Brand Management

Introductions (11:00 – 11:10 a.m. ET)
John Paquin, Director of the Brand Management Committee, ANA

I. How Crazy is Your Agency? And Why? (11:10 – 11:45 a.m. ET)
Feel like your agency is borderline crazy, with people flying back and forth, priorities changing, work never done well enough, and you as a client are in frequent despair? Yet, at the same time, almost improbably, find yourself loving the agency’s tenacity addressing continuous challenges, juggling, and innovation required to keep the lights on As paradoxical as that sounds, your agency is not crazy, but really a special style of fascinating organization, where chaos is king, and naturally occurs as a result of the style of business, the processes, the work products, the types of customers.

Speaker: Jack Skeels, CEO and Founder, AgencyAgile, Inc. 

II. Damn Right It's Folgers (11:45 – 12:20 p.m. ET)
You can't judge a book by its flashy cover. And you can't judge coffee by its fancy pack, just the quality inside. Folgers needed to make a bold statement to break through. We needed to own our insight about what our reputation was with younger consumers but in a way that our Pride of 172 years shines through. We wanted to reclaim our status proudly and defiantly as Damn Good Coffee by showcasing the pride of our 35M drinkers and the authentic NOLA hometown vibe to lend the brand soul and relevance. This campaign was really an unabashed anthem of Pride to be shouted from the rooftops, literally. Folgers has the easy confidence, pride, wit, and expertise that comes with being the top player in the coffee game and that tonal backdrop came through in every piece of communication we put out. Our Tone of Voice was Infectious Pride, Determined, Purposeful Energy, Real without Pretense, and A Knowing Wit. And while depth and breadth of portfolio was important to convey Variety the anchor hero was Black Silk which delivered on Taste better than other SKU's.

Speaker: Lynne Schroeder, Director of Integrated Consumer Experience for Food & Beverage,The J.M. Smucker Co

III. Extended Stay America: Genuine Goodness Brand Identity (12:20 – 12:55 p.m. ET)
Extended Stay America, the leader in the mid-scale extended stay hotel market, was a brand without an identity. The brand positioning was outdated and disconnected from current customer needs. The brand lacked a clear, consumer-facing articulation of its value proposition and quantitative understanding of customer segments. Brand messaging was fragmented with no clear personality, consistent visual approach or emotional connection with target customers, and Extended Stay business contribution was below expectations. The company needed to reposition the Extended Stay brand, and identified clear objectives to guide development of the new platform, and reignite the brand to better reach target customers and win back its rightful market share:

• Reposition and reignite the Extended Stay America brand           
• Use quantitative research to learn more about target customers and create clearly defined audience segments.
• Develop a consistent brand platform directly aligned with extended stay customer segments including essence, positioning, pillars, visual approach, and messaging.              
• Introduce the new Extended Stay America brand family and Extended Stay America Premier Suites 
• Increase Extended Stay America’s share of extended stay (7+ nights) business

Speaker: Maury Lundahl, Group VP, Marketing and E-commerce, Extended Stay America 

Wrap-up (12:55 -1:00 p.m. ET)

Speaker Bios

Jack Skeels, CEO and Founder, AgencyAgile, Inc.
Jack Skeels is a former RAND senior analyst, and currently CEO of AgencyAgile, an Agile transformation and coaching firm that helps agencies, marketers, and other complex service organizations go better, faster and happier. His career included leading Sapient’s 105-person Los Angeles office, founding and executive roles in multiple startups. He is a coach to executives, a thought-leader and evangelist to industry, and wakes every day driven to create a revolution in leadership and management practices, optimal organization design, and delivery excellence.

Jack is recognized as an outstanding speaker, writer, and educator. He speaks at over 15 industry and association events per year, including Ad Age, Digiday, SoDA (annual meeting and The SoDA Academy), 4A’s conferences, Advertising Week, Magnet Global, Miss Collective, TAAN, Bureau of Digital, and others. With over 35 published articles, his work appears regularly in Ad Age, Entrepreneur.com, Ad Week, MediaPost, and other publications.

Jack is a two-time Inc-500 Award winner and entrepreneur, with several successful startups to his credit. In addition to a Bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering and an M.B.A. with honors in Entrepreneurship and Finance from the Marshall School of Business, he has held several graduate-level teaching roles, including associate professor at the Pardee RAND School of Public Policy.

Lynne Schroeder, Director of Integrated Consumer Experience for Food & Beverage,The J.M. Smucker Co. 
Lynne is a seasoned veteran to Marketing and Advertising with over 30 years’ experience in progressive roles with Cleveland ad agencies, National QSR chains and CPG. She joined JMS in 2018 during their Power of One Transformation and helped co-lead the ICX team through transformational change. Over the last few years the JMS team, in partnership with ad agency Publicis, has worked to launch breakthrough creative like Smucker’s Father Nature, That Jif'ing Good and Folgers Damn Good Coffee rebrand. Their work helped contribute to JMS being named a Top Innovation Company by Fast Company in 2022. More recently Lynne led the creation of the ADDAPT ERG at JMS (Advocating for Disabilities and Diverse Abilities by Partnering Together).

Maury Lundahl, Group VP, Marketing and E-commerce, Extended Stay America 
Maury Lundahl is a hospitality industry veteran with more than two decades specializing in e-commerce and digital marketing. She has had the privilege to apply her expertise across virtually every segment of the industry from luxury international all-inclusive resort destinations to extended stay to mid-scale leisure hotels. Equally comfortable driving performance for owned portfolios and franchise models, Maury has managed billion-dollar, multi-brand distribution platforms and award-winning brand awareness campaigns. Currently serving as Group VP, Marketing and E-commerce for Extended Stay America, she is responsible for driving digital revenue, building brand awareness and improving customer loyalty.