entertainment still – After more than two decades at Mars overseeing brands including M&M’s, Skittles, and Twix, chief brand officer Rankin Carroll says marketers risk getting lost in AI, data and measurement. In an interview for the “CMO Insider” podcast, Carroll argues the overlo
For weeks. marketers have been chasing the next advantage—AI tools. deeper data. personalization at scale. influencer strategies. and ever-finer measurement. But Rankin Carroll. the chief brand officer behind M&M’s. Skittles and Twix. keeps circling back to something that sounds almost old-fashioned.
In an interview for Business Insider’s “CMO Insider” podcast. Carroll said the biggest mistake marketers make today is forgetting that entertainment still matters. “I think what’s critical to cut through is it’s still a game of compelling stories,” Carroll said. “People are still looking for content that captures their attention.”.
His comments land as Mars shifts how it markets its brands—moving toward more personalized advertising powered by data and technology. Carroll isn’t rejecting those tools. He’s arguing they only matter if they help brands create entertainment consumers want to engage with. not just more efficient ways to deliver messages.
Carroll believes a major change in marketing is the expectation that consumers participate in brand experiences rather than simply receive them. “We can get caught up in the data. we can get caught up in all the technology side of this. but at the end of the day. it’s compelling stories well told in engaging ways that they can participate in. ” he said.
That philosophy shows up in recent Mars campaigns. Carroll pointed to a Snickers activation tied to the UEFA Euro 2024 soccer tournament. The campaign partnered with Meta and WhatsApp to let consumers send personalized messages to friends using an AI-powered José Mourinho character. Users entered prompts about mistakes their friends had made, and the system generated custom responses in Mourinho’s voice.
Carroll said the campaign worked because it tapped into a behavior Mars already understood about soccer fandom. “We know the behavior around the Euros around football is banter,” he said. “You want to banter with your mates.” Instead of simply promoting Snickers. Mars built an experience people could actively join and share. “It just exploded,” Carroll said.
Personalization, Carroll argues, has also become an expectation—especially among younger consumers. “What we know is that consumers now, especially younger consumers, expect personalization from brands,” he said. But he doesn’t frame personalization as just more targeted ads. Mars is trying to make it something people can take part in, including helping them create content themselves.
The “Twix Harmonizer” is one example. It allowed users to send voice notes to friends that would soften bad news through AI-generated audio. Carroll’s point was similar: the appeal wasn’t the technology. “You cut through by creating an experience that they can actually participate in,” he said.
The reason this message has extra urgency. according to Carroll. is that digital platforms have made it harder for brands to break through. Social media feeds are crowded, algorithms keep changing, and consumers have more content choices than ever. Even so. Carroll said marketers sometimes over-focus on data. technology and optimization while overlooking the importance of creating something people genuinely enjoy.
“I think that’s the word that we’ve slightly forgotten about. Entertainment,” Carroll said.
Carroll said the entertainment mindset also shapes how Mars approaches culture—whether it’s Skittles running unusual campaigns. Snickers building interactive experiences. or M&M’s responding to controversy through humor. He described it as finding ways to engage consumers while keeping a brand’s identity intact.
“We can bring something to you,” he said of consumers.
For Carroll, the goal hasn’t changed even as marketing technology has. “At the end of the day,” he said, “it’s compelling stories well told in engaging ways that they can participate in.”
Mars M&M's Skittles Twix Snickers Rankin Carroll CMO Insider Business Insider marketing entertainment personalization AI Meta WhatsApp UEFA Euro 2024 José Mourinho Twix Harmonizer
So basically Mars is saying “make ads fun” lol.
I mean yeah entertainment wins, but AI is literally how they target you though. Like you can’t just ignore the data part. Seems like they’re just reassuring people it’s not all algorithm doom.
Wait I thought Snickers was a candy, not like some soccer thing. Also José Mourinho in WhatsApp sounds weird… did everyone actually use it or is that just marketing fluff? If people are “participating” now then why do my ads still just follow me around everywhere
This article is making it sound like AI is the enemy, like they’re trying to go back to TV commercials or something. But it’s still the same companies buying attention. “Compelling stories” is fine, but half the time it’s just influencers and sponsorships pretending it’s entertainment. Also they mention measurement like that’s bad? Without measurement you can’t tell what’s working, you just guess, which is what people did before data (and that went great, obviously).