Marketing News

A new survey says that consumers are growing tired of negative content online and that brands can boost engagement and drive purchasing by sharing more positive fare.

BuzzFeed is fed up with the current state of the internet and wants to do something about it. The media company on Wednesday introduced a new social media platform to counter what it says is an internet increasingly fueled by misinformation, addiction, and negativity.

adidas is launching an ad campaign that puts the spotlight on negative behaviors associated with amateur sports and recommends how to switch to positive actions. A new study showing that four in five amateur athletes regularly experience unhelpful behavior from coaches, parents, supporters, and teammates helped to inform the ad creative.

Amazon late last week reported that fourth quarter net sales increased 10 percent, to $187.8 billion, which is expected to surpass Walmart revenue-wise for the first time when the company announces its earnings later this month. Amazon attributed the growth to several factors, including its best holiday shopping season ever and a rising number of viewers for Amazon Prime's "Thursday Night Football."

In a new a Super Bowl ad, Seal and rapper Becky G take a portal-traveling ride fueled by Mountain Dew's Baja Blast. The ad, featuring Seal singing a Mountain Dew-ified version of his classic song "Kiss from a Rose," leans into a kind of weirdness for ad creative that's holding growing appeal for consumers.

The decline for this year's Grammys reverses a three-year trend of steadily rising ratings for the broadcast, following the COVID-19 pandemic, culminating in nearly 17 million viewers. But this year's ceremony was marred by the Los Angeles-area wildfires, which forced several of the major music companies to cancel their plans and instead allocate resources to help those affected by the wildfires.

McDonald's is bringing back its seasonal Shamrock Shake, along with Uncle O'Grimacey, a character from McDonaldland that hasn't been seen in decades, to help raise money for Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Fried chicken chain Popeyes and Tequila Don Julio are joining forces to create a limited-edition menu, called "The Championship Lineup," that will be available in select Popeyes locations, including New Orleans, the hometown of Popeyes and the site of Super Bowl LIX.

Coffee mate's new Super Bowl ad plugging Coffee mate Cold Foam Creamer may get some tongues wagging. The ad stars a dancing tongue shimmying to Shania Twain belting out an original tune for the brand called "Gimme Cold Foam." The ad campaign launches a few months after Coffee mate debuted three new foam flavors.

The ongoing rise of alternative (and non-Google) search platforms fueled by generative AI is altering consumer behavior and making search a faster process, according to a new study. Marketers are excited about the changes in the market, but those changes come with a whole new set of challenges.

OpenAI, which put a flame to generative AI in 2022 when it debuted ChatGPT, has released two new AI tools, adding to a fast-stirring market. Both tools are designed to search the web autonomously and significantly reduce the time it takes to conduct laborious tasks online.

The Muppets are featured in a new ad campaign for Booking.com that shows how the website helps consumers to personalize their travel experiences. The integrated marketing campaign, which kicks off during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LIX, builds on the "Booking.yeah" ad campaign from 2022.

In a new Instacart ad premiering during this year's Super Bowl, several popular brand mascots join forces to make an epic delivery. Many consumer-facing brands are scrambling to tie their message to Super Bowl LIX, which takes place February 9 at Ceasars Superdome in New Orleans.

A new ad by drug company Novartis premiering during this year's Super Bowl stresses the importance of early and regular breast cancer screenings. The spot, titled "Your Attention, Please," brings together women of different ages and backgrounds to spread the word.

Most people like a free, open internet supported by advertising and are willing to exchange their personal information to keep it that way, a new IAB study reveals. The study comes amid a proliferating number of data privacy laws at the state level while federal legislation continues to languish on Capitol Hill despite ongoing efforts.

The rewards app Fetch is gearing up for its first Super Bowl ad. During the final two minutes of this year's championship game, which takes place February 9 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Fetch will give away $10,000 to 120 winners — one for every second of the remaining two minutes of regulation game time — and announce the recipients in a first-of-its-kind livestream on the Fetch app. For companies partnering with Fetch, the ad play could help amp up their loyalty marketing efforts.

Meta is launching ads for its microblogging network Threads, the company announced Friday, aiming to give its rival X (formerly Twitter) a run for its ad dollars. Meta is starting the effort with a few companies in the U.S. and Japan and says it will monitor the test closely to see how it's performing before expanding the marketplace.

Hellmann's latest ad, which will drop during Super Bowl LIX on February 9, gives a nostalgic nod toward a classic rom com and one of its most enduring lines. The spot was filmed at Katz's Deli in Manhattan, the same place where the original scene took place.

"The 2025 Sprout Social Index" underscores why it's crucial for marketers to be leery of social media posts that go viral and ask themselves whether their brand has a legitimate connection to the story.

New accreditation from the Media Rating Council (MRC) provides a much-needed boost for Nielsen, which lost the MRC's seal of approval for its National TV Audience Measurement service in September 2021 but got it back in 2023. Nielsen still faces increasingly stiff competition for TV currency from alternative measurement services, such as Comscore, iSpot, and VideoAmp, among others.