This Mondelez Exec Wants To Move All His Brands' Websites To RebelMouse, The Niche Social Media Startup
But even amid mounting evidence that many people are glued to their phones at all times, a proclamation made Tuesday by Mondelez vp consumer engagement B. Bonin Bough came as something of a surprise in a world where more than 80% of web traffic still comes from desktop or laptop computers.
In comments made at the Smarter Mobile Marketing conference (SM2) in New York, Bough announced that he is on a mission to tear down his brands' websites.
Instead, he wants to all Mondelez brands to use RebelMouse, a content curation site that allows people and brands to aggregate social media feeds and display them to the public on their web sites. He's not alone. L'Oreal social media exec Rachel Weiss also said she was a fan of RebelMouse. RebelMouse was only launched in 2012, and has $12.8 million in venture capital funding. The company has fewer than 50 employees according to LinkedIn.
But RebelMouse's social content management tools are perfect, Bough says: "When do I ever use my desktop to access the internet?" Bough asked. "The amount of times are so small. I don't know why we would make production-level investments in brand websites when they're usually not mobile optimized."
Mondelez comprises the snack and food brands of the former Kraft Foods, a group that includes brands like Oreo, Chips Ahoy!, and Trident.
Bough, who serves as the company's vice president of global media and consumer engagement, is a noted mobile evangelist. Last year, he drove a push to spend 10% of his advertising budget on mobile to make Mondelez's media spending more proportional to the percentage of consumer internet use that comes from smartphones and tablets.
Bough is hoping to invest instead in geolocation and push notification advertising, so that his brands can send people targeted promotions to trigger impulse purchases. For instance, Bough would like to be able to send someone a push notification reminding them that they'll need a stick of gum after they finish eating lunch.
He also wants to invest more in mobile gaming partnerships, such as the one with developer PikPok that yielded Oreo's successful Twist, Lick, Dunk game.
"As a candy company, I don't understand why Candy Crush isn't in our portfolio," Bough said.