Pepsi buys Poppi to hone its appeal to health-conscious consumers: The acquisition comes amid a broader portfolio shift in favor of “better for you” options.

As younger consumers grow increasingly comfortable with abstinence, and the non-alcoholic sector grows, brands and retailers should reconsider how to approach Dry January.

Coca-Cola takes on Olipop, Poppi: The company is getting in on the “better for you” trend with Simply Pop, a high-fiber, low-sugar prebiotic soda.

Coca-Cola’s latest effort to win over Gen Z consumers falls flat: The company discontinued its Spiced flavor—which isn’t spicy—after just six months due to lackluster sales.

In August, brands got physical, with Olipop entering a new stadium, Nordstrom inking a deal with Rihanna, and Walmart growing with nonendemic retail media opportunities. Others took a more digital approach, making shopping more seamless on social media sites and AI-powered search. Here are the moves that made our analysts name eight brands to our unofficial most interesting list in August. 

On today's podcast episode, we discuss the unofficial list of the most interesting retailers for the month of August. Each month, our analysts Arielle Feger, Becky Schilling, and Sara Lebow (aka The Committee) put together a very unofficial list of the top eight retailers they're watching based on which are making the most interesting moves: Who's launching new initiatives? Which partnerships are moving the needle? Which standout marketing campaigns are being created? In this month's episode, Committee members Arielle Feger and Sara Lebow will defend their list against analysts Blake Droesch and Sarah Marzano, who will dispute the power rankings by attempting to move retailers up, down, on, or off the list.

As Gen Zers enter adulthood and increase their spending power, brands new and old are fighting for a larger share of their dollars. Here are three battles being waged for Gen Z consumers and how wellness, social media, and low prices are giving newcomer brands an edge.

Olipop uses TikTok and the promise of gut health to capture Gen Z’s attention, while Crocs leans on Gen Z’s sense of nostalgia and cool collaborations. Coach reinvented itself to appeal to a younger generation of fashion consumers who want to express themselves and GU makes its US debut as Uniqlo’s little sister.

Roku is helping Shopify merchants deploy CTV ad campaigns: The move will increase the total addressable market of Roku’s ad platform, while also increasing accessibility for SMBs.

A direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategy wasn’t top-of-mind when soda brand Olipop launched in 2017. In fact, during its first year of business, the brand didn’t even have a website—primarily relying on retail brick-and-mortar partnerships to drive sales. But last year, everything changed.