Jess Gaedeke (00:00)
Hi everybody. Welcome to the dig inspiration episode. This is where I have the lucky job of sitting down with one of my dig colleagues to talk about last week's episode that dropped.

I am stoked to be joined today by Kelly Nielsen. She is SVP Global Client Development. And there's a couple of reasons I brought you on Kelly to talk about Katie's episode, Katie's with Campari. That's one of the reasons you have such a long and in the Bev-Al space. I knew that you would love to nerd out on a lot of the things that Katie shared.

But also you are my partner in crime when it comes to commercial leadership standpoint and she talked a lot about sales. So those are two reasons and three, just wanted to spend some time with you. So thanks for joining.

Kelly Nielsen (00:36)
No, it's my pleasure. And I loved diving into particular topic. It definitely gave me a blast from the past sort of experience to dive in and think about some of think about this overall conversation. So thank you for having me.

Jess Gaedeke (00:47)
Yeah, absolutely. heard the episode, you listened to it. What's one moment where you were just like, yeah, that's exactly how this industry works? Was there something that really rang out to you?

Kelly Nielsen (00:56)
You know, listening to the overall podcast, gave me the opportunity to reflect on my time working the alcohol beverage space. At this point, I've worked in the alcohol beverage space in some capacity. dating myself for probably about 17 of my in my career, which was really And I think something she said that really stuck with me was how articulation of it's really important to bring and keep

in consumers of every age. And I thought the way she brought that to life was really interesting because you take a look over the past almost two decades of the alcohol beverage industry, so much has changed. But I think change is the only today, you know, she talked a lot about how the industry is up against things like mushrooms or cannabis and

brought up recessions, know, and staying relevant with younger audiences. And it made me reflect on how when I was coming into this particular some things were the same and some things were if you think about where that was in recession, we were also talking about recession at that And maybe now, yeah, we're talking about different generations at that time, we were talking about how do you bring women into certain categories in alcohol beverage industry. And so I saw lot of parallels about how

bringing in new audiences, new demographics, and keeping an eye on all of those different phases of life, that truly is something that I think the industry has been dealing with for a really long time and thinking about just how to continue to stay relevant with today's consumer.

Jess Gaedeke (02:19)
yeah. So it's almost like same old story, just a new set of challenges or context within the consumer base. interesting. Katie also talked about how campaigns themselves, they don't fail because of bad strategy. They fail because they don't translate to shelf. And I thought that was so interesting because Katie's on the activation side of things. So I thought that was just really fascinating. From your perspective, where do brands most often sort of break between the insight and the execution? Where do they get trumped up?

Kelly Nielsen (02:46)
yeah, I think that this is, especially being in market research and diving into consumers, this is something I've spent a lot of time thinking about because how many times have we all done all of this testing on a new initiative or a brand and then when it actually goes to market, it doesn't do nearly as well as we all thought. And so much of can break down in that execution phase. And so I think there were a things she talked about that I thought were particularly relevant.

her talk about how when you're developing that strategy, you need to think about that link between where data meets creativity. Because that's kind the starting point. That's what creates a brand. what creates the image. That's what brings that marketing execution to life. think she really hit the nail on the head in thinking about, then it needs to come to life also at the

And this got me really thinking about my forecasting days because I think, you know, it's drilled into everyone's head that distribution is king. Distribution is the number one driver of volume. And I think the alcohol beverage industry has quite a few unique challenges in the United States driven by the three tier distribution system. so I think one, first potential

is that some brands, not all brands, know Campari is a powerhouse, has maybe more power than others, but a lot of brands don't have as much control over the way that their brand comes off shelf than maybe they would like because of the three tier distribution system. I think a couple other things that were particularly interesting is Katie talked about how

is as this mega house has maybe trouble getting funding the money and resources to really bring something to life on shelf. And so what that really means is first of all, if a big organization that can only imagine what that means for maybe a longer tail or smaller organizations not as big brands within And so I think it's really important that all touch points to the consumer and need to be cohesive.

So you need to think about what your package is representing, what your brand is representing, what your marketing is saying, whether that's big marketing or small I loved hearing about how she started selling box wine of the back of a car as the start of a career, because that is a consumer touch point, right? And that says something about the brand. And I think even really organically growing brands have the ability to control that message of their brand and that touch point. And so I think it's really important.

Jess Gaedeke (04:45)
Yeah.

Kelly Nielsen (04:59)
If you don't have the means to set up these big displays things in retail, you have to make sure that all these touch points are And then I think the final piece thinking how the distribution strategy really needs to match to the I love all of for what's going on with spritzes and target. I thought that that was a great example. They know their audience. They know that it's,

maybe middle, upper class women that are looking for certain things, multicultural, and that is different than 7-Eleven where you're going in for your six pack and it's all about I think those are maybe a couple, three things that kind of come to my mind. Thinking about the three tier distribution system, how to have control, the touch points across the cycle, sure that your distribution strategy actually matches with your brand.

Jess Gaedeke (05:42)
Yeah, a lot can go wrong between the insight and activation. And those are just some examples of what are specific to the Beval another comment that Katie made, I feel like she was just filled with brilliant she talked about winning the first And I think this idea of occasion-based innovation is really, really relevant for thinking about category-based innovation. So how do you think about that? When you think about Beval growth, like,

how should they continue to be thinking about occasions when it comes unmet needs?

Kelly Nielsen (06:12)
Yeah, you the more I thought about that, the more I thought that way to consider innovation that works. And thinking about drink within an occasion, I do think the one thing that brands really need to keep in mind is any sort drinking moments, and so maybe you're out to dinner or maybe it's an evening with the there can be several different occasions even within that. And so if you think about an evening, you have Happy Out, and I think she has an example of like,

You happy hour. so when you think about something like an apparel spritz, like they want to win that happy hour but that might not be the end of the drinking occasion right? Then they might be going to dinner and what are they, what's that first thing they're going to drink? Are they turning to a cocktail or are they turning to And then thinking about what's after what's the after dinner drink and what does that look And I think the one caution I would have for brands, if they're thinking about innovating in occasions versus individual,

versus categories is that some types of brands or products might be able to span different occasions. And so the one that always comes to mind for me is like the espresso martini. Sometimes it's in a happy hour drink, sometimes it's a right before dinner drink, sometimes it's a after dinner drink. And so I do think it's a great way to think about what are consumers looking for a moment, how do they wanna feel and how do those occasions differ, but don't pigeonhole yourself so much in the event that you could span multiple occasions.

Jess Gaedeke (07:29)
yeah, that's a really good point.

Katie made a good point, you did too, that not every idea works in every retailer. What works in Target's gonna be different than 7-Eleven, et cetera. how big is the gap and where does it work well when you think about retailer-specific experiences?

Kelly Nielsen (07:44)
Yeah. So to me, the example that Katie brought up that I thought was particularly interesting if we're thinking about these occasion based, innovation opportunities or occasion based ways to connect with consumers, but there's also opportunity then potentially for cross company collaboration. And so I thought it was really interesting the way she used the example of the spritz occasion is not necessarily just Campari

I mean, let's be real, they have a good chunk of it cornered with both Campari and Aperol, but there's Lemoncello spritz. There's other different types of spritzes. And I thought it was interesting to highlight the way that they went to market, particularly a retailer like Target in partnership with another large spirits organization like Bacardi, which I think a really interesting way to tie together understanding the consumer that occasion-based marketing.

Jess Gaedeke (08:32)
yeah, brand partnerships are definitely a One of things I loved about my conversation with Katie was just a little bit of a rant about sales. And basically her point was that the fundamentals have not changed, but the expectations have. So I'm curious, we look from your vantage point, you what has actually changed and what good commercial talent or good commercial partnerships look like today?

Kelly Nielsen (08:53)
I do tend to agree that I think that the fundamentals are the same. I think it's really important to show up for your clients. I loved calling out that we need to be empathetic partners and consultative partners and really understand clients' business. In terms of how it's changed though, I think that it's almost like we have to do that, but on steroids. There is so much information available today. There is data, there's news.

There's the client's competitive landscape. There's our competitive landscape and like continuing to monitor what's out there. And so I think the first thing is like, how do we actually get a handle on all of these different pieces of information in order to, in order to be better partners for our clients? Because I think they expect that in order to continue win the business, because, you know, as it mentioned at the end, there's always, you know, an ideally a financial transaction, but

That means we need to show up and do our homework. And I think because there's so much more information, we need to be a lot smarter about how we're getting that information. I think the other thing that she called out that was super interesting and very relevant in terms of the way that I think us here at dig and the way that we should partner with our is about how it's like more than a pretty PowerPoint. it's about meeting clients where they are and what they

Not that I want to get salesy here on this, but it did make me reflect about like what we're doing here at Dig because you know, on one end of the spectrum, there are clients and situations that need something agile and fast and they need answers as quickly as possible. But on the other end of the spectrum, it's really important to connect on the human level. And so as you think about those deep immersions and workshops and helping with change management throughout an organization, those are two very real and very to engage with it's

up to us to make sure that we are tailoring whatever that interaction looks like based on the need of the client. So I think it's a lot about showing up in a way that makes a lot of sense to them.

Jess Gaedeke (10:43)
yep, true points. Okay, one quick dip on the hot take. So Katie's hot take was that has not done a great job of bringing in new consumers and keeping them. So I'm curious, do you agree with that?

Kelly Nielsen (10:54)
I'm gonna take the hot take one step farther, actually. I do agree with that, and I'm gonna argue that it's not even that new of a problem that they I feel like when I look at the alcohol beverage industry, and I say this out of love, but I do think that when I look back at maybe the history of some of the things that have transpired, I do think sometimes they've been more reactionary rather than the forefront of some of those changes in consumer behavior.

And so I used this example earlier and I'll use it again, that if I think about the early 2000s, they were all about trying to bring women back into the alcohol beverage industry or the beer industry in particular decades of like highly sexualized advertising. And so, you know, I think that that was just one example. And so I do think over time there's this realization that the path to growth is through expanding an audience base and

you know, when it comes to what to do about it, I think it's really important that brands take a look at their portfolio, make sure to understand where things, where all their different brands fall and where they can continue to grow and play. Because think that otherwise we're going to get in a situation where they continue to be reactionary of like, this brand isn't appealing to this person or this brand isn't appealing to this audience. Like how do we keep that broader portfolio strategy in longer term,

connection in mind because I unfortunately don't see it as all that new and I do see more questions being I think is fabulous.

Jess Gaedeke (12:15)
yeah. And a hot take can be true for years and years. that's totally All right, well, let's close out with like, what's getting you excited in this space?

Kelly Nielsen (12:24)
Yeah. I think in this space in particular, one thing that's been really exciting for me to watch is the evolution of product innovation, particularly in the ready to drink space. And that might sound a little cliche because I know it's like the only growing space in But when I take a look at where that category started, whether it was, you know, with some of the really sweet, really fruity forward beverages, like

Now you can get a really good Aperol spritz out of a bottle or a really good espresso martini out of a can. And I think that it certain types of products more accessible to a broader audience. so I personally love those, especially when I don't want to bust out all of my materials and spirits to make my product. So I'd say that from a product side and then from a engagement and question side, like I do think that there's a lot of really interesting questions that are being asked about the intersection of alcohol beverage and non-alcoholic.

alcoholic beverages and where is that line? I organizations are asking the right questions about what does moderation mean? What does that mean for different generations and their engagement with alcohol? Taking a out rather than just being reaction in the next three to five years and asking big questions that I think could really shape the industry. So I'd that's more of picture piece of it that I'm really excited about.

Jess Gaedeke (13:37)
Yeah, both of those are really exciting. And basically, to sum it up, we've come a long way since Zima. That's one of the first. Well, thanks so much for taking time to chat with me. This is a great episode with Katie, and this has been a great follow up. So thank you, Kelly.

Kelly Nielsen (13:42)
Long ways to Nima.

Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you.