Kamala is Brat. Charli XCX said so herself.

It started as an organic movement online in support of Vice President Harris’s potential presidential run earlier this month, featuring fan edits of Harris set to songs from Charli XCX’s Brat album and from other popular artists like Chappell Roan. Now, the memes are officially part of her campaign after President Joe Biden announced he would no longer run for a second term.

Harris’s campaign, which has been live for about a week, quickly embraced the font and chartreuse green of Brat on its Kamala HQ social accounts, and has made references to Harris’s now-viral quote in which she recalled her mother asking, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” There are memes referencing everything from infinity auras to certain rumors about Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance. On TikTok, Kamala HQ used a trending audio from creator Brooke Schofield to joke about Trump’s fundraising, which racked up 19.5 million views and more than 2.5 million likes since it was posted three days ago. Another TikTok, a clip of Trump noting the Democratic campaign’s strategy and appended with Harris’s approval message, has nearly 3 million likes.

It’s a vastly more online campaign than Biden’s was—and so far, brand experts told us, it appears to be working in the VP’s favor, particularly with young people. But can the online momentum hold until November?

When it comes to memes, “timing is everything,” Lynne Field, head of strategy at experience and design agency FutureBrand, told us, and the Harris campaign “jumped in at just the right time” before the memes and edits felt too mainstream.

• With less than 100 days until the election, Field said Harris’s team has been tasked with building her brand at an “accelerated pace,” and engaging with online communities has helped them make serious progress.

Continue reading here.—KH

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We’ve all heard that streaming killed the cable bundle. Could it also stand to revive a vestige of days gone by?

If Netflix has its way, it just might. The streamer’s upcoming experiential retail activations are looking to breathe life back into the mall—while getting people even more hooked on Netflix programming.

The activations, dubbed Netflix House, are due to open two initial locations next year at malls in Pennsylvania and Texas, with the goal of bringing some of its highest-performing franchises to life inside shopping centers.

“At Netflix House, you can enjoy regularly updated immersive experiences, indulge in retail therapy, and get a taste—literally—of your favorite Netflix series and films through unique food and drink offerings,” Marian Lee, Netflix’s chief marketing officer, said in a blog post about the initiative. “Netflix House represents the next generation of our distinctive offerings.”

Netflix House is coming at a time when malls have seen an overall decline in foot traffic and as consumers increasingly look for IRL experiences, Steve Pearce, managing director at the creative and experiential agency Love, told Marketing Brew.

For streamers like Netflix that want to win customers over every month, in-person events can provide opportunities to sell consumer products and incentivize customers to build deeper connections with their favorite shows, all of which could encourage them to continue watching—and paying subscription fees.

“Experiences can be hugely powerful as ways of driving lots of softer things like loyalty and brand preference, but they could actually really drive income as well,” Pearce said.

Read more here.—JS

Best Buy is increasingly embracing technology to improve its customer experience, and now it has unveiled a new holographic mascot and rebrand.

The electronics retailer said customers are looking to the company to “play a bigger role in helping them discover new technology,” and its new tagline, “Imagine that,” is designed to reflect that change in approach.

“We’re embracing this change, and we’re excited about it, because we know it’s where our customers want us to go,” Jennie Weber, Best Buy’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement. “They want technology to level up their lives—to help them do more of what they love—and there’s no one more passionate and better positioned to do that than Best Buy.”

As part of the change, the retailer’s new mascot, Gram, will start appearing in advertisements and is already popping up in some back-to-school marketing.

In addition to the new mascot and tagline, the company is giving its brand “a modern look and feel,” which it plans to roll out in phases. This includes a new color palette that adds magenta, teal, and red to its familiar yellow and blue.

Read more on Retail Brew.—AV

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Executive moves across the industry.

• Pfizer has a new global CMO: Susan Rienow, who was previously the pharma giant’s UK managing director and president. Rienow replaces Drew Panayiotou, who had been in the role since 2022.
• Hyundai has scrapped its CMO position after restructuring its marketing team. Angela Zepeda, who was the company’s CMO, will take on a new role as chief creative officer.
• Campbell Soup Company tapped Jill Pratt as SVP and CMO of its meals and beverages division.