The Kool-Aid Man

Have you heard of the brand hashtag challenge? This is the latest way to boost brand awareness with the Gen X crowd and Kool-Aid just got in on the action. They launched a holiday-themed video campaign on TikTok featuring rapper Lil John and the Kool-Aid Man mascot (everyone’s favorite dancing pitcher of red punch!) encouraging people to create holiday videos set to their soundtrack. The user that gets the most views of their creative wins $10K! This is a real example of how a brand is fully leveraging the power of the platform and appealing to the audience’s creative talents. 

Brands Making Sex Jokes

Corporate decorum and brand safety be damned!  It all started on Twitter when Netflix seized on a popular meme to ask, “what’s something you can say during sex but also when you manage a brand twitter account?” 110,000 likes later [and counting], this prompted results such as……

Art’s Playground

Wonder where I'd like to be this week? Art Basel! It's where all the leading galleries from around the globe will gather in sunny Miami welcoming collectors, celebrities, and artists into its playground of artistic expression, innovation, and imagination. People from all over come to experience the paintings, sculptures, photographs, and installations. This year, Lincoln has become a part of the Miami local art scene, showcasing a Continental in front of a dynamic AR-enabled mural backdrop.  Visitors are invited to take part in the creative process by painting the lines of the mural via their phone or creating a song by tapping on each line to play a chord through their phone speaker. Experiential, highly targeted, aesthetically aligned - well done, Lincoln!

Convenience and Claw

The fastest growing brands of 2019 have been announced by Morning Consult. Some may be a shock, while others are what you might expect. What I found most interesting is Doordash placed #1 across all generations: Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers. Food delivered straight to our front door is one thing we all love! Doordash has a 14 point lead in purchase consideration compared to other food delivery services. Surprisingly, White Claw (PadSquad’s preferred beverage) also performed well across all demos as the season’s most guilty adult beverage. I guess that is because it hits all the marks - inexpensive, gluten-free and lots of marketing memes.