This week’s marketing winners, losers and newsmakers.

Winners

Popflex

The popular direct-to-consumer brand’s first lower-priced label, Blogilates, began selling exclusively at Target late last month and has already sold out of most of its products. The line was created as an answer to consumers’ request for lower-priced, yet fashionable goods, founder Cassey Ho, a fitness influencer, recently told Ad Age. The better-than-expected sales results are another win for Popflex, which went viral last year after Taylor Swift wore its ballerina-style skort. Naturally, a similar style skort is included in the new Blogilates line—for half of the Popflex price.

Target on Thursday announced plans to bolster its wellness offerings with more than 2,000 new items across multiple categories, including more than 600 Target exclusives.

Weight loss drugs

The Golden Globes may not have raked in as many viewers as last year, but the awards show did usher in a big night for GLP-1 weight loss drugs, a sign of what to expect in the coming year. Sponsored by Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, its GLP-1 drug, the Globes included commercials for Weight Watchers, Mounjaro, Ozempic and Zepbound. Host Nikki Glaser called the event “Ozempic’s biggest night” in her monologue.

Volvo

The automaker keeps rolling, posting an 8% jump in 2024 global sales to 763,389 vehicles. It was a record-breaking haul, driven in part by robust sales of its electric vehicles, Automotive News reports. Volvo late last year hired Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Initiative to handle global media.

Losers

REI Co-op

Citing a lack of profitability in the division, the retailer closed its adventure travel-focused Experiences business after four decades. The closures included layoffs of 180 full-time staffers and nearly 250 part-time guides, according to Footwear News. CEO Eric Artz told the publication that of its 25.1 million REI members, 8.5 million “engaged with” the brand last year; by comparison, the Experiences business only serves 40,000 customers. “We’ve subsidized this business for 40 years. It’s certainly been an important element of what we do, but now, based upon where the marketplace is, based upon where we are, we feel like now’s the time to redeploy those losses into the overall core business,” he added.

H&R Block

In some negative news hitting just as tax season gets started, the financial services brand was ordered by the Federal Trade Commission to pay $7 million to consumers harmed by its practices, which include an FTC finding that the company made deceptive claims about “free” tax filing.

Hulk Hogan

The pro wrestler’s beer brand, Real American Beer, won the backing of WWE last week when the company announced a minority stake in the brand along with plans to showcase it during “Monday Night Raw.” But the public unveiling of the partnership didn’t go so well—Hogan was greeted by a chorus of boos Monday when he appeared on the show held at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California as Raw made its Netflix debut. “On a night when the Intuit Dome crowd was cheering almost everything, the immortal Hogan was booed out of the building,” reported the Los Angeles Times.

Hogan, a noted Donald Trump supporter, was appearing in a blue state but the Times noted that his Trump alliance was likely not the cause of the displeasure, because other WWE personalities who back Trump were treated more kindly.

Quote of the week

“When this happened, we had already approved all the content for the launch of McValue. Months of work. In less than 10 days, we had a new campaign in hand and John immediately said yes and made himself available to make it happen.” —Guillaume Huin, senior marketing director at McDonald’s, in an X thread about switching up the brand’s rollout plan for its value menu after John Cena said he was a fan.

More: McDonald’s enlists John Cena for new value campaign

Social post of the week

Number of the week

41%

Percentage of U.S. consumers who said they would be somewhat or very upset about a ban of TikTok, according to a Numerator survey

Read: The industry is preparing for a potential TikTok shutdown

On the move

Catalyst Brands, the newly formed retail parent of chains such as JCPenney, Aéropostale, Lucky Brand and Brooks Brothers, named Marisa Thalberg chief customer and marketing officer. She had been consulting chief marketing officer at JCPenney.

Front Row Group, which works with e-commerce brands, promoted Chris Skinner to chief revenue officer. He had been chief brand officer and head of marketing and creative.

iHeartMedia promoted Nicky Sparrow to executive VP of multicultural sales from senior VP of multicultural sales. The company also promoted Dee Dee Faison to VP of multicultural partnerships and alliances from director of client success.

Mobile banking fintech Chime hired Orlando Baeza as VP of brand. He was most recently chief revenue officer of Flock Freight and cofounded brand studio Unentitled.

Scripps promoted Sherry Pitkofsky to senior VP of marketing from VP of brand strategy.

Contributing: Brandon Doerrer