Broken Marketing by Anvara - Week 13

Welcome to Broken Marketing

Welcome to the 13th weekly edition of Broken Marketing by Anvara, where we discuss marketing that breaks.

For those of you that are new here, we’re Nick and Andrei, the co-founders of Anvara. We’ve included you here because one way or another we’re connected. We’re happy to have you a part of the Anvara family. 

Taylor Swift is the Latest in Football (and not the Kelce kind)

From Inter Milan and Pirelli to Arsenal and Sega, sponsorships have been a part of soccer teams’ identities for years. However, Spotify’s $310 million deal with FC Barcelona was unique. Signed in 2022, the 4 year deal was the first major media deal in soccer to include a jersey sponsorship and stadium naming rights (an uncommon move in major soccer teams). Barca’s legendary Camp Nou stadium is now known as Spotify Camp Nou which has understandably bothered die-hard fans. 

The deal is a chip in FC Barcelona’s $1.5 billion in debt, but also brings more than just money. Spotify artists like Drake, Coldplay, and Rosalia have already taken over the front of Barca’s kits—and Rosalia’s limited-edition jersey resells for over $1,000 online. 

Now they’re going even bigger.

For the next El Clásico—one of the most-watched rivalry matches in sports—Taylor Swift will front Barcelona’s jersey. With 26.6 billion streams last year and a record breaking $2 billion-grossing tour, Swift isn’t just a musician—she’s a global brand. 

It’s a big play for some of the most recognizable brands in the world to create a new path in sports and media. While Nike and Adidas use athletes to tell stories of grit and glory, Barca and Spotify can create a new story of what entertainment can look like in sports by bringing the most loyal fanbases in the world together.

It was a risk for Spotify to jump into the sports world, but partnerships like these work because they are built around people. Nike’s Jordan brand was literally built around MJ, and it succeeded because people buy from celebrities they look up to. So when Barcelona surrounds themselves with the artists people love, they become more than a sports team, Barca turns into a brand with personality. It worked for American football, as Swift was the star of the show, and FCB decided to run the same playbook.

Flashback: Red Bull’s FOMO Formula

Before Red Bull could sell 12 billion cans a year, they had to convince people to try just one. And back in 1993, that wasn’t easy.

When Red Bull entered the UK market, energy drinks weren’t a thing, and their drinks were expensive at $2-$3 per can compared to $0.50 for soda. So instead of pouring money into traditional ads or begging retailers to stock it, Red Bull took an untraditional route. They made it look like everyone was already drinking it.

Red Bull hired students to crush empty cans and put them in high-traffic areas—nightclub alleys, university campuses, etc. The goal? Make people think Red Bull was already the hottest drink in town. Social proof.

Red Bull made people think they were missing out, creating FOMO before people had even tried it. To reinforce that feeling, Red Bull gave free drinks to DJs, bartenders, and club owners, but they didn’t pitch the drink as a mainstream energy booster. They made it more aspirational. Red Bull was something for the insiders.

After creating the ultimate FOMO, Red Bull built the brand we know today. Backing extreme sports before other brands, they built events, funded athletes, and created media content that created the tagline “Red Bull gives you wings.” It was all brand-building—but it never felt like an ad. And now, Red Bull deploys some of the most innovative marketing we see - and has a big presence with sponsorships and real world activations. If you want to repeat this winning playbook, go to anvara.com.

Today, Red Bull now takes up 43% of the $98 billion energy drink market—a category that it pioneered. And Red Bull is just one of many brands built on FOMO. Facebook started as an Ivy-League only status symbol, Gmail sold launch invites on Ebay, and BeReal got users by limiting when they could use the app. 

Creating FOMO can cost you nothing, and when people think your brand is already the thing everyone’s talking about, buying in doesn’t feel optional—it feels like catching up.

This week’s news

Here’s a brief update on marketing news from this week:

• Hellmann’s launches “Ketchup Currency” to convert condiment loyalty. Hellmann’s is paying people to ditch ketchup. Its new campaign lets users scan leftover ketchup packets on KetchupCurrency.com in exchange for $1–$2 mayo coupons. “Rare” packets even earn bonus rewards. The campaign is a smart play on using a competitor’s clutter to trigger brand engagement. And by gamifying the switch, Hellmann’s reminds us that their mayo makes everyone’s day a little better.

• Brands are now hiring agencies through LinkedIn posts—industry split. We’re not sure if marketing teams are just getting lazy, but brands like The North Face and Nike’s Jordan are going back to the basics. They are posting on LinkedIn to find operational and creative agencies. The public format sparked backlash, with some execs calling it a “cattle call” that devalues brand image. However, the brands have backed themselves saying it allows smaller agencies to have a chance and reflects the internet’s fast pace. If too much time is spent on selectivity, opportunities are missed. Either way, it’s surely an experiment, and we are interested to see how it works out. We like it, but everyone knows that advertisers of the future don’t bother with any of this, they just go to Anvara.

• How to make $170k/month for getting kicked out of Columbia. @im_roy_lee used AI to cheat coding interviews with Amazon, Meta, and TikTok (and got offers) then posted the whole thing online. Columbia University suspended him, the companies pulled their offers, but now he’s making $170K/month selling the tool he built to do it. His app, Interview Coder, solves coding problems in real time during interviews, and he's positioned it as a protest against LeetCode “interview culture.” Roy has received plenty of hate, support, and repercussions for his radical moves, but this polarization has led to massive success. He pushed against the grain, created a solution, and created marketing that breaks. Yes, Roy could’ve been a finance bro or software engineer, but he bet on himself, went viral, and gained something even more important, influence.

• Major League Soccer is planning big moves. The MLS increased its attendance by 5% and sponsorship deals by 13% last year, and new CMO Radhika Duggal is trying to ride the momentum. Duggal understands that although MLS doesn’t have the prestige of leagues like La Liga and EPL, it can create its own identity. The U.S. is co-hosting the 2026 World Cup, Apple TV is pushing MLS content, and legendary players are retiring in the MLS (Messi’s arrival created a 1700% price increase in Inter Miami tickets). With a full-funnel marketing approach, Duggal and Co. want to make these opportunities more than just a moment for the MLS—they want to create a new era of American soccer.

• Skinny Mobile Just Cloned Its Happiest Customer—and Turned Her Into an Ad Machine. The past few weeks have been filled with AI ads from AI UGC to ChatGPT’s Ghibli themed generations over the timeline, but telecommunications company Skinny Mobile has gone to the extreme. Skinny is using AI to make ads cheaper—but with a twist. Instead of hiring a celebrity, the New Zealand telco digitally cloned Liz Wright, their self-proclaimed happiest customer, and made her the AI face of the brand. They went the whole nine yards: voice replication, 360 body scans, and a deepfake newscaster Liz reporting on herself. It’s weird, funny, and way more charming than it sounds. By turning a real person into the brand’s spokesperson, Skinny gets all the personality for a fraction of the cost.

That’s all for this week. Happy Wednesday and remember, fortune favors the brave.

What’s Anvara?

Anvara is a first-of-its-kind platform that connects brands with premium real-world advertising opportunities like live event sponsorship, sports marketing, and guerilla marketing. With a focus on innovation, AI, and advanced measurement, Anvara makes it easier for brands to create memorable real-world experiences and measure their ROI. For more information, visit https://www.anvara.com/.

Quote of the week

“If you want to take the island, burn the boats.” - Julius Caesar