Just a few years ago, Procter & Gamble Co. Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard poked fun at all the talk about “content,” pointing out it was ultimately advertising. Now, he’s not so sure about doing advertising anymore, which is remarkable given that P&G reported $7.1 billion of spending on it last fiscal year.
“We’re here to reinvent advertising as we know it,” Pritchard said in an interview, noting that 70 percent of people say they don’t like advertising. And he spent much of the week at Cannes talking alternatives, including at more than a dozen public appearances in official and fringe events.
This includes working with Arianna Huffington’s behavioral health venture Thrive Global to create “habit stacking.” As Pritchard describes it, that might include getting people to think about three things they’re grateful for every morning when they’re brushing their teeth (with Crest,) or getting John Legend to induce dads to sing to their babies when they change their (Pampers) diapers, reducing stress levels and cortisol at the same time. Or it could be people thinking about how they’re going to “crush it” later in the day at work when they’re putting on Old Spice deodorant."When you think about it, it could replace ads," Pritchard says. “Rather than constant reminders interrupting you, these micro-steps become habits that replace advertising.”