Case Studied Brief 💼

Nike's exit, Poshmark's bet, and Sephora's TikTok Shop debut

This week in marketing saw a major index shakeup, two big retail bets on new channels, and a leadership change atop one of the industry's largest agency networks.

In today's edition:

• Nike drops out of the S&P 100 after 18 years 📉

• Sephora debuts a "Drop Shop" on TikTok Shop 🛍️

• Suno rebuilds its AI models on licensed music 🎤

Campaigns of the week 📺

Hoka turns Strava mileage into a borough-vs-borough battle. 

Hoka's "Run Your City" challenge is underway throughout September on Strava. It pits New York's five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island) against each other in a race to log the most running miles. Weekly results appear on digital out-of-home screens in Times Square, Tribeca, SoHo, and Williamsburg, alongside six creators representing the boroughs on paid social and TikTok. The challenge extends Hoka's existing global Strava partnership and its "Together We Fly Higher" platform. Source: Marketing Dive

Häagen-Dazs and Stella Artois's billboard flirtation heats up. 

We covered the opening exchange last week, when Häagen-Dazs put up a Toronto billboard reading "Let's grab a pint" and Stella Artois replied on an adjacent billboard, "Are you asking us out?" Häagen-Dazs took it a step further with a mobile billboard truck reading "Depends. You into spooning?" and Stella answered with a truck of its own: "Only if you're into six-packs." There was no coordination between the two brands. Häagen-Dazs also posted an Instagram photo of its ice cream next to a Stella Artois beer captioned "9 months later," a callback joke to the billboard banter rather than an actual product collaboration. Source: Ad Age

Poshmark launches its largest campaign to date during New York Fashion Week. 

Poshmark introduced "Try Yourself On," with agency nice&frank,. The campaign launched September 8th and spans film, out-of-home, social, and an in-person "Poshmark Dry Cleaners" activation in SoHo on September 13th. Out-of-home placements run across New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto, including subway takeovers at Union Square, Broadway-Lafayette, and Toronto's St. George Station. Source: LBBOnline

A men's sunscreen brand makes its case with a 90-year-old's backside.

Pasty Man, a brand positioned "for men who love the sun but hate to die," released a film called "The 90 Year Old Butt Theory." It focuses on an elderly man's backside as he dances in bright orange shorts. The ad's copy reads "Why an old butt ages better than your face" and points out that skin hidden from the sun ages differently than areas regularly exposed to UV. The in-house campaign is aimed at men who are resistant to using skincare products. Source: Ad Age

Industry news 🤝

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Editors Choice 👀

🎗 Comic Relief satirizes indifference toward childhood poverty with a fake "do-nothing" nonprofit. Source: Ads of the World

🏆 Apple's "I'm Not Remarkable" wins the 2026 Emmy for Outstanding Commercial. Source: LBBOnline

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