Good Monday afternoon. Over the weekend, Joey Chestnut won the annual Nathan’s Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island by eating 75 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Miki Sudo won the women's division by downing almost 49 hot dogs, thus winning so many of these contests that she set a world record. 

Personally, I can eat one hot dog per year. But imagine having to craft a commercial around an ESPN hot dog fiend instead of live baseball. 

In today’s edition: 

The Redskins agree to a name change

Christmas came early

Brand Cocktails gets a recap

—Phoebe Bain

SPORTS

The Washington Redskins Ask What’s In A Name?

The NFL team agreed to an official review of its name, a racial slur towards Native Americans, last week. D.C. locals have been talking about this change since before the team’s last Super Bowl win in 1992.

Because of the broader Black Lives Matter and anti-racism movement, brands are feeling the pressure to change offensive branding. 

• After receiving similar public backlash due to racially insensitive imagery, Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben’s recently agreed to make changes. 
• Seeing other brands willing to remove racist mascots sparked criticism against team owner Dan Snyder, who said in 2013 that he would never change the name.
• A group of investors worth $620 billion last week asked FedEx, Nike, and PepsiCo to cut ties with the team until it agreed to change its name.

Does a brand by any other name still smell as sweet? 

Just like Redskins fans, the branding community has known for a long time that name changes are a big deal. Harvard Business Review research found almost a decade ago that “when customers see a brand name change, they expect radically new features.” 

And the research holds up today: A HubSpot report from less than a year ago used IHOP and Dunkin’, among others, as case studies to suggest that if renaming is an absolute necessity, it’s important to “focus on alignment with your brand's vision, mission, and values.”

My takeaway: With great name change comes great responsibility. Just like other brands with racist mascots, the football team’s leaders need to make sure they demonstrate values aligned with the new name in order for it to come across as authentic. Plus, the team needs to really nail it with the new name to avoid an IHOb situation.

HOLIDAYS

Christmas In July

My Jewish ancestors are probably rolling their eyes at me as I type this, but apparently the U.S. needs a little Christmas right this very minute. 

Pinterest reported a 77% year over year increase in holiday searches during April. Facebook then published its Christmas marketing guide for 2020 a few weeks in advance as it crosses its fingers that boycotting advertisers will return for the holiday season.

• COVID escapism is likely the cause of the early holiday cheer, which certainly isn’t the worst thing COVID has done. 
• Sure, marketers have been told to prep for the holiday season during summer before, but the pace typically picks up around early autumn. 
• But when the Hallmark Channel starts airing its Christmas movies early and major platforms signal an earlier-than-usual longing for the holidays, marketers might have to respond accordingly and go full throttle before they anticipated.

Zoom out: If the past few months have taught us anything, we should know that it's more important for marketers to have great plans B–Z than to obsess over the details of plan A. So, when planning for the holiday season early this year, savvy brands are focusing on flexibility more than anything.

SPONSORED BY SAILTHRU

But We Didn’t Study Computer Science

Retailers know algorithms are important, but they’re also confusing (read: they might as well be Morse Code). That’s why Sailthru developed this best practice guide to help you make sense of them. 

35% of Amazon’s 2019 revenue was driven by the e-commerce giant’s recommendation engines. In other words, product recommendations are important to any retailer’s bottom line. 

And lucky for you retailers (and us algorithmically-challenged copywriters), Sailthru outlined eight key recommendation algorithms and where to use them.

Download their guide to learn more about:

• The right recommendations for converting new customers
• Collaborative filtering and the data it requires
• Using predictive analytics to cement loyalty

You’ll read algorithm examples from more than 20 retailers, including Amazon, Nike, MATCHESFASHION, and more. 

Turns out you don’t have to be a retail computer scientist to use algorithm recommendations like one. 

Download Sailthru’s guide today.

A BRAND COCKTAILS RECAP

I promised you a recap of Marketing Brew’s Brand Cocktails launch party, and now you finally have it. 

Here are some of the best quotes of the night:

On the new ESG: “The new ESG is not environment, sustainability, and governance. The new ESG is employees, society, and government.”—Rishad Tobaccowala, Senior Advisor at Publicis Groupe

On decision making during the pandemic: “A buyer is still a buyer and the target is still the target, they just happen to be in different places now.”—Jason Grunberg, SVP of marketing at CM Group and more

On culture: “For me, it’s understanding the mindset of today’s consumer and then repositioning your brand to not just talk about the product but the sentiment behind it.”—Amanda Goetz, VP of marketing at The Knot Worldwide

On purpose: “Purpose is not invented, it’s discovered.”—Frank Cooper III, Senior Managing Director & Global CMO at BlackRock

On the concept of a brand: “In the ‘50s and ‘60s brands just said ‘This is my product, I want to sell it to you.’ But as we went through the ‘70s and ‘80s, this notion of brand really came to mean something…they stood for something bigger than just the products they sold.”—James Rowe, Managing Director at adam&eveDDB

Read the full recap and see the YouTube recording here.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Google explained how YouTube search works.
• Ford is showing a series of short films across Disney Media Networks properties to promote the re-launch of the Bronco.
• Ad Age DataCenter’s Bradley Johnson said ad employment is growing again, but it’s still down 36,700 pre-pandemic jobs.
• California may pass a second privacy law similar to the CCPA by year’s end.
• Disney+ saw a 74% increase in app downloads over the weekend because of Hamilton’s release.

SPONSORED BY SAILTHRU

Marketing is hard, and you want to be good at it (as shown by subscribing to this newsletter). You could also up your marketing-ante with Sailthru. Marketers turn to their multi-channel marketing platform for its performance, ease-of-use, and personalization. See what Sailthru can do for you here.

BOYCOTT TRACKER

Having trouble keeping track of all the brands boycotting social media? We've got you covered. Here's who joined the club most recently:

Francis Scialabba

• In light of the continued boycotts, Facebook recently agreed to a brand safety audit. The Media Rating Council (MRC), a nonprofit that specializes in managing accreditation for media research purposes, will conduct the audit. Perhaps 2020 will go down in history as the time Facebook, not Reddit, was the Wild West of digital marketing.
• Slow day: Just two major brands pulled ads from Facebook since we last updated you. It’s unclear if that signals a broader slowdown, but that could be the case. Over 750 companies have joined as of Friday, so it’s possible that most of those who were planning to join have already done so, or that brands weren’t as keen to announce during the July 4th holiday.

FRENCH PRESS

Marketing tips to make you fancy

B2B marketing: There’s finally a good infographic on making B2B webinars work for you.

Oat-yeah: Awario’s “best plant milk according to social media” market research is a great guide to creating an effective social listening campaign (even though oat milk didn’t come out on top ). 

TikTok: Marketing Land wrote a guide to storytelling while TikToking—a critical resource as the platform encourages brands to make TikToks, not ads.

Winky faces: Sprout Social wrote about how to use emojis in marketing, which happens to be one of my favorite topics.

MONDAY MARKETING MEME

Speaking of rebrands, Doritos has had quite a few. Which is your favorite of these logos, and why is it the 1964 one?