Marketing winners and losers of the week

This week's marketing winners, losers and newsmakers. Winners Coors Light: The Molson Coors brand says it has reclaimed its spot as Canada’s top-selling light beer, passing Bud Light in March, according to a new post on the brewer’s corporate blog. Molson Coors credits the brand’s “Made to Chill” campaign, which it brought to the country in 2021 after launching the ads in the U.S. The campaign focuses on relaxing moments, including one spot that shows a woman enjoying a Coors Light after getting home from work and removing her bra from under her shirt. Of course, Coors Light’s rise comes during a period of weakness for Bud Light, which is still struggling to contend with controversy over its use of a transgender influencer in April, further evidenced in the second half of this column. WWF: Plenty of brands jumped on Twitter’s X rebrand on social media—but conservation group WWF might have made the smartest move. It seized on the death of the blue bird by making a plea for real birds in a tweet pointing out that “one in eight bird species are at risk of extinction.” Twitter's iconic bird isn't the only one disappearing.👉 Today, one in eight bird species are at risk of extinction.But we can save them and their habitats – benefiting people and nature across the globe. RT to spread the word! #TwitterX #TwitterLogo pic.twitter.com/YDBrZoy2Lx— WWF (@WWF) July 24, 2023 The organization also leaned into the conservation message via a Twitter logo timeline distributed on social media. McDonald's: The world's largest fast-food chain’s second-quarter results exceeded expectations this week with same-store sales growing 11.7%. McDonald’s execs credited the return of Grimace and his purple birthday shake as helping to attract visitors and memes. And now the chain is going back to the archives again. On Thursday, McDonald’s announced it will be introducing a smaller-format store called CosMc’s that will have more unique offerings the brand can test. CosMc was an alien character and McDonald’s fan in the fictitious McDonaldland back in the ’80s and ’90s. We’ll see if he gets his own birthday shake. Ad Age Small Agency Awards See all of the 2023 winners Click here Losers Snap: The social media company’s third-quarter revenue projections came in on the lower end of analysts’ expectations. “From a revenue perspective, our business remains in a period of rapid transition as we work to improve our advertising platform, while forward visibility of advertising demand remains limited,” the company stated. Anheuser-Busch InBev: The beer giant announced it was laying off 2% of its 18,000 U.S. staffers, which amounts to some 360 employees. The cuts come amid continuing sales struggles for the Bud Light brand, despite recent signs of optimism and support from Charles Barkley. Oatly: The beverage brand said its Asian business is not performing as expected, citing new consumption habits that appear to not include the oat-based drink. The Malmö, Sweden-based Oatly cut its sales forecast for the year and saw its share price fall 29% as a result, the biggest drop since its 2021 stock market debut. Oatly said its full-year revenue growth will be between 7% and 12%, a marked decline from the previously issued guidance of a growth range of 23% to 28%. Quote of the week “Agencies have stopped being leaders in culture and started being vultures of culture.”—Jason Van Pierce, founder and CEO at Ink-Mgmt, a Black talent recruitment agency, during an appearance at Ad Age’s Small Agency Conference. Number of the week 28: Number of Black-owned brands currently stocked at Sephora, an increase from eight in 2020, according to the retailer’s recently released 2023 DE&I report. Social post of the week The letter X will be holding a press conference later today. #TwitterX pic.twitter.com/qXKNYLTqLe— Sesame Street (@sesamestreet) July 24, 2023 On the move Andrea Gellert joined Meta as VP of global business and product marketing. Gellert comes from Clover Network, a point of sales platform for small and mid-sized businesses, for which she served as chief marketing officer. At Meta, she replaces Michelle Klein, who held the role since February 2023. TV measurement company iSpot hired Leslie Wood as chief research officer. She had been chief research officer at NCSolutions. Contributing: Asa Hiken Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs

Marketing winners and losers of the week

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