Finance brands flock to tennis like bees to honey—or perhaps a Honey Deuce.

American Express and JPMorganChase have been US Open partners for decades, and at least one other finance brand, Morgan Stanley, is advertising around the tournament this year. At other tennis events and throughout the calendar year, financial services companies are similarly prominent.

Why? At first glance, it might seem obvious: Tennis has a reputation for being somewhat of a premium experience, and tends to be a passion point among the target audience for financial institutions, several marketers told Marketing Brew. But one of the main draws for finance brands is that it’s not as exclusive as it once was, especially the US Open, which has a fairly wide-ranging audience that is only growing: Last year’s tournament saw more than 957,000 fans, a Grand Slam record.

“I think that the US Open fan, the audience demographic, is broadening,” Kate Schoff, managing director of sports and entertainment marketing at longtime US Open partner JPMorganChase, said. “You have a real core tennis fan, but the majority of people, I would argue, that attend the US Open, are actually not your true, core tennis fan, or that typical demographic that you associate with that core tennis fan. It is so much more. It’s an entertainment event.”

With multiple brands playing the same game—and even the same tournament—capturing audience attention might be about as hard as winning a Grand Slam. Here’s how a few of the companies marketing around the US Open are trying to pull it off.

Continue reading here.—AM

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Sharpen those No. 2 pencils and prepare for the worst lunch of your life. Brands are going back to school—or, at least, their ads are.

Advertisers ranging from retailers to cleaning supply brands spent an estimated $50 million on back-to-school campaigns in July and the first two weeks of August, up 35% from the same period last year, according to measurement firm iSpot.

Methodology: iSpot counted any advertisement that ran on linear TV and mentioned “back to school” within the ad. For example, Target has spent an estimated $4.2 million on its “Back to School: All About Sharks” spot since July 30, reaching 359 million impressions across programming like the Paris Olympics and Good Morning America.

Running ads during the Olympics, which accounted for about 20% of department store ads, likely inflated ad prices, John Cassillo, a spokesperson for iSpot, told Marketing Brew.

Big spenders: Target increased its back-to-school buy by 72% year over year, up to an estimated $12.1 million so far this year, while Kohl’s spent 116% more, at $10.9 million, per iSpot. Walmart came in third in terms of ad spend, spending an estimated $3.8 million, roughly 24% less than it did last year.

Read more here.—RB

As century-old CPG giant Mars works to maintain its dominance in the shopping carts of today’s consumers, it’s found that what’s old can be new again—with a little help.

Mars was created in 1911, and bought the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, founded in 1891, for $23 billion in 2008. The company now encompasses candy brands like M&Ms, Snickers, Twix, and Skittles, as well as chewing gum brands like Orbit, Extra, and Eclipse. Mars’s strength comes largely from those household brand names, its chief brand officer, Rankin Carroll, told Retail Brew; however, when it comes to marketing to consumers, the company has had to “change almost every aspect of how we work.”

Carroll joined Mars in 2002, eventually rising in the ranks to hold positions including president of its global candy and chocolate business units, before eventually overseeing its global branding and content starting in 2020. During this time, the company has worked to keep up with changing technology to keep these iconic brands relevant.

“Transformation is never going to stop,” he said. “That’s the conclusion we’ve come to in the last 10 years, probably, is that the pace of innovation is endless, and it’s only going to accelerate.”

Chewing it over: Carroll said the company has evolved its media approach, from 60% traditional linear television in 2019 to mid-30% now, moving much of its long-from video to digital channels. New technology and first-party data are allowing Mars to be “more precise” in where and how it delivers this content, while increasing how closely its marketing and digital technology teams work together from the start, he added.

“From storytelling all the way to performance, and making the story of the brand make sense across those touch points, is really the new challenge,” he said.

Read more on Retail Brew.—EC

Just freaking do it. Time to lace up your sickest pair of sneaks. Greg Hoffman, Nike’s former CMO, partnered with monday.com to curate a game-changing smorgasbord of marketing strategies (and a webinar), all based on 28 years’ worth of learnings from the man himself. Plan to win.