It’s US Open szn, and whether fans are sipping Honey Deuce cocktails in Flushing Meadows or watching from home, there’s plenty of brand activity around the courts.

Morgan Stanley is one of the many companies serving up ads tied to tennis. This year, the investment bank is running a multi-channel campaign featuring 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez designed to highlight the brand’s partnership with the Women’s Tennis Association, CMO Alice Milligan told Marketing Brew. It’s the second year in a row that the brand has run paid ads with Fernandez around the tournament.

The campaign, called “Boundary,” centers on promoting inclusivity in the sport. At the end of the 30-second spot, which was made with the help of creative agency The Marketing Arm and directing duo Salsa, Fernandez declares that “this game is for everyone.”

The ad was made with a broad target audience in mind, but Milligan said that “younger, female, and diverse audiences,” are some of the customers Morgan Stanley is aiming to attract. The ad is running on digital video, social, and streaming and linear TV networks including ESPN, ESPN2, and Tennis Channel, she said.

There’s also a digital out-of-home component to the campaign: a 3D billboard outside Penn Station in New York City that will be up through Sept. 22.

Continue reading here.—AM

Generative AI is opening up all kinds of opportunities and concerns—and sometimes both at the same time.

Research shows that prioritizing brand safety and privacy also supports consumer loyalty and trust. In fact, 86% of consumers say they’re more loyal to ethical companies.

So, how can your company showcase its ethics? With Salesforce’s Trends in Ethical Marketing Guide. It has step-by-step directions on how to execute these trust-building marketing practices, all backed by research-based consumer insights and industry trends. It walks you through:

• how to make sense of marketing’s role in AI
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• how to apply ethical marketing practices to your business today

Turn AI ethical concerns into a superpower. Download the Trends in Ethical Marketing Guide.

Love it or hate it, football season is back.

Given the popularity of the NFL and college football, plus the fact the season goes on for *checks notes* almost half the year—culminating in arguably the biggest advertising event on the calendar—brands are abundant.

For advertisers, live sports have become increasingly crucial, as they’re one of the few places left on traditional TV where they can reliably reach large audiences. In recent weeks, several brands have rolled out commercials and partnerships meant to capitalize on the football hype.

Welcome to the big league: PepsiCo might have relinquished rights to the Super Bowl halftime show, but the food and beverage giant still has a significant presence in the NFL.

• Gatorade is promoting its Fast Twitch energy drink with branded towels on NFL sidelines, plus partnerships with NFL RedZone, DraftKings, and San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle.
• PepsiCo is running a 60-second spot featuring some of its beverage and Frito-Lay snack brands starting Sunday.
• Called “Unretirement,” the ad stars former NFL players Tom Brady, Julian Edelman, Dan Marino, Randy Moss, Jerry Rice, and Emmitt Smith, as well as current Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen. It pokes fun at certain athletes unretiring in recent years by imagining some of the older legends back on the field.

Lowe’s renewed its partnership with the NFL earlier this year, making it the league’s “official community improvement partner,” and today released an ad featuring players like Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott and 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey.

“We have a shared value system,” Jen Wilson, head of marketing at Lowe’s, said of the NFL partnership. “The NFL also commands an incredibly appealing live audience, one that certainly overlaps with our target market of millennial homeowners but also professionals.”

Continue reading here.—AM

The advertising economy is going to keep on keepin’ on, according to a new industry forecast.

US ad revenue is expected to grow about 5% in 2023, predicts former GroupM exec Brian Wieser, who’s now an industry analyst and author of the Substack Madison and Wall. The projection, which excludes political advertising, has the US ad industry growing to about $363 billion this year, with a jump of 4.3% predicted in 2024 (the 2024 figure jumps to 8.1% including political advertising, largely as a result of the presidential election).

It’s a return to “normalized growth,” Wieser wrote, meaning the days of double-digit growth seen earlier in the pandemic are behind us.

“We’ve had remarkable and entirely unsustainable growth levels in the advertising industry…over the last decade, really,” Wieser told Marketing Brew. “It feels like we’re going into a period where normalcy should return, and the old models that roughly connect economic growth to advertising growth should dominate.”

Keep reading here.—RB

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

Schooled: Data showing how student athletes’ social engagement compares to “standard” influencers.

Act fast: How to find the sounds that are most popular on TikTok and capitalize before they go out of style.

Here’s the deal: If you’re planning any SMS campaigns for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, this cheat sheet might be able to help.

Communicate: It’s time to stop hovering over the “send” button and write (and send) those emails with confidence. Our Business Writing course will help you say what you need to say with none of the panic. Register now.

Ethics enters the chat: Got questions about AI and marketing? Check out Salesforce’s Trends in Ethical Marketing Guide. It outlines how to build consumer loyalty and trust through ethical practices. Download your copy.*

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