: that? We're doing a couple of ways. You know, it's fortunate because we have so many big brands and so many iconic brands, And so our brands are known. And so for a person like us or a business like us, our stuff is making sure that we're relevant to those consumers. Because it's not a function of they've been around for some of them for 80 plus years.

Right. M&M's is 85 years old. And so 1 of the things we do is make sure that we're very active in our digital channels, making sure we're really pushing the influencer piece, making sure when people are buying in M&Ms, they're coming to an M&M store, it's not just a transaction, but it's an experience. And how do we customize and personalize that experience as well, and so these are not new things, but in terms of how do you bring that to this particular audience is very new, and I think we're all still learning.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, go ahead, Ann. I'm just going to ask 1 question. So we just, we recorded our weekly podcast this morning and we were talking about like brands going direct to consumer. How do you think about that, having such a popular brand and being in charge of ice cream another thing that can be a challenge To get somebody but it's a craving that I have like I want that in 15 minutes

Speaker 0: You might want to you know, I think I

Speaker 2: think there's a couple ways 1 our central concept is just trying to go from a brand transaction to a brand experience. Okay. Right. And what does that look like? Because obviously at the end of the day we want them to purchase and repurchase those type of things, but they have to be attracted to the brand.

They have to make sure that brand works in the context of their life. Yes. Like how do I live? What do I like? What's my value system?

How does this brand fit into that? It's not just a manufacturer like us pushing messages as well. So we have our M&M stores in which we try to make sure we attract them into as well. Very large cities, 7 around the world, 4 in the US, 3 outside the US, 1 in Beijing, 1 in Berlin, and then 1 here in London as well. So we have these big set pieces for the stores.

Then in those stores you can do a lot of things. Obviously Transact, you can customize your M&M's, you can do a lot

Speaker 0: of things.

Speaker 2: We also have musical tours that we actually sponsor with M&M's so we can tailor a music choice to a certain set of folks as well. So all types of ways to not just sell product but to create experience. And that experience we hope creates loyalty over

Speaker 1: time.

Speaker 0: So I'm gonna click into that a little bit more too because we're Omni Talk, so we're all about Omni Channel retail and the future of Omni Channel retailing. So first off, what does that word mean to you? And then how do you think about trying to make Mars Wrigley more of an Omni channel brand, particularly with the DTC question that Anne was talking about, like how do you think about all that? What's important and what's not in your mind?

Speaker 2: I'm glad you asked that question because Omni is 1 of those words where it's like, okay, your version of it, my version might be 2 different things. And so I would tell you, as a manufacturer, We look at Omni as multiple transaction environments. It's not just a brick and mortar store. It's not just a website. That's 1 thing.

Second thing is it's all types of commerce. There's just direct commerce. There's social commerce, so on and so forth. So for us, where can we actually insert transactions?

Speaker 0: How

Speaker 2: do we try to build the right kind of environment in those transactions? And in many of those transaction environments, we don't control it. We're going through a third party. We're going through a retailer on brick and mortar. We're still going through a retailer on DTC, so on and so forth, or DCOM, Peer Play.

And then on DTC ourselves, on our own channels, we can actually go and push directly as well So it's interesting because look if we're building a new product or a new idea We have to think about not just how to shoot it vertically a message We had to shoot that message vertically horizontally then we have to work through Third parties to make sure that message has clarity and consistency as well. So it's a different way to think, it's a different way to plan, it's a different way to execute, and it's a different way to make sure that those things are connected across those channels.

Speaker 0: What have you found works well? Yeah. Particularly coming out of the pandemic too. Did that speed up this whole thought process or this line of thinking as well? Like, what have you found works?

Speaker 2: Well, you know, coming out of the pandemic sped up a lot of things, as you guys know.

Speaker 0: I'm sure you're going to go

Speaker 2: there, folks. But I think what we learned is brands have resonance, And that resonance has to show up in multiple places, right? And there has to be consistency around that resonance and consistency in terms of how it shows up. That's the first thing we learned. The second thing we learned is people want to make sure that their brand experiences are very consistent wherever they decide to actually experience it.

So if they experience it in a Wal-Mart, in a brick and mortar, in a Target, in sort of an online situation, or if for some reason they're out at our own M&M stores, that experience needs to be fresh, needs to be new, but it needs to be consistent. I think it's number 1. And the second thing on the planning pieces as we're going to our marketplaces with our wholesale partners and making sure we're working through their systems. So for instance, retail media has become big. We do about $520 billion of media in the United States.

40000000000 of that today is retail media. That's going to double very shortly as well. So how do we as marketers start to think about that other piece of how we form audiences within somebody else's sort of closed media system as well?

Speaker 0: So I don't want to put words in your mouth too, but I want to say back to what I heard from what you said. So if I take it based on what you're saying, you would tell me, it's not as important to you to control the experience from a direct to consumer standpoint as it is to make sure you have the consistent experience across every touch point with your end consumer. Is that right? Am I paraphrasing

Speaker 2: that correctly? Absolutely. So it's that and more. It's just sort of saying, Omni means your experience can be replicated in many ways. And so for a manufacturer and for a person who owns a brand, we got to make sure that we have as much control as we can, but that experience is consistent.

Speaker 0: Yeah, and the partners live up to the expectation that you have for

Speaker 2: that too, right? And it's a space where we're all learning. It's not like we know it all, the retailers don't know it all, but the fact that we can get together and we have technology and data and analytics that can actually help us and aid us, I think it helps us to be better practitioners, helps us to have better experiences for our consumers. I think it just makes the whole ecosystem work a little smoother.

Speaker 1: Well Anton, that was amazing. Thank you so much for taking the time to share that with us, to answer all of our questions that we have as this space continues to evolve so quickly. Thanks to all of you who joined us and who have been watching all of our content Brought to you by the Fusion Group live from the World Retail Congress in Paris. So until our next interview

Speaker 0: be careful out there

See all Unknown transcripts on Html5mediaembed

Mars Wrigley's Anton Vincent On Engaging Gen Z, Omnichannel Strategy & Ice Cream Innovation - Omni Talk Retail (1)