The New York Liberty were on fire last year in more ways than one.

The Brooklyn-based WNBA team made it all the way to the finals, setting league attendance records along the way before facing defeat at the hand of the Las Vegas Aces. In December, two months after the season ended, the team made sure its 2024 schedule release announcement continued to bring the heat: Liberty star forward and two-time MVP Breanna Stewart dropped the news on an episode of Hot Ones, the YouTube series turned standalone brand where guests eat hot wings while being interviewed.

“Over the past few seasons, schedule release day in the WNBA has become a big event,” Shana Stephenson, the Liberty’s chief brand officer, told Marketing Brew. “I always challenge our marketing team to really think of something that’s creative, original…Even though I like to be inspired by other teams and leagues, I also still like to make sure that it’s original and also unique to the W.”

The Hot Ones collab seems to have met those qualifications. It was the first time Hot Ones worked with a WNBA team, and the episode also included some twists to add the flavor of the WNBA.

Fans have since snapped up tickets like they’re hot wings at a sporting event:

• The Liberty has sold 54% more full and partial season-ticket plans for this season than it had by the end of the 2023 season, Stephenson said, and revenue from all Liberty ticket options—including single-game tickets, season tickets, half-season plans, and luxury suites—is up 166% year over year.

Keep reading here.—AM

US adults are all over the place in terms of social media usage, fragmented based on age, gender, race, and class across platforms, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center. But there’s one thing everyone seems to agree on: TikTok.

One-third of respondents to the survey, which was conducted among 5,733 adults between May and September last year, reported having used TikTok, up from 21% in 2021.

Other platforms have much higher usage overall. More than eight in 10 US adults surveyed said they’ve used YouTube, followed closely by Facebook, which 68% of US adults said they’d used. In third place was Instagram, with about half of those surveyed saying they’d used the platform.

Child’s play: There were significant differences in social media usage by age, the report said. When it came to Instagram, 78% of 18- to 29-year-olds said they use the platform, compared to 15% of those 65 and older. The only platforms that the lion’s share of all surveyed age groups used were YouTube and Facebook.

Coexist: Platform usage also varied across race and gender. While 49% of Hispanic adults surveyed said they used TikTok, only 28% of white respondents said the same. Women were also more likely to use TikTok than men, at 40% and 25%, respectively.

Make it rain: Social media usage also diverged along class lines, the report found. Nearly one in three adults who had at least a $100,000 annual household income reported using X, compared to about one in five for those with lower annual household incomes.

Read more here.—JS

If we had a dollar for every time executives and analysts mentioned AI during Alphabet’s Q4 earnings call on Tuesday, we’d have about…$90, according to a transcript of the call.

Though the tech giant’s ad revenue fell short of analyst expectations—and its stock price was down 6% as of 10am Wednesday—Google’s advertising business, bolstered by its investments in AI and live sports, grew to $65.5 billion last quarter, up 11% year over year. YouTube alone earned $9.2 billion in ad revenue in the quarter, up almost 16% YoY.

However, according to CNBC, analysts had anticipated Alphabet would bring in $65.9 billion in total ad revenue.

The long and short: On a call with investors, SVP and chief business officer Philipp Schindler touted growth in YouTube Shorts, whose total creator earnings have increased every month since the company introduced revenue sharing for creators in February 2023. Shorts are averaging 70 billion daily views, Schindler said, and more than 2 billion logged-in users are watching Shorts every month.

Beep, boop: Schindler touted Google’s other AI investments, including use of the tech in measurement and bidding capabilities. Recently, Google also introduced other AI-powered ad tools, including Demand Gen and search ads supported by its Gemini AI model.

Play ball: The company remained tight-lipped about the results of its decision to bring NFL Sunday Ticket to YouTube TV. Schindler did say, however, that more than 90 upfront and scatter advertisers, including Unilever, have partnered with YouTube to advertise around the football programming. Total revenue from subscription products, driven mostly by YouTube, hit $15 billion in 2023.

Continue reading here.—JS

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

Clock’s run out: Songs from many top artists (yes, Taylor Swift included) are being pulled from TikTok. Here’s why.

Reel ’em in: How one founder maximized an ad spend of $75 per day on Instagram Reels.

Something fishy: The trend of the “caviar bump,” dissected—and what marketers can learn from it (even if they’re not in the fish industry).