When Love Wellness founder Lo Bosworth began talking about vaginal health on her Instagram account in 2016, the same year she founded the company, she had her fair share of critics.

“Everybody I knew was laughing at me behind my back, and journalists were writing snarky articles about me,” she told the audience at Marketing Brew’s summit, The Brief.

Now, her products are sold at retailers including Ulta and Target. Bosworth’s interest in the health and wellness space stemmed from her own health problems, which she said were being exacerbated by ingredients in the legacy drugstore products that dominated the women’s personal-care market. Through her experiences, she began Love Wellness, a brand that specializes in “doctor-developed” products for women ranging from probiotics to daily multivitamins.

At The Brief, Bosworth sat down with Minda Smiley, editor of Marketing Brew, to talk about her company’s marketing and messaging, embracing her personal narrative as part of the brand, and using social media to its advantage.

Read the story here.—JS

Grab that magnifying glass, because marketing budgets need a closer look. But before you start slashing your spend, make sure you double down on consumer sentiment.

Wunderkind’s latest survey has fresh-baked findings on what customers think and feel when it comes to spending their money in 2023. But it’s not just stats and charts—the report gives marketers strategic guidance on how to adjust strategies and reach success in the year ahead.

The current cocktail of economic uncertainty has bred some…interesting results. Here’s a taste of the insights Wunderkind has uncovered:

• Gen Z registered the highest levels of consumer confidence.
• Most high-income consumers don’t plan to reduce luxury spending.
• The biggest driver of brand perception is a brand’s website.

Be confident in your marketing strategy and budget. Check out Wunderkind’s Industry Pulse survey to learn more.

With travel coming back in a big way, the hospitality industry is booming.

Companies like Airbnb are reaping the benefits as a result. Airbnb has been studied extensively by Makarand Mody, an associate professor of hospitality marketing at the Boston University School of Hospitality Administration (SHA). As part of his focus on the hospitality industry, he’s researched everything from Airbnb’s effect on hotel performance to whether the company impacts “non-hosting residents’ quality of life.” In addition to teaching, Mody is also the SHA’s director of research and chair of undergraduate programs.

Marketing Brew sat down with Mody to learn about his research and what it’s like to teach marketing.

As a professor, what would you say is challenging about teaching marketing?

I think there are two challenges, right? One is the very meaning of the word “marketing” and what the discipline encompasses. That itself is so broad. So, if you look at, like, 10 people with some sort of marketing word in their title, the kinds of jobs they probably do can be very different from each other…That makes it challenging to even just figure out what a course on marketing should include.

What you exclude from the course becomes equally important as well, because you only have a limited amount of time that you spend with students over a semester. Just the breadth of the field makes it a little bit hard to determine what you should include and what you should exclude.

The second sort of challenge stems from the fact that marketing is super dynamic. So it changes pretty quickly, right? Trying to incorporate all of those changes into your courses all the time can be a little bit exhausting and challenging.

Keep reading here.—JS

As the Writers Guild strike continues, actors were scarce at Disney’s upfront presentation. Enter…athletes.

At the network’s annual pitch to advertisers Tuesday night, Rita Ferro, president of Disney ad sales, quickly passed the mic to Serena Williams, and for about the next 45 minutes, sports took center stage. It wasn’t until after the one-hour mark that Disney made its first mention of scripted content with Marvel Studios, followed by Lucasfilm, Pixar, and Hulu.

The studios came prepared with trailers and other content exclusive to the in-person crowd, but unscripted content dominated the show for advertisers. The lack of focus on scripted content was also reflected in Disney-owned ABC’s fall schedule, also announced Tuesday: Its upcoming programming slate will feature no new scripted originals, instead leaning heavily on unscripted fare.

Read our recap of the presentation here.—AM

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

The new Twitter: The Pew Research Center took a look at how adults are using Twitter differently since Elon Musk bought the company.

Cable climb: In April, cable viewership was up in terms of share of TV usage for the second month in a row, according to Nielsen.

Big screen: Why movie theaters have started adopting programmatic advertising.

Everything in its right place: For client-facing teams with a high volume of client projects that struggle with consistent delivery, Coordinate lets you handle more business while delighting clients. Try it out.*

Old-school upgrades: Keeping longtime customers happy through a rebrand ain’t easy. Learn how the new owners of a classic Brooklyn diner did it in our latest Small Business Week story, presented by Hulu Ad Manager.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

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

• How Olipop scored a partnership with a soccer team despite Big Soda’s dominance in sports
• Our favorite quotes from The Brief
• Univision will broadcast the Super Bowl in Spanish