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Coca-Cola displaces PepsiCo at KFC after 37 years, AB InBev's BeatBox is reprimanded by the UK Portman Group, and Arby's hires a new CMO.
Coca-Cola just took KFC from PepsiCo after 37 years. AB InBev's BeatBox got hit by UK regulators over packaging. Two stories every FMCG marketer needs to understand today.
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 and welcome back — three stories lined up today that cover regulation, distribution, and marketing leadership all at once.
Klara: We've got a UK packaging ruling that should make any brand manager nervous, a massive fast food drinks deal that reshuffles the cola map, and a CMO hire with lessons for the whole sector.
Marco: Plenty to dig into — let's go.
Marco: AB InBev has just had one of its drinks brands officially reprimanded in the UK — and the reason matters for anyone who works on packaging.
Klara: BeatBox is a ready-to-drink brand — a pre-mixed alcoholic drink sold in pouches and bottles — and it's been growing fast by leaning into bold, colourful, festival-style packaging. That aesthetic has worked well with young adult drinkers in the US. But the UK operates under a different set of rules.
Marco: The Portman Group — that's the UK's independent regulator for alcohol marketing — upheld a complaint against BeatBox. The ruling found that the packaging was likely to appeal to children. Not just young adults. Children. That's a serious finding, and it has direct consequences for how AB InBev can sell the brand here.
Klara: What's worth understanding is how thin the line actually is. Bright colours, cartoon-style graphics, bold fonts — all of these are tools that RTD brands use to stand out on shelf and connect with younger legal-age drinkers. But those same design choices can tip into territory that regulators see as child-appealing. The Portman Group has been clear on this for years. BeatBox just found out the hard way.
Marco: My take is simple: if you're briefing a packaging designer on an RTD or any drink aimed at under-35s, this ruling should be in the room. You need someone asking the awkward question — does this look like it belongs next to an energy drink, or next to a bottle of wine?
Klara: I'd add one nuance though. There's a real creative tension here. If you make RTD packaging too conservative, you lose the shelf appeal that drives trial in the first place. Brands are caught between standing out and staying compliant.
Marco: True — but compliance isn't optional. You can be creative within the rules. You just have to know where the line is.
Klara: Worth noting for any drinks marketer right now.
Marco: Our next story is up in a moment.
Marco: After 37 years, PepsiCo has just lost one of its most valuable fast-food partnerships — and Coca-Cola is stepping in to take it.
Klara: To explain why this matters, you need to understand what a pouring rights deal actually is. It's an exclusive agreement where a drinks company pays a restaurant chain to stock and serve only their brands. Every cup, every fountain drink, every bottle on the menu — one supplier. These deals are huge for soft drink companies because the exposure is relentless. Millions of customers, every day, holding your cup.
Marco: KFC had been a PepsiCo account for 37 years. That's not just a contract — that's a generation of brand association. Coca-Cola has now won that business. Every KFC restaurant across the US will switch to Coca-Cola brands. That's a significant chunk of daily consumer touchpoints, gone from PepsiCo's column overnight.
Klara: The way I see it, this is less about the liquid in the cup and more about presence. When you're at a restaurant, you're in a relaxed moment. You're forming impressions without really trying. Seeing a brand repeatedly in that context builds familiarity in a way that a billboard just doesn't.
Marco: Completely agree on the value. Where I'd push the thinking slightly further though — for PepsiCo, this is a reminder that no distribution relationship is permanent. Thirty-seven years gave them comfort, and that can make you slow to defend an account. Brand managers at both companies should be asking how dependent their visibility strategy is on any single partner.
Klara: For European brand managers watching this — pouring rights deals exist here too. Stadium partnerships, cinema chains, restaurant groups. The principle is the same. Losing one can quietly erode how often your brand is simply seen and chosen.
Marco: Worth keeping an eye on how this plays out in the months ahead. Now — our third story of the day is next.
Marco: Arby's has just brought in a new marketing chief — and the brief they've handed her says a lot about what boards actually want from senior marketers right now.
Klara: Arby's is a US fast-food chain, part of a larger group called Inspire Brands. The company is reportedly weighing up an IPO — that's when a private company sells shares to the public for the first time, which means financial scrutiny goes up sharply. That context matters for understanding why this particular hire is interesting.
Marco: The new CMO is Jenna Bromberg, previously the top marketer at Papa Johns. Her explicit mandate — and this is rare, because companies don't usually state it so plainly — is to balance brand-building with short-term sales growth. She starts in November.
Klara: That tension between brand-building and sales activation is one of the oldest debates in marketing. Brand-building is the slow work — making people feel something about your brand over time. Sales activation is the faster stuff — promotions, offers, things that drive a purchase this week. Most finance teams want the second. Most good marketers argue you need both.
Marco: What I find telling is that this brief was stated out loud, ahead of an IPO. That's a signal. When investors are about to look closely at your business, you want a marketer who can stand in front of a CFO and explain why spending money on brand today creates commercial value tomorrow. That's not a given skill. It has to be earned.
Klara: I'd slightly reframe it though. I don't think this is purely about communication skills. The pressure to cut brand spend when sales targets loom is structural — it happens at FMCG companies just as much as fast food. The real question is whether the organisation actually gives the CMO the authority to resist that pressure, not just the title.
Marco: And that's the thing any brand manager should take away. Your ability to defend long-term investment in the language of business results — that's not a nice-to-have anymore. It's table stakes.
Marco: Today's reminder — regulators, retailers, and rivals can all reshape your brand's world overnight, whether you're ready or not.
Klara: So look at your packaging, your distribution deals, and your marketing leadership, and ask honestly: if one of those shifted tomorrow, would your brand hold?