This week’s marketing winners, losers and newsmakers.
Marketing News & Strategy
Marketing winners and losers of the week
Wendy’s reaps its Spongebob rewards and Home Depot gets a sales boost—plus, why it was a bad week for Lunchables, Freevee and, of course, Mattel
Gift Article
Gift Article
10 Remaining
As a subscriber, you have 10 articles to gift each month. Gifting allows recipients to access the article for free.
Wendy’s “SpongeBob Squarepants” collab drew in new customers.
Credit:
Wendy's
Winners
Home Depot
The home improvement retailer’s third-quarter sales topped expectations. Sales increased 6.6% to $40.22 billion, compared with the year-earlier period, and Home Depot raised its financial outlook for the remainder of the year. Company executives cited pent-up demand as a driver.
BlueSky
The short-post social media platform has enjoyed a surge of interest after the election, capturing users who are swearing off X (again). It added about 1 million users in the past week and crossed the 15 million mark, The Verge reported on Wednesday, although it noted that Meta’s Threads is still outpacing Bluesky, having recently crossed the 275 million monthly user threshold. Of course, Bluesky remains on X, but is using its handle to take shots at Elon Musk.
Wendy's
The fast-feeder’s “SpongeBob Squarepants” collab is winning it some new fans. The chain in early October introduced the Krabby Patty Kollab, which includes a Krabby Patty Kollab Burger and Pineapple Under the Sea Frosty. Of those who have purchased the meal, 41% said they plan to buy it again, while 38% said they might purchase it again, according to data released this week from Numerator. It also found that 34% of buyers would have gone to another restaurant if not for the SpongeBob meal.
Losers
Mattel
The toymaker made the misprint read-round the world when it accidentally printed a pornographic website on the packaging for its new “Wicked” movie dolls. Mattel immediately apologized and pulled the products from retailer sites and shelves, but the widespread awareness of the gaffe—in addition to the loss of trust with both retailers and movie studio partners—will likely have lasting repercussions.
Read more: Marketing experts on Mattel’s response
Lunchables
The Kraft Heinz-owned lunch kit brand was removed from the National School Lunch Program after missing demand targets. The brand’s “turkey and cheddar cracker stackers” and “extra cheesy pizza” meals kits were both added to school lunch menus more than a year ago. According to Kraft, the sales loss will be negligible as the school kits comprised less than 1% of Lunchables’ sales.
Freevee
The free-to-watch, advertising-supported streaming service is vanishing, with Amazon planning to fold it into Prime Video, Bloomberg reported this week. It noted that while free streaming brands such as Tubi and Pluto have enjoyed strong growth, the services “typically rely on a lot of older movies and TV shows, consumers do seek fresh programming, which can be expensive and risky for the operators.”
Quote of the week
“We’re a six-year-old brand growing at 100%-plus, and with massive headroom left. We’re not near where we’d like to be, and we aspire to get full market penetration in the next few years.” —Matt Bruhn, chief marketing officer of Olipop, on the growth potential of the soda brand.
Read more: Behind Olipop’s heartwarming holiday ad
Social post of the week
Number of the week
14.5
Percentage points Apple rose in brand equity among baby boomer consumers from the second to third quarters of 2024.
Check out the full baby boomer brand tracker here
On the move
REI Co-op named Abigail Jacobs chief marketing officer. She was most recently senior VP of integrated marketing and brand at Sephora.
