startup-brand

Why Adidas Made an Actor the Lead of Its World Cup Ad and Messi the Cameo

Adidas launched Backyard Legends on May 7, 2026, a five-minute World Cup hero film with actor Timothée Chalamet as the protagonist and Lionel Messi, Jude Bellingham, David Beckham, and Zinedine Zidane in supporting roles. Adidas can't out-roster Nike on athletes, so it changed the genre instead. The lesson,

Liquid Death's Limb-Eating Ad Works Because the Brand Earned the Escalation

Liquid Death released a 60-second spot on May 6, 2026 in which a man bites off his own leg, lets possums gnaw his arm, and burns his fingers for kindling to reach sparkling mountain water. The ad works because the $1.4 billion brand spent five years earning the right

Fox's $50K Times Square Cube Is Indeed's Cheapest 2026 World Cup Ad Buy

Fox One and Indeed announced a $50,000 "Chief World Cup Watcher" role on May 5, 2026, hiring one applicant to watch all 104 FIFA World Cup matches from a transparent cube in Times Square between June 11 and July 19. Applications close May 17 through Indeed profiles,

Ulta Credits AI for 95% of Sales. That Number's Been 95% Since 2023.

Ulta Beauty told Adweek on May 5 that AI personalization is supercharging the loyalty program that drives 95% of its sales. PYMNTS reported the same 95% loyalty share in 2023, two full years before Ulta rolled out the Virtual Beauty Advisor AI inside its mobile app. The number AI is

GameStop's eBay Bid Calls Out $2.4B in Marketing That Added 1M Buyers

GameStop made a $55.5 billion unsolicited bid for eBay on May 4, 2026, and the pitch names eBay's $2.4 billion fiscal 2025 sales and marketing budget as the single biggest target for cuts. The bid's logic: that spend produced one million net active buyers,

What Liquid Death, CeraVe, and Stanley Did to Go Viral on Zero Ad Spend

Five brands earned over a billion impressions each in the past three years without spending a dollar on paid amplification: Liquid Death, CeraVe, Olipop, Duolingo, and Stanley. Each followed the same pattern: make content people share unprompted, plant a hook the internet can finish, then amplify through creators instead of

Allbirds Sold for $39M. The DTC Death Pattern Has Four Acts

Allbirds agreed to sell its brand and assets to American Exchange Group for roughly $39 million in March 2026, down from a $4.2 billion peak market value in 2021. The pattern underneath this collapse repeats across Outdoor Voices, Casper, Brandless, and Away. Pure-play direct-to-consumer brands die when paid-acquisition costs