Heineken has been making a push into the light beer space, and is using Formula One, tennis, and music festivals to do it.

In March, just days before the beer market would be shaken by Bud Light’s partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, Heineken debuted Heineken Silver—a lower-carb, lower-calorie premium beer—in the US to help the world’s second-largest beer company gain a foothold in the US light beer market.

While Heineken reported a tough second quarter last week, with a 5.6% drop in volume, CEO Dolf van den Brink said on its earnings call that Silver had grown its volume by 45%, and in the US is seeing “encouraging early results in distribution build-up and rate of sale.” He also said the company has “significantly” boosted US marketing spend to build on “the momentum that we’re now gaining” on Silver.

Part of that marketing strategy is introducing the product through new and existing event partnerships, Frank Amorese, VP of media, partnerships, and creative studio at Heineken USA, told Retail Brew. He said the brewer made the decision before the product debuted to do the “full changeover” to lead with Heineken Silver and introduce the product to new and existing customers.

Keep reading here.—EC

NRF—better known as Retail’s Big Show—is back for 2024, and Shopify will be bringing the par-TAY. Join Shopify on January 14–16 to get everything from product demos to one-on-one meetings with product leaders.

At this year’s NRF, Shopify will demo the latest and greatest in their enterprise and retail solutions. Stop by the booth for an in-depth look at Shopify in action and explore the latest innovations in storefronts, checkout, headless commerce, and retail.

Chat with product leaders, check out workshop presentations from the Shopify experts, and meet with the biggest names in commerce. Oh, and don’t miss Shopify President Harley Finkelstein’s keynote with BÉIS founder Shay Mitchell and Glossier CEO Kyle Leahy.

Book your meeting.

Carla Dunham has held many impressive roles in the past, including high-level executive positions at Kate Spade and Amazon Fashion, and her last gig as chief marketing and merchandising officer at Foxtrot.

But when she started in her current position, as CMO of DTC luggage brand Away, it came with a lot of…well, baggage.

The company was valued at $1.4 billion in 2019 after raising $100 million. But since the early days of the pandemic, Away has gone through major layoffs and furloughs after its sales dropped by more than 90%. It was reportedly even considering sale options earlier this year, but has since shifted from that idea and focused on expanding its brand.

That’s where Dunham, who joined Away in late 2022, comes in.

Keep reading here.—JS

It’s starting to feel a lot like—gesundheit!—cold and flu season, and a TV spot for Vicks NyQuil Severe Honey is in high rotation, having aired 3,734 times between August 14 and November 9, according to iSpot, a TV measurement company.

The 15-second commercial would appeal to everyone’s favorite ursine denizen of the Hundred Acre Wood, mentioning “honey” five times and “honeylicious” once. The commercial depicts honey descending from a wooden dripper, as does its packaging, which has a dispenser cup shaped like a beehive.

It’s no wonder why a cold remedy would want to be associated with honey, a demulcent whose effectiveness at coating and soothing throats is borne out in numerous studies.

But for all it does to associate itself with honey, there’s something curious about Vicks NyQuil Severe Honey: It doesn’t list honey as an ingredient.

Keep reading here.—AAN