Katie Deighton

1 week ago | wsj.com | Katie Deighton

“Hostess maybe wasn’t quite as relevant or had gotten a little tired from a brand standpoint,” said Smucker Chief Marketing Officer Gail Hollander, adding that Twinkie the Kid is alive but “taking a siesta.”Part of the strategy includes moving Hostess closer to popular culture, including 4/20 celebrations, Hollander said.

1 week ago | wsj.com | Katie Deighton

J.M. Smucker is sending a “Munchie Mobile” on a road trip leading up to the unofficial holiday of cannabis on April 20 to promote Hostess brands like Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Donettes. It is a departure from Hostess marketing in its pre-Smucker era, when its sweet baked goods were advertised largely with families and children in mind, using cartoons and characters like Twinkie the Kid.

3 weeks ago | wsj.com | Katie Deighton

Dubuc’s arrival at the four-year-old company unites her with several other media veterans looking to catch the wave of interest in women’s sports. They include co-founder and Chief Content Officer Jessica Robertson, formerly director of content for MTV and executive editor of Fader, and board member Betsy Morgan, previously chief executive at the Huffington Post. Morgan is co-founder of Togethxr’s first and principal investor, Magnet Companies.

3 weeks ago | wsj.com | Katie Deighton

The brand’s jeans still feature the thick stitching and horseshoe logo that made it famous, but cost much less than $400. The illusion of exclusivity no longer figures in its business operations. And the blonde models have been replaced by predominantly Black and Latina hip-hop artists, a group that continued to evangelize True Religion after other celebrities had moved on and the company fell into financial trouble.

4 weeks ago | wsj.com | Rachel Bachman |Katie Deighton

With a one-minute introductory video, an upstart outfit in the National Women’s Soccer League was about to unveil the name that would sit alongside the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics as Boston’s newest home team. Around 9 a.m., a social-media manager named Siobhan Richards hit the button. The clip went live. Then all hell broke loose. One of the most disastrous brand launches in modern sports had begun. The video, titled “Too Many Balls,” featured a cameo by NFL great Tom Brady.