Marketing Currents is a weekly current events news service that highlights unique and relevant business and marketing campaigns throughout the school year. The questions provided for student discussion will help to create a bridge between industry strategies/trends and the topics you are covering in class.
At Brand USA, a public-private partnership with the mission of “marketing the United States as a desirable destination for international tourists, conferences and business,” the ongoing pandemic has obviously been disruptive. I recently asked Brand USA CMO Tom Garzilli to fill us in. Click here to read the story at Read more…
The humble gif (Graphics Interchange Format) was first developed by computer scientists back in ’87, and similar to the meme it has come a long way since then. Gifs are used to add some spice to WhatsApp chats or tweets when they are feeling a little lackluster, but there is Read more…
Pop-Tarts is trying to round out its pitch to crucial Gen Z consumers through the partnership with Lyrical Lemonade, a collaborative first for the Kellogg brand. The multimedia company founded by 26-year-old Cole Bennett has scored attention for its music video work for high-profile artists such as Post Malone and Read more…
The practice of swiping could soon be limited to thieves and online daters as Mastercard Inc. prepares a phaseout of the magnetic stripes that enable people to swipe their credit and debit cards. Though magnetic stripes have been a fixture of payment cards for decades, the industry has pushed requirements Read more…
With vaccines promising a soon-coming return to normal travel and office commutes, telehealth company Ro, parent company of direct-to-consumer men’s health brand Roman, has started reinvesting in subway ads. Like most brands at the beginning of pandemic lockdown, Ro paused out-of-home advertising for months. Click here to read the story Read more…
If it feels like you’ve seen the Starbucks Iced Brown Sugar Oat Milk Shaken Espresso drink everywhere lately, even though it came out months ago, it isn’t without reason. It turns out the coffee chain is trying to push its newer, fancier iced drinks onto customers in order to make up for Read more…
Just as Amazon Web Services is the profit center that powers much of Amazon’s other businesses, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon has been increasingly interested in expanding his company’s profit pools beyond its core retail business. Click here to read the story at cnbc.com. Discussion Questions: What is e-commerce? What is Read more…
Coca-Cola has created its first-ever NFT collectibles to commemorate International Friendship Day on July 30. All Coca-Cola proceeds from the four-day auction on digital marketplace OpenSea will go to Special Olympics International. Click here to read the story at businesswire.com. Discussion Questions: What is an industry trend? Why might it Read more…
Pepsi’s latest campaign builds on its musical heritage and combines several pre-pandemic tactics to drive fan engagement at a popular amusement park. Since 2013, the soda brand has been the official sponsor of the Super Bowl Halftime Show and has partnered with a range of popular musicians through additional campaigns. Read more…
Dara Treseder arrived at Peloton in early 2020. The brand was still reeling from an advertising campaign that landed just a month earlier, which was described by critics as ‘sexist’, ‘offensive’ and ‘dumb’. It saw a slim and visibly wealthy woman gifted a £2000 Peloton bike for Christmas by her Read more…