Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Interesting people, insightful points of view and incredible stories on what’s popping and not popping in marketing, tech, and culture you can use to win immediately. Brands, Beats and Bytes boldly stands at the intersection of brand, tech and culture. DC and Larry are fascinated with stories and people behind some of the best marketing in the business. No matter how dope your product, if your marketing sucks your company may suck too. #dontsuck
DC: [00:00:00] Happy Holidays Brand Nerds. Ooh, we have another different one. We have a, we have a different one. Another podcast. This is the award show podcast, part two. Part two. Brand Nerds. As we said in our first one, those of you all may have missed it. We want you to go back and listen to it.
We decided to close this year with something special, not just do a regular podcast. We love our guests. We're very fortunate for the guests that we have had. Here on Brands Beats and Bytes but we are doing a marketing award show to end 2025, and it's broken up into two categories, "Brand Bangers." Those are the things that have been great for 2025 or that we recognize in 2025 and "Brand Bust."
These are the ones that have not done so well. [00:01:00] We have already recorded Brand Bust. This is about brand bangers. As a reminder, hop on LinkedIn. You can hit Larry up on LinkedIn. Me on LinkedIn or our BPD LinkedIn page. We want to hear your opinions, your opinions, and in this case, because we're talking about brand banger's, lt, we're going to be naming names, right?
In this case, if you were associated with any of these award winners. You're on the brand team, you are in the company, you were at the agency, whatever, or agencies, whatever the case may be, hop on. You can tell us you want to come on and talk about this and, and we'd love to hear from you. And then we know the Brand Nerds that want to hear from you.
Just again to repeat, wow, this is our show, not Wow. It is our show. Lemme be a little more definitive. Larry. This is our show. This is Larry's show and my show and the [00:02:00] team at Brands Beats and Bytes all the producers, uh, involved. Because of that, we may name a winner for this year. For us, it doesn't mean that whatever this winner is actually launched it this year.
If we've become aware of it in this year, we're going to say we believe it's a winner. We've got timely things, some things that have just gone down, but we also got some things that may have gone down, uh, before now, and unlike other. Award shows. Going back to the same thing I said on the bust. King's English here, King's English.
We ain't got no nominees. No nominees. Larry, just winners. We are coming at you with just the winners. Larry, did I get everything on the rules of this thing here?
LT: I think you nailed it.
DC: Okay, brother. You got the rock.
LT: Okay, so, so DC as you mentioned, this is, [00:03:00] as you said, part D and I think you, uh, are a little foretelling in, uh, in your wonderful French accent Yeah.
That we are delivering, right? We're, we're a little foretelling here. Brand Nerds Yes. You'll see why, uh, we are delivering the Delivering the Bangers Awards for those brands that really did some dope work that we wanna call out, including why it is so strong and maybe where it could have gone wrong but didn't.
Right. D? Correct. Correct. So, Dee, do you wanna walk us through these award names with a little explanation for each?
DC: I do, we got three more Brand Nerds. You know, we love things in threes. Plus we have the biggin. But let me just go through the three banger awards for 2025 for Brands, Beats and Bytes.
Number one, the Bravest Marketing Move Award. Number two, How Did You Think of That Dope Name? award. Number three, Champagne Results on a Beer Budget [00:04:00] Award. So lemme just go through what these details on these three and then I'll give the big one. Bravest Marketing Move Award. This is for the brand team and the agency and the company.
They made the boldest marketing decision really bold. It could have gone one or two ways, Larry. That's correct. This thing could, could blow up. Which means it got it. It went really well. Or they could have gotten, and Tony ER's par that blow up, okay, blow up, blowed up. They big time risk, big time risk, career risk, budget risk, reputation risk, creative risk.
All kinds of risks were around this thing. Yet, in spite of what may be a counterintuitive choice, they did it because they were brave. That's number one. Number two, [00:05:00] how did you think of that dope name award? This is for the brand, product or campaign. NA campaign name. It's like, it's so obvious. It's right in front of you.
Anyone else could have come up with it, but they didn't. You did not come up with this name. These people came up with this name and it is a banger. It nails, memorability distinctiveness strategy in one simple punchy line. That's number two. Number three, champagne results on a beer budget award. I love that award name, Larry.
LT: Yes.
DC: I just love that award name. This is for the brand that said, you know, we don't have a lot of money around here. We we're running a little light on, um, on the, uh, deary. We're running light on the shekels. We're running a little light on the, on these, but, but what little [00:06:00] we have, we can turn it into something.
These are for the scrappy folks, resourcefulness, resiliency, and they don't have to have money to, to buy a four and a half, $5 million 30, uh, 32nd spot. On the Super Bowl, they're like, we're gonna drive ROI big time because of this. We are thinking over here, we don't need to spend a lot of money. So that's champagne results on the beer budget award.
Larry, anything you wanna say on the three awards before we get to the big one?
LT: No, hit the big one.
DC: We're gonna bring it home Brand Nerds with the Grand Prix Award and it is called the, I wish I did that. Grand Prix Award. This is the single biggest honor one can get from Brands, Beats and Bytes in an award season.
And this is the campaign brand [00:07:00] platform, some strategy, longer term strategy that we marketing folks. We go, oh man, secretly we wish we would've, we wish we'd have done that. Yeah, we, it's like it was brave, it was original. It was, uh, it, it had a business impact. And so some criterion for the Grand Prix award, 'cause not everybody can get this award.
Not every brand, not every company can get it. Not every agency will get it. Criterion: clear business impact. So not just the fancy buzz, not you putting stuff in your LinkedIn going, um, I'm pleased to announce that we've been invited to Cannes to present that. We don't care about that. You, you can keep that shit.
We don't care about that. Next, a strong, simple human insight. Really easy to understand brave choices, both created [00:08:00] creatively, strategically, and executionally, and then executed across all channels. So not just. Social media, not just regular media, not just, uh, in, in, in some experiential fashion. Everywhere, every channel you can think of the execution was consistent.
And then finally, a little green, a little green Monster, since we hear during the holiday season the Grinch little Green envy in the Grinch, you're jealous. You are a little jealous that you didn't think of this. You're jealous of the marketing folks that were involved. That is the criterion for the Grand Prix award, which is, I wish I did that.
Alright, Larry, let's do it.
LT: All right, so let's go to number one. Uh, for the number one for the Banger Awards is the Bravest Marketing Move Award. [00:09:00] And D, We think starting with this bravest award is just perfect, right? Uh, branders, as a marketer and a life of real results, you, you gotta be brave. There are a lot of brands out there taking big swings and for us, we are looking at brands that we're taking big smart risk in the trade for potential big reward.
Our choice for nailing this is the Nike campaign called So Win. So let's give you the backdrop to that. So the official launch was the Super Bowl 59 debut on Feb, which was February 9th of this year. That's when they launched this campaign called So Win. And the campaign message was, it was flipping societal expectations by telling female athletes to win anyway, be confident anyway.
Put yourself first anyway and be emotional anyway, celebrating their current dominance, not future potential, because the essence of the award is, hey, you can't please people just. [00:10:00] Just go and win. Be yourself. The athletes featured were Jordan Chiles, Caitlyn Clark, Sabrina Ionescu, Shakari Richardson, Asia Wilson and Sophia Wilson.
Alright, the campaign significance, this was Nike's DI didn't know this until we really looked into it. This is the first Super Bowl ad they did since 1998. That's crazy. Don't you think?
DC: That is? Yeah. I would not have guessed that.
LT: I I wouldn't have either. And so this really was signaling a renewed focus on athlete centric storytelling in women's sports.
All right. So that's all. Wonderful. Great. But what were the results? So, according to Zappy research, the ad scored 86 for projected sales impact and 98 for brand impact in the under 35 demographic. So what's interesting, I, I actually love this ad. It brought me to tears, but I know that it was, it was polarizing.
There were people that didn't like it, but the people that they were [00:11:00] really trying to connect with under 35 females, it scored really big. And perhaps the, the coolest and, and best part of this, D, is that Asia Wilson's signature chew the, A one debuted on May 6th, so a few months later, and it sold out in just right away in its first drop and business in inside reported the pink Aura version sold out within five minutes, online. So that's the backdrop to the campaign. And, and we think, again, the last part of this is the reason why it's brave is they chose the Super Bowl. Think of, um, the broadest audience and football being so male-centric to debut this female-centric ad and to, so, so for us, not only was the execution and the, and the strategy of ev everything brilliant, but the place that they did it in was really brave too.
D, your thoughts? [00:12:00]
DC: This was an easy choice. It was an easy choice, uh, for many reasons. This last point you mentioned about Asia Wilson's shoe and it's selling out. Female basketball players don't get signature shoes very often. Asia is one of them and it sells out. Personally, brother, just like you, when I saw this campaign, um, I got emotional because I'm a girl dad and seeing a brand like Nike Platform, women athletes on the Super Bowl warmed my heart.
It takes risk to do that because Nike is known mostly as an iconic sports brand where everyone who is [00:13:00] an athlete, Charles Barkley athlete, everybody that has a body is an athlete and they can in fact reach iconic levels, not really reach them, but they can at least perform better. Uh, brother, what Nike did.
By saying, we are known as a brand that communicates and builds our brand mostly through men. But in this Super Bowl, we're gonna do it through women. Just, um, phenomenal. It also reminds me of, uh, of something else. Um, I'm, I'm gonna get a, a little existential here. I hope I'm not getting too, um, too soft.
'cause I do think this is about strength. Women athletes have been ignored, Brand Nerds.
LT: Yep.
DC: Yeah, they've been ignored, not just in basketball. Across the board. Women athletes have been largely ignored. [00:14:00] And I need to give a shout out now to, uh, our client, Aflac and the CMO, uh, Garth Knutson who's actually, uh, who happens to be a great friend of mine.
They had the NCAA basketball tournament and we know March Madness. Yep. Like March Madness is a really big deal. It is a male thing. March Madness is typically, and Aflac was a sponsor of the NCAA and the crown jewel called March Madness. Couple years ago, Garth made the call. Larry, you know this.
LT: Yep.
DC: Brand Nerds, Garth made the call to shift resources away from the men's basketball game, collegiate basketball game, to the women's collegiate basketball game. This is why Aflac has Don Staley, Coach Don Staley as a partner. That was a part of the shifting. [00:15:00] It has been an enormous success.
LT: Yep.
DC: That said, that's not the existential part.
This is the existential part. This move. Marketers to recognize and platform women's sports reminds me of a Maya Angelou poem and the part of the poem and the quote is this, I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it. This is Maya Angelou and what these women athletes are now saying to the world, this is so when I can be changed by you all ignoring me, that that, that that can change me and have me want to do different things, like speak more loudly, but I'm not gonna be reduced by it.
I'm not going quietly into the night. Lastly, I'll say this, I know I'm going on here. Uh, Larry, thank you for the space [00:16:00] on practical, practical terms. Brand Nerds, when you start a new job in marketing, there's gonna be a sound. Okay. That's the sound of bullets leaving the chamber and they're coming towards you.
It's not, if they're going to get to you, it's when they're gonna get to you. So Brand Nerds, you're gonna get fired in whatever job you're in, you're likely to get fired, so, because you're going to get fired anyway. Be brave.
LT: Love that
DC: Your thoughts, Larry?
LT: Love that. No, that's are great thoughts. And, uh, just a couple quick thoughts before we go to the next, uh, segment.
You know, I've, I've done a lot of business DC as you know, over the, over, over the years with Nike and I've gotten to know them, uh, inside those velvet ropes, uh, quite well. And truthfully, that company and the brand weren't so kind [00:17:00] to women back in the day. Yeah. There's some bad stories. Brand Nerds.
DC: Yeah, that's true.
LT: So for this shift to happen is also really cool. And I'll end this by saying. Not only was this brave for all the reasons that we've said mm-hmm. But when this is done with such strategic and executional e excellence Yeah. You know, my identity is some, I'm, I'm still, at the end of the end of the day, my identity is someone who's a baller.
That's who I grew up being. Mm-hmm. And so that's my identity. And when I see athletes, uh, um, you know, put forth in the best light, these amazing athletes that even though it was aimed at women, the, the message of that resonated with me too, because it was so, when it's, when something's done so well, you know, we talk, think of an archery target, branders and DC and I are way out.
We're, we're way at the outer rungs of that archery target. The brand lover is [00:18:00] really the, the women who are in that ad. Right. And then the next rung or the real serious female athletes. But, so we're way out. But because it was done so well, the waves of that ad hit me in a really emotional way too. So I just wanted to state that as well.
Uh, before we get to the next, uh, next segment.
DC: One, one quick ad here, Larry, that's beautifully said. Nike brand team, um, Wise and Kennedy Ad Agency. You want to come holler at us about behind the scenes on this? Come holler at us.
LT: We'd love to have it. Alright, D, next, uh, banger number two. You want to hit us?
DC: I do. Number two, how did you think of that dope name award. All right, LT, this is, this is another category where we had a lot of candidates that we could [00:19:00] have selected, but the one we have for you. Its simplicity. The, the insight, the cleverness, to borrow a phrase, make one change and have it just blow your mind.
And the winner is a set of products called A Curl Can Dream. Not a girl can dream a curl as in curl in hair can dream hair product from Matrix. Matrix is a division of, uh, L'Oreal. All right, so here's the deal. This brand was launched September of 2021 when they launched this brand, Brand Nerds. They said, oh, well, you know, um, there's this cultural shift that we see that's happening and it's around [00:20:00] natural hair.
Not just hair that has been processed, chemicals in it, curly coily, hair, moisture rich. In other words, we're talking about women of color.
LT: Yes.
DC: Women of color and their, and their hair type. So this woman, Michelle O'Connor, come on Michelle, if you wanna holler at us, we'd love to have you. She's the artistic director for Matrix Matrix and she calls herself a curly girl.
So she said, I just kinda want a young people to like love their natural hair from birth, not go through this metamorphosis of perms and straightened hair and all of that, and then arrive later in life at appreciating their natural hair with curls like off the rip. She want. She wanted these, uh women, these young ladies to love their natural hair.[00:21:00]
So this is what they did to develop this thing. They said couple years they went through this. They had some experts in there that included O'Connor 500 hours of, uh, of research, which they called, I love this right here, curl Education.
LT: Yeah.
DC: 50 different formulas, 300 different models. So heads where they turn this on and all types of different curl types.
Now, Larry, I don't know what three A to four C means. I'm just gonna presume that that means napping nappy to be happy or, or loosely, right? I'm assuming, but I don't know. I don't know. So this name, now a curl can dream. It's like, ooh, man, L'Oreal's a pretty big company and trying to find like an origin story that'll make it all the way through.
The labyrinth of a major company. That's hard [00:22:00] to do. But they did it. They did it. And this phrase of a girl can dream turns into A Curl Can Dream. Larry,
LT: I just love this. You know, many times DC and I say the best marketing is the simplest. Mm-hmm. Right? And this seems like, why didn't somebody think of this long ago?
Right? Yes. Like this, this seems right. Right. And what not only is it simple, but I feel like it communicates so much. Mm-hmm. And it communicates the underrepresentation, what you were alluding to. Right, D of products, it, it communicates also even that a curl, the actual curl of one's hair can dream to actually have a product made for the curl.
DC: Yeah. Yeah. You know?
LT: Nice. That's nice, Larry. Right. Obviously it's a play and a girl can dream. So it has so many [00:23:00] permutations and so, and it, and it is so awesome. It makes you smile. It's just wonderful. And I am, we, Brand Nerds we did DC and I did a lot of research. That's what he was saying. We, this is a big public company.
There's not the origin story. We really look to find, to see who, who could, who was really behind this. But invariably there's a lot of agencies that are working with L'Oreal and Matrix. And so, um, we're not sure quite how it, uh, how it rose to the top, but I can't imagine that once this was presented that uh, this didn't, uh, roll through L'Oreal and Matrix pretty quickly because it's so brilliant and so simple and communicate so much.
DC: Agreed. Larry Campaign launched in 2021. I need to shout out the OG in the game. The OG in the game is a company company called Carol's Daughter. This award Brand Nerds is about the name. This is not about an [00:24:00] entire campaign and all of the different things surrounding it. This is the name itself. Carol's daughter, though OG in the game.
They launched a campaign in 2015 that was called Born and Made Meaning Born in Brooklyn, which is where it launched, made With Love. So this is where they were, they launched this campaign. They did a hashtag Born and made where they were encouraging women to share their own beauty stories and their identities in, in social media.
So I want to give the proper shout out to Carol's daughter for being the OG in the game. And then now let me, let me go back to, uh, a Curl Can Dream about, I don't know, this is a, this is a long time ago, Larry. I learned that with, uh, with women in [00:25:00] particular black and brown women, that when they change their hairstyles, whatever the change is, I could, it's, it's a significant change that it correlates with a change that's happening in their life.
So if you, if you see a sister and on Monday, and you've known her for years, she's got straight hair, and on Friday she's happy to be nappy, wearing her natural curls. That's not some random change. Something has occurred that precipitated that change. And so the, uh, a curl can dream to me is an invitation.
Now, I don't have any here. I'm a man and I don't have any here for a woman. AKA girl in this case to go, you know what, whatever you're dreaming about with [00:26:00] your locks, we can help you with that. Just dope. Just dope.
LT: Totally love it.
DC: Alright brother. Shall we hit the third?
LT: All right, number three, man. We love the, this is such a good one.
Yeah, so Brand Nerds, the brand Roo. Uh, number three is Champagne Results on a Beer Budget. So this one we just have great love for it. D dc you alluded to this in, uh, in, in your, uh, preface when you were talking about this award, since you have to be smart, scrappy, and scintillating. I'm gonna hit the three S's to move the needle here.
DC: I like it. I like it. It is, oh, triple alliteration,
LT: Right?
DC: Yes.
LT: So Brand Nerds we found a super cool brand here and the winner is La Vieille Ferme. I'm doing the French. I took four Years of French. I'm doing my best laer film that has become known as the chicken Wine. Of course, not on [00:27:00] purpose, but funny and ironic, handing this champagne results in a beer budget award to a value-based $10 a bottle French wine. We thought that was funny too, but honestly, Brand Nerds, we weren't, uh, we weren't putting the fix in here. We just think this one is amazing. So let's take you through the key details. Okay, so the background is it's, they are a fifth generation, um, uh, family run business, uh, La Vieille Ferme and the fifth generation family member and current CEO, his name is Mark Perrin, and he explains, the family adopted the brand's recognizable chicken sketch label in the early two thousands as part of a brand refresh. Then the original label used. Uh, the, uh, his parents farm as part of the backdrop of what the label is. So that's when they entered the chickens onto the brand refresh in the refresh in the early two thousands.
[00:28:00] So over years, over time that recognizability paired with the general public's inability and or la laziness to pronounce the name La Vieille Ferme, led to the widely agreed upon moniker the chicken wine. Instead of thumbing their nose at what many in the wine business would see as a ghaustlyc nickname, uh, mark Perrin and his team le they leaned in all the way.
The company launched a limited edition rebrand that explicitly used the nickname, the Chicken Wine on the label. And they now use the chicken wine front and center on, on all of their social media. So here are the results. Brand nerd, brand nerds. The brand recently hit more the 1 million case sales within the last 12 months in the UK and is on track to do the same in the us All with little to no marketing and advertising.
You have to, uh, have a brand label for your brand. And in this days [00:29:00] table stakes. O table stakes obviously is social media, so there's no media with associated with this brand. It's just with their doing with their own assets being the label and the social media. And we just love this in every way for, for all of what, what's happened here.So D, what are you thinking?
DC: This is a easy one for me, Larry, to fall in love with because anyone in the wine business, you have to do a label.
LT: Right.
DC: So this is table stakes. A label is table stakes. You are going to, you're, you're going to do a label and it's gonna say something on it. The fact that they could use a label and put chickens on it and have consumers not be able to pronounce their name, which many might think is an L, [00:30:00] and go, you know what, we're not gonna go and call, we're not gonna call consumers dumb.
LT: Yes. And
DC: tell them you, you don't know. You don't know French. You don't know. And, and, uh, Brand Nerds, for those of you all who are not French, French people don't really like you. Like that right there. That's right. Those, they, they, are they French people? They really love themselves and their culture or, yes.
Right. They're not really trying to have your culture come in. And do anything to reduce their culture. So just, just for the record, for the record for a fridge company to go, Hmm, we're not going to turn our noses up. We are going to lean into this chicken thing, proves that brilliant marketing need not be expensive.
LT: Exactly. And that's the point here. Brand nerds. Yep. And you know, DC and I say [00:31:00] this a lot, this is really important that obviously Mark Perrin and his family, fifth generation, they own La Vieille Ferme, okay. That's their, they're, they own the brand and everything with it, but at the end of the day, they're just stewards of that brand, the real owners of the consumers.
'cause if nobody's buying that brand and nobody's connecting with it, he doesn't have a company. So ultimately the consumer, you the consumer, own the brand. And so if you're the best brand custodians and you see something like this and you go, wow, this is, why are we gonna thumb our nose in it? It's, it's on our label and people are having fun with it.
And by the way, it's a $10 bottle of wine. And if you look it up, it's actually, uh, for, in, in that category, it has really good reviews. So they have a, they actually have a good product, but for them to lean in and not take themselves too seriously and [00:32:00] just connect with people on that level, people feel like that brand is part of who they are.
And so they're gonna lean in even more. And you're a more, you're now emotionally connecting with people with. Basically a negligible marketing budget. And that's one of the reasons why DC and I love this so much, is because, uh, they understand that they, while they are the, uh, they are technically the brand owners, they're really just the brand custodians and they're just leaning into their consumers.
DC: Larry, there's another example, uh, like this also, uh, Europe. Um, there's a, i, I think it's a, uh, a Danish butter cookie called Royal, uh, dance. Uh, i, I, I may be mispronouncing that it comes in a blue tan and people refer to it as the blue tin or the cookies in the blue tin. It's just a color, right? But they've leaned into that [00:33:00] same thing here, right?
Same thing here.
LT: Same. Love it. Alright, D, that's a great one. So now we are at. The last award. Shall you lead us in here?
DC: We're already at the last?
LT: Yeah.
DC: Of the bangers, like the, the, the beak one.
LT: The biggie, the biggin, as you said.
DC: The Biggin Brand Nerds. We are at the, I wish I did that. Grand Prix award. The winner.
This is the single biggest honor from our first annual Brands, Beats and Bytes podcast award show. This award goes to the campaign brand, platform, long, long-term strategy that marketers everywhere. All of us secretly, we, we put on our Grinch Green and [00:34:00] go, okay. I kinda wish that I had that in my reel. I wish I had that in my repertoire.
It combines bravery, originality, craft, and undeniable commercial impact selection criterion for the, I wish I did that. Grand Prix Award. Clear business impact, not just bus. Strong, simple human insight, brave choices, creatively or strategically executional excellence across channel, and that jealousy factor that, man, I, I wish I'd done that.
What this is not in our, and our criterion is who got the most mentions at Cannes, right? Yeah. [00:35:00] Who rode on the biggest yacht at Canne? Who? Who went to the. Dopest dinners at Cannes with fill in the blank Influencer of celebrity. This is not that award. Mm-hmm. Y'all can do that award at in Cannes. This is different.
All right, Larry. Again, lot, well, not, not really a lot, several, several different campaigns to consider as we thought about the criteria. Uh, by the way, we should add another one. Um, and that is, uh, longevity As, yes, longevity. The winner became an easy choice. And it is Dr. Pepper's College Football Fansville campaign, which is now in its eighth season. [00:36:00] Ville Dr. Pepper. Alright, key details. Little background here. How did this thing get developed? Well, ad agency, Deutsche LA along with Dr. Pepper brand team, they decided that before they came up with anything they needed to immerse themselves in college football culture.
So they attended games, tailgates, and then they started to really begin to get into and understand the strangeness of the college football fandom. And those of you all who are into college football, I'm one of them. You know, we are a strange bunch. We got some interesting rituals and thoughts from their research actually go going into the games.[00:37:00]
Hanging at the tailgates just like you did Larry, when you talked about checking out Frank Sinatra to find out. This is on our, uh, uh, um, Brand Bust to find out what is this dude really like? Like is he still Frank Sinatra? So they went out and did their research, and then they came up with the idea idea.
We're gonna do a TV dramedy, a dramedy, that'll be a parody of like a high school sports show, kinda like Friday Night Lights focusing on a fictional town, obsessed with the rivalry between State, that would be Dr. Pepper and Tech, their teams. So they launched this thing first in 2018, August 27th, 2018.
They have a regular cast, so the same cast they appear every [00:38:00] season including the star. He's the sheriff, The Bos, Brian Bosworth. Brand Nerds too young to know who that is. Go look up the b go, go look at some of his stuff on YouTube. He's got like a Mohawk. He was this really independent rebel of a player who also got rolled over.
Okay. He, he got rolled over.
LT: By Bo Jackson.
DC: But, but we're not gonna get off track here. We're not gonna get off track here in 2021. They, that was also when NIL was beginning to hit, hit the uh, uh, college campuses, NAL, name, image, and likeness rights. This is where athletes got paid. So Dr. Pepper, they started recruiting these college players to be stars in their commercial, and then they started integrating the ads in real college football landscapes.[00:39:00]
Notable athletes that they've had is DJ Uiagalelei, he used to be a quarterback at Clemson. Yeah. Then went on to do other things. Bryce Young, Alabama, uh, Caleb Williams was at Oklahoma, went transferred to USC and Quinn ERs, Texas. Yeah. So for this season 2025 campaign, as I mentioned earlier in their eighth season, Larry consistently incorporating timely, like satire, like references of what's happening in the game in real time, such as my beloved Michigan Wolverines.
Go blue. It's good to be a Michigan kid, man. Okay. I'm not a michigan man, but they did. They had a Ty a sign stealing scandal. All right? [00:40:00] And Dr. Pepper used that in one of their fans. Bill, uh, commercials and also conference realignment. All right, so what's happened here? Fans have gone crazy for nearly a decade with this campaign.
Online discussions, lore, characters. And this is in fact, in the advertising world, the longest running episodic thing that we see in advertising has not been anything, uh, like this industry recognition, praise for its effectiveness. Dr. Pepper was named in 2024 by Ad Age as the marketer of the year in 2024, that was season seven. This is season eight, by the way, in season seven Brand Nerds, they did a mashup. First time they did a mashup where they had the Dr. Pepper Fansville brand [00:41:00] partnering with another brand that's in college football, uh, advertising and World Aflac with the Aflac Duck. The Aflac Duck actually appeared in a Dr. Pepper Fansville ad. This year. They've done another mashup with Nissan and the Heisman strategic expansion. So the success of Ville has led them to expand the campaign, live, broadcast, mixed reality elements and even, and even further collaborations like what I mentioned before. Now we get to the results Brand Nerds.
Now we get to the results. This is what matters. This is why this is not a canned thing. It can be a canned thing. This is why it's not primarily a canned thing. Alright, in 2018, so this is when they started Ville, Dr. Pepper, Cher, in the non-alcoholic, um, beverage category was
LT: Carbonated soft drinks, just to be clear.
DC: Uh, carbonated soft drinks. Yeah. Uh, uh, uh, carbonated soft [00:42:00] drinks. Dr. Pepper was at a 7.2. Thank you Larry Pepsi, just number three. Pepsi was number two at the time. 9.1 share number one is Coca-Cola. Now let's cut to 2024. Dr. Pepper passed Pepsi to become the number one soft drink in the US.
LT: Number two, you said number one.
DC: Uh, I'm sorry, my bad. Larry, I appreciate you helping me man on this because I need it. Number two, soft drink in the US with an 8.34 share number, and then bouncing Pepsi to number three with an 8.31 share number.
LT: So they're virtually tied.
DC: They're virtually tight, but still Dr. Pepper's number two,
LT: Right.
DC: Yeah. Dr. Pepper's number two, which was uncon inconceivable a decade ago in total. Well, even
LT: D think about it. In the six years, [00:43:00] Dr. Pepper grew more than a SharePoint and Pepsi dropped 0.8 in just six years. That's branders for a huge category like that that that's monumental shifts. Go ahead, Dee.
DC: Insane.
Thank you, brother. Coming into this year, 2025, Dr. Pepper has separated themselves. In college football, when they say someone has separation speed, right? Recovery speed. This is separation speed. Now, Dr. Pepper has pulled further ahead of Pepsi in 2025. They have currently an 8.7 share versus Pepsi's 7.97 share.
So the gap is getting wider. And some of you may have heard Sprite has also passed Pepsi. So now Pepsi is not number two. They're not number three. They're now [00:44:00] number four. Number four Fansville, y'all, Dr. Pepper. Larry.
LT: Yeah, D, that's such a great backdrop that you provided and I'm just struck with. When you have something that wins Brand Nerds, this is now in its eighth year and when you think about this share movement there, this is something when you get something and it works strategically and you take the execution to a whole other level, you get results like this and you keep banging away and just keep getting better and better.
And so kudos to all the folks at Keurig, Dr. Pepper, who our great friend Andrew Springate was, was CMO there. He's Andrew since moved on and they're continuing to do it. It's not the new blood coming in and new CMO, I don't know the new CMOs name. You, you should best be, take [00:45:00] DC's advice from the 1990s when he told the person that one of his PE-people that was his bosses at Sprite, that just sit over there and enjoy the ride just.
Just take fans Bill and just keep running this play because we're saying this brand nerds, because they need to keep doing this because it's clearly winning. And don't just move off this because somebody new's coming in and wants to make their mark. Uh, it's, it's incredibly impressive. And this, so this fans campaign is the foundation to a brand that's already successful going to a complete other level.
And D, wanna tell you a a, a secret I never told you, and this is important Brand Nerds personally, I'm a college football fan. This fans campaign doesn't do it for me. But that doesn't matter at all. No. 'cause it does it for everybody else. Yeah. And I'm saying that for a reason. Brand nerds. When you're a custodian of a brand, it's not about you, it's about the [00:46:00] consumer.
And this thing is ba is so banging, pun intended with the consumer that that's all that matters. It's not about you. It's about what's working for the consumer. And so that's a really important point that I wanted to make here, D.
DC: Larry, I'm glad you made all of the points, particularly the last one. My takeaway from this wonderful story is that marketers, we often fatigue
LT: Yes.
DC: Of a powerful campaign before the consumer does.
LT: Say it again, D, You say it all the time, but this is a really important Brand Nerds.
DC: Thank you Larry. Marketers, often fatigue of a powerful results based working campaign idea before consumers.
LT: Yep.
DC: We gotta go back recently on our Friends Beats and Bytes [00:47:00] podcast, we had one, Jim Trebilcock.
LT: Yep.
DC: Jim T. Jim T is the OG of Ville. Yes. Along with Deutsche La. We mentioned them earlier. Jim t used to be the head of marketing.
LT: Thanks for shouting out, Jim. That's important with Jim. I'm glad
DC: that's a dope show. You all oughta go check that out, Brandon. Yes, it is a super dope show. Jim t Initiates the Deal.
Does The Deal Works with Ryan Lair, co-creative director at Deutsche la. They launched this Andrew Springate. Our boy also there launching this. This is eight years ago. Jim T leaves, Andrew Springate ascends and becomes a CMO. They run the same play. Yep. Right. They run the same play. [00:48:00] Jim T is now gone.
Andrew Springate, who I call Gate Baby. What's up Gate baby? Shout out one time the Gate baby. He now leaves. Keurig Dr. Pepper, just love the brand team over there. We worked with them, uh, a little more than a year ago. These are great folks. We don't know the new CMO. We, we know the CEO, but we don't know the new CMO.
We're gonna be watching them very carefully. Larry.
LT: Yes, we are.
DC: Very, very carefully to see if they fall into the trap of, ah, I'm, I'm the new person on the block. I'm kind of tired of this. It's kind of boring. We need to change it up or get rid of it. Don't do it. Otherwise, next year you are going to be. On the Brands Beats and Bytes award show on the, [00:49:00] on the bust side of it, don't you'd be the leading.
LT: Leader on the bus.
The leading Don't do that. Yes.
DC: Don't, don't, don't do that.
LT: Yeah. And Dee, just to con finish that point before we get to the summary, this is really important brand nerd, when you have this winning formula that keeps running and because college football is really all about change, everything about college football has change built into it because guys come and go.
And it's even faster. The, you know, the guys come and go now, uh, especially because of the transfer portal and everything. Yeah. So change is endemic to college football. So to Dr. Pepper's credit, they've leaned into that and that's become a big part of the episodic nature to it. So why should they ever stop this play?
It becomes, it becomes like the, the, the soap opera that lasts 40, 50 years, the general hospitals of the world. There's no reason to not keep running this play. Um, [00:50:00] assuming college football keeps up its level of popularity and you continue to use to use college football and do fans bill with such ex such executional excellence.
DC: Yes. Uh, Larry, uh, one final ad for me. I think even when they are not talking about some current event. College football, they will still nail an insight that has cultural resonance.
LT: Yes.
DC: For example, they have an ad. I actually texted Ryan and told him, man, I'm laughing outta my bed, looking at this one where they are playing with the term known in in culture as side piece.
LT: Yes.
DC: Side piece. Now side piece has nothing to do inherently with college football,
LT: right?
DC: Yeah. It has to do with, well go look it up. For those that don't know it, most of the brand nerd don't know. Yeah. You know
LT: what it means? Brand nerd, [00:51:00]
DC: you, you know what it means? Uh, brand nerves and they've got one of the characters who's al all of the characters are always in it.
Uh, and they are having fun with him because he apparently has a side piece. Called Western University. Now, the, the, the campaign is set up on, as we talked about state, which is Dr. Pepper and Tech, their competitors. Right now, they're coming in with what you call these directional schools, right? Western?
Western And the, the, the character don't remember this character's name is like, no, no, no, no. I don't, I don't have a, I don't have a side team. I don't have a side team. So they're, they're, they're pressing this dude like, Hey, you got a side team. And it's like, what about the cake? And it has like this, the team's name on there, and then the doorbell rings as this dude's trying to defend himself.
No, no, no. Like I'm down with state, I'm not down. I don't have a side team. In, in comes, in, comes the mascot for Western. Uh, fictional Western, right? And the dude [00:52:00] just came say, oh, this, this is not a good time. This is not a good time. And then, but, but Western, this western, uh, mascot has Dr. Pepper under his arm and they're basically saying, Hey, you can get the fuck out.
Oh, sorry. You, you, you can get out, but leave the Dr. Pepper. Brilliant.
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
LT: I'm glad you talked about that. That's great. And kudos to Ryan and team in Deutsche. And, and again, kudos to the, this Dr. Pepper, uh, marketing team for eight plus years and hopefully for many, many more years.
'cause this should be, this shouldn't end in any time soon. It's, uh, it's awesome stuff. And that's why they, uh, they have won this inaugural and there's a jealousy factor to this. D think about. Uh, if you are anybody in the marketing world, would you want to be part of this campaign? Everybody would grab a hold of this, and especially with the results.
I wish I did that Grand Prix Award has to go to Dr. Pepper for all the reasons we've said, especially even [00:53:00] summing up what, how they've even, uh, widened the gap in 2025 with share, uh, versus Pepsi.
All right, we're the show close, man. This we're the show close. This has been so much fun. Do you wanna hit us first with, uh, some of your thoughts as to I do what, what we should, what we and the Brand Nerds should take away from this?
DC: I do. Uh, Larry, thank you. The number one brand banger award for our show today is around being brave and we call it the Bravest Marketing Move Award.
Bravest Marketing Move Award. While that was the first award giving today, Larry, this kinda sums up my thought of a theme for all of these awards today. And even those that did not make the winner list [00:54:00] but were really good, they steal to me, fall under the umbrella of being brave.
LT: Yes.
DC: Being brave.
LT: And all of them do.
You're right.
DC: All, all, all of them do. All of them do.
LT: I I mean, you, you, if you go through, you know, the, the, a French, uh, $10 French bottle of wine. Yeah. Wine. It, it, it, it would've been, uh, the easy thing to thumb their noses at the chicken wine, right?
DC: Yeah. C would've been entirely easy, but they didn't do it.
They didn't do it. I have an acrostic, I want to share using the word brave. Hopefully you Brand Nerds will find some inspiration in this. My challenge to you all in 2026 is to be brave. And by brave what I mean is the be bold curiosity. [00:55:00] Our relentless innovation, a authentic storytelling, the vision driven strategy that drives results, and the e empathy and action.
Do that Brand Nerds.
LT: Yeah, that's awesome. D and I'm just B, before we go, I just wanna pause with this brand nerds. We cannot overemphasize. You better know. The foundation to your brand. What is your brand promise? Who are your consumers? What, who are the brand lover of your consumers? And it sands that you're sort of drive with, uh, with, uh, it's like you're, you're uh, a person who is site challenged and you're driving without glasses [00:56:00] and you're guessing and you're just hoping that you get to the destination.
You've got to have the foundation of who your brand is, what it's about, the brand promise before you can really sing. And all these brands that, um, that we've hit you with today, these bangers really know their brand and know who their consumers are. And that's absolutely critical for success. And then when you bring in the Deutsches of the world to, uh, to take it to executional excellence, it becomes much easier because the brand knows who they are.
DC: Well said, brother. I, I think using your words, Larry, that's a mic drop.
LT: Yes. Brand Nerds. , Thanks so much for listening to Brands, Beats and bytes, this special edition, the executive producers of Brands, Beats and Bytes are Jeff Shirley, "Darryl "DC" Cobbin, Larry Taman, Hailey Cobbin, Jade Tate, and Tom Dioro
The podfatherrrrr..
I love that. If you do like this [00:57:00] podcast, please subscribe and share and for those on Apple podcasts if you're so inclined, we love those excellent reviews. We hope you enjoyed this podcast, and we look forward to next time, next year, 2026, where we will have more insightful and enlightening talk about marketing.
Happy New Year, y'all.