How McCormick is spicing up its in-house marketing—and saving millions

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, check us out on Spotify and hear us on Stitcher. This is our RSS feed. Tell a friend! When Alia Kemet joined McCormick & Co., she knew some of its brands, such as Old Bay, had devoted followings, but saw a lot of opportunity for the spice marketer to grow its reach. “I want [consumers] to be irrationally passionate about every single one of these brands,” says Kemet, McCormick’s VP of creative and digital marketing. Since 2017, she has been helping McCormick rethink its approach, building up an in-house team that can more rapidly respond to trends while also working with external agencies. The overhaul has saved McCormick millions of dollars. Kemet joined McCormick in 2017 after 14 years at Ikea, where her work included launching the retailer’s social media presence. “I’ve never had a job that existed as is before I was in the role,” Kemet says on the latest episode of the “Marketer’s Brief” podcast, about building roles in the digital space. Kemet’s ideas were kicked into overdrive in 2020 when the pandemic led budding and experienced at-home chefs to search online for guidance. McCormick stepped up with everything from live cooking sessions on Instagram to Pinterest posts and adding to its lineup of ASMR tutorials on YouTube. “We were really monitoring Google Analytics, we were monitoring Pinterest and we were looking for trends, and we were executing content against those trends within 24 hours, 48 hours sometimes, of seeing those trends really spike,” says Kemet of the team’s work during the height of the pandemic. “It forced us to be more nimble and agile than I even thought possible.” Over the past year, McCormick saved $13.5 million by leaning into its internal agency model, following smaller cost reductions in the few years preceding the pandemic. “The key there was finding these moments that are happening in culture and activating on them quickly,” says Kemet. She says she’s most proud when the impact comes through using owned and earned media, keeping costs low, and generating significant buzz. “Follower growth is nice, but I prefer engagement,” she says. Along with McCormick and Old Bay, the spice marketer’s portfolio includes brands such as Cholula, Frank’s RedHot and French’s. On July 8, it will begin selling online a salt-free Sunshine by Tabitha Brown seasoning that is already being promoted by the influencer. Its ingredients include ginger, thyme, red pepper, turmeric, garlic, pineapple and mango. While McCormick is doing more of its own creative work and has been hiring more people to handle the flow, the majority of its work is hybrid with outside agencies, says Kemet. Sometimes, the outsiders inspiring the team aren’t affiliated with agencies. When McCormick was getting ready to launch on TikTok, before the pandemic, Kemet knew it needed to uncover the best ways to connect on the platform. But even its youngest staffers weren’t as up to speed on TikTok as someone else she knew. Kemet’s teenage daughter came into the office and led a presentation. McCormick’s business has grown since the pandemic began. Earlier this month, the company posted an 11% rise in second-quarter sales and raised its fiscal year forecast, helped in part by acquisitions it made late last year, including Cholula. Hear which brands are thriving right now—and why—at Ad Age In-Depth: Hottest Brands on Tuesday, July 13. RSVP at AdAge.com/HottestBrands.

How McCormick is spicing up its in-house marketing—and saving millions

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