MediaPost

April Fool’s Day is always a time for marketers to shine. Who got our attention this year? The Coca-Cola Company Yahoo Dyson Subway Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers CELSIUS 5-hour ENERGY® Welch's Icelandic Provisions and others! Read more here: https://lnkd.in/e5pWNYxp

How do you quantify what it means to have good taste? Carlsberg Group is exploring the question with a global ad campaign, staring Robert Pattinson and directed by filmmaker Brady Corbet, who directed the Oscar-winning film “The Brutalist,” for 1664 Beer. “1664 isn't here to define taste, but to celebrate the confidence to stand by it. Good taste doesn't need consensus -- it demands conviction,” ays Seva Nikolaev , Global Vice President and CMO for premium brands at Carlsberg, said. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eFE5xrmv

Coca-Cola just pulled off something that rarely happens in this industry: getting 13 competing QSR brands to share the same campaign. Arby's, Culver's Restaurants, Domino's, Five Guys Enterprises, Jack in the Box, Jimmy John's, Panda Restaurant Group, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen , SONIC, The Wendy's Company, Whataburger, White Castle, and Wingstop Restaurants Inc. — representing roughly $66 billion in annual sales — all united around three words: "And a Coke." The insight is simple and brilliant. Fast food orders are getting more complex and personalized than ever. But no matter how tricky the order, they almost always end the same way. The campaign — developed by WPP OpenX, led by Ogilvy, in collaboration with Publicis and Zeno Group — launches in movie theaters April 3 before expanding to linear TV, digital, and delivery apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash by mid-April. Three spots — "Drive-Thru," "Tricky Orders," and "Evening Eats" — feature everyone from skateboarding stoners to Midwest moms. Different people. Different food. Same finish. But what makes this more than a feel-good brand moment is the performance layer underneath it. When consumers order through an app, Coca-Cola can track the order by time, place, quantity — and what else was ordered alongside it. Brand storytelling meets closed-loop measurement. As Shakir Moin, President of Marketing at The Coca-Cola Company, put it: "This campaign is a celebration of different people, different foods, different moments — with only one shared choice." This is what modern brand-to-retail collaboration looks like at scale. Read the article here: https://lnkd.in/e-ZYry9Z #CocaCola #Marketing #QSR #BrandStrategy #PerformanceMarketing #Ogilvy #WPP #Publicis #ZenoGroup #CPG

🏆 We are proud to announce that Lopez Negrete Communications has won the MediaPost Marketing: Automotive Award for Best Multicultural or Interest Group Campaign! The “Elevating What’s Next” campaign for the Hyundai Palisade Hybrid was built on a truth that resonates deeply with us — Hispanic consumers don’t just want to move forward. They want to do more, achieve more, and be more, all without compromising the identity and values that define them. Congratulations to Hyundai Motor Company and Lopez Negrete Commmunications 🙌 Sean Gilpin Melissa Norton Giselle Cedeño Daniel Maynez Julie S. Erik Thomas #LopezNegreteCommunications #MulticulturalMarketing #HispanicMarketing #AutomotiveMarketing

What you drink tells the world who you are. 🩷☕ The QSR game has changed — and the scoreboard isn’t measuring meals anymore. 30% of all QSR occasions are now drink-first. Taco Bell moved 600 MILLION beverages in 2025. McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A are spinning up entire sub-brands just to own the beverage moment. The funnel didn’t shift. It flipped. Gen Z and Gen Alpha aren’t buying drinks. They’re running split-second vibe math — auditing your brand’s emotional ROI before they ever reach the register. The pink iced coffee glove isn’t an accessory. It’s a identity statement. So marketers — here’s the question keeping us up at night: 👉 How do you quantify a vibe? Quality Brand Group’s Head of Marketing Ashleigh Griffith breaks down what the beverage-first economy really means for brands bold enough to move beyond the menu — and why in 2026, resonance beats reach every time. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/e5AuqkN6

We write about the brands we believe in — and we love when we actually know the people behind them. 🙌 We recently sat down with Kelly O'Rourke, Director of Marketing at FiiZ Drinks, for our Insider Summit Q&A series — and if you caught her at our Brand Insider Summit: QSR in Santa Barbara, you already know she brings the same energy and clarity to every conversation. A few things that stood out to us: 📍 “For a brand at our stage, showing up locally is our biggest growth lever.” 🤳 “Influencers drive trust and real connection faster than traditional brand partnerships.” ⏰ “Novelty and urgency drive return visits — LTOs aren’t just a tactic, they’re a strategy.” Now we want to hear from you: 👉 Are you Team Brand Awareness or Team Performance? 👉 Influencers or brand partnerships — where do you put your money? And if you haven’t met Kelly yet… you’re missing out! Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ebjv5Tbh

Volkswagen Chief Marketing Officer Rachael Zaluzec spoke with MediaPost's Erin Everhart at this week's Marketing: Automotive Conference at the New York International Auto Show this week. Recently, the two talked about Rachael's decision to bring back the Drivers Wanted campaign of the 1990s for the Super Bowl this year. For millions of people, VW has never just been a car brand. It's been a feeling. A vibe. A cultural marker. And they made a bold bet to bring all of that back on the biggest advertising stage in the world. But this wasn't a nostalgia play. It was a full 360 relaunch. Social-first extensions. Hidden invitations. Cultural breadcrumbs. A strategy designed not just to air a 90-second film — but to introduce a whole new generation to what Volkswagen stands for. Listen to the full podcast here: https://lnkd.in/ejhfMF57

Stagwell, which has been investing heavily in expanding an AI tool chest differentiated from other agency holding companies, this morning announced a new enterprise-level role overseeing it for the organization and has named long-time tech strategist Michael Twedell to oversee it. Twedell, who will serve as senior vice president-enterprise AI solutions, joins from digital transformation consultancy Bounteous, where he most recently was senior vice president-growth. "We’re focused on building practical, differentiated solutions that move beyond fragmented AI adoption and deliver real-world impact for clients," Stagwell Chairman-CEO Mark Penn said in a statement announcing the appointment. https://lnkd.in/eyxq8PbV

Big news in luxury retail: Saks Global has secured $500M in exit financing — and the turnaround story is more compelling than the headline. 📦 650+ brands are shipping again, unlocking $1.5B in retail receipts and covering 90%+ of Q1 expected inventory 📈 March inventories are up 18% YoY 🛍️ Customers are responding — 6% increase in spend per store visit and 11% lift in online conversion 🏬 3 previously announced store closures have been reversed (Sarasota, Palm Desert, and White Plains) This is a masterclass in restructuring sequencing: fix vendor trust → restore inventory → recover customer confidence → unlock capital. CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck navigated Neiman Marcus through its 2020 bankruptcy. He knows this playbook — and it's working. Luxury retail isn't dead. It just demands execution. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/e6_T2KiJ

“You can get lost in the sauce waiting for that validation.” Chili's is one of the most interesting brands on social media. They’ve turned menu items into viral moments. They’ve built a community that’s more passionate about queso than skincare. And they’ve done it by treating social not as a marketing channel, but as culture. How’d they do it? And how do they know when something is going to hit? In this week’s #BrandInsider, Erin Everhart went 1:1 with Luz Infante Bickert, Lead- Social Media, Influencer Strategy & Cultural Moments, to talk about the menu item you have to try, the social metrics you should be measuring, and how she’s keeping Chili’s at the top of the cultural wave. 🎧 Listen here: https://lnkd.in/d4KzEE4B This episode is supported by Wunderkind.