Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Smirnoff partners with Hinge to reach Gen Z, Sprite reshapes its NBA deal for global growth, and PepsiCo's CEO publicly backs its Publicis consolidation.
Smirnoff is embedding in dating culture to win Gen Z, Sprite is squeezing global value from its NBA rights, and PepsiCo's CEO just told investors exactly what he expects from agency partners. Three moves every FMCG marketer should study.
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.
Enjoying the show? A quick rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify helps other marketers find us.
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: Three stories on the agenda this morning — and they all connect back to the same question: how do you actually reach younger consumers today?
Klara: We've got Smirnoff getting clever with dating culture, Sprite rethinking what a sports sponsorship is really for, and PepsiCo's CEO making a very public statement about what he expects from his agency partners.
Marco: Let's get into it.
Marco: Smirnoff has teamed up with dating app Hinge — and the strategy behind it tells you a lot about where spirits marketing is heading.
Klara: So let's set the scene. Spirits brands like Smirnoff are in a difficult spot right now. Younger consumers — Gen Z especially — are drinking less than previous generations did at the same age. That's a real volume problem for big brands. And the old playbook of TV ads and celebrity campaigns just isn't cutting through with this group.
Marco: So what Smirnoff has done is stop trying to interrupt Gen Z and start showing up where they already are. The partnership with Hinge puts the brand inside dating culture — one of the most socially charged spaces in a young person's life. The idea is co-created content that fits naturally into how people are already using the app, rather than a banner ad they scroll past in half a second.
Klara: I find this genuinely smart because it's not about the product — it's about the moment. A first date. The nerves. The awkward silences. Smirnoff isn't saying "drink our vodka." It's saying "we understand your world."
Marco: And that's the bit that matters for brand managers across FMCG, not just spirits. The question isn't "where can we buy media space?" It's "where do our consumers already have strong feelings?" Then you find a way to belong there.
Klara: I'd add a word of caution though. This kind of cultural partnership is harder to scale than it looks. It only works if the brand actually earns its place in that space. If it feels forced, Gen Z will clock it immediately — they're extremely sensitive to brands that feel like they're trying too hard.
Marco: Earned relevance. That's the whole game.
Klara: Alright — our next story is up in a moment.
Marco: Sprite is overhauling how it uses its NBA sponsorship — and the shift tells you something important about how big brands are thinking about sports deals right now.
Klara: So a bit of context. Sprite and basketball have been connected for decades. The brand built a big chunk of its identity around NBA culture, particularly in the US. But most of that investment has been pointed at American consumers. The question Coca-Cola is now asking is: why stop there?
Marco: What's changed is the mandate. Sprite is explicitly restructuring its NBA partnership to drive growth in international markets — not just maintain visibility at home. Instead of using a global sports property to talk to US shoppers, they're flipping the model. The NBA is popular in Europe, in Africa, in Asia. Sprite wants to use that cultural reach to build the brand in places where it's still growing.
Klara: And that makes sense when you look at the economics. Premium sports rights are expensive. If you're only activating them in one market, you're leaving a lot of value on the table. Extracting international return from a global sports platform — that's a much smarter use of what you've already paid for.
Marco: For brand managers, this is worth stress-testing in your own portfolio. Ask yourself: do we have sponsorship assets we're only using locally when they could be working globally?
Klara: Though I'd push on one thing. Globalising a sponsorship activation sounds straightforward, but execution is hard. What resonates in Germany or Nigeria around basketball culture can be very different from what works in the US. You can't just translate a US campaign and ship it out.
Marco: True. The rights are global. The creative still has to be local.
Klara: That's the discipline that separates the brands that get real value from sports deals and the ones that just have a logo somewhere.
Marco: Our third and final story is coming up next.
Marco: PepsiCo's CEO just stood in front of investors to personally defend the company's decision to hand its global media buying to one agency — Publicis — and what he said is worth paying attention to.
Klara: So a bit of history. Big companies like PepsiCo traditionally spread their media spending — that's the money they pay to run ads across TV, online, and everywhere else — across several agencies. Consolidating all of that with a single partner is a significant move. It's expensive to switch, it's disruptive, and it tends to raise eyebrows.
Marco: Which is exactly why it's notable that CEO Ramon Laguarta addressed this directly with investors. He didn't frame the Publicis deal as a cost-cutting move — which is usually how these consolidations get sold internally. He called it a strategic "capability." Something PepsiCo needs to do what it wants to do with marketing. That's a different kind of argument entirely.
Klara: And that choice of language matters. When a CEO is using boardroom language to describe an agency relationship, it tells you that decisions about who buys your media — and how — have moved well beyond the marketing department. This is now a corporate strategy conversation.
Marco: For brand managers, the implication is fairly stark. The agencies that win the biggest accounts going forward won't just be pitching cheaper rates or wider reach. They'll need to demonstrate proprietary tools, data infrastructure, things that a brand genuinely cannot build on its own. That's what "capability" means here.
Klara: Though I'd say — be careful not to overread this as a template. PepsiCo operates at a scale that very few FMCG businesses match. The case for full consolidation looks different if your total media budget is a fraction of theirs. Capability matters at every level, but the right structure still depends on your size.
Marco: Fair enough. But the shift in language — from savings to capability — that one's relevant regardless of how big you are.
Marco: Today's thread — the brands winning with younger audiences aren't interrupting culture, they're part of it.
Klara: So look at your last campaign and ask honestly: were you showing up where your audience already lives, or just where you'd always bought space?