Becky O'Donoghue’s Post

Kahlúa added a twist to St Patrick’s Day festivities with a clever stunt poking fun at the traditional pint, encouraging people to opt for an espresso martini instead. 🍸 Placing branded vans outside popular London pubs, they displayed billboards featuring martinis masquerading as pints, alongside the caption “St Patrick’s Day called. It’s bored of stout.” This campaign stands out for its humour and subtle cheekiness, avoiding direct competition with other brands. ✨ Backed by research showing Brits' preference for espresso martinis, it's likely to resonate with consumers. Kahlúa's PR success demonstrates that impactful campaigns don't always require hefty budgets, just witty, clever marketing. ⬇️ Has anyone seen any funny B2B campaigns yet this year? Want to work with a full-service Marketing Agency? Send us a DM. #kahlua #stpatricksday #marketingstrategy #viralmarketing #awesomesauce

Congratulations Direct 60 List honoree Koral (Chen), SVP, Brand Development and Licensing, SMAC Entertainment - Michael Strahan™ / WEAR by Erin Andrews / Snoop Doggie Doggs! The Direct 60 List honors top executives mastering the business of brands. Leveraging technology, innovation, and next-generation strategies, these leaders drive growth and position their brands for success in a consumer-centric, data-driven world. You can see the full Direct 60 List here:  https://lnkd.in/gyJxNYFa Koral told us, “Consumers in today’s retail environment have so many ways to shop and an endless supply of information at the moment of purchase. Now more than ever, when developing your business, your strategy must emphasize your differentiating factors and consider all the reasons why someone in your audience pool won’t pick you or complete their purchase. For us, at SMAC, our brands are rooted in filling a specific void in the marketplace while providing talent-driven added value. From Michael Strahan to WEAR by Erin Andrews to Snoop Doggie Doggs, we strive to build strong brands — bringing in the talent as our secret weapon." Meet The Direct 60 List Honorees in person at The Direct 60 Forum on October 10th in New York City! More than a gala and less than a conference, this one-of-a-kind event features thoughtful peer discussions, elegant tasting experiences, inspiring acceptance speeches, red carpet moments, incredible giveaways (five star hotels!), curated receptions and VIP dinners - there are few evenings that can match The Direct 60 Forum. Learn more:  https://lnkd.in/gNXz8vUQ #Direct60 #TheLead #Brands

PriceSpider ✈ to Nashville for the #DigitalShelfSummit this week! Here are some of my key takeaways from both Nashville and the event 🎸 Nashville: Never throw a chair off the rooftop of the Chiefs bar 👮♀, the "hot chicken" is very hot🔥, and liking country music is a requirement 🤠 Digital Shelf Summit: “70% of sales is influenced by digital.” PriceSpider helps brands see what’s happening with their products, placement, pricing and promotions across the digital shelf. We help brands influence everything along the path to purchase and optimize the buying experience. 🛍 "Brands have data paralysis." 📚 PriceSpider helps aggregate data points across your retailer network, present it in an easily digestible dashboard, then alleviate the paralysis by allowing you to take action. "13% of brands are confident they can measure retail media performance." PriceSpider share of search compares your products visibility on the digital shelf relative to competitors and measures sponsored ad performance vs. organic. 📊 See you later Nashville 🎵 #commandyourbrand #digitalshelf #nashville

The focus of Day Two at MAD//FEST was summed up well by Rachel Moss from Allwyn UK when she said "Humans connect with humans."   So from the humans of Brandwidth, here's what we learned yesterday at the Glastonbury of marketing:   ✏️ Eric Melis agreed with us that customer feedback is one of your most valuable data points. Why did PepsiCo change their logo back to the globe? Well, when they asked people to draw their logo, they all drew the old-school globe.   📈 According to Lee Roberts and Uche Ofili of Tesco Media and Insight Platform and Insight Platforms, there’s more to retail media than just boosting sales. Whilst often misconceived to be an end-of-funnel tool, they see retail media as an integral element of brand growth strategy, and their recent work with Walkers, which spans from TV, to social, to web, to point of sale, showcases this.   😎 And some words of wisdom from Anna MacDonald - Marketing Director at Guinness: "Have the confidence to let people play with your brand. See your brand through the lenses of others, by letting people tell you how they experience your brand, and really listening to them."

I will be attending the Quirk's Media New York show starting TOMORROW, 7/17-7/18, with my Highlight teammates: Carly Shira, Nathan Curtis, Calista Corley, and Karina Peréz Carlson. Engaging with our current and prospective customers, hearing their feedback, and finding new ways to meet their needs is always a #highlight. Stop by booth 428 to connect with our team and discover our latest innovations! Make sure to attend our session: “Unleashing private-label potential with agile, authentic product insights”. With headlines like: “Why private-label brands are having their moment”, “Private label keeps setting records in 2023”, “Double-digit growth of private label continues”, “How private-label merchandise is reshaping retail” it’s clear that private-label merchandise is reshaping retail. Thoughtfully-created private labels can enhance a retailer’s equity, credibility, and long-term loyalty. Highlight CRO, Calista Corley, and Mandy Daneman, Director of Owned Brand and Product Insights at Target, are going to dive into a case study on the impact of private label innovation on retailers' relationships with consumers. #QuirksNY #PrivateLabel #MarketResearch #TeamHighlight #CustomerEngagement

What’s SPARKed our interest? Our CEO, David Pearson, visited retail stores to explore various on-pack promotions. There's an impressive range of initiatives available, and we've showcased a few in our video. Here are a couple of standout examples Dave highlighted: 🍨 Haagen Dazs I'm a big Emily in Paris fan (yes, really) so this one was always going to be a winner. Taken separately the partnership or the promotion work on their own but together they become greater than the sum of its parts. Paris still says style for most people and works as a stylish, indulgent destination partner for the (American) brand, with an American show. Prizes are suitably "classy" (Harvey Nicholls and Harrods) so the whole campaign is perfectly in sync. 🍰 Premier Foods - Win Mega Prizes Partnering with a big summer family movie is far from a new idea. Still, when the title is as well known (and with as brilliant, colourful characters) as the Minions from Despicable Me 4 then it's a recipe for success. While the imagery and characters work hard on-shelf it's important to back that up with appropriate and aspirational prizes, which this does focussing as it does on film merch, cinema tickets, and, for the big winners, holidays to Hollywood and Orlando to see the characters in "real life". Interested in running your own sales promotion? Let’s chat! #salespromotion #promotionalmarketing #brandactivation

Real ad or fake, let's put that aside. What I'm attracted to is the concept that "the brand is bigger than the celebrity attached". It takes a long time for a brand to reach this status, and an even longer time for management to be comfortable enough to openly display the thought. But I do agree with commenters here: • If you're not familiar with Beckham's hand tattoo, it doesn't work. • If you haven't seen his other Stella ads, it doesn't work. • If you had no idea that Beckham was Stella's brand ambassador, it doesn't work. For the sake of discussion though, who would you pick and what would be their character defining trait that you would pick if this was your campaign?

Tip of the hat to David Beckham's brand strategist! Currently, you can see David Beckham all over the internet munching on Walkers Crisps UK crisps with Thierry Henry. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. In March, it was his hands, when Anheuser-Busch Stella Artois decided his face would be too distracting in their OOH campaign This month alone, it's been announced that Beckham has signed a global multi-year partnership with HUGO BOSS arguably a brand partnership that just makes sense. And today it's been revealed Beckham is now the face and ears of Bowers & Wilkins, the iconic British audio brand, celebrating his love for music and its role in his life. And there's more! Ahead of the Euros David Beckham is now an ambassador for AliExpress, a part of their tournament sponsorship, adding to an already impressive lineup of partnerships with brands like Nespresso UK and  SharkNinja. All of this comes on the heels of last year's docuseries about his life (Netflix’s most-watched show in Britain last year with 3.8 million views in its launch week alone) which took the meme world by storm. Beckham's brand has always been pretty impressive, but even for him, this is a lot. I'm sure there is a limit to how far his brand can stretch, but are we there yet? #PersonalBranding #BrandStrategy #DavidBeckham #BrandPartnership

Brand marketing and culture trends I'm loving this week: 1. Kendrick Lamar & Super Bowl LIX: The National Football League (NFL) announced Kendrick Lamar as the headliner for the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show. After years of impactful music and two recent #1 hits on the Billboard 100, Kendrick pushes the boundaries of hip-hop's global influence, connecting the worlds of music and sports. (He's my favorite rapper so I'm very excited!) 2. McDonald's Mini McFlurry: If you ever crave a lil sweet treat, McDonald's is introducing a Mini McFlurry in classic flavors like OREO and M&M's. This launch is a great way to attract a new customer base while also focusing on its sustainability efforts by replacing the plastic McFlurry spoon with an eco-friendly four-flat cup design. 3. Beyoncé & Moët Hennessy: Beyoncé just launched SirDavis, a new whiskey brand in collaboration with Moët Hennessy. The best part is that the brand is named after her paternal great-grandfather who was a farmer and moonshiner. This is a great example of the growing trend of celebs entering the premium spirits, appealing to selective consumers looking for unique brand stories. #brandmarketing #communications #publicrelations

Rumours of my lack of bicep strength are entirely accurate.