It’s Friday before a long weekend. What do Chipotle, the Nebraska Cornhuskers, and RxBar have in common? No, this isn’t the setup for a bad joke. They’re all brands that have enlisted the Corn Kid to promote their products.
In today’s edition:
—Ryan Barwick, Kelsey Sutton, Jack Appleby
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Curb Your Enthusiam/HBO via Giphy
Presumably, Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina M. Kahn is grateful the weekend is finally here, as her agency has wrapped up a big week.
On Monday, the agency brought a lawsuit against Kochava, a data broker, for allegedly collecting and selling location data “that can be used to trace the movements of individuals to and from sensitive locations” like reproductive-health clinics and places of worship.
Rewind: The suit wasn’t that surprising considering that Kochava sued the FTC *checks notes* several weeks ago in anticipation of the lawsuit, at the time describing the move as a “manipulative attempt…to give the appearance that it is protecting consumer privacy despite being based on completely false pretenses” according to the Wall Street Journal.
Kochava has two businesses: a data marketplace and a measurement service.
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The FTC’s suit is aimed squarely at its data marketplace, which Kochava said is sourced entirely from third-parties and not Kochava itself, explained Kochava’s CEO Charles Manning in an open letter. The company said it has created products specifically designed to block data collection from healthcare locations.
- “In principle we agree with the FTC that blocking sensitive locations is a good idea but there is no specificity on what is defined as ‘sensitive’ and what locations meet that criteria,” he wrote.
Still, in its own lawsuit, Kochava argued that anyone who downloads apps—and agrees to share their location data—should know better.
- “The consumer agreed to share its location data with an app developer. As such, the consumer should reasonably expect that this data will contain the consumer’s locations, even locations which the consumer deems is sensitive,” the complaint read.
By the end of the week, many were wondering: Why Kochava? And though we don’t know the answer yet, the FTC’s lawsuit could put the entire location data collection industry under the microscope.
But wait, there’s more! In non-privacy news, on Thursday the agency hit Credit Karma with a $3 million fine for allegedly targeting users with ads that told them they were “pre-approved” for credit cards even when they weren’t. The company will return that money to users who “wasted time applying for these credit cards.”—RB
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Francis Scialabba
Ahead of the holiday weekend, it’s been a nonstop week of news about the world’s largest streaming service.
Let’s review:
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Netflix is considering charging consumers between $7 and $9 per month for its forthcoming ad-supported tier, according to Bloomberg.
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Also according to Bloomberg, that tier would have about four minutes of ads per hour. That’s on par with the ad loads promised by rival streamers HBO Max and discovery+, but far lower than linear TV.
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According to the Wall Street Journal, those ad breaks will include 15- and 30-second ads that run before and throughout some programming.
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Netflix is offering rates of around $65 to reach 1,000 viewers, with the expectation of eventually raising CPMs to $80, according to the WSJ, which would be far higher than the rates of competitors. The company is considering limiting total investment per brand to $20 million per year in an attempt to prevent ad frequency issues, the WSJ reported.
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The ad-supported tier could arrive as soon as Nov. 1, per the WSJ, earlier than the 2023 rollout that the company had previously indicated.
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By the end of this year, Netflix projects its ad-supported tier to have around 500,000 subscribers, according to Ad Age.
The flurry of reports helps provide a better picture of how Netflix is strategizing the rollout of its ad-supported tier after eschewing Madison Avenue for years.
There are still many unknowns, including what kind of metrics the service will provide to measure ad effectiveness. Even without all the details, media buyers are buzzing with anticipation.
Familiar faces: Earlier this summer, Netflix tapped Microsoft to help lead its advertising efforts. More recently, the streamer poached ad executives Jeremi Gorman and Peter Naylor from Snap to usher advertisers over to the service; Naylor brings with him streaming experience from a prior role at Hulu.—KS
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Sergey Mironov/Getty Images
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. 
There’s something about TikTok that can feel a bit scary for the uninitiated. Maybe it’s the youths—42% of ’Tokers are between 18 and 24 years old. Maybe it’s because TikTok’s the first true social network that requires all content to be video. Maybe it’s the unresolved uncertainty around its “ties” to China. No matter the reason, it sometimes feels like brands—most of which are so keen to make original content on new social networks—just haven’t adopted TikTok as much as you’d expect.
Never fear—I want to show you a fun way to learn TikTok best practices.
This is all I want you to do:
- Pick your favorite TikTok account—a creator, a brand, whoever ya like
- Binge their ’Toks to your heart’s desire
- Pick out their highest performing TikToks
- Speculate why those Toks beat the rest
Okay, there’s a little more to it than that, but I really believe you can learn TikTok extremely quickly just by theorizing while you browse. Read more on what you can look for during your TikTok scrolls plus how to analyze ’Toks for success.—JA
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Francis Scialabba
There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.
Lights, camera, action: Before writing a video script, check out this quick primer.
Quick and easy: Follow these six steps to create a succinct, one-page content marketing strategy.
Missing link: Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about link building but were too afraid to ask.
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Trends and news help you stay in the know. But the best way to improve your marketing? Study what top marketers actually do.
Enter the Growth Newsletter. Each week, they interview experts to get actionable growth tactics, then share them with you. See examples and get the next one here.
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Comcast reportedly wants to “cut as much as $1 billion” from TV-network budgets.
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Dentsu International’s CEO, Wendy Clark, is departing as part of an “imminent restructuring.”
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P&G is throwing its support behind The Trade Desk’s third-party cookie alternative.
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Gatorade struck a deal with the NFL to promote its new energy drink, Fast Twitch, which is expected to come out in February.
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Twitter might finally let users edit their tweets.
Snap poll: Do you plan to spend more on podcast ads in 2023?
 Yes
 No
 We don’t do podcast advertising
 Not sure
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Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.
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