When Kellanova, the company formerly known as Kellogg, decided to dive into US sports sponsorships, the starting point was obvious.

College sports, and football especially, have uniquely passionate fan bases, and football offers the broad reach that many sports marketers covet, making college ball a strong starting point for brands like Pop-Tarts and Cheez-It. Beyond that, with the rivalries and riffing that go down among college football fans, the space “lends itself really nicely” to a bit of absurdity, Kellanova CMO Julie Bowerman said, which the company has taken advantage of in its activations, including mascot sacrifices at the Pop-Tarts Bowl the past two years and a two-minute wedding at the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl held at the end of last year.

Kellanova brands like Pringles have also made appearances during the Super Bowl, and in the nearly seven years since Kellanova started bringing its brands into football, the company has evolved its approach to sports sponsorship, Bowerman said. With fanfare around basketball as high as it’s ever been, especially on the women’s side, the food manufacturing giant is making a move into hoops, she said.

“We’re making it one of our big bets for the brand next year,” Bowerman told Marketing Brew. “We’re looking at it as our next college football in terms of brand passion.”

Read more here about how Kellanova is looking to connect Cheez-It with basketball.—AM

Comcast’s StreamSaver bundle, which includes Apple TV+, Netflix, and Peacock, got lots of attention when it debuted last year. But it’s not the only bundled package the company has recently rolled out.

Now TV Latino is a Comcast streaming package that includes more than 25 Spanish-language streaming and FAST channels like Sony Cine and Estrella News as well as Peacock Premium for $10/month—subscribers must be Comcast Xfinity internet customers in order to subscribe to the bundle. Comcast debuted the package in July. The package comes as the number of multilingual and Spanish-speaking households in the US continues to grow, and amid a concerted push from Comcast to find ways to package TV offerings in ways that can appeal to specific sets of customers and encourage interest in its internet offerings, all while reducing churn on platforms like Peacock.

“The Hispanic audience [is] multigenerational, multilingual, [and]…really heavy on streaming,” Fernando Cardenas, Comcast’s senior director of community engagement and culture and language, told Marketing Brew. Now TV Latino is “meeting the needs of a multigenerational household, because it’s giving you bicultural content. You have the best of English through Peacock, and then you have some really great Spanish-language content as well.”

Read more here about how Comcast is marketing to Hispanic viewers.—JS

The good people of Gotham City can finally rest easy—Bateman is ready to defend them.

No, that’s not a typo. It’s the premise of State Farm’s latest brand campaign, which is tipping off just in time for March Madness. Unlike many of the ads running during the college basketball tournament, State Farm’s won’t feature any athletes. Instead, it stars Jason Bateman and features cameos from other celebrities and creators:

The 60-second spot, called “Batman vs. Bateman,” depicts some of the usual suspects from the Batman franchise, except Bateman isn’t exactly effective as a crime-fighter. “Having insurance isn’t the same as having State Farm,” Jake From State Farm says in the ad. “It’s like getting Bateman when you need the protection of Batman.”

• In addition to Bateman and Jake, the ad features SZA as Catwoman, YouTuber Jordan Howlett (aka Jordan Thee Stallion) as Commissioner Gordon, and YouTuber and Twitch streamer Kai Cenat as a civilian.

State Farm Head of Marketing Alyson Griffin said she expects the campaign will help State Farm stand out to March Madness viewers.

“If we’re in football, there’s a football player; if you’re in basketball, a basketball player; when we’re in gaming, we use gamers,” she told Marketing Brew. “The reason is because it does break through when people are in that mindset, but this is, we believe, a pretty special campaign. It’s the bigness of it, the theatricalness of it, the storytelling with the different villains…that will break through.”

Read more here.—AM