If you recently became acquainted with Amtrak’s social media presence through a post reminiscent of old monster truck rally ads, you’re not alone.

The national passenger railroad is upgrading its trains, stations, and infrastructure and entering a “modern era of rail,” according to Jessica Davidson, VP of digital and brand management at Amtrak, so it was only natural for the brand to take a fresh approach to social media.

“We’re this storied brand, and we’re modernizing,” Davidson told us. “As we move forward to increase ridership, we recognize all the things that we do in our strategy need to break through.”

Last year, Amtrak set an all-time ridership record of 32.8 million, and Davidson said its sights are now set on attracting prospective younger riders as part of a goal to reach 66 million riders by 2040. So far, what seems to be getting zillennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha to stop scrolling (and perhaps consider taking the train) is content that Naleen Camara, senior social media specialist at Amtrak, calls “brain-rotty,” or posts that one might not expect from a legacy brand. Camara said the recent attention on the account, though, has been a long time coming.

“I like to think we’ve been funny for a while,” Camara told us. “People are really just starting to take notice.”

All aboard: One of the earliest instances of Amtrak playing around with humor, Camera said, was in 2023 when the brand posted what it described as conductor “fan art” inspired by anime and, in response to the social comments, proceeded to ask employees who the man could be for a social campaign.

“A lot of our fans were like, ‘Oh my God, that looks like this conductor on this train or this conductor in this station,’ so we were like, ‘Okay, let’s make a whole story out of it,’” Camara said.

Keep reading here.—KH

When Brandi Chastain scored the winning goal of the World Cup for the 1999 US Women’s National Soccer Team during penalty kicks, she celebrated by taking off her jersey and falling to her knees. It didn’t take long before her celebration became an instantly recognizable moment in sports history.

The USWNT star was subsequently courted by brands like Nike, Gatorade, and Bud Light, and she appeared in commercials for those brands in the years afterward, but even then, she recalled, she was the exception, not the rule.

“The landscape wasn’t ready for us,” Chastain told Marketing Brew. “We had good soccer, but we didn’t have a good stadium, we didn’t have great sponsorships, we certainly didn’t have media outlets.”

The landscape certainly looks different now compared to when Chastain was playing. More fans and sponsors are paying attention to women’s soccer than ever before, and NWSL team valuations are approaching a collective $1.5 billion as expansion teams like the Utah Royals and Bay FC join the league. Chastain is a co-founder of Bay FC, and more than two decades after she retired from the national team, she’s still in demand among brands: She recently served as the keynote speaker at a June conference hosted by Bay FC sponsor Contentstack.

Ahead of the conference, Chastain spoke with Marketing Brew about the business of women’s soccer in the US and the state of its sponsorship and fan landscape.

Keep reading here.—AM

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Daniel Pahl is partner, VP of growth at Chameleon Collective, a business consultancy. He’s consulted and served in interim executive roles for brands including Malin+Goetz, The Children’s Place, Lord & Taylor, New York & Company, Good American, Vera Bradley, and About-Face Beauty.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? It had to be a one-year engagement with Vera Bradley. The initial idea of the client was to mentor a rising star in the marketing team, with the goal of a director promotion. It evolved into a full recalibration of their digital marketing strategy. I was able to reverse the trend of continuous declining revenue for their online domain, which was a significant accomplishment, especially when juxtaposed against the downturn in their brick-and-mortar stores. The leadership’s endorsement was the icing on the cake, with them not only expressing satisfaction but also graciously volunteering to vouch for our expertise with potential clients. And most importantly, the internal candidate got a well-deserved promotion to director.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? My current favorite ad campaign is the Rocket Mortgage Super Bowl campaign with in-stadium execution and the follow-up on all marketing channels afterwards. This was a great, coherent execution that got a lot of people engaged and excited.

Keep reading here.

Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• R/GA acquired Addition, an “AI innovation company.”
• Jalen Hurts is featured in a Sprite campaign, marking the soft-drink brand’s first partnership with an NFL player.
• Paramount’s merger with Skydance has been approved by the FCC after concessions to the Trump administration on political coverage and DEI policies.
• Maximum Effort brought in Gwyneth Paltrow to play Astronomer’s temporary spokesperson in a response video after the Coldplay kiss-cam incident.