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Audrey Melofchik is global chief brand experience officer at VML. She’s spent more than three decades in the industry, and has previously served as CEO of Wunderman Thompson NA, president of DDB NY, global client lead at BBDO, and chief client officer at Organic.
Favorite project you’ve worked on? Hellmann’s “When Sally Met Mayo” was our most recent Super Bowl work for this fantastic Unilever brand. We brought Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan back together at Katz’s Deli to enjoy a delicious sandwich and teased the reunion for weeks on social media, creating tons of buzz and desire for Hellmann’s.
What’s your favorite ad campaign? The iconic JWT campaign for De Beers, “A Diamond is Forever.” One of my favorite aspects of this work is that they drove culture when they created the right-hand ring, celebrating that you don’t need a man to buy you a diamond. I love work that drives culture and this is a great example.
One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: This year is all about my son getting married in California this September. We can’t wait to celebrate Tyler and Natalie.
What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Great creative work is finally showing up all the way from brand to shelf. We’ve even baked it into our new model of how we work together on our Unilever team, WPP Unite. Retail marketing used to be detached from the rest of the brand and largely straight promotional offers. Creativity is more important than ever, and you see it everywhere. Just look at the Oreo Codes work we did for Mondelez where we celebrated playful Oreo cookies hidden in plain sight, unlocking offers with every sighting. It was essentially a coupon, but it was also clever marketing at its finest.
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I have a second trend I’m optimistic about, and that’s AI. We are using AI daily on WPP Open to help us get insights and work more quickly, but also to test a broader range of ideas and to develop creative with technology at the core. It’s a really fun time because we are all learning every day.
What’s one marketing-related podcast/social account/series you’d recommend? Any pop culture podcast—TMZ’s is my favorite. Great marketing rides on culture, so we have to get away from the marketing jargon and connect to what’s happening in the cultural zeitgeist. Those marketing podcasts definitely have their place, don’t get me wrong, but if you want to connect with people you need to have a gut instinct and knowledge of pop culture. We spend so much time learning marketing jargon—we do that all day! When you are listening to a podcast, you should be connecting to culture.
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