Food For Your Brain

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Brand

The part of a company that survives a bad quarter, and the decisions that quietly spend it.

78 marks · first on 28 August 2026 · latest on 3 September 2026

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Thursday 3 September 20266 marks

marketingdive.com

Athletic Brewing appoints new CMO amid marketing push

Athletic Brewing is adding marketing leadership while expanding sports sponsorships and national media investment, signaling the non-alcoholic beer category is moving from niche positioning into mainstream ad spend. It's a useful data point on where category growth is actually translating into marketing budget commitment, not just product-line expansion. Worth watching whether competitors in the category follow with similar sponsorship pushes ahead of the next big sports calendar moment.

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marketingdive.com

Axe vies for more mature brand positioning while nodding to Y2K roots

Unilever's Axe is threading a tricky needle: aging up its brand positioning for a more sophisticated audience while still leaning on Y2K nostalgia to keep older millennials engaged. It's a concrete example of nostalgia used as a bridge rather than a gimmick, aimed at not alienating either audience segment. Worth studying as a template for any brand trying to reposition without losing its existing base.

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adweek.com

Newman's Own and the Necessary Balance of Product and Purpose

Newman's Own's new CMO is deliberately pulling the brand's marketing away from a pure charity-mission pitch and back toward the product story, a reminder that purpose-led positioning has a shelf life if it crowds out the product itself. It's a useful case for anyone auditing whether their own brand's cause messaging still resonates or has become background noise. Worth watching how the rebalance plays out in actual campaign creative over the next few quarters.

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thedrum.com

Meta's $18bn settlement won't kill social but it will force brands to earn attention

Meta's settlement introduces two-hour daily limits and stronger age checks for under-18s, and the argument here is that less passive teen scrolling means brands can no longer rely on drive-by attention from algorithmic feeds. The piece calls for a shift toward community-driven, actively sought content over interruption tactics as regulation reshapes how much attention platforms can manufacture. Worth watching whether other platforms and regulators follow Meta's lead on youth screen-time limits.

Read at thedrum.com , opens in a new tab

socialmediatoday.com

TikTok signs multi-year NFL deal

TikTok renewed its NFL partnership with dedicated game-day hubs and expanded highlight distribution across nine accounts, turning the platform into a year-round sports content channel rather than a highlights afterthought. It's part of a broader pattern of platforms locking in exclusive sports content to defend watch time against YouTube and Instagram. Brands leaning on sports-adjacent content should note the widening always-on surface area TikTok is building around live events.

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tubefilter.com

Google Signs MrBeast for a Multiyear Deal Promoting Gemini, Google Health, Fitbit

Google just made MrBeast the face of Gemini, Google Health and Fitbit in a single multiyear deal, a signal that platforms now treat top creators as brand media buys in their own right, not just ad inventory. Expect other AI and consumer-tech players to chase similar creator-as-spokesperson plays as trust in traditional advertising keeps eroding. Worth watching whether audiences read this as an endorsement or as one more sign that MrBeast's reach is becoming infrastructure for Big Tech.

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Wednesday 2 September 20266 marks
Tuesday 1 September 20263 marks

marketingdive.com

Old Navy is rewiring its marketing strategy after summer traffic bust

Old Navy is overhauling its marketing strategy after a disappointing summer traffic season, resetting how it approaches promotions and channel mix. It's a useful case of a legacy retail brand publicly resetting strategy rather than doubling down on the same playbook. Worth watching which levers they pull next quarter as an early indicator for other value retailers.

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marketingdive.com

How Domino's is taking on the Big Mac, Whopper and other fast-food icons

Domino's is positioning itself as a fast-food staple on par with the Big Mac and the Whopper, leaning into cultural ubiquity rather than pure value messaging. It's a reminder that category challengers can compete on brand-icon status, not just price or product news. Useful reference for any brand-strategy conversation about earning icon status versus chasing share of voice.

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marketingdive.com

Why Dr. Squatch is investing in experiences, not ads, with IShowSpeed

Dr. Squatch is putting budget into a live creator experience with IShowSpeed rather than traditional ad placements, betting a memorable moment travels further than paid media. It's another data point for the shift from campaign-based creator deals toward experiential, always-on partnerships. Useful benchmark when pitching experience-led creator activations.

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Monday 31 August 20261 mark

socialmediatoday.com

Threads experiments with post performance recognition awards

Threads is testing a gamified recognition system, virtual 'gems' for top-performing posts, to nudge creators toward more consistent posting. It fits Meta's broader pattern of using status and recognition mechanics rather than direct payouts to drive engagement on newer platforms. Worth tracking whether this correlates with any measurable lift in posting frequency or reach for brand accounts.

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Friday 28 August 20264 marks

adweek.com

Starbucks' Unicorn Frappuccino Revival Fueled a Record Saturday. Now Comes PSL Season

Starbucks' Chief Brand Officer credits a Unicorn Frappuccino throwback for a record sales Saturday, describing the approach as deliberately mining the brand archive to manufacture a cultural moment rather than inventing something new. It's a clean case study in nostalgia as a repeatable brand strategy lever rather than a one-off stunt. Worth studying for how a legacy product relaunch was sequenced and timed around a broader seasonal campaign.

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prnewsonline.com

PR Roundup: Lovesac Learns a Viral Lesson, a Billionaire's AI Op-Ed Sparks a Bigger Debate, and Consumers Are Spending Smarter

Three threads worth separating: brands should treat viral complaints as free market research rather than combative clapbacks, a billionaire's admitted use of AI to ghostwrite an op-ed reopens the disclosure question for thought leadership content, and new consumer data shows value-driven messaging outperforming pure luxury positioning right now. The AI disclosure point has the most immediate operational relevance: it argues for a written policy before a crisis forces one. A reminder that brand strategy and PR governance are converging faster than most internal policies account for.

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adweek.com

Gap's culture-led bet delivers 9% growth while the parent company declines

Gap posted 9% net sales growth on celebrity and culture-driven advertising while its parent group fell overall and Old Navy dropped 4%. It is one of the rare cases where a creator-led approach carries a hard commercial number at brand rather than campaign level. Worth citing, provided the caveat travels with it: one brand, one quarter, and no isolation of the creative from pricing, product and assortment.

Read at adweek.com , opens in a new tab

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