Marketing winners and losers of the week

This week’s marketing winners, losers and newsmakers. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Winners ‘Severance’ Ted who? It’s all about Mark S., apparently. “Severance,” the Apple TV+ series starring Adam Scott as Mark Scout, who separates from his work self, now ranks as the most watched show on the streamer, surpassing “Ted Lasso.” Now midway through its second season, “Severance” has also helped grow Apple’s new subscriber count by 126% between Jan. 1 and 19 compared with Dec. 1 and 19 of 2024, according to Deadline. Marketers are getting wise to the show’s popularity. State Farm this week debuted its own “Severance” campaign. Happy Coffee The coffee brand founded by serial entrepreneur Craig Dubitsky and actor Robert Downey Jr. is gaining wider distribution thanks to a new deal with Albertsons Companies. The partnership will put its coffees in more than 2,200 stores in 34 states, spanning grocery brands such as Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Acme and others. Also read: 3 innovation tips from Craig Dubitsky Skims Kim Kardashian’s shapewear brand got a boost this week with the announcement that it was teaming up with Nike on a new fitness line debuting this spring. Called NikeSkims, the line will include apparel, footwear and accessories, the brands said. After recent deals with the NBA and Dolce & Gabbana, the new collaboration is another leg up for Skims, which in its six-year existence has skyrocketed in growth. Analysts praised the potential for the new brand, which will compete with established direct-to-consumer womenswear players such as Lululemon and Alo Yoga. Losers Bumble The dating app brand’s woes continued this week as it reported a 4.4% drop in fourth quarter revenue to $261.6 million, missing Wall Street expectations. The sagging performance comes after Buble rebranded last year. “There’s clearly more work to be done on the turnaround and we see visibility limited as management did not provide full-year guidance for the first time,” Citi analyst Ygal Arounian said, according to Reuters. Meghan Markle After changing the name of her lifestyle brand to As Ever from American Riviera Orchard, the Duchess of Sussex is again attracting criticism. A mayor of Porreres, a small town in Mallorca, Spain, accused Markle of plagiarism over As Ever’s new brand logo, which bears several similarities to Porreres’ own coat of arms. In addition, the new brand name is the same as a 10-year-old clothing company in New Jersey, which issued a statement on Instagram earlier this week noting there is no affiliation between the two brands. View this post on Instagram A post shared by As Ever (@asevernyc) Walmart Despite a rise in revenue over the crucial holiday sales period, the retailer disappointed investors this week when it warned of slowing profit growth ahead. Walmart said it expects adjusted earnings between $2.50 and $2.60 per share, less than the $2.76 per share profit anticipated by investors. Company executives also cited potential financial effects from the looming tariffs. Quote of the week “A meteor hit the earth in 2007 (when the first iPhone was released) and changed everything about mobile technology. The dust settled a long time ago and people recognize that smartphones have largely stagnated. Even the companies will admit that we’re mostly making small-step changes in the technology.”—an agency exec on the lack of big innovation leaps with smartphone hardware. Also read: Apple vs. Samsung—how the smartphone marketing battle is shifting toward AI Social post of the week They should film the next season of White Lotus at Great Wolf Lodge pic.twitter.com/9Jc5zqLbpj— Ramp Capital (@RampCapitalLLC) February 19, 2025 Read more: How ‘The White Lotus’ is using brand partnerships to expand beyond its HBO fanbase Number of the week $21.4 billion Amount Amazon spent on ads and promotions last year, record spending which equates with $679 million per second, according to analysis from Ad Age’s Datacenter. Read more: Amazon spent $21 billion on ads and promotions in 2024 On the move Feastables, the food line founded by MrBeast, promoted Bryan Waddell to VP of brand marketing and acting chief marketing officer from senior director of brand marketing. Cohesity, a data security company, named Carol Carpenter chief marketing officer. She had been CMO at Unity. MyFitnessPal, a nutrition tracking app, hired Marnie Boyer as chief marketing officer. She was most recently VP of growth marketing at Grubhub. Starbucks hired Cheryl Gresham as senior VP of North America marketing. She had been CMO at Verizon Value. Become an All Access subscriber Get access to exclusive resources including Leading National Advertisers, World’s Largest Advertisers, Agency Report, Agency Review Tracker and TV Pricing Report. Click here

Marketing winners and losers of the week

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