“You should use your phone, call a Uber. You a goofy if you think I don’t know you need a Lyft.”

Those wise words, eloquently rapped by Chance the Rapper in his 2016 hit, “All Night,” point to a truth for anyone who’s spent a late night at the club: Sometimes, you need to call a ride home. But how to choose between Uber and Lyft?

Earlier this year, Lyft unveiled a new feature nationwide intended to make that choice easier for some of its riders. The feature, called Women+ Connect, makes it more likely that women and nonbinary riders will be matched with women and nonbinary drivers.

It’s the ride-hailing app’s latest effort to signal its support for the LGBTQ+ community, while also marketing itself as a safer choice for a portion of its employees and customers.

“It has kind of a brand halo,” Jen Winston, director of social media at Lyft, told us. “It shows that we’re supporting women and nonbinary people, and shows that we are advocating for that comfort.”

Continue reading here.—JN

We know marketers are driven by digits. So here are a few from Tubi we thought you’d find interesting:

• Tubi has over 75m active users.
• As of March 2024, it sits at 1.6% on The Gauge™ from Nielson.
• It reaches one in four US TV households, per VideoAmp.

Those numbers are dripping with potential. Since Tubi is one of the few free streaming sites, it’s no wonder it has such a broad reach.

And JSYK, Tubi’s fans go hard. They love the platform’s library of content and accessibility, both of which support its mission to give everyone access to the world’s stories.

Find out what Tubi can do for your brand.

Marketing exec Trish Tulloch liked college sports before it was cool.

Nowadays, between the astronomical rise of NCAA women’s basketball and the increasing prevalence of NIL deals, some college athletes are just as famous, if not more so, than the pros. (Looking at you, Caitlin Clark.) But, as a former Northwestern University field hockey player herself, Tolluch has had a brain for collegiate athletics and sponsorships since her internship and grad school days in the ’90s.

“My common thread that I really found myself enjoying was working with brands to figure out how sports and entertainment could deliver their marketing goals,” Tulloch told Marketing Brew. “All sports are one of my passions, but I really love everything to do with college sports, even with all the changes that it’s going through.”

Now, Tulloch serves as a VP at Endeavor-owned cultural marketing agency 160over90, where she’s one of a few college sports experts working across the agency’s clients at a time when many brands are increasingly interested in tying up with college sports and athletes.

Sign of the times: During her undergrad days, Tulloch said she thought her dream sports job was to be an athletic trainer or a team doctor. “If not for organic chemistry, I probably would have made it through,” she said.

Instead, she got a bachelor’s degree in business management from Northwestern before interning in the marketing department at Yale University, where she had her first taste of working with sports sponsors. After about a year, she went back to school to earn a master’s degree in sports management and marketing from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Tulloch’s first full-time job after that—and an internship at IPG sports agency Octagon—was at Omnicom agency The Marketing Arm, where she worked on Pepsi’s sponsorship of the NCAA championships. A highlight from her two-and-a-half years there, she says, was helping Pepsi include the women’s Final Four mark on its Aquafina packaging when the brand started getting national marketing support.

“I remember influencing them to activate the women’s sports,” Tulloch said. “Why not? We were trying to do some sampling…just getting products in people’s hands, and women were a big part of it, so I remember leveraging a lot of the—back then—kind of overlooked women’s championship events.”

Read more here.—AM

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

Mary Ann Grajek is managing partner of Media+, where she’s worked for more than 25 years.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? The old Quizno’s ads. I enjoyed it mostly because I can see the creative team presenting the idea, and everyone agreeing it was a good one. It’s odd, and it’s hilarious. I also love the Dove “Real Beauty” campaign.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I am obsessed with mid-century architecture and design. I’m also a big traveler and love to go to most of the areas surrounding the Mediterranean. For me, the hotter, the better.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? I am most optimistic about the future of attribution because it will allow us to show the full impact of media spend where we have not had the ability to do so previously. This will help us help our clients achieve the business goals they are looking for as efficiently as possible. The trend I’m least optimistic about is AI. I think AI can have a role in society, and it already does, but I don’t want AI to overpower and replace HI (human intelligence). We already live in a world that is so isolating and human connection is less and less valued.

Read more here.

What’s AI’s deal, anyway? It’s the question on everyone’s minds. Luckily for you, we hosted a panel at Attentive’s Thread event that dove deep into AI and its impact on marketing performance. Check out our recap filled with all kinds of top-notch insights and golden nuggets. See for yourself.

Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• Nike signed a deal with boxer Cindy Ngamba, the brand’s first partnership with a refugee athlete.
• Tripadvisor and Mars Petcare teamed up to create a “co-branded digital travel hub” to help pet owners plan trips.
• OpenAI and New Corp agreed to a five-year content deal.