The Sauce - 03/08/23

This is for you marketers.

For the professional on the run (because you're busy, not a fugitive), 'The Sauce' newsletter is your weekly dollop of marketing news. Yes, we're going to serve you some AWESOMESAUCE. ??

The Sauce showcases the finest industry scandals, the juiciest campaigns and the most exciting jaw-dropping goss (as spicy as marketing related news can deliver anyway). ????

Here are this week's shoutouts:

Better with Pepsi

A night out on the sauce favourite, rum and coke has been around for a century. However, Pepsi, with their latest campaign, 'Better with Pepsi' aims to take the crown from Coca-Cola. Following internal research which highlighted that over half of surveyed adults perfered a Pepsi have proof that they're the perfect choice for a rum. This new campaign also features ads with crinkled rum branded napkins showing a hidden Pepsi logo. Could this be the end of a bartender proclaiming, 'is Pepsi ok' after you've asked for your spirit with Coke?

Volvo on denim

To promote the recycled denim interior of the new EX30 SUV, Volvo is working with Pinterest by taking over the 'denim' keyword on the app. Until the end of August, all searches for denim on Pinterest will be tied to the new vehicle to catch the eye of customers searching for the clothing trend. Pinterest advised that denim related searches are seeing a huge spike and in particular, 'denim on denim'. Yes you read that correctly. Is double denim set to make a return? Please NO. There are some fashion trends which should stay in the past. But, by taking advantage of search functionalities and the platform's 463m users, Volvo hopes to capitalise on anyone looking for all things denim. We love this innovative approach from the car brand which recognises the power of a social platform to launch its latest product and engage with its audience.

Did somebody say, let's cut marketing budget?

Just Eat has slashed its global marketing spend by a sizeable 28% in the first half of this year, equating to a reduction of ￡250m. The online food order business has stated that "efficiencies in brand marketing spend as well as a reduction in performance marketing spend due to lower order volumes and costs-per-order spend optimisation" as the reason for the reduction. With mixed results and a challenging market businesses need to make cuts but it's a shame that they usually come from marketing. It's a quick fix but what are the longer term repurcussions? The Awesomesauce team prefer deliveroo.

Take a selfie for Samsung

To encourage people back into its stores, Samsung is offering one lucky winner ￡500k by simply taking a selfie. The competition also coincides with the launch of Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5 smartphones. All that's required is to head into a Samsung store and use one of their new phones to snap a selfie. Simple. With high street shopping becoming less popular and most town centres looking like a scene from a zombie movie, brands will need to introduce unique ways to entice customers through their doors. Half a million works for us though. We're off to take an awesome selfie but it will take more than ￡500k to get one of us to swap our iPhones for Samsungs.

Same time next week? Be on the lookout for our next serving.