Anyone who’s been through TSA or has seen bags loaded or unloaded onto a plane from their window seat knows that traveling isn’t exactly gentle on luggage.

Still, multiple people with roller bags and totes from the travel and accessories brand Béis recently took to social media to share visible wear and tear on their bags, sometimes saying it appeared after just one trip. Through social listening, the company’s staff noticed—and decided to host a retro, car-wash-themed event called “Béis Wash” to clean people’s bags and show them how to keep them looking fresh.

The response online has so far appeared to be positive. More than 1,200 people attended the February event, and hundreds of bags were cleaned, according to the company. Beyond the day itself, creator posts about Béis Wash across Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube had a combined reach of 7.2 million, according to stats provided by Béis, while supplementary how-tos and promo videos the brand posted across platforms racked up additional views. On top of that, the brand also saw a bump in sales from a corresponding promotion it ran alongside the event, Liz Money, SVP of brand and creative at Béis, said.

“This was our top highest traffic moment and highest revenue moment,” Money told Marketing Brew. “We were able to provide a service and test out if this is something that the consumer has an appetite for, and we found that absolutely they do.”

Listening to what customers have to say has been useful for Béis, Money said. Based on customer feedback from a previous in-person event, the brand held a virtual warehouse sale for the first time last month. The weekend the sale began, the brand saw an increase in followers as well as more than 690k Instagram impressions and 3.3m TikTok views, according to stats provided by the company.

“We’re always going to be looking for what the consumer is asking us,” Money said. “And we’re always going to do our very best to answer that.”

Continue reading here.—KH

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There’s sawdust on Madison Avenue. The Home Depot is giving its retail media network, first piloted in 2018, a renovation: Retail Media+ is now Orange Apron Media. Get the reference behind the new name? Great.

The idea behind the rebrand is to stand out in the ever-congested retail media landscape, Melanie Babcock, VP of Orange Apron Media and monetization at The Home Depot, told Marketing Brew.

The Home Depot claims to have close to 200 million individual customers, and, Babcock said, some 2,000 advertisers are currently using the company’s retail media platform. (Brands don’t have to be in the home improvement industry to advertise there—State Farm is one of the company’s biggest advertisers, she told us.) The media network has also begun testing selling programmatic inventory, with the goal of bringing even more non-endemic advertisers to the platform.

Crowded aisles: If there’s an audience, be they shoppers, passengers, or handyfolk, there’s an advertising network. And ad dollars will likely follow.

• The category is expected to grow to $166 billion by 2025, and will account for about 20% of all digital media spend this year, according to eMarketer. For reference, Walmart Connect generated about $3.4 billion in advertising revenue last year, according to the company’s Q4 earnings report.

Read more here.—RB

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Naomi Troni is global CMO of VML. Her prior roles have included global chief marketing and growth officer at Wunderman Thompson and global chief growth officer at MullenLowe Group.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in marketing? At its core, marketing is all about telling stories. Advertising agencies tell stories on behalf of their clients to make their products stand out in the minds of customers. I tell stories—spanning events, thought leadership, campaigns, and content—to help my agency stand out in the minds of our clients and potential clients. You could say I tell stories to storytellers.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? I’m more of a (sausage) dog person, but our Super Bowl film for Hellmann’s is feline gold.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I have a side hustle in cross-stitch birds.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? It’s not so much of a trend as a truism, but I honestly believe in the power of creativity to build successful brands that stand out from the crowd. For me, creativity is the best way to connect brands to their customers, to culture, and to long-term business growth. I wouldn’t say that I’m skeptical about AI. Clearly, the potential of new technologies like ChatGPT has the power to completely transform our industry. However, AI should be viewed as an enabler and amplifier of human creativity, not as a replacement for it.

What’s one marketing-related podcast/social account/series you’d recommend? Rob Mayhew really makes me giggle.

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Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• Coca-Cola and Marvel kicked off a collaboration that includes an ad campaign and limited-edition cans featuring Marvel characters.
• Paramount partnered with shoppable ad platform Shopsense AI as it prepares for upfronts.
• Lysol tapped A-Rod for a new ad.

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