Dr Pepper CMO: "I'll Never Do an Agency Search Process Again"

Chemistry and an honest human relationship is what drives great creative work that connects with audiences, Drew Panayiotou, chief marketing and innovation officer at Keurig Dr Pepper, told the audience on the LBB & Friends Beach today. "I'll never do an agency search process again ever," he joked, underlining the depth of understanding the brand and their agency partners have. "Those processes don't generate chemistry," he added. 

Drew was joined on stage by one partner who shares that chemistry, co-chief creative officer at Deutsch Ryan Lehr, and the discussion was chaired by Omnicom Advertising global chief executive officer Troy Ruhanen.

That established chemistry, Ryan noted, is the bedrock that allows the brand to bypass corporate red tape and move at the speed of culture. It is a relationship built outside of the boardroom, rooted in texting each other about college football storylines on the weekend and having the trust to "sit in the room" together. Troy pointed out that a client texting an agency for fun is the mark of a true partnership, though Ryan joked that the next step up is getting a heart emoji reaction to one of his texts from Drew.

This trust was put to the ultimate test when creator Romeo Bingham posted an organic, 11-second TikTok on Christmas Eve singing a catchy jingle: "Dr Pepper baby, it's good and nice… doo, doo, doo."

Rather than running it through traditional layers of approvals, the agency and client team communicated directly via text message over the holiday break. "If you ever want to drive a brand manager and an agency social media manager crazy, you go viral on Christmas Eve," Ryan joked. Sensing the urgency of the internet's attention, the Deutsch team constantly upped the ambition of their response, tossing out ideas as the video's views continued to climb. "Every time we had a good plan put together we'd all get on a Zoom and feel really good... 20 million views later, ‘this idea is not good enough. This isn't big enough’," Ryan recalled.

Ultimately, they metaphorically built a plane in the air, deciding to re-record the jingle and place the fan-generated anthem on the brand's largest stage: the College Football Playoff National Championship. The agency shipped the final spot with just an hour to spare.

For Drew, the ambitious pivot required almost no deliberation. "It took me 20 seconds to approve the final idea. I'm like, let's just go with it," he explained. "Celebrating a Romeo was an easy thing to make a decision on because it's a principle... We've been doing these things for our creators for a decade."

‘Fanning’ with the Fans

The infrastructure that allowed for such a rapid, culturally resonant response is 'Fansville', the brand's enduring campaign universe that is currently entering its ninth season. With the campaign's 10th anniversary approaching next year, Dr Pepper has built a flywheel of fandom that helps level the playing field against larger competitors.

"Dr. Pepper is outspent by Coca-Cola and Pepsi... eight to one," Drew noted. "The ultimate strength of [our] brand building model or creativity is when you don't have to pay for fandom."

Rather than simply shouting at consumers to buy a product, the brand focuses on treating the relationship as a two-way street. To do this effectively, the brand acts as a fan itself.

"There's a principle that we deploy which is we fan with our fans," Drew said. "We care about the things that our fans care about and so we're a fan of college football,” adding that "when we fan with our fans, we have a level of authenticity and connection that's really special."

The ‘Elder Statesman’ of CMOs

Now in his fifth top marketing role, Drew described himself as the "elder statesman of CMOs," offering a candid critique of the modern marketing landscape and the egos that often derail great brand work.

"I wish a lot more CMOs would just be comfortable in their own skin," he said. "As a CMO, you don't need to make change for change [sake]... when a CMO can just be in service of the fan and in service of the brand, that magic can happen. You have to just kind of make it about the brand, not about yourself. Because if you make it about yourself, you start doing these weird things that you should never do."

His strategy of staying out of the way of great work is clearly paying off, bringing "best in class" talent into the organisation; in his first full year as CMO, Dr Pepper earned a record six shortlists at the Cannes Lions festival this week.

That momentum extends beyond just one brand. Pointing to their recent work on Snapple, Ryan praised Drew's creative ambition in reclaiming New York as the brand's heartland. It was a move that included a massive out of home (OOH) takeover and a Knicks partnership that proved so successful a fan recently paid $5,000 for a Snapple Knicks bottle.

Wrapping up the session, the conversation turned to the broader context of the Cannes Lions festival. Amidst a sea of tech-focused panels and endless buzzwords, Drew was clear on what actually moves the commercial needle.

"I actually like to kind of re-centre a lot of my week on creativity and put the AI discussion to bed a little bit because AI is a means to an end," Drew stated. "Does anyone realise that the biggest driver still to this day of ROI is the creative, the message?"

Ryan wholly agreed, adding a final, fitting thought for the week: "It's not the festival of data and analytics."