Big Brands, Big Ideas

Procter & Gamble is backing a new unscripted series that sees Khaby Lame, the world’s most popular TikToker, journey to the U.S. to explore the best and weirdest aspects of the country’s culture, according to a press release. 

“Khaby Is Coming To America” premiered on Tubi, the ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox, on June 27, 2024. The program was created in partnership with Group Black, marking the mission-focused media company’s first crack into production. 

Group Black and P&G share production credits on the limited series, with the latter using the show to promote brands like Tide, Crest, Febreze and Bevel. “Khaby Is Coming To America” is part of P&G’s efforts to engage more multicultural consumers through content.

P&G is capitalizing on the star power of TikTok’s most-followed account with the new reality show centered on Lame. The unscripted series is part of the packaged goods giant’s Widen The Screen initiative focused on amplifying diverse voices and extends its work with Group Black, a media company that positions itself around inclusivity. Widen the Screen launched in 2021 while Group Black secured a reported nine-figure investment from P&G in 2022.

“Khaby Is Coming To America” follows Lame, a Senegalese-born Italian content creator, as he explores a different U.S. city in each 20-minute episode. Guest stars include Alicia Keys, Jon Baptiste, David Beckham and Steven A. Smith, bridging the gap between conventional celebrities and an emerging type of media star. P&G and Group Black see a cross-cultural opportunity in bringing Lame’s brand of humor to new viewers in the states. 

“At P&G we are passionate about serving all consumers and identifying authentic ways to reach an increasingly broad group of multicultural consumers,” said Eric Austin, vice president of global marketing and media innovation at Procter & Gamble, in a statement. “P&G continues to widen the screen for diverse creators to share stories, narratives, and experiences.”

“Khaby Is Coming To America” will integrate P&G brands Tide, Crest, Febreze and Bevel and appear on Tubi, an ad-supported streamer. P&G acquired Bevel, a line of grooming products targeted at men of color, as part of its purchase of Walker & Company in 2018. Young, diverse viewers make up Tubi’s fastest-growing audience segment, Vice President of Content Acquisition Sam Harowitz said in the release. 

Lame’s popularity skyrocketed in recent years due to his humorous videos, many reacting wordlessly to absurd “life hack” how-tos (he speaks in the new series). While Lame’s formula is simple, he’s accrued over 162 million TikTok followers and stands among the top 50 most-followed creators on Instagram. 

Other brands have taken advantage of Lame’s growing cultural footprint. Pepsi enlisted Lame for an ad campaign that launched a nitro-infused cola two years ago. Lame also factored heavily into State Farm’s marketing around Super Bowl LVII.   

As its vintage advertising maintained, it’s Dr Pepper time. The soda brand made headlines in June 2024 with news that it became the number two carbonated soft drink in the U.S. behind Coca-Cola and passing Pepsi, which long held the spot, according to Beverage Digest data shared with Marketing Dive. The sales data is in line with consumer brand perceptions: Dr Pepper ranked 41st, two spots ahead of Pepsi, in FutureBrand’s Consumer Index report released around the same time.

“In comparison to Pepsi, consumers view Dr Pepper as having a more promising future, doing a better job at keeping up to date and, importantly, being more distinctive and different than Pepsi,” said Lynne Field, head of strategy at FutureBrand.

Since the 2018 acquisition that brought together Keurig Green Mountain and the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Dr Pepper’s parent company has remained committed to the brand amid a portfolio-wide double-digit increase in marketing spend. Dr Pepper’s success can be attributed to a combination of investment and patience, said Brad Rakes, senior director for brand marketing at Keurig Dr Pepper. 

“It really is a commitment across the board, not just in things like content and media, but also investment in prioritization and making sure that Dr Pepper continues to be the workhorse for the organization,” the executive said.

As it has looked to differentiate itself from cola wars stalwarts Coke and Pepsi, Dr Pepper has embraced its identity as a disruptor with a one-of-a-kind taste that provides consumers a treat and creates connections between them. In the last few years, its marketing has walked the tightrope between being consistent and breaking the rules.

“The brand is 140 years old,” Rakes said. “If you do the same things you were doing 140 years ago, that’s not going to fuel growth.”

First mover in college football

For the last few years, Dr Pepper’s marketing has revolved around college football. The brand in 2014 became the first official sponsor of the college football playoff, and was a first mover in the name, image and likeness (NIL) rights space when it signed quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei in 2021 to be part of its long-running “Fansville” campaign.

“Fansville,” a parody of high school sports dramas like “Friday Night Lights” with an ongoing story about football-obsessed fans in a fictional town, launched in 2018 and has remained a platform for advertising creative and player partnerships. The campaign, created with Deutsch LA, returned for a seventh season in 2024.

“There’s more runway for growth here,” Rakes said. “Consumer interest in the advertising is high, it is breakthrough with some of the top-scoring, top-performing advertising that we have ever done on Dr. Pepper.”

College football continues to be a fertile creative space that allows Dr Pepper to connect with fans around whatever is driving conversations in the sport. For 2023’s iteration of the effort, that meant teaming with Heisman trophy winning quarterback Caleb Williams to release “FANicures,” a nail polish kit that nodded to Williams’ divisive gameday tradition, itself inspired by his nail-technician mother.

“The nail painting thing … is part of his own brand, and it was a great way for us to bring that part of his branding into our own universe and play that up,” Rakes explained. “The secret sauce of ‘Fansville’ is authenticity and showing that we understand the space.”

Innovation drives recruitment

The carbonated soft drink market has been awash in new flavors and brand extensions as marketers rush to bring in new consumers and meet demands around healthier drink options. Coca-Cola has made its Creations platform a key part of its global marketing and Pepsi has stepped up limited-time flavors around seasonal food moments. 

Dr Pepper is no different. Its Strawberries & Cream flavor generated more than $300 million in sales in 2023, while a Creamy Coconut LTO was up more than 50% in volume sales in just its first five weeks compared to 2022’s Dark Berry LTO, per Circana data shared by the brand.

“If we want to think about growing this brand, not just next year, but in the next five and 10 years, recruitment is a really important part of that strategy, and flavors work harder than anything else at recruitment,” Rakes said.

In general, new flavors over-index with younger and more multicultural consumers. But for a marketer that still derives more than half of overall growth from its core Dr Pepper and Diet Dr Pepper flavors, it is important not to overextend and get too far away from its core business.

“There’s a way to innovate in a category where you’re doing so many things that you can break the base,” Rakes said. “Flavor is important, but we don’t want to over-rotate to the point where our base business suffers. I think we’re striking that balance in the right way.”

Agile marketing model

Dr Pepper is lucky to have a loyal fan base with a core of high-frequency consumers. That brand loyalty and love shows up in different ways, as it did with a recent viral trend around drinking Dr Pepper with pickles. The brand was quick to jump on the trend with a TikTok video that has been seen more than 2.6 million times.

The speed of its response is due to a holistic, agile marketing model, Rakes explained, that relies on not just the data and tools that have become commonplace in modern marketing but having people and processes in place that can move the levers responsively.

“They have the flexibility and the rights to make decisions and to move with speed,” Rakes explained of a marketing team that spans brand and agency staff. “We enable people to make smart decisions and to go.”

That agility has helped the brand capitalize on avenues like college football and flavor innovation to play on the same field as Coke and Pepsi. But its relationship with its competitors is an unusual one, as it is largely distributed by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. For Dr Pepper, consumer obsession and walking the line between consistency and disruption will help not just its brand but its partners.

“We know who we are, we know what we need to do,” Rakes said. “If we focus on that and if we do a good job, our partners all across the value chain — Keurig Dr Pepper, our shareholders, our distributors, our retailers — everybody should be winning.”

American Eagle is taking a page from its past for the launch of a brand platform, giving fresh energy to a 20-year-old “Live Your Life” slogan to promote self-expression, inclusion and acceptance. The platform, which debuted in July 2024, coincided with the rollout of the brand’s back-to-school campaign.

“Live Your Life” — a phrase trademarked by American Eagle for over a decade —  made an appearance in the retailer’s back-to-school marketing in 2012. Today, the slogan is being modernized for Gen Z and will be ingrained in a fall campaign that includes a partnership with 2023 U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff. College football appearances, 3D billboards and a collaboration with Life on Film to capture disposable camera footage round out the effort.

“Our intent is that ‘Live Your Life’ will be with us for many, many years to come, so our team really views this as a jumping off point,” said American Eagle CMO Craig Brommers. “Back-to-school really is our Super Bowl and we’re spending a lot of money around talent and surprise activations and content creation to cut through initially.”

The revival of “Live Your Life” was inspired by consumer research across Gen Alpha, millennials and the retailer’s target Gen Z audience that sought to uncover how the generations regard American Eagle and what they look for in a clothing brand. Among the findings was the sentiment that the retailer is loyal to values like self-expression. Respondents more broadly also indicated a hunger for human connection and real experiences.

American Eagle is leaning into both of those insights with “Live Your Life,” Brommers said, noting his belief that “iconic brands run toward who they are.”

“Just like ‘Just Do It’ for Nike or ‘My Calvin’s’ from Calvin Klein or even ‘Aerie Real,’ there’s just some things that make sense,” said Brommers.

New energy, same denim

American Eagle’s fall campaign is headlined by tennis star Gauff, who competed in the Paris Olympics, along with Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence and actors Kristine Froseth and Nikki Rodriguez, who star in Gen Z-focused series “The Buccaneers” and “My Life with the Walter Boys,” respectively. Through its tie-up with Gauff, the retailer unveiled a Coco Gauff x American Eagle collaboration that includes a nod to the athlete’s iconic U.S. Open quote, “Thank you to the people who didn’t believe in me.”

Talent featured in the retailer’s campaign, who will appear in digital, in-store, social and out-of-home ads, were selected to better target the “Live Your Life” mantra at Gen Z. Brommers described the group as the “hustle generation.”

“These are multi-hyphenated individuals who really encapsulate Gen Z,” the exec said. “They’re athletes, they’re activists, they’re communicators, they’re business people.”

The ambassadors also satisfy what the marketer describes as American Eagle’s “passion pillars,” or the key interests of Gen Z, which include categories like gaming, social media, sports and community impact. The retailer regularly leverages a customer panel consisting of around 2,000 people aged 15-25 to gather insights that drive culturally relevant marketing. A number of marketing efforts have been inspired by the panel, like the brand’s tie-up with Amazon Prime Series “The Summer I Turned Pretty.”

 

American Eagle’s latest move comes at a high point for the retailer, which reported record first quarter revenue of $1.1 billion. The back-to-school season is a major opportunity for the brand to keep momentum rolling, though spending for the period is expected to fall slightly from $31.9 billion last year to $31.3 billion in 2024, according to Deloitte. Other forecasts yield a sunnier outlook — JLL expects spending to surge nearly 22% — providing Brommers a sense of hopefulness.

“One thing that has been resilient over the years is that parents will, in fact, help their kids and put them first, so I think we’re optimistic about this back-to-school season,” the exec said.

Other elements of the back-to-school push include pop-ups at college football games to tap into Gen Z’s sports fixation. American Eagle’s partnership with Lawrence represents the first time the brand has had an NFL star fronting one of its campaigns.

Emotional, not just rational

To engage Gen Z’s appreciation for self-expression and authenticity — a tactic adopted by other marketers this season — American Eagle has teamed with Life on Film and over 200 people, including actors AnnaSophia Robb, Chris Briney and Jonathan Daviss, to capture disposable camera footage showcasing how they live their lives. The footage will be edited into a video montage that will be shared across both the talent and the brand’s social media channels, representing a more candid form of content than the brand usually puts forward in its back-to-school marketing, Brommers explained.

“I think that’s why I’m so excited by this campaign and how it differs from things we’ve done in the past,” Brommers said. “If you fast forward 30 days, if you fast forward 60 days, I’m not sure where we will be with this campaign because we really want our customers to explore what ‘Live Your Life’ means to them, and we’re going to follow them where they help take this campaign.”

Additional guerrilla-style marketing, like custom videos projected on American Eagle stores, invites customers to “be a part of the campaign,” though full details are yet to be revealed. Three-dimensional billboards in markets like New York will complement a slate of outdoor activations that are intended to blow last year’s back-to-school efforts — described at the time as the brand’s largest outdoor push since the pandemic — out of the water.

“We’ve got some really crazy innovative things coming up in the outdoor space,” Brommers said. “I think we’re in the entertainment business as much as we’re in the retail business, so we should be challenging ourselves to be as entertaining as possible.”

The array of channels American Eagle is activating symbolizes the diverse interests of Gen Z, Brommers explained, while the nods to self-expression and inclusion are meant to strengthen its connection with consumers on an emotional level. That focus has helped the retailer stay in business for nearly five decades.

“We have the best damn jeans out there and all the market share data would showcase that, but I don’t think you can be competing at the level we’re competing at just on the rational,” Brommers said. “I think you actually do have to compete on the emotional as well.”

Back in 2018, The J.M. Smucker Company reimagined its entire marketing model, realigning internal teams around its major business units and consolidating the work of a dozen agencies under one. The “Power of One” model looked to streamline creative, data and media functions, bringing its $580 million account to a bespoke Publicis Groupe unit called PSOne.

In the years since, Smucker — like other major advertisers — has had to navigate the pandemic, a host of operational challenges and evolving consumer behaviors, and — like other consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers — has had to modernize legacy brands for a new generation of shoppers.

When Smucker started on its new marketing journey, less than of a quarter of its brands were growing or maintaining share, a percentage that now stands near 86%, by volume — surpassing a two-third benchmark, according to Smucker CMO Gail Hollander. The company saw net sales rise 6% during Q3 of its 2024 fiscal year, led by volume and sales mix growth by brands including Meow Mix and Cafe Bustelo.

The executive has seen the turnaround from both the brand and agency side. Before joining the company as chief marketer in 2023, she ran the Smucker business for Publicis as client lead, giving her a unique perspective about how to boost CPG brands.

“We came in six years ago when there were 11 different iconic brands, but they were dusty,” Hollander said. “Fueling brands with modern energy is what helps you maintain relevance over time, and that is what the JMS marketing model is really about… we fuel these iconic brands with modern energy by thinking about the brand’s DNA and by uncovering a big brand platform idea, and those ideas tap into culture in unique and ongoing ways.” 

Building brand platforms

Among those “dusty” brands were Jif, Folgers, Meow Mix and J.M. Smucker itself: the marketer was part of the first wave of pandemic rebrands, setting aside its familiar strawberries, leaves and countrified typeface for a sleek, modern look that better spoke to the company’s portfolio, expertise and appeal.

For Smucker’s own brands, there are three core parts to rebranding or rethinking a brand’s place on the modern landscape: understanding the brand’s truth and DNA, the consumer truth and what they’re looking for in the category and what role the brand plays in culture.

“If you put all those in a bucket and you mix it up, that helps you get to a brand point of view,” Hollander explained. “That is the foundation for everything that we do. That allows that brand to not only be relevant today, but stand the test of time.”

Jif was one of the first Smucker brands to be reimagined under the new framework. A “That Jif’ing Good” platform launched in 2019 shifted the brand away from what choosy moms choose to campaigns tapping into hip-hop and internet culture. Similarly, Folgers had to solve for a bad reputation problem as millennials entered the market.

In the case of Milk-Bone, the dog treats brand has been oriented around fostering a genuine, authentic relationship between pets and pet parents at a time when culture is inundated by social media-induced superficiality. For Meow Mix, Smucker keyed in on its iconic jingle and connection to music for a boy band-focused nostalgia trip. Brand platforms serve as “broad shoulders” for news and innovation, but also are built to last, Hollander said.

“Six years ago, nobody was talking about those brands, and now they’re healthy, they’re growing, we are attracting younger audiences,” the executive said. “That is all because we are dedicated to the art and science of marketing communications.”

Lessons for CMOs — and the C-suite

The role of the chief marketing officer continues to evolve, with CMOs facing short tenures and grappling with “murkiness” over who is responsible for what in the C-suite. In the corporate landscape, particularly with public companies like Smucker, investors expect brands to deliver on short-term business goals that sometimes run counter to the priorities of the marketing organization. For Hollander, integral to the CMO role is the need to get the entire organization to buy into the importance of long-term brand building.

“It’s easy to default to marketing as a cost-center mentality, and when budgets are tight, those media investments are a really big number on your P&L,” Hollander said. “But creativity has an outsize impact on the business.”

Hollander works closely with President and CEO Mark Smucker, COO John Brase and head of sales Robert Crane, executives that believe in the power of marketing and communications, she said. Demonstrating the effects of marketing throughout the organization requires reminding people that marketing is about the “art of the ‘and’” — a combination of both breakthrough creative and data-driven insights.

“There are fundamental principles that will drive your business, and you can’t forget about them, but then you need the dollop of magic which is all the creativity,” she said.

Data is the “backbone” for everything Smucker does, from insight-driven strategies and the creation of consumer targets that can be scaled through lookalikes powered by Publicis Groupe’s Epsilon division — a process that is constantly being tweaked to sharpen media spends and their outcomes.

“You’re squeezing the most out of every single penny that you put out there. It’s got to work as hard as it possibly can,” Hollander said.

Nearly six years on from the launch of the “Power of One” marketing realignment, the Smucker-Publicis relationship in the form of PSOne is “alive and well,” Hollander said. Before the shift, Smucker’s marketing work was linear and siloed, increasing complexity and reducing efficiency. 

“What’s really unique about the relationship between Publicis and Smucker is we built this together,” the executive explained. “We built the notion of integrated teams that didn’t have any silos, that had all the connective tissue. Whether it’s from media or data or social, it just doesn’t matter. You don’t know where one group begins and then the other one ends.”

The integrated approach allows data, creative and media to work hand-in-hand. It also requires the agency to not just provide creative uses of ads and media, but have a business-focused mindset that helps Smuckers achieve short-term and long-term goals.

“You need that integrated thinking, and you need that partnership to deliver business today and brand health for tomorrow,” she said.

In 1974, Burger King rolled out its iconic “Have it your way” slogan with a jingle that assured consumers, “Special orders don’t upset us, all we ask is that you let us serve it your way!” Fifty years on, the fast food chain is taking its promise of customized burger orders to the next level with a contest that is fueled by generative artificial intelligence (AI).

Burger King on Feb. 5 launched the Million Dollar Whopper Contest, letting consumers create their own Whopper for a chance at a $1 million prize and the opportunity for three entrants to have their personal take on a customized burger sold for a limited time. After inputting up to eight ingredients in the BK App or via a microsite, Burger King used generative AI to bring the burger — and a customized jingle — to life, giving consumers an image and video that can be shared across social.

“The Million Dollar Whopper Contest leans into customization in ways we never have, and knowing that only three guests will have the opportunity to see their Whopper innovations in restaurants, we wanted to explore how we could bring every person’s submission to life,” Burger King CMO Pat O’Toole said in emailed comments. 

"That’s where AI came in – we know that AI (and specifically generative AI) will be continuing to evolve the way that we create, engage, and optimize different marketing content. That said, we wanted to make sure we entered the space in an authentic way that had roots in our brand heritage,” the executive added.

The contest ties into insights about the brand, where nearly half of guests customize their Whoppers in some way, and its marketing priorities around customization and giving consumers a new way to interact with a Royal Perks loyalty program that helps drive engagement and frequency. The use of generative AI comes as the technology is starting to show use-cases for marketers after more than a year of hype.

“We saw a huge opportunity in using AI to help deliver a campaign that was authentic to the brand, but also allowed our guests to have a seamless and fun experience. AI has played a pivotal role, both in the consumer-facing front, but also in how our team assesses and understands the ingredients that guests are entering,” O’Toole said.

Generative AI is not without its risks and critics. Stories of massive AI investments are just as common as ones about bad results, hallucinations and deep fakes. But Burger King — a brand known for making marketing bets at the leading edge of technology — appears to be as prepared as it can be.

“AI is like any emerging technology — powerful, but a little unpredictable,” O’Toole said. “We’ve been preparing substantially on our side and telling our guests to expect the unexpected.”

Underneath the hood

Created by Media.Monks, the contest’s AI-fueled experience allows users to add up to eight ingredients to their Whopper creations, and apart from allergens, inedible items and profanity, the only limit is their imagination. Building an experience that is scalable, brand-safe and privacy-first provided a challenge for the marketing and advertising services company.

“At Media.Monks, we have put a lot of emphasis into AI knowledge across all the departments,” said Iran Reyes, vice president and global head of engineering at the company. “Every product department is knowledgeable about AI — it’s not only tech connecting dots, it's really knowing how the technology works.” 

Generating custom Whoppers with AI required several large language models (LLMs) to be fine-tuned to brand guidelines around what ingredients could be included and what they would look like topping a burger. But the “magic ingredient” is Media.Monks’ use of a dedicated team — not the developers themselves — for quality assurance (QA), Reyes said.

“Our QA team is quite knowledgeable with AI as well,” the executive said. “The QA team is big, and they have a lot of experience working with LLMs.”

After generating an image of a Whopper that looks realistic and possible, the next step was working to generate a customized jingle that features a voice rapping about the ingredients in a way reminiscent of the brand’s popular “Whopper Whopper” jingle. While the AI-generated images will likely generate the most buzz, the audio is actually the most complex component of the experience.

“It is like a dynamic ad… it’s actually quite complex to match up and connect all the dots,” Reyes said. “We are getting to where hyper personalization is our reality.”

The experience took about three to four months to complete, including R&D, backend planning and QA planning. Along with Media.Monks’ combination of creative and technical expertise, a prioritization of AI allowed for the creation of a scalable, secure and fast solution.

“Everyone should know about AI — that has been our focus for the last year,” Reyes said. “It has been a big challenge and continues to be a challenge because AI changes all the time.”

The development and evolution of the underlying technologies will continue, making it imperative for marketers to stay up-to-date on the possibilities and pitfalls of generative AI.

“There’s a lot to uncover and explore when it comes to AI, and this is just the start,” O’Toole said. “It’s important that any AI integration is in service of our Guests, but our team is actively exploring different ways that generative AI will impact how we deploy, create, and optimize different types of media.”

Sportswear brand On Running has named Zendaya as brand partner as part of a multiyear deal with the “Challengers” star, according to a press release. The mononymous actress and singer leads an ad campaign, “Dream Together,” where she shares inspirational narration as a troupe of dancers decked out in On gear perform expressively on a running track. Messaging emphasizes that sport and movement can bring people of different backgrounds together.

Zendaya, who claims to be a long-time On fan, will collaborate on the designs of future On collections while the company’s website is currently promoting ready-to-wear edits curated by the celebrity. Nabbing a trendsetter like Zendaya could give On further momentum as legacy sportswear rivals struggle with growth.

Founded in 2010, Switzerland-based On has risen to become a sportswear disruptor with products that boast lightweight, comfortable designs and a sustainability minded ethos. The brand is looking to shore up its positioning with a multiyear partnership with Zendaya, a major star of the moment thanks to her roles in TV and films like “Dune: Part Two” and “Euphoria.” In “Challengers,” a critical hit in 2024, Zendaya portrays a tennis pro turned coach.

Outside of the screen, the actress is known for her fashionable looks, which are put together with help from stylist Law Roach. The ambassador tie-up could give On some extra credibility beyond sports apparel with tastemakers who have gravitated toward streetwear and athleisure. On earlier in 2024 teamed with singer-songwriter and dancer FKA Twigs on a training collection for the fall-winter season.

The Zendaya pact kicks off with an inspiration-focused “Dream Together” campaign that includes a video short directed by C Prinz. A message of unity through sports and movement anticipated global sporting events like the Summer Olympics in Paris. Along with appearing in advertisements, Zendaya will help On “reimagine” products and aid with the development of future collections, per the release.

On has expanded quickly since its launch and is today sold in over 60 countries. Parent On Holding went public in 2021 and has performed well of late. It beat analyst expectations in Q1 2024, with revenue up nearly 20% year over year to $561 million.

“Looking ahead, we’re extremely excited for the months to come, filled with groundbreaking innovations, big partnerships, and the opportunity to have a notable impact in Paris this summer,” said Martin Hoffmann, co-CEO and CFO, around the May earnings report.

Other emergent names in sportswear have been ramping up their marketing as legacy brands like Nike and Adidas face fresh business pressures. Deckers Brands-owned Hoka, a running shoe maker known for its extra-chunky designs, kicked off a massive global campaign in 2023 after surpassing $1 billion in sales.

Walmart has agreed to acquire TV maker Vizio for $2.3 billion in cash to accelerate growth for Walmart Connect, its U.S. advertising arm, according to a press release. The news was announced around Walmart’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings in February 2024.  

The deal provides the big-box store with another channel to reach consumers at home as connected TV (CTV) and streaming viewership surge. Vizio also has an advertising arm with its own technology solutions and over 500 direct brand relationships, contributing to Connect’s scale. The acquisition helps Walmart catch up with Amazon, which dominates the retail media category and owns the Fire TV line of smart TV hardware. Walmart’s sales derived from advertising are substantially smaller than its competitor’s but growing quickly, with Connect revenue up 30% in fiscal 2024, per the earnings statement.  

Walmart’s purchase of Vizio gives the big-box store a powerful chip as retail media networks race to improve their sophistication in more premium advertising areas like streaming video. Walmart Connect stands at the top of the heap among traditional retailers attempting to build out an advertising business but lags behind Amazon, which has won favor with brands thanks to its sprawling e-commerce marketplace and massive reach enhanced by offerings like Fire TV. 

Vizio acts as Walmart’s answer to Fire TV while providing Connect with additional ad solutions, direct advertiser relationships and scale. Founded in 2002, Vizio has become a top-selling TV brand at Walmart. The company’s smart TVs come with a built-in SmartCast system that allows viewers to watch content for free with commercials, an approach that has provided the foundation for Vizio’s Platform Plus division. Platform Plus, which mostly focuses on advertising, accounts for the majority of Vizio’s gross profits while SmartCast has over 18 million active accounts, according to the press release.    

“We believe VIZIO’s customer-centric operating system provides great viewing experiences at attractive price points. We also believe it enables a profitable advertising business that is rapidly scaling,” said Seth Dallaire, executive vice president and chief revenue officer at Walmart U.S., in a statement around the deal. “Our media business, Walmart Connect, is helping brands create meaningful connections with the millions of customers who shop with us each week. We believe the combination of these two businesses would be impactful as we redefine the intersection of retail and entertainment.”

Walmart’s $2.3 billion bet on Vizio is another sign that mature retail media networks are eyeing CTV and streaming as their next competitive frontiers. To date, retail media networks have derived most of their revenue from lower-funnel formats like sponsored search and display advertising. But video presents an opportunity to develop more top-of-funnel and brand-building capabilities that could further appeal to advertisers. CTV is forecast by eMarketer to grow U.S. revenues by 22.4% in 2024 to hit $30.1 billion.

Connect performed well during the key Q4 window, with revenue up 22% year over year. Full-year revenue for the unit increased 30%, while Walmart’s global ad business, which includes offerings like India-based Flipkart, was up 28% YoY to $3.4 billion. For comparison, Amazon’s ad sales totaled $14.6 billion in Q4 2023 alone. 

Since its founding in 2018, Liquid Death has worked to help consumers “murder” their thirst with irreverent, outré marketing. The beverage brand has, among other things, summoned demons, embraced its haters, fought off zombies and pranked taste testers on the way to a $1.4 billion dollar valuation and potential IPO.

As the hydration market continues to expand with new entrants and product innovations, Liquid Death has kept pace, branching out from canned still water to flavored sparkling water, ice tea and electrolyte drink mixes. But it hasn’t stopped the pace of boundary-pushing campaigns, often eschewing pricey media buys for social-first content that is designed for virality. For Liquid Death, the marketing is almost like a third product line next to beverages and merchandise.

“If we consider the ideas and videos that we put out another product, it shifts the way that you approach it,” said Liquid Death’s Vice President of Creative Andy Pearson. “You pay for stuff, not just with money, but with time, likes, following and all of that.”

Pearson, who joined Liquid Death three years ago after stints at agencies McKinney, Deutsch LA and Crispin Porter + Bogusky, spoke with Marketing Dive about how the brand continues to differentiate itself, how it brings “chaos” to collaboration and why Super Bowl spots are boring.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

MARKETING DIVE: The last few years have seen new entrants in hydration and renewed pushes from Big Soda players getting into water and sports beverages. How does this affect how you market and differentiate Liquid Death?

ANDY PEARSON: It really comes from the way that we see and hear people using Liquid Death. Initially, a lot of people were talking about how is it a great replacement for alcohol. Now, we get notes from parents that will email us and say, “Thank you, my high schooler was addicted to energy drinks and now he loves Liquid Death,” which is really cool.

Especially as we’ve expanded into flavored sparkling [water], which is just 20 calories, we hear a lot of people say, “I was drinking cans and cans of soda a day, and now I found this thing that’s just four grams of sugar, and it’s substantially better.”

The pure sugar video that we put out, people really reacted to that pretty strongly. There’s a lot of pent up demand to have people step back and really look at how things are marketed and the products that are really pushed on us. 

I grew up in the ‘90s and all the coolest brands were the soda brands. Hopefully we’re changing the way that people think about what they consume and also the way they think about marketing in general. We’re all indicted a little bit in this industry, and so this is our way to have a wider conversation about it in the background.

Liquid Death always seems to have a new video or promotion out, from giving away a fighter jet to teaming with Ozzy Osbourne. Pardon the pun, but how do you balance flooding the zone versus oversaturating the market?

PEARSON: We don’t really buy media, relatively speaking. If you turn on a basketball or football game, you’ll see the same ad like three times because they’re buying media against it to make sure you do that. 

We’d rather make something hilarious. We want to be the best thing someone sees that day, and then you can go on about your day. You don’t have to think about Liquid Death again, because we’re not going to keep interrupting the thing that you’re trying to watch. Rather than doing a repeated message, why don’t we use what we’re doing to bring something entertaining to people when we can?

Liquid Death has ramped up brand collaborations, like the corpse paint line with E.l.f. Cosmetics. How do you balance both brands’ needs?

PEARSON: In the middle of the Venn diagram, there’s usually a really interesting, hilarious opportunity. There tends to be a “right” answer. E.l.f. is a good example: When we talked to them, we very quickly came up with [the corpse paint] idea, because that’s what these two brands would get together to do.

For a lot of the brands we work with, they get to open up and expand what they would typically do. For us, we get to go into somewhere where we wouldn’t normally be and inject our form of Liquid Death chaos into whatever corner of pop culture where the brand or celebrity exists. Both of us are getting different things out of it. 

The collaborations provide a great new space to bring in satire and parody, reach people and bring some humor to a category that we don’t actively participate in.

In 2024, Liquid Death offered an alternative to Super Bowl advertising by auctioning off ad space on its cases. What does that say about what you think about big game advertising and marketing in general?

PEARSON: Every year, people proclaim the doom of the Super Bowl commercial, at least from a creative sense, and then its inventory is already sold out in May. You have these two things that are seemingly opposing happening together. I’ve never wanted to make a Super Bowl spot. I think it’s pretty boring, to be honest. There’s way more interesting things you can do with that money and time.

The idea behind Liquid Death is there’s always a better way to do everything. There’s a better way to market a healthy brand, there’s a better way to put water in a portable form that isn’t single-use plastic bottles.

That’s the approach we always like to take in everything that we’re doing, from our media strategy to our creative. It’s always looking for an interesting way in that people haven’t considered before. We’re not just going to make a new 30-second commercial because that’s how you do it. 

There’s real joy in finding new approaches to things in ways that people haven’t considered before. We’re enjoying ourselves and it’s an invitation to let other people in on it to a have a laugh with us as well.