Breaking the Mold: How Two Marketers Share a Role and Revolutionize Brand Management

Join Molly Baker, founder of Indie Consulting, while she speaks with Sarah Hammer and Mimi Su, two marketing innovators as they dive into the world of job-sharing in brand management and the evolving landscape of modern marketing. In this episode, they share their unique journey of navigating dual leadership in managing iconic brands for a global company. From their early days as business school interns to now leading together in one of the world’s most prominent marketing roles, they reveal how their collaboration has led to increased creativity, productivity, and a healthier work-life balance. 

Molly: Today, we're sitting down with not one, but 2 marketers who actually share a job. We are gonna talk all about how that works, brand marketing partnerships and just the evolution of brand marketing today versus where it's been. So tell us who you are and what you do. 

Sarah: Well, I'm Sarah and this is Mimi. We do brand management at Unilever, right now we're managing the Lipton, Brisk and Pure Leaf brands for the Pepsi Lipton partnership. 

Molly: So you're friends. And then how did this happen? 

Sarah: We were friends, we went to business school together and we actually interned. We were the 2, like, Unilever Foods interns in between our school years at business school and we carpooled together. So we became really good friends through that and then we both were hired individually full time and we did that for probably like 5 years. I don't even know. More. 10? Who knows? We can't remember. Time is time is tricky. And then Mimi kind of went to go to Anheuser Busch for a little while and then we were both on maternity leave with our youngest kids and we were like, let's do this. It was a model that had been, that it happened mostly in Europe, but also in other functions, but never in, like, marketing in our role in the US. But we decided to try it. I was working at Unilever at the time, so I went to my boss and told her that we wanted to do this. I think at first, we completely, like, shell-shocked her.  So then they rehired Mimi, and we started working on Hellman's, and we've been doing it for 8 and a half years. 

Molly: So was there no pushback? They were like, alright. 

Mimi: Apprehension, I would say. I give a big shout out to Russell, Lily. Maybe he'll be listening. That took the chance on us, because he was our first manager that hired us back into Hellman's. And so he was really great and supported us. We figured out how to work together, how other people should work with us, and it's been the model ever since. 

Sarah: We were lucky to have 2 senior female leaders supporting us when we made this request who, like, made it happen within the organization, I think, too. 

Mimi: They were very high up, so they were able to push down this, which is great. 

Molly: So was it how was it when you first started? Was it clunky as you kind of figured out who was gonna be doing what and how to share? Or were you guys just such good communicators that it was not as clunky as one would think it could be?

Mimi: It was, like, super easy. I think it's because we share a same brain also, where I think we just think very similarly in certain things. We both know that we don't wanna let each other down. So we would make sure that we did our work, you know, because it would stink if Sarah came on to the desk and been like, what did you do for like the last 6 days? So I think we have that respect for each other, which is really work.

Sarah: I started in the role for about 2 months so Mimi could get her bonus and then she jumped over. I think that also allowed for us to kind of get up to speed together because I could, like, pull her in rather than both of us starting from scratch by ourselves.

Molly: And so how do you split the work? How do you split the days?

Mimi: We both start on a Wednesday together. So in 2 days, I will start. I've not been working. So on Wednesday, we'll both start. Sarah has been on. She'll transition me. I will continue to work Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, and then Sarah comes back on next Wednesday, and then she'll take over for the next 6 days.

Molly: And is that how it's always been since the beginning?

Mimi: Yeah. Because it's the longest week, so you can push things along, especially in brand management. I feel like there's short term things that you need to keep going. There's also longer term thinking. So this just allows the one person to have, like, a very long time to push things forward and then get off and leave. 

Sarah: Otherwise, you feel like you haven't really accomplished enough. So the 6 days gives you enough time to get in there, accomplish what you need to do, and then pass it to the other person.

Molly: You guys are the only people I know that can work this way. 

Mimi: We would love for more people to do this. It's a game changer.

Sarah: I think our our quality of work is better because we're able to bounce ideas off each other and then also, like, again, give fresh perspectives when we come in.

Molly: So what does an average day look like in your current roles? 

Mimi: We'll typically put our kids on the bus. Then we'll have meetings for the majority of the day. Sometimes we'll have, like, a little bit of time between meetings in order to get food or go to the bathroom. Sometimes we won't. But the majority of our day, I would say 9 to 5 typically is meetings. Then we try to get to whatever emails we can in the evening, unfortunately. And I think because there's so much to do, that's why it also like, it's it's really hard for one person to do that full time all the time. But because we're only on for 6 days and we know we're gonna be off for 4, like, we're able to give it our all. I think they actually get more productivity out of the 2 of us as a result. 

Molly: What's the best part of the day and or the role and worst part? High and low?

Mimi: The worst part of a marketer or brand manager is putting, like, the sweat and tears into developing all the way from the consumer inside, like we talked about, which starts everything, to the brief, to an amazing creative platform, and then making animatics for testing, and then testing those animatics and having them come back red, which recently has happened to us. And that is like soul crushing. Because you spend so much time and it's all crushing for the agency too as well. I think that is the hardest part. I think the best part on the flip side is like coming up with an amazing idea that really takes off that everyone loves and is tested well, airs well, consumers really enjoy it. I think that is the best part of it.

Molly: What would be your dream brand partnership for any of the brands you're working on today? 

Sarah: I mentioned earlier that we love the idea of partnering with a celebrity before they become kind of big and really getting to know them. I would say that when we were on Hellman's, we got our PR agency came to us because there was this, social post that had gotten pickup. And it was, Will Levy's, this, like, football player in college, who put mayonnaise in his coffee instead of creamer. And people were horrified and obviously but the brand really, like, actually gravitated toward that, partnered with him, and he's been doing amazing things for them for the past 2 years. It feels so organic and real. From, like, a relationship that started because of his love for the product. 

Molly: Do you have a dream?

Mimi: My dream is selfish. So it's not for a brand. It's, like, to me, Emma Lovewell from Peloton. I love Peloton. Our brand did one with Cody early on. But I also love Cody, and I met him when I took a class. So but I love Emma.I think she's at least closer to our brand ideals. So that's why I didn't say Cody, but so selfish about me that I would like love it. 

Molly: What would you say has been the most defining moments in your career so far?

Mimi: Super Bowl. I think every marketer dreams of having a Super Bowl ad, and Sarah and I got to work on 2 which is amazing for Hellman. It was one of I think, Unilever hadn't done them for a very long time. So they came back, I think it was 2020 I think that was defining because we came up with an amazing idea. We got to see it filmed and it got to air on the the big game. So I thought that was great. That's a fun experience to have.

Molly: What how do you see brand marketing changing right now? Like, for if you take a look back from when you guys started and everything that's happened and changed since then, what sticks out right now? 

Sarah: I think it's amazing how it's evolving. Like, I remember starting in 2008 and, like, websites branding on websites was like a new thing. You know, it's like crazy. You feel so good. 

So, definitely we've seen a lot of evolution and I think, it's gonna get more and more exciting. I think AI is gonna play a really interesting role. I think influencers and their role kind of is flexing and changing. So it's it's hard to know what will happen, but, it's interesting to and it's exciting to be at the forefront of getting to respond to all the new social stuff that's out there.

Mimi: And then I joked with Sarah, I think, robots are gonna take over our jobs eventually, so that's probably gonna happen. But I do think a lot of AI stuff is gonna be entering. Like, Coke is already starting to use it. We use it for certain ways, so I think that's gonna be a huge thing. 

Molly: I mean, it will be people that know how to work with AI. And that's what this role will continue to look like Yep. Which has happened over time with, like, digital and social even if you think about, like, just having to learn all these new skills so that you can stay relevant in your roles. There's so many different tools and technology. We're trying to, like, even just trial different tools as regularly as possible just so we can start to understand, like, what are the right things that we should be using and where versus what platforms and tools do we already have that maybe we're not utilizing. So it's a big discovery. At 21, did you ever think you'd be doing what you're doing today?

Mimi: Never. This is our dream job. Marketing and doing comms and innovation. When I graduated from college, I was just like an economic consultant. I studied engineering in college. So 360 degree turn. I went to business school. I found out there's this amazing job because I've always loved going to supermarkets and looking at the aisle and looking at magazines and looking at ads, and I didn't realize that there was actually a job that you could do to do all this. I discovered it during business school, and I went full force. That's how I met Sarah because then we were in the same major. We practice interviewing together. But I love my job so much. 

Sarah: I remember at business school going to one of the info sessions at the very beginning of 1st year on marketing, and someone asked the presenter, what is your least favorite part of marketing? And the woman was, like, sitting around the table for, like, 6 hours debating what color blue a product should be. I was, like, that sounds so fun. So that's what sold me.

Molly: What did you study in undergrad? 

Sarah: Psychology. 

Molly: What did you wanna do? 

Sarah: I had no idea. I worked with kids for a little while. I recruited business school students to work in finance for a while, and then I found marketing.

Molly: What advice would you give to people who are just getting started in their careers? 

Sarah: I would say, there's a lot of different options out there when it comes to marketing. I think you can be much more kind of structured, like CPG marketing, or you could be more agile with, like, digital marketing. I would just say experiment with a lot of different stuff to find your calling. I think Mimi and I, to Mimi's point, really love, like, walking down aisles of grocery stores. So for us, having, a fixed tangible product that you could kind of, put your name on was something that was really attractive to us. But marketing comes in so many different ways and so it's just industries. It's just a matter of finding what makes sense for you. 

Mimi: I would say, especially as females, I would say, advocate for yourself and then also find a mentor. I know it's really hard. Sarah and I do not feel comfortable sometimes, like, finding a mentor, but I think it's very valuable, especially being female to tell you the truth. So I highly recommend even starting out finding someone that you feel comfortable talking to about trying to get advice moving forward. So that's what I would say. 

Molly: One thing on this show that we're trying to do is show all the different careers you can have within marketing because there's so many. It's so vast. How do you navigate that? And where can you keep learning or try new and different things? 

Mimi: I would do a plug for brand management in particular though because I remember in business school, we looked at all this different marketing, and I love working for a CBG in brand marketing because you own the P and L. I feel like owning the P and L, being the leader of a brand and running it like a small business is very different than marketing in a tech company, which I also looked at. I love the fact that we get to run brands as a small business. It's you know, it comes with a lot of things. So you're not only marketing, but sometimes you're acting as a general manager too. 

Molly: Well, thank you guys for being here today.