Observed Signal · Apr 17, 2026 · Hiring · Source: Digiday · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Brand Builders Return to CPG Marketing
Digiday's Future of Marketing briefing reports a shift in CPG hiring and strategy away from a performance-only focus toward traditional brand building. Recent CMO hires and role creations — at Smuckers, Hormel and Burger King — reflect demand for executives with brand stewardship experience rather than purely programmatic or lower-funnel skills. The piece argues the performance-first era left many brands with weakened equity as pricing pressure, stagnant volume and private-label gains have reduced margins and growth. Analysts and agency leaders cited in the briefing point to connected TV, fragmented social channels and retail media networks as both a challenge and an opportunity for brand-focused marketing. The newsletter also lists related platform and industry signals, including OpenAI ad products and platform metrics for ChatGPT, Snap and Roku.
Shift in CPG hiring and marketing mix from performance-only to brand-focused roles signals a meaningful industry trend that affects media strategy, channel demand (e.g., CTV, retail media) and MarTech/AdTech buying patterns.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Smuckers hired Katie Williams (formerly U.S. CMO of Haleon) as its new CMO earlier in 2026.
- Hormel created an enterprise-wide CMO role in December and appointed Jason Levine, formerly of Mondelēz, to the role.
- Burger King hired Joel Yashinsky as CMO (poached from Applebee’s in early 2025) and initiated a brand reset that included firing the brand mascot.
- Since 2023, total shareholder returns for the world’s largest food and beverage CPG companies declined by roughly 7% while the S&P 500 rose about 9%.
- CPG sector metrics cited: volume growth under 1% annually, private-label dollar sales growing nearly three times faster than branded equivalents, and 61% of shoppers reporting price matters more now than two years ago (McKinsey).
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8 Entities mappedOntology Mapping & Concepts
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