AGENCIES

Remember Cory in the House? This is him now. Feel old yet?

It turns out Sweetgreen's trendiness applies not only to $12 salads, but also to the marketing world. The kale salad chain woke up last week and decided to double down on in-housing, one of the biggest trends of the past year.

That’s right: Last week, Sweetgreen announced it’s growing the salad team into a fully operational in-house agency. 

• Leading the charge is Thomas Wilder, who was previously a partner and creative director at Collins, and just became Sweetgreen’s first-ever executive creative director. 
• In his new role, Wilder will shape the Sweetgreen brand, advertising, packaging, online channels, store experiences, and social media presence.

Big picture

If this story sounds familiar, that’s because everyone who’s anyone seems to be taking their creative team in-house lately. See also: Gap in September, and more recently, hotel brands Marriott and Hilton.

• In our October 2020 survey of marketers, in-housing ranked as the No. 5 most “overlooked” trend of the year. 

And although Sweetgreen’s following in these well-trodden footsteps, it’s among the first newer brands to set up an in-house creative shop. 

Two reasons why this whole trend is such a big deal: 

• One: That scary Forrester estimate from 2020 that by the start of 2021, 50,000 marketing and advertising jobs would be lost on the agency side alone—we expect to see some updates on how that prediction has played out soon.
• Two: Forrester’s follow up comment explaining that because 2020’s ad industry layoffs imploded the traditional agency talent pool, job seekers will have to seek work at growing in-house agencies.

Hot take: If the Sweetgreens of the world all start dropping the cutting-edge marketing agencies that originally created their fresh, modern identities, perhaps future startups will make plans for in-housing (and ditching creative agencies) sooner rather than later. 

CMOS

If That’s Moving Up, Then I’m…

Helen Lin just became Publicis Groupe’s new chief digital officer (CDO)—and her appointment is more unique than it should be.

• Lin’s been with the agency holding company for 14+ years, serving as CDO for Publicis Media for the past two. 

Zoom out: At Publicis Groupe, the percentage of BIPOC employees shrinks as you climb the corporate ladder, whereas the proportion of white employees only grows. 

• For instance, 16.4% of mid-level Publicis employees identify as Asian, but only 10.7% of senior leaders do. 
• 81.8% of the agency’s senior leaders are white, as are 69.5% of mid-levelers and 64.8% of entry-level positions, per the agency holding company’s July 2020 US diversity report.

And it’s not just Publicis—other major agency groups like IPG and Dentsu followed the same pattern in their July diversity data. 

My takeaway: Entry- and mid-level industry employees deserve to see faces that look like theirs getting C-suite promotions—especially when they're as accomplished as Lin.

SPONSORED BY #PAID

Ad Agencies Don’t Always Add Up

If spending big bucks on an ad doesn’t really float your creative-content boat (or should we say yacht), then imagine the marketer who’s able to squeeze out way more content without asking for more budget.

It’s hard to do with an agency, but it’s easy to do with #paid.

#paid has the best creative for your brand and won’t cost you big ad agency bucks.

How? They rely on a whole planet of content creators making TV-quality content for a fraction of what you’d pay in the old agency days. 

Join big brands like Toyota, Volvo, and Verizon, who’ve turned to saving costs without sacrificing content quality.

#paid will even give you $500 of free creative assets on your first content run.

Don’t overpay. Create better content with #paid today.

SOCIAL MEDIA

#SocialSuccess

If you’ve ever needed a 10,000-foot view on how the Big Three social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) are working for marketers since January 2020, look no further. 

• Social media analytics company Rival IQ compiled social media marketing metrics from 2+ million posts and 3+ billion likes, comments, and favorites from 2,100 large brands in 14 top industries.

Read on for the most interesting stats, by industry, then read the full report here: 

Higher education: Maybe alumni loyalty is the ultimate brand loyalty—higher ed accounts had the top Instagram and Twitter engagement rates across industries, with rates 3x the median on Instagram and 2x the median on Twitter.

Sports teams and influencers: Sports teams, which posted frequently, and influencers, who posted infrequently, had the most consistently engaging Facebook posts this year. 

Alcohol: The drank industry saw nearly 10x more engagement on Instagram marketing efforts than on Facebook, despite consistent posting on both platforms.  

Bottom line: No matter your industry, there’s no “universal posting frequency” that works for all brands. 

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Roku could be creating original content and shows after acquiring Quibi’s content library last month. 
• The ANA recently found that more than one-third of marketers are still unclear on when business travel will return. 
• Target chose Cara Sylvester, who has been with the brand for 14 years, as its new CMO.
• LinkedIn is developing a new program to support content creators on its platform.

SPONSORED BY SAILTHRU

New ways to boost your email revenue. Lately, best-in-class brands across industries like retail and media have seen all-time online engagement (translation in MorningBrewese: $$$$). Sailthru has written up a guide on how your marketing team can capitalize on this behavioral trend and increase your email marketing revenue: Feast your eyes on it here.

FRENCH PRESS

Marketing tips to make you fancy

Influencers: We talk about micro influencers a lot in this newsletter...but what about nano influencers? This infographic gives you the 411 on who they are and how to work with them.

TikTok: Here’s the beginner’s guide to marketing on TikTok, just in case you didn’t dive headfirst into the trend last year. 

Small biz: These are the top seven web design mistakes small businesses in particular should avoid. 

AD ANTIQUES

Vintage Ad Browser

Sweetgreen’s new creative shop has this absolutely groundbreaking salad dressing ad from 1974 to compete with—talk about big shoes leaves to fill. 

ICYMI

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Four social media managers gave Marketing Brew a backstage pass to their WFH lives 
• Yes Way Rosé and Williamsburg Pizza’s brand partnership case study
• Why modern branding wins over greenwashing