Clorox’s Jackson Jeyanayagam: The hardest thing to do in marketing is “get comfortable with tension”

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A recent profile of veteran marketer Jackson Jeyanayagam opens, “Jackson Jeyanayagam isn’t your average CPG company man.” He liked the line so much, it’s how he describes his role as Vice President and General Manager of Direct-to-Consumer at The Clorox Company on LinkedIn. And it’s true.

Prior to joining the 107-year-old brand, he was chief marketing officer of Boxed, an online wholesaler startup, and Head of Digital for Chipotle Mexican Grill during the peak of the company’s 2015 food safety crisis that eventually led to “the largest ever” fine in a food safety case. His marketing career includes work with brands like NASCAR, Diageo, Starwood, Old Spice, P&G, Dentyne and more.  

And now, Clorox. The company has arguably been one of the most talked about brands of 2020 as demand soared for its products in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The company’s profit in April-June rose 29%, beating estimates, and organic sales were up 24%. It ended its fiscal year posting the company’s highest sales growth “in modern history.” It came first in July’s Axios and Harris Poll reputation rankings (Clorox’s first and only appearance before this was in 2016) and in the Household & Personal Products category of Morning Consult’s Most Loved Brands.

In his role at Clorox, Jeyanayagam is charged with leading the company’s direct-to-consumer (often referred to as DTC or D2C) initiatives. It’s his job to make all Clorox brands including Brita, Burt’s Bees and Nutranext easier to buy on owned and operated properties. It’s a big job with a ton of potential. Market research firm eMarketer is forecasting that “D2C sales will account for $17.75 billion of total ecommerce sales in 2020, up 24.3% from the previous year.” 

In a wide-ranging conversation, Jeyanayagam and I touched on mentorship (can it thrive in a virtual world?) MBAs (he says you don’t need one to succeed), social media bans (“a knee-jerk reaction if done in a silo for a month”) and the need for a quiz on what kind of Slack personality you are (for what it’s worth, he agrees with me that threading is an abomination). In a follow up conversation to fact check his stance on threading, he volunteered that his favorite Slack emoji is the Nicholas Cage fast parrot, which he says means “something big has happened.” Something good, I asked? “Very good.” Below, he shares more of his story.

1. 1. What has had the most impact on your perspective as a marketer?

I would say it’s either my undergrad degree in sociology or the various shifts I’ve had in my career trajectory. The Sociology degree, unknowingly, gave me such a unique perspective on how humans interact with each other and the tremendous role the environment/relationships play in that interaction. Complementary to that, starting in tech public relations and quickly shifting to social media/influencer marketing in 2003/2004 set the stage for my career in digital marketing and then ultimately e-commerce/DTC. Each shift brought a unique set of challenges that forced me to adapt and learn new skills and figure shit out, which is the way I want it.

 2. What’s changed the most about your job as a marketer over the course of your career?

Everything. As I’ve progressed in my career, from agency to in-house, to managing bigger teams, to expanding areas of responsibility and functional knowledge, to different cities, change is the constant. So I can’t really pinpoint one thing other than everything that changed helped me be a better marketer/professional. 

 Even the things that I perceived as negatives served as learning opportunities. For example, the Chipotle Mexican Grill food crisis of 2015 was one of the best learnings of my career, despite how painful it was at the time. All of us on the team had to quickly pivot and figure out how to respond to this massive issue we were facing. Not only was it disappointing for everyone to abandon each of our own initiatives and programs, it was even more difficult to see this beloved brand come under so much scrutiny. To manage all of that in real time created a ton of challenges but exponentially more learnings for us. Especially learnings from the things we didn't get right.

Specific learnings were around being transparent even if you don't have all of the information. Even just saying that goes a long way. And managing to long-term and being brave enough to make foundational changes versus just addressing short-term store traffic symptoms. Those were two of the biggest learnings. 

 3. What’s the hardest part of a marketer’s job today?

I think it depends who you speak to but I would say the need to constantly adapt between driving performance and understanding what it takes to build a brand and knowing when to pull each lever. And then there are further nuances if you’re talking to a marketer at a startup or small business versus scaled, Fortune 500 company. When and how do you focus on each knowing that sometimes they can be at odds with each other, while other times they can flow naturally together and complement. But that’s not easy to manage, especially in a tight economy, and even more challenging if you came up solely as a brand marketer or exclusively as a performance marketer.

4. Tell us about the marketing campaign you’re most proud of working on in your career.

When people ask me this question, those that know me assume I will say the Old Spice Smell Like a Man, Man campaign, where our team, along with many others (led by Wieden+Kennedy) executed the 225 social response videos in 2010. But in reality, while that was an amazing experience it was actually a relatively smaller campaign that I worked on that I’m most proud of. Around the same time (2010), I also had Dentyne as a client and our team was asked to come up with a creative campaign to drive awareness and excitement of the launch of Dentyne Pure, in advance of the major advertising launch. We didn’t have much budget and there wasn’t anything else in market supporting it, so we turned to YouTube influencers (which was very early in the day of “influencers”) Rhett & Link and had them create a sketch that exuded the product’s core benefits in a hilarious 4-minute video titled “Epic Rap Battle.” We also did a video syndication buy, which was also very early in the day of video syndication, to help amplify awareness and reach. The video had millions of hits within a week and drove a lot of excitement and awareness for the product, which is now everywhere. I’m most proud of this because it was a small team of four of us on a shoestring budget, working on this idea that no one had any expectations for. That, even more so, made me so proud of the team’s hard work and dedication. 

 5. What’s a marketing campaign you wish you’d thought of and why? 

There are so many. I really like what Burger King has recently done. Between the anti-bullying campaign (also because anti-bullying is a passion cause of mine) and the moldy Whopper campaign to showcase their whole, natural ingredients. I think both are so bold and really pushed the limits of what people thought was possible and even probably alienated people (specifically the moldy whopper content), which I applaud. That’s always the hardest thing to do in marketing. Getting comfortable with tension and the fact that maybe some people will be turned off by your brand/message. That’s the type of guts that I really respect. It’s so easy to just do something that is “nice” and “safe,” and to be honest, it’s boring. 

6. What’s your must read, watch or listen for all marketers?

I’m so into management, leadership and culture books. I have a ton on my iBooks. Right now I’m reading “Range,” a book that was highly recommended by Kobe Bryant when he was asked about his favorite books. I just finished “Extreme Ownership,” recommended to me by my current manager, which is a fantastic book by two Navy Seals on accountability. I’d also recommend Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” – a definite oldie but goodie because it’s still very relevant today. I’ve read it three times over the course of my career and each time I take away different things. John Maxwell’s “Five Levels of Leadership,” Jack Welch’s “Winning,” and “Team of Rivals,” a book on how Abraham Lincoln continuously was able to influence and create alignment from both sides of the political parties to achieve united, common goals.

 7. What’s an under the radar brand you’re watching and why? 

It’s a tiny brand called Ipsa Provisions, started by a friend of mine (and former Chipotle colleague) Josh Brau and co-founded by an Eleven Madison Park and Gramercy Tavern alum, Micah Fredman. Josh and his team are all culinary people that were instrumental in the Chipotle food program and are hardcore foodies. Also being a lover of food, I really admire anyone who puts the heart and love into food the way these people do. So I love the sourcing/quality of ingredients because I know it’s legit. But I also love that it’s frozen, which is making a huge comeback right now. And it’s servicing a major need with everyone at home much more and unable to cook 7 days a week and/or unable to afford delivery every day (not to mention the inconsistent nutrition challenges with it). So they’re in this amazing spot to really grow and I’m rooting for them because I was one of the first customers when it was Josh taking orders over email and hand delivering the meals to my door. I respect and appreciate everything about it.

8. Name a product you can’t live without (that doesn’t connect you to the internet) and tell us why. 

Oh, easy. My beard balm by Can You Handlebar. I use Wisdom and without it, my beard would be a mess. Like ridiculous mess. 

 9. Finish this sentence. If I weren’t a marketer, I would be…

Running a small little bar/restaurant at some low-key beach town in Southeast Asia (picture the movie Cocktail).

 10. Finish this sentence: The marketer I most want to see do this questionnaire is…

Musa Tariq