In September, Coca-Cola and Oreo, a Mondelez brand, declared themselves “besties” for a collaboration where Coke released Oreo-flavored soda and Oreo released Coke-flavored cookies. Shortly after the announcement, Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey and Mondelez CEO Dirk Van De Put exchanged friendship bracelets and took to TikTok to post Shein hauls.

OK, we made up the previous sentence, but here’s why: To some observers, particularly those with the blush of youth, evoking “besties” may sound like the brands were trying too hard to strike a chord with Gen Zers.

“Marketers were told that to survive in today’s culture, they must keep up,” Gen Z research and strategy firm Dcdx wrote in a post about the Coke-Oreos besties approach on Substack. “Keep up with the trends, the memes, and the moments commanding attention.”

The post went on to warn that “the hunt for momentary relevance” is a “slippery slope that not only risks looking old or outdated but imposes a serious long-term side effect.”

A poll of 92 members of what Dcdx calls its “futurehuman partners,” who agency CEO and founder Andrew Roth told Retail Brew make up a sort of focus group of Gen Zers it surveys, asked this: “Brands saying ‘bestie’ in their marketing, cool or cringe?”

More than 8 out of 10 respondents (85%) thought brands saying “bestie” was cringe; just 15% considered it cool.

“We believe not all brands should try and hop on new trends,” Dcdx declared on Substack.

Keep reading here.—AAN

Amazon’s recently concluded fall Prime Day had shoppers lining up for deals they couldn’t resist.

Amazon hosted its second Prime Day—dubbed “Prime Big Deal Days”—on Oct. 8–9, while rivals Walmart and Target ran Prime Day-like deals on their sites with Walmart Holiday Deals and Target Circle Week, respectively.

According to insights from data firm Numerator’s Prime Day tracker, the top five categories on Amazon bought between Oct. 8 and 9 were household essentials (22%), and apparel and shoes (22%) both taking the top spot, followed by home goods (21%), beauty and cosmetics (20%), and health and wellness (19%). Numerator said it surveyed more than ​​5,000 verified Prime Day customers who shopped during the sale.

Amazon said, globally, Prime members saved more than $1 billion across millions of deals.

Keep reading here.—VC

As retail media networks look for new ways to grow revenue and entice shoppers, Albertsons Media Collective, the retail media network (RMN) of supermarket chain Albertsons, has closed a deal with cash-back platform Fetch.

“Through our partnership with Fetch, we are enhancing our loyalty offering by allowing customers to earn additional rewards,” Chris Placencia, senior client success director at Albertsons Media Collective, said in a statement.

Fetch will “complement” Albertsons existing RMN infrastructure with Fetch Points, said Robin Wheeler, chief revenue officer at Fetch. This is the first retail media integration for Fetch.

Keep reading here.—VC