For Mayur Hola, chief marketing officer of food and beverage brand Culinary Brands, every brand that exists in the space he looks after is his competition. He explains, “The food category gets more and more accessible for people and more competitive between all types of brands.”
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The creator economy has taken the world by storm. Which influencers and trends are you following currently?
I follow Mallika Dua simply because Dua used to work with me as a young copywriter in advertising. Other than that, I think the Instagram algorithm makes sure you see all the major creators by throwing them up on your feed.
Food and football, the two Fs, are what my world revolves around. So, I’m always browsing content related to that.
What marketing-related content do you consume in your free time?
Two or three. I think Contagious (online publication) is one that I tend to look at quite often. Because the case studies that make it over there are the best of the best and so good to learn from.
The other thing I love about the podcast is that I get to know people around the world in terms of communication, marketing, effectiveness, technology, and so on.
Other than that, there’s a strategist called Mark Pollard. I had a chat with him on a similar podcast a year ago. Thereafter, I started following him for his strat work and observations. That’s always good to learn from.
There’s a lot of talk about burnout, workplace toxicity, and hustle culture. What steps have you taken to avoid the adverse impact of the always-on culture on yourself and your colleagues? What advice would you give to your peers, colleagues, and next-gen marketers on these aspects?
Let’s divide this up into two sections. The first section can be about the folks I work with on our team. The way I see it, organisations can get a bit regimented.
Having people log in and log off at certain times is understandable, and it makes everything easier. Payrolls can be made easier, and tracking people can be simpler. However, I help my people operate as they feel most comfortable, from where they feel most comfortable.
I judge our work on outcomes and not necessarily on swiping a card or logging into work. This is as long as we do the work we need to do together and achieve what we’re looking to achieve.
Is there any sport or fitness routine you practice during the week to steal a few minutes of ‘me time’ for yourself and keep the momentum going?
I work out every day. We mix things up. We might just do weights; we could do TRX (Total body resistance exercise). So yeah, even within workouts, we try and mix it up.
I play football. I get coached for it as well. That becomes a workout by itself, in addition to a game or two that I might play on the weekend. In general, I stay as active as I can.
What does your weekend look like?
I try to maximise my weekend at night by not sleeping late because I feel I should squeeze in as much as I can into the weekend. Hence, I might start early, get a football coaching session in, or go on a bike ride, and then meet my family for breakfast.
I love watching live sports. If there’s a scene in the evening, I step out to go catch a flick, or just step out and meet friends, or catch up on a meal with my wife.
If I have a game, that’s a really good weekend because I also get to play, which I love doing. If there are some chores to be done, those get done as well.
Share one work hack and one life hack you swear by
My mind won’t wake up if I’m not working out. My work hack is to not just always be working but to always have another interest, namely, keeping the fire burning. So, I never get bored of work, and I never get bored of doing the other stuff that I’m interested in. It’s always on at the same time, on both sides of my mind.
My life hack and my work hack coexist with each other, and that really is what makes things click for me.
What are you watching or streaming this weekend?
Criminal Record, True Detective. I am waiting for the next seasons of Wrexham and The Bear.
What are you reading? Any recommendations?
I love graphic novels. My current obsession is Shaun Tan (an Australian artist and writer). I love his illustrative work, which was introduced a little while ago.
A piece of wisdom you would like to share…
It’s one life. Do as many things as you can, and don’t stay at a job that sucks you with people you don’t like. And don’t take your designation too seriously.
Be interested in as many things as you possibly can, not because people say so or because it’s the right thing to do. If you have enough things that interest you, it will reflect in every part of your life, be it personal or professional, and just make you that much more interesting.
How are things moving at Culinary Brands from an advertising and marketing standpoint?
It’s the end of the year, and planning for next year is on. We spend most of our time obsessing over what we will do with Subway because it is one of our big mandates.
With Subway, there’s a lot of transformation to be done for the brand. We started on a journey last year, where we introduced a couple of very fundamental changes to it.
I think that the journey of transformation will also continue into this year to just get this brand, which is so wholesome, has so much goodness about it, and makes it more accessible to the country at large compared to the bigger cities that it is in right now.
Which are the main competitors of Culinary Brands?
The food category gets more and more accessible for people and more competitive between all types of brands.
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