Beyond Meat burger
This week's marketing winners, losers and newsmakers.
Mailchimp: The email marketing company, which was purchased by Intuit last year, got a boost this week when it was able to negotiate a last-minute sponsorship on the podcast “Serial.” The episode revisited the inaugural true crime “Serial” season from 2014, following Adnan Syed’s release from prison on Monday.
Listen to what Mailchimp has to say about “Serial” on this week’s Marketer’s Brief podcast.
WTOP-FM: The Washington, D.C., news radio station leads a new ranking of the top billing radio stations. It pulled in $70 million in revenue in 2021, according to BIA Advisory Services, a consulting and valuation firm for local media and advertising industries. BIA estimates the over-the-air radio industry revenue grew 10.3% in 2021, “as the industry started to pull out of the pandemic slump.”
WNBA: The women’s pro basketball league is gaining ground on social media. Conversation volume on Twitter about the WNBA during the season was up 72.8% in the U.S. compared to the 2021 season, reports Front Office Sports, citing data provided by Twitter.
State Farm: After a racist TikTok video from a Georgia State Farm agent’s employee went viral, the insurer was thrown into hot water on social media. Many asked if State Farm shared the views of the woman, who promoted the use of racist language.
In response, State Farm said the woman, who was an employee of an independent contractor agent, is no longer employed by the agent. “State Farm takes allegations of misconduct seriously,” a spokeswoman said in a statement. “State Farm does not condone the behavior/language appearing in the video. It is not a representation of our brand or our values.”
Beyond Meat: The plant-based food company's chief operating officer, Doug Ramsey, was arrested after allegedly biting another man’s nose. Beyond Meat said Ramsey, who had formerly been with Tyson Foods until joining Beyond last December, has been suspended. Of course, many marketing experts weighed in on the ironic tale.
The timing could not have been worse for Beyond Meat—and Taco Bell, which is trying to generate buzz for its new Beyond Carne Asada Steak, which was announced this week and will be tested in Dayton, Ohio.
DirecTV: The entertainment provider dropped the ball for the second weekend in a row after subscribers again had trouble accessing DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket games. As a Cinema Blend story put it: “People were yelling at their TVs, but just not about the games themselves.” Not a good look.
“I’m a big fan of being proactive. Because when you’re reactive and defensive, people will assume you have something to be defensive about.”— Dan Rene, managing director of public relations and crisis communications firm Kglobal, advising Procter & Gamble to be a bit more aggressive on countering the TikTok “Sleepy Chicken” challenge, which involves cooking chicken in NyQuil.
$10.6 billion: That's the total amount consumers will spend on Halloween this year, a record, according to a recent survey from the National Retail Federation.
GroundTruth, a location-based marketing technology company, hired Brandon Rhoten as chief marketing officer. Rhoten's prior roles included being global CMO at Potbelly and Papa Johns.
The North Face appointed Sophie Bambock chief marketing officer. A marketing veteran, she was most recently CMO at Everlane. The brand also named Jennifer Ingraffea chief product and merchandising officer. She had been global VP of kids footwear product merchandising at Nike.
Blockchain network Algorand named Michele Quintaglie chief marketing officer. She was most recently head of external communications at United Technologies.
Level Home Inc., a smart home design company, hired Andrew Samson as CMO. He most recently was VP, global head of marketing at Hyperice.
