Viindi's Category Conference

On February 9th and 10th, the global category leadership came together at the Chelsea Stadium in London, under the leadership of Vindi Banga, to highlight the challenges that lay ahead, and to talk about specific areas of action. The conference was called Compass into Action, and it was the first ever demonstration of how the business would embrace Compass, the new Unilever business strategy framework.

In his opening address Vindi expanded on our vision of "doubling the business and reducing the environmental impact by 2020". He also talked about how we are positioned to achieve this using the Compass "Non-negotiables" of Winning with Brands and Innovation, Winning in the Marketplace, Winning through Continuous Improvement, and Winning with People.

It was then the turn for each of the business heads to talk about their respective areas of focus. Simon Clift's presention was titled "First Priority to our Consumers" and he briefly talked about the two most important areas that are transforming consumer behavior, Digital Media, and Environment and Sustainability Concerns. He then handed over to Babs Rangaiah and Santiago Gowland to expand on each of these areas.

Babs' presentation, perhaps the most impactful of the day, was an extremely insightful compilation of consumer views, titled "Unilever Consumer Media Manifesto: From the People". Owing to the developments in digital media and availability of content, Babs talked about how it is the need of the day to redefine our brand communication and media, purely from a consumer standpoint. He used great examples of work to bring his points to life.
- Mobile: Axe Wake-up services in India and Japan
- Service: Flora Heart Age Tool
- Social Media: Ben & Jerrys 1MM fans on facebook
- Entertainment/blog: Rexona in Romania
- Video: Axe "Clean Your Balls"
- External: P&G facebook deal: Building an office in silicon valley, Pampers selling on Facebook directly, Pepsi shifting superbowl money to social media, J&J baby app, etc.



Throughout the rest of the day, all the category EVPs came to the stage and talked about how various elements of Compass would come to life. Michel Dallemagne, Amanda Soury and David Blanchet talked about Superior Products, Design and Branding and Marketing. The "Digital" factor of the day was further amplified when we had Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook as a Guest Speaker. Sheryl brilliantly spoke about the fundamental differences Facebook is bringing about in how consumers communicate, and how it is important for brands to engage in this new way with consumers. She urged the brands to not wait to sort out a strategy, but to follow the model of doing and learning.

Helen Wyatt briefly talked about "Winning with People" before she handed over to David Smith, an Author and a Consultan, our second Guest Speaker of the day. The first day ended with the GCLT members splitting into two teams for a Penalty Shootout!

The second day started with Sylvia Lagnado talking about Winning with Brands and Innovation and Geoffery Probert talking about Leading Market Development. Henning Rehder and Frank Weijers also spoke about the need for driving return on Brand Investment. David Blanchard, Keith Weeds, and Didier Dallemagne spoke about Delivering Sustainability. The last speaker of the day was Paul Kelly from ASDA talking about Driving Employee Engagement.

The second part of the day was dedicated to various GCLT's feeding back on their syndicate sessions, and their area of focus. One theme that was part of each and everyone's focus was "Digital". Babs's inspirational presentation, and the continued efforts of our team have been able to put this on top of everyone's agenda. The need is for us to land key digital programmes in the markets, and we will! Why would we not when, as Babs would say, It is out Time!