ORLANDO, Fl – Candy gets sticky, but, when it comes to audience engagement, could live sports be stickier?
“Sports brings culture together,” according to Vinny Rinaldi, VP of media and marketing technology at The Hershey Company. In this video interview with Beet.TV at the ANA’s Masters of Marketing conference, Rinaldi said the confectionary company is leaning into advertising around live TV sports.
“It brings people together and I think it’s honestly one of the biggest … surges and live entertainment today across all of the different content that we are buying as a brand,” he said.
Reach Is “Number One KPI”
For Hershey, which has 98% household penetration, “reach is probably our number one KPI that we go after to make sure that we’re speaking to as many households as possible,” Rinaldi said.
By bringing sports in to the mix of other media, and by controlling frequency across different environments, Hershey aims to grow that reach.
The way sports are now being delivered to audiences has “shifted” to digital platforms like YouTube, Amazon and Netflix, affording brands new opportunities to target consumers “in the moments that probably matter the most”, Rinaldi said.
“I think as dynamic ad insertion becomes a bigger thing in the marketplace as truly live sports goes almost full mainstream … we’re just going to be able to insert ourselves in better moments, have more controllable ecosystems.”
Of course, chocolate town is no stranger to live sports, with its own ice hockey team in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Had a great time bringing my little guy up to hang out with @zackfisch and @Mitchy1_0 in the booth tonight. Another big win from the @TheHersheyBears in chocolate town USA! pic.twitter.com/HxFLiSh4Qm
— Vinny Rinaldi (@vinny_rinaldi3) March 18, 2024
Putting Consumers First
Looking ahead to 2025, Rinaldi said: “I think my hope is we turn a corner and really put consumers first.”
“I think we spend a lot of time as an industry focused on numbers and data points and treating people as numbers and not humans anymore,” he said. “And I think to bring creative to life, to bring that consumer experience to life, you need to understand what stands out for a consumer.”
“To stand out in two seconds as a brand is hard, so you’ve got to create a really moment driven purpose in that time period that you’re spending with them to change their behavior and actually create action off of it,” Rinaldi added.
You’re watching “The CMO’s Guide to CTV Advertising in 2025 & Beyond”, a Beet.TV Leadership Series at ANA Masters of Marketing 2024, presented by Innovid. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
