From Soup to Nuts and Bolts of Ferrari?

The BrandFathers make their newsletter debut in spectacular fashion

February 05, 2025

This is the BrandFathers first newsletter, so a quick introduction to us and what we’re doing here.

Oren, Jordan and I (Ashwinn) get together each Friday to break down the latest campaigns, social, brand sins, collabs, and rebrands.

The three of us work on and with brands of ranging size and scale, across Sports, CPG, SaaS and Hospitality, so we’re in the weeds daily seeing what works and what doesn’t.

The Fathers are here to preach and teach. Our goal is to keep you on top of what’s happening, but also help you understand how and why things work, and how to apply it yourself — whether you’re a CMO, early-stage brand builder, aspiring marketer or an offended bystander who wants to know why Dwayne Johnson is in ads that say Big Drink Energy.

It’s part instructive, part irreverent and, mostly, a good time.

And if you want to skip all of that and just hear the real sins, jump to the segment Marketing Confessional — anonymous stories of nightmare product launches, ad campaigns, and brand disasters.

So with that, here’s what caught our attention this week:

Ferrari’s Campaign Launch

What is it: Ferrari announced a partnership with Lewis Hamilton and rolled out content in a cinematic universe on IG.

The BrandFathers take: We often talk about how brands don’t need highly polished, highly produced content, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. When you have a brand the scale of Ferrari and a figure as well known as Hamilton, a little cinematic detail can go a long way. With cult fan bases on both sides, investing time in shooting this style of content for short-form can work quite well — where it doesn’t work is when it’s shot for TV, and cut down for social as an afterthought.

Djokovic and Trump break the 4th Wall

What is it: Novak Djokovic hopped on twitter to share his post-game analysis directly with fans. He talked off-the-cuff, directly to camera, and fans went wild. Without a set of questions from a sports reporter, fans felt like he was talking to them. This is the first time we’ve really seen someone of his age speak directly to fans through short-form video.

Similarly, we saw a lot of this from the Trump campaign (this is not an endorsement, we are just talking tactics). In his first day in office Trump live streamed signing executive orders, and has been consistent with his unpolished, off the cuff videos across social — a strategy employed by former Senator Jeff Jackson, who got extremely popular on Tiktok for breaking down politics and bills in a simple, digestible way, as well as AOC, who has been employing a similar, no-fluff, face-to-cam approach for a long time as well.

The BrandFathers take: “Authentic” was Merriam Webster's word of the year last year and for good reason. Breaking the fourth wall is happening in waves across industries, irrespective of size.  You see founder-led brands sharing the BTS of growing a business, olympic athletes like Ilona Maher building a rabid fanbase by sharing raw, real off the cuff from her day, but we haven’t seen this happening en masse, yet, in politics. Despite what PR agencies might tell you, the best response is often the fastest one, with 1 or 2 people from your team just taking the lead and speaking simply. We’re going to see more of this, everywhere.

Soup in a cough drop?

What is it: Progresso, the soup brand that likely only gets search traffic because people mistake it with insurance company Progressive, launched a new product, Soup Drops (like cough drops, but made of soup). Their announcement post is here, and some influencer collabs to support it’s launch.

The BrandFathers take: This is a peak product-as-marketing play designed to drive shares on social. It’s similar to the chipotle napkin holder, new balance slippers, and the Hoka Loafers. As we say, the internet rewards irrationality, and this is a strategy that can be used to an extent to drive short-term bumps in awareness, affinity, and really, just make for some fun content. The danger is in coming off as too contrived, though, and there’s a concern that this gets saturated quickly. The pinnacle example of this was the Hailey Bieber Rhode Phone Case, blending consumer insight, functionality, and is-that-real factor.

To get the full breakdown, listen to this week's sermon below, where we talk about dark arts marketing, how we’re developing a brand identity for our media empire, and what it takes to be a good father.

A frank conversation about dishonest marketing

BrandFathers · Episode

open.spotify.com/episode/6DBj95W7u3NXLiazrmF8r2?si=K-uFhMuvSiaXkYF7m5I7Og

And of course, you will be eternally blessed if you comment, like, follow, but most importantly hit us with any feedback, notes or marketing confessionals.

-The BrandFathers

Oren, Jordan, Ashwinn