The executive behind M&M's says this is marketing's most overlooked skill

After more than two decades at Mars, overseeing iconic brands like M&M's, Skittles, and Twix, the company's chief brand officer, Rankin Carroll, says one of the biggest mistakes marketers make today is forgetting a simple idea: entertainment still matters.

As marketers race to embrace AI, data, personalization, influencers, and new measurement tools, Carroll told Business Insider in an interview for its "CMO Insider" podcast that the industry sometimes loses sight of what consumers are actually looking for.

"I think what's critical to cut through is it's still a game of compelling stories," Carroll said. "People are still looking for content that captures their attention."

Carroll's comments come as Mars undergoes a major transformation in how it markets its brands, shifting toward more personalized advertising powered by data and technology.

Yet Carroll says all of those tools matter only if they help brands create entertainment that consumers actually want to spend time with.

Consumers don't want brands talking at them

Carroll says one of the biggest changes in marketing is the growing expectation that consumers participate in brand experiences rather than simply receive messages.

"We can get caught up in the data, we can get caught up in all the technology side of this, but at the end of the day, it's compelling stories well told in engaging ways that they can participate in," he said.

For Carroll, that is where entertainment comes in. Instead of interrupting consumers with ads, Mars increasingly wants to give them experiences they choose to engage with.

That philosophy has shaped several recent Mars campaigns.

Carroll pointed to a Snickers activation built around the UEFA Euro 2024 soccer tournament.

The campaign partnered with Meta and WhatsApp to let consumers send personalized messages to friends using an AI-powered José Mourinho character. Users entered prompts about mistakes their friends had made, and the system generated custom responses in Mourinho's voice.

Rather than simply promoting Snickers, Mars built the campaign to tap into behavior that it already understood about soccer fandom.

"We know the behavior around the Euros around football is banter," Carroll said. "You want to banter with your mates."

The result was an entertaining experience that consumers could actively participate in and share. "It just exploded," Carroll said.

Mars says personalization works best when it's entertaining

Carroll believes personalization has become an expectation, particularly among younger consumers.

"What we know is that consumers now, especially younger consumers, expect personalization from brands," he said.

But he does not view personalization as simply delivering more targeted advertisements. Instead, Mars is trying to build experiences that allow consumers to participate in the creation of content itself.

The Snickers campaign was one example. Another was the "Twix Harmonizer," a tool that allowed users to send voice notes to friends that would soften bad news through AI-generated audio.

Again, Carroll says the appeal was not the technology itself but rather giving people something entertaining to do.

"You cut through by creating an experience that they can actually participate in," he said.

Why Mars thinks many marketers are overcomplicating things

Carroll says that digital platforms have made it harder for brands to break through. Social media feeds are crowded, algorithms constantly change, and consumers have more content choices than ever.

Still, he says marketers sometimes focus too heavily on data, technology, and optimization while overlooking the importance of creating something people genuinely enjoy.

"I think that's the word that we've slightly forgotten about. Entertainment," Carroll said.

That thinking also influences how Mars approaches culture.

Whether it's Skittles creating unusual campaigns, Snickers building interactive experiences, or M&M's responding to controversy through humor, Carroll says brands need to find ways to participate in culture without losing their identities.

"We can bring something to you," he says of consumers.

For Carroll, that remains the foundation of effective marketing regardless of how technology evolves.

"At the end of the day," he said, "it's compelling stories well told in engaging ways that they can participate in."