As we pack away our Halloween costumes and Mariah Carey defrosts to usher in the holiday season, we here at Marketing Brew are taking a look at the best and worst rebrands of the year.

While this year saw some questionable rebrands (here’s looking at you, X), marketers and brand experts we spoke to pointed out some others that deserve our attention, for better or worse.

Barbie’s brand makeover

“It was a brand that had sort of fallen out of culture, sort of had a bad rap, and was losing market share. Then, through this movie [and] through the multichannel and omnichannel activations, they were really able to enter into the cultural zeitgeist, change the conversation, reposition themselves, and reimagine Barbie moving forward, which was pretty amazing. They acknowledged all of the challenges the brand came with and also painted a picture of how they’re moving forward with all the diversity that you saw in the movie, which was more of a real reflection of where society and culture is today. I think it was, hands down, the branding moment of the year.”—Hillel Hurwitz, CEO and founder of creative shop Bald

EA Sports’s FIFA franchise successor, EA Sports FC

“I wish I had worked on that. FIFA has been around for so long. It’s such a staple in the world of soccer. It creates the connection between the real world and the gaming experience…The solution was pretty cool. EA Sports FC, the energy of the new identity, and the logo with the triangle. It’s sports, it’s sharp, it’s high energy. It’s connected to the user experience of the video game itself. I thought it was a really smart solution.”—Ramon Jimenez, global principal at brand consultancy Wolff Olins

HBO Max’s rebrand to Max

“HBO had such brand equity. Home Box Office is such a good name [and] a perfect encapsulation of what the value of HBO is. They had kind of started that whole ‘golden age of television’ thing. Instead of building on that further, and maybe taking that into its next era, they kind of just threw it all away.”—Jeffrey Kotran, VP of brand strategy at Altitude Marketing

Continue reading here.—JS

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If you’ve ever watched Below Deck and found fashion inspo in Captain Sandy, then boy, do we have some exciting news for you.

Starting this month, Peacock is bringing new shoppable ad features to Below Deck Mediterranean’s eighth season, allowing viewers to browse products onscreen during ad breaks before scanning a QR code to complete the transaction on their phones.

In partnership with Walmart, Peacock will display items from the retailer that are inspired by products seen on the show, like cookware and “yacht-life looks,” including, apparently, Captain Sandy’s black sneakers.

Must…shop…now: The shoppable episodes, which will stream on Peacock on November 7, December 5, and December 12, mark the first time a Bravo series has been made shoppable on the streaming service. It’s just the latest offering from NBCUniversal’s shoppable ad format Must ShopTV, which officially launched earlier this year at the IAB NewFronts.

• According to a company press release, Must ShopTV uses AI to identify items that appear in shows and then find identical or similar products to promote, and it works with Walmart’s inventory data to ensure it’s only displaying products in stock.

Shoppable ads have been the talk of the TV advertising town for a few years, and consumers seem more than eager to experience the immediate gratification that comes when shopping apps like LTK help them shop their favorite influencers’ looks.

But the question remains: Are people just as willing to shop with their remotes? Only time—and black sneaker sales—will tell.—KH

Jumpscare alert: It’s about time to start thinking about how the 2024 presidential election might play into brand strategy.

But for some brands, the answer might be not at all. According to Morning Consult’s “Election Playbook” for brands, the majority of American adults (53%) said corporations shouldn’t involve themselves in political and/or cultural issues, unchanged from 2020. However, that’s down from 61% who said corporations should sit on the sidelines in 2019.

There’s also a widening generational gap on the issue, suggesting that “it is still important to know your audience and how they feel about your corporate advocacy,” Joanna Piacenza, head of industry intelligence at Morning Consult, told Marketing Brew.

The playbook, based on annual surveys conducted from 2019 to 2023, outlines other ways marketers and executives may want to handle corporate activism (or lack thereof) in the coming year.

To engage…or not? Most American adults don’t want corporations to get involved in politics, according to Morning Consult. While that’s been true for years, there are a couple of caveats.

First, as the 2024 election draws closer, Piacenza said she anticipates the share of Americans who say they think corporations should use their influence to impact politics and culture (currently 29%) to “grow a bit.”

“Trump, in so many ways, created this landscape where brands feel as though they do need to take stands…in a way that they haven’t had to before,” she said.

Second, Gen Z and millennials specifically are more evenly split in their opinions: 39% of that group said corporations shouldn’t get involved in political or cultural issues, down from half in 2019. A slightly larger share, 41%, said brands should “use their influence to impact political and/or cultural issues.” Brands targeting younger consumers might, therefore, be more inclined toward advocacy.

Continue reading here.—AM

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Data stream: How brands can use retail data to replace—and perhaps improve upon—cookie-based targeting.

Show me the money: Meta rolled out new revenue tools for creators, including expanded access to digital gifts and new subscription options, ahead of the holiday season.

Put a pin in it: Everything you need to know about Pinterest Analytics.

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Survey says: Marketers have strong feelings about Connected TV. Just take a look at this interactive report we pulled together with MNTN. It breaks down the channel’s challenges, opportunities, and solutions. Take a look.*

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