The five Mondelez International brands participating in the snacking company’s first Australian Mobile Futures Program have revealed the results of partnering with technology startups.
The five Mondelez International brands participating in the snacking company’s first Australian Mobile Futures Program have revealed the results of partnering with technology startups to drive cultural innovation and mobile marketing investment.
The programme, which has been running over the past five months and launched in May, officially kicked off with a pitch and speed dating process in July to choose the right startup for each brand. This culminated in a core 90-day challenge, which saw brands and their chosen startup partners deliver a pilot activity. Brand leaders from Mondelez also spent a week immersed in their startup partner’s organisation as the snacking company’s ‘intrapreneurs’.
The five partnerships were: Cadbury Dairy Milk and image recognition app developer, Snaploader; Philadelphia Cream Cheese and digital magazine platform, Issue; belVita and location-based services consultancy, Proximiti; Cadbury Favourites and Wi-Fi hotspot and analytics provider, SkyFii; and Marvellous Creations and gifting app, MyShout.
During an event in Melbourne celebrating the end of the 90-day programme, brands shared results and conversion rates from their efforts, as well as the challenges and lessons learnt from being partnered with more entrepreneurial organisations. For many, upskilling in mobile channels and technology was only one aim; the other was to try and become more innovative thinkers.
What was apparent was that many have been energised and inspired to become more agile, and welcomed the behavioural changes needed to embrace new ways of working. The next and arguably bigger challenge is to channel this into campaign delivery and wider brand objectives and programs in 2015, importantly, through retailer partnerships.
Mondelez International managing director, Amanda Banfield, said she had been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of Australia’s startup community as well as their entrepreneurialism.
“We seized the opportunity to be the third company in Mondelez to roll out Mobile Futures… as we saw this was an opportunity for us to learn about mobile and digital in a way that is much more about changing our culture and embedding a different way of thinking,” she said. The Mobile Futures Program has also been run in the US and Brazil.
Banfield admitted brand teams had to “dig quite deep to get the work done”, grappling with practical challenges, such as managing day-to-day tasks with the pilot program, as well as working in different environments that required them to build strong, distinct connections with other people in the businesses.
“But the teams have prevailed, and not only have we seen an amazing set of outcomes, we’re also starting to see a subtle shift in our culture as an organisation,” she said. “This has opened our horizons around thinking differently and both what we achieve if we go after something, but also how we can connect, learn and evolve our business and connecting with consumers.”
Source: CMO
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