Protein was once something that only athletes and gym aficionados paid much attention to. But in 2025, tracking protein intake feels like something just about everyone is doing, and in many cases actively looking to increase—to the extent that it’s driving a cottage-cheese resurgence.

As interest in protein consumption, especially among diet-conscious Gen Zers and millennials, continues to grow, marketers behind protein-packed products are amping up their efforts to win over those consumers. As they do so, there’s a perception that just about every brand is trying to woo consumers with protein however they can, whether that’s adding frozen cod to their offerings or adjusting promotion efforts to appeal to the GLP-1 audience who may be focused on high protein in small serving sizes.

“It does feel like everybody’s in the protein game or trying to get into the protein game,” Stuart Heflin, GM and SVP of Quest Nutrition at Simply Good Foods, told Marketing Brew. “The biggest thing is that the consumer has changed.”

Heflin, who said that younger generations “just care more about their health,” isn’t alone in recognizing the growing audience for protein-heavy products. Companies like 1440 Foods and Post Consumer Brands are also tracking changing consumption patterns, as are marketers, who acknowledge that a heightened consumer interest in nutrition is having its moment.

“The protein conversation is not just about gym bros, it’s not just about fitness, it’s not just about wellness. More broadly, [it’s] about just nutrition in general,” Camila Caldas, strategy director at Mother LA, said. “With that, there’s all of these really interesting white spots and new audiences that I think are really going to be hot audiences for protein companies to go after.”

Continue reading here.—KM

Nielsen’s measurement accreditation woes aren’t over yet.

The Media Rating Council (MRC), the independent governing body that reviews, audits, and accredits media measurement products, is reviewing Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel product, which combines household panel data measuring TV measurement with data from set-top boxes and connected TVs, according to an email sent to audit committee members who attended a Sept. 10 MRC meeting that was reviewed by Marketing Brew.

The email requests that members vote to start the process of stripping Big Data + Panel of its accreditation or to give Nielsen an additional 60 days to address some of the organization’s concerns about the product. (Members could also abstain.) Those concerns include delays in processing; Nielsen’s comprehensive weighting; Nielsen’s Household Demographic Assessment Model, which estimates demographic data for “data sets lacking those details,” according to AdExchanger; its sample representation; and its Hispanic measurement.

A removal of the accreditation could represent a step backwards for Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel measurement product, which the MRC accredited in January and has become a key currency for broadcasters and agencies during negotiations. At the time of the product’s accreditation, Nielsen CEO Karthik Rao described the accreditation as a “landmark moment for TV ratings” that would “forever change audience measurement.”

Bill Daddi, a public relations representative for the MRC, noted in response to a request for comment that in-process audits and voting specifics are confidential, but confirmed that the organization is conducting voting on Nielsen’s 2024–25 audit, which he described as “a routine procedure that occurs at the conclusion of all audits.” Nielsen declined to comment on the record.

Read more here.—JS

Media buyers, here’s one more streaming ad unit to potentially factor into holiday budgets.

This week, Paramount rolled out Streaming Fixed Units, an offering that lets brands activate against the first seven days of new episodes of some of Paramount+’s most popular shows, including Tulsa King, Landman, and Mayor of Kingstown.

The standard units are 30 seconds long, with Paramount offering separate pricing options for shorter or longer lengths, Leo O’Connor, EVP of streaming at Paramount Advertising, told Marketing Brew. The units will play during standard ad breaks (the second ad break in a Paramount+ show, for example, has 90 seconds of time available, enough for three 30-second slots.)

Advertisers from the AI, travel, and quick-serve restaurant categories have already bought up Streaming Fixed Units, which are designed to provide premium inventory during some of Paramount+’s most coveted programming at the time when most people are tuning in, O’Connor said. Western-wear brands have also taken an interest in the ad format to show up against the Taylor Sheridan shows, he noted.

“We saw that this filled this need in the market to eventize these big drops of new episodes,” O’Connor said. “This is something that’s available today in sports. I think there’s a lot that’s being said about that in the industry, but we felt like there was some white space on the entertainment side to do a similar type of execution, where you could find a huge audience doing the same thing at once and have a brand own that moment.”

Continue reading here.—JS

From the fall of Pets.com (2000) to the rise of AI-driven ad strategies, the past 25 years have redefined how brands connect with consumers. Marketing Brew’s Quarter Century Project explores the pivotal moments that shaped modern marketing—and asks what’s next for the industry.