General Mills launches fresh pet food line | Pets and Trends Newsletter

Lions Unleashed 🦁

What Cannes 2025 Got Right (and Missed) About Brand
✍️ By Sam Carter, CEO of Fospha

At Cannes Lions this year, one word kept surfacing: brand.

In a performance-obsessed world, brand feels harder to defend. It doesn’t show up in ROAS or fit neatly into a reporting cycle. But that doesn’t mean it’s not driving results.

As Rory Sutherland put it, “A brand is like a pension… one day you wake up and go: bloody hell, where did all this equity come from?”

He’s right. Our data at Fospha shows brands investing more than 10% in upper-funnel activity see 2x the overall marketing efficiency. But belief isn’t the issue — buy-in is.

To protect brand budgets, we need better evidence. That’s why we’ve identified early signals—like branded search and engaged visits—that connect brand activity to business outcomes.

👉 Read the full article
📊 Download the Glow Report to explore the data behind the brand debate.

Sector Spotlight 🎥

PET FOOD LAUNCHES

General Mills Debuts Fresh Pet Food and Launches Edgard & Cooper in U.S.

General Mills expands in the premium and fresh pet food segments with the U.S. launch of Blue Buffalo's "Love Made Fresh" line and Edgard & Cooper's products, targeting young pet owners through an exclusive partnership with PetSmart.

PET FOOD TRENDS

Four Trends Transforming Pet Food Industry

The 2025 Dog and Cat Report reveals four transformative trends in the pet food industry, including rising cat ownership among Gen Z and Millennials, and a rebound in premium pet nutrition.

These shifts highlight opportunities in functional pet foods, supplements, and lifestyle-integrated products, emphasizing emotional and health-focused buying decisions that marketers can strategically leverage.

BRAND EXPANSION

It’s Friday Wins Coles-Owned Swaggle as Pet Store Plans Next Brand Push

It‘’s Friday has secured the creative account for Coles' Swaggle, an online pet store, as it seeks to enhance its brand positioning and connect with pet owners. With 70% of Australian households owning pets, Swaggle, offering over 100 categories, aims to capitalize on this market through a new brand platform and creative strategy. The collaboration focuses on engaging pet owners and expanding Swaggle's presence in the competitive pet retail industry.

🏆 Announcing the ClickZ 25 of 25 Awards –
Powered by Fospha

While the world’s eyes were on Cannes last week, we’ve been spotlighting a different kind of creativity.

The ClickZ 25of25 Awards spotlights 25 standout DTC and digital-first campaigns that drove real impact this year — across five key sectors: luxury, beauty, wellness, home, and fashion.

Each winner represents smart, scaled, creatively sharp marketing — and we’re thrilled to celebrate their work.

You’ll find the full list — plus sector breakdowns and creative highlights — in our full awards report.

📥 Download the full report below

👉 Got a standout campaign or behind-the-scenes story to share? ClickZ is always looking to spotlight fresh creative — reach out to us, we’d love to hear from you.

Optimization Hub ⚙️

ECOMMERCE TRENDS

eCommerce Marketing Trends to Know of in 2025

In 2025, eCommerce marketing is driven by five crucial trends:

• personalization and enhanced customer experiences using data and AI

• the rise of mobile commerce and shoppable content

• the impact of social commerce coupled with influencer marketing

• the importance of data analytics and marketing automation

• the evolving roles of SEO and content marketing.

These trends highlight the strategic use of technology and platforms in capturing and retaining customers, emphasizing the need for tailored experiences, efficient data handling, and adaptive marketing strategies for professionals in the field.

GEOGRAPHIC INSIGHTS

Geographic Insights Help Brands Expand Into Underserved Markets With Amazon DSP

Geographic Insights and Activation (GIA) on Amazon DSP empowers marketers to efficiently tap into underpenetrated markets by leveraging Amazon's first-party data.

This tool enables advertisers to identify high-potential geographic areas, optimize campaigns, and combine online and offline sales data for improved reach and ROI. By addressing challenges of localized personalization and operational friction, GIA offers a precise means to enhance advertising effectiveness and expand customer bases.