How J.M. Smucker is modernizing Jif and other brands to reach Gen Z

Gail Hollander spent 20 years at Publicis Groupe working on J.M. Smucker Co. before taking a job about a year ago as the packaged foods company’s chief marketing officer. In that time, she has focused on making its baby boomer-friendly brands more relevant for younger generations, including Gen Z. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, check us out on Spotify and hear us on Stitcher. This is our RSS feed. Tell a friend! “Focusing on creativity and taking what you might consider to be dusty brands and making them more modern and relevant is something that's a marketer's dream, truthfully,” Hollander said on the latest edition of Ad Age’s Marketer’s Brief podcast. The Orrville, Ohio-based company is known for its Smucker’s jellies, Jif peanut butter, Uncrustables sandwiches, coffee brands Cafe Bustelo and Folgers, as well as a pet food line that includes Puperoni and Meow Mix. For years, J.M. Smucker Co. had grown via acquisitions—late last year it acquired Hostess, maker of Twinkies, HoHos and DingDongs, for $5.6 billion as it expanded into snacks. However, according to Hollander, the company is now putting more into creative efforts to modernize its tentpole brands. “You get the opportunity to rethink these brands, figure out where their heart is, what the DNA of the brand is, figure out how that connects into culture today,” she said, noting the goal is to have “creative that punches above its weight.” For example, when someone in the finance department heard that Jason and Travis Kelce were talking about their love for Uncrustables on their podcast “New Heights,” the company moved quickly. Hollander said that within three days, Uncrustables had connected with the NFL brothers to sponsor a few episodes. @newheightshow The Kelce girls are terrified of Kylie’s Christmas present @Uncrustables ♬ original sound - New Heights Smucker also introduced two characters late last year in Uncrustables’ creative campaigns—an anthropomorphic Uncrustable with a bite taken out of him, and the (grumpy) crust he was cut from. The brand’s first paid TV ad ran during “Monday Night Football” last fall. @uncrustables Two brothers cut from the same loaf. One’s the best part of the sandwich. The other is…Crust. ♬ original sound - Uncrustables Publicis remains the company’s lead creative agency. To keep up with demand, Smucker built an Uncrustables plant in Colorado with another in the works in Alabama. J.M. Smucker’s Chief Financial Officer Tucker Marshall recently told analysts during the company’s fiscal third-quarter earnings call that Uncrustables is on track to hit $1 billion in sales by the end of the fiscal year in 2026. Smucker also updated Jif by changing the tagline of “Choosy moms choose Jif” to “That Jif’ing good.” “The message had become a little old-fashioned,” Hollander said. “So for us, it really was about how do you take this superior taste and modernize it?” To attract younger consumers, the brand tapped Ludacris for the “That Jif'ing good" campaign, which came from the insight that some rappers sound like they have peanut butter in their mouths. This year during Super Bowl season, the brand ran a campaign around saving the side of celery that often comes with wings. It encouraged folks to slather on peanut butter and “save the sticks.” @jif Save the Celery: a case study. The story of Jif's intervention and Celery's redemption. ♬ original sound - Jif Investing in Gen Z Smucker is also looking to move away from its association with boomers and appeal more to Gen Z and millennial shoppers. To do this, Smucker has pulled back on linear TV spend and put those dollars toward digital and personalized ads. “It used to be that you could create mass reach by being very, very focused with your [media] investments,” Hollander said. “That is not true anymore. You have to proliferate your media mix in order to achieve the same reach because there are so many areas of opportunity. Video continues to be critically important. We are very, very heavily digital.” Also on the podcast, Hollander discussed J.M. Smucker’s hybrid work model. The company has 20 “core weeks” during which employees are required to come into the Orrville headquarters on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. “From everything that we’ve been told, and all the conversations I’ve had, people love it,” Hollander said. “It is the true definition of hybrid. They have the opportunity of spending time at home and being able to balance work and their home life. But they also get the beauty of being connected with their peers and with their workmates on a regular basis and on a regular cadence.”

How J.M. Smucker is modernizing Jif and other brands to reach Gen Z

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