Dive Brief:
- General Mills announced Wednesday that Ivan Pollard, former senior vice president, strategic marketing for Coca-Cola, has been appointed global chief marketing officer effective July 10, 2017, according to a company release.
- Pollard will oversee the company's first global marketing and media planning function responsible for marketing strategies, connections planning and building worldwide organizational capabilities. He will report to General Mills CEO Jeff Harmening.
- While at Coca-Cola, Pollard initiated new data-driven approaches to management of digital platforms, media sponsorships, connections planning and content creation. “Ivan’s diverse global experience brings us a fresh perspective on our brands and a deep understanding of how to operationalize integrated, modern marketing in the digital age,” Harmening said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Pollard joins General Mills after more than a year of management shuffling, particularly in the marketing department. The company searched for new creative agencies for its U.S. retail brands last year, and named 72andSunny and Redscout creative agency partners in October. In December, General Mills also brought on Joan Creative, Erich & Kallman and The Community to contribute to projects.
Shortly after, the company announced Chief Marketing Officer Ann Simonds would leave at the end of 2016. Chief Creative Officer Michael Fanuele, who worked alongside Simonds, left the company this year.
It will be interesting to see how Pollard fills his role following this period of relative instability, especially since the maker of Cheerios, Yoplait, Annie's and Nature Valley has little e-commerce presence and leans heavily on in-store purchases. Pollard told Advertising Age he plans on using a combination of traditional marketing tactics and more modern, digital strategies to propel General Mills forward.
"It's that mixed reality that's coming that I think is really important, everything from the Wheaties box all the way through to the website," Pollard told Advertising Age. "I think the challenge ahead of us is to find out the best way for our particular businesses and brands to leverage the best of the old and the new."
General Mills has struggled to grow sales as consumers move away from traditional boxed cereals to fresh products from trendy, health-focused upstart companies. The 151-year-old company has experienced seven straight quarters of declining sales, and has accelerated efforts to introduce new and reformulated products to recapture shopper interest.
An improved advertising strategy under Pollard could also refresh the company's image, and make consumers more receptive to innovations such as cereals made with natural colors or new yogurt products, a category that has struggled under Chobani's shadow. Only time will tell if Pollard will be able to get the company's marketing operations up to speed, and if it will be enough to keep their brands relevant as smaller competitors make gains in the morning foods space.