Marketing winners and losers of the week

This week's marketing winners, losers and newsmakers. Winners Mananalu: “Aquaman” actor Jason Momoa got plenty of airtime on NBC last week, hosting “Saturday Night Live” and also appearing on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” He used both appearances to plug Mananalu, a water brand packed in aluminum bottles that the Hawaiian native founded as part of a push to end single-use plastic. On “SNL” he made it part of his monologue, as he took a shot at a Coca-Cola-owned competitor, quipping that Mananalu in Hawaiian means “suck it Dasani.” With Fallon, he chatted plenty about Mananalu during a deskside interview, with Fallon remarking that the show is a regular user of the brand: “We have [had] it back in our dressing room before we even had you booked.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jason Momoa (@prideofgypsies) Solo Stove: When Snoop Dogg announced last week on social media that he has “decided to give up smoke,” plenty of mainstream media outlets bit, speculating that the rapper was giving up weed, despite the fact that the announcement smelled fake from the beginning. And it turned out it was—when it was revealed on Monday that the whole thing was part of a campaign from The Martin Agency for Solo Stove, the maker of high-tech, smokeless firepits. It was all pretty stunty, for sure—but in an era where brands struggle to break through the clutter, Solo Stove drove massive attention, even finding a new way to collaborate with Snoop, which is quite a feat considering the rapper is endorsing pretty much everything these days. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Truff: The fast-rising condiments brand is now blessed by Kim Kardashian, whose investment firm Skky Partners LP has taken a stake in Truff. The brand, known for its hot sauce that uses truffle as an ingredient, was already, well, hot. And with the backing of Kardashian (who seems to have the magic marketing touch these days, especially with her Skims brand) Truff’s prospects seem even better. Learn more about Truff’s origin story and marketing approach Also: Kim Kardashian shares brand-building advice Losers X: Another week, another round of drama for the Elon Musk-owned platform. More advertisers have fled X in the wake of Musk endorsing an antisemitic post, including Apple, IBM, Sony, Disney, Comcast (NBCUniversal) and Paramount. In a symbolic blow, Paris Hilton’s entertainment company 11:11 Media pulled an advertising campaign from X, just weeks after striking an exclusive partnership, as reported by CNN. X CEO Linda Yaccarino, who was brought in to mend relationships with marketers, tried to quell the storm by defending X from a Media Matters report that alleged certain brands had their ads run next to antisemitic content. “There’s a vocal minority trying to use deceptive attacks to undermine our work,” Yaccarino said in a memo to employees that was shared with the press. (On Tuesday, X sued Media Matters over the report.) Yaccarino also stated her case on X, but one of her messages drew a rebuke from media veteran Lou Paskalis, now CEO and founder of AJL Advisory. Respectfully, Linda, THAT’S NOT THE ISSUE!!!! You know better. The owner of your platform is retweeting and endorsing antisemitic posts. Period, full stop. How could I do business with a platform whose owner is pushing messages like that?! Everything else is a distraction.— Lou Paskalis 🇺🇦🇺🇸🇮🇱 (@LouPas) November 21, 2023 More: Everything marketers need to know about the latest boycott Arnold: It’s never a good sign when another agency grabs a piece of your biggest account—but that is what Havas-owned Arnold is dealing with as WPP shop VMLY&R begins working on Progressive. Read more about the insurer’s agency move Low-fare airlines: Spirit Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Frontier, JetBlue and other discount carriers are struggling to fill capacity that was increased after pandemic lockdowns ended, reports Bloomberg, which notes that airlines with international routes are doing better, including Delta, American and United. Social post of the week you dont see beautiful scenes like this anymore pic.twitter.com/nHG0lFJISz— derek guy (@dieworkwear) November 20, 2023 Number of the week 29 million: That’s the number of viewers who tuned into the Chiefs-Eagles “Monday Night Football” matchup across ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes and NFL+. That is MNF’s highest number since a Green Bay-Dallas game in 1996, a period that spans more than 450 games, according to ESPN. Quote of the week “Use your position as a small, insurgent brand to your advantage.”—Becca Millstein, CEO and co-founder of DTC tinned fish brand Fishwife, offering advice to other DTCs on Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing strategy.

Marketing winners and losers of the week

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