Newell Brands' Nick Hammitt - Live from Cannes Lions 2026

The CPG Guys are joined in this episode by Nick Hannity, CMO at Newell Brands, a major American global consumer and commercial products conglomerate. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the company manufactures, markets, and distributes over 50 well-known brands across three core segments: Home & Commercial Solutions, Learning & Development, and Outdoor & Recreation.

This episode was recorded in France at the 2026 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Follow Nick Hammitt on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-hammitt-2491a1/

Follow Newell Brands online at: https://www.newellbrands.com/

Nick answers these questions:

1. Chris told us at CAGNY and then again on the podcast that Newell's digital content output increased 500% in 2025 with the same headcount. As CMO, walk us through what that transformation actually felt like inside the marketing organization — was it exhilarating, terrifying, or both?
2. We're sitting here at Cannes Lions, the global festival of creativity. There's a real tension in our industry right now between AI-generated content at scale and genuinely breakthrough creative work. How does Newell think about that balance — and does AI make your creative better or just faster?
3. Chris described Newell's "Inogen" platform — digital AI personas built on consumer segments that function as always-on focus groups. As CMO, how are you actually using those in briefing and campaign development, and how much do you trust them versus traditional research?
4. Chris was incredibly sharp on the shift from SEO to GEO — optimizing content for LLMs rather than search engines. What does that mean practically for how your brand and content teams are now being briefed and structured?
5. Given the scale of what Newell is building internally on AI, how has your relationship with your agency partners evolved? Are they keeping pace with where you are internally, or are you finding yourself ahead of them?
6. Chris mentioned that retailers are actually coming to Newell and asking to be taught what you're doing with AI. That's a remarkable reversal of the traditional power dynamic. How are you as CMO leveraging that credibility in your joint business planning conversations?
7. You're here at Cannes Lions surrounded by the best creative and marketing minds in the world. It’s your first time here. What are you here to learn or solve? And what's the one conversation you're hoping to have this week that you can't have anywhere else?
8. Chris talked about younger employees being hungry for AI training and threatening to leave if they don't get it. From a marketing talent perspective, what does the ideal marketer at Newell look like today versus three years ago, and how are you recruiting and developing for that?
9. If the Chris Peterson episode was the enterprise AI masterclass, what's the one chapter you'd add that he didn't cover — the CMO's perspective that doesn't necessarily get told when the CEO is in the room?

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Transcript

Nick (00:00)

my name is Nick Hammitt I am the CMO of Newell Brands and you are listening to the CPG Guys podcast.

PVSB (00:06)

Hello and welcome to this episode of the CPG Guys Podcast.

I am your impetuous co-host PVSB. I also Moonlight as head of industry and client engagement at Flywheel, the Commerce Acceleration Division of Omnicom. We are recording today's podcast at La Résidence of the CPG Guys as we are here in Cannes, France for the International Festival of Creativity. Joining me today is my co-host. He's the co-founder of ThinkBlue Consulting, the father of pop stars Rhea Raj and Katseye's Lara Raj.

Their fans, of course, call him Papa Raj, though. Last night walking around in Cannes with his group of people, I was calling him Papa Entourage. La Entourage. La Entourage. But to me, he's my BFF, my ride or die. Please help me welcome the man known as Sri. Sri, How is day two of Cannes shaping up for you?

Sri (00:59)

In fact, I was just chatting with our special guest today. You we always make plans. We're gonna keep eight hours free to attend programming. Forget to, just unrealistic. It was fun to meet Third Eye Blind last night and take pictures with them. That was fun. We've got a bunch of programming already out the way, bunch of podcasts, and I'm excited for today, what we're gonna record right now, because this is a awesome conversation coming up after we visited the headquarters of this company just about a month or so ago.

PVSB (01:25)

Sri, thanks as always for joining me to our audience. If you're getting value from these conversations, we have three very, very little asks. They're just minuscule, right? First, subscribe to the CPG guys on whatever platform you're listening on right now: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, YouTube, anywhere else you get your podcast, just subscribe to us or hit the follow button so you never miss an episode. Two.

Leave us a rating. Five. That's our favorite number. We like the number five. That's Sri, you who's number five? Freddie Freeman for the Dodgers. The world twice in a row world champs going for the 3peat! Number five. He's number five. but between episodes we're publishing all sorts of thought leadership, industry analysis.

Sri (01:59)

Please, actual number five.

PVSB (02:07)

and content. you won't find us anywhere else. All built for the CPG and retail media community you're already a part of. So search CPG guys on LinkedIn and hit follow there in addition to Apple, Spotify particularly, the number five is what we're looking for. Subscribe, rate, follow. Three simple actions. It will make us so happy. Cause I like making you happy Sri. It's important. Is that the way this works?

Sri (02:30)

It is?

PVSB (02:32)

Well yeah,

yeah, but I want them to yeah the there's always I guess we'll get that. Give them great content. All right, anyhow.

Let's get to our great guest. Joining us today is Nick Hammitt who's the chief marketing officer of Newell Brands. If you listen to episode 599, you know we had a great opportunity to speak with Chris Peterson, the CEO of Newell Brands, when Sri and I made a trip down to Atlanta. They're, of course, the powerhouse portfolio company behind some of the most iconic names in your home, your office, and your outdoor adventures. We're talking Rubbermade, Sharpie. We got they sent you guys were so nice. You sent us CPG Guys branded Sharpie pens. We've got like two boxes. That's so nice. Coleman,

The official cooler of the CPG guys La Residence is Coleman. We've got the

Nick (03:13)

Snap

and go, right?

PVSB (03:15)

two of the snap and go coolers here. We're looking pretty good. Yankee Candle, Oster, Calfalon, so many more. Nick stepped into the CMO role at a very pivotal moment for Newell, a company in the midst of a deliberate transformation, sharpening its focus on core brands, rebuilding consumer relevance, and leaning into the kind of brand-led growth that drives long-term value at retail. As a marketer, he's tasked with doing more with a tighter, more intentional portfolio and making sure that when a shopper reaches for a Sharpie or grabs a Coleman cooler.

That choice is anything but accidental. Nick, welcome to the CPG Guys.

Nick (03:49)

Thank you. I'm thrilled to be here. Thanks so much for having me.

PVSB (03:52)

Yeah, day two of Cannes You said you're packing it all in. How was day one? This your first year. what did you think?

Nick (03:57)

The

first year was phenomenal. It was good. It was great. I I'm not sure what I expected, but I don't think I expected the sheer madness that exists here. It is a little there there's you know, th there's a little bit more of Vegas than I expected on the south of France, but it was good.

PVSB (04:05)

Crazy.

You've earned your stripes,

so to speak. As I look at your wrist, it's covered all the wonderful wristbands from various activities.

Nick (04:17)

Drives me nuts, but I've realized that these are kind of like gold and so now they're all wet for my shower.

PVSB (04:22)

they're great to bring back and show everybody in at headquarters. My daughter would be like daddy, get those off your wrist and give them to me. I want excellent. Well Nick to our audience, I'm gonna say if you want to learn more about Nick and what Newell is all about.

Use the hyperlinks in this episode show notes as we go on with our conversation. We're going to include links to Nick's LinkedIn profile and Newell's corporate site so you can multitask as you listen to our melodious voices in these in this conversation. All right. So we've got a bunch of questions for you, Sri and I'll take turns asking and we'll let you do the answers instead of us answering.

Nick (04:57)

Sounds great.

PVSB (04:58)

We were at CAGNY this year listening to all the great presentations down in Orlando, and Chris told us there, and then again when we met with him in Atlanta a couple weeks ago, that Newell's digital content output increased 500% in 2025 with the same headcount. So as CMO, walk us through what the transformation actually felt like inside the marketing organization. Was it exhilarating, terrifying, both? What were you thinking?

Nick (05:24)

I mean, I think it was more on the exhilarating side, although I would be lying if I said it was, always fun and sunshine and rainbows, but

I think it was just one of these things that we had to do. We had no choice. So you didn't have time to think and, get scared, get terrified. You you just had to figure out a way to do it. And the content demands, because we have a big growth agenda at Newell, the content demand behind each one of our brands is significant. and we needed to make sure that we were driving the growth that we needed. So we had to figure out a different way because the way that we currently had just gonna burn everybody out. And we it was it was physically impossible to deliver the amount of content that.

We needed in order to deliver the growth agenda that we were on. So we had to find a different approach, we had to leverage different tools and really change, our behavior on how we, create concept, develop content, and then deploy it out to all our various touch points. So it was one of those ones where you just you had to go and you ran and you you weren't spending too much time to actually think, feel, or do anything. You're just like, go, go.

PVSB (06:25)

Excellent. What a crazy.

Sri (06:26)

I it's the

best way to get stuff done. So, I'm going to pivot our conversation a little bit to one of the most important conversations taking place inside the Palais. Arguably, the three of us are not going have time to get there, but that conversation is focused on AI and the industry tension right now between AI-generated content at scale and genuinely breakthrough creative work.

How are y'all thinking about, I know AI is a big agenda for y'all. That was all about episode 599 from Chris Peterson himself. But as a marketer, as in a CMO role, how do you think about that balance? Does AI make your creative better or just, you can just churn out a bunch more personalized faster?

Nick (07:07)

Yeah, I mean I I think it's more the latter as we think about it. I mean I think what it's allowed us to do is to reach more people, to reach more people with a personalized message, to be more nimble and evolved so you aren't left with the same static message for 12 months before you refresh it. You can be constantly adjusting it depending on what's going on culture, what's going on with the seasons, anything else like that. So it's allowed us to be much more nimble in that spot.

Yeah.

We still use, humans as creative storytellers. And so when we're thinking about the tales behind our brands, the things that we want to kind of bring to the table through that lens, we're still working with humans to develop those stories. AI acts a lot like an amplifier that allows us to take that message and deploy it to so many different extra touch points that we weren't able to to reach before. So I don't think it's a it's a at least not at this moment. I mean, who knows what's gonna happen around the corner, but it's not really an either or.

It's allowing us to do both because we can be much more productive with AI.

PVSB (08:07)

brilliant. When we spoke with Chris, he described Newell's Inogen platform, digital AI personas built on consumer segments that function as always on focus groups. It blew our mind. So, as CMO, how are you actually using those in briefing and campaign development? And how much do you trust them versus the traditional reliance on give me my Bases score or anything else like that?

Nick (08:30)

Yeah, yeah. I mean we the I mean the personas are are great because the the personas they sit on the desk of every marketer that we have. So each brand, they have a persona for their target consumer. They're basically, if they're if they're doing it right, is a window open up on their computer, they're having an ongoing conversation with it. So the personas really help kind of really upstream in brainstorming and being a thought partner and gut checking some, you know, some of the ideas that the the the brand teams have. You know, where we kind of

Move into full validation, we actually kind move into full synthetic audiences. So it's a little bit different than the personas themselves, but we are developing synthetic audiences around a lot of our shopper profiles, you know, a Target shopper, a Walmart shopper, an Amazon shopper, and even exploring to the extent of how can we create a synthetic Walmart shelf where you could have the synthetic shopper shop the synthetic Walmart shelf. And it allows us to get to a level of granularity that becomes really exciting and compelling because.

Because we know for all of our customer partners, while they're happy to see us grow, if we're not able to help them grow, it becomes a little bit less interesting for them. The way we can kind of confirm that we aren't just kind of going down a rabbit hole blindly on this is we still continue to have some gut check pieces of consumer research to make sure that we're, we're not kind of following blindly. So we'll do human in the loop type research, gut check some of the findings that we have.

and make sure that they're valid

PVSB (09:56)

a follow-up to that, in terms of working with some of your key customers, is that kind of a completely behind the scenes they're not really aware of that, or are in some cases, are you introducing this into your strategic conversations with your customers as you go to plan out innovation and what the product assortment looks like? Are they, I guess, are they are they leaning in and getting excited about what these these AI personas are delivering back to them in terms of value?

Nick (10:22)

Yes, yes. I mean I I think there's certain things we're we're still kinda working on behind the scenes, but there's other elements of it that we've actually partnered with some of our key customers and and key partners on that front. and honestly for a company like Newell that is in this turnaround, we can't always outspend every other person that's knocking on their door. But when we can use this as an opportunity to showcase how it can help both them win as well as help our brands win, that's where we're able to kind of drive

Okay.

Sri (10:52)

Awesome. Listening about the personas that were so powerful. So Chris was very sharp in a deep discussion shifting from SEO to GEO. We got into it pretty deep in there. Optimizing content, you we use the word LLM so many times. The knowledge of LLM is pretty clear at Newell

PVSB (11:04)

Generative engine optimization? Yep. Okay.

Nick (11:14)

Yeah.

PVSB (11:15)

He's the knowledge of different models within each of the LLMs and how they pertain to your business. Sri and I looked at each other our jaws.

Sri (11:23)

not meta-senior

executive to date. Maybe that'll change today. With that depth of knowledge of AI, but we went deep into the conversation about optimizing content for LLMs rather than search engines. As the brand steward of the company in such a wide portfolio that includes even baby, which is like one of the most heavily researched categories online.

Practically, what does it mean for your portfolio and how are content teams now working with agencies for briefing, structuring content?

Nick (11:52)

Yeah, I mean it's look, Chris loves AI. He lives and breathes. Like I I need I know, I know. I need to keep up with him, just because he when he gets something that he's read or he's excited about, he runs down my office. And so I'm like constantly trying to figure out how I can kind of, beat him to the punch a little bit, which is exciting.

PVSB (11:57)

He's an engineer from Cornell.

I

keep trying to change offices so we can't find nobody else.

Nick (12:13)

does.

It does. It's great because it, I mean, as you said, it it is the topic within marketing right now. And so to have, somebody like that be that excited about some of the work you do, I mean, like I find it energizing. when it comes to things like

Briefing, we've actually, we've actually created custom GPTs that are helping our marketers write better briefs. There they act as coaches to ensure that we are getting focused, simple, realistic when you kind of look at a budget versus the ask kind of viewpoint, which is allowing us to move quickly because before we're spending countless hours in revisions back and forth. So when you think about the role that it's having in briefing, it's actually helping us get to quicker, stronger, smarter, more focused.

Briefs on that front. It hasn't changed much the way that we've structured our teams, but we definitely have different work streams that they're they're working against. So, how do we make sure that our content itself is structured in the best possible way so that it's findable by all of these different LLMs? We're working with teams, and we mentioned Baby. I mean, Baby is such a heavily researched category. We need to make sure that our

content is out there in long-form content that we're participating in the communities that we're doing all these places that we know the various LLMs are going to as key sources of data. I mean Reddit is huge across all the LLMs. If you're not in YouTube Shorts and others, that maps back to Gemini really well. So how do you make sure that you're showing up in that spot? But the other thing that we've been working on that that is a change is really getting rigorous about consistency of message. Because

a lot of times as marketers you have great ideas and you're like yeah my brand can do this and can do that but to this highly rational new new consumer target that we have to work with it looks like you're schizophrenic and then you just drop to the right of the but to the bottom of of the kind of query findings and so you need to make sure that you're just constantly reinforcing that message and getting those proof points in all the spots that it finds relevant in in order to win. But the other thing I think it's and

why I get excited because I mean I'm I've been a brand marketer through and through is I believe it's putting even more onus on storytelling on engaging these consumers before they go and they write their paragraph in the in the the box on chat or Gemini or whatever.

how do you get them to kind of come in almost pre-wired? And the downside of AI is that it is really kind of messed up people's trust meters. So how in that storytelling beforehand are you working not only with your messages, but they can't take it at face value anymore, but with your creators, with your influencers, with your demos, getting people to actually touch, feel, engage with the product first, so that they're almost, you've almost pushed them into your camp before they've even begun that.

And then if you've got your data set up the right way, you become one of the top choices as a response, and boom, there you go.

PVSB (15:06)

A follow-up to what you just said, in this is a very interesting thought process that Sri and I have been exploring, which is if you think back 10, 15, 20 years ago, particularly for D2C brands, what was the focus of a brand website? It was to create a customer journey that could lead to the clicking the buy box, right? while Newell has a measure of D2C business, for those brands that aren't

Is the focus shifting for the purpose of a brand site away from the customer journey and doing the conversion to being a repository of data that LLMs can target against to help with the GEO search process?

Nick (15:43)

It is. I mean it's not I don't want to say it is that is now its core purpose, but it's it's again it's an and story. We are using it to make sure that our data is very well structured and that is where they can pull a lot of information from. It's still, even if it's just for a hot second, is a spot along the journey that consumers go to just to gut check something. So you still need to make sure that's relevant. You still can't have, dated imagery from five years ago on there. You want to make sure it's got the latest and grays in there. And so it's a little bit of a

PVSB (16:11)

I'll remind our audience today, Sri and I have the pleasure of speaking with Nick Hammett. He is the Chief Marketing Officer for Newell Brands. All right, given the scale of what Newell is building internally on AI, how is your relationship with your agency partners evolved? Are they keeping pace with where you are internally, or are you oftentimes finding yourselves kind of ahead of the curve relative to the partners you're working with in the ecosystem?

Nick (16:35)

I think it's more ahead of the curve. especially as it comes into the kind of amplific amplification deployment of content. I I will never claim that we're better creators or storytellers than some of our agency partners because that's their bread and butter, but it's that whole what happens next once they have that nugget of an idea that I think some of the systems tools and even other partners that we brought in have allowed us to accelerate beyond the capabilities of an of not all but a but a number of some of the partners that we have.

for our brands. And so we're working with them to figure out, okay, what's the future look like? What what what what can we continue to partner on that's going to be value added to us, to our brands, to allow us to move with the speed, the scale, and honestly, we've got to do it within a certain level of funding.

The old models are

are were great at delivering that one big idea, but you'd get maybe one of those a year. Now you're you're it's the ideas are coming through, daily, weekly, and you need to be able to iterate and create in order to kind of market place.

PVSB (17:34)

Yeah, exactly.

Sri (17:36)

Thought that about it, you before I ask you this next question, what I'll put in the backdrop is, the two of you, Chris and you, talk about LLMs, GEO, how you're using content, personas, pretty structured yet personalized.

marketing, putting the consumer at the center. So it's no surprise that I'm asking you this question that we heard that retailers actually come into you guys and asking to be taught about what you're doing with AI. No surprise to Peter and me. Listening to you both. That's actually a remarkable reversal of how traditionally the model for JBP Joint Business Plans, worked. It feels a little bit more like JVC, Joint Value Creation, where the retailer says, how do we win together, right?

So how are you as a CMO leveraging that new instant credibility that's sustainable that you guys have developed in your JBPs and in your everyday planning such as innovation portfolio and things of that nature? Because at the end of the day, anything you create has to make its way to a shelf, online or offline.

Nick (18:40)

I I think I mean honestly it's raise the the stakes on what we can bring to the table to each one of our customer partners. Because as I mentioned before, we don't always have the biggest budgets to go head to head with, your your big players out there. This allows us to really have strong strategic conversations because we are bringing something of value to the table. Also, we have incredibly smart customers. They are way out in front in this spot and they are looking for partners that they can test with.

Because they want to come gut check. Is this working for them? Is this moving the needle? And not all of their partners are to the fidelity to be able to kind of partner with them and test with them in that space. So that makes us much more valuable to them in those moments because we can collectively help them understand what is and what isn't working. We can bring some of the insights that we've seen on our side that can help them be better. And I don't want to say it fully mitigates not having the biggest budget in the world, but it helps engage those conversations.

In a much different way. And at the end of the day, they want to win with us, we want to win with them. So it facilitates a

Sri (19:44)

One follow-up I have on that is clearly in senior leadership the C-suite including you, you guys have adopted AI and actually leveraging it for good outcomes. How about one level, the level that reports into you, the head of brands, each of those brands, are they now completely using AI? And I don't want to keep sticking to AI as a power tool, but the thing I think about most in the role that you perform, have two big outcomes the industry expects from you, your retail partners. One is your brand equity.

across such a wide portfolio. the second is the innovation portfolio that you keep putting out what the consumer will want. How are you leveraging AI, the assets you've developed over the course of time to deliver against both of those, your brand equities, as well as your innovation portfolio?

Nick (20:30)

Yeah. so as far as kind of are the brand teams diving in on these tools, I I think it's yes, collectively, I'm gonna talk about them as a whole. but I think you're gonna find each person is at various stages of engagement. I mean, there's some that they were using these tools, the minute they came out, whether we were gonna talk to them about it.

there's some that have huge interest but zero fluency in it. And so those are the folks that you're just trying to engage and work with and help them, channel the the right mindset, the right energy in the right place. And there are still pockets of of either resistance, fear, I think there's a number of reasons that are driving it that you might get kind of the public yes, but behind

Too because of one reason or another. And so we're working constantly to kind of ensure that we are creating the right environment for at least the first two to thrive. for those that really want to run, how do we make sure that we aren't, throttling them back and preventing that? Because sometimes they can start solving problems you didn't even know you had and doing things that you didn't know you needed to do. and for the others, they're smart and they have the right energy. So how do we fuel that? How do we ensure that they're getting able to understand where they can make a difference with these tools?

The third group we want to continue to educate because hopefully we want them to kind of join one of the prior two other groups. But for each person it's a little bit different. So you've got to understand, all right, what is their underlying driver on that.

So that's kind of how we're kind of deploying it throughout the organization. And it's playing different roles, depending on what function you're in. It's helping our e-com teams ensure that our data is up to snuff. We have all the right, content, it's structured the right way. So when somebody lands on our PDP page, they have everything they need if they're a human. But also when it's being looked at through the LLM lens, it has all the right information that, LLM.

Needs. And so that's an example of how it's working in their world. Media is trying to help use it to help figure out, how do we maximize every last little penny? How do we make sure that you're moving away from just keywords into much more contextual orientation? Design is that content supply chain that is really taking a good piece of creative, and you're taking this heavy manual work off of people's plates because you have one great list called Key Visual that we want to deploy in six different countries.

countries, 12 different sizes, four different languages, that's a lot of just repetitive, boring work that we can now just throw the content into.

PVSB (22:59)

This, you think back a number of years, how you treated your catalog was very intentional and judicious. You focused on updating the content frequency for the marketplaces that mattered the most, for the SKU items that mattered the most. And I've got to imagine now with AI, you can treat your entire portfolio and all of your customers and give them the refresh content that keeps every single item in the portfolio relevant.

Nick (23:24)

Yeah, that I mean that is the intent. Chris wishes I could do that tomorrow where where we have a thousands and thousands of SKUs. So we're working back there, but you'll add a time. The the intent is it doesn't doesn't become kind of like the the bright, shiny object-only support. We're able then drive that consistency through our entire catalog of products. So it really helps drive each one of these brands a little bit better.

PVSB (23:46)

I appreciate the fear factor. Sri has been surreptitiously developing an agent to replace me with and he and not it not so not so covertly. Exactly. I'm st I'm still here, right? You're exactly Sri. That's what that's what I'm afraid of. So you're here at Cannes, surrounded by what are arguably the best creative and marketing minds in the world. It's your first time here. What are you

Nick (23:50)

No.

Sri (23:54)

I have in advance.

Nick (23:56)

Gotta work.

So

Sri (24:00)

That's a learning DLLM, Peter.

PVSB (24:14)

Here to learn or solve, and what's the one conversation you're really hoping to have this week that you can't may not be able to get anywhere else?

Nick (24:26)

so the one I mean, first one is we live in our world just driving this agenda so day in, day out. And one of my big objectives is, you you think you're doing okay, you think you're out in front, but you never fully know. So for me it was a a way to kind of gun check everybody else. Yeah, exactly. See, like, all right, are we ahead? Are we in the middle? Like, where do I stand? Just again.

PVSB (24:41)

Listening to whatever.

Nick (24:47)

so we have an idea of of why keep going speed up like that that perspective so there there's that context setting that I think is is incredibly important to me and my team. The second thing is you're just getting an idea on all right what's next with each one of our

each one of our partners. we we had conversations with Spotify yesterday that are talking about how, one vision for where AI is going and how they're going to kind of, almost connect into some of these LLMs had a almost polar opposite conversation with Pinterest. I have no idea which one is right, which one's not, but it's interesting to see how each one of these companies are thinking about how their models are changing and how this is impacting the way that they see the future coming.

On that front. I think the one conversation that I want to have here, and I actually have been having, is you you want the really real. you want like real. Everybody can tell you how great everything is, and they always love to point to their wins and their successes.

But boy, have there been stumbling blocks and false starts and other things. And again, like you you want to kind of just compare notes and and say, all right, are you guys seeing this too? Because I hear all the headlines, we hear all everything else, and it absolutely is doing most of these things, but maybe not as seamlessly as we we we like to portray at times. And so is it just me or are we seeing that as well? So that's one that you you probably have af over a cocktail or over dinner. but again, it helps ensure.

that you can kind of figure out and and where your place in in this is at this point.

Sri (26:22)

I'm gonna jump into talent management. we hear the popular industry rhetoric now that the younger generation is almost making AI non-negotiable and it's a big criteria for them to come into marketing and take up jobs. And so to the point where we also hear that they threaten to quit if there isn't, the applicable use of AI. From a marketing talent perspective, how is AI influencing decision making in terms of growing, hiring talent, growing talent, nurturing,

their careers, are you in sync with your partners from a talent recruiting and career perspective and things of that nature? then if you look at where Noel was three years ago, you're now, is that now a big impetus in recruiting?

Nick (27:04)

I

I think it's less about technical use of AI. For us it is much more about what is the right mindset in this space. Curiosity is what I'm guessing. Curiosity, absolutely. Ambiguity, complexity, like being able to kind of navigate some of these worlds because I think what AI has done is is it's taken and democratized the ability to, use some of these tools. And so there isn't a I mean

There's training, absolutely, but there isn't that kind of this like I had to go study computer science for four years level training, I gotta speak a different language, in

front and so I think if you've got the right mindsets that you're bringing in honestly there are other backgrounds it's almost benefits that they're varied. So we're now recruiting people that have a little bit more of a technical background, we have strategic strategists in there, we have folks that come from more of kind of the creative side of things. I think all that makes us a more cohesive better team but the thread that holds it together is are you curious? Are you consumer-centric? I mean we're a brand company you need to be consumer centric.

You and how do you navigate the complexity and the ambiguity because it's messy. I mean, we're we're already a little bit of a messy company just because of all the different brands that we have, all the different places that we operate. But I think the landscape in which we compete in is only getting more fragmented. The media landscape we have to talk to consumers and all is more fragmented. So if you are happy and like things and tied up and neatly in a little box, like that's not gonna work.

Sri (28:34)

Well said.

PVSB (28:36)

All right,

I get the last question today, and three and I have argued, and we kind of intimated this as we talked to you today, that your CEO Chris has, for all intents and purposes, written the the textbook on how brands should start applying AI to their to their overall strategy. but he didn't necessarily cover your perspective. So as CMO we get we're gonna let you write another chapter of the book.

so to speak. what what isn't necessarily being represented in in kind of Chris's perspective that you would like our audience to understand from a CMO perspective around the AI transformation going on at Newell?

Nick (29:20)

I mean I think the thing again as a as a kind of standard brand consumer market or that I would throw in that probably Chris would not mention, given given his CFO background. AI is fantastic. AI is allowing us to do so many different things, move quickly, all of the kind of the stuff we just talked about. but it's what AI is actually driving that is the part that interests me most, which is the well not even so much the outcomes, the

Incremental or amplified need for brand storytelling. the the because now everybody has access to AI, anybody can create anything, there's AI slob everywhere. You need to be that much better on telling the story of your brand. You need to be clear about who you are, what you stand for, why you're different than the competition, the human element on that, and be able to connect with consumers and make sure that you haven't forgotten what's important to them.

To default to what's important to the machines, because you need both in order to win. And honestly, I I mean we're at a festival of creativity, but I saw somebody talk about how the stronger brands are winning within the AI space because, yes, partly because of what they're spending, but also because of the stories that they're able to tell and and the kind of uniqueness and the connectivity that they're able to drive with their consumers. And so as we're looking at kind of continuing this turnaround, rebuilding our brand portfolio.

AI is absolutely a game changer and is allowing us to kind of leapfrog in many, many ways, but we can't lose sight of the fact that you still need to know who you are as a brand, what you want to stand for, and you need to be able to tell that story in a way that is compelling, that is distinct, that breaks through. I mean some of the just fundamentals of marketing I think are almost getting amplified in this world because of this kind of great equalizer that is AI.

PVSB (31:05)

Sri, you and I come to Cannes every year to have serious and insightful conversations. I know you'll agree that our conversation with Nick falls into that category. What's your big takeaway?

Sri (31:16)

I'm not going to point to anyone, but I'm going to make a big statement. You and I have interviewed over 600 guests on the show over six years, the largest brands and retailers in the world. I'm tempted to say for the first time, I'm going to walk away from a conversation. know, it's like a one-two punch between Chris and Nick. No one knows what they're doing inside out. That's our interpretation. And let me get to a little bit of why. we talked about talent, curiosity, complexity.

ambiguity, using AI as a capability, but having, how Nick just completed his conversation by saying, at the end of the day, what's gonna matter the most to ensure your brands are sustainable over the course of time, is making sure you put the consumer first, understand their needs states, and then delivering the right story. It's not so much about the spend.

But being able to tell the right stories about who your brand is, the identity of the brand. Now I take all of that and now I bring AI into that's like table stakes and that's pretty clear. Plus it's a global portfolio. And I think we talked about the sensitivity to understand that every market is different and applying it the right way within every market. The third piece that kind of comes to my mind is

having that mentality that let's use AI even when it comes to retail, how do we empower each other to grow together? It's rare in my career, 30 years as a CPG veteran, especially having won a chief customer hat at General Mills.

It's rare that a retailer wants to come to you and say, coach me. Newell has gotten that far. So I'm going to put that in a big bow and say, one of the best kind of collaborative discussions we've had with a brand Period!

PVSB (32:57)

Yeah, Sri, I am looking forward to our follow-up conversation with Chris at CAGNY next year. I can't wait to see what you'll have to share with the industry. It's we look forward to that event. We know that the serious players come to to share what their strategic direction is, and that's why this has all come about because we were so awesomely impressed with what happened. For me, the big takeaway, it's it's really what what Nick ended with, that storytelling.

is at the heart of success and driving the outcomes you want and AI can help you along the journey, but the the primary storytelling is a human element and you have to keep that into consideration.

Sri (33:36)

Peter,

one of the things I have to say because you've taught me this word now, AI is the topical conversation in this festival Inside Out. It's been a topical conversation for the last six months across brands. Newell is not treating the brand as an accoutrement. AI is the accoutrement to still keep the brand top of mind.

PVSB (33:53)

No.

I I would absol excellent use of grammar. Sri you are you are anything but a LUD item to say this. I had to get that into the To our listeners and the over forty five thousand followers on LinkedIn, thank you for doing what you do every day, whether you're building brands, driving retail relationships.

Deploying technology or shaping the future of commerce. You are the industry we cover, and this podcast exists because of you. If today's conversation sparks something for you, a new idea, maybe a fresh perspective, or just a reminder of why this industry is worth showing up for every day, share it, tag us, tell a colleague. The more voices we bring into this community, the sharper all of us get. Until next time.

Keep pushing the conversation forward. I am PVSB on behalf of my co-host, Papa Entourage. This has been the CPG Guys podcast. Goodbye.