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BFY Snacking Opps: Clif Bar hires CEO amid CMO vacancy, COVID-19 relief efforts (Score 50)

Effective June 1, 2020, Sally Grimes will join Tyson Foods, driving record growth and spearheading the development of some of the company's most innovative and successful efforts.

Unfortunately, Clif hasn't yet hired a CMO to fill the space of incumbent CMO Keith Neumann, who departed in December 2018; at this point, it's been so long that the company may just not replace him.

Clif's bakeries, deemed essential businesses, remain open and safely operating in IN and ID, despite the global pandemic, but the company enhanced health and safety standards. The company also donated 7 million Clif, Luna and Clif Kid Bars to frontline health care workers, food banks and first responders in North America and Europe.

Adbeat estimates out of the $4.5m spent on digital display ads since May 2019, $1.8m (40%) was spent after May 2018. It placed 70% of these ads site direct onto sites such as spanishdict.com, active.com, hellogiggles.com, myrecipes.com and vice.com. It placed 16% of these ads programmatically through Google Display Network onto sites such as xfinity.com, livestrong.com, eater.com, buzzfeed.com and thekitchn.com. Finally, it placed 14% as video ads through YouTube onto youtube.com and popsugar.com.

According to iSpot, it spent $15k on national TV ads YTD, about half of $29.3k it spent during the same time period of 2019. Full-year spend totaled $8.1m in 2019 and $83.2k in 2018. The company placed ads during programming popular among male millennials and Gen-X such as "USA Climbing" and "Red Bull Signature Series." 

We may see Clif's overall ad spend stay pretty low until the coronavirus settles down; its products are available at many grocers and retailers currently offering pickup and/or delivery services, which will appeal to better-for-you (BFY) consumers stuck at home and in search of healthy snacking options. Kantar data reports Clif also utilizes print and local broadcast.

Agency & martech readers - We may see opportunities for you under Clif's new DM, but we expect you'll have the best time securing project-based work. The company handles creative in-house, which could change if it finds a new CMO; otherwise, your competition will include media AOR Golin.