Before Naomi Blackman co-founded the apparel brand alder, she helped other DTC clothing brands find new customers using Facebook and Instagram. “It was really a cheap place to acquire customers,” said Blackman, who began advertising alder on those same platforms in 2020.

This year, though, it’s a different story: In some cases, Blackman said, the cost of acquiring a new alder customer through a digital ad has nearly doubled compared to a year prior.

“Obviously, it’s a stressful situation for a lot of young brands,” Blackman said.

Big picture: Other DTC brands are experiencing the same sticker shock.

• Marketers say they are seeing rising digital ad rates, compounded by iOS privacy changes that have hurt the effectiveness of Meta advertising, just as economic concerns about inflation and consumer spending intensify.
• The confluence of factors is prompting DTC brands to experiment with other marketing channels.
• “A lot of people are in this real trial-and-error period,” said Laura Burget, co-founder of skin-care brand Three Ships. “They’re just trying out so many different things to see what sticks.”

Meta misfortune

Rising costs appear to stem from several factors. Chief among them are Facebook and Instagram, which have seen “gigantic headwinds,” according to Polly Wong, president of Belardi Wong, an agency whose 400+ client base is ~90% DTC brands like Allbirds. CPMs on Meta platforms for its clients are up an average of 19% YoY through September.

Marketing costs are increasing elsewhere, too, like CTV. As a result, DTC marketers are eyeing new channels. Read the full story here.—KS, EC

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.

The Oklahoma City Thunder had a rough go of it last NBA season: 24 wins in 82 games made them the league’s third-worst team, highlighted by a record 73-point loss against the Memphis Grizzlies. It hurts, man.

Pretty much every pro team across every sport tweets out final scores…which means the Thunder tweeted about each L—all 58 of them. This blowout against the Memphis Grizzlies? Well, it went just as poorly on social media as it did on the hardwood: 33,300 likes makes the below tweet the Thunder’s fifth most-engaged tweet, but check the replies—absolute savagery, rightfully ripping both the loss itself and the kinda laughable copy.

It got me thinking…are we sure pro sports teams should post their losing scores?

Telling the fans about the Ls really only serves to damage team, brand, and player reputations.

Continue reading here.—JA

We all know that you don’t need a marketing degree to get a job in the field. The sector is broad and changes quickly, requiring all sorts of degrees, skill sets, backgrounds, and experiences. Case in point: TikTok creators are landing jobs at brands and agencies, as we recently covered.

This week’s reader poll proves that point even further. We asked readers who went to college if they majored in marketing, and nearly half (48%, to be exact) of the more than 1,000 who responded said they did not.

• 36% said they majored in marketing
• 16% said they minored in marketing

By the numbers: Our little poll seems to pretty much match up with broader industry findings. UK-based trade publication Marketing Week conducted a survey of over 4,000 marketers in 2019, finding that 54% “say they have not studied a marketing-related academic or professional qualification of any kind.”

Big picture: Employers are increasingly dropping college-degree requirements. Last year, VaynerMedia’s chief people officer, Claude Silver, told us the agency took away the college-degree requirement for its US marketing roles years ago.

“I don’t think the college degree is necessary for marketing roles, period,” she told us. “We learn hard skills, critical-thinking skills, and soft skills on the job. We can learn how to present to clients on the job. We can learn how to carry ourselves in front of clients and act professionally, and write proper emails, on the job.”

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

You know what that is? Growth: How Wawa built a social media following of 2.6 million.

SE-what?: How to build your SEO skills from the ground up.

I U(GC): Everything you should know about user-generated content to get started.

Picture perfect: Pictures tell stories, and stories drive purchases. Tell the story of your brand with soona, a virtual product photography studio dedicated to providing scalable and affordable content to the e-commerce world. Book your shoot here.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Have you heard? Marketing Brew is hosting a must-attend event for the modern marketer in the heart of NYC. It’s called The Brief, and it’s all going down on November 15. Attendees can look forward to a powerhouse panel of speakers from brands such as HBO, Vans, DuoLingo, and more!

The best part? We’re giving away 2 tickets to one lucky subscriber so you can see what all the hype is about. Don’t stress—it takes just 30 seconds to enter. It’s simple: Give us a quick update on what you’ve been up to in the marketing world, and you’ll be entered to win.

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

1. Doja Cat steps out with a new Taco Bell tattoo
2. Martha Stewart partners with Liquid Death to release ‘Dismembered Moments’ candle
3. Beyoncé threw a ‘secret party’ in Paris with Tiffany & Co.
4. Pete Davidson is stepping in to help Taco Bell apologize for its breakfast menu

Keep scrolling for the answer.

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

• Political ad spending on connected TV is 5x what it was in 2020
• Meta’s big week out
• Meet Wayfair’s head of social media