Sports marketing has long been flooded with beverages. Sports drinks, alcohol brands, and Big Soda are historically dominant in the space, and with prebiotic-soda brands claiming their piece of the pie, it’s only getting more competitive.

Liquid Death is one such brand that’s recently started throwing its hat—or should we say can—in the ring.

The canned-beverage brand became a Nascar sponsor last spring, kicking off a string of sports partnerships that today include pro football, baseball, and soccer teams. This year, there was a Super Bowl ad, and last month, the brand inked a wide-ranging deal with the Madison Square Garden family of entertainment venue companies, landing Liquid Death iced teas and sparkling waters at MSG, Radio City Music Hall, and the Beacon Theater in New York, as well as at Sphere in Las Vegas.

It’s all aimed at helping Liquid Death build its reputation beyond water, Ryan Heuser, SVP of experiential marketing, said.

“Sports was the next frontier for us,” Heuser told Marketing Brew. “Gen Z and…millennials at a younger level are not consuming alcohol at events, or in general, as [much as] they had traditionally, and so we know that there’s a place for us…within the stadiums and arenas.”

Continue reading here.—AM

Every year, the Tribeca Festival in New York brings together legendary entertainers, which in the past have included Martin Scorsese and Taylor Swift, to debut groundbreaking films and discuss the evolution of entertainment.

Last year, it was also the venue where WPP agencies showcased a branded feature-length film for an advertising client, the health insurance company AXA.

Group Therapy, which debuted on Prime Video last month, features seven comedians and actors, including Neil Patrick Harris and Mike Birbiglia, discussing mental health in a support-circle setting. To make the project, WPP’s GroupM and VML partnered with comedian Kevin Hart’s production company, Hartbeat.

Despite being backed by a brand, Group Therapy contains only minimal references to AXA. Instead, the agencies built marketing around the film in an effort to drive consumers to AXA’s platform, complementing the strategy with a robust film-fest tour designed to drive awareness of the project itself, Dimitri Guerassimov, chief creative officer at VML France, said.

The less-is-more approach to branded storytelling was very much intentional; the agencies decided early on that they would “probably not do something that looks like a PSA,” Guerassimov told Marketing Brew.

In the spotlight: The agencies’ efforts to create and promote Group Therapy and AXA are over four years in the making and have included a dedicated film-fest tour that saw the film shown at Tribeca, the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and AFI Fest. To capitalize, the agencies built PR strategies around Group Therapy’s film-fest appearances.

Continue reading here.—JS

TelevisaUnivision knows the value of a Hispanic audience, and its president of US advertising sales and marketing Donna Speciale believes advertisers know it, too.

At the Spanish-language media company’s annual upfronts event last Tuesday in New York, Speciale said she didn’t think she needed to convince the audience to take its offerings seriously. But naturally, execs spent the hourlong presentation doing that anyway.

Following a performance from Prince Royce, Speciale took the stage to emphasize the company’s authenticity and legacy within the Hispanic community as “the cornerstone of relevance,” citing data from EDO that found that ads on TelevisaUnivision’s platforms drive 56% higher intent when compared to English-language media. Execs and talent then highlighted the company’s upcoming entertainment slate, plus new video formats, streaming ads, and music streaming and events across the portfolio.

“In an industry of companies trying to be everything to everyone, we are solely focused on being everything to one: the Hispanic community, a relationship we have built and nurtured for 70 years,” Speciale said. “Every strategy, every story, every screen, is all for one mission: to inform, empower and entertain the most influential consumer in our country today.”

Cue the drama: Keeping in line with the company’s content-first strategy, TelevisaUnivision built excitement around new scripted and unscripted shows, sports, news, and short-form video.

Continue reading here.—JN

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From the fall of Pets.com to the rise of AI-driven ad strategies, the past 25 years have redefined how brands connect with consumers. Marketing Brew’s Quarter Century Project explores the pivotal moments that shaped modern marketing—and asks what’s next for the industry.