CAMPAIGNS

It’s SPIKED Seltzer—Get It?

Have you ever noticed that, out of all 2020 creative, alcoholic beverage campaigns were some of the best? That wasn’t exactly a coincidence. 

Despite bars closing around the world due to Covid-19, the pandemic offered unique opportunities for alcohol marketers…especially for those promoting certain beverages:

• At the start of the pandemic, two key consumer trends emerged—increased alcohol consumption and health-consciousness.
• That convergence led to a surge in interest around “healthy” drinks, like tequila and spiked seltzer. 

One brand new alcoholic beverage marketer saw the trend’s opportunity and went for a three pointer at the buzzer—Travis Scott.

On tap 

On Thursday, Scott followed up on his lucrative McDonald’s brand partnership to unveil his latest food and beverage project—Cacti spiked seltzer (get it?) in partnership with Anheuser-Busch. Scott, his Cactus Jack creative collection and Anheuser-Busch’s innovation team worked side by side to create Cacti’s flavors, packaging, and ingredients. 

So what’s in store for the Cacti brand? Authenticity…and more of a “tequila” vibe than a seltzer one.

• As a “big fan of tequila,” Scott let the college kid’s shot of choice inspire the agave spiked seltzer—which debuts in Spring 2021, per a statement shared with Marketing Brew. 

• Part of the consumer connection between Scott’s drink of choice—tequila—and Cacti will be its 7% ABV—higher than typical spiked seltzers. 

Personal brewing

Spiked seltzer is a crowded market, full of businesses like Bon & Viv and Truly testing out what kind of branding will sell their product. For Bon & Viv, it’s Hampton’s chic—for Truly, it’s health and wellness. 

But if anyone can break through the noise, it might be Scott. The new endeavor further extends Travis Scott’s ever-growing personal brand—a name strong enough to cause ingredient shortages at McDonald’s.

My takeaway: As we close out what’s been a year of heavy drinking for many of us, Scott’s Cacti brand announcement serves as two reminders. 

• One: A celebrity partnership can still be a powerful thing, even as micro-influencers grow more popular with brands.
• Two: Advertisers in the alcoholic beverage space have always been some of the sharpest in the game. So when 2020’s consumer trends added a few plot twists, many alcohol marketers became expert navigators.

MARTECH

Facebook Draws a Mustache On Photo of Apple IDFA

It’s official, Facebook hates Apple. The social queen bee recently took out full page WSJ, NYT, and Washington Post ads saying it’s opposing changes to Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) to “stand up for small businesses.” 

Facebook’s full pagers are basically the Mean Girls Burn Book of newspaper ads, but here’s why they matter:

• Facebook needs that IDFA data to share with its advertisers—it's part of why your local coffee shop would advertise on FB rather than in your local newspaper. 
• And it’s not wrong about the “small businesses potentially losing out on some of that benefit with the IDFA changes” thing.
• Apple argues that the current IDFA tracking system is not only too invasive, but also mostly beneficial to big companies.

For instance: “StitcherAds, which sits between Facebook and advertisers, believes this move by Apple will increase the price of products for the end consumer as the cost of advertising those products will rise,” per MediaPost. 

My takeaway: Facebook’s newspaper ads are more about FB’s reputation with small businesses than the little guys themselves. Regina George Facebook needs small businesses to survive (that’s where 75% of its ad rev comes from), hence the public stunt to stay on their good side.

SPONSORED BY WETRANSFER

2020: Don't Worry, It Wasn't All Bad

This year has certainly required some...innovative thinking. And who better to look to for inspiration and tips on how to survive and thrive in what might be the most turbulent year in history than today’s creatives?

WeTransfer’s Ideas Report is exactly what happens when you pick the brains of 35,000 creatives from almost every country on how the global pandemic affected their creative processes.

The report reveals that sometimes resilience is as simple as going back to the basics. There’s a reason that for the first time in the Ideas Report’s history, jobs are no longer our number one distraction. Creatives are prioritizing family, friends, and time in nature.

And you don’t need to be “a creative” to learn from the findings of WeTransfer’s report. Play through their interactive experience and find out how your year compares.

Check out the third annual Ideas Report here.

CMOS

Twitter Jackson, VP

In a social media universe where each platform mirrors the next, branding is everything. At least, that’s probably what Twitter’s new VP of Global Brand and Consumer Marketing, Beverly W. Jackson, would say. 

Starting January 4, Jackson has a daunting task: She’ll shape how the Twitter brand shows up around the world in the extremely competitive social media landscape. 

• In her pre-Twitterati days, Jackson worked with interactive entertainment company Activision Blizzard as VP of franchise communication and social.
• And pre-Blizzard, Jackson held marketing leadership roles at MGM Resorts International, Yahoo, and the Grammys.

“Twitter is real, unfiltered, [and] raw. I’m honored to…help shape how one of the most culturally significant brands of our time shows up in the world,” Jackson told Marketing Brew. 

Why it matters: As we saw during the Facebook boycott, as well as with Reddit’s increased brand safety efforts, the way a platform’s brand shows up in the world really matters to consumers. So in some important ways, Jackson now holds your target audience’s opinion of Twitter in her hands. 

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Roku added HBO Max to its platform after HBO’s similar deal with Amazon last month.
• Google is facing an antitrust suit from Texas’s Attorney General focusing on its ad business.
• TikTok and Walmart are hosting the app’s first U.S. shoppable livestream event tonight.
• Pringles confirmed it will run its fourth consecutive Super Bowl ad in 2021.

SPONSORED BY VALIDITY

Turn your email marketing into a fine-tuned machine. Validity’s Email Tune-Up: A 5-Point Inspection to Get Your Program in Gear lays out the integral steps an email marketer should use to troubleshoot issues before they cause a total breakdown. Start planning 2021 marketing campaigns that are sure to succeed. Download the guide today. 

FRENCH PRESS

Marketing tips to make you fancy

Sosh meeds: This clever infographic provides a simple ten-step process to performing a social media competitive analysis.

CMOs: Watch Morning Brew CEO Alex Lieberman’s convo with Jenny Rooney, who is not only the communities director and chair of the CMO Network at Forbes, but also who I want to be when I grow up. 

Agencies: The Drum rounded up 2020’s agency holiday cards—get inspired if you’re late on sending yours out here.  

Courses: 42courses just created a course on “Goodvertising”—a step by step guide to help brands find a meaningful role in people's lives and respond to social movements, as well as a look at global Cannes Lions case studies. Marketing Brew readers get 17% off with the code MARKETINGBREW. 

METRICS & MEDIA

Stat: The number one most used song on TikTok in 2020 was called “Toosie Slide” by Drake. I’ve never felt older—I haven’t heard a single lyric. 

Quote: “Something unhealthy has happened in the workplace culture, where a combination of digital presenteeism and self-justification in a public channel has replaced a private call to a manager to explain that you’re currently too ill to work.”—an anonymous PR exec to Digiday on why WFH sick days feel so awkward in our industry. 

Read: “Inside the chaos of brand safety technology” from the “BRANDED” newsletter, which is almost as good as this one (a high compliment). 

ICYMI

Catch up on the top Marketing Brew stories from the last few editions.

• Public health PSAs give influencer marketing more weight
• m/Six taps WFA Global Diversity Ambassador Belinda Smith as CEO
• Reddit acquires Dubsmash to keep up with the TikTok Joneses