Since 1999, Lash Fary has been curating (very expensive) Hollywood award show gift bags via his company, Distinctive Assets—and making headlines for it.

For the Oscars this year, he said the “Everyone Wins” gift bags—in total worth more than $100,000 each—will include an eight-person trip to the Faro Punta Imperatore Lighthouse in Italy and another to The Lifestyle estate in Canada, worth $9,000 and $40,000, respectively. Oscar nominees who receive the gifts will also receive things like Miage skincare sets, ēcōMD retinol, and Havaianas flip flops and luggage sets.

• Brands pay a $4,000 fee to land a spot in the bag (which is unaffiliated with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Oscars and is apparently more of a trunk), hoping the investment pays off in some way.
• Of course, there’s no guarantee a celebrity will use a product or take a trip offered in the bag, but if they do, there’s a chance they’ll post about it—or at least be photographed with it.
• “Everyone wants to win the lottery,” Fary told us. “But you can’t win if you don’t buy a ticket. And being a part of these gift bags is like buying a lottery ticket.”

Stars…they’re just like influencers?

When Fary started making gift bags, first for the Grammys, he said brands didn’t fully understand the business model. “Twenty-three years ago, it was a very different landscape,” he said. “It’s not like brands understood, ‘Okay, so I’m gonna pay you a fee and give you free products to give to people who can afford to buy it.’”

Now, he said, brands like the Reflect Orb (valued at $229) approach Distinctive Assets to be included in his company’s gift bags. Certain categories, like skin care and tea, are usually the first to fill up, he said.

Continue reading here.—KH

Angie More, Spotify’s former head of global podcast sales, has joined Wondery as its head of podcast ad revenue.

More started at Wondery, a podcast company that Amazon acquired in 2020, in early February, she told Marketing Brew. She reports to Jeanine Wright, Wondery’s GM of operations and commercial, as part of the company’s podcast ad sales team.

Big picture: Her departure comes as other Spotify execs exit the company.

• Last month, Spotify announced that Dawn Ostroff, its chief content and advertising officer, who led the company’s podcasting strategy, was leaving.
• Max Cutler, whose podcast studio Parcast was acquired by Spotify in 2019, plans to leave in May. He serves as its head of talk creator content and partnerships.

At Spotify, More was responsible for developing its podcast monetization business, including for podcasts like the Joe Rogan Experience, Armchair Expert, and shows from networks like The Ringer, Parcast, Higher Ground, and DC Comics.

Last year, Spotify canceled seven Parcast shows, with an eighth set to end during Q2 this year. Spotify is reportedly in the midst of shifting its approach to podcasting; according to Bloomberg, “the company will still fund original shows, but it’s more interested in being the platform that every podcaster uses than the studio or exclusive rights holder.”

Meanwhile, Amazon has been pursuing its own podcast strategy in recent years. Keep reading here.—AM

I’ve got a figurative wastebasket full of “A picture is worth a thousand words” jokes I tried for this intro, but all were pretty terrible. I blame the math of the premise—show your work, Arthur Brisbane.

Unnecessary tangents aside, I’m bullish on using written content across all social media platforms right now.

Words aren’t just for tweets and long-winded LinkedIn anecdotes—they work on Instagram and TikTok, too.

Let me show you a bunch of different ways the good word appears on social media outside of 280 characters.—JA

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

LinkedInfluencer: If you’ve ever wanted to be one (or been confused about what they are), here’s a primer.

In or out?: Buffer released its sixth annual State of Remote Work report, which found that remote work was preferred over hybrid by respondents.

Check your work: Tips for performing a content audit live here.

Seeing both sides: When it comes to marketing, everyone has an idea of how things should be done. Learn to navigate differing opinions and find common ground through tough discussions with our Difficult Conversations at Work sprint. Sign up now.

Jump-start your PR career: Want to get ahead in your communications career? Check out Georgetown’s award-winning Master’s in Public Relations, offered part time, online, and on campus. Get the details at their March 31 webinar.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

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

1. Ozzy Osbourne’s a gamer now, thanks to Sony Playstation
2. Shake Shack to offer affordable white truffle fine dining experience
3. Patrón Tequila serves AI-generated cocktails for National Margarita Day
4. Gerber is releasing a ‘Nepo Baby’ line of snacks for adults

Keep scrolling for the answer.

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

• Slowly but surely, linear TV buying is getting modernized
• To support diversity on TV, media orgs are looking to develop more metrics
• Streamer ads performed well during the Super Bowl, research says