S1 · E601June 27 · 44 min
The CPG Guys are joined in this episode by Matt Foley, VP of Brand Oreo at Mondelez International, an American multinational confectionery, food, and beverage company based in Illinois which employs approximately 80,000 individuals around the world, leading the future of snacking with iconic brands such as Oreo, belVita and LU biscuits; Cadbury Dairy Milk, Milka and Toblerone chocolate; Sour Patch Kids candy and Trident gum.
Follow Matt on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-foley-051534/
Follow Mondelez International online at: https://www.mondelezinternational.com/
Matt answers these questions:
CPG brands love to do celebrity endorsements, but usually, it’s just slapping a face on a billboard and calling it a day. This Oreo and BTS partnership feels fundamentally different because it was built from the ground up. Can you take us inside the initial rooms? How do you pitch a collaboration of this magnitude internally to ensure it becomes a structural joint-venture rather than a temporary marketing badge?
I love that. Let’s talk about product-level authenticity, because you guys didn't just change the packaging. You introduced a completely unique, Hotteok-inspired flavor profile and custom BTS-themed embossments right on the cookie itself. From a supply chain and R&D standpoint, altering the literal stamp and wafer formula of a multi-billion-dollar brand is no small feat. How did you manage those operational constraints to ensure that deep authenticity was physically baked into the product touchpoint?
"Physically baking in the authenticity"—I love that phrase. Now Matt, let's talk packaging and creative content. The BTS ARMY is arguably one of the most visually observant and detail-oriented fan communities on earth; they notice everything. How closely did your creative teams collaborate directly with the band to co-design the packaging, and how did you ensure the digital content felt culturally native to the fanbase rather than like a forced corporate script?
Vibe check passed! Now Matt, on every single episode of this show, Sri and I talk about moving from a legacy "Reach Economy" to a modern "Trust Economy." To win, a brand has to go beyond a simple endorsement to build genuine, unconditional brand love. When you are engaging a passionate, hyper-connected global community like the BTS ARMY, what are the strict guardrails for engagement? How do you prevent the brand from looking like a "cultural tourist" trying to cash in on a trend?
Total cultural respect—that is the baseline. Let’s talk about setting a new standard for CPG partnerships. We recently sat down with Conagra's Bob Nolan, and he talked about the "Validation Trap"—how relying on legacy focus groups and copy-testing scores causes brand teams to play it safe and launch boring, predictable activations. Did your team rely on traditional validation metrics for a disruptive play like this, or did you rely purely on cultural intuition and raw community behavior to guide the execution?
Let’s pivot to driving culture versus just joining the conversation. On the CPG Guys, we argue that scale without distinction leads to absolute invisibility. Oreo has masterfully moved from just running standard media flights to actively participating in major cultural milestones. From your seat, how do you define the ROI of a "cultural activation," and how do you prove to senior leadership that driving culture ultimately moves product off the physical shelf and drives total trips?
Driving total trips is music to a merchant's ears, Matt. Let’s talk about the retail execution side. When you roll out a massive global collaboration like this, retail partners like Walmart, Target, and Kroger want to know how this will drive their specific digital and physical shelves. How do you translate the massive digital fandom of an AMA-winning band into a tailored retail media network (RMN) strategy that helps your retail buyers win their specific category goals?
Fascinating take, Matt. Let’s talk about data and the path to purchase. We keep warning the industry about the "Sasspocalypse" of data fragmentation and the rise of the "Agentic Era," where AI agents might intercept a consumer before they ever look at an application. When a brand builds a deep, direct-to-consumer emotional connection through music and fandom, does that emotional equity act as a defensive shield against algorithmic curation? Does genuine brand love make you "machine-immune"?
"Machine-immune equity"—that is a powerful concept to think about. Let's look out over the next 12 to 24 months. Now that Oreo has set this incredibly high benchmark for what a deeply authentic, co-created partnership looks like, where does the commercial strategy go next? Are we entering an era where CPG brands behave more like entertainment studios and lifestyle platforms rather than simple manufacturing companies?
Alright Matt, final question for today, and we want to send our listeners home with a concrete piece of advice. There are brand managers listening right now who want to stop playing it safe, stop repurposing old assets, and actually drive culture the way Oreo is doing. What is the single biggest "reality check" or piece of blind-spot advice you can give them to help them modernize their partnership models this quarter?
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