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What KitKat Gets Right About Attention, Breaks & Consistency with Wael Jabi

S5 · E1

What KitKat Gets Right About Attention, Breaks & Consistency with Wael Jabi

Wael Jabi

13 Jan 2026 · 45 min

About this episode

Kit Kats Global Head of Marketing Shares what it really takes to build and protect an iconic global brand?

In this season opener for Season 5 of That’s What I Call Marketing, Conor Byrne is joined by Wael Jabi, KitKats Global Head of Marketing at Nestlé, for a deep conversation about brand judgement, consistency, partnerships, and the decisions that quietly shape long-term growth.

Wael’s career spans Leo Burnett, Procter & Gamble, and Nestlé, and the discussion moves well beyond surface-level case studies. Together, they explore what KitKat teaches us about resisting reinvention, diagnosing the right marketing problems under pressure, and how major cultural platforms like Formula 1 can be used to express brand meaning rather than dilute it.

This is a practical, reflective conversation for CMOs, brand leaders, and senior marketers who care about building brands that last not just chasing short-term performance.

Topics covered include:

Why most brands don’t need reinvention they need restraint

The marketing failure that taught Wael when price becomes the wrong answer

What KitKat gets right about consistency and memory structures

How to think about F1 and major sponsorships without losing brand meaning

Brand vs performance decisions under pressure

Why judgement matters more than tactics at senior levels

Thanks to Tracksuit for their partnership with this episode, check out https://www.gotracksuit.com to find out more about the always on brand tracking platform

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chapters

  1. 01:55Wael’s career path: agency to P&G
  2. 05:50Why advertising isn’t the most important thing
  3. 09:40A pricing decision that went wrong
  4. 14:20Diagnosing the wrong marketing problem
  5. 18:40KitKat and brand consistency
  6. 23:15“Breaks are broken” insight
  7. 26:50Making iconic work at global scale
  8. 30:20Formula 1 and partnerships
  9. 34:50Showing up in your world vs theirs
  10. 38:20Judgement under pressure
  11. 41:00What’s next for KitKat

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