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Reese's launches a multichannel Halloween campaign, Danone appeals a UK water site block, and beauty brand Cakes builds owned media to escape TikTok dependency.
Reese's is turning Halloween into a neighbourhood movement, Danone is fighting regulators to grow Harrogate Spring Water, and challenger brand Cakes is ditching rented TikTok audiences for media it actually owns.
In this episode:
The FMCG Marketing Daily is a concise briefing for FMCG and CPG marketers, brand managers and CMOs, hosted by Marco & Klara. New episode every day.
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Also from Marco & Klara: The Digital Commerce Daily · The Health Marketing Daily
The essential morning briefing for brand leaders in fast-moving consumer goods. Hosted by Marco and Klara — two senior strategists with decades of experience inside global CPG companies and consultancies. Every episode covers retail media and distribution shifts, brand and competitor moves from Unilever, Coke, Nestlé, and challenger brands, and the macro and regulatory forces reshaping the category. Authoritative. Analytical. No noise. Built for brand managers, trade marketers, CMOs, and agency directors who need to stay ahead.
Marco: Good morning — we've got a solid mix for you today.
Klara: We do. Reese's has launched a big Halloween push, and it's a great example of how seasonal moments can actually build a brand, not just sell product.
Marco: Then Danone is fighting regulators over a UK water site. And a challenger beauty brand called Cakes is trying to own its audience rather than rent it.
Klara: Let's go.
Marco: Reese's has launched a big Halloween campaign in the US — and the way they've built it is worth pulling apart.
Klara: Halloween is one of the most valuable windows of the year for confectionery brands. In the weeks running up to the 31st, shoppers are actively looking for a reason to pick one brand over another. The brands that win that moment don't just sit on shelf — they create noise.
Marco: What Reese's is doing is asking consumers across America to nominate the best street for trick-or-treating — what they're calling the "trick-or-treatiest street." The campaign kicks off at the start of October, which is deliberate. They want to own the conversation before rivals even get started. And crucially, it runs across multiple channels — social, digital, probably in-store — rather than betting everything on one platform.
Klara: I love the instinct here. Getting consumers to nominate their own streets turns the brand into part of a neighbourhood moment, not just a product on a shelf. That's what marketers call "earned media" — when people talk about your campaign without you paying for every single impression. It costs far less than buying that attention outright.
Marco: And it builds an emotional connection that a price promotion never will. You're not just buying a bag of Reese's — you're participating in something your community is part of.
Klara: My mild reservation is this: participatory campaigns can fizzle if the numbers don't show up. You need genuine momentum to make them feel like a cultural moment rather than a brand talking to itself.
Marco: That's fair. The multichannel spread helps — you're not dependent on one algorithm or one audience to carry it.
Klara: European brands planning Q4 activations should be watching this closely. The mechanic travels, even if the specific Halloween context is more muted outside the US.
Marco: Up next — our second story of the morning.
Marco: Danone is fighting regulators in the UK to expand its Harrogate Spring Water site — and that fight tells you something important about how seriously the company is protecting its water business.
Klara: Harrogate Spring Water is a premium brand sold mainly in the UK market — it's quite separate from Danone's French water brands like Volvic or Evian. Premium water is a competitive space. It lives or dies on provenance — the idea that the water comes from a specific, credible source. That source is the physical site. So the site isn't just an operational asset, it's the brand.
Marco: What's happened here is that regulators blocked Danone's plans to expand the Harrogate facility in northern England. Danone has now launched a formal appeal. They're not accepting the decision and walking away — they're challenging it. That's a deliberate choice, and it costs money and management time. You don't do that unless the asset genuinely matters to your long-term strategy.
Klara: What strikes me is what this signals outward. Retailers like Tesco or Sainsbury's are watching. Competitors are watching. When a company fights this hard for infrastructure, it's communicating that this brand is part of their future — not something they'll quietly deprioritise when things get complicated.
Marco: I'd add that this is increasingly common friction for FMCG companies trying to grow. Planning rules, environmental constraints, local objections — these aren't going away. Brands that have a clear strategic case for expansion tend to fight harder and win more often.
Klara: My slight hesitation is this: a drawn-out regulatory battle can become a distraction. You're spending leadership attention on legal process rather than the actual brand. There's a cost to that even if you eventually win.
Marco: True — but doing nothing costs more. If Harrogate can't grow its capacity, the brand's ambition has a hard ceiling.
Klara: Our third story is next.
Marco: A challenger beauty brand called Cakes is turning its TikTok fame into something it actually owns — and the logic behind that move is sharp.
Klara: Cakes built its name by going viral on TikTok. That's a powerful launchpad. But there's a fundamental vulnerability in building your whole brand on someone else's platform — you're renting the audience, not owning it. If the algorithm shifts, if ad costs climb, your reach disappears and you're paying more for less.
Marco: That's exactly what's been happening. TikTok paid advertising is getting more expensive as more brands pile in. So Cakes has decided to stop depending on it. They're launching something called Cakes Media — a brand-owned media property designed to convert their viral TikTok followers into a permanent audience that Cakes controls directly. No algorithm between them and their consumer.
Klara: I think this is one of the smartest moves a challenger brand can make right now. Paid social — spending money to reach people on platforms like TikTok or Instagram — gives you reach today but builds nothing for tomorrow. An owned media property, whether that's a newsletter, a content hub, a community — that's an asset you carry forward. The relationship compounds over time.
Marco: And this should make larger FMCG players uncomfortable. Unilever or L'Oréal have the budgets to keep paying for platform reach indefinitely. But if a brand like Cakes builds a direct, loyal audience that doesn't need paid amplification, it becomes structurally harder to outspend into irrelevance.
Klara: Where I'd add a note of caution — building owned media is genuinely hard. Getting someone to follow you on TikTok is easy. Getting them to come to your platform, on your terms, repeatedly — that takes real editorial discipline and consistency. Plenty of brands have tried and quietly abandoned it.
Marco: The ones that stick with it, though, are building something that performance spend simply cannot buy.
Marco: The through-line today — every one of these brands is asking the same question: what do we actually own, and what are we just renting?
Klara: So take five minutes this week and map out where your brand's attention comes from — then ask how much of it you'd lose if one platform, one regulator, or one rival moved against you.