Latest / WOI Unfiltered / Halloween Hype: Brand Battles & Marketing Magic
Transcript
- Jenna: Hi Emily: Hello, how are you? I'm Jenna: Good, how are you? Emily: just laughing because the dog was so dormant and then you heard her come down the stairs because she's like Bo Jangles with that collar. And Jenna: Ha ha ha. Emily: you know, of course now she's all attentive. So God speed to this pod. Jenna: I think she just really likes to be on the pod, and she heard us chit chatting, and she was like, wait, you cannot record without me. Emily: Exactly. My lovely ambient noise in the background. how are you, Jenna? How's it going? Jenna: I love it. As I like do a massive yawn. I am good. I am great. It's a busy it's like a fun busy season. I feel like we're like officially into like almost holiday season leading in with Halloween. Emily: Yeah. Jenna: Halloween feels more like holiday season this year. Like it's a bigger thing. I Emily: Yeah. Jenna: don't know. I don't know. It feels b bigger and like we're just gonna snowball into all the things now. Emily: Yeah, I agree. It's like you're really settled into the flow of school. Halloween's here. I've gotten three of the holiday catalogs already from Amazon, maybe Target and somewhere else. But I that definitely comes in mid October. Yeah. Jenna: Okay, wait, this is a side tangent, but I have a bone to pick with Amazon because Emily: I tossed that one. It was so bad. Jenna: I don't have my catalogue yet and that's my kids favorite. Emily: Okay, well when you get it, I'll be interested to see what you think. Jenna: I I need to figure out how to get it. We're prime members, we've been prime members for over a decade. But I'm like, where's my catalog? Emily: You should have had it last week. And I I'll tell you what though, Jenna, this makes sense because your kids are a little younger. And I was just like, you know what? We're beyond all this. So Jenna: of course your family, yes. It my kids are like all the I don't want to call them junky toys, or not junkie, but the toys stuff, you know? Like that that stuff. They love. and it Emily: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I get it. Jenna: is a good way for me to keep them off of screens during the holiday season. Like it's a good Emily: Yes. Jenna: distraction for them. So I do use it to my advantage. Emily: Yeah. Well good, and so do I. But I'm kinda like, What what's next in the life of a twin? But we'll figure it out. Jenna: Ulta catalogue? Sephora does Sephora Emily: Yeah, you got it. I actually hung on to Jenna: have a catalog? I know Alta does. Emily: something over there that yeah, probably I think Nordstrom has that that's more for me. But you know, I I actually get ideas on Instagram now. I there's some sort of portable ping pong game that looked kind of fun that I've been being served that I'm Yeah. Well you'll get it now. You'll see it today. I almost choose. Jenna: Send this to me, please. This is amazing. I'm sure I will. Phone, are you listening? it's true. I I do I get a lot on Instagram, but but I do find those catalogs are really helpful. And Emily: yeah. Jenna: my kids love them, and it takes me back to when I was a kid and would flip through them. And it it's the whole like first off, it's the whole nostalgia thing that we've talked about a million times on here. It's also Emily: Yeah. Holding something in your hand. Jenna: This is one of those marketing tools that producing and sending out a catalog is not cheap. It it's Emily: No way. Jenna: it's hands down, it's not cheap at all. But I think it's probably quite effective if you look at it in the marketing mix as compared to like out of home or something like that. I think it's quite effective for these brands. So yeah. Yes. Emily: Or direct mail. I actually look at these, the direct mail goes straight in recycling. Yeah. Jenna: Yeah. Well, I feel like that's a ho that's another conversation for us to have closer to the holiday season is the marketing mix and what that looks like and what is most effective for brands. Yeah. Emily: Yeah. And who's who's cutting through, yeah. Jenna: but all right, let's jump into today. S speaking of holidays, we have a fun little section on Halloween. but before we get to Halloween, look at that. I love it. Emily: Can you see my decor in the It's not the best view, but anyway, it's up there. Jenna: I love it so much. I need a proper photo after this, but before we get into Halloween, let's talk for a minute about Sydney Sweeney and Novig and Emily: Yeah? Yes. Jenna: Power Aid. So I'll set the stage real quick and then we can have a little chit-chat about this. So it was a couple weeks back, actually more than a month now. I think it was like five, six weeks back. Sydney Sweeney came out with a bunch of ads for actually it wasn't a bunch of ads. Sydney Sweeney came out with an ad for Novig. they were launching its first national brand campaign. And Novig is a betting platform for just sports. and the ad got hammered in everything I saw. Like now Emily: The man. Mm-hmm. Jenna: I I'm not gonna even try to describe the ad. Go watch it if you're interested, or if you haven't seen it. But it sexualizes sports. It really doesn't it's not a great look for the idea of women in sports. she comes across as quite sexual and then also a little bit I I don't know, a little bit just kind of aloof to things. it's not my favorite ad. I actually I don't like it at all. But first off, she is a financial stakeholder in the company. So there's Emily: Yeah. Jenna: that. Second off, the numbers of people actually downloading and and signing up for this service are notable. Like it it did its job, right? Emily: Right. Yeah, exactly. I'm seeing, yeah, so it was a 218% reported increase in first time Novig depositors. I so I guess that means actually making bets in the platform, which is huge. A two times increase. I mean, I hate the ad. I hate the ad. I will give major props to Sydney Sweeney, though. I think she's gorgeous. Her body is just unbelievable. It's like life goals that I will never have. But honestly, she I mean, she's an equity owner. And I think that piece makes me feel like, damn, that's a little bit empowering for her specifically. so it gave me just like a little bit like go Sydney. She's so controversial though, generally, but you know, Jenna: She has. Emily: she she's like she's her own brand, and I think it's on brand for her actually. But I completely agree as as women in sports our entire lives, and now raising little women in sports, it is not great. Jenna: It's Emily: to see that Jenna: hard to watch. Emily: that's how you know she's showing up in in that kind of ad. Now it is a a a betting platform and then you have the response from Power Agenda, which which go into that. Yeah, I loved it too. Jenna: Which I love. I love. you know, so I've only seen it on social so far. I actually had read somewhere that Creative appeared in Times Square, but I'm Emily: Yeah. Jenna: not I I haven't like seen the images of it. but they launched an ad called Never Just Sports. And the social posts that I saw are really strong creative content. Of women doing amazing things in sports, breaking records and One was the high jump, where this woman was like just getting over the bar, and I'm sure it was insanely Emily: Mm. Yeah. Jenna: high. it just like really cool accomplishments of females Emily: Yeah. Jenna: in sports. and their whole platform is again never just sports, it's not just sports, right? It's these women putting blood, sweat, and tears into the work to to get to where they're getting to and just being so amazing. Emily: Role modeling for the younger generations t as well. Yeah. Jenna: It's fully taking taking it from the other side in, right? And just showing the insane accomplishments of female athletes. Emily: Yeah. Jenna: On a personal side, I absolutely love it. From a brand Emily: Same. Jenna: side, I think it is it makes a lot of sense for Power Aid. They have previously endorsed other female athletes, had sponsorships in that vein. So it's a very natural jumping off point for them. It didn't feel like they were just inserting themselves in a controversy in a space where they didn't have a, you know, a place to play. It felt very natural. Emily: Agree. It was so adjacent, very natural, simple at the end of the day. I think the imagery they used, I'm looking at the swimmer, where it is, you know, you it it's immediately like strength, like women plus strength, right? and there's no other way to really read that. and it's Jenna: Yeah. Emily: kind of cool because you feel as though. It was fast? was this in the pipeline? How did that get converted so quickly? But major kudos to to moving that quickly and not making their own misstep, right? We've seen campaigns Jenna: Yeah. Well Emily: that move fast and really do. Jenna: We've talked about that many times. I think personal opinions aside, because we've already set the stage, right? We don't love the first ad. We're really fans of the second, you know, section of creative. personal thoughts aside, though, I have to say that for Novig, and they actually released a second piece of creative, I think it was just like a couple days ago. their creative is making a financial impact. And at the end of the day, all of us on the brand side, that's what we want to do, right? That is success. If your creative is positively contributing to the bottom line, then that's a success. Now Emily: Yeah. Jenna: we could sit here and debate all day long. Are they actually creating brand affinity and strengthening their reputation? Or is it short term success? I don't know the answer to that because I don't know enough about their audience. But They're they're they're winning in the sense that they've driven value, true value for the business. Emily: Yeah. Well, and I also think you make a good point on audience, just to close it out. It's like that ad wasn't made for me. I'm not gonna go and place bets on Novig. Right. Like that ad was made for people that go and place bets on Novig. I mean, right? It's It's that simple too. So it's just food for thought in terms of making something that will turn turn eyes and make conversation. you know, I this whole idea of publicity, all publicity is not necessarily even if it's bad, it's still good, Jenna: Yeah. Emily: right? Like, you know, there's there's a huge element of that in here as well. Jenna: Yeah, exactly. all right. Let's switch into the holidays. Halloween being the first. Emily: This is Halloween business. So I will tell you, we have really dug in on this occasion. We've we've already watched Nightmore Christmas. We've watched like a handful of scary movies so far too. I love doing that. I love doing it. Jenna: I love that. Wait. This is a a very short sidebar, but Brian and I used to have a tradition where around Halloween we would always watch one or two scary movies every single year. I thought I was a scary movie person. And then Emily: Okay. I know. Jenna: we had like three years in a row where I was d like for real scared of the movies that we were watching. And the Emily: Yeah. Jenna: last year that we did it, we were almost done. I think it was a paranormal activity. I don't know which one. Emily: Okay. Here's many. Jenna: Think it was one of them, but a real mind, you know. And and Emily: Yes. Jenna: we're watching it and we're not even finished with it. And I finally looked at him and I was like, Why are we doing that? I was like near tears. And he Emily: Right. Like, is this enjoyable? Yeah. Jenna: looked at me and he's like, I'm not enjoying this at all. And I was like, thank God, can we turn it off? And that ended our streak. Thus ended that Emily: Okay, that's hilarious. And and thus ended the tradition. Is that what I'm hearing? Yeah. Jenna: tradition. Now, Halloween has been revived in my household. Not in the movie sense, because my kids are like a little too young to get behind that. But Owen, my littlest, is in love with Halloween. Emily: Yeah. Jenna: He loves scary things. He loves all the Halloween decorations. He has been trying to get our Halloween decorations out since August. Like Emily: And has he been successful, Jenna? As it is October, whatever it is. Twentieth. Jenna: Well, so at the end of the summer he would take them out daily and I would put them away daily. 'Cause I was like, I cannot have the you can play with the skeletons. We can't have them out. Emily: Not yet. Not yet. Jenna: late September I finally let him take them out and keep them out. So we have a good amount of Halloween decorations happening inside and Emily: Yeah. Jenna: outside. And he's so happy. Emily: Okay, I love it. I so with any luck hours will be down before you come to Chicago. But we we were pretty much that first, you know, couple days in October. We had everything up and going. So there you go. Jenna: I love it. Emily: So we're into it too. And, you know, this neighborhood it specifically is kind of h Halloween wacky up here in the north part of the city of Chicago. And I dare say Halloween's a bigger deal than Christmas in terms of decor. It's Jenna: that's so fun. Emily: It's like a thing. And I I know we're gonna talk about Skelly from Home Depot. And I was Jenna: Yeah. Emily: so happy in a read this morning that that that one has a name, that super tall skeleton, the 12-foot one that people Jenna: The twelve foot one. The twelve foot one. Yeah. Emily: have been putting in their yard since 2020, and how it's sort Jenna: Yeah. Emily: of like evolved and it literally is called Skelly. He is all over the place in this neighborhood, but it sounds like every year Home Depot is innovating and giving it cool new features, either Jenna: Yep. Emily: To decorate or to bring in sound and the into the experience to make it awesome for people like Owen, who are kids who love the holiday. And Jenna: I love it so much. Emily: I'm tracking now because you know we've thought about it. We're like, well, would we want something like that? Because we always admire it in other people's yards. Jenna: Yeah. Emily: But I think it's pretty cool to rally around a seasonal product like that for Home Depot and make it their own, right? It's like this sought-after thing. Jenna: And Home Depot, we didn't even pull numbers on this, but Home Depot has truly become a staple of Halloween. Their lineup of animated figures, lawn figures, is huge. I've gone there four times this season already. I've done two different big purchases there, and it's just synonymous with Halloween at this point. And it's it's I think coming from Scally and them really starting that trend, but then they have so many other cool. Halloween decorations. So it's it is really nice to see people rallying around them and it's it's opening the door and this is what they want, right? It's opening the door to new clientele for them. I wouldn't normally Emily: Yeah. Jenna: go to Home Depot, But Emily: Totally. Or repeat customers that are like, I want the, you know, I want the twelve foot mummy to match my Skelly or and whatnot. and by the I know it's so it's so cute and sweet. And maybe I won't be Jenna: Yeah. I love that he has a cute name. Yeah. Emily: as scared of him, but he's two ninety nine folks for anyone who need to run out to their Home Depot. You know, the other thing, Jenna, that is interesting is just how much people spend on Halloween. Jenna: I don't think we are alone in loving Halloween. Let's just say that. Emily: Well, apparently not. projected US spending on this seasonal tent pole alone is $13.5 billion. So that means the average planned spend per consumer is about $115, which by the way, I have already blown through that. So I'm like several Jenna: Go Sam. Emily: consumers worth of, you know, based on you know kids' costumes, if you purchase versus make. I used to make them a little bit more when they were little, but you know, new decor, I honestly I spent 200 bucks on a new Lego set that is part now of my Halloween decor, and it just makes us happy. It is the night before Christmas, and all th me and the kids, we each built a house, and so now it's like now Jenna: What's that? Emily: I will send you a picture of that too, but it's like okay. I mean, I haven't even thought about my pet costuming yet, and that's projected to be 920 million. So what's Ziggy gonna be this year? I don't know. Jenna: I will say that's a whole Halloween really lives into the trend of humanizing pets and treating them as family. So many people get costumes for their pets. It's it's really yeah. Emily: It's incredible. And it's fun. It's fun for all, I think. Jenna: Yeah. I wish I could I have dressed up rigatoni a few times. I really should make her into a a a noodle. A noodle. Emily: The noodle. You really should. Jenna: Really, that would be amazing. She just it so Izzy, when she was around, like could Emily: Yeah. Jenna: tolerate a Halloween costume and she was so sweet and cute in them. Riggie is just a little curmudgeon. Like I just don't know if she would go for it. Yeah. Emily: Yeah. She's gonna take that. Yeah. I I fully understand. But if you you know, I think it's the kind of thing if you do walk Jenna: Hmm. Emily: your dog with your kids, it's kind of fun to throw something on them to complete the the outing. Jenna: Yeah. yeah, so I mean Halloween is huge. There d remind me in our Weber days, did you ever work on the M's Halloween campaigns? Emily: No, so I only worked on Dove for Confectionery, but it was always periphery arounds. It Snickers was the big one around Halloween and I did have a front row seat into that. And and I remember they used to do some really cool things for those candy Jenna: Yeah. Emily: fans. Yeah. Jenna: I do feel like Mars knows how to do Halloween. I mean, of course they have to know how to do Halloween because of the candy, Emily: Yeah. Yeah. Jenna: but they just have such cool ideas. I was looking back through right before here and a couple years ago they did this it's like a booth booth a Halloween candy booth Emily: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got you. Jenna: So cute. but I know they do a ton in activations and just always so so fun. I bring them up only to say that there are a couple other brands who are having a lot of fun with Halloween this year. Emily: Yeah, yeah. Jenna: and I mean we're just gonna scratch the surface of this, but Emily: Well, before you go there, Jenna, I do just want to give love to a retro activation for Snickers, which was the Snickers Petition, which which is an idea that I feel like jumped the shark above and beyond even what we'll go through today. But if you recall, it was a petition, I think it was held through petition.org to consumers nationwide to be like, do we want a petition Halloween to just happen on the last Saturday of the month so that you're not struggling with like a Monday night Halloween? In a Tuesday night Halloween, October 31st. Should it just be, you know, we're lucky this year because it is a Saturday, right? Jenna: I was gonna say it is a Saturday this year, yeah. Emily: It is a Saturday, so it's like the best of times. But the petition was about what are you? Are you a purist on the thirty-first, or do you just want to have it on that last Saturday that makes sense? And it got cuckoo bananas publicity. It was like on today and just like just swam in consumer media coverage for again something so simple and a little outside the norm of of some of the things we're gonna talk about, but that was like I don't know, was it eight years ago? Ten years ago, it was great. Really. Jenna: was it maybe the last time it was on a Saturday or could it could have been. Emily: So well that that's possible. It could have been. Jenna: yeah, I mean it does sound does sound pretty, pretty dreamy. Although I can't Emily: Yeah. Jenna: imagine Halloween not being the thirty like it's the thirty first. I'm sorry folks. It is. I just I have to fall in that camp. Emily: Totally. Totally. And I do think you have people on either sides of the fence, whether or not it's the kids, the parents, whatever the case may be. But it it was just a different different way in, which I really appreciated. but what do you have for Jenna: Yeah. Emily: Keybler? What's going on? okay. No problem. Jenna: I was skipping Kepler. It's not my favorite. no, we can talk about Kepler. I mean, Keebler's is cute. it's pretty turnkey in my opinion. It is it Emily: Yeah, it's cute. Jenna: is really cute, so they always come out with like a custom product. So they brought back its limited edition spooky fudge stripes cookies. They have orange stripes and a Halloween design, which I mean at this point it's almost it's it's so standard for These packaged goods companies to come out with, a Halloween Emily: How many? Jenna: specific or certain holiday specific products. they also brought back the Spooky Stripes Safari. So I hadn't heard about this last year. I think this year they've made it a little larger and I would imagine they'll continue to try to, but they're partnering with zoos across the country. There's only six of them this year. but they're major. Yeah. Emily: One's in Chicago. I'm wondering if it's Lincoln Park Zoo. So I'm like, would I check that out? Maybe. Yeah. Yep. Jenna: Yes. they're in major cities. I'm guessing it probably is. It's Chicago, Nashville, Phoenix, Kansas City, Houston, and Minnesota. I was Emily: Yeah. Jenna: really wishing it was in Boston because I would have checked that out. Emily: Yeah. It just sounds fun. Jenna: but people can do scavenger hunts looking for striped animals. and like i if that was local for us, my kids would love that. We would 100% do that. so I think it's a really smart campaign in that sense that they're really hitting on what their customers will want. Emily: Yeah. Jenna: And it has an online experience that you can access through the QR codes on their packaging. So there are ways that people can get involved outside of those six cities as well. Emily: Yeah. And it's family oriented. I love that. It's like a it like a fun for the whole family activity people can do together, which is which is just kind of nice. I thought that was lovely and wholesome, even though the product is ultra processed. Right. I mean like Jenna: Yeah, even though I don't like the product. Yes. Emily: I like it, but I don't think I can eat it. Jenna: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. mine my fave f well, not my fave, but like the other one that I like on here that we've talked about and stumbled upon this year is the McDonald's nostalgia boo buckets. Emily: Yeah. Super cool. Yep. Jenna: These boo buckets have been around for as long as I've been around. So Yep. Emily: I know! Happy 40th! I can't believe they've been around for 40 years. It's wild. Jenna: Yup. and this year they partnered with Dizzy Disney and they're Emily: Yeah. Jenna: featuring five villains, which I think is so fun. I actually Emily: It's so fun. Jenna: so this is an example of it working well. The second I saw that, I was like, why in the world would I not take my kids to McDonald's to get those boo buckets? Of course they want this. Emily: I know. Well, I I'm literally like the kids wanted to go last night 'cause we were out in the suburbs and I'm like, let's try to aim a little higher, guys. We wound up at Chick-fil-A. But now I'm like, shoot, we would have gotten these boo buckets. Jenna: Well, the funny thing is, is my children don't even like McDonald's food. I think we talked about this before. we used to only we used to get McDonald's Emily: Money. Yeah. Jenna: if we on a road trip, and I noticed after a couple road trips that they didn't actually eat the food. They would eat the apple slices. They would drink the milk. No, I just they just don't like the food. Emily: they're so healthy. Wow, I'm impressed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's hilarious. I used to got get made fun of by my brother and sister because I've been like a lifelong l lover of the nuggets. And I really don't know that that recipe's changed over the years. But my gosh, I they used to rag on me hard. Yeah. Jenna: I don't think it has. I think you'd have some consumer backlash if you changed it. Emily: And guess what? Now my kids like So I don't know who is right. I was always a more adventurous eater, but yeah, who knows what's in those. But Jenna: Yeah. Emily: anyway, the the Disney Millens is such like an iconic property to have, you know, around for Halloween that it I think people would make trips for that. And I that's ultimately what you want. Jenna: Yeah, well it ties in to the latest and greatest of what's going on with Disney with the descendants because they just came out with a new descendants, Emily: Yeah, yes. Jenna: I wanna say six months ago or so. Five. Five. I know. There's been a lot. Emily: Was that four? five. Good lord. Well there's a new zombies coming out too, I think, next year. Yeah. Jenna: Okay. So like it it does, it ties into the to that piece of it. I also think it's a really nice mix of old and new, right? Old with the idea of the boo buckets, Emily: Yeah. Jenna: new with that. I'm gonna go off on a tangent for two seconds. Emily: Great. Jenna: So booing people is very Emily: Yeah. Jenna: popular in my neighborhood. And I think in a lot of neighborhoods around the country. and first off, I didn't really put two and two together about what they're actually calling the boo bucket. Emily: Okay. Jenna: with booing people until right now. Emily: You could fill them and repurpose them with candy. Jenna: Yes, but I'm also thinking, when is a brand gonna jump on to the whole idea of booing people? Emily: doing Jenna: how cool would it be for a brand to do boo like surprise boos, like to go around and boo a hundred thousand people or something? Like it'd be so cool and such a cheap activation, but I know like can we can we find a client to do that for? Emily: Yeah. The awesome. The awesome. I'm like, who is it gonna work for for us, Jenna? Jenna: That'd be really fun. gosh. And why don't you talk to the the next one we had chatted about? Emily: Yeah, so I I thought Chipotle's was cool. So I'm gonna bring that in in the vein of McDonald's anyway. But they they're doing a summon the spirits tour here in 2026. So the the problem is I'm not totally tracking on this OG margarita recipe. Jenna: Me either. Emily: That they had, did Jenna: I don't remember it. Emily: it have alcohol? I need to dive into this a little bit more, but apparently their customers have wanted it back ever since it left the menu. So similar to Keebler, they're embedding in five cities with the Summon the Spirits tour, which gives give, you know, customers in those markets the chance to have that margarita again. and I guess the other piece of like turnkey product that they have in this time frame is the burrito. So cute. And Jenna: Yeah. Emily: that's their long-running Halloween promotion. So what they did was instead of just bringing back that old menu item in the Burrito, they coupled it with this Summon the Spirits tour in the Five Cities with the Margarita. So kind of made it like the nostalgia returns on a couple fronts here. and Jenna: Mm-hmm. Emily: then the limited availability, it feels really exclusive, it feels urgent because it's just around the Halloween time frame. again, I I like these throwback campaigns, especially for quick serve restaurants, you know, like they're it's comfort in even making the trip to a QSR, right? Like, Jenna: Yeah. Emily: and so therefore, if you're going back to revisit this time in life or this moment in life that you enjoyed something or it meant something to you, to me it just ties together really, really well. Cause because the question is like, does does bringing something back, does it replace innovation? And I don't think it does. I think there's a time and a place for retro and return and like a back to basics or a back to a favored thing. But these companies are constantly innovating too. I think if you pair both, that's when you're really, you know, kind of winning the marketing battle. Jenna: Yep. I agree. I I think there's something cool. I also wonder, you know, sometimes when brands do this where they bring a product back, for limited availability, you have to imagine that they're also looking at it to see is there enough demand for us to bring this back longer term Emily: Yeah. Jenna: or not. And that it's a smart way to do it 'cause it is is it is like a little test and learn. Emily: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I need to see also where these these markets are gonna be because that's something we would definitely as Chipotle lovers, really my kids. I mean obviously if the margarita has alcohol in it, that's not something they would have. But I'm Jenna: Right. Emily: gonna dive deeper in this for us, Jenna, because if it's in Chicago or Boston, it might be worth a trip. Jenna: We frequent Chipotle probably twice a month over here. It's very close to us, so yes. Emily: Yes. Yeah. I it's weird though, I feel a lot less guilty doing that. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. No Jenna: Yeah, same. Same. Yeah. Side down a bag of chips and Emily: problem. Jenna: Anyway, okay, one final one that we can't not mention because it is one of my faves and it is a New England treasure. Dunks Emily: Yeah. Jenna: and their Halloween focus. I just love and we actually we have another donut company around here called Donut King. It's like l it's a local company, it's not a franchise. Yes, yes. Emily: Hmm. Has it been around for a while? Okay. It sounds like an old school round. Jenna: They have massive, massive donuts. So I only let my kids get it every once in a while because they're huge. My kids have actually gotten smarter where they won't even eat half of it now because they're so big. but Emily: Yeah. Yeah. Jenna: I just love seeing all the Halloween donuts. Dunks specifically has their spider donut back, which I saw this weekend. They have the berry baddie drink character. They have glow in the dark buckets, they have so many just like cute, fun, festive things. Emily: That's what I want. I want to get those glow-in-the-dark munchkins. munchkins bucket, sorry. Jenna: Yeah. Yeah. Emily: But I w I guess we'd have problems with the munchkins themselves. I need that bucket. Jenna: I do want the bucket. Actually, I feel like I need to get it and then we need to boo a couple people, so. Emily: Yeah, yeah, I love that idea. You know what? I think you just gave me an idea for my neighbors. Thank you very much. Jenna: So welcome. There you go. I'm here for something. okay. Before we wrap up with our final question, we have a new segment we want to try out that may or may not stick. We'll see. We were just playing around as we do research every week of what we want to talk about. Emily: Yeah. Jenna: Sometimes we see campaigns that are worth mentioning, but maybe not like a big spotlight. so we wanna try introducing a new segment called Hot Takes. we actually did this quickly, but not great when Alan was on a Emily: Yeah, I know that was our only hot takes. Jenna: while ago. Emily: It's hard to be really concise when you're like, wait, I have 18 things to say. Jenna: It's so hard. Okay, so I'm gonna very quickly throw this one out there and you give me your hot take. Ready? So Kiss Met, which is the pet food brand from Chrissy Teagan and John Legend, helped lead the 36th annual Tompkins Square Halloween dog parade in New York City. my question for you, is this an example of a celebrity brand genuinely connecting with its community, or is it just another celeb photo op? Emily: I liked it. Okay. My hot take is I like it. There's a couple things working in its favor though. Number one, Ziggy is a kismet puppy. And that is because I know it is so random, Jenna. And I don't even think we've talked about this, and I probably shouldn't say it out loud, but that Jenna: Ha ha ha Emily: was the food she was on when I adopted her. But so I like the brand because she seems to enjoy it. I'm like fine with Chrissy and John. Like I'm not one of those crazy lovers, but I do, you know, it's it's a family oriented thing. Bring people bring their pets. I think it's a nice moment in time. I was totally okay with that one. Did you have a different take? Okay, okay, cool. Okay. So Jenna: Okay. No, we're gonna keep this rolling. Ask me the next one. I'm gonna just go with your take. Emily: Yeah, so hot take to Butterfinger and Heidi Clume. So Heidi is also synonymous with Halloween. She does her her Jenna: Mm-hmm. She is. Emily: huge Halloween party, right? Every single year. I think it's the 25th anniversary this year in 2026, which is absolutely nuts. Butterfinger is coming in for the third time on the sponsorship. so what Butterfinger is doing is a month-long dessert pizza collaboration at Crazy Pizza in New York City with other Halloween sampling activations planned. So what do you think? A smart way to make a sponsorship work harder or just putting Butterfinger on pizza making it. Jenna: I am a no on this one. Love that they're Emily: Okay. Jenna: sponsoring her. Love her party. Agree with you. I love seeing what she does and everybody else it's like true special effects makeup that is happening with these costumes. It that Emily: Whoa. Yeah. Jenna: part is amazing and like great. If Butterfinger wants to sponsor it, great. They're a candy brand. They have a place to play in Halloween. Wonderful. Also am not opposed to like a sweet dessert pizza, but the extension just it doesn't It doesn't make sense to me in the context of the Halloween party. It feels like two separate things and they're just trying to squish Emily: Yeah, it does. Jenna: them together. So I vote no on this one. All right. Well, we're running long. I think we'll work on that segment and we'll see how how quick we can be. but Emily: Okay, fair. Yeah. I have a good one, Jenna, for impact. Jenna: last question What's our impact? Emily: So I love this one because I in this virtual world we don't get to do it often, but I got to meet clients last week Jenna: Yeah. Emily: in person. And it was so lovely to sit, have a conversation, yes, about work, but also about life, about their lives, what we do here in Chicago, all the intersections and the lovely things we have in common and the joking and just really feeling like you are growing that relationship. look it's a great relationship online but it's a whole different thing to actually be able to give someone a handshake hug someone share a meal so that was really awesome and it kind of like set my heart alight a little bit and reminded us why we do this so I know you were Jenna: I love that. I was slightly jealous that I wasn't there for that one. I have met this client in person before, so it was your turn. But Emily: Yeah. Jenna: I was a little jealous they're a wonderful client and we've worked with them for a year. Over a year now? A year? I don't know. A while. A long time now. So Emily: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jenna: Yeah. So I great. I love that. I I think there is nothing that can replace in person, which is why I'm coming to see you soon. So yay. Yes, yes. All right, Emily: Yes. A couple of weeks, it's so great. Got your flights. Can't wait. We already have a great dinner, Rez. So it's gonna be it's gonna be really nice. We are all excited to see you in in Chi Town. Jenna: well, thank you so much. It was good to chat and we will resume soon. Happy Halloween. Emily: Happy Halloween, y'all.