In 2023, brand collabs were inescapable. While some made sense conceptually, others have truly haunted us since we first laid eyes on them…here’s looking at you, Velveeta martini. We can’t believe that was last year; where does the time go?

Whether intentionally provocative, truly inspired, or just a shot and a miss, here are some of the wildest pairings we saw in 2023.

• Even the most lactose-tolerant were reaching their limit with ranch-flavored ice cream from Van Leeuwen and Hidden Valley Ranch.
• Van Leeuwen, undeterred, also revived its Kraft Mac & Cheese ice cream.
• Fishwife teamed up with Talea Beer Co., because who doesn’t want to drink a smoky lager inspired by tinned fish?
• Did anyone in the US know about Heinz pasta sauce before they made a vodka sauce with Absolut?
• Speaking of alcohol, Doritos decided its nacho cheese-flavored chips might be best experienced in drink form through a partnership with custom spirits company Empirical. Don’t worry, it’s only $65 for a bottle.
• Our apologies to anyone unfortunate enough to have tried French’s mustard-flavored Skittles.

Continue reading here.—KH, AM, JS, KS

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This week, we’re sharing with you some of our favorite stories we’ve published in the past year. This feature on HBO’s Sunday night programming strategy was originally published March 31.

Earlier this year, TV fans were faced with a conundrum. The season finale of HBO’s highly rated drama, The Last of Us, would be released at 9pm EST on Sunday, March 12, an hour into the broadcast of the Academy Awards. As they couldn’t reasonably watch both at the same time, which would they choose?

HBO executives had a guess. There was no serious consideration to move the finale to another night, as HBO had done for the series’ fifth episode during the Super Bowl, according to Meredith Gertler, head of global content strategy and analysis, scheduling, editorial and merchandising, and podcasts for HBO, HBO Max, and discovery+. Hard-core Last of Us fans would opt to tune in live, executives figured, and anyone else could watch The Last of Us whenever the Oscars ended.

They were right. Around 8.2 million viewers watched the finale, a record for the series—and proof enough that HBO didn’t need “to cede ground, really, to anyone,” Gertler said.

For many television fans, HBO has been the network to watch on Sunday ever since shows like Sex and the City and The Sopranos started winning over viewers in the late ’90s and early aughts. Dominating Sunday night viewing was so important that it was briefly a marketing slogan for the brand in the early 2000s: “Sunday is…HBO.”

“Sundays are obviously a defining element of our brand,” Zach Enterlin, EVP, brand content and creative, streaming marketing for HBO and HBO Max, said. “You know you’ll have something great on Sunday nights. It’s part of our DNA.”

Owning Sunday nights has become even more crucial in the era of peak TV, even though subscribers can technically watch HBO shows whenever. It’s a legacy the network is eager to continue capitalizing on.

“There’s so much choice out there,” Enterlin said, “so that differentiation is really important to us.”

Read more here.—KS

Between industry scandals, major agency restructures, and AI crashing the party, 2023 proved to be eventful for adland. Marketing Brew compiled some of the biggest happenings from the past 12 months.

Hires and departures:

• February: UM tapped Sasha Savic, a Mediacom alum, to be its global CEO—but he left the role just a few months later, in June.
• July: Jon Dupuis joined independent agency PMG as its first president. He was formerly CEO of Dentsu Creative Americas and global president of Dentsu McGarryBowen.
• October: WPP fired Chief Investment Officer Rycan Di over alleged bribery after Chinese police raided GroupM’s Shanghai outpost.
• Also in October, McCann’s Pierre Lipton left his co-CCO role at its New York arm to become global ECD of McCann Worldgroup. The shift came after he was embroiled in scandal for typing “this is so f***ing boring” in the chatbox of an internal DE&I webinar.
• And in the same month, DDB Worldwide brought on Alex Lubar as its global CEO and chairman. He was formerly its global president and COO.

Account wins, losses, and reviews:

• May: Publicis Groupe beat out incumbent Dentsu for LVMH’s North American media account, overseeing brands like Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior.
• June: Deutsch New York lost its lucrative PNC Bank account to ad outfit Arnold Worldwide, after which it fired nearly 20% of its workforce in October.
• September: Uber chose Omnicom to lead its $600 million ad-buying account, replacing EssenceMediacom.
• October: MullenLowe re-upped its military recruitment marketing contract with the Department of Defense; it totals up to $454 million.
• November: Spotify started shopping for a new global AOR, parting with IPG Mediabrands’ UM.
• Also in November, Barbie’s creative account went into review. The Mattel brand’s previous affiliated agencies include BBDO and R/GA.

Read more here.—JS

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

Sporty: A collection of sports-related color palettes for branding and marketing, based on research and trends.

Hit Send: Speaking of trends, here are 12 in the email marketing world.

Acquired taste: The ins and outs of using direct mail to aid customer acquisition.

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