Most Creative Marketers: Yilmaz Erceyes

Premier Foods. It makes exceedingly good cakes. It’s not just Mr Kipling, the business also includes other well-known household brands including Ambrosia, Batchelors, Bisto, Sharwood’s and Oxo. All brands that have recently been on TV, since Premier Foods ramped up its marketing investment last year following a record year in 2020. This strategy focused on creativity, innovation and its customers. “As a marketer, what I’m trying to strive towards is making my brand relevant to consumers and getting them to buy,” says Premier Foods’ CMO Yilmaz Erceyes, reflecting on the critical importance of creativity as the lever for growth.

The role of creativity

A former Procter & Gamble marketer, Yilmaz belongs to that fine tradition of marketers who haven’t given up on the fundamentals of marketing, and believe in drawing on their creative prowess to innovate and push the boundaries of how they see the world in their ambition for future growth. “Creativity sells because of that inherent, evolutionary human dynamic that as humans we retain information a lot more effectively if it evokes an emotion,” he says.

And that is what Yilmaz argues the sole role of creativity is - “something that can encapsulate our brand into an emotional feeling.” It is equally important for him on how his partner agency - McCann London - deploys creativity. Creativity, he says, that builds an audience and boosts sales-generating activity.

We also discuss the industry’s sometimes fetish-like obsession with winning creative awards, but the “type of creativity” Yilmaz says he values is “usually the stuff that doesn’t get talked about in the creative circles. And often not the kind that wins Cannes Lions. “Frankly, I’m at ease with it. Because the reason creativity is important to me is not because creative craft is nice, but because it drives growth. The kind that makes people think that the brand is relevant to their lives.”

To help drive growth from creativity, Yilmaz also talks about the concept of a brilliantly designed proposition for brands. “No amount of marketing investment could lead brands to a sustained long-term growth unless you start with a brilliantly designed proposition,” he argues. “It’s about what people can see, feel, taste, eat and experience about a brand. That's where we really start our work as marketers at Premier Foods.”

He gives the example of Dollar Shave Club that burst onto the market in 2012 with a hilarious brand film explaining its premise and taking a direct aim at the biggest manufacturer of razor blades – P&G-owned Gillette. Yilmaz argues that it wasn’t the irreverent film that helped build the brand or make it so attractive for Unilever, which bought it for an eye-watering $1 billion. It was its “brilliantly designed proposition” instead. Dollar Shave Club had a very simple proposition – $1 a month, plus shipping and handling, will get you a fresh razor and a clean shave.

But he’s not talking about chasing the scent of disruption or indeed dispensing with the traditional agency relationships that have built some of the best loved brands. Instead, what Yilmaz is advocating is that marketers need to have a sense of clarity about their product features - including functional benefits and emotional advantages - which is where every marketer, he says, needs to start before investing in brand communications.

Yilmaz cites another example —UK sports nutrition brand Grenade (acquired by Mondelez International last year), which produces a range of products touted as better-for-you and aimed at, but not exclusively for, the physically active. Grenade brands are very visible in colourful packaging and audacious marketing stunts, such as driving tanks across Oxford Street in London. “More important than the stunts, the colourful branding is how they have designed their products. They are all low sugar, very high protein, but delicious products. And branding in a very distinctive way that stands out. When people see Grenade, that is the proposition they want to buy into.

“If you don't have a brilliant design proposition, your consumers will see through it. And no amount of investment in advertising or brand comms will help sustain long term business growth,” he says.

Innovation in food marketing

So how do you create a brand that endures? From Bisto, the British gravy brand established in 1908, to the 1960s-created Mr Kipling - how do you build lasting success when consumer tastes and expectations are changing?

“We are very aware that if you’re going to keep a brand contemporary you’ve got to keep nurturing it and you’ve got to keep investing in them. We want to build brands that our people think is for them,” he replies, adding how the business has been sustaining brand equity of its huge portfolio by creating emotionally-engaging advertising and investing heavily in TV.

Earlier this year, Premier Foods announced Mr Kipling’s best ever Christmas resulting in rising profits for the business, crediting TV advertising for the sales boost. At the time, the CEO said: “This demonstrates the strength of our established branded growth model, with many of our brands supported by advertising campaigns and new product innovation during the quarter.”

Alongside brand building, growth for the business is also coming from innovation that feeds into changing customer needs. Yilmaz gives the example of Plantastic- a plant-based snacking new brand, created to capitalise on the growing trends of flexitarianism and veganism.

The product was five years in the making before its launch in 2019, and last year it started to test a direct-to-consumer (D2C) platform for the range. “At the time [of the launch] we knew that our low-salt, low-sugar, gluten-free versions of our big sellers were doing phenomenally well. But intuitively we felt there will be areas that we won't be able to credibly stretch our existing brands into. The brief was to look into creating a new brand that's at the heart of the new health trends. What would that look like? It was also the time when brands such as Impossible Burger or Tesco-Owned Wicked Kitchen were not around. So with the launch of Plantastic we started trying to recruit the early adopters. Our advertising for Plantastic has been very targeted rather than brand advertising for the masses,” he says.

Like any self-respecting former (and current) P&G marketer, Yilmaz is resolutely rooted to the fundamental tenets of marketing and concludes that at the heart of any successful brand strategy is the product itself. “Unwavering unparalleled brand success can only start with a brilliantly designed brand proposition….and creativity is that lever that then helps people to remember the brand.”

My favourite piece of creative:

Patek Philippe's print ads.

"It is creative genius. It has been using the Generations campaign to sell watches since 1996. A print ad - no gizmos, nothing. It has the ability to move you, to grab you, and even a cynical marketer like me considers - should I [buy it]?. I have three kids!

"The fact that it makes me think - 'should I?' - shows me the power of that creative. It is by far my all time favourite."