Marketers have seen better days.

The outlook goes from bad to worse depending on where you look: sluggish economic growth, concerns about inflation, predictions of a recession. The pessimism can affect marketers: companies often look to marketing budgets as one of the first places to rein in spend. Even if budgets aren’t cut, marketing spend may stand to be scrutinized during a period of belt-tightening.

For some marketers, the uncertainty of not knowing how much money they’ll have to spend on campaigns in the first place can result in a tentativeness to commit to big-ticket spending in the near future. However, experts told us that there are some steps marketers can take to potentially protect their budgets and make the most of what they have.

Go back to the basics: Vic Drabicky, founder and CEO of the agency January Digital, said many marketers are taking the moment of uncertainty to revisit “the very basics”—things like checkout flows, product pages, and email marketing. “Those are things that are generally easy to benchmark against, easy to prove, easy to track, [and] therefore easy to fund.”

Another place to continue investing? Creative and brand-building efforts, which are essential to staying in consumers’ minds—especially as privacy changes continue to affect the performance of lower-funnel marketing activity, Drabicky said.

“You can look at almost every bit of performance marketing and show that you have to have some sort of brand influence for it to have worked,” Drabicky said.

Read the full story here.—KS

There once was a time when many people seemed to eat up the content from influencer trips to Coachella and Paris Fashion Week. But those days may be over.

Based on the internet’s reception, it seems that makeup brand Tarte’s latest activation in Dubai (or rather, outside of it) could be the straw that broke the camel-riding influencer’s back.

Influential or out of touch? Tarte, in partnership with Sephora Middle East, sent 29 influencers and their plus ones on an all-expenses-paid, three-day trip to the UAE. According to Vogue Business, the brand has hosted more than 20 trips for influencers since 2015. The #TarteDubaiTrip hashtag currently has more than 22 million views on TikTok.

While some onlookers defended the trip, it seems there were more than a few viewers who weren’t exactly fans.

• Influencers were called out for appearing not to know the names of the products they were promoting.
• Some criticized Tarte for what they saw as being wasteful.
• Others questioned how much the brand spent on the trip and whether this was an appropriate time for an event like this given people’s current economic hardships and the fact that many are struggling to afford basic necessities…like eggs.

Tarte founder and CEO Maureen Kelly responded to the criticism, telling Glossy that “every day, brands make decisions about how to spend their marketing budgets. For some companies, that means a huge Super Bowl commercial or a multi-million-dollar contract with a famous athlete or celeb. We’ve never done traditional advertising, and instead we invest in building relationships and building up communities.” Kelly also told Glossy that the brand does not pay influencers to attend its trips or “require anything.” Marketing Brew reached out to Tarte but had not heard back at the time of publication.

So what’s next? While some have predicted that the future of influencer marketing will be “offline and hyper-niche,” Krishna Subramanian, co-founder and CEO of influencer marketing platform Captiv8, told us that he doesn’t believe this is the end of the influencer trip “at all.”

Keep reading here.—KH

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

Catching up: Highlights from Disney’s Tech & Data Showcase last week.

Just say it: Here are three ways you can lean on word-of-mouth marketing.

Start somewhere: Yelp put together a list of marketing tips for small businesses.

Take a W: Winning an ANDY Award is good for a creative’s soul. It’s like getting a much-needed hit of affirmation for hard work, and what wins here often wins at other major shows. Get validation.*

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BeReal is a newer social app that’s gaining popularity. Founded in 2019, it has recently picked up steam. Check out our exclusive report to learn best practices and find out what brands are experimenting with the platform.

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• The Trade Desk’s CEO and founder wrote a response to the DOJ suing Google, saying that “nowhere should we be more concerned about the lack of competition, and Google’s seeming nonchalance about it, than the broader advertising market.”
• Microsoft is working on a clean room, according to The Information.
• M&M’s “spokescandies” aren’t going anywhere.
• Netflix’s Stranger Things was streamed for 52 billion minutes last year, per Nielsen figures, making it the most-watched streaming show in terms of minutes viewed.
• Snapchat rolled out a new brand campaign.

Snap poll: Are you interested in using ChatGPT for marketing purposes?

Yes, definitely
No, sick of hearing about it
Honestly, not sure yet

An undated ad for sports merchandiser Rawlings, featuring what we believe might be the world’s thinnest helmet.

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

• Why your last text message is probably from a brand
• How alcohol brands are embracing the rise of Dry January
• Prioritizing accessibility in marketing