What do an ’80s-themed sunscreen brand and an NFT have in common? Both ideas started with an internet radio station.

No, this isn’t a Mad Lib: It’s the story of Poolsuite, an “internet leisure corporation” that began as Poolside FM, the aforementioned radio station playing channels of retro summer songs meant to conjure the vibes of “ridiculous ’80s beach movies,” said founder Marty Bell, who came up with the idea for the site in 2014 on a rainy day in the Scottish Highlands.

“It had tons of traction since day one,” Bell told Marketing Brew. “[It] blew up on Twitter. I had no followers, no internet following at all. But Poolside FM blew up just because it felt nostalgic and happy and infectious.”

Poolside → Poolsuite → Vacation

The site was a passion project for Bell, who at the time had recently co-founded a DTC sunglasses brand called Tens, and went on to co-found fintech company Nude. In the years since Poolside FM went live, Bell has heard pitches to tie the site to products from beer to swimwear to pool floats. They all felt “very obvious and not particularly exciting to me,” he said.

• Then Bell met Lach Hall and Dakota Green. The pair were working on an ’80s-inspired line of sunscreen, partially motivated by the music and community of Poolside FM, now known as Poolsuite due to a trademarking issue, according to Bell.
• He said he’d “been down the rabbit hole of ’80s sunscreen brands” many times before he met Hall and Green. “All those same brands still exist, but they’re these very sad versions of their former selves,” Bell told us.
• The potential to experiment with elements like smell and packaging in “a pretty boring space” was intriguing to Bell, so the three started the Vacation sunscreen brand in April 2021 as an extension of Poolsuite.

Continue reading to find out how Poolsuite has become a useful marketing tool for Vacation.—AM

Future Social is a weekly newsletter on social media, content, and creators from Jack Appleby, a Morning Brew creator who’s worked in social media for 10 years at companies like Beats by Dre, Microsoft, and Twitch. Check out an excerpt from one of his pieces below, and sign up for Future Social here.

Apparently, 140 characters 280 characters isn’t enough for Twitter. The bird app announced Notes last week, their in-platform long-form writing format. You could blog, newsletter, write a public apology, or whatever else is on your mind with full paragraphs and images now!

So should your brand start using Twitter Notes?

Threads or Notes: You knew this debate was coming. The answer: they’re not the same, they don’t replace one another, they serve different purposes. This is not Jordan versus LeBron. Threads will probably get more engagement, Notes will be more readable in the traditional sense.

Brands that are already writing long-form should use Notes: You make marketing content to be seen. You want as many of your target audience’s eyeballs to see that content as possible. There’s no downside to tossing your blog, newsletter, or other long-form marketing writing into a Twitter Note to share with your followers. Literally, copy/paste and enjoy success.

Read more about how your brand should use Twitter Notes. —JA

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Boost: Tips to amp up engagement on your social media posts.

Bring the heat: Eight heat-map tools that will show where your site visitors are engaging most.

Buy, buy, buy: A starter’s guide to setting up shop on TikTok.

In our budgeting bag: Money Scoop is our thrice-weekly personal finance newsletter sharing smart spending habits. Learn how to better invest, budget, manage taxes, and much more. Subscribe for free.

Gearing up for a weekend job hunt? Don’t forget to check out the Marketing Brew Job Board for the best opportunities in the industry!

Today’s featured openings:

• Marketing Automation Specialist at Neon One
• Digital & Social Media Strategist at Rust-Oleum
• Copywriter at IZEA Worldwide, Inc.

See more jobs or post your job opportunities here.

• Amazon said it sold more than 300 million items during this year’s Prime Day.
• Amazon also offered to “refrain from using non-public data relating to, or derived from, the activities of independent sellers on its marketplace, for its retail business that competes with those sellers,” hoping to settle an EU antitrust investigation.
• The SEC has “broadened its inquiry” into a tweet Elon Musk sent in May regarding his purchase of Twitter.
• Emmy noms ≠ more streaming subscriptions, per New York magazine.
• The New York Times and Hasbro are making a Wordle board game.
• Elliott Management, an activist investor, has bought a stake in Pinterest as the platform faces challenges like a decline in users, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Snap poll: Do you think Pinterest is a useful platform for marketers?

• Yes
• No
• Don’t use it

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Is streaming’s binge-watching era officially over?
• TikTok’s new avatar feature could help brands without mascots on the platform
• FTC asks companies to knock off misleading data claims

Which headlines are real marketing news, and which one is fake?

1. Christopher Meloni bares all in Maximum Effort’s latest Peloton ad
2. Playboy will open a virtual mansion in the metaverse
3. Chris Hemsworth brings back ‘Baywatch’ in new Billabong ad
4. Pete Davidson grooms himself for ‘hot date’ in Manscaped ad

Keep scrolling for the answer.