On Mondays in Aliett Buttelman’s house, she says, Monday Night Football is “unfortunately always on.” But one night in October, the co-founder of the beauty and skin-care brand Fazit Beauty found herself very grateful that her fiancé insists on watching the weekly programming.

“A content creator actually messaged us on the Fazit Beauty Instagram account and said, ‘I have a feeling that Taylor Swift is wearing glitter freckles to the Chiefs game. Are those your patches?’” Buttelman told us. “Immediately, every media outlet starts blowing it up, [Barstool Sports’s] Dave Portnoy tweets about it, and I start bawling.”

There’s nothing quite like the moment Taylor Swift wears your product. The pop star’s clothing and accessory choices often grab the eagle-eyed attention of style watchers like @TaylorSwiftStyled on Instagram, which identify and document the products she wears. When Swift’s style items of choice happen to come from small businesses, it can thrust brands like Fazit Beauty onto a national stage in front of dedicated Swifties, rushing to take inspiration from Swift’s style choices.

It has been referred to as the “Taylor Swift effect,” which can be both quick and disruptive, usually in a good way: businesses that have experienced it often report skyrocketing sales and near-instant brand visibility to a massive audience. While Swiftie attention delivers immediate eyeballs, business owners are focused on crafting the right responses during their moments in the spotlight to help their brands stay bejeweled.

Continue reading here.—JN

Some brands might seek to avoid advertising against election-related content due to brand-safety concerns, but not ZipRecruiter.

The job search platform teamed up with Warner Bros. Discovery’s in-house brand studio, Courageous Studios, to develop a campaign designed to complement CNN’s election coverage. The campaign includes 15- and 30-second spots that are airing during breaks in coverage on CNN’s linear network; it also includes digital display ads on CNN.com. It went live on October 28 and will run through November.

“A lot of advertisers traditionally shy away from elections,” Paul Sundue, VP and creative director at Courageous, said. “Big live events like elections, celebrations, and sports are more tantalizing than ever for advertisers looking to make a splash.”

Best foot forward: One ad features shots of the US Capitol building, traditional office workers, a building construction crew, an auto mechanic, and others. It focuses on the importance of finding the right candidate for any job, whether for elected office or elsewhere. It ends with the narrator’s commentary: “If only every decision could be this easy.”

Running ads on news channels like CNN is a “great way” for ZipRecruiter to reach both employers and job seekers, ZipRecruiter CMO Monika Shah said.

Read more here.—JS

Verizon’s logo isn’t the only thing that got spruced up around the time of its rebrand in June.

The company also took a look at its pro football partnerships, which span 26 team deals and one with the NFL that dates back to 2010. In past years, Verizon has largely leveraged that relationship for football broadcast integrations, according to Nick Kelly, VP of partnerships at Verizon, but this year, the telecom brand’s football presence is more focused on experiences offered through its revamped Verizon Access customer rewards program.

It’s a shift that’s as much about retaining existing customers as it is about recruiting new ones through the power of FOMO, he said.

“Historically, we would just look at the NFL as another channel to push our promo messaging,” Kelly told Marketing Brew. “With the relaunch and focus on loyalty with Verizon Access, it’s been, ‘Let’s utilize these partnerships at these sporting events.’”

Fan to field: When Verizon underwent its brand refresh over the summer, it also updated its loyalty program, formerly known as Verizon Up, Kelly said. That program became Verizon Access, which the company started testing over the summer with perks like offering fans access to tailored experiences at music festivals.

For now, though, “we’re really focused almost exclusively on the NFL,” he said.

Continue reading here.—AM