“I’m working for a brand whose natural habitat is music,” said Peter Wijk, vice president of marketing at Marshall, during the Brand Innovators Marketing Innovation Summit in London during SXSW. “It’s the core. It actually creates the noise of music. And I think showing up authentically is increasingly important because selling out is the worst part of the brand with the roots that we have. Without music, there’s no Marshall.”

Showing up means offering free backline gear to schools, rehearsal spaces and independent venues. Its partnerships with musicians. It’s opening a record level in which the artists keep their publishing rights and a recording studio in Milton Keynes, not far from the factories where the brand still hand makes its amps.

The brand leans into their values and heritage. Marshall endorsers include Slash, Angus Young and Billy Joe Armstrong. In their marketing, the brand leans into these musical connections and aims to keep it entertaining. They recently created a spoof of MTV Cribs is back with a one-off special, featuring Dan and Justin Hawkins of The Darkness. “It’s just a matter of us building credibility and bringing that audio trust with us into new categories,” said Wijk.

But when your core products are so good they last from generation to generation, how do you grow the business? The challenge is to bring the brand to a wider audience and into new categories including bluetooth home speakers, headphones and soundbars.

“Bridging that gap is the biggest challenge for us as we build products for the next six years to deliver growth,” said Wijk.

The company spends a lot of time thinking about translating the awareness from “the mother brand,” into category awareness and consideration, so that the Marshall name comes to mind for a customer looking to buy headphones or a soundbar before they are in the market to buy.

The company takes a brand-first approach to marketing, over performance. It’s helped that the CEO and CFO believe in the long term brand equity over short term sales goals. But it is always a balance, said Wijk, who said he has a close relationship with the head of commercial. The two often work on juggling short-term needs and long-term ambitions.

The gold Marshall logo is in people’s minds from seeing bands on stage or on TV but that doesn’t necessarily translate to brand recognition beyond black amps. While other companies in the premium audio market like Apple or Sonos are focused on clean minimalism, Marshall leans into the look of its iconic speakers in its home speaker design.While other soundbars are designed to hide behind the furniture, Marshall owns its loud design.

“We’re the antidote to Scandinavian minimalism and we’re proud of that,” said Wijk.

“We’re looking at the logo. Is it big enough? Can we get more gold in there? They look and feel analog and that’s on purpose. Because we want you to go up and turn it on. We are who we are and we don’t apologize.”

The post How Marshall is bringing its iconic heritage into new categories appeared first on Brand Innovators.

The spot opens with a man playing a piano in a fancy hotel lobby. As the camera zooms in on his index finger and Oura ring, the scene changes to a group of hikers climbing a mountain and then to a chess game (where a competitor can be heard saying, “Kiss my Oura ring,”). Other scenes include a woman seductively calling the camera closer in a hotel room and the aforementioned Argentinian dancers. The spot concludes with onscreen text reading, “If life is what you’re after… give us the finger.” A 15-second cut-down of the spot shows the subjects simply holding up their index fingers and rings to the camera. 

“As a culture, we’ve been conditioned to try and escape the reality of aging, drawn instead to the search for eternal youth. But the truth is, aging is inevitable, and getting older is a gift. When we’re fortunate enough to do it in good health, our later years can be some of the most meaningful,” said Doug Sweeny, Oura’s chief marketing officer, in a blog post about the campaign. “In 2025, we want to empower our members to meet their health journey with fierce optimism and a clear purpose: to live longer, healthier, and more vibrantly than ever before.”

The spot will run on linear TV during a variety of programming, including the NBA Western Conference Finals and the NBA Finals. The campaign will also include out-of-home placements featuring visuals similar to the television spot in cities including Los Angeles, New York, Miami and London. 

The post Oura gives aging the finger appeared first on Brand Innovators.

In a time when prices continue to rise across the economy, Verizon just announced a huge offering to customers – to lock in their contact pricing for three years. This offers the brand secure income and customers the opportunity to keep costs from rising. Verizon will also be giving all new and existing customers a free phone on any plan. 

“Today, marks the next strategic step of the consumer business transformation journey that began two years ago,” said Verizon Chairman and CEO, Hans Vestberg, in a statement. “We are redefining our relationship with the consumers by building on our industry-leading network and innovative offerings. By offering unprecedented value and predictability across both mobile and home, we are establishing the new industry standard for a long-term customer relationship, supporting our path to improved retention, sustainable revenue growth, and long-term shareholder value.”

By bringing Davidson to the table and running spots during the NCAA tournaments, the brand is tapping into the culture.

The post Pete Davidson stars in latest Verizon effort appeared first on Brand Innovators.

“In recent years we’ve developed increasingly complex systems to manage content across our platforms, partly in response to societal and political pressure to moderate content. This approach has gone too far,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta chief, in a video.

“As well-intentioned as many of these efforts have been, they have expanded over time to the point where we are making too many mistakes, frustrating our users and too often getting in the way of the free expression we set out to enable. Too much harmless content gets censored, too many people find themselves wrongly locked up in ‘Facebook jail,’ and we are often too slow to respond when they do. We want to fix that and return to that fundamental commitment to free expression.”

The post Meta ends third-party fact checking on Facebook & Instagram appeared first on Brand Innovators.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has a vision for the future and it involves self-driving cars, AI agents and intelligent robots. 

During a keynote on the opening night of CES, Huang said that there are huge economic opportunities to develop “physical AI.” 

“The next frontier of AI is physical AI,” said Huang in a video demonstration he showed on stage at the Michelob Ultra Arena.

So far AI has been based on large language models but Huang asserts that the next innovation is in the real world. “The chat GPT moment for General robotics is just around the corner,” he said. 

The challenge is that most models today have a difficult  time with understanding physical dynamics like gravity, friction and inertia. So intel has created Cosmos, “a world Foundation model that it was created to understand the physical world.”

During the presentation, Huang announced “Mega,” an Omniverse Blueprint for developing, testing and optimizing physical AI and robot fleets at scale in real-world facilities.

Think warehouses with hundreds of autonomous mobile robots, robotic arm manipulators and humanoid robots working alongside people. “Robots execute tasks by perceiving and reasoning about their Omniverse digital twin environment planning their next motion and acting the robot brains can see the resulting state through sensor simulations and decide their next action,” explained Huang.

Nvidia also announced their next generation processor for cars called Thor, which has 20x the processing power of the last generation. With the new tech, the company revealed a new  partnership with Toyota, Aurora and Continental to power self-driving cars and semi-trucks. 

Toyota, Aurora and Continental join the growing list of NVIDIA partners rolling out automated and autonomous vehicle fleets.

“A trillion miles that are driven around the world each year that’s all going to be either highly autonomous or fully autonomous coming up,” he said. “I predict that this will likely be the first multi-trillion dollar robotics industry.”

With partners like Volvo already integrating Nvidia’s self-driving tools, the category is already worth  $4 billion to Nvidia, and will likely reach $5 billion this year, according to Huang.

Huang also noted that agentic AI is behind Nemotron, a new suite of AI agent tools that companies can use for automated customer service. Unlike most chatbots, which rely on generative AI and point customers to contextual content, agentic AI can autonomously make decisions, take proactive actions and adapt to changing situations in real time.

“These AI agents are essentially digital workforce that are working alongside your employees um working Al doing things for you on your behalf and so the way that you would bring these specialized agents into your company is to on board them just like you onboard an employee.,” he explained.

The post “The next frontier of AI is physical AI.”: Nvidia CEO appeared first on Brand Innovators.

The holidays are not a traditionally hot time for home sales, as most buyers and sellers tend to focus on family get-togethers and traditions, putting off the big decisions until after the new year. Opendoor’s new campaign asks consumers to buck that tradition and consider making a home sale during the downtime. 

“Thanksgiving is a time for family and celebration, not stress or hassle. As we encourage homeowners to take action during these winter months—often thought of as ‘off-season’—we want them to know it’s a great time to sell, with options that make it easy to take the house off their plate and enjoy the most festive of holidays,” said David Corns, Opendoor’s CMO, in a statement.

While the ad suggests the turducken was invented by culinary pioneers of the 18th or 19th centuries and passed down through generations, including through the fifties and sixties, the true history of the dish is much more modern. Though the origins of the dish are a bit murky, the dish as it is commonly known was popularized in the 1960s or 1970s. 

Regardless, Opendoor’s Turducken ad will air on linear and connected TV and social channels during the holiday season. 

The post Opendoor tries to goose holiday home sales with ‘Turducken of Offers’ appeared first on Brand Innovators.

Apple’s iPhone has long dominated the smartphone market, but Samsung wants to get the word out that their devices are viable competitors. The Galaxy AI is a differentiator for the brand but many consumers may not be aware of what they’re missing out on. This effort aims to educate potential users about the Galaxy AI, so that they will consider it in their mobile purchase. 

“It’s tempting to stick with the familiar, but we want to open people up to the idea that the best mobile experience can come from trying a new device,” said Olga Suvorova, vice president, mobile eXperience marketing at Samsung Electronics America. “This campaign is about challenging the status quo, highlighting the options consumers have in a way that’s engaging and entertaining while showcasing innovative Galaxy experiences.”

The creative is meant to capture the viewers’ attention and to spark conversation about the devices, which is why the brand decided to launch this on Reddit and Instagram. This is where many consumers research and discuss products.

The post Samsung takes on iPhone in new social effort appeared first on Brand Innovators.

This is the second year Tinder has activated around World Romance Scam Prevention Day. Last year, the platform teamed with Mean Girls actor Jonathan Bennet to highlight suspicious activity and toxic behavior that are the hallmarks of online scammers. 

Working with agency Movers + Shakers, the dating platform is looking to raise awareness that romance scams affect people across all age groups across the world. According to the Federal Trade Commission, U.S. consumer losses totaled more than $1.14 billion across all digital platforms last year. 

The TikTok and Instagram video features Rausch in pink overalls in a forest amidst threatening snakes. In the video, he likens the online scammers to literal snakes who are “sneaky and slippery [and] will lure you in when you least expect it.” As he grabs snakes off the ground, he says the scammers will “sweet talk you” and “make you feel like you’re the only person in the world” before asking for money.  He then highlights Tinder’s any scam features, including ID verification, which places a blue check next to a user’s name. 

“While the campaign is playful, the issue itself is serious,” said Stephanie Danzi, Senior VP of global marketing at Tinder, in a release. “We hope this spot will draw attention to a topic that is not readily discussed, help bring more awareness, and educate consumers on the robust safety features available on Tinder.”

In addition to the video, the platform will be sending in-app messages reminding users who are trying to play on emotions or claim to desperately need money. The company has also created a list of suspicious behaviors that  users should look out for including being asked to move the conversation off the platform too quickly, escalating an emotional connection too quickly and avoiding meeting in person. 

Tinder parent company Match Group said it spends $125 million annually in trust and safety teams, technology, partnerships and initiatives to protect its users. Those investments include using advanced  machine learning systems to identify patterns and  suspicious behaviors and making ID verification available to most U.S. users by the end of the month.

The post Tinder works with real-life snake handler Rausch to spotlight online scammers appeared first on Brand Innovators.

One of the barriers to entry for shopping smart technology is the perception that it’s overwhelming to update or difficult to set up,” said Allison Stransky, chief marketing officer of Samsung Electronics America. “The Connected Home Experience powered by Samsung SmartThings is designed to break down those misconceptions by showing how easy and simple smart tech updates can really be.

“Many consumers already have the building blocks for smart technology, and our partnership with Ashley demonstrates just how effortlessly it can be integrated into their existing spaces, all while showcasing how furniture and electronics come together to make a home a better place,” she continued.

The full experience in the Brentwood, Tenn., store includes 11 interactive vignettes that demonstrate how the connected home can come to life in different ways. One display, “Heart of the Home,” emphasizes family connection, while “Music and Vibe” shows off how connected lighting and projectors can set  the perfect mood. Each vignette is controllable via a kiosk with a Samsung tablet equipped with a SmartThings app. 

“Many people associate the smart home with functional benefits like home security,” Stransky said. “At Samsung, we want people to see how building a connected smart home will make their space even more amazing because SmartThings can help you create immersive, personalized experiences.”

The  “Connected Home Experience” will be featured in a grand opening at Ashley’s flagship store in Brentwood, Tenn., on Oct. 26. The celebration will include an episode taping of the “Get Real with Caroline Hobby” podcast and giveaways from local vendors. The brands will be supporting the partnership with social and CRM activations, as well as local marketing efforts in the Nashville area.

The post Samsung & Ashley partner to show off the smart home appeared first on Brand Innovators.

Philips Sonicare is tapping into the trend of brands showing up in culture by partnering with a celebrity to promote its electric toothbrush products to a mass audience.

In the debut ad, McKinnon plays Susan Toothbrush helping an interview hopeful getting ready for their big meeting. When she drops in unexpectedly, she asks him why he’s still using an ancient bristle stick.

“We’re overjoyed to bring this campaign to life with the incredible Kate McKinnon. She’s really bringing new energy to our brand by putting a comedic, relatable spin on the topic of oral health care,” said Matina Vidalis, senior marketing director, consumer & professional oral healthcare, Philips North America. “In early discussions about our Sonicare Switch campaign, we knew Kate would be a perfect fit to help educate people about the benefits of upgrading to a power toothbrush.”

“At Philips Sonicare, we know there’s a direct correlation between feeling good and expressing confidence; it’s why our power toothbrush innovations aim to achieve an efficient clean, so users feel confident going into life’s big and little moments,” she continued. “We loved Kate’s creative thinking and commitment to collaboration – which is ultimately what brought Susan Toothbrush to life – which features a young man gearing up for a big job interview, when Susan Toothbrush appears and encourages him to ditch “his ancient bristle stick.”

The post Kate McKinnon drops Philips Sonicare ad on Jimmy Fallon appeared first on Brand Innovators.