Mars Snacking’s Rankin Carroll discusses creative risks at Brandweek 2026
The best creative risks should make you a little nervous, but they should never make you ask why your brand is taking them, according to Rankin Carroll, chief brand officer of Mars Snacking.
Speaking live from the Marketing Vanguard stage at Brandweek 2026 in a session hosted by Jenny Rooney, Carroll unpacked how iconic household labels like M&M’s, Snickers, and Skittles maintain cultural relevance without letting bold strategies cross into chaos, shows.acast.com reported. The discussion highlighted the specific hurdles Mars Snacking faces when deploying emerging technology and creator-led marketing campaigns.
The 2023 Snickers AI Experiment and Risk Management
A central focus of the Brandweek conversation centered on a 2023 Snickers artificial intelligence experiment that Carroll described as having felt “potentially crazy” at the time. Executed during a period when safety and reputational risks carried far more industry ambiguity than they do today, the project required deep cross-functional coordination. Roughly ten distinct technology partners collaborated alongside legal and security leadership to build the initiative, which relied on an extensive guardrail list of 8,000 blocked words.
Carroll emphasized that ambitious experimentation only becomes viable when a corporate organization commits to shouldering those vulnerabilities collectively rather than leaving technical teams isolated.
Filtering Cultural Participation Through Brand Credibility
Addressing how iconic brands engage with broader societal movements, Carroll drew a sharp distinction between calculated cultural risk and performative brand behavior. Skittles successfully sustained its ongoing relationship with the LGBTQ+ community through various volatile cycles precisely because the confectionary brand had spent years patiently building authentic credibility within that audience.
For Mars Snacking, every major creative swing must clear a rigorous internal filter based on two fundamental interrogatives: Why us, and why this brand? If marketing teams cannot provide a strategically convincing rationale, the concept is stripped of its authorization to assume risk.
Confronting the AI Talent Gap and Leadership Ownership
Looking toward future operational quarters, Carroll raised pointed questions regarding how the next generation of industry professionals is being prepared for an increasingly automated industry. Noting that marketing practices will look entirely different within a three-year horizon, he acknowledged that leadership teams do not yet possess definitive answers for training incoming talent. Talent development remains an urgent executive responsibility rather than a routine human resources afterthought.
Carroll also issued a direct warning against a decentralized approach to emerging technology adoption, characterizing the trap as having “a thousand pilots and no progress.” Leaving artificial intelligence experiments to disconnected enthusiasts across disparate departments is a recipe for chaos. Chief marketing officers must instead own the technology agenda directly alongside enterprise technology leadership, imposing top-down clarity on capital allocation, strategic priorities, and decisions over whether the business should build, buy, rent, or borrow digital capabilities.