KEVIN ROBERTS TO SKOL, BRAZIL, AUGUST 2011
LOVEMARKS ESSENTIALS
It says a lot for the idea of globalization that a Scottish beer with a
Scandinavian name has become the #1 beer in Brazil.
I love the beverage business and have spent my life in it.
KR RAP on beer and bev:
 P&G – Orange Crush
 Pepsi – Middle East & Canada
 Lion Nathan
 Saatchi (beer on 5 continents)
AmBev has fantastic performance in Brazil. Your top three brands are all in
Interbrand’s top 10 brands in Brazil. Together they have 70% of the market.
Where can you go? As high as the sun.
You have the World Cup in three years, the Olympics in five, a growing
economy and lots of thirsty new drinkers joining the game. Brazilians drink 61
liters of beer per person annually; the champion Czechs are over 150, Aussies
104, lots of growth for the golden nectar
Your job is to revolutionize the category, drive overall per caps and win versus
all other beverages….
SLIDE: VL
“Winning isn’t everything but wanting to win is.”
SLIDE: VL
“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win
once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right
all the time. Winning is a habit.”
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SLIDE: VL
“Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of
organization – an army, a political party or a business. The principles are
the same. The object is to win – to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds
hard or cruel. I don’t think it is.”
SLIDE: VL
“I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour – his greatest fulfillment to all he
holds dear – is that moment when he has to work his heart out in a good
cause and he’s exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.”
We live in a VUCA world: Volatile / Uncertain / Complex / Ambiguous.
To win forget controlling it. Don’t fight it! Surf it.
Our drinkers don’t buy into this VUCA…they have already reframed the
‘end game’. VUCA is Vibrant, Unreal, Crazy and Astounding.
They are confident and optimistic. They aspire to creativity, change, and a
better world.
They aspire to joy and fun…let’s give it to them….that’s our challenge.
Here’s how we face a challenge in my hometown.
NEW HAKA
The New Zealand All Blacks – my ultimate Lovemark.
We’re talking Lovemarks today, first I want to set the scene because the
market today is totally different from five years ago.
Job no.1 today in business is to touch and improve lives in the moment,
powered by better, faster, bigger ideas.
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In this 24 Forever world, New is dead, even for an innovation brand like Skol.
Speed is the new black.
We live in The Age of Now. Now is the operational framework. Always on,
living in the moment, a place that’s more exciting than the regrets of yesterday
and fears of tomorrow.
70% of people’s happiness is in the Now, where tension is relaxed,
problems are solved, and dreams get delivered. Sounds like Skol to me.
The Now demands that we:
1. Apply radical thinking
2. Break the rules
3. Put instinct ahead of protocol
4. Give up control
5. Get to warp speed
Here are the step changes:
ERA OF NEW
AGE OF NOW
Attention
Participation
Inform
Inspire
Reason
Emotion
Return on Investment
Return on Involvement
Price
Priceless Value
Pumping Markets
Creating Movements
CASE STORY – T MOBILE
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Here are five ideas for connecting in the Age of Now.
IDEA #1 – CONNECT WITH LOVEMARKS
In the Age of Now it’s not enough to be liked. Love is the emotion that trumps
all others.

Brands are owned by brand managers, accountants and stockholders.
Lovemarks are owned by the people who love them.

Brands are built on Respect. Lovemarks are created out of Respect and
Love.

Brands build Loyalty for a Reason. Lovemarks inspire Loyalty Beyond
Reason. Beyond Attribute, Benefit. Loyalty Beyond Recession.

Great brands were irreplaceable. Lovemarks are irresistible. You need to
ask if you’re helping to make a brand irreplaceable or irresistible.
PC/MAC and MP3/iPod. iPad? Oh boy, irresistible.
CASE STORY – CADBURY (ANTI) WORLD CUP, ARGENTINA
We map the process simply on the Love Respect Axis. You know this, Skol is
the only beer in Brazil that is a Lovemark. We drew this Axis on a restaurant
napkin.

Low Respect. Low Love. Commodities. Raw materials, raw experiences,
raw deals. Consumers are ruthless and put most products in this category.
Breakfast cereals. Kaiser (a Brazilian beer)

High Love. Low Respect. The fad zone of “NEW!” A great for spot for
launching new products like music and movies that have a shelf life of a
few weeks or months. Some fads leap to Lovemarks. Most don’t. Just look
at how quick HP’s touch pad totalled – 28 days.
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
High Respect. Low Love. This is where most brands live, where they tick
all the boxes for performance, quality and trust, but lack emotional depth
and empathy. They are owed by brand managers and not by the people
who buy them.

High Love and High Respect. Lovemarks. This is the Holy Grail, where
there is a truly symbiotic relationship between producer and consumer.
Stepping forward together in harmony.
We measured the emotional relationship consumers have with their most loved
brands. We found that those brands that were loved are consumed more and
have higher future buying intent than brands, fads or commodities.
In Cereals Lovemarks are consumed 4 times more than 'fads,' and 25 times
more than mere 'products‘. Moving a brand to Lovemark status can increase
future purchase intent by 66% and increase usage frequency by roughly 5
times. In other words, Lovemarks create Loyalty Beyond Reason – beyond
price, beyond attribute, benefit, service, recession.
TOYOTA VIOS IRRESISTIBLE – BAIT
IDEA #2 – CONNECT WITH THE THREE SECRETS
Lovemarks have three key ingredients.
Mystery. It’s what we don’t know that matters, such as the magic of Skol in a
can. Stories are key to mystery. Skol stands for entertainment, but is a laugh
enough? What’s the story? The thread that runs right through everything?
What’s the backstory? The inside scoop?
Danish futurist Rolf Jensen: “The highest-paid person in the first half of this
century will be the story-teller.”
SONY PLAYSTATION – VICTOR
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Sensuality is Sight, Sound, Scent, Touch and Taste, the enthrallers of
emotions. It helps that people love the taste of Skol – not so with all beers.
Skol is good looking – the function of design. And it has both the touch and
sound of the opening of a can.
Intimacy is empathy, commitment, passion. Your conviviality spirit is a
fantastic feeling that can work much harder. This is why Brazilians have the
highest number of online “friends” in the world.
Start by putting yourself in the heart of your audience. U2 re-invented the
concert with 360 by putting themselves at the center of the stadium (and
increased ticket sales by 20%).
Humor is the shortcut to the heart
TOYOTA RAV4 – SCARY THINGS x 5 (BED, CHEF, GARAGE, HOT TUB,
VACUUM)
IDEA #3 – CONNECT ON SCREENS
We are all screenagers. Sight sound and motion is the explosive connector
through any delivery system.
Sisomo began and continues with TV. TV rivets the world (over 4 hours a day
on average, everywhere). It’s the original pulsing screen. It delivers a killer
combination of sensory selling.
1. TV is the most powerful communication so far. It's becoming more
important, not less important. Because TV is an idea, not a box.
2. TV is the only medium touched by the web that isn’t falling to pieces. It’s
integrating technology and absorbing and colonizing new media as it’s
introduced.
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3. TV is exploding over the web, and beyond it. Digital, High Def, DVR,
mobile Wi-Fi, 3D, augmented reality, games and apps will only make TV
more irresistible.
4. TV is mass enough to be commercially viable and narrow enough to give
creative wizards free rein.
People don’t care whether something is digital or not. They just care what
pulses on the screen, whatever its dimension or location.
CASE STORY – SWAGGER WAGON
In this future the consumer is the media. If the idea is big, relevant and cut
through, she’ll spread the word.
Take a compelling story. Get smart about the elements that matter most. Let
loose where they connect and inspire best.
Three questions matter:
1. Will they want to see it again?
2. Will they want to share it?
3. Will they want to improve it?
Her two questions of any social phenomenon are:
1. What am I missing out on? (FOMO)
2. Does it make me laugh, cry, or think?
Oh yes, and there’s a third: Do I need to be somewhere?
NZ TELECOM - FRIENDS
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IDEA #4 – CONNECT WITH CREATIVITY
Ideas are the currency of the future. The unreasonable power of creativity
is the wining app.
In a VUCA world, Creative Leadership is the new black, not command and
control, not leaders, followers, not servant leaders, but Creative Leaders.
The CEO becomes the “Chief Excitement Officer”; CIO “Chief Ideas
Officer”; CMO the “Chief Motivation Officer.”
1. Creative leaders work visually:

They think like a designer, because people remember 20% of what
they read, and 80% of what they see.

They dream ideas big enough to carry through lives, connect across
screens, creating buying momentum end to end.
TVCS – VIENNA INSURANCE KETCHUP AND TRUCKS
2. Creative leaders provide freedom within a framework:



Responsibility
Learning
Recognition
Joy
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3. Creative leaders reframe constantly:
When you’re No.1, next steps are:

Expand the scope

Re-imagine the business

Re-imagine the industry

Lead
Voltaren reframed from pain relief to the Joy of Movement. Here’s how
we reframed HP in China.
CASE STORY – HP CHINA
4. Creative leaders surprise with the obvious.

Apple: retail stores (obvious!).

Philips: a clothes iron for men.

Heartbreak hotel (Holland, Belgium) divorces couples in a single
weekend: separate 5 star hotels, lawyers, paperwork, €2,499 and
it’s in the courts, ciao baby.
In Argentina, pure air conditioners focused on… people who need clean
air the most.
CASE STORY: BGH BIG NOSE
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5. Creative leaders champion five Es





Enthusiasm: Irresistible force of nature, driven to inspire.
Empowerment: MBWA.
Edginess: Dance at the frontier, show comfort with ambiguity.
Engaged: MBWA, networked, open system (Connect + Develop),
interactive; hands-on driven.
Enraged: Reject normality, change it!
IDEA #5 INSPIRE THEIR WORLD
People want to be part something bigger themselves - just look at Apple’s
design revolution.
The most powerful brands pulse with spirit. They are “purpose-inspired”, which
is about “consumer as hero” not “product as hero.” For Procter & Gamble this
is “Touching lives, improving life.”
Purpose-inspired turns a price-focused experience into a priceless experience
– only if you answer one question beautifully: “How will you improve my life?”
The role of business is to make the world a better place. The victors will be
those who outplay others on the field of great content. When you tell your story
and share in a compelling way, people will reflect themselves into your brand,
delivering both premium experiences and returns.
TVC – TELECOM FATHER & SON
ENDS
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