Case Studied Brief  

A candy-colored truck, a TikTok food guide, and Coca-Cola’s media shuffle

This week in marketing saw holiday campaigns built around celebrity talent, new partner deals in sports and media buying, and social platforms adding formats beyond the short-form feed.

In today’s edition:

• 🛒 DoorDash nears a $17 billion deal for Instacart

• 🏀 The NBA picks Kalshi and Polymarket as preferred prediction markets

• 📺 Instagram tests 90-minute videos with U.S. creators

Campaigns of the week 📺

Seth Rogen goes beauty shopping for Sephora.

Sephora’s holiday campaign stars Seth Rogen as a shopper searching for beauty gifts for the people on his list. In the spots, Rogen relies on a Sephora beauty advisor to help him navigate the retailer’s products. Ahead of launch, the brand ran a temporary “Sethphora” takeover at its location at The Grove in Los Angeles, followed by social content. The campaign begins running Oct. 29 across TV, streaming, and social. Rogen’s gift picks are available through Sephora’s digital storefronts.

Source: Sephora

DoorDash turns Josh Hart’s missed high-fives into a delivery campaign. 

DoorDash cast New York Knicks guard Josh Hart in a campaign that turns basketball jokes and celebrations into deliveries. The opening commercial plays on Hart’s history of awkward high-five moments. The work comes from Superette, DoorDash’s in-house creative team, and Director X (Julien Christian Lutz) directed. MikeTeevee handled production, with line production by m ss ng p eces. More social content will run throughout the NBA season, tied to conversations and rivalries around the league.

Source: Ads of the World

Firefox brings the internet’s original meme stars back online.

Mozilla’s “Come Back to Firefox,” created by We Believers, reunites early viral stars to court people who stopped using the browser. The cast includes Numa Numa Guy, Bad Luck Brian, Overly Attached Girlfriend, Tay Zonday, and Annoying Orange. Directing collective Sunny Sixteen recreated their original looks and sets, tying each character to a current frustration such as online tracking or unwanted AI. Two 30-second spots began airing on NBC in the U.S. on Oct. 25. Rollouts in Germany, France, and the U.K. will follow

Source: Famous Campaigns

Slate wraps its electric truck in Smarties colors.

EV maker Slate Auto teamed up with Smarties on six accessory packs that bring the candy’s pastel palette to its truck. Each pack includes vehicle decals, a Smarties logo, a branded Slatelet, and a matching key fob cap. To promote the collaboration, Slate brought a candy-themed truck to New York on Oct. 27 for visitors to explore. Slate positions the packs as part of its pitch that buyers can personalize their trucks.

Source: Slate Auto

Sponsored

Live on Nov 5: ABM That Starts With Who’s Showing Intent.

Ever feel like ABM intent gets you close, but never to the actual person showing interest?

Influ2 can now take you all the way there. It finds the specific people showing intent across your entire market, then uses that signal to uncover the accounts worth targeting.

Get the first look live on Nov 5 and learn:

🪐The Sales Disconnect: Why Sales rolls their eyes at “accounts with intent”

🪐The Person-Level Shift: What changes when you find accounts based on intent from specific people

🪐Real-World Use Cases: How it works for everything from “My ICP list is huge, where do I start?” to “Am I missing accounts with intent?”

Industry news 🤝

MarTech moves 🤖

Editors Choice ✏️

📊 Five AI shifts CMOs should plan for in 2027, from AI agents to an ROI reckoning. Source: Forbes

🛡 How to stay safe online as AI exposes decade-old web flaws. Source: CNN

Advertise to the best marketers in the world ✉️

Did you know you can advertise in the Case Studied newsletter starting at $500? Get your brand or solution in front of 40,000 marketers eager to learn.