After spending years working in the beauty industry at brands like Estée Lauder and Ipsy, Priyanka Ganjoo decided to start one of her own.

In 2021, she founded Kulfi, a cosmetics company inspired by her South Asian heritage—Kulfi is the name of a South Asian dessert that’s similar to ice cream. “I found that there were still not products that really were designed for my undertone, which is a little bit olive and gold. A lot of South Asian people have that undertone,” she told us.

Kulfi sells staples like eyeliner, blush, and concealer, as well as merch including a crewneck and headband. The brand was part of Sephora’s Accelerate program, a brand incubator supporting founders of color, and is now sold at the retailer. Ganjoo told us that since partnering with Sephora, Kulfi has scaled production 5x.

According to Ganjoo, she initially started building the brand through a blog called Kulfi Bites. “The blog was really about showcasing underrepresented voices, talking about beauty, wellness—all the things that we could relate to culturally,” she explained.

She said Kulfi’s marketing strategy has transitioned over time from one “very focused on organic” brand-building to its current approach, which integrates more paid advertising; the brand has recently been testing paid ads on Instagram and TikTok.

Read the full story here.—JS

Change is coming to the numbers side of marketing: Google migration. Say goodbye to Google’s Universal Analytics—the industry standard—and hello to Google Analytics 4. (You’ll need to hop aboard the new system by July 2023, btw.)

Worried about the shift? You’re not the only one. This change is already causing issues in the UA world.

Fortunately, Parse.ly is here to help you navigate this whole new ball game. Their downloadable toolkit covers the transition to GA4 and how content teams can get their footing in the new system.

The toolkit doesn’t stop there. It also unpacks the differences between UA and GA4, lays out common problems people are encountering with 4, and explains how to solve them.

Get ahead of change. Download Parse.ly’s toolkit.

Gen Z is nearly as comfortable buying stuff on TikTok as they are on or Instagram. That’s according to a report released by Insider Intelligence, which examined TikTok’s ambitions as a shopping platform.

Top line: Gen Z adults making purchases on social networks are most likely to use Instagram (71%), followed by YouTube (68%), TikTok (68%), Facebook (62%), and Snapchat (55%), according to a survey conducted by Jungle Scout included in the report.

They are also using TikTok (43%) more than search engines (38%) like Google or Bing to search for products online, the survey found. TikTok is currently testing search ads to capitalize on the fact that people are treating it like a search engine.

So what? TikTok wants to be a marketplace, and the company has been rolling out features for users and advertisers that promote a more retail-centric approach to the app. But it’s been a bumpy road so far.

Keep reading here.—RB

Google’s antitrust drama will now be served without ice.

European regulators have filed charges that claim Google’s ad-tech business is violating EU antitrust laws. The company could be split up or face fines of up to 10% of its annual global revenue. That’s about $28 billion, based on the company’s 2022 earnings.

The European Commission “takes issue with Google favoring its own online display advertising technology services to the detriment of competing providers of advertising technology services, advertisers, and online publishers,” it said in a statement, alleging that the company has abused its dominance “since at least 2014.”

“Today’s Statement of Objections from the European Commission sets out claims that are not new and relate to a narrow part of our advertising business,” Dan Taylor, Google’s VP of global ads, said in a blog post following the announcement. “We look forward to showing how we have enabled higher-quality, more effective digital ads that have helped fund broader access to content and information online for everyone.”

If this sounds like déjà vu, it’s because the Department of Justice is also suing Google for similar antitrust concerns, claiming the company pockets at least 30 cents of every dollar that flows from advertisers to publishers.

Continue reading here.—RB

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

Sounds good: Sonic branding agency amp published its annual Best Audio Brands report.

Lesson learned: Ad execs in the UK discuss what they’ve learned after five years of GDPR.

Above and beyond: Why B2B marketers should think beyond inbound and outbound marketing.

Customer Insights: ​Repeat shoppers and large basket sizes are every retail marketer’s dream. Revamp your tactics to make it a reality. Watch here to get started.

Main character energy: As the influencer marketing industry approaches $21b, Captiv8 is bringing that magic to Cannes Lions with activations. Learn how brands are reimagining influencer strategies.