Kristina Monllos

Senior Reporter, Marketing Brew

Kristina Monllos is a senior reporter for Marketing Brew. She has spent over a decade covering the advertising business for publications like Digiday and Adweek. Her reporting has also appeared in publications like Rolling Stone, New York Magazine's Vulture and Elle, among others. She is also a filmmaker.

A split graphic of a figure dressed in white dancing in front of a blue sky with clouds
Brand Strategy

Why Pantone sees color reflecting pushback on tech

Pantone exec tells us what it’s like to market Color of the Year.

Kristina Monllos
Images of Adrian Grenier, Chad Michael Murray, and Devon Sawa in recent campaigns.
Brand Strategy

Return of the heartthrob: Why the men of the early aughts are booked and busy in advertising

Over the last six months, the desire for “nostalgia millennial talent” has increased, a UTA agent told us.

Kristina Monllos
Images of soccer players who are featured in the 'Rip the Script' campaign.
World Cup

Inside Nike’s ‘Rip the Script’ World Cup campaign

The brand’s World Cup efforts, helmed by an athlete-packed hero film that took 42 days of filming, attracted 3 billion total views across platforms.

Kristina Monllos
General Mills' corporate archivist Natasha Bruns pictured with Betty Crocker materials.
Brand Strategy

10,000 items, 5,000 square feet, 160 years of history: Inside General Mills’s brand archive

The company’s senior corporate archivist supports brand marketers’ various requests, dives deep into brand histories, and creates the archives of tomorrow.

Kristina Monllos
Hilary Duff stars in a faux corporate compliance video for Ladder.
Brand Strategy

Hilary Duff, ‘Cash Cab,’ and branded newspapers: How Ladder is communicating ‘stronger, not smaller’ to women

With its membership made up of roughly 80% women, the strength-training app is addressing misinformation about weightlifting.

Kristina Monllos
One of StreetEasy's ads, reading "LIVE WHERE THERE'S NO ROOM TO GROW APART, BE A FOREVER NEW YORKER" is displayed on a digital screen in a NYC subway station as a silver train passes by in the background.
Brand Strategy

Inside StreetEasy’s decade of iconic NYC subway ads

For ten years, the brand has leaned on wit and charm in direct creative to connect with a single market.

Kristina Monllos
A side-by-side graphic of a group of women doing yoga on a beach and a pickleball paddle on a court surrounded by Recess beverage cans
Brand Strategy

Candlemaking, tarot cards, yoga, and more: Inside Recess’s event-centric strategy

The beverage brand, which recently quadrupled its events budget, is looking to get “cans in hands,” new CMO Zech Francis told us.

Kristina Monllos
Images from recent Mountain Dew, Coca-Cola, and Jeep America250 campaigns.
Brand Strategy

For America250, brands are taking a unifying—and decidedly unpolitical—approach

Many marketers are leaning on nostalgia with the goal of appearing to be “very pro-American without taking a political stance,” an expert told us.

Kristina Monllos
A photo of a couple in bed underneath the sheets. Another photo of two martinis on a set of bedsheets.
Brand Strategy

‘Sex is back’: Why Brooklinen went from double entendre to ads that are ‘overt’

“We’re seeing now that people, culture, entertainment [are] a little less fearful of it,” Brooklinen’s CMO told us.

Kristina Monllos
A blurry image of a figure, lit with neon green, pink, and orange, in front of a dark blue-purple background
Brand Strategy

New York now requires disclosure of AI performers in ads. How will that change transparency in advertising?

Marketers say the state law could usher in an era where labeling AI use is a common practice.

Kristina Monllos