As Stranger Things fans theorize about what will happen to their favorite characters and prepare to memorialize the long-running show, brand marketers are saying goodbye to a nearly decade-long marketing opportunity that has few rivals.

Since Netflix’s nostalgic sci-fi mystery series premiered in 2016, the miniseries-turned-juggernaut has become an increasingly powerful vehicle for brand spotlights and partnerships. From early onscreen mentions of Eggo waffles and KFC to broader, real-world activations with brands like Coca-Cola, Doritos, and Tide, the Stranger Things universe’s brand partnerships have been defined by a type of careful brand inclusion and nostalgia that could be hard to replicate.

With most of the second half of Stranger Things’s fifth and final season dropping Christmas Day, and the final episode hitting the streamer (and theaters) on New Year’s Eve, some marketers are mourning the end of a particularly powerful streaming partnership.

“It is bittersweet to see the main story come to a close,” James Wade, senior director of marketing at Doritos, told Marketing Brew. “If they had a Season 6, we could come up with a great concept for Season 6. Not having that there, there is that sense of what could have been.”

Continue reading here.—JN

It’s College Football Playoff season, and the postseason bowl games have become a platform for some of the zaniest marketing moments in recent memory. We’re looking at you, Pop-Tarts mascot sacrifice and Cheez-It wedding.

Tomorrow, Bush’s Beans is joining the party after securing the naming rights to the Boca Raton Bowl, which will this year be called the Bush’s Boca Raton Bowl of Beans.

The brand is no stranger to college football, having been a sponsor of the SEC for four years, or to outside-the-box marketing, from cornhole sponsorships to bean-themed Halloween costumes. At the upcoming game between the University of Louisville Cardinals and the University of Toledo Rockets, and with its college football marketing in general, the brand is aiming to cook up some hype for beans among the brand’s traditional consumers in its southern home region, as well as with the sport’s younger fans.

“Our mission in life is to elevate beans in people’s lives, and really celebrate what beans can stand for,” Bush’s SVP of marketing, Stephen Palacios, told Marketing Brew. “We look for partners and opportunities to celebrate beans in all kinds of culturally relevant and interesting ways, and this was certainly one of them.”

Read more here.—AM

The explosion in work-from-home culture in 2020 pushed a lot of businesses to the brink.

Not Zoom. Instead, the video conferencing tool saw exponentially increased usage and invaluable brand recognition as many industries shifted to remote work. Now, with the future of work morphing once again in the age of AI, the tech company is taking a moment to announce that it, too, can change with the times.

In a new brand campaign helmed by Saturday Night Live and Las Culturistas’s Bowen Yang, Zoom is aiming to position itself as more than just a meeting platform, according to CMO Kimberly Storin. In an ad called “I Use Zoom,” Yang plays a villainous IT manager who refuses to let his employees choose their work software, while the supporting cast of characters declare their love for Zoom’s various features, including new AI features.

The spot, which takes inspiration from films like Office Space and Dead Poets Society, came to life with input from more of the SNL crew, including director Mike Diva, who has directed shorts for the comedy series, and writer and “Weekend Update” cohost Colin Jost, who wrote and produced the spot through his agency, No Notes.

The ad is set to air on December 31 during the College Football Playoffs, and it will have continued digital, social, and experiential support in 2026, with an additional regional Super Bowl preshow placement on February 8.

“This is really our opportunity to reshape the Zoom story out in the market and stay true to [our] heritage,” Storin told Marketing Brew. “We’re not starting from scratch. We’re really focused on telling the story of who we are, but also ensuring that we’re changing perceptions, because Zoom is so much more than just meetings and and a lot of people haven’t seen that evolution.”

Continue reading here.—JN

Executive moves across the industry.

• Unilever Chief Growth and Marketing Officer Esi Eggleston Bracey is set to leave the company at the end of January.
• Intel tapped former SambaNova CMO Annie Shea Weckesser to serve as SVP and chief marketing and communications officer.
• Mozilla brought on board John Solomon, a former exec at Apple and Therabody, as CMO.