Nintendo's latest Zelda installment is selling well.
This week's marketing winners, losers and newsmakers
Nintendo: The video game company is crying happy tears. Its latest installment in the long-running Zelda franchise—“Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom”—is the fastest-selling game in the series, selling more than 10 million copies in just three days following its recent release. Zelda, which was originally released in the late 80s, has seen a resurgence in recent years as new players are drawn to the game’s mythical adventures.
Walmart: The chain’s low prices are proving attractive to cash-strapped consumers. Walmart posted better-than-expected first-quarter sales—same-store sales rose 7.4%. The retailer raised its full-year guidance and now predicts net sales will grow 3.5%, more than the previously forecast 2.5% to 3% rise.
Interpublic Group of Cos.: The holding company was a big winner this week. IPG was named Pfizer’s lead creative agency, alongside Publicis Groupe, which was awarded data and tech, media and creative production duties, in one of the year’s biggest reviews thus far. IPG also scored with Bristol Myers Squibb, which chose its Mediabrands to lead media buying and planning for direct-to-consumer brands in the U.S.
Read more about the Pfizer decision
Home Depot: The home improvement chain posted a sales slide, ending three years of growth, in a harbinger of the direction the overall retail industry appears to be heading. First-quarter revenue fell 4.2% to $37.3 billion compared with the year-earlier period. Consumers are shying away from large-scale home projects amid a struggling economy—or they are spending those dollars on experiences like travel and entertainment.
Beer marketers: As Bud Light continues to deal with backlash over its Dylan Mulvaney influencer partnership, conservatives have found a new target—Miller Lite. The brew’s “Bad $hit to Good $hit” campaign from more than two months ago—which turned old sexist beer ads into fertilizer for Women’s History Month—is suddenly drawing the ire of “anti-woke” forces.
The reality is the major beer brands moved away from women-in-bikinis ads many years ago—and that campaigns such as Lite’s anti-sexist appeal have been commonplace and largely non-controversial. Until now. It’s a no-win situation for beer marketers. Do they cater to those wanting them to return to the Dark Ages, and risk turning off a large portion of Gen Z that wants brands to be inclusive? Or do they push forward with progressive campaigns and risk losing a portion of their loyal base?
As for Bud Light, it’s still getting it from both sides, including from pro-LGBTQ+ groups that say the brand has failed to stand up for gay rights as it tries to soothe angered conservatives. “This choice by AB InBev, to cut and run as fast as you can away from the conflict, that’s just not what we see as being truly supportive,” the owner of four LGBTQ+ bars in Chicago told the Chicago Tribune, explaining why the bars stopped stocking Anheuser-Busch InBev products.
General Motors: The automaker recalled more than 668,000 Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain vehicles in the U.S. for malfunctioning child seat anchors, reports Automotive News, which noted that GM said it was not aware of any injuries, accidents or deaths related to the issue.
0.4%: Rise in retail sales in April, following two months of declines but still below Dow Jones expectations of an increase of 0.8%.
“We’ll try a little advertising and see how it goes.”—Elon Musk, answering a meeting at Tesla’s shareholder meeting as he opened the door, however slight, to reversing the EV maker’s long-held position of eschewing paid ads.
Marriott International Inc. promoted Brian Povinelli to senior VP, global head of marketing and brand. He had been senior VP, global brand, portfolio and loyalty marketing.
Cowbell, which provides cyber insurance, hired Andrea Collins as its first chief marketing officer. She had been VP of marketing at Hippo Insurance.
Avant, a fintech company, hired Amanda Reierson as its CMO. She was head of marketing at Thumbtack.
Orange Business hired Usman Javaid as chief products and marketing officer. He was most recently director of professional services delivery at Amazon Web Services.
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CLARIFICATION: Amanda Reierson is not the first CMO at Avant. This information was incorrectly supplied by a company spokeswoman.
