Kristina Monllos

Senior Reporter, Marketing Brew

Kristina Monllos is a senior reporter for Marketing Brew. She has spent over a decade covering the advertising business for publications like Digiday and Adweek. Her reporting has also appeared in publications like Rolling Stone, New York Magazine's Vulture and Elle, among others. She is also a filmmaker.

One of StreetEasy's ads, reading "LIVE WHERE THERE'S NO ROOM TO GROW APART, BE A FOREVER NEW YORKER" is displayed on a digital screen in a NYC subway station as a silver train passes by in the background.
Brand Strategy

Inside StreetEasy’s decade of iconic NYC subway ads

For ten years, the brand has leaned on wit and charm in direct creative to connect with a single market.

Kristina Monllos
A side-by-side graphic of a group of women doing yoga on a beach and a pickleball paddle on a court surrounded by Recess beverage cans
Brand Strategy

Candlemaking, tarot cards, yoga, and more: Inside Recess’s event-centric strategy

The beverage brand, which recently quadrupled its events budget, is looking to get “cans in hands,” new CMO Zech Francis told us.

Kristina Monllos
Images from recent Mountain Dew, Coca-Cola, and Jeep America250 campaigns.
Brand Strategy

For America250, brands are taking a unifying—and decidedly unpolitical—approach

Many marketers are leaning on nostalgia with the goal of appearing to be “very pro-American without taking a political stance,” an expert told us.

Kristina Monllos
A photo of a couple in bed underneath the sheets. Another photo of two martinis on a set of bedsheets.
Brand Strategy

‘Sex is back’: Why Brooklinen went from double entendre to ads that are ‘overt’

“We’re seeing now that people, culture, entertainment [are] a little less fearful of it,” Brooklinen’s CMO told us.

Kristina Monllos
A blurry image of a figure, lit with neon green, pink, and orange, in front of a dark blue-purple background
Brand Strategy

New York now requires disclosure of AI performers in ads. How will that change transparency in advertising?

Marketers say the state law could usher in an era where labeling AI use is a common practice.

Kristina Monllos
One woman gifts another a friendship necklace in front of an ice cream truck.
Brand Strategy

‘The human touch’: Inside Etsy’s life-by-numbers brand campaign

Amid an age of automation, “people are increasingly looking for things that feel more personal, expressive, and human,” the brand’s CMO told us.

Kristina Monllos
New Yorkers out to celebrate the NYC Pride wave flags along the street.
Brand Strategy

‘Funding joy’: How NYC Pride planned for another year of reduced corporate allyship

The nonprofit scaled back its budget for 2026, anticipating less funding from big brands once again.

Kristina Monllos
Kim Kardashian and Kate Hudson are pictured with MRI scan machines from Prenuvo.
Social & Influencers

Inside imaging company Prenuvo’s creator strategy

“We never pay influencers,” an exec told us—instead, the company offers free scans in exchange for posts detailing the experience.

Kristina Monllos
Two women look on at the Statue of Liberty. One of them holds a Coca-Cola.
Brand Strategy

How a road trip across the USA informed Coca-Cola’s America 250 campaign

“It was probably one of the best road trips I’ve ever had,” Joe Sciarrotta, deputy CCO at Ogilvy Worldwide, told us.

Kristina Monllos
Still from a Coinbase ad, showing the view from a security camera of traders crammed into an elevator, presumably heading home after markets closed.
Brand Strategy

Why Coinbase is leaning on product-focused marketing for the first time

“We’re really focused on giving a voice to a utility that straddles” Big Tech and finance, CMO Catherine Ferdon told us.

Kristina Monllos