The Drum’s Daily Briefing: Coach & Kors deal doubt, Beckham v Wahlberg & Iceland CEO SOS
Our quickfire analysis of the brand, marketing and media stories that might just crop up in your meetings and conversations today.
Lil Nas X fronted Coach's Spring season campaign
Coach, Kate Spade & Michael Kors deal stalled by US government
The future ownership of luxury brands Coach, Kate Spade, Michael Kors, Versace and Jimmy Choo is in the balance as the US competition watchdog is taking legal action to block an $8.5bn (£6.9bn) takeover deal between the brand owners, Tapestry and Capri.
Tapestry owns the Coach and Kate Spade luxury handbag and baggage brands, while Capri owns Michael Kors along with Versace and Jimmy Choo.
Tapestry wants to buy Capri to create a US fashion giant that could compete against bigger European rivals such as Chanel, Hermes and Louis Vuitton parent LVMH.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is against the takeover deal because it says it would eliminate direct head-to-head competition between Tapestry’s and Capri’s brands and could reduce wages across the merged business’s 33,000-strong global workforce.
Both Tapestry and Capri disagree with these claims and continue to fight their case.
Beckham and Wahlberg go to war over brand ambassador roles
David Beckham is reportedly suing Hollywood actor and former friend Mark Wahlberg over an £8.5m business dispute.
The friendship was shown the red card after Beckham alleged that Wahlberg misled him during business dealings, accusing Wahlberg’s company – F45 Training – of “fraudulent conduct” that has cost the star millions.
Beckham and former golf star Greg Norman are alleging they were misled into working as ambassadors with F45 Training, which Wahlberg partly owns. A separate case is also being brought against the actor’s investment firm, Mark Wahlberg Investment Group (MWIG) and F45’s founders, Adam Gilchrist and Rob Deutsch.
Beckham is claiming he lost more than £8.5m when stocks he was promised were withheld before share prices plummeted.
Wahlberg and his co-defendants have claimed that the allegations of “fraudulent conduct” are baseless and have asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit.
Revolut hires TikTok exec as it diversifies
Global neo bank and fintech brand Revolut has hired a TikTok executive to lead a new ‘media strategy’ as the company seeks to diversify its revenues in the future and awaits the grant of its UK banking license.
Revolut bosses are exploring plans to monetize customer data through sharing it with advertising partners, as the fintech seeks new sources of revenue and has hired Inam Mahmood, former head of e-commerce partnerships at TikTok UK, to lead a sales team of about 30 people for its so-called media strategy.
The entire business generated revenues of £923m in 2022.
Revolut’s head of growth Antoine Le Nel told the Financial Times: “We could become a media [business]...a place where you have an audience and data about the audience and you monetize this. We know how [users] navigate inside the app, we know some of their interests that they have because they’ve clicked on this and that.”
Revolut secured a $33bn valuation in a funding round led by SoftBank in 2021, but since then investors, including Dublin-listed Molten Ventures and Schroders, have adjusted their implied internal valuations for the startup, with Schroders putting it as low as $18 billion at the end of 2022, before revising it up to $26 billion as of the end of December 2023.
Iceland boss survives London Marathon as famous slogan is retired
Frozen food retailer Iceland could have been left leaderless as the brand looks to reposition itself in the marketplace were it not for the quick thinking of paramedics at the weekend’s London Marathon.
Iceland CEO Richard Walker collapsed after running 25 miles of the 26-mile race and is thanking the quick thinking of St John’s Ambulance men who came to his aid.
Just days ago Iceland revealed it is re-positioning its brand to better reflect modern lifestyles and is ditching the famous ‘That’s why mums go to Iceland’ slogan for the more inclusive ‘That’s why we go to Iceland.’
On Instagram, Walker, the son of Iceland founder Malcolm Walker, says that he was unconscious for around 30 minutes and cannot remember anything about the incident other than regaining consciousness and being surrounded by paramedics.
“It was terrifying really and I had no idea, no recollection of running the race and I was very scared. They [paramedics] told me I could’ve died and it was hyperthermic shock - my temperature was 42 degrees and rising, and after it hit 42 they stopped measuring it.”
It was Walker’s first time competing in the London Marathon and he was raising money for the charity Alzheimer Research UK and last year he climbed Everest.