Picture this: It’s your first week at college, and you’re getting ready to take part in a time-honored tradition that your older sister, mother, and grandmother all went through years prior. And no, it’s not perfecting your keg stand or figuring out a way to avoid scheduling classes before 11am.

It’s sorority recruitment. In some ways, the process hasn’t changed much since your grandmother went through it. She, too, might’ve spent the summer months sourcing letters of recommendation for her top Greek picks, arriving on campus with a fresh manicure.

But she didn’t post her #OOTD (outfit of the day) on TikTok with the hashtag #RushTok back in her day, tagging each and every brand she was wearing.

Zoom in: This slight difference in routine has been on Amy Young’s mind—and calendar—for months. The Kendra Scott VP of Brand Marketing told Marketing Brew that the jewelry company had been “counting down the days” until August, when #BamaRushTok was set to return.

• And for good reason—last year, when Kendra Scott jumped on the trend, its three #BamaRush TikTok videos received a combined 2+ million views and more than 200k likes.

This year, Kendra Scott made a bet that the trend would return. This gave Young the luxury of time—she had months to plan rather than react in real time, like the company’s marketing team did last year.

As a result of that planning, Young considers the 2022 #RushTok season a success: Kendra Scott prepared for the trend’s second act by starting its back-to-school messaging earlier than usual, leaning on the brand’s college ambassadors, and more, all of which, she said, helped it increase social engagement, foot traffic, and sales.

Click here to read how Kendra Scott prepared for season two of the TikTok trend.—PB

Every streaming service wants a grown-up hit like House of the Dragon. On Paramount+, though, courting the smallest viewers often has a bigger payoff.

Quote of the day: “When it comes to streaming, parents will go without eating before disconnecting something that entertains their kids,” Brian Robbins, president and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon, said Tuesday at the Bank of America Securities 2022 Media, Communications, and Entertainment Conference. “Kids content is an amazing, amazing retention tool for us.”

• Kids titles can help boost box-office results, drive sales of branded consumer products, and make streaming subscriptions stickier, said Robbins, who also serves as chief content officer of kids and family content at Paramount+.
• “A franchise like Paw Patrol is just like gold,” Robbins said. “You have the movie. The movie theatrically does well. The movie goes to streaming, it brings all those kids’ with [it]. And then we’re fortunate enough to have this huge kids’ library, including all the Paw Patrol titles to feed them.”
• Kids’ programming on streaming can also help fill the audience void as linear viewing continues to drop off. “If you take our linear share and the audience for kids that we’ve picked up on Paramount+, we actually have more audience and share of kids 2–11 than we’ve had in years when you combine them both,” Robbins said. (However, not all of those young viewers are monetized with ads; plus, ad loads on streaming are lower than on linear.)

Big picture: Paramount+, which last reported having more than 43 million paid subscribers, has been upfront about its dedication to bolstering franchises across its portfolio.

“Consumers want more of the things they love,” Robbins said. “They want to see the movie, watch the show, read the book, wear their pajamas, use the toothpaste, ride the ride.”

+1: But streaming services must handle the data of pint-sized viewers carefully, privacy experts recently told us.—KS

Morning Brew’s Amanda Hoover recently wrote about the “toxic positivity” common within Web3. Read an excerpt below, or click here for the full story.

In Web2.0, money and power coalesced around a few companies, like Facebook and Google, turning a small set of founders into untouchable billionaires. Under Big Tech’s watch, privacy was compromised and data was exploited. Web3’s believers argue that they must build a more equitable future, an internet that will be more accessible and fair. Its architects embody earnestness and confidence that NFT projects will climb in value until they go “to the moon.”

The sunny mindset is toxic positivity reinvented, a concept that pushes people to keep going and find silver linings—and to be less frank about how badly things may actually be going. It doesn’t allow any room for criticism, let alone dissent. Leaders in Web3 projects, including those at the top of several women-focused collections, have made millions. They have also made promises that ooze positivity and echo a rejected feminist archetype (even after the death of the girlboss has been widely declared)—that if individual women hustle and wrest power from the patriarchy, others can follow in their shoes. That framework overshadowed the groups of people exploited so the girlboss could shatter the glass ceiling. There’s just no way they’re all going to make it.

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

HHM: Hispanic Heritage Month starts on Sept. 15—here are five ways that brands can show their support on social media.

Black Friday: The shopping holiday is rapidly approaching, so it might be time to touch up your e-commerce strategy.

Metaverse musings: Gartner VP analyst Robert Hetu on considerations for retailers diving into the metaverse.

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Horizon Media released the second volume of its Top Trends report for 2022. The report outlines six “key forces” at play that shape 11 trends meant to help brands “apply innovation and marketing for meaningful improvements to people’s lives as well as the world we inhabit.”

The study was conducted using several sources, including a national survey of more than 1,000 US adults.

May the force(s) be with you: The report said researchers expect six key forces will “weigh heavily on people’s minds” during the latter half of the year and might even contribute to behavioral changes. They are:

• Economic uncertainty (duh)
• The pandemic (still)
• The midterms
• Socio-political unrest sparked by events like the war in Ukraine and the overturning of Roe v. Wade
• Data-privacy concerns (we know)
• Tech advancements

Trending: All 11 trends in the report are worth diving into, but one in particular that stands out is “radical optimism” (perhaps because we’re approaching the end of the week).

• Horizon defines “radical optimism” as “an act of defiance in the face of social, political, economic, and climate crises—an unwavering belief that things can and will improve for ourselves, our children, our communities, and our planet.”
• Optimistic people are less likely to cut back on spending, according to Horizon, so brands should find a way to authentically look on the bright side. “Authentically” being the key word.
• It’s also worth noting that one of Horizon’s 11 trends is “unkempt aesthetic.” BeReal, anyone?

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

• A sociologist on what advertisers should know when they use health data
• Apple is staffing up its ad business
• Media buyers’ eyes are on Thursday Night Football for signs of a shift