CAMPAIGNS

Inside Recess’s first IRL marketing event since the pandemic

Freshly vaxxed and breaking back into the dating game? If you're feeling rusty, one CBD-infused sparkling water brand wants to help. 

“Find out if your date got Pfizer or Moderna. If it’s a match, start planning your wedding. This is how we date now,” reads a piece of dating advice in Recess’s new zine, which doubles as a “Guide to Re-Entering Society” post-lockdown. 

This weekend, Recess will open a pop-up store in Nolita to give away the guide...and many a can of Recess bevvies, of course. 

• Within the zine, artists like Brian Rea, illustrator for The New York Times’ Modern Love column, and New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck depict very 2021 instructions for navigating a restaurant, dating again, going to parties, and getting dressed.
• The rag isn’t exclusive to Manhattanites. It’s also being distributed at local stores in LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, and Nashville + comes with every drink purchase on the brand’s site.
• Recess is promoting the event and corresponding zine across its social media channels, primarily Instagram.

Marketing Brew sat down with Recess founder and CEO Ben Witte, Director of Brand Marketing Andrew Courtien, and Creative Lead Thatcher Jensen to chat about diving back into events, the campaign’s influencer marketing strategy, and the brand’s sentiment-driven (versus data-driven) approach to advertising. 

Waiting for the bell to ring

Pop goes the lockdown: Courtien said Recess knew the time was right to reenter the real world because, well, non-marketers—like the organizers of The Governors Ball and Coachella—did it first. “You started seeing ticket sales moving and things selling out. People really want to get back out there and the fear has been mitigated because of the vaccine, rightfully so, because science is amazing, so people seem eager,” Courtien told us. 

Zinefluence: The company intentionally chose to work with artists like Finck (582K IG followers) and Rea (32K IG followers), both of whom bring large, engaged followings to the table and serve as influencers for the campaign. But Recess isn’t getting caught up in the details of how or when they’re posting about the brand tie-up. “It’s not just a CPM, it’s a relationship,” Jensen told us. 

In your feelings: In most stories about marketing campaigns, acronyms like KPI and ROI get thrown around like pizza dough in Italian restaurants. Not this one. “There are no hard and fast KPIs here,” Courtien explained. “We’re a feelings brand.” Witte told us that Recess’s marketing strategy is almost entirely based on sentiment rather than data. “We don't have any specific numbers in mind,” Witte said. 

Click here to read the full story.—PB

SPORTS

Pay up

On Monday, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the NCAA can’t prevent colleges from compensating student athletes with perks like paid internships, equipment, or postgraduate scholarships—basically, anything education-related. 

Wait, what does this have to do with marketing? More than you might think. Basically, the ruling gets the (metaphorical) football closer to the end zone where college athletes are treated like their professional counterparts—think salaries and sponsorship deals, both of which the NCAA doesn’t currently allow. “The NCAA’s business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America,” wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh. 

Specifically, the court pointed out that the NCAA “cannot dodge compliance with federal antitrust law,” according to Vox, meaning the league can’t pretend it’s amateur hour while raking in millions and giving athletes zilch. 

$$$

States have begun introducing legislation that circumvents the NCAA’s current rules on brand endorsements.

• Last summer, Florida introduced a law that would allow athletes to profit from endorsements. It goes into effect July 1. 
• Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and New Mexico have similar laws that kick in at the start of July. Colorado and California have also enacted legislation that lets student athletes profit from brands, although theirs don’t go into effect until 2023.
• Within the next few weeks, the NCAA is expected to make a decision on how it’ll handle the new legislation nationwide. 

What would deals look like in practice? Don’t expect massive Nike campaigns. Sports marketing consultant and Columbia University professor Joe Favorito told Marketing Brew most athletes will be lending their likenesses to small events or charitable causes, rather than national branding deals.

“I don’t think you’ll see a tremendous amount of deals…You don’t really know what you’re getting in college athletics. It’s a very short window,” said Favorito, citing the fact that collegiate athletic performance can be volatile and turnover is high. “The real value will come with micro-deals with athletes who have built a following and may not play the biggest sports in the world. They know their audience and they know how to engage.”—RB

SPONSORED BY ITERABLE

For a Great Customer Experience, Every Little Detail Counts

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Personalization is often touted as a core piece of good cross-channel marketing, and there are good reasons why. Read the numbers and reap the benefits:

• 91% of consumers are willing to buy from brands that offer relevant recs
• 83% of consumers will share their data in return for more personalized experiences
• Companies that provide an emotional connection with customers outperform their competitors by 85%

We’re no experts like Iterable, but those are some pretty high percentages.

Now that you’re convinced, let’s put those numbers into action: To learn how to personalize email and cross-channel campaigns that deliver hyper-relevant content to each of your customers, download Iterable’s guide here.

TIKTOK

Jumpin’, Jumpin’

This week, TikTok officially rolled out Jumps.

What? Jumps are essentially mini apps that creators can link out to in their videos. TikTok beta tested Jumps with a handful of brands, including Wikipedia, cooking app Whisk, and breathing exercise platform Breathwrk. 

• In practice, a TikTok creator sharing a cooking video could direct users to the recipe via Whisk.
• TikTok has opened up its Jump program to other brands, but they have to apply first.

A TikTok spokesperson told Marketing Brew that a “widely expanded group of creators, which also includes a select group of brands, are currently able to use Jumps in their organic content.”

As of now, TikTok isn’t billing its Jump program as an e-commerce tool. But considering the platform is making a massive push into e-commerce, inking partnerships with the likes of Shopify and Walmart, that could change.

“As much as marketers would love for a single TikTok to convert to purchase, that is not always the case,” Holly Harper, senior social media strategist at marketing agency The Integer Group, told us. “Jumps could provide the necessary stepping stone to lead a consumer to purchase, especially a new customer who may crave more details about a brand's product or service.”

+1: Renee Vafa, director of social strategy at Reprise Digital, said Jumps could also let advertisers more easily measure “actions taken in-app” as Apple restricts access to third-party data. “A valuable benefit to these integrations is the ability to track customer intent in new ways as users are given more actions to take in the platform,” she said.—MS

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• McDonald’s loyalty program is going national. Can I convert my airline points into nuggets?
• Marriott is using channels like TikTok and shoppable streaming for its biggest campaign yet.
• Shopify is planning a tool that’ll let advertisers target users on Facebook or Google.
• Facebook is testing brand safety measures to let advertisers block accounts. 

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AD FRAUD

Can you tell a real marketing story from a fake?

1. Report: Krispy Kreme vaccine promotion leads to 1% of all Oklahoma vaccinations 
2. Axe wants guys to get vaccinated before getting 'Axeinated'
3. Wingstop, pressured by chicken crunch, starts Thighstop brand
4. Edible seaweed packaging wins 2021 Cannes Lions Design Grand Prix

Keep scrolling for the answer.

FRENCH PRESS

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

$: Kantar rolled out a report on the top 100 most valuable global brands.

LinkedIn: Three social media managers shared their best marketing tips for LinkedIn here.

Apps: You’ve heard of SEO, but have you heard of ASO (App Store Optimization)?

Data crash: Bad data practices have led to consumer data being harvested by third parties, eroding consumer trust and triggering chaos in digital advertising. Learn how to prepare for the great privacy reset at Permutive’s global summit on July 14. Register for free here.*

AD FRAUD ANSWER

We don’t know that about Oklahoma residents—it’s just a shot in the dark . 

ICYMI

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

• Inside Times Square’s pandemic-era ad world
• Nielsen introduces new way to measure streaming habits: The Gauge
• Not sure where your programmatic ads end up? This org can help