Welcome to the first 2024 edition of The Breef POV. We're beyond excited for a new year of fresh marketing trends, industry insights, tips, tricks and so much more. This week we're discussing all things awards season, lessons from The Stanley Cup and did you see Lana Del Rey for SKIMS??
So let's get you up to speed — here's everything you need to know now within the marketing + creative space.
Consider this newsletter a resource for marketers and creatives, by marketers and creatives. Enjoy!
Lessons from the Stanley Cup
Social is an endless scroll. Where to stop? Here we analyze relevant moments, cultural trends and the marketing geniuses behind it all.
Everyone's heard of *The Stanley Cup* — the popular tumbler that is all over social and always sold out in stores. What not everyone knows? Stanley is a 100+ year old company that went from doing $70 million in sales in 2019, to $750 million in sales this last year. So what was behind this seismic shift in revenue? A seismic shift in strategy. Let's break down a *few* lessons from Stanley.
📝 Lesson 1: Be Acutely Aware of Your Power Users
An employee being in the know of who was using and loving their product made *all* the difference.
Though known as "The Stanley Cup," Stanley's most popular product is called the "Quencher," and launched back in 2016. At the time, Stanley was marketing their products — reliable stainless-steel bottles — to their longstanding demo of blue-collar workers and outdoorsmen. When the Quencher initially launched, nothing of note happened — that is until 2020, when a Stanley employee brought to executives that the women of the blog The Buy Guide were huge fans of the Quencher and were sharing their love of the product with their audience. Though this group of loyal Stanley fans was outside of the historical demo, Stanley took note, partnering with the women of The Buy Guide to get their take on why they loved the Quencher so much — and how Stanley could improve the product to better meet the women's needs.
📝 Lesson 2: Be Willing to Make Shifts — Sometimes Drastic Ones
Change can be scary — make sure decisions are made based on fact, not fear.
With the popularity of the Quencher among The Buy Guide's audience, it was clear that making some big changes could garner big results. So Stanley took the leap and made major moves. Not only did they shift their core target demo to women ages 25 - 50, they shifted a core purpose of their product: Stanley had been marketing bottles for occasional use — like a camping trip or a hike — for years. With this new approach, Stanley products would be marketed for daily use. To successfully execute these shifts in strategy, the Stanley team had to adjust in almost every way; they made changes to the product itself, like adding new colorways, and they adjusted the channels they used to share the product, heavily tapping into influencer and affiliate marketing. As we all know, the changes paid off — literally.
📝 Lesson 3: Have a Plan for Staying Power
It's intuitive to plan for your rise, but what do you do once you're on top?
While Stanley is still very much at their peak, their sudden spike in popularity requires planning for the future, and they have several strategies in place in order to go nowhere but up. Some of these strategies include their limited drop model, thoughtful collaborations and collectible colors — but at the core of Stanley's plan for staying power are two pillars: a dedication to quality and innovation, and a commitment to a customer-first approach — ensuring that customers' wants and needs are central to the brand's decisions.
Awards Season is in Full Swing – Here’s How Brands are Tapping in
The news cycle is never-ending. Marketing is ever-evolving. Here we’ll keep you in the know on timely topics and key learnings that can *elevate* your marketing game.
Awards season is in full swing. And of course, with award shows come movies, music and monologues — but the first thing that comes to our mind? Marketing moments. Here are just a few ways brands are tapping into awards season this year.
Summer Fridays Expands Their Audience on the Red Carpet
Historically marketed to a predominantly female demographic, skincare brand Summer Fridays made a splash as the sole skincare brand worn by Jeremy Allen White on the Critics' Choice Awards red carpet. Sharing the BTS on Instagram, this collaboration expertly opened the door to expanding Summer Fridays' audience beyond their typical demo, and couldn't have come at a more opportune time — as just about everyone has been buzzing about Jeremy Allen White since he starred in "The Bear."
Fiji Water Returns in Full Force with Numerous Award Show Sponsorships
You know what they say, if it's not broken, don't fix it — an approach that Fiji has taken as the water of choice of the stars, sponsoring countless award shows over the years. This year, Fiji has been spotted as the official water of the Gotham Awards, the Emmys, the AFI Awards, the Critics' Choice Awards — and just announced they're back as an official partner of the Grammys. Talk about going all in!
Pretty Much Everyone is Meme-ing Celebs
It was the inaudible convo "heard" round the world — what did Selena say to Taylor at the Golden Globes? Was she talking about Kylie? We'll never know, but what we do know? Brands took the viral moment and ran with it (okay, okay, we were one of those brands), and the "meme-ification" of the moment resulted in highly engaging content that was shared over and over again. Though at this point this year’s Golden Globes feels hard to beat in terms of meme-worthy moments, we'll have our eyes peeled for the rest of awards season as the award show meme trend certainly isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
With some of the biggest award shows still yet to come, there's more where this came from — as always, we'll keep you in the loop. 🤝
3 Ways Breef Can Support Your 2024 Marketing
The news cycle is never-ending. Marketing is ever-evolving. Here we’ll keep you in the know on timely topics and key learnings that can *elevate* your marketing game.
Awards season is in full swing. And of course, with award shows come movies, music and monologues — but the first thing that comes to our mind? Marketing moments. Here are just a few ways brands are tapping into awards season this year.
*It's always valuable to have a few tips and tricks in your back pocket. Here we'll offer our *best* tips to share at your next water cooler convo — whether in-person or virtual.*
In a rapidly changing and increasingly complex marketing world, let's be honest — there's a lot to manage! We're here to help — here are just a *few* ways you can tap Breef to support your 2024 marketing goals and next agency search.
🚀 20K+ Vetted Agencies + Streamlined Processes
Our sweet spot. Receive vetted agency pitches in < 5 days — curated for your needs. Once you pick your shortlist, we’ll schedule the intros (+ help manage all subsequent SOWs, contracts and payments.)
🚀 Industry Resources
Leverage our channels for access to the most up-to-date marketing trends, industry insights, tips and tricks. In addition to our newsletter (👋), follow along with our blog, webinars, partner offerings and more!
Need a new agency for 2024? You can get started here.
Marketing Wins We <3
Who doesn’t love a marketing win? Below are recent marketing moments we couldn’t help but share — and their main takeaways.
SKIMS & Lana Del Rey Come Together for Valentine's Day
SKIMS partnered with Lana Del Rey to launch their Valentine's Collection — and fans couldn't contain their excitement! Not only was this collab a match made in heaven, the timing couldn't have been more perfect, coming just two days after LDR was announced as a Coachella headliner.
💡 Takeaway: The best unexpected partnerships subsequently make *perfect* sense. Though most wouldn't think "SKIMS" when they think of LDR, after initial surprise, it's clear that partnering with music's Queen of Hearts for Valentine's Day makes all the sense in the world.
Vegemite Cheekily Calls Out Morgan Riddle
After promising to eat a jar of Vegemite on Instagram Live if Taylor Fritz won his fourth-round match at the Australian Open, Morgan couldn't stomach a spoonful. Vegemite took note, and quickly jumped on social to give her a proper serving suggestion — Morgan laughed along in the comments.
💡 Takeaway: Seize the moment. Though short timelines and sudden changes can be challenging, content that engages with real-time events grabs attention.
Google Pixel Shares the AO Through the "#PixelPerspective"
Google Pixel is not only the official smartphone of the Australian Open, but the official camera! The new AI-powered camera is giving tennis fans an even closer look at the sport with never-before-seen in-play viewing angles shot on the phone.
💡 Takeaway: Show don't tell. It's one thing to say "Our camera is amazing," but filming a high-speed sport from a new perspective? No words needed.
Marketing Jargon
In marketing, it feels like there's a new term being thrown around every day. We've got you! Here are a few you should have on your radar (and mention in your next meeting).
Customer Context: A deep, data-driven understanding of a customer at any given point of the customer journey. Integral to giving marketers the ability to deliver the right message(s), at the right time.
Cookie Depreciation: This year, Google Chrome is phasing out third-party cookies — resulting in marketers scrambling to identify alternative data solutions. The solution rising to the top of discussions? Old-school IP addresses.
Viewability: A metric focused on ads being physically seen by users.
That wraps issue no. 14 of The Breef POV! Keep an eye on your inbox for the next edition.
