Can you believe August is almost here? Summer is flying by, but there's still a lot to keep up with. This week we said goodbye to the iconic blue Twitter bird and hello to X (??), the largest luxury goods group scored a monumental partnership — and of course, the Women's World Cup is everywhere!
So let's get you up to speed — we've gathered everything you need to know now within the marketing + creative space.
Consider this newsletter a resource for marketers, by marketers. Enjoy!
The Women’s World Cup is a Marketing Machine
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.
The Women's World Cup is a massive moment for women in sports, but it's also a massive moment for brand partnerships. This year has truly shown the marketing powerhouse that the Women's World Cup is — and brands have been flocking. Here are a few key partnerships that we've been paying attention to:
TikTok and FIFA Come Together for Content: TikTok and FIFA announced a partnership to create content together around the tournament. With creators at the center — and with World Cup-related hashtags amassing a combined 38.2 billion views on the platform, this collaboration just makes sense. Together, the tech and soccer giants are working with creators on content featuring interviews, behind-the-scenes videos, match highlights and more. This is a first-of-its-kind collaboration for FIFA, as they have never before partnered with an entertainment platform to create tailored content.
Visa Goes All in With Ads, Sponsorships and Initiatives: Visa has been a longtime sponsor of the Women's World Cup and U.S. Soccer, recently extending their partnership through 2028. For this year's Women's World Cup, Visa put out a series of ads sharing the stories behind different players' numbers, and their journeys to the tournament. However, Visa's involvement with women's soccer goes far beyond campaigns — they also sponsor the Player of the Match award and have several initiatives supporting women in sports including PlayOn.
Adobe and Just Women’s Sports Come Together to Breakdown the Game: Adobe has made a splash partnering with multimedia platform Just Women's Sports for a new in-studio show sharing and chatting through all the biggest highlights from this year's Women's World Cup. The show, hosted by ESPN personality Katie Nolan and soccer star Midge Purce, features rotating guests for fun, digestible breakdowns — and brings Adobe to a whole new audience: sports fans.
The Superbowl may be known for ads, but the Women's World Cup has partnerships in the bag — and we're loving watching it all!
The Rise of Brand Merch
Social is an endless scroll. Where to stop? Here we’ll analyze relevant moments, cultural trends and the marketing geniuses behind it all.
If you feel like you’ve been constantly seeing branded merch from non-fashion-related brands you’re not alone. From Summer Fridays to Sweetgreen, merch is everywhere! Of course, merch is fun; who doesn’t love a cute, cozy sweat set or a versatile tote bag? On the surface, merch may not seem like a tactical product, but when executed right, it can be a powerful tool and a key part of many brands’ marketing strategies. Here are a few ways that brands are using merch — strategically:
Maximizing Brand Awareness: Simply put, branded merchandise is a powerful brand awareness tool. For many non-fashion brands, like skincare or tech, a user of their product is not outwardly visible to others — you wouldn’t see someone in a coffee shop and know what brand of moisturizer they’re using or what their favorite app is. Merch solves this, as fans of a brand or product can be spotted. If done right, this extends to social, as users often share pictures and videos in branded merch, creating conversation and elevating brand name recognition.
Building Community: People want to be a part of something larger than themselves, and extending your brand beyond your hero product or service helps to create a lifestyle and community, filling this need. Merch gives brands a tangible way to connect to their community, and allows community members to connect to one another. It's powerful to see someone supporting a brand you support and allows for connection over a common experience and shared values.
Supporting Influencer Marketing + Partnerships: Branded merch has become an integral part of many brands' influencer marketing and gifting strategies. Merch offers a simple, low-lift way for creators who love your brand to share about it. By creators wearing a cute piece of clothing or using an everyday item that's branded, you're maximizing the ROI on influencer content.
Strategy or no strategy, we're big merch fans. We can't wait to see which brands tap into this popular strategy next!
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.
French Telecom Company Orange Proves a Point With Doctored Video
In anticipation of the Women's World Cup, telecom company Orange dropped a campaign that has since gone viral. This video features a sizzle real of some of France's most well-known male soccer stars. The shots are amazing, but after a minute, it is revealed that the footage has been doctored, and the players we were watching were in actuality France's top female players dominating the field. Ultimately, this ad fights the stigma that men's sports are more interesting to watch, in a way that no one can argue with.
💡 Takeaway: If there's an issue or a cause that holds strong for your brand, share it! It will likely resonate with others and have a powerful impact.
LVMH Secures First-of-its-Kind 2024 Olympics Deal
Partnerships between fashion and sports brands have been all the rage, and this might be the most epic collaboration yet. On Monday, luxury’s biggest group announced a monumental sponsorship of the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, securing deals for a number of their fashion houses and brands, including uniform production, a celebration champagne sponsorship and medal production.
💡 Takeaway: Notice a trend that's working for other brands in your space? Elevate it. LVMH saw the synergy between recent sports and fashion brand partnerships and raised the stakes, partnering with the biggest world stage in athletics.
Amazon Ads Feels Marketers’ Pain — And Offers a Solution
Amazon Ads’ recent campaign struck a chord with marketers. The 30-second spot follows a hardworking marketing team working on a billboard campaign, only for it to be covered by a tree. The video concludes with a message, “All that, for this? Amazon Ads, ads that work as hard as you do.” The message behind the campaign? Amazon Ads is the solution to a frustration that runs rampant across the advertising industry: poor media placement.
💡 Takeaway: Relate to your audience! Know your audience through and through, understand their wins, their losses, their pain points, and show how your brand can be a solution. Ultimately, everyone wants to feel heard and understood.
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).
X: The new Twitter? Looks like it! This week, Elon Musk rebranded Twitter to “X”, removing the iconic blue bird logo. This news was met with dissatisfaction from many, and confusion from others — we’ll be keeping an eye on how this rebrand affects the platform.
Intangible Economy: An economy increasingly focused on intangible assets and ideas that generate value as opposed to tangible assets and materials. In recent decades, the American economy has continued to shift this way, with growing importance on intangibles like patents, copyrights and brands.
Interoperability: The ability of different computers, devices and applications to coordinate communication and connection in order to work together without help from the end user. How does this affect marketing? Data improvements — many marketing execs are looking for tools that offer interoperability between tools for data management.
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That wraps issue no. 4 of The Breef POV! Keep an eye on your inbox for the next edition. In the meantime, browse more on The Breefing Room.
