Shai Eisenman had long struggled with acne before founding Bubble, a skin-care company positioned as an affordable alternative to legacy brands that’s targeted toward Gen Z.

The brand, which came out in 2020, attracted pre-seed funding from multiple fashion, beauty, and wellness VC investors, has gained more than 1 million followers on TikTok, and, according to Eisenman, gets tagged on TikTok 14,000 times a day. Bubble, which is sold at Walmart, CVS, and Ulta, has experienced 500% retail sales growth year over year, Eisman said.

Its marketing has been almost entirely organic: Bubble’s growth, Eisenman explained, has partly been fueled by its presence on Geneva, a group-chat app with a strong Gen Z user base that’s been compared to platforms like Slack and Discord.

Eisenman told us that before the brand debuted, it held focus groups to see how people responded to specific products. According to Eisenman, it was during these focus groups that she realized Gen Z should be a part of the creation of the brand and its processes. She said that she worked to make Gen Z “truly a part of everything we do, because they see the world so differently from the average millennial.”

From there, she said Bubble “wanted to figure out a way to actually communicate with our community in the creation of the brand” ahead of its rollout. It joined Geneva in 2020, months before the brand officially debuted.

Bubble communicates with its brand ambassadors on Geneva through “rooms” dedicated to things like products, suggestions, and feedback. Bubble’s brand ambassador program has close to 7,000 members, about half of whom are active on Geneva.

Continue reading here.—JS

Did you know there are almost 50 million influencers in the world? With so many different voices—with audiences ranging from millions to niche communities of just a few thousand people—brands and influencers can build extremely powerful relationships.

If you’re a marketer interested in running a social influencer campaign, check out this resource to learn the ins and outs of collaborating with creators and social influencers. Find out how to better connect with your target audiences and ensure the mutually beneficial success of your partnership.

Download your copy here.

With the SAG-AFTRA strike in full swing, union members have stopped doing content promo of any kind for major studios and streamers, as exemplified by the Oppenheimer cast walking out of the film’s UK premiere last week.

In lieu of movie stars, Disney relied on people dressed as fictional characters from its movies and influencers to fill the red carpet for its Haunted Mansion premiere on Saturday, sparking a discussion online about what constitutes crossing the picket line and who it applies to.

On Monday, SAG-AFTRA released an FAQ that outlines what influencers should and shouldn’t do during the strike. According to the website, if an influencer is not part of SAG-AFTRA but “performs covered work or services for a struck company during the strike,” they will not be eligible for future membership in the union. (In 2021, SAG-AFTRA started letting influencers join.)

Some of the guidelines include:

• No promoting screenings or content produced by struck companies (aka members of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, like Disney, Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon).
• No participating in conventions like Comic-Con on behalf of or in promotion of struck companies, including “appearances, panels, fan meet and greets, etc. involving struck work.”
• Influencers “should refrain” from posting organic or unpaid content “about any struck work,” even if just as a fan. (Probably not a great time to post your latest Barbie collab purchase.)

While influencers can still work with brands, the union said “circumstances may vary” regarding cross-promotional brand deals involving a struck employer. It advised influencers to reach out to SAG-AFTRA for “proper assessment” in these cases.

SAG-AFTRA clarified that existing contractual obligations with struck companies may be fulfilled, but new contracts with those companies should not be accepted.

Continue reading here.—KH

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Monique Francis is head of marketing at Hoorae Media, the media company founded and led by Issa Rae.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? A campaign called “Music Moments” that I worked on for the Alzheimer’s Association before joining Hoorae Media. It was wonderful to experience the generosity of such renowned artists like Sting, Nile Rodgers, Joan Jett, and Anthony Hamilton, who were willing to lend their voices and stories pro bono. The project was in the works for nearly two years, and we launched right at the start of lockdown in 2020. It was a scary time, and we weren’t sure if anyone would care about this little collection of beautiful music and stories. We were pleasantly surprised at the outpouring of love and gratitude to have something to lift people’s spirits in a terrifying time and help those with Alzheimer’s or impacted by the disease feel less alone.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? I’m partial to ad campaigns that make you laugh and whose themes become part of culture, but the ones that inspire you and give you goosebumps always stand out in memory. One of my favorite campaigns over the last few years is Nike’s “You Can’t Stop Us,” which aired during the pandemic. The creative editing touched on so many aspects of what we were experiencing at the time—fear, hopelessness, frustration, and uncertainty. It was not only empathetic to the moment, but also inspirational, hopeful, inclusive, and connected to Nike’s values.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile? My real boss is my 3-year-old fur baby and short king, Rex. We foolishly trained him to use the talking buttons, so when his whines and intense stares don’t effectively communicate his wishes, he has the buttons to deliver his orders. I work so that he can have whatever his heart desires.

Read the full Q&A here.

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

Get access: This guide walks you through how to create a site that’s accessible.

Face to face: Check out 2023’s most-used emoji so far.

Picture it: These tips can help you put together an infographic when you’re pressed for time.

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Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• TikTok is teaming up with Redbox to display videos from the app on the latter’s kiosk screens.
• Mattel has partnered with seemingly countless brands ahead of the Barbie movie’s premiere on Friday.
• Roku inked a deal with Shopify that lets users buy products while streaming via the platform’s “action ads.”