Lindsey Slaby of brand strategy consultancy Sunday Dinner opened a CES panel discussion on storytelling by noting Google’s phase-out of third-party cookies in 2024. Sophie Bambuck, CMO of outdoor performance clothing and gear company The North Face, admitted that she’s “a little scared.” “But it’s getting me excited about what this means for creative work,” she added. “What this most likely means is that we’re going to have to go back to basics to find ways of engaging so people will want to connect to your brand.” Panelists told tales of innovative ways they related organic stories to connect with customers.

Sugar23 founder and CEO Michael Sugar noted that “audiences don’t consume marketing the way they used to.” “Audiences are paying to skip marketing,” he said. “You have to meet the consumer in a way that they invite you and the answer is premium advertising.” Sugar23 is a multimedia production and talent management firm.

General Mills Chief Brand and Disruptive Growth Officer Doug Martin recounted that when the company learned rapper Travis Scott was a huge fan of its Reese’s Puffs cereal, it collaborated with Scott, putting his image on a limited-edition cereal box that flew off the shelves.

“That sent us on a journey into his music and fashion and his art,” explained Martin. “People are more open to surprising connections of fandom than what we anticipated.” The company did a similar collaboration with Reese Witherspoon; Oui by Yoplait teamed up with Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine and author Eve Rodsky to make a three-part video series.

Savvy marketers are finding other innovative ways to position brands. For Bambuck, that came when a hiker in New Zealand complained about a North Face jacket, demanding the company bring her a new one at the summit of a mountain. Her TikTok video went viral, and when it was brought to Bambuck’s attention, she gave the greenlight to fulfill the hiker’s demand.

Two days later, a helicopter delivered the jacket, another viral moment. “That’s how social should work,” she believes.

Sugar wants to take media and marketing dollars and “convert them into investment dollars,” by convincing brands to make shows rather than ads. “If you have a $50 million spend, you can make shows for substantially less and then own the asset,” he noted, suggesting that a brand like Adidas or Nike could have made “Ted Lasso.”

The challenge is that marketers can “get in the way” if they want quarterly results. “Making a show like ‘Ted Lasso’ takes 18 to 24 months,” he said.

The challenges still exist but these marketers are open to new ideas. Sugar reports that big celebrities come to his company with big ideas. “If a brand lets them do something they feel passionately about, they’ll do it for zero dollars,” he said. “I’m bringing Hollywood to the brands, not the brands to Hollywood.”