The marketing playbook continues to be rewritten. In an increasingly fragmented cultural landscape, that reevaluation is coming to celebrity partnerships which has marketers rethinking who they partner with and how.

Take Nike’s new partnership with Kim Kardashian, on a new women’s activewear brand called NikeSkims. The New York Times’ likened it to that of Michael Jordan and Nike, which long has been seen as the creme de la creme of brand partnerships and celebrity endorsements as it allowed Nike to not only enter a new market (basketball) but to cement its brand within culture. Could Kardashian’s shape wear brand be the next?

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Reformation recognizes the power of a viral moment. The sustainable, direct-to-consumer fashion brand is on the heels of another such moment after its Valentine’s Day campaign featuring comedian Pete Davidson as the brand’s “official boyfriend” made the proverbial internet rounds last week. But that doesn’t mean the brand is in the business of virality for the sake of virality.

Brands are finding it more difficult to find virality as the social landscape continues to fragment. What works on one platform could die on the vine on another. And it’s a trickier time for brands on social in general as the fate of TikTok continues to hang in the balance, and amid content moderation rollbacks and brand safety concerns.

Reformation’s Davidson campaign followed a different viral hit last spring after it hired activist Monica Lewinsky on its “You’ve Got the Power” campaign, which featured Lewinsky, encouraging voter registrations. It was an inflection point for the brand as a way to grow brand awareness among new audiences, said Lauren Cohan, chief creative officer at Reformation.

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It’s funny how much social media marketing matters. You never think people would wax poetic about the supposed death of a brand mascot — and yet that’s exactly what’s happened with Duo the Duolingo Owl last week. The “unhinged content” strategy that Duolingo employed made Duo more than another brand mascot. Rather, the bird was an entryway for the brand to have real fans, something many marketers have asked their social teams to find a way to replicate, but with varying results.

The attention paid to Duo’s “death” — a few agency executives I spoke with for this piece argued that Duolingo was able to get more attention with its Duo obit than some brands got from their Super Bowl campaigns — is another indicator of how much social media can do for a brand. But Duo’s social media success didn’t just happen because the brand was active on social media. It happened because the brand was able to create content that was funny enough, entertaining enough, to break through and become part of culture. That’s the code that marketers are obsessed with trying to crack today. And it’s not easy to do.

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Doritos revived its “Crash the Super Bowl” contest to mark its 25th year advertising during the Big Game. The move wasn’t intended to simply put together a user-generated Super Bowl spot, as it has been in years past. Instead, Doritos is looking to further its connection to the creator economy.

This year, about 2,200 spots were submitted, giving Doritos the opportunity to foster connections with new creators who entered the contest. The PepsiCo-owned brand, which originally ran the contest from 2006 to 2016, will potentially roll out some of the work from the creators who weren’t featured during the Super Bowl at other points during the year.

It’s part of Doritos’ larger plan to increase its investments in creators, with James Wade, the brand’s senior director of marketing, characterizing the move as a “pretty dramatic jump this year.”

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For marketers, the stakes of the Super Bowl are clear. It’s the one night of the year when people eagerly await the advertising with high expectations. It should be the venue where marketers find a grand or silly or audacious or inspiring — or whatever adjective fits — way to say the thing that they want to say to people and make the (at least) $8 million media spend worth it.

But those very stakes and the need to make the outsized spend worth it may be working against marketers’ better instincts, as they are desperate to create something that will appeal to everyone, but may ultimately appeal to no one. This year, marketers have been taking a more light-hearted approach to advertising around the Big Game, leaning on comedy and celebrities, recognizing that it’s a more delicate environment given the fractured nature of the country.

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There’s a certain early aughts sensibility — think bro-y humor, racier advertising or general objectification of everyone — that seems to be making a comeback. 

Just look at last night’s Big Game. Bud Light’s spot, “Big Men on the Cul-de-sac,” starring comedian Shane Gillis and Post Malone, could be viewed as a return to form for the brand, leaning on cheeky humor targeting men. Carl’s Jr., meanwhile, made headline’s last week for its Super Bowl marketing featuring influencer Alix Earle in a more overtly sexualized ad, seemingly resuming a marketing strategy the brand left behind in 2017.

It’s not just the Super Bowl, either. Men’s personal care brand Dr. Squatch, for example, has been using a similar tone of humor and sex appeal to stand out with ads starring actress Sydney Sweeney, aiming to appeal to fans by speaking to their fans the way that men speak to each other. (Sweeney also popped up in Hellmann’s When Harry Met Sally Super Bowl ad when Sweeney delivered the iconic, “I’ll have what she’s having” line at Katz’s after Sally, played by Meg Ryan, recreated the infamous scene.)

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The weeks ahead of the Super Bowl are always a mad dash for marketers. The ones running ever-more integrated campaigns are dropping hints on social media and teasers for their Super Bowl spots, then comes the actual rolling out the spots and finding ways to move campaigns beyond the flash in the pan of the Big Game. Others are trying to keep their strategies under lock and key, making sure whatever surprise they have in store for the Super Bowl doesn’t leak out.

“We’ve always said the Super Bowl is a season — not a day,” said Marcelo Pascoa, vp of marketing at Coors Light. The brand has an integrated approach to the Big Game this year, dropping billboard and print ads with a spelling mistake on them in the weeks ahead of the event to generate buzz for its forthcoming Super Bowl ad all about having a “case of the Mondays” the following day. Even as the alcohol brand is leaning into that integrated approach, they recognize that, “at the end of the day, what most people actually see is the spot in the game,” said Pascoa.

Ahead of Sunday’s Big Game face-off between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, Digiday caught up with marketers and agency creatives to get a sense of what the major trends will be for this year’s crop of ads. (We’ve already covered off on two major trends: marketers playing it safe and leaning on comedic creative this year, as well as more new advertising entrants in the Big Game.) Here’s what to expect this Sunday:

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If you watch the teasers or already released ads for Super Bowl LXI, it’s obvious that brands are taking a light-hearted approach, playing it safe by leaning on humor and classic brand advertising iconography to avoid ruffling anyone’s feathers this year. 

There’s a sense brands are returning to their place in culture, using advertising as entertainment rather than a place to take a stand of some kind that could potentially alienate their consumer base.

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The pendulum is starting to swing back to brand and a rethink of the traditional CMO-based marketing model. 

Marketing organizations within major brands are recognizing the damage they can do to their brands if they focus too much on performance marketing and too little on brand marketing. Marketers, agency execs and consultants said there’s a noticeable shift when talking to brand marketers — not only CMOs but those with the various titles that have started to replace the CMO title — where it’s clear that care for brand as well as performance is more apparent. 

That overall shift may be part of the thinking for some companies as they reorganize their marketing departments. Last week, for example, Kimberly Clark announced a new addition to its roster of marketing professionals: Luis Sanches joined as the company’s first global chief creative and design officer working under the company’s chief growth officer, Patricia Corsi. The company has moved away from the traditional CMO model with Corsi replacing its previous CMO Alison Lewis last spring. 

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The state of corporate America’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) policies continue to be under a magnifying glass — with all eyes watching to see if a flame will spark from the heat. 

In recent weeks, major brands like Target, Walmart, Amazon, McDonald’s and Meta, have rolled back DE&I policies. It’s unclear whether they’re publicly doing so to appease the new White House administration. President Donald Trump is reportedly making DE&I a policy issue with an executive order this week that would stop the use of DE&I practices within the Department of Defense as well as Homeland Security. Other corporate behemoths like Costco, Apple, Microsoft, e.l.f. Beauty, JPMorgan and Goldman, meanwhile, have defended or publicly stood by their policies.

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As the 41st annual Sundance Film Festival kicks off in Park City, Utah this weekend, more marketers and creators are joining the ranks of the film industry attendees. The festival, which will run from Jan. 23 to Feb. 2, has typically been a host to advertisers like Adobe, Acura and Shutterstock that set up houses on Main Street with experiential marketing and programming to appeal to attendees. 

While that’s still the case — the festival has myriad returning sponsors as well as new ones like Casamigos and Free People — more marketers are looking to the festival not only as a potential experiential marketing offering but as an event that can help shape their marketing efforts for the year. Anecdotally, marketing execs, ad agency senior leaders and talent agency execs noted that there has been more interest from marketers in attending the conference than in previous years. 

There are a few reasons. The Brand Storytelling conference, which takes place in Park City from Jan. 22 to 25, has brought more marketers to the area. It’s not just a matter of right time, right place. With more creators attending the festival, it’s a place for marketers to meet with potential creators and foster working relationships, noted execs. This interest in Sundance also comes as marketers have a renewed interest in brand marketing after years of focusing on performance over brand. One example of that: The investment in brand studios continues apace as marketers look to create the entertainment that people want rather than simply advertise around it. With that being the case, the festival likely helps marketers network with potential talent, look for funding opportunities for their brands to get in the mix with new creatives as well as seek inspiration. 

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President Trump’s second term will be different from his first. It seems his relationships with the media, tech and marketing industries already show as much.

Ahead of yesterday’s inauguration, those in the media and tech sectors seemed to signal to President Trump that they were ready and willing to work with him, taking a different tone from 2017 to have a closer relationship with the incoming president. Leaders at various companies congratulated Trump after he won the election, made statements about being ready to work with him and put policies in place that seem to benefit him going forward. Some industry executives even attended yesterday’s inauguration.

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There was a time, not too long ago, when CMOs started to sound a lot more political. They made statements about brand purpose. They pulled funding from fake news. They held advertiser boycotts — more than once. They were operating, it seemed during Donald Trump’s first presidency, from a position of power in which what they said and how they spent their ad dollars could help shape the cultural climate.

This may not be the case Trump’s second time around. The cultural landscape has shifted. Marketers have watched major brands — not just Bud Light, but McDonald’s, Planet Fitness and others — grapple with boycotts of their own. They’ve seen the likes of Harley Davidson and John Deere about-face on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives amid pressure from activist investor Robby Starbuck. They’ve dealt with legal action questioning brand safety and pushing back against their ability to boycott a platform. They’ve seen GARM shuttered. And they’re currently in wait-and-see mode with Meta to understand how its position on censorship will affect them.

The CMO during a Trump presidency in 2025 won’t be the same as in 2017. It’s unlikely that CMOs will be seen making statements about marketing as a force for good or announcing they’re pulling funding from a platform or making any moves that could be seen as overtly political. (Though, arguably, not doing so could also be considered its own political move.) This time around, while of course it will vary from one CMO to another, it seems that CMOs in general will focus on getting back to the basics of marketing and focus intently on their own customers rather than making any big statements.

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By this time next week, we’ll likely know (though, anything could happen) whether TikTok has gone dark in the U.S. or if the app will continue to exist. So far, it’s not looking good. The likelihood of a ban has creators uneasy, preparing their audiences to follow them on other platforms and hoping to take brand deals elsewhere. Meanwhile marketers are questioning refunds, readying contingency plans and sorting out where they’ll move ad dollars.

It seems, all things considered, that marketers are prepared for the short-order effects of a TikTok ban should that come to fruition. What remains up in the air, however, are the long-term effects for brands should TikTok be rendered unusable in the U.S. Sure, there are other short-form video alternatives that stand to benefit (YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels) but short-form video wasn’t the only appeal of the platform. TikTok has been a cultural spigot of sorts for marketers in recent years — they’ve looked to the app not only for what’s trending and to tap into those trends but to understand potential audiences and various cultural niches. So what happens when that spigot is shut off?

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Throughout 2024, several major brands announced they were creating their own brand studios that would soon roll out television shows and films. Marketers, it seems, have become more interested in creating entertainment rather than just advertising around it.

In February, luxury behemoth LVMH announced the creation of 22 Montaigne Entertainment in partnership with Superconnector Studios. In June, Starbucks touted its own burgeoning studio, Starbucks Studios, with the help of Sugar23. And in August, Chick-Fil-A revealed its plan for its own original programming focusing on reality TV. That’s just to name a few of the major brands that have been dipping more than a toe into entertainment to create their own studios.

Studios aren’t the only way brands are getting more involved in entertainment production either. In December, Sugar23 and production and distribution company Fifth Season kicked-off a three year venture to work with advertisers to co-finance $100 million of productions. That’s another one of the ways entertainment production companies are working with marketers. It all lays the groundwork for marketers to move beyond mostly creating advertising that interrupts programming people want to watch to (potentially) create that very entertainment.

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Predicting what will and won’t be popular throughout the year is a fool’s errand. Whatever you think will be the big thing may not be. Something you never could’ve predicted will probably be the biggest story of the year. And yet we do it anyway.

It’s a table setter for how we’re thinking about the year, what’s to come and what we expect to happen. When we inevitably look back on the previous year’s effort, there is often some truth and something missed that helps give us a sense of what’s changed.

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Several new ad networks joined the bevy of existing (and growing) retail media networks last year with new terminology to match: financial media networks, travel media networks and, as of just last month, the (allegedly) first real estate media network (Re/Max). Ah, 2024, the year that nearly every brand (well, every brand that hadn’t yet done so) realized the potential of an ad network. The thinking seems to go, if everyone else has one — and they’re getting the additional revenue from ad dollars — why shouldn’t my brand have one too?

Re/Max aside, the bulk of 2024 ad network debuts took place during the first half of the year (Chase, Revolut, United Airlines, Expedia, T-Mobile, Costco). The second half was quieter for new entrants (PayPal, Grubhub, Thrive Market), but many of the existing players beefed up their capabilities. Walmart finally finishing its Vizio acquisition was likely the biggest example of this. Could it be that all of the brands that were setting up their ad networks had already done so? Have we finally reached peak ad network?

“While the pace of new ad network launches has slowed, it is unlikely that we have fully reached ‘peak ad network,’” surmised Jim Misener, president of creative consultancy 50,000feet. “Instead, the market is likely entering a phase of consolidation and specialization.”

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Marketers are faithfully obsessed with the shiny new thing when it comes to their brand activations. So it’s no surprise that in year two of having generative AI at their disposal, marketers have rushed to use it in their advertising. 

But so far, consumers aren’t as enamored with generative AI created ads as marketers have been. Throughout 2024, the marketers who obviously used generative AI to make their ads (Toys R Us, Under Armour, Coca-Cola) or touted the possibilities of generative AI in their ads (like Google’s Olympics ad they pulled following backlash) had their ads panned by the general public, particularly the creative community. 

Despite that, the expectation is that marketers and agency execs will continue to (and likely increase) the use of generative AI in 2025. Marketers are regularly asking questions about how creative agencies are using generative AI and how they can integrate it into the creative process for their brands. Creative agency execs, for their part, believe that generative AI is simply a new tool that they’re going to continue to experiment with in various ways – though most don’t see their experiments going fully generative AI powered, at least not yet. 

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The polarization of the country has been in sharp focus for some time, especially the second half of the year. That polarization isn’t new: There’s been a brewing — some might say bubbling or even boiling — so-called culture war for years and it’s spewed far beyond the political realm to become a norm that marketers have to contend with for their brands. 

As consumers put brands’ advertising and marketing messages under a microscope, looking for any hint that a brand is making a statement one way or another in the culture war, in which everything is looked at through a political lens, marketers have to be keenly aware of how anything they put out in the world could be interpreted — or misinterpreted. It’s a consideration that marketers and agency execs are aware of with some more vigilant and more worried about potential backlash than others. Getting messaging right is more important than ever as consumers pay closer attention to brands and there is potential for backlash.

What do we mean by brands at the center of a culture war? Let’s recap some recent examples. Jaguar’s rebrand was dubbed “woke” by several publications and incurred ire from consumers that they were making a statement of some kind that their brand may not have intended. Volvo, meanwhile, was recently celebrated for what has been described as a “pro-family” ad with a spot that was typical bread-and-butter storytelling for the carmaker. Another ad from Apple was also dubbed as “pro-family” and celebrated. Again it was standard fare for advertisers.

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2024 feels like a year that can be split in two: In the first half we saw some expected marketing trends panning out in expected and unexpected ways (Google’s cookie confusion, retail media obsession and generative AI). In the second half, however, it feels like marketers were in the midst of a recalibration of culture, and everyone was trying to understand how to show up and where to show up and they had to do so with stranger than usual change.

A good way to sum up 2024 might be this: It was a year in which marketers (and everyone else) had to get comfortable with expecting the unexpected.

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