Kevin Durant is an NBA champion, an MVP, and a gold medalist. Perhaps more importantly, he’s also the face of legs.

Earlier this year, skin care brand CeraVe declared Kevin Durant to be the “new face of legs” in a campaign that riffed on a 2021 viral post from former NBA player Isaiah Thomas about Durant’s long (and apparently dry) limbs. Durant kicked off the campaign with a video responding to the post and its replies on X, a platform where he’s long been active and has developed a reputation for clapping back.

“‘Next time you take a matter into your own hands, make sure it’s lotion,’” Durant reads in the video. “That’s actually pretty funny. I don’t have a reply to that.”

The three-week campaign featured a hero video with a drawn-out pan of Durant’s legs and could be seen across TV placements, OOH, and point-of-sale promotions; however, the primary focus was on social, Esther Garcia, GM at CeraVe US, told us.

The “New Face of Legs” campaign led to a 43% sales lift for CeraVe, in addition to more than 4.1 billion PR impressions and 83 million organic video views, the brand exclusively told Marketing Brew. At Cannes Lions this week, CeraVe celebrated the success of the campaign with Durant at Stagwell’s Sport Beach, co-hosted by Durant’s media company, Boardroom.

We spoke to Garcia and James Rowe, president of the branded entertainment and content studio Bolded at OBB, about how the campaign came together and how it fits into CeraVe’s broader strategy of using comedy and native-seeming content to drive big results.

Continue reading here.—KH

Official Cannes Lions programming extends through Friday, but it’s college rules around here, so the advertising crowd is getting ready for the weekend today—but not before they finish it out with the Marketing Brew crew.

I started the day by tagging in on our video interview series and sitting down with Ajit Mohan, chief business officer at Snap, Inc. We talked about how Snap is emphasizing the idea that its users actually enjoy spending time on its platform, in contrast to the sinking feeling of doomscrolling.

Intentional time online and more time offline is a big message this week—and our camera equipment actually agrees. It overheated several times in the glaring Cannes sun—but you know what, cameras deserve a break, too!

Next up was my last meeting of the week with Jim Squires, Reddit’s CMO, at the brand’s Community Deli, an activation that has boasted lines around the corner most days I’ve walked past. I’ve been talking to multiple folks about the power of fandom this week, and one of the places I certainly engage with fandom often is on Reddit—r/SecretsOfMormonWives and r/ThePitt hate to see me coming. Jim and I chatted about the Severance subreddit for a good bit, and we also dug into how marketers should be thinking about fandom. (More to come there, watch this space!)

And last but certainly not least, Kelsey and I are headed to FQ Beach, where we will record a very special live episode of Marketing Brew Weekly, where we’ll recap the big themes we heard about all week. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a teeny bit nervous—but the glass of rosé that awaits on the other end is calling my name. What a way to wrap up an inaugural trip to the South of France!—JN

A fresh Cannes Lions announcement is upon us: Amazon DSP and Comscore are teaming up.

Proximic by Comscore, the company’s programmatic targeting tool, is making its contextual and ID-free Predictive Audience segments accessible within Amazon DSP across CTV, web, and mobile, the companies exclusively told Marketing Brew this week. Advertisers can use the tool to find non-endemic and incremental audiences and to leverage AI-informed data to “fill in addressability gaps,” according to a press release. Ad-tech platform MiQ is among the first to implement Comscore’s new offering within Amazon DSP.

The segment additions are designed to help advertisers, who often deal with identity fragmentation, when they invest in channels like CTV, which is on the rise.

“Advertisers are looking for solutions that deliver performance while adapting to a changing addressability landscape,” Pieter de Zwart, Amazon DSP director, said in the press release.

Continue reading here.—JS

The week’s biggest Marketing Brew stories, now in quiz form. Test yourself on the latest headlines in brand strategy, social media, influencer trends, sports marketing, and more in a quick, competitive challenge built for marketing pros. Challenge your coworkers and see how your score stacks up!

Stories we’re jealous of.

• Business Insider wrote about “AI sprawl,” and how using the technology for the sake of it is leading to rising costs and redundancies.
• The New York Times reported that Meta is looking into creating a prediction markets app.
• The Atlantic wrote about ranch dressing’s big moment with international tourists during the World Cup.