| The unexpected brands running creators want to work with. |
It’s Tuesday, and Under Armour is the latest brand to jump in on the Heated Rivalry fandom. The athletic apparel brand recently rolled out a new campaign with actor François Arnaud promoting its hot-weather gear, joining Verizon and Peloton. And yes, of course it’s called “For When It’s Hot.” In today’s edition:
—Alyssa Meyers, Kristina Monllos |
|
SPORTS MARKETING Earned it  Morning Brew Inc., Photos: @chief_preeth, @justinehuang_, @okkgyun/Instagram |
There’s nothing better than an ice cream cone or an ice-cold beer after a long run. But at the finish line, many runners are rewarded with snacks of the healthier variety: granola bars, fruit, and water bottles. Given the physical demands of distance running, healthy snacks may make sense—but sometimes, runners just want a little treat. And they want the brands to know it. “Food and running comes hand in hand, but a lot of people think you need to be very specific in what types of things you eat and how much you eat,” Justine Huang, a content creator and marathon runner known for her food-centric videos, told Marketing Brew. “Make it fun. After a run, I always want ice cream.” Brian Kim, a content creator and marathoner who emphasizes good eats in his posts, has worked with fitness-oriented brands like Brooks, Skechers, and Therabody, but if you ask him about his dream sponsorship, he’ll say it’s a chocolate-chip-cookie brand. Huang, meanwhile, said she wants to see more alcohol sponsors at races. There’s growing demand for accessible, fun, and lifestyle-agnostic running communities online and in real life, and not all of their members are looking to perfectly optimize their nutrition. That suggests there may be some white space in the fitness sponsorship landscape that less-than-endemic brands could tap into—but not every brand is ready to take the leap. Continue reading here.—AM
|
|
|
From The Crew Think like a founder  |
Founders don’t have the luxury of easy answers. Every week, Founder Brew gets into the decisions, dilemmas, and defining moments that shape companies and the people building them. We go straight to the founders with the hard-won wisdom you actually need. Whether you’re in the trenches, tracking the next wave, or obsessed with how great companies get built, this newsletter is for you. Smart, honest, and always worth reading. Subscribe to Founder Brew today. It’s free. |
|
|
BRAND STRATEGY Muscle through it  Screenshot via @JoinLadder/YouTube |
It might seem obvious for a strength-training app to pitch the benefits of strength training. But the conversation around women’s bodies, strength, and exercise is, unfortunately, often more nuanced than that. For one, as Gen Z largely embraces trends from the early aughts, there’s a resurgence of messaging that skinny is “in” again. There are also common misconceptions around strength training, one of which is that it will make bodies bulky, which can deter some from trying it out. Those narratives are things the strength-training app Ladder is seeking to address head-on. The company’s latest campaign, which uses the tagline “Stronger, not smaller,” stars an early-aughts icon, the actor and singer Hilary Duff, who tells viewers about the importance of strength in the 60-second hero ad: “I know a lot of women are intimidated by strength training, but it’s truly the secret to my results.” In another spot, which spans a little over four minutes and is designed to imitate a corporate compliance video, Duff busts myths about strength training. “We’re trying to get ahead of that misinformation,” Philip Edsel, VP of brand and creative at Ladder, told us, adding that conversations around combating the return of “thin is in” messaging are common among senior female coaches at the company. “To have a partner like Hilary, who speaks so specifically to not only the millennials that were alive…[but is an] icon to the newer generation that’s seeing a lot of this on SkinnyTok or TikTok, I think was really powerful.” Read more here.—KM
|
|
|
BRAND STRATEGY Trust me  Kasia Leyden |
Kasia Leyden, CMO of Acorns, the fintech company specializing in micro-investing and personal finance, is set to speak at the upcoming Marketing Brew Summit on September 30. Ahead of the event, we caught up with her to hear why she thinks marketers are chasing the wrong metric, and what it takes to build a brand people actually come back to. What do you think most marketers get wrong in their advertising today? They’re optimizing for attention when they should be optimizing for trust. Those aren’t the same thing…The whole internet is an engine designed to get people to spend money, bet money, or panic into action. That’s great if your goal is clicks. It’s terrible if your goal is building a brand people come back to. The brands that win the next decade won’t be the ones who interrupt people best. They’ll be the ones who leave people feeling smarter than they were 30 seconds earlier. Where do you see the biggest gap between how marketers think audiences behave and how they actually behave? Marketers think consumers are making decisions. Most consumers are actually managing emotions. People don’t buy because they’ve completed a rational evaluation. They buy because something reduced uncertainty, created hope, relieved guilt, or made them feel like the future might look a little better. Continue reading here.
|
|
|
french press  Morning Brew |
There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those. Selling the drama: How the grocer Albertsons is rolling out a microdrama built for retail media. Persevere: How one agency recovered after a major account loss. Context matters: Tips to help brands understand and be present on Reddit.
Hot data summer: Inconsistent UTMs, rogue naming conventions, and misaligned taxonomy can compound quarterly, leaving your team with a nasty surprise. Get your Data Toxicity Score from Claravine to help clean it up. Schedule your kickoff call.*
*A message from our sponsor. |
|
|
PODCAST Affordability marketing is not for all brands  |
Dive into the dos and don’ts of affordability marketing. It’s not for all brands, but some have figured out the ways to keep customers with long-term strategies, while others are opting for a quick, catchy moment. How do you make consumers feel valued and savvy while still providing a good deal? Listen to this episode of Marketing Brew Weekly to find out. Listen to the episode |
|
|
Jobs  |
Real jobs, shared through real communities. CollabWORK brings opportunities directly to Marketing Brew readers—no mass postings, no clutter, just roles worth seeing. Click here to view the full job board. |
|
|
JOINING FORCES  Francis Scialabba |
Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.
- Kraft Heinz and Disney announced a multiyear partnership to bring the food giant’s products to Disney’s parks, cruises, and resorts in North America, along with jointly branded products.
- Paramount Skydance won EU approval for the deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery following some concessions to regulators, even as things are on hold in the US after a judge paused the deal. CEO David Ellison reportedly acknowledged the postponement in an email to staff yesterday.
- Utz will go from a public company to private at the behest of its new owner, German snack corporation Intersnack Group.
- Apple partnered with Klarna for a new program, Apple Upgrade, that will give customers the ability to lease new Apple devices.
|
|
|
EVENTS Three’s company  Morning Brew Inc. |
Turns out the best marketing ideas don’t come from one perspective. Hear how leaders from IBM, Reddit, and Major League Soccer are balancing instinct, creativity, and data to build brands people actually remember. Join us at the Marketing Brew Summit on Sept. 30. |
|
|
Share the Brew
Share the Brew, watch your referral count climb, and unlock brag-worthy swag.
Your friends get smarter. You get rewarded. Win-win.
Your referral count: 0 Click to Share
Or copy & paste your referral link to others:
marketingbrew.com/r/?kid=77999182
|
|
|
|
|
Comments
Post a Comment