At P.F. Candle Co., it seems no scent has gone unmatched.

The brand recently released its latest—and biggest—collab to date in partnership with Peanuts for the 50th anniversary of the Beagle Scouts. It’s one of the first times P.F. has done a licensing deal, founder and Creative Director Kristen Pumphrey told Marketing Brew, and the plan is to make full use of it over the next year, with an initial run of 15,000 candles produced so far.

In the last three years, P.F. Candle Co. has collaborated with a variety of brands, including Big Bud Press, Lisa Says Gah, and the L.A. Times. Its first collab, with TikTok in 2021, capitalized on trending recipes on the app, with candle scents ranging from whipped coffee to feta pasta. This year, in addition to Peanuts, P.F. Candle Co. has worked with the band Wallows to create a scent inspired by their latest album and with sparkling-water brand Aura Bora on a watermelon-and-chili-flavored drink. The brand also makes custom scents for stores like Boston General Store and Foggy Notion, she said.

Pumphrey told us that the decision to pursue collaborations as a marketing strategy came when the brand became more direct-to-consumer and upped its manufacturing capabilities.

“When we felt like we had the capacity within our production line to take on projects like this, something unlocked for us, and we were like, ‘Let’s go see how many fun things we can do,” she told us.

With more than a few candle crossovers now under the brand’s belt, Pumphrey said the strategy has not only been fun for employees, but also drawn new customers and increased site traffic.

Continue reading here.—KH

How? With Morning Brew’s engaged audience of 22m+ monthly readers, of course.

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Morning Brew is powered by the knowledge our readers trust us to deliver. From Retail Brew’s trending insights to Healthcare Brew’s timely updates, we’ve got a B2B Brew for you. Which one will you choose to grow with?

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Pumpkin-spice latte Squid Game szn is almost upon us.

Netflix is debuting a Squid Game live experience in New York on October 11, ahead of the show’s December 26 debut of its second season, with plans to later offer similar experiences in Asia and Europe.

Live events are just one area that streamers have been investing in: Let’s not forget the mad dash by streamers to snap up rights to air various sports games that’s been happening for months now. At the same time, several companies with cable businesses are desperately looking to shore up their streaming arms after taking major losses in their linear TV arms.

While some streamers have been on the market longer than others, they’re all grappling with a viewing landscape and consumer preferences that are rapidly shifting. Now that the latest earnings season is pretty much over, here’s the skinny on how each streamer fared.

The Paramount-ain is crumbling: It’s been a really tough month for Paramount. After announcing its merger with Skydance in July, the company disclosed a roughly $6 billion write-down on its cable business during its Q2 earnings. Paramount+ plans will see price hikes—the Essential plan with ads will increase from $5.99/month to $7.99/month for new customers. And the platform dropped 2.8 million subscribers over the quarter to 68 million.

Cracks at Max: Tough times are also afoot at Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max. Its parent company disclosed a $9.1 billion write-down of its linear business, similar to Paramount, sending stocks plummeting in the days following. Rumors that WBD could sell off some of its properties were quickly put to rest by WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels on the company’s earnings call.

Read more here.—JS

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

Ryan Nelsen is CMO of the programmatic advertising platform StackAdapt, where he leads global marketing, communications, and brand. He’s also held marketing roles at the experience management company Qualtrics and at MX, a financial services company.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? There have been so many favorites, and a fun one is from when we created the Qualtrics X4 Summit. We doubled the number of attendees each year, culminating in 15,000 leaders joining to hear about all of our innovations with guest speakers Oprah, then-President Obama, and Richard Branson.

During my time at MX, we continued bringing people and technology together with guests including Matthew McConaughey, will.i.am, Allyson Felix, Jason Sudeikis, Peyton Manning, and Ryan Tedder. I’m fascinated by people who have become the best in the world at what they do, including learning from people like Michael Phelps.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? Anything that Ryan Reynolds touches is pure gold. I love the nostalgia they brought back with Rick Moranis in the Mint Mobile commercial. Tying Honey, I Shrunk the Kids to shrinking costs was clever.

Another one that stood out to me was the CeraVe Super Bowl ad with Michael Cera. Knowing my wife buys their products, it made me laugh when they connected our worlds with the perfect name crossover.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I’m a girl dad to four smart, amazing daughters. I’m passionate about creating a better world for them and women everywhere.

Read more here.—KS

Biz growth by design. Did you know 92% of leaders believe non-design employees should have design skills? Visuals are vital to boosting your biz—and Canva’s Power of Design in Business Growth panel discussion is here to show you why. It’s jam-packed with tips on how (and why) you should put visuals first.

Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• Reese’s teamed up with Angel Reese to create limited-edition merch.
• Dentsu entered into a strategic partnership with Sports Innovation Lab to provide clients with targeting capabilities specific to sports.
• Grey Goose partnered with tennis player Frances Tiafoe for a campaign involving the Honey Deuce—the US Open’s iconic cocktail.
• Celsius added six college football players to its NIL roster.
• Wondery acquired Jason and Travis Kelce’s podcast New Heights, reportedly as part of a multi-year, nine-figure deal.
• The Athletic tapped Kylie Kelce, Sam Richardson, and Anthony Ramos for a campaign tied to football season.