The Clorox marketing strategy has moved away from big, yearlong campaigns toward what CMO Eric Schwartz calls systems of continuous relevance: teams that read consumer signals, act on them quickly and keep improving content after launch. Speaking at the ANA Masters of Marketing conference on October 22, 2026, Schwartz showed how the approach worked for Pine-Sol, Brita, Clorox Pure and Hidden Valley.
Schwartz argued that the plan, launch, measure and repeat cycle no longer matches how fast culture moves online, especially as AI speeds everything up. Spending months on a brief and aligning a dozen approvers means the moment is often gone before the work ships (Marketing Dive, October 26, 2026).
The replacement is an engine with three parts:
| Component | What it does |
|---|---|
| People | Curious marketers, internally called "brand lions," who spot signals and turn them into action |
| AI automation | Lets teams place many small bets quickly within a framework |
| Partners | Creative, media, technology and measurement agencies that help scale what works |
Schwartz offered three principles: replace campaign calendars with learning loops, remove friction between signal and action, and act before certainty exists. BestPartner's interpretation for smaller teams:
Similar measurement shifts appear in Coca-Cola's marketing transformation and AB InBev's creative effectiveness playbook.
Source: Marketing Dive
An operating model where teams keep listening to consumer signals and run many small experiments, instead of launching one large campaign and waiting for a post-mortem.
22 million engagements, an 8.17% engagement rate and a 1,742% year-over-year increase in organic impressions, as presented in October 2026.
Yes. Start by setting monthly asset and test targets and shortening social approval chains.
To run small bets faster and to revise launch creative based on in-market signals without reshooting.
To apply what you just read to your own site, start with a free audit of where things are now.
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