We found love in a hopeless slop-bowl place.

Earlier this year, Andrew Downing, director of social media at Cava, tasked his team with coming up with a show for social media after seeing other creators and brands hop on the trend and sensing an opportunity in the unscripted reality space.

“We were seeing some of these [social series] that resemble old TV shows,” he said, noting that series like Boy Room, which tours the dirty and often bizarrely decorated rooms of men in New York, resembles MTV’s Room Raiders, where single contestants’ rooms were inspected by potential dates. “I told people to go research some old reality shows and see how we can spin that into a social show.”

About 15 ideas later, the Cava team landed on Bowlmates, a six-episode, weekly Instagram dating series hosted by creator and stand-up comedian Daniela Mora. In each episode, created with the Very Online Agency, two contestants build each other a Cava bowl while answering questions about each other and ultimately deciding whether or not they are, in fact, “bowlmates.”

Season 1 has now officially wrapped, and Downing says the brand’s bet on love has paid off enough to start planning Season 2.

“This is just an expansion of the Cavaverse and trying to figure out other touch points that we know people are interested in,” Downing said.

Continue reading here.—KH

Nike is associated with many sports, but the company’s roots are in running. The brand’s co-founder and chairman emeritus, Phil Knight, ran track and field at the University of Oregon, where he was coached by Bill Bowerman, Nike’s other co-founder.

So it’s probably no surprise that the fall marathon season, when major races including the Berlin, Amsterdam, and New York City marathons take place, is kind of a big deal at Nike.

The brand is an official sponsor of races including the Portland and Chicago marathons, has wide-ranging deals with elite marathoners like Eliud Kipchoge and Conner Mantz, and is involved with the run-club scene that’s growing in popularity. Even at races where Nike isn’t an official sponsor, like this weekend’s New York City Marathon, the swoosh is hard to miss.

“We don’t necessarily look at only showing up in those races that we sponsor,” Seema Simmons, VP and general manager of Nike Running for North America, told Marketing Brew. “It’s really all of those moments that mean something to runners. Some of those are sponsored moments, where it gives us a bit of leeway to be more creative, but then you can definitely see how we show up in others, like the Boston and New York marathons, where hopefully you still feel the presence of Nike.”

During peak running season, we spoke with Simmons about Nike’s running strategy and approach to its various marathon activations.

Continue reading here.—AM

Huggies has a message for those in the midst of family planning: Get busy right now.

Why? Great question. If by some miracle a couple who heeds Huggies’s message and conceives right away, their subsequent parental leave should line up perfectly with the 2026 FIFA World Cup. And wouldn’t that be perfect?

To encourage the activity, Huggies and creative agency Gut made a 90-minute spot uploaded to YouTube, called “Do It for the Team,” featuring sultry jams, imagery, and narration designed to get people in the mood. The company also created a shorter 10-minute version, cut-downs for Instagram and TikTok, as well as a Spotify playlist. And if that’s not enough encouragement, Huggies is also running a sweepstakes offering entrants the chance to win six weeks of free diapers come June 2026.

“We care about babies, and we care about parents,” Matt Barresi, VP and general manager for Huggies, told Marketing Brew. “We know that many parents are fervent sports fans, especially around the world’s largest soccer tournament, especially when their national team is at play, right? And obviously parents are very fervent in their love for their babies, and a lot of them love to turn their little ones into the next generation of fervent sports fans. So that’s the inspiration.”

Read more here.—KM

On Marketing Brew Weekly, our newsletter writers break down some of the industry’s biggest trends and headlines, giving you even more insights to stay ahead of the curve. Tune in wherever you get your podcasts.