Tech Transformation Podcast: Church & Dwight’s Tiffany Pegues On Social Media Mastery and Misconceptions
Getting leadership buy-in isn’t easy in any role, but working in social media brings a special kind of challenge. In this episode of Tech Transformation, we’re talking with Tiffany Pegues, the head of social, search, and CRM at Church & Dwight, about some of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to retail and CPG social.
She shares why it’s so important to balance the razzle dazzle of marketing with having a disciplined approach on TikTok and other platforms, and she talks about how to set yourself up for success when you’re operating in so much unknown territory.
Listen to learn:
- How Church & Dwight is staying relevant for the next generation of consumers and the obstacles that come along with it
- How they upskill their teams
- The role of social-first campaigns
- How she’s influencing-up and why getting leadership buy-in in social media can be so challenging
- The biggest thing on her plate right now
- The future of social media
- The misconceptions in search and social media she wishes would just disappear
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Excerpts
On what she’s focused on: “The biggest thing for me that keeps me up at night is this idea of social commerce. We're a global company, so we have many counterparts and colleagues in Asia, and they are completely crushing it. They'll tell you things like, ‘Oh, we sold through like six weeks of supply in one livestream.’ And you're like, ‘What? How was that possible?’
“I have a partner who always says, ‘Comparison is the thief of joy.’ But you can't help to compare yourself. I know, we're completely different markets with clearly different consumer mentalities. But kind of the prize for me a year from now is that we've capitalized and figured out how to gain our fair share of that $17 billion livestream market.”
On staying relevant for new consumers: “As we started to dabble in more and more kind of new emerging vehicles, especially TikTok, what we learned is that the funnel has completely collapsed. And if it's relevant to consumers, from an awareness perspective, it will also be just as likely to help them consider your product and go to store — think about the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt phenomenon in particular. So this is where I think for us, it's really thinking about the consumer and how to reach them just generally, and have a message that's motivating and authentic.
“I always say video is queen, because that's my key takeaway is that regardless on what platform you're on, really, these quick, short videos that come from this place of authenticity often sometimes they bring a humorous light to things that is unexpected, is really what I found is the ‘secret sauce’ in order to reach consumers, especially those younger, emerging Gen Z and young millennial consumers — Gen Xennials.”
On starting small to get leadership buy-in: “For me, and this might be a little controversial, it's always about starting small. It's about having that test case that has as few variables as possible. And that's oftentimes the small brand where you can measure the direct impact of something you're doing. So it's about getting the folks in the room that truly are really critical stakeholders beyond marketing.
“And so it was the marketing team and the digital marketing team sitting with sales to really say, ‘Okay, we are launching on this platform. We want to be able to measure the impact because right now we have no other marketing levers turned on. So we think we can make it successful where we could showcase how our activities on this platform can really move the needle and have a measurable sales impact.’
“And it was structuring a test in a very disciplined, thoughtful way. And I know that's controversial, because some people want to go for that big bang, and they want to go for what splashy and sexy they want the razzle dazzle, and I get it. I'm a marketer. I love razzle dazzle … But at the same time, it's really important to test and learn — truly learn is part of that. And so you can iterate to great. And sometimes I feel like you don't have that opportunity if you're focused on the biggest brand in the building, because there's so much attention, and there's the fear that gets involved in the conversation….
"This sometimes can take time, but it doesn't have to. For instance, we went from maybe two brands activating consistently on the platform in 2020 to now I think it's our 15 brands are active. And we've been successful in continuing to build on our learnings to gain a bigger percentage of the overall marketing budget to really focus on social that influence sales. And that's been kind of the secret of showing the impact from a consumer perspective — not only on awareness, but also on consideration and in conversion.”
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