One Monday in November, Missouri-based marijuana dispensary chain Greenlight Dispensary found itself with more than 2,000 new customers thanks to Taylor Swift.

That’s because Greenlight offered 13% off (a reference to Swift’s favorite number) to customers who used the discount code “Swiftie” or mentioned the promotion that day. It was one of a few promotions from the dispensary designed to capitalize on the pop star’s possible appearances at Kansas City Chiefs games to support her boyfriend, tight end Travis Kelce, CEO John Mueller told Marketing Brew. That night, the Chiefs lost and Swift didn’t show, but the promo, Mueller said, was “a huge win for us.”

Greenlight is far from the only company just saying “yes” to this love story. Since Swift and Kelce’s relationship went public, marketers have found just about every way possible to engage with the couple’s star power, which has only risen since Swift was named Time’s Person of the Year in December. Even the NFL itself has found ways to leverage the relationship to boost its brand, with one exec saying that it’s helped the league grow its audience (...and maybe the number of bracelet exchanges happening during games).

Brands like State Farm and Chipotle said their couple-centric marketing blitzes this season have been good for business—or at least brand awareness. Headed into 2024 and the end of the NFL season, though, brands might have to grapple with the question of whether audiences will tire of Traylor.

Continue reading here.—AM, KH

Building customer trust doesn’t happen overnight, and new tech doesn’t always help. Tools like generative AI have clear benefits, but they also raise more than a few ethical questions.

That’s why Salesforce released their Trends in Ethical Marketing guide. The report shows current trends—all backed by research—in using AI tools in marketing while avoiding any sus moves.

Their secret? Prioritizing the people behind the marketing process. Other secrets in their guide include:

• a snapshot and statistics of where the marketing industry is today
• research of sentiment from consumers
• ways that businesses can balance risk and reward with ethical principles

Get the full guide for all the deets on how to achieve trust, safety, and privacy through ethical marketing products and practices.

From debates around deinfluencing to the increased use of UGC, 2023 saw a lot of change in the influencer marketing space.

To kick off the new year, we asked people in the industry what they think will be the biggest trends to watch for in 2024.

AI gets more sophisticated: While AI was arguably the buzziest word of 2023, it doesn’t seem to be a one-and-done trend like the Metaverse. In fact, 2024 may bring changes we can’t even anticipate.

Rahul Titus, global head of influence at Ogilvy, cited a campaign the agency did with Cadbury Celebrations and Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan—where the agency licensed Khan’s image and created “millions of hyper-personalized ads” for small businesses in India by using a deepfake of the actor and mimicking his voice using AI—as an example of what the “AI-powered social media world” will look like.

As AI-generated likenesses become more prevalent, including through virtual influencers and Meta’s AI Personas, Titus expects that more influencers will be asked by brands to license their likenesses, and said it won’t be long before all kinds of people have their own AI personas on social media. To prevent confusion as more AI-generated content spreads, he said, more disclosure on social media will be necessary: “If you lose [authenticity], the whole discipline of influencer marketing fails.”

Beyond content creation, Krishna Subramanian, co-founder and CEO of influencer marketing platform Captiv8, told us he expects to see AI incorporated in performance measurement in 2024. “This approach will enable brands to more effectively predict which influencers and content types (such as long versus short-form videos) will drive desired outcomes like downloads or sales,” he said.

Taking it offline: Here’s something virtual influencers can’t do. In what she calls the “anti-influencer influencer approach,” Julianne Fraser, founder of digital influencer marketing agency Dialogue New York, told us she expects to see more in-person events and product collaborations with influencers. Part of the reason, she said, is that some customers are experiencing a kind of “fatigue” from the onslaught of digital influencer content.

“Brands are investing more in influencers, and the volume of paid influencer campaigns is just skyrocketing,” she said. “Because it’s becoming so saturated and busy, it’s important to consider offline influence as part of your strategy as well.”

Just remember to invite your consumers, too. After influencer trips hosted by brands like Tarte and Shein faced backlash in 2023, Fraser said she doesn’t anticipate they will be as big this year given that those kinds of experiences can seem “inauthentic and staged.”

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.

Jessica Sutherland is the director of integrated marketing at the location-sharing app Life360. She’s also held marketing positions at Care.com and CVS Health, and she serves on the planning board in Burlington, Massachusetts.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? Guiding our marketing org to an integrated marketing approach instead of a siloed goal approach. Working with all the different arms of marketing and creative really motivates me and makes my day more enjoyable because I learn a lot from all the experiences and backgrounds the larger marketing team has. It’s also extremely rewarding to see one nugget of an idea take flight across a variety of marketing channels.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? Is it too cliche to say Barbie? Even though it had an insane budget, the depth that campaign reached was nothing I’ve ever seen before. It was such a niche message that they made work across different events, markets, channels, audiences. Just perfection.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: That the incredible support of my husband allows me to not only work hard at my day job, but also be an elected town government member, coach my kid’s soccer team, and still find time for myself. Balance doesn’t exist, but making an impact and filling your cup can coexist.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? Transparency. Gen Z is holding brands accountable for not only being truthful and transparent, but for making a positive impact on society. Sometimes I get sad about the negative impacts marketing has had historically, but consumers are forcing change of old mindsets and it’s very exciting to see.

What’s one marketing-related podcast/social account/series you’d recommend? Marketing is about leadership and being brave enough to take risks, so although it’s not specific to marketing, anything Brené Brown—TED talks and books—would help marketers.

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

Write on: If your New Year’s resolution is to increase conversions, here are some copywriting tips to brush up on.

Command center: Familiarize yourself with the updated desktop version of TikTok’s Creator Center for managing and evaluating campaigns.

New year, new plan: Tips to help jump-start digital marketing plans in 2024.

Tools + trust: You don’t want to miss Salesforce’s new Trends in Ethical Marketing guide. Download your copy to learn how your brand can preserve trust and utilize AI in marketing. Insights right here.*

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Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount executives have discussed the possibility of a merger, according to Axios.
• Dish Network completed its merger with satellite network operator EchoStar in a shift away from the pay-TV business and toward wireless services.
• The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, in contrast to several other news publishers’ approach of pursuing licensing agreements.