For the launch of its latest earbuds, Bose took an unusual marketing approach. Rather than rely on a product feature-heavy consumer electronics playbook, the audio equipment manufacturer positioned the earbuds, which hook around the earlobe in a manner akin to ear cuff jewelry, as a stylish accessory favored by cultural tastemakers.

“You can make the case that one of the most visible forms of fashion is the headphones that you wear,” said Jim Mollica, global CMO at Bose.

The Ultra Open Earbuds, which play private audio while allowing in outside noises to keep users aware, were promoted with a range of influencer and celebrity ambassadors, as well as through Bose’s first fashion collaboration. Trendy partnerships helped generate buzz before Bose hit the gas on paid media earlier this fall.

The deliberate rollout is part of Bose’s return to brand building under Mollica, who took the reins as the company’s first global marketing chief three years ago after prior stints at brands like Under Armour, Ralph Lauren and The Walt Disney Company. Bose, which is privately held, long relied on word-of-mouth marketing and store experiences, but wound down its retail footprint in 2020 due to the consumer shift toward e-commerce. 

Marketing Dive recently spoke with Mollica, who was visiting New York for an event with streetwear retailer Kith celebrating the classic Bose 901 speaker, about the value of influencers, challenges facing marketers today and his outlook on artificial intelligence.  

The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

MARKETING DIVE: The big product launch this year was Bose’s Ultra Open Ear buds. What marketing levers did you prioritize? 

JIM MOLLICA: From a marketing standpoint, what I did not want was for this to become a Google Glass. It couldn’t be a gimmicky wearable. How does it become stylish? The very first version was the Kith version that we launched at Paris Fashion Week. From there, we introduced it through some of our athletes at NBA All-Star Weekend with an interpretation with the same gentleman that creates the championship rings for the NBA. Then we went to Maggi Simpkins, who creates jewelry. She had some amazing bejeweled jewelry. We had everyone from Rihanna to Travis Scott reach out and say, “I want to get a pair of those.”

It’s introducing it in a very systematic way to culture and to the right cultural influences, and then bringing it out for mass distribution. This product came out last February but we didn’t launch a dedicated marketing campaign with talent like Tyla for it until the end of September.

There’s the influencer network aspect of it. Where does paid media come into play? 

It was important for us to put these in the hands of people in different use cases who had a real passion for music. We did the same thing then with a click down into digital content creators. The brief was: “This is how people use the product. What’s your interpretation of it?” We allowed them to do their thing. Not all of it is exactly what I would do but that’s why we went to them. They know how to do it in a thoughtful way that their audience respects. 

We are running a TV spot, but the way we did the spot was creating an interesting behind-the-scenes look at how the product is actually used by artists. It’s as they’re getting hyped before a performance, whether it’s a commercial shoot or an actual live musical performance. We made sure that we picked the right brand ambassadors for us to signal that we are a music-obsessed brand. It’s not the biggest stars in the world. It’s the hot and up-and-coming: Don Toliver, Central Cee, Tyla and Lisa. Now, we just need to make more people aware of it. That’s what TV is for.

What are you taking away from this campaign as you build out Bose’s brand positioning?

The first thing I did when I joined three years ago was a rough perceptual map of Bose on the back of the napkin. Bose, where it was differentiated, was as the only brand out there with 60 years of heritage that had only dedicated itself to the singular pursuit of music and sound. All of these other people that we’re competing with are tech companies. They’re great, huge multinationals that treat music as a side hustle because they make phones, laptops, washing machines and refrigerators. They have ad networks and TV shows.

My belief was that the product needs to be outstanding, but the real point of it is about the emotional experience of music. Is it heightened, is it better with Bose? That became the positioning for us to lean into with emotion instead of zeros and ones.

What capabilities are you focused on building out beyond that emotionally led positioning? 

There was a complete transformation to modernize marketing when I came in. We were going to have to look at a model where we moved away from the traditional approach, which was to let the brand stand for what it is. We had to take a more proactive, meet-consumers-where-they-are [strategy] across all levels and demographics. We became more focused on creating digital content in a manner that was bespoke for platforms. The way we create on TikTok is wildly different from any other platform.

Having worked at Disney and Paramount, I learned that creating content, not advertising, was going to be really important to earn people’s time and attention. I still strongly believe in creativity but you want to be informed by the data, and then you want to validate success by the data. Those were all mechanisms where we modernized the infrastructure, even on the martech and ad-tech side of things. 

As you’ve tried to steer those changes, what’s a challenge you’ve encountered?

I’ve been lucky enough to be at different levels of transformation in most of the roles that I’ve had for the past 15 years. It’s hard any time you walk into a company with so much heritage, so much brand strength to a particular audience. But it has to be an evolution. We were going and introducing the brand to the 18 to 24 year olds who didn’t really know Bose. No one’s going to sit down and listen to the product features and functionality [pitch]. We had to create interest and desire in the brand through media platforms, content creators and brand ambassadors. That’s both the challenge and the fun part. 

A lot of legacy brands right now want to reinvent themselves, including for Gen Z, but so many seem risk-averse.

You have to catch the right company at the right time. There are other points in my career where I have tried to do the exact same thing and it did not go as well. You need a few key allies. The brands that are really struggling have to realize that it’s truly an existential moment. You’re not going to change the tide. I don’t think it’s realistic to say: “Everything we’ve been doing and all of these audiences that are currently buying are no longer relevant.” That dramatic a pivot is extraordinarily rare. There is a really thoughtful, finessed way that you can take the DNA out of that existing core brand and rearticulate it to a younger audience. 

There was recent McKinsey research about the number of hats that CMOs are wearing, but also a persistent maturity gap. Is that a pressure you see and how do you respond to it? 

When I started in the business, it was much more about the CMO being the spiritual brand leader coming up with the creative platform. That platform would manifest itself mostly in a TV spot and some ancillary things. As the pressures on the role and growth have become more important, that creative element has been tested. Just being creative is not enough. You need to figure out how to create exposure and engagement. 

Growth hackers that understood showing short-term gains changed some of the skill sets, and a bunch of hires started happening for digital natives. The truth is, you need both sides of those equations. Where it’s a challenge is if the CEO gives you the accountability for growth but not the responsibility. That’s where some people are right now and that’s hard.

If you are sophisticated about the way you build the relationship with the CEO and show proof points, then you have the reasonable way to earn that responsibility. There’s going to be times where you’re trading off investment dollars for things that have a more immediate payback. If you only argue brand building, you don’t have credibility. You’re saying, “I’m just taking care of the upper funnel” and there are some high-level brand effect metrics that you don’t even see in a loose manner connected to the bottom line. 

Do you have any predictions for 2025? 

There’s been a lot of angst around AI. I think it's just a new tool that we will be able to harness to make our work better and more resonant. I don’t think it will be bound by time, budget, resources or talent in the same way, meaning brand ambassadors and celebrity athletes. That’s going to affect content creators and influencers. There’s going to be a big shakeout in that. They’re not going to be as powerful. There’s going to be a shakeout in the creative production and agency businesses. The ones that figure out, not just how to utilize AI, but how to utilize it in their niche specialties better, are going to be the ones that are going to really prosper. 

The potential shakeout for influencers is interesting given how you were talking about the earbuds launch. That relied heavily on influencers. Are you planning on experimenting more with AI next year?

One hundred percent. We work with a company called Automated Creative in England that produces probably 5,000 pieces of content a month. It’s stills, video, product copy and search copy. It’s not a copy, paste, go [process]. It provides different springboards for thought, which humans then plus-up. 

AI is going to change content creators, it's going to put pressure on influencers and probably change some brand ambassador relationships as well. You probably have more access to some of the people you do work with, where they’re not needed for as much or as long, but you’re still taking advantage of their brand, their essence, their person. 

Artists are always going to be important. I don’t think AI is going to replace those relationships we have with people like Central Cee, Don Toliver and Tyla. I think, in augmenting that connection, it will be really powerful.