For many brands, TikTok has quickly become part of Super Bowl campaigns.

• Last year, Taco Bell recruited Doja Cat, who starred in its Super Bowl ad, to promote its rewards program and tease a promotion ahead of the game on TikTok.
• The year before that, Ocean Spray did a campaign with the man who went viral skateboarding while drinking its juice.
• And the year before that, Mountain Dew made a dance challenge on the app inspired by The Shining to coincide with its Super Bowl commercial.

This year, the trend doesn’t seem to be slowing down: Experts told us that for the most part, brands using TikTok around the Super Bowl are on the rise. However, they noted that campaigns on the platform are often supplementary, supporting brands’ larger, more traditional Super Bowl spots rather than replacing them altogether.

Going all in?

After its first Super Bowl ad in 2021, State Farm ran a TikTok-only campaign last year in which people were encouraged to submit videos for a chance at being in the company’s next commercial.

“In 2022, we wanted to build on the early success of the Jake from State Farm TikTok account,” Alyson Griffin, VP of marketing for State Farm, told us via email. In total, she said it received almost 460 total submissions, 13.2 million views on TikTok, 77,100 new followers, and more than 50 media placements that resulted in nearly 312 million impressions.

Megan McMahon, SVP of celebrity and influencer at The Marketing Arm (TMA), said that State Farm’s standalone TikTok campaign, which the agency worked on last year, and campaigns like it are “usually more of a one-off” than an indicator of a trend. However, FedEx seems to be taking a similar approach this year, tapping several TikTok musicians to perform during halftime of playoff games in lieu of a Super Bowl spot.

Keep reading here.—KH

There are plenty of things some folks would have surely liked to leave behind in 2022: Inflation, crypto bros, and butter boards, just to name a few.

There are others that people were likely less eager to let go of: Shows that ended (RIP, black-ish), the Choco Taco, and the McRib, a McDonald’s fan favorite that the brand brought back for a “farewell tour” last year.

”Is this really the last of the McRib?” was one of the most pressing questions posed to Jennifer Healan, VP of US marketing at McDonald’s, and Brandon Pracht, managing director of McDonald’s Global at Wieden+Kennedy, during a presentation the two gave last fall at Marketing Brew’s first annual summit.

There’s been no official word on the McRib’s fate, but Marketing Brew did catch up with Healan and Pracht to ask some other lingering questions.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

At our summit, there were a lot of audience questions submitted about McDonald’s “fan truths.” What are those, and how do they guide your marketing?

Jennifer Healan: A fan truth starts every single brief, and every single piece of communication is rooted in fan truths. What is powerful about fan truths is that they are literally truths. They are those small or big things that you love about the brand, whether it’s about our food, whether it’s about an experience, whether it’s a moment, and because it is a fan truth, that goes hand in hand with the brand voice of speaking fan to fan…What has also been really interesting as we’ve continued to curate these fan truths is that they can actually represent entire programs like Famous Orders. It can also launch a campaign like we just did with Cactus Plant Flea Market, which is “You’re never too old to enjoy a Happy Meal.”

Where are these fan truths recorded?

Brandon Pracht: There’s a beautifully designed book that we continue to update, and it’s one of the most fun presentations we go to a couple times a year to hear these updated truths, because there really is no shortage of them…It’s a very useful tool. When someone new comes on at Wieden or McDonald’s, it’s one of the first things we give to them. You can read it for hours.

Read the full Q&A here.—AM

A new year will surely bring with it more workplace trends and buzzwords that may or may not actually be a thing. (We’ve successfully avoided clicking on any “career cushioning” explainers, but it’s only a matter of time until we cave.)

Something we will be keeping an eye on this year is freelancing—specifically, to what extent marketers will lean on freelance talent in 2023. According to last week’s reader poll, which got more than 650 responses, a slight majority of you think marketers will increasingly rely on freelancers this year:

• 51% said they will
• 23% said they won’t
• 26% said it depends

Big picture: As talks of a potential recession continue, companies could find themselves seeking out freelancers more than usual.

• Last summer, Jason Chitwood, general manager at MarketerHire for Agencies, which provides temporary workers to companies like WPP and GroupM, told us he expected business to grow faster if and when a recession hits.
• In its last earnings call, Omnicom’s CFO said the company has “access to a flexible workforce” that it could tap into instead of “permanent people in some cases” when discussing how it’s responding to the impact of inflation.
• A survey of more than 1,000 business owners conducted by freelancing platform Fiverr last year found that 78% were “more likely to engage with freelance talent to fill in gaps in their workforce during times of economic uncertainty.”

If you’re hiring freelancers this year, what skill sets and areas of expertise are you looking for? Reply to this email to let us know.—MS

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

Going green: A Gartner analyst unpacks the conversation about sustainable packaging.

Bot stuff: A guide that breaks down how to use ChatGPT to its “full potential.”

Getting started: The basics of putting together a solid social commerce strategy.

Learn: There’s no better marketing than data-driven marketing. Learn how to stay on top of your evolving business and solve real-time problems with our Data Storytelling sprint. Sign up now.

The pandemic largely put the brakes on travel in 2020, but the industry has had some time to recover thanks to pent-up demand in 2022. This year, it will likely be “coming to grips with some complicated realities facing travel” like pricing, according to a new report from Deloitte.

Booking on a budget: Deloitte data showed increasing intent among consumers to book travel in 2021 compared to the year prior, but September 2022 marked an end to the trend. November brought some improvement, but YoY “remained close to flat, following a summer of big gains.”

• Almost half (46%) of consumers surveyed said they planned to travel this past summer.
• Just 31% said they planned to travel over the holiday season.
• Among those who said they planned to stay home for the holidays, “financial concerns” were the most commonly cited reason for doing so.

Business travel: The rebound of business travel might also be slowed by financial factors, according to Deloitte. Even though “conditions do not indicate that corporate travel volume will snap back to pre-pandemic levels,” the report still predicts “significant gains.”

• Industry events might be a big reason why; conferences, exhibitions, or trade shows were the top reasons for business travel last year, followed by building client relationships and other client work.

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

• Have we reached the peak of peak TV?
• How retail media took off, with Dentsu’s Mike Feldman
• Hiring demand for marketers could start to slow in 2023