The Weekly Marketing Report

A black and white horror film set in fifteenth century Italy: a hole in the ground swallows the villagers' prized possessions, then sprays coffee and chocolate oats into their faces. It answers a food trend that already exists, tiramisu on about 15% more UK menus than a year ago by Tastewise's count, and it borrows the Halloween register without saying Halloween. A small brand riding a flavour the market made popular, which is the cheaper and safer half of the board.

For National Poetry Day, a pocket anthology handed out at stations, Tube stops and pubs. Every poem has exactly 14 lines, one for each man who dies by suicide in the UK each day, and a blank page follows each poem for the reader's own. It answers two dates already in the calendar, National Poetry Day and World Mental Health Day on 10 October, with the least digital object it could find.

A couple in what looks like a smart restaurant panics about getting home to the babysitter. The reveal: they never left the living room, the baby monitor is on the sofa, and the meal is the £15 Dine In for Two. It answers the staying in habit that two years of high prices made normal, and it sells the evening rather than the discount.

The brand's first UK campaign: four special build sites in London and Bristol where the Sour Patch Kids physically attack the Oreo posters next door, a tug of war and a tennis match that end in torn paper. Both are Mondelez brands. It extends a feud the two brands' own accounts started in TikTok and Instagram comments, so the culture it answers is its own comment section. Adweek put it in its Ads of the Week on 9 October. No metrics.

Friskies signs six cat family college mascots to NIL deals, among them Arizona's Wilbur and Wilma Wildcat, Missouri's Truman the Tiger and Auburn's Aubie, and the first score of every game triggers 10,000 shelter meals. It borrows mascots that already have fans instead of building one, the quick version of the mascot entry.

Close up photographs of hands posed to look like bare bottoms, on bus shelters, wrapped buses and in Times Square, with the line "No ifs, ands or butts." The launch paid a gossip account: a sponsored DeuxMoi post on 2 October showed what looked like a reality star's bare backside, and it was his hand. By the brand's account New York transit judged the posters too risqué for the subway, and the refusal became the story. Adweek put it in its Ads of the Week on 9 October, and within a day Goodwipes parked rival billboards beside it. It tried to start culture by imitating a leak, a format celebrity culture already trusts. No audience figure.

Only hands, no faces, move through a handmade city at one tenth scale: fingers run through a park, wait on a subway platform and lounge by a pool. A ring sold on data, advertised with model making and choreography, which is the anti polish register again. Three outlets in two days; Muse did not pick it, so it stops at level 3.

Twix invented Hallowmas last year and brings back Zombie Claus: a rotting Santa at a teenager's door, who must decide between a carol and a baseball bat, plus $20k in look alike prizes and bars handed out in Williamsburg on Halloween. Coming back is the point. A brand that keeps a character for a second year is building an asset, and this is one of four returning or new characters this week.

Mo Farah as a human push notification. He leaps out of a plumber's van, hides under the stairs with an electrician and bursts out of a hedge, each time holding a glowing app alert and shouting "PING!" for Screwfix Rewards. A celebrity used as an interface, the third film in the No Stopping You platform. Trade coverage only.

The toiletries brand's first TV ad in 52 years has no bathroom in it: home made costumed people roam fields and mist, a walking cardboard soap box among them, to The Shamen's Ebeneezer Goode reworked as "Bees R Good". It won a share of Channel 4's £600k B Corp airtime prize. Handmade on purpose, and a case for the anti polish entry.

A six foot CGI creature built from 700 toy models, with game ball knees and toy car shoes, plays with children and a dog on the Christmas catalogue cover and in the film. A new character, launched for the most competitive season in toys. Whether it returns in 2027 decides whether it is a mascot.

A seven foot animatronic black bear lounges in a homeowner's hot tub while an owl dive bombs the neighbours; the owners stay calm and open the insurer's app. The bear and the owl are new, added in the platform's second year (2025 had a singing turkey and a talking tree), and they sing the jingle on screen. Logged for the mascot entry, with no coverage beyond the archive.

London street signs (Oxford, Regent, Baker and King Street) get the word Fighter added underneath in the franchise's orange lettering, posted to Paramount's Instagram ahead of the film on 16 October. Whether the signs were physical or edited is unclear, so it is carried as the studio's claim.

Demoted to Hype, as set. Paris closed with Chanel (5 October, 83 looks and a different shoe for each) and Louis Vuitton at the Louvre (6 October), and no house put anything on sale at or after its show. The only case in the window is Retrofête, which sold much of its New York collection straight after the show, a contemporary label, not a house. Five fashion weeks without a case: the idea lives in commentary, not in what houses do.

The decision promised for W41. Infrastructure: substantiated. TikTok launched one click Buy Direct and a shopping assistant (5 October); Meta announced Shopify checkout in Messenger and checkout inside Meta AI, neither live yet (6 October). Demand: unmeasured. The first figure is Forter's network, agent placed orders 4.4 times their early August level by 27 September, reported by Opus Research; the original was not found. Walmart's +57% conversion belongs to its own assistant. Entry split; the demand half waits for a number.

Promoted to Substantiated. The Laughing Cow swapped its grin for a straight face on packs in 4,700+ US stores from about 22 September. Users made memes of the gloomy cow unprompted, Know Your Meme explained them on 29 September, and Jimmy Kimmel did the reveal on 30 September. Older than the window and missed by No. 40, it is the entry's first level 5. The week added four more: Twix's Zombie Claus in its second year, Plymouth Rock's new bear and owl, Smyths' toy creature, Friskies' borrowed cats.

Opened at Building. Svensk Handel: weight loss medicines could take SEK 24bn from Swedish grocery over 2026 to 2035, and 84% of users buy less food. NielsenIQ: 21% of US households have a GLP-1 user, and small packs are outgrowing multi serve in soft drinks, cereal and salty snacks. FoodNavigator counts the minification of drinks. Two independent sources on two continents in one week.

Promoted from Emerging to Building. Tesco's premium own label Finest grew 8.9% in the UK; Lamb Weston named the shift to private label as a reason its North American price/mix fell; Lidl is rolling its three tier pet label, Max & Mila's World, into all its stores; Axfood made all 14 Garant teas Fairtrade, using own label as the lever. Own label is now doing the brand's job at both ends of the shelf.

US tariff refunds are inflating this quarter's margins. Levi's gross margin rose 450bp to 66.2%, and refunds contributed 490bp, about 120bp of it spent again; its DTC comparable sales were flat. Aritzia reported +1,330bp, of which +490bp without refunds, on revenue up 44%. Helen of Troy reinvested about $23m of a $26.9m refund. Stage unchanged; from now on the entry reads margins ex refund.

Demoted to Hype, as set. MAC's Film Noir Buff is still the only sold out SKU, four times over plan by Glossy's report of 18 September. Spate puts searches for beige blush up 274.9% in September, a tier 2 figure with nothing on the shelf behind it. One product with a story is a product, not a trend.

No. 40 said Reklamombudsmannen had published nothing for a fourth week. That was wrong: two rulings dated 29 September were on the decisions page. Mammotion's Facebook ad promised "Spara upp till 4 244 kr" without a reference price; Smakbox, Danone and an influencer ran an unlabelled Instagram post, and the ruling, citing article 25 of the ICC code, said a later correction is "i och för sig är önskvärd" but "medför inte att överträdelsen blir försvarlig" (desirable in itself, but it does not make the breach justifiable). Nothing since. No Swedish word on EmpCo; the proposed Swedish rules start only on 1 January 2027.

Svensk Handel estimates that weight loss medicines will take SEK 24bn out of Swedish grocery sales over 2026 to 2035, between 18 and 37 depending on uptake. 84% of users buy less food after starting, and their food spending falls 6.8% over six months. Fashion and beauty are expected to benefit. Sofia Larsen: "Att den ökade användningen av viktminskningsmedicin har en stor påverkan på handeln är självklart, men underrapporterat" (obvious, but under-reported).

Coop cuts the price of more than 600 everyday items at every Stora Coop, permanently: by 6.9% on average in TT's figure, 6.5% in Direkt's. The CEO's explanation is the week's most honest sentence in Swedish retail: "Vi har inom vissa områden uppfattats som dyra" (in some areas we have been seen as expensive). It came five days after ICA reported volume growth on falling prices. What is being fixed is price perception, which is a marketing problem.

KICKS is exclusive commercial partner in Sweden for Benjamin Ingrosso's tour, nine dates from Karlstad on 23 October to Avicii Arena on 13 and 14 November. A Tour Kit of ten full size products costs SEK 450 (stated value SEK 1,750), among them KICKS and Matas own brands, with store events in the tour cities. Charlotte Larsson: "ville vi skapa något mer än traditionell synlighet" (we wanted more than traditional visibility). A Swedish case for brands inside third party entertainment.

Arla Protein Chocolate Milk Drink is Grocery Product of the Year 2026: SEK 57.8m in sales over 52 weeks, +64%, at 89% weighted distribution. It is an existing product moved under the Arla Protein brand. The jury chair: "innovation inte alltid behöver handla om att ta fram en helt ny produkt" (innovation does not always mean a brand new product). Protein and smaller appetites meet in one carton.

Net sales SEK 1,119m in September, +19%: twelve points organic, three from acquisitions, five from the stronger Norwegian krone. May to September +16%, e-commerce growing faster than the group, 252 stores. The country splits in circulation conflict and are not used.

Lyko opens a city store in Örebro on Black Friday, 27 November, in a former Vero Moda unit: its 37th, with an ambition of 100. Rickard Lyko: "Vi ser en stor efterfrågan på mer Lyko i fysisk form" (we see strong demand for more Lyko in physical form). It agrees with the Pre Loved index, where shops grew 47% and online fell. Q3 report on 22 October.

All 14 Garant tea bag products are now Fairtrade certified, loose tea follows in the autumn. Sustainability labelled goods were 27.5% of Axfood's sales in Q2, against a target of 30% by 2030. "Genom våra egna märkesvaror har vi möjlighet att ställa tydliga krav" (through our own brands we can set clear requirements). Own label as the instrument of a claim, in the month the EU tightened what claims may say.

The Swedish brand opens its first US pop-up on Elizabeth Street, 7 to 18 October. US direct sales are up 37% this year, company revenue more than 30%, wholesale 45%. Black has fallen from about 80% of sales in 2024 to 65 to 70%, and tights appeared in at least twelve SS27 collections. A Swedish brand growing on a specific reason.

A travel agency for people who would rather not talk to a travel agent, with pop ups in Berlin (14 to 17 October), Paris and London. It answers a mood that already exists, the holiday from holidays. Announced before the window, covered inside it. It did not move Google Trends in Sweden.

Net revenue $25.3bn, +5.6%; organic +3.1%, made of organic volume +0.5% and price +3%. In North American foods, eight months after cutting Lay's and Doritos by up to 15%, organic volume rose 0.5% with price −1% and revenue stood still. North American drinks: organic volume −3%, price +3%. Asia Pacific foods organic volume +11%. Profit guidance cut to +1 to 2%, more cost cuts coming. The lead of this issue.

Revenue C$1.17bn, +44.1%, comparable sales +34.5%; the US +60.3% and now two thirds of the business; e-commerce +67.7%. Gross margin 57.1%, or 48.7% without tariff refunds, still +490bp. The year guided to +29 to 32%. The week's one case of growth and margin together, from a brand whose product is the reason (last week the Super Puff was a building sized installation).

Revenue about $1.6bn, +4%; gross margin 66.2%, of which tariff refunds added 490bp. About $80m of refunds, roughly three quarters going back into the business, promotion and marketing included. DTC +2% on flat comparable sales, which the CEO said "fell short of our internal expectations"; Levi's over indexed on loose fits while US shoppers turned to low rise.

Sales £33.8bn; UK like for like +1.5%; UK share 27.8%, −24bp on the year. Both halves of the week in one report: about 700 Aldi Price Match lines and personalised Clubcard Prices for 2.5m customers on one side, Finest +8.9% on the other. Tesco Media: active advertisers +17%, revenue undisclosed. Profit guidance raised.

The Weston family's Wittington Investments, with Fairfax Financial, buys Boots for about $8.9bn including debt (£6.7bn in UK reports): UK and Ireland, Thailand, the No7 Beauty Company and Opticians. Fairfax commits about $2.3bn of equity for half; Wittington runs it. Signed, not closed; completion expected in Q1 2027. GlobalData puts its last year at £7.5bn, +3.2%, digital +18.3%. Nine days after its TikTok Shop opened.

Blazy's ready to wear show at the Grand Palais: 83 looks and a different shoe for each, the 2.55 opening and closing, smocked tweed in stretch. Everyone looks at Nike, he told Milano Finanza, "siamo tutti ossessionati" (we are all obsessed), and this was his answer to what sport means for Chanel. Glossy names the shoes among the most impactful products of Paris. Nothing was on sale.

Wonder, an eau de parfum built from Nest's bestselling Holiday Classic candle, at Sephora and Ulta this month. Fine fragrance went from about 40% of Nest's new launches in 2025 to 75% in 2026, and the holiday season is most of its annual revenue. A cult asset moved into a new format, and fragrance again carrying beauty's launches.

Six grams of prebiotic fibre go into Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Sprite Zero Sugar and Fresca, piloted from the end of October in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, against Olipop and PepsiCo's Poppi. Core Power adds a banana protein shake. The marketing president: "For us, innovation starts with the consumer."

Press on shoe tattoos, ballet ribbons and sandal charms. Pearl, heart gem and pink flower charms are sold out online; New York charms run from $1.50 to $850. Jibbitz passed $270m in 2024, about 8% of revenue. The same week Crocs announced its third microdrama for December. Format extension, measured.

Pinterest's beauty searches: polka dot cat eye nails +1,585%, mocha balayage +949%, caramel nude nails +943%, cluster lashes +646%, skin scent +287%, frosted make up +286%, marshmallow perfume +248%. Tier 1 data on intent, not sales. Frost lines up with MAC reviving its Frost lipsticks the same week.

Beer shipments +5.5%, depletions −0.6%: distributors bought more than they sold on to shops. Net sales +6% to $2.6bn; wine and spirits depletions +10.2%. It also buys SpikedAde for at least $75m. Shipments are sales to distributors, depletions the distributors' sales to retailers, the nearer proxy for what people bought, and only one of them grew.

Selfridges' first fragrance advent calendar was reported out of stock on its launch day, by a beauty blog and its commenters. It is priced at £225. Selfridges has said nothing. Likely true, not yet evidence.

Agent placed orders in Forter's fraud network reached 4.4 times their early August level by 27 September, and Meta Muse orders, first seen on 21 September, equalled two thirds of the previous month's agent orders within eight days. One vendor's network, an order count rather than a conversion, and Forter's own release was not found.

Adweek's headline credits Fanta's Halloween with 7 billion impressions without paid media. The figure comes from the brand, carries no method, and may describe last year's run. An impression is not a person.

Haribo says Twin Snakes sales rose 33% from 2022 to 2025, alongside a US ad in which twins argue over which half to eat first. No market, base or source given.

74% of Gen Z respondents would spend £100 or more on a single fragrance; across the company's sampling members, 87% wear fragrance daily against 49% for make up. A sampling company's survey of its own users: stated intent, not spending.

One snippet says Huda Beauty pulled its eye patches from production after last month's collision of four identical jars. No source page confirms it and other searches found no withdrawal. Carried so it is not repeated as fact.

No. 40 said Reklamombudsmannen had published nothing for a fourth week. It had published two rulings on 29 September (Mammotion; Smakbox, Danone and an influencer), visible on the decisions page while the homepage module failed. The silence after 11 September lasted 18 days, not four weeks. And No. 40's 30+ Rosa Bandet partners was a page count on Cancerfonden's site, which lists 23. Both carried here rather than silently fixed in No. 40.