Magnum Ice Cream's CMO on Unilever, Minecraft ice cream and cultural relevance

With 24 years at Unilever and experience across four different countries, Leyal brings unique perspectives on what it takes to create a modern marketing organisation specifically designed for the unique realities of the ice cream business. She shares how each market shaped her leadership approach: Turkey taught agility with limited resources, the US demonstrated scale and precision, the UAE revealed cultural nuances and the Netherlands honed her systems thinking capabilities.

The conversation explores how the new company balances iconic global brands like Magnum and Ben & Jerry's with beloved local brands that maintain deep community connections. Leyal explains why purpose remains central to their strategy. She discusses their innovative Minecraft partnership, which brought gaming elements directly into ice cream design, demonstrating how cultural relevance requires long-term strategic thinking rather than one off activations.

Particularly fascinating is Leyal's perspective on the three priorities every CMO should focus on today: embracing AI as the new backbone of marketing (or risk irrelevance within two years), actively shaping culture rather than merely observing it, and positioning marketing as the core business engine that drives revenue and profitability. Her Turkish marketing background which she describes as a "real-time MBA", due to its fast-changing environment and intense competition, provides valuable insights on agility and resilience that apply to marketers worldwide.

Whether you're navigating organisational transformation, seeking to balance global and local brand strategies, or simply looking to understand how purpose, technology and cultural relevance intersect in modern marketing, this conversation offers practical wisdom from one of the industry's most thoughtful leaders.

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