A lot has changed for influencer Corporate Natalie since she posted her first TikTok in 2020 about the quirks of working remotely.

Since then, she’s accumulated nearly 1 million followers across Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn, started her own virtual assistant business for influencers, and attended the Golden Globes—all while continuing her consulting career in tech.

In that time, she said she’s also learned how to approach the world of brand deals: “When I started making content, I was shocked at how quick brands start reaching out to you,” Natalie told us.

While she was quick to do her first brand deal with Twisted Tea for $500 after a few viral videos, now, with many more brand deals under her belt, she told us she’s now able to be more selective. Today, she’s worked with brands ranging from Dell to SoFi to Prime Video.

We sat down with Natalie to discuss what she is—and isn’t—looking for in a brand deal.

Brand synergy

Even though her posts often focus on work, Natalie said a company doesn’t have to be strictly corporate or B2B to be a fit. One of her most-clicked partnerships was a campaign for a James Allen tennis bracelet that she’s worn in her videos over the last year.

“I get DMs like, ‘Where’s that bracelet from?’ So it was just such a perfect fit for my audience…They see it on me; now here’s the link and a discount code,” she said. “That’s how influencer partnerships should work.”

A crucial consideration, she said, is whether the product or service can be woven into content that feels natural for the Corporate Natalie brand. That’s why she’s implemented an “internal audit process” to help her determine if she wants to move forward with a particular brand.

“If I can’t think of a funny bit in like five seconds of reading the brief or the pitch, it’s probably not going to work,” she said.

Continue reading here.—KH

As residents of Georgia, California, and Pennsylvania can probably attest, political advertisers spent a lot of their 2022 midterm digital budgets on video inventory, according to a report released by the ad platform Basis Technologies.

Breaking it down: Of the more than $130 million in political ad spend that flowed through the Basis Technologies platform in 2022, 68% was spent on video inventory, and 24% was spent on display inventory. Native ads and audio ads represented 3% and 1%, respectively. A quarter of those political advertising dollars were spent in the 10 days leading up to Election Day, Basis found.

Though Basis’s data represents only a sliver of total political ad spend, the percentages help shed light on a record-breaking election cycle where campaigns spent an estimated $8.9 billion, $119 million shy of the 2020 presidential election and nearly double the $3.9 billion spent during the 2018 midterms, according to the ad tracking firm Ad Impact.

Spending on CTV is growing: While video’s overall share largely stayed the same when compared to 2020, CTV ad spend grew from 19% of total budgets in 2020 to 30% in 2022, largely eating away at ads targeted to desktop users, according to the report. Programmatic CTV spend share grew an additional 60% between 2020 and 2022, Basis found. That isn’t entirely surprising: During the midterms, political media buyers told Marketing Brew that they expected CTV spend to grow by as much as five times.

“Clients were just clamoring for as much connected TV as they could get their hands on,” Grace Briscoe, SVP of client development at Basis Technologies, said.

Keep reading here.—RB

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

FPD: Some highlights about first-party data and privacy from Gartner’s 2023 Multichannel Marketing Survey.

New gig: If you’re looking for a job in social media marketing, check out these tips on crafting a resume.

Who’s who: Marketing Brew’s Double Shot keeps you up to date on the latest agency wins and leadership changes in the advertising industry. Sign up here.

From snacks to sneaks: In partnership with Dunkaroos (yep, your ’90s fave is back), NTWRK and sneaker designer Katty Customs are dropping limited-edition Dunk-A-Shoes on March 27 at 6pm ET on NTWRK’s app. Enter the drawing.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Join us at The Brief in NYC on May 11 as we sit down with Michael Kaye, director of Brand Marketing and Communications at OkCupid.

What excites you most about the future of marketing?

“As artificial intelligence platforms emerge, the internet continues to evolve with the metaverse, and social media platforms become even more normalized and widely used, marketers will need to prioritize diversity and inclusion, ensuring consumers feel safe and welcomed everywhere they’re interacting with brands.”

If you could make up your own job title, what would it be?

“Chief storyteller.”

Want to hear more from Michael? Join us for his discussion on “Harnessing the Power of Data in Marketing and Communications.”

Get your tickets here.

SponsorUnited released its 2022–2023 NIL Marketing Partnerships Report this week, based on analysis of more than 1,000 brands and 2,000 NIL deals conducted using its sports and entertainment intelligence platform.

Holy NIL: During 2022, the first full year when brands were able to partner with college athletes, NIL deals jumped by 146%, “and if current trends are any indication, they’re just getting started.”

• College football players were on the receiving end of the majority of these deals, accounting for 60% of new NIL partnerships last year.
• Women’s college basketball saw the second highest percentage of new deals.

NIL + IG: Instagram was the platform of choice for college athletes looking to spread the word about their NIL partners. TikTok is becoming a more popular option, while Twitter and Facebook lost traction with NIL posts in 2022.

Rankings: According to the report, brands including The Players’ Lounge, Hooters, and LifeWallet were among the most “active” brands when it came to NIL partnerships. Rankings were determined by the total number of deals each brand had throughout the 2022–2023 season. Others included:

• Dunkin’
• Krystal
• Urban Outfitters

+1: We recently wrote about the strategies brands are using when working with student athletes as opposed to traditional influencers.

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

• Lush Cosmetics slashes ad spend on Google as part of Big Tech cuts
• How Trio Media is experimenting with the four-day workweek
• What Literal Humans learned after taking part in the world’s largest four-day workweek trial