We’re all hangin’ on by a thread here: The pandemic has had a “significant impact on mental health,” according to the US Department of Labor, which noted that 83% of workers reported suffering from work-related stress.

While some companies have chosen to adopt a four-day workweek, broaden holiday schedules, or offer inflation-based bonuses to help ease employees’ mental burdens, we still have a ways to go in combating the mental health crisis.

For Mental Health Awareness Month this year, brands, agencies, and organizations have chosen to address the issue in both their policies and campaigns—some deeper than others.

Talk it out: Several companies have opted this month to create campaigns around mental health, including TikTok, Saks, L.L. Bean, The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, LifeStance Health, and Talkspace.

Policy is personal: According to Ad Age, agencies like RPA are offering employees mental health support via office hours with an HR professional, while VMLY&R partnered with Bright Horizons to provide help with caring for children, elders, and pets.

Read the full story here.—KH

It’s the most wonderful time of the year (for advertisers, anyway): upfronts and NewFronts season! This time around, it’s about more than traditional tactics, thanks to the meteoric rise of Connected TV (CTV). The power of performance marketing, the reach of TV ads—with MNTN, you get the best of both worlds.

Two out of three marketers surveyed by Advertising Week and MNTN see CTV as a performance channel. That third marketer? They’re falling behind fast, missing out on more measurable revenue, more website traffic, and, well, just more with CTV.

Don’t let the competition beat you to performance TV. Get started building your strategy with MNTN. It’s easy to use and designed to drive performance on the metrics that matter to you.

See it in action and schedule your demo today.

Kim Kardashian, an advertising executive, and the host of the Bachelor franchise walk into a room. No, this isn’t the setup for a bad joke. It’s just another day at the upfronts (Disney’s, to be specific).

As we noted last week, this year’s upfronts were a bit unusual, in large part because of the writers’ strike. Writers were striking outside of presentations, and inside, networks couldn’t rely on swathes of talent to woo advertisers the way they have in years’ past.

Still, the presentations came and went, and we were there for mostly all of ’em. If you missed our coverage, check it out below:

Days after leadership shakeup, NBCU pitches Peacock originals to marketers

Fox pitches almost anything but scripted TV at this year’s upfronts

Univision will broadcast the Super Bowl in Spanish

Amid writers’ strike, Disney leads with sports during its upfront

Warner Bros. Discovery tries to sell marketers on Max at upfronts

YouTube puts NFL and creators at center of Brandcast presentation

From you: If you were at (or at least paying attention to) the upfronts this week, we’d love to hear from you. Respond to this email to let us know what you thought of this year’s crop of presentations and announcements.—MS

In 2011, Shahzad Younas was a young, single banker living in London, but dating was proving difficult; as a Muslim man, he was struggling to find potential partners with a similar religious background. He decided to start a side business, muzmatch, a dating service for those of the Muslim faith, according to Sim Ahmed, the company’s CMO.

Since its founding, muzmatch has evolved into Muzz, and has brought together more than 400,000 couples in marriage, according to PR Manager Sofie Ahmed. Muzz has 8 million members, its site says.

Muzz’s marketing strategy includes ads in New York City subway stations and trains. The company began advertising in the subway in November 2021, with its latest set of ads running in December last year.

Other dating apps, including Tinder, are taking advantage of the NYC subway system’s rising ridership levels and extensive ad space. The campaigns are running at a time when ridership levels have been climbing back up after taking a hit from the pandemic, with data from the city comptroller showing that ridership in February was back to 67% of its 2019 level during the same month.

“Toward the end of 2021 into 2022, ridership trended upwards as people started going back to the office two, three days a week,” Brian Rappaport, founder and CEO of out-of-home agency Quan Media Group, told us. “Subway advertising is back almost to pre-pandemic levels.”

Keep reading here.—JS

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

Fast car: How automotive marketers are using LinkedIn.

Inside job: A guide to internal link-building tools paired with a list of them.

Short and sweet: Help your short-form videos pop with some of these tips.

Tune in to TV: Upfronts and NewFronts are here, which means it’s officially TV advertising season. Snag that new traffic and hone your performance TV strategy with MNTN. Schedule a demo.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

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

1. Kraft Heinz unveils customizable sauce dispenser with more than 200 condiment combos for restaurants
2. In the Netherlands, you can scan movies and TV Shows to order McDonald’s delivery
3. Moe’s tries to make ‘Tostada Tuesday’ happen while poking fun at Taco Bell’s ‘Taco Tuesday’ trademark challenge
4. Huggies’ new children’s book celebrates the A to Z of baby butts

Keep scrolling for the answer.

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
• Talking Love Wellness with Lo Bosworth
• Podcast ad revenue growth slowed last year but still outpaced digital advertising overall