Just when you think we’ve hit peak brand, something new comes along.
This year, some brands went public, like Beyond Meat—and some almost did, like WeWork. A few rolled out buzzy new products, some so popular they sold out almost immediately like the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich. Consumers said goodbye to a few brands, even ones that seemed unshakeable like Barneys New York, while other brands found popularity with new audiences, like TikTok. And some were in the news for the wrong reasons, like allegations of a poor workplace environment at Away and a holiday ad from Peloton that people couldn’t stop making fun of.
We’re recapping the brands that did all this and more with Adweek’s Top 10 most buzzed about brands of 2019.
Popeyes
Did any brand have a better year than Popeyes? The fast-food favorite had its moment in the spotlight in August when it rolled out its fried chicken sandwich, much to customers’ delight. So much delight, in fact, that Popeyes sold out of two months’ worth of inventory in just two weeks. In those two weeks, the sandwich went viral on social media, thanks in large part to Black Twitter, who responded in droves both before and after Popeyes sent out a tweet asking competitor Chick-fil-A “y’all good?” following an apparent subtweet. Despite the sell-out, Popeyes managed to keep the momentum going all the way until November, when it brought the sandwich back on a Sunday—famously, the day of the week that Chick-fil-A is closed. The sandwich frenzy has shown no sign of dying down since.
Barneys New York
As two department store newcomers—Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus—were opening their doors for the first time in New York, a native institution was preparing to say goodbye. Barneys New York, the luxury store founded in 1923 that became synonymous with downtown cool over its nearly 100-year history, filed for bankruptcy in August and was eventually purchased by Authentic Brands Group, which plans to shutter the stores and instead open Barneys pop-ups inside Saks Fifth Avenue stores (a longtime Barneys competitor). The iconic retailer’s downfall was a startling reminder that no brand is safe from the retail apocalypse, and a storied name alone is not enough to ensure lasting success.
The social network has rarely been out of the news, especially post-Cambridge Analytica. This year was no different, as it spent the bulk of 2019 under further scrutiny from governments both at home in the U.S. and abroad. The Federal Trade Commission slapped the company with a $5 billion fine for misusing its users’ personal information, and the EU Court of Justice ruled that Facebook can be ordered to remove content worldwide. This past year also saw Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s return to the House of Representatives, where he testified about cryptocurrency following the company’s announcement that it planned to launch its own coin, Libra. Facebook also unveiled a new corporate logo this year, and its stock price has risen considerably, up to nearly $200 a share after starting the year at $135.68.
Peloton
The fitness company, which is famous for its in-home spin bike that comes equipped with streaming classes, is responsible for one of the year’s most maligned advertisements. In its holiday ad, a woman received a Peloton bike as a gift from her husband, which leads into a cringe-worthy recounting of a year spent exercising with Peloton. The spot made a celebrity out of its star, “Peloton wife” actress Monica Ruiz, who had another moment of viral fame when she starred in a follow-up to the Peloton spot in an ad for the Ryan Reynolds-owned alcohol brand Aviation Gin. Beyond its marketing, Peloton also had its IPO in September and continues to be one of the buzziest companies in the fitness space.
TikTok
Consider 2019 the year that TikTok moved beyond its roots as an app used solely by social media users who haven’t reached the legal drinking age. This year, brands further embraced TikTok, from nonprofit organizations like Girls Who Code to beauty brands like Elf Cosmetics, which created the original song “Eyes.Lips.Face” that went viral on the platform. Also in 2019, the platform started testing shoppable videos and found new methods for monetization. Its stars, too, found success off of TikTok in new droves, like 18-year-old Noen Eubanks, who was recently named a face of luxury French fashion house Celine. Turns out, a platform that manages to capture—and hold—the attention of 1.5 billion users (60% of whom, in the U.S., are ages 16 to 24, according to MediaKix), is well worth advertisers’s attention.
Beyond/Impossible
Purveyors of vegetarian-friendly meat substitutes Beyond and Impossible are two different companies, but both dominated the culinary conversation in 2019, gaining popularity for their products, which promise a beef-like texture, taste and look without actually coming from a cow. Impossible has rolled out its non-meat protein to national chains like Burger King and White Castle, and Beyond Meat started testing in select McDonald’s locations and went public in May. (Its stock price soared over the summer and has since come back down to near its IPO price.)
Boeing
The embattled aircraft manufacturer had a year full of headlines, thanks to its 737 Max 8 plane, which had two crashes since 2018 on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. In March, the Federal Aviation Administration and international regulators grounded the plane, which is ongoing, resulting in the administration’s longest-ever grounding. That all cumulated in December, when the company announced it would suspend production of the plane going forward, quickly followed by the resignation of its CEO, Dennis Muilenburg.
Disney
Disney’s dominance got a major boost this year due to the launch of Disney+, the entertainment behemoth’s much-anticipated streaming service, which brings together Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic and, of course, all things Disney, from Disney Channel originals to Frozen. The service has only been active for less than two months, but it’s already a fan favorite, with over 10 million people signed up in two days. It’s also been a big year for Disney films, capped by Avengers: Endgame becoming the highest-grossing film of all time. And there’s still more to come: Disney is set to end the year with sure-to-be blockbuster Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
WeWork
At the beginning of 2019, WeWork seemed poised for success, with a highly anticipated IPO on the horizon, a $50 billion valuation and new locations popping up around the country. But those glory moments didn’t last. Just before the IPO was set to take place in September, investors began to question the company’s business model, and WeWork suffered a $1.25 billion loss in the third quarter. This quickly led to CEO and founder Adam Neumann stepping down (though he took $1.7 billion with him), the company pulling its IPO and more than 2,000 employees getting laid off. “The reality is setting in that WeWork is no longer a growth story so much as it is a salvation story,” Jon Marino, Thinknum’s finance editor, told Adweek.
Away
Joining the conversation late in the year was Instagram-favorite luggage brand Away, which found itself at the center of allegations of a toxic workplace environment after The Verge published an investigation into the company earlier this month, complete with screenshots of Slack messages from CEO and co-founder Steph Korey. The company announced the appointment of a new CEO less than a week after the article was published, but the allegations kept coming. Most recently it came out that the artists who paint suitcases with their Instagram-friendly monograms have been working in a windowless room that goes unheated in the winter and without air conditioning in the summer. The allegations have stirred conversation over the often unspoken cost of a startup’s explosive growth.
Bonus: White Claw
This was White Claw’s year. The spiked seltzer owned by Mark Anthony Brands, the purveyor of Mike’s Hard Lemonade, had a banner year. Sales were up 250% compared to 2018, according to Nielsen, and a nationwide shortage was declared in September. The product spurred the creation of countless memes and copycat products, earned the title of the drink of summer and even was the catalyst for the creation of a very catchy fan slogan: “Ain’t no laws when you’re drinking Claws.”
