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Mars shares its creative risk framework from Brandweek 2026, Heineken acquires Brazilian Better Drinks, and Mondelez sues candy challenger Joyride.
Mars is opening up its internal playbook for greenlighting bold creative risks. Plus Heineken bets on yerba-mate in Brazil, and Mondelez takes Joyride to court over Sour Patch Kids.
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: Morning — three stories worth your time today.
Klara: Mars is opening up about how it decides when to back a bold creative idea. Heineken is placing a big bet on Brazil. And Mondelez is back in court — same playbook, different target.
Marco: It's a full picture of how big FMCG players are thinking right now.
Klara: Let's dig in.
Marco: Mars — the company behind Snickers, M&Ms, and Pedigree — has gone public with how it decides which bold creative ideas are worth betting on.
Klara: Which is unusual, because most big FMCG companies guard that kind of internal thinking very closely. Mars is one of the largest brand owners in the world — a huge portfolio, enormous budgets, a lot at stake with every decision. That means risk-aversion, the tendency to play it safe, is baked into how these organisations naturally operate.
Marco: So what's changed is this: at Brandweek 2026, Mars' Rankin Carroll revealed that the company uses something they call a 'Why' test. Before committing to a bold creative idea, they put it through a structured set of questions designed to check whether the ambition behind it is real and grounded — or just noise. The goal is to greenlight brave work without being reckless. Discipline and boldness at the same time.
Klara: And honestly, the fact that they've codified it — written it down, made it repeatable — is the interesting part for me. It's not just "we have brave leaders." It's a process. That's something any brand team can build.
Marco: My take is sharper. This is a direct challenge to every brand manager sitting on a good idea and waiting for certainty before they act. If Mars — with that much to lose — is building formal tools to say yes to risk, then smaller brands have fewer excuses than they think.
Klara: I'd push back slightly on that. Framework or not, Mars has the resources to absorb a campaign that doesn't land. For a mid-sized European brand at Carrefour or Rewe, the stakes of getting bold and wrong feel very different.
Marco: Fair distinction. The framework matters — but so does knowing your own runway.
Klara: Now, let's move to our next story.
Marco: Heineken has agreed to buy a Brazilian company called Better Drinks — and it covers both beer and yerba-mate.
Klara: Worth pausing on yerba-mate, because it might be unfamiliar. It's a traditional South American drink made from dried leaves — naturally caffeinated, often positioned around energy and wellness. It's been huge in Argentina and Brazil for generations, but it's now attracting serious attention from mainstream drinks companies because younger consumers in particular are reaching for it as a kind of functional alternative to energy drinks or coffee.
Marco: So the specific move here is that Heineken is acquiring Better Drinks Participações — a firm that operates across both beer and yerba-mate in Brazil. Brazil is already one of the biggest beer markets on the planet, and Heineken has an established presence there. But this deal isn't just about selling more beer. It's about getting into a fast-growing drinks category that sits right at the crossroads of culture and function.
Klara: What strikes me is the M&A angle — the acquisition angle. Heineken isn't building a yerba-mate brand from scratch. They're buying one that already has roots, already has trust with Brazilian consumers. That's a very deliberate shortcut. Building cultural credibility in an emerging market from zero takes years. Buying it takes a cheque.
Marco: And that's the signal for FMCG strategists here. When a new drinking occasion — a new moment in someone's day when they reach for a particular type of product — is growing fast, the question isn't just "should we be there?" It's "how quickly can we get there, and is building or buying faster?"
Klara: My hesitation is integration. Bolt-on acquisitions look clean on paper. But blending a craft, culturally rooted yerba-mate brand inside a global brewing giant without losing what made it appealing — that's genuinely difficult.
Marco: Agreed. The deal is the easy part. Right, our third story is next.
Marco: Mondelēz — the company behind Sour Patch Kids — is suing a US candy brand called Joyride for copying its trademarks.
Klara: For context, trademarks and trade dress — meaning the distinctive look and feel of a product, its colours, packaging, logo — are some of the most valuable things a consumer brand owns. If a rival copies them closely enough, it can confuse shoppers and eat directly into your sales. Mondelēz has been here before. We've covered their disputes with Catherine's Originals and Moo Free. This Joyride case is a third, separate fight — different brand, different market, same legal playbook.
Marco: The specifics here are that Mondelēz has filed suit against Joyride alleging infringement of the Sour Patch Kids trademarks and trade dress. Joyride is a challenger candy brand that has grown fast in the US — fast enough to become a real competitive threat to one of Mondelēz's flagship confectionery products. This isn't a small nuisance claim. It's going after a brand that is genuinely cutting into their space.
Klara: What I find striking is the pattern. Three disputes running at the same time, across different categories and geographies. That's not accident — that's a coordinated strategy. Mondelēz has made a decision that intellectual property enforcement is now a frontline competitive tool, not just background legal admin.
Marco: And honestly, that's the signal every brand manager should take away. When challenger brands start scaling fast enough to threaten category leaders, the incumbents' first real weapon isn't a price cut or a new product — it's the legal boundary around what they already own. IP enforcement is becoming as much a growth defence strategy as any marketing campaign.
Klara: Though I'd note that aggressive legal action carries reputational risk too. Suing small challengers can position you as the heavyweight throwing punches at the upstarts — and consumers notice that.
Marco: They do. And increasingly, they take sides.
Marco: Today's clearest signal — the brands winning long-term are the ones who know exactly why they're doing what they're doing, whether that's a creative bet, an acquisition, or a legal fight.
Klara: So pick one decision your brand made recently and ask honestly: could you explain the why in a single sentence?