If you build a sphere, advertisers will come.

That seems to be the lesson in Las Vegas, where Sphere—an enormous dome-shaped venue with an exterior covered in LED screens—has now broadcast 360-degree digital ads for some of the biggest brands in the world since even before it opened in September, including Coca-Cola, Xbox, and Meta. Sphere’s first major ad buy came from YouTube in September, when the company took over the massive exterior, known as the “Exosphere,” to plug its NFL Sunday Ticket package.

Las Vegas residents and visitors should probably get used to seeing more ads and fewer smiley emoji on the bulbous billboard: In an earnings call last week, James Dolan, the executive chairman and CEO of Sphere Entertainment Co., said the company has a “healthy pipeline of advertising commitments” for the Exosphere from “prominent global brands” in the coming months, including a “record-setting revenue week” around the Super Bowl.

Worth a pretty penny: Advertising on the Exosphere can reportedly cost brands anywhere from $450k a day to $650k a week. That could help to offset the losses for Sphere Entertainment Co., which oversees Sphere—the company reported losing nearly $100 million on the venue last quarter.

Brian Rappaport, CEO of out-of-home agency Quan Media Group, said Sphere-based advertising represents a nearly unmatched value proposition. It’s “the No. 1 thing on my OOH bucket list,” he told us.

“The sheer magnitude and shape of Sphere, coupled with the excitement around it, coupled with the excitement of Las Vegas as a market in general…Having that moment, it’s almost like brand legitimacy on steroids,” he said.

Read more sphere here.—KH

Consumer expectations don’t stay in one place. They constantly shift and evolve, making it difficult for e-commerce pros to keep their fingers on the pulse—especially as the biggest shopping season of the year approaches.

That’s why Rokt worked with The Harris Poll to conduct timely research with 6k consumers across 6 markets: the US, Australia, the UK, Germany, France, and Japan. Talk about far-reaching insights.

Rokt and The Harris Poll compiled all the results into a free, comprehensive report covering key themes like:

• the paradox of choice and the rise of relevancy
• shifting global and young consumer trends
• the new frontier of AI shopping

Take a peek at the full findings and give your shoppers the validation and value they’re seeking.

As of today, Amazon will officially get on the bandwagon of retailers that now offer “Black Friday” deals well in advance of the actual post-Thanksgiving extravaganza.

The e-commerce giant last week announced that Black Friday deals will begin rolling out on Friday, November 17, and continue through Cyber Monday, with deals available across product categories and discounts as high as ~75%.

Kicking off the holiday sales event early has become a common practice among retailers, but Amazon, until this year, had stuck to the more traditional 48-hour window. Last year, for example, Amazon’s sales event didn’t begin until Thanksgiving.

“We’ve seen pretty much every retailer across the board doing these longer Black Friday sales,” Kristin McGrath, shopping expert and senior editor of RetailMeNot’s The Real Deal, told Retail Brew. “But Amazon, ironically, has been the most traditional about its Black Friday sale.”

Getting in on the action: Why now? McGrath said consumers are increasingly checking big items off their list earlier, and “Amazon probably wants in on that. Recent data backs this up.

• Deloitte’s annual holiday survey found that participation in promotional events is set to increase this year, as inflation-squeezed customers seek deals.
• The consulting firm found that 66% of consumers planned to go holiday shopping the week of Black Friday–Cyber Monday, compared to 49% in 2022.

In addition, consumers plan to wrap up their holiday shopping within 5.8 weeks this year, compared to 7.4 weeks prior to the pandemic, according to Deloitte. That would mean retailers have a shorter window to draw customers.

“The old retail adage of ‘having the right product, at the right price, at the right time’ may ring true more than ever this year,” Deloitte said in a blog post.

Keep reading on Retail Brew.—AV

Each week, Marketing Brew recaps what people are talking about on social media, the trends that took over our feeds, and how marketers are responding.

Blast from the past: Swifties have resurfaced Travis Kelce’s old tweets (ones which Ms. Tree Paine no doubt already reviewed) to find that the man appears to be nothing if not unproblematic. Exhibit A. With brand safety concerns seemingly cleared, brands like Olive Garden and Chipotle wasted no time jumping in.

Inner-circle only: Instagram rolled out the ability to share feed posts with close friends only this week, and people were excited. A finsta renaissance by any other name.

Credit where due? TikTok creator @GirlBossTown noted that eos’s latest campaign, in which the brand reunited people who shared a first kiss, shares a pretty similar premise to a video suggestion she made last year. Plenty of people in the comments called on eos to give her credit—or money. For her part, @GirlBossTown said in the video that she would “let it slide this time, but next time you do a commercial, hire me.” In a statement shared with Marketing Brew, eos CMO Soyoung Kang said that “eos both publicly and privately responded to the creator, Robyn, to confirm we were unaware of her TikTok” and that the similarities “are one crazy big coincidence.” With all that said, she added, “we’d love to work with Robyn in the future.”

Dieux you see it? Having also seen a fair amount of Dieux on the ol’ FYP, we had a similar thought to writer Rachel Karten, who noticed that on TikTok Shop, the brand is getting a lot of love—and the skin-care company is seeing a huge boost in views on the app, to boot.

Like a phoenix from the ashes: When one celebrity beauty brand falls (or at least is predicted to have fallen online), another one rises. This time, it’s from Adele—and if the supposed curse rings true (we’re looking at you, Rihanna), some people are predicting we won’t see a follow-up to 30 for quite some time.

Dream job alert: If you want to be the spokesperson for an iconic sausage on wheels, it’s your time to shine—Oscar Meyer is hiring.—KH

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

Blast from the past: Almost two dozen examples of nostalgia-steeped ads and marketing materials.

Measuring up: This guide covers what marketers need to know about LinkedIn Analytics.

Case study: The strategy behind beauty brand Merit’s latest social campaign.

Timely takeaways: Rokt commissioned The Harris Poll to decipher consumer expectations around e-commerce. See what 6k consumers across 6 global markets had to say and peep the resulting report for free.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

Stories we’re jealous of.

• Vox wrote about deinfluencing, and how “the internet now feels like a place whose sole purpose is selling you something.”
• The New York Times profiled Dorothy Wiggins, Instagram and TikTok’s hottest 98-year-old influencer.
• The Hollywood Reporter dug into how AI could still make its way into TV and film productions, even after SAG-AFTRA’s new contract offered some restrictions.