Raffi's Round Up - w/c 2nd June 2025
The five best Marketing-related nuggets across my desk this week
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ONE (if you want to see the rise of the alcohol-free movement, read this one)
As the headline here states: “Non-alcoholic beer projected to overtake ale as the second-largest beer category worldwide this year”.
Per the article in CNBC, while overall beer volume fell roughly 1% in 2024, volume for its non-alcoholic counterpart grew 9% worldwide, according to IWSR.
Of course regular lager is by far in a way the biggest category (92% of the global market) and is actually on the up, but it’s still a fantastic proof point of what happens when a macro trend (health and wellness) meets a willing set of consumer brands who are feeding the beast.
TWO (if you’re fascinated by the rise of AFC Wrexham, read this one)
Made famous by the (really very good Disney documentary) Ryan Reynolds and co. are ready to start (at least in part) cashing in on the cultural behemoth they have given birth to.
Per the article in Front Office Sports, the Welsh soccer club was bought by actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney in 2021 for $2.5 million. Now, it’s looking to sell a stake that values the team at $475 million.
Their work has inspired a number of forays into European sports by American conglomerates (e.g. 49ers Enterprises’ recent purchase of Rangers FC)… Why? It’s an unsaturated swim lane in terms of commercialisation. Andrew Chen’s law of shitty clickthroughs is always worth a re-read on this front…
THREE (if you want a cynical take on AI, read this one)
Personally I’ve never been more bullish on how quickly AI is going to start ripping through the way we operate in consumer and business settings.
ChatGPT’s surge in adoption feels like proof that its tentacles are extending at an accelerated pace…
But Srivinas Rao argues the bear case, primarily because, “if something happens to NVIDIA — a supply chain disruption, a manufacturing delay, a geopolitical sanction, an export ban — the entire AI ecosystem stalls.”
It’s a fair point and the deep dive is worth some attention…
FOUR (if you want to see how new platforms are running ads, read this one)
had a deep dive with PayPal’s new ad supremo… It’s cool to see media options proliferate for brands, but I can’t help but think they’re already drowning in too much point.
Anyway, if nothing else, this was a good point well made:
“If you step back, all successful ads businesses have three things – they engage a coveted audience, at scale, in high-intent moments. About 7 in 10 Americans have a PayPal account and roughly half open PayPal multiple times per week. Venmo is mentioned every 9 seconds on social media, and 48% of Venmo users are Gen Z or Millennial. And this all happens at a critical consumer moment – when people are thinking about spending money and shopping.”
FIVE (if you want the deep dive on AI, read this one)
Benedict Evans is a real master when it comes to unpacking the major waves in the media/tech/culture space… His latest ~60 slide deck doesn’t miss.
