There’s an obvious demographic associated with Gatorade: people with hangovers.

Also athletes. The PepsiCo brand has seemingly worked with all of the greats: Michael Jordan, Mia Hamm, Usain Bolt, Abby Wambach, Leo Messi, Serena Williams. The list goes on.

But despite its ongoing push to associate with the highest-profile athletes across sports, Gatorade has taken some fairly dramatic steps in recent years to shift its sports marketing spend toward the “grassroots level,” according to Mark Kirkham, SVP and CMO of international beverages at PepsiCo.

For instance, the brand’s parent company, PepsiCo, recently ended its partnership with the Super Bowl halftime show, and Gatorade did the same with the NHL, instead choosing to focus on investing in younger and more diverse athletes. Last year, Gatorade committed $10 million over five years to help improve access to sports.

“We want to be partnering with the best, and we want to be seen as someone that’s innovating and also elevating the story of athletes around the world,” Kirkham told Marketing Brew. “But at the same time, we also need to think of the broader opportunity in the broader consumer base.”

Read the full story here.—AM

The spotlight is on AI and machine learning in the social media industry. Embracing these technologies means understanding how this dynamic duo plays a larger role in your marketing efforts.

For The 2023 State of Social Media report, Sprout Social teamed up with Harris Poll to survey more than 750 US and UK leaders in social marketing, customer care, and communications. Their goal? To understand what current and future social media success looks like—and how to get there.

Juicy stats include but aren’t limited to:

• 80% of business leaders expect a social media budget increase in the next 3 years.
• 90% of business leaders believe their brand’s success depends on social data to inform strategy.
• 97% of business leaders agree AI + ML will enable companies to analyze social media data more efficiently.

Want to know where you stand? Download the data report.

The CEO of The Trade Desk knows AI is in a hype cycle, but that’s where the company is going anyway.

“I don’t want it at all to be suggested that we’re in AI because it is trendy, because it is the flavor of the month. It is the most hyped technology of the last 10 years,” Jeff Green said during a company event in New York City yesterday.

Of course, it wouldn’t be ad tech without AI—like Google, Meta, and Amazon, The Trade Desk is injecting a bit more AI into its platform. The company has debuted Kokai, a platform that will use AI to help advertisers bid on inventory, optimize budgets, and improve measurement.

Green announced Kokai on CNBC earlier this week, calling it the “biggest upgrade we’ve ever done in our company history.”

Continue reading here.—RB

Horizon Media is expanding its audio practice with a new team specifically dedicated to podcast advertising.

The media agency’s audio practice has been around for more than a decade, according to Maria Tullin, its SVP managing director of performance audio. But the team has become a lot more focused on podcast-specific planning, buying, and measurement strategies in the past few years, she said, so they decided to make some changes to their structure.

Horizon is introducing what it’s calling the “Center of Excellence” to its audio practice. That podcast-focused team will sit within Horizon Next, the division of Horizon Media that’s focused on performance-based marketing and “clients who have lower-funnel KPIs,” according to Tullin.

The Center of Excellence team will take “more of a significant role in the planning process” for podcast buys, Tullin said, as opposed to having more general strategy teams handle it. The team will also hammer out some best practices for podcast advertising in order to let “clients know what to expect from us,” she said, though those practices will be customizable based on the brand.

Keep reading here.—AM

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

Made in the USA: What the “Made in America” product label means to US consumers.

Sounds beautiful: A look at how beauty brands use music on platforms like TikTok.

Performance issues: Meta introduced updates to its “Performance 5” framework of best practices for using its ad products.

Hiring influencers? Review our guide for tips on finding the right creator and creating optimal partnerships for your brand.

Velveeta martinis, pants made of Chipotle napkins, and nail polish that can detect the temperature of a can of Coors Light.

Though some marketers worry about the future success of unconventional campaigns, some brands aren’t giving up their headline-generating ideas just yet.

Find out why here.

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

• How are marketers thinking about Pride after right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ backlash?
• CNN’s CEO exits in latest network shakeup
• Gen Z is “pushing the boundaries on tradition” when it comes to wedding planning