Moody’s December Marketing Round-Up

Happy holidays! 

Before we get into the killer marketing we’ve noticed this month, we’re going to take a looooooooong sip of our favourite caffeinated beverage, from a regular mug … because we couldn’t get our hands on one of Starbucks’ “Bearista’ cups. Can you believe these sweet little bear-shaped cups, which sold at the coffee shops for $43.95, are now going for upwards of $1,400 on eBay? 

The frenzy had people physically fighting in Starbucks locations, police were called, and resellers are having a field day. Would you drop big bucks on this bear?

Stranger and Wicked Things

Stranger Things certainly didn’t need much in the way of marketing as the show prepared to release its final season in three installments this fall and winter on Netflix. But they brought the heat anyway. With custom posters for each movie-length episode, an intense float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, and creating themed title cards and avatars on the platform itself. 

But what cracks us up was the wild brand partnerships. Some were really appropriate, like LiteBright, and Dungeons & Dragons, and even Dash’s waffle makers. These products tie directly to the story. 

But some others felt a little bananas - Pandora Demogorgon Rings? Stranger Things cookies? CoverGirl makeup palettes? There’s effectively no connection to the show, and it just feels like a shitty cash grab. 

BONUS: Google “Stranger Things” and check out your cursor for a fun little surprise! 

Wicked-ly Unrelated

Of course brand collabs with film and TV shows weren’t created by the Stranger Things marketing team, but they’ve certainly increased ushering in a new era of brand collabs. 

https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExN3Q1cjV1cGhveGUwM2RvOWtqcjl1ZXBybHl6a2k0Z2M0YjNoMjF1diZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/uvMEhrg0lOPRu/giphy.gif

Wicked is a pretty great example of sticking your hand in a lot of unrelated pockets ! I mean, if you want to make Wicked your whole personality: go off queen! Get your T-shirts, socks, collectables, even perfumes, and household items in either pink or green! (We know this is how theatre kids roll!)But cereal? Dishwashing liquid? OK, sure Glinda and the bubble, but whipped cream? Crocs!? If I ever saw Ariana Grande wearing Crocs, I’d fall over.

The BEST is the Swiffer collab tho. Get it? A magical witches broom! That just hits!

Weird Art is Weird and Wonderful

Is it a brand collab if Pantone names a colour after your work? 

Our team loves the experimental, electronic, collaborative style of musician Justin Vernon, founder and leadman of Bon Iver, Volcano Choir, The Shouting Matches, Big Red Machine, Gayngs, and DeYarmond Edison. When Bon Iver was preparing for it’s latest double album release, SABLE and SABLE, fABLE with artist Ruben Nusz, they came upon a symbolic colour which would be the theme for anything and everything to do with the record. The colour was Pantone 1625 CP, now aptly named fABLE Salmon. 

“Pantone is our anchor, like our North Star, and we try to get everything as close to that as we can. When you can print with Pantone, you obviously get consistency across all your products. But it’s also something for everyone else to strive for,” said  Miles Johnson, the head of art and design at Secretly Group, the record company and content creation machine which releases Bon Iver’s music. 

Read all about the new colour over at Pantone and learn why colour is so important to creating a story and a feeling for your creative work. 

AI Facepalm at Coke

Finally, we’d be remiss to not talk about the Christmas elephant in the room … Coca-Cola’s annual holiday ad. This year with more AI fails. The company known for inventing Santa Claus and those cuddly-Christmas polar bears admittedly used tools like OpenAI's Sora, Google's Veo 3, and Luma AI to create a series of three holiday ads. 

No one would have noticed if not for the shape-shifting Coca-Cola trucks, which sometimes have wheels and sometimes don't, as well as other minor, but noticeable glitches when the scenes cut from one view to another. Coca-Cola confirms it had five AI specialist refine 70,000 video clips to create the ad in 30 days. 

Last year Pratik Thakar, Coca-Cola's global VP and head of generative AI (that’s a title now?), was quoted by AdAge as saying, "Consumers were not concerned about AI versus non-AI.”

Based on the extreme negative reactions online? We don’t think that’s true. 

Wrapping it Up!

The holidays are always a great time for marketing and we’d love for you to share your favourite ads or marketing campaigns with us as the year comes to a close. We’ll be taking some well-deserved time off to hang with family and friends over the holidays, but we’ll be back in the new year with some sick new work and bigger and better ideas than ever! Want to work with us? Get in touch!