Remember when the Biden administration announced companies with 100 or more employees would eventually have to require employees to provide proof of vaccination, or otherwise undergo weekly testing for Covid? If you forgot all about it over the holidays, or you’ve been confused about the mandate from the start, you’re not alone.

Remind me what’s going on? The rule was set to go into effect January 4, but it’s faced a series of legal challenges.

• Last month, the Labor Department said it would hold off on issuing citations for companies not complying with the requirements until January 10 in order to “account for any uncertainty.” The department said it would wait until February 9 to issue citations for noncompliance regarding the testing requirement, in particular.

But, but, but: The Supreme Court will still be holding a hearing on the mandate on January 7, so there’s a chance this requirement could change yet again. As The New York Times pointed out, many companies “have held off until the matter has been fully addressed by the court.”

Starbucks, however, appears to be an overachiever. The coffee chain is asking its US staff to show proof of vaccination by January 10 regardless, according to CNBC. Workers who aren’t fully vaccinated by February 9 will have to present negative tests weekly.

Marketing implications

How Starbucks communicates these changes to its more than 200,000 employees could have an impact on its image; internal perceptions of a company matter. And with that many people on staff, it’s likely that at least some of them will be unhappy—or at least confused—about the mandate.

Sarah Unger, founding partner at cultural insights and strategy firm Cultique, which conducts qualitative research for clients on topics including workplace culture, said there’s “bound to be missteps” as companies implement mandates, given how unprecedented the Covid situation is.

• To mitigate them, she said it’s important that senior executives lead the charge in normalizing compliance…if the mandate does ever go into effect.
• “It’s really important for employees to see leadership modeling behavior,” Unger told Marketing Brew. “It can’t be delegated to the party-planning committee.”

Unger also advised leaders to give employees as much of a voice as possible, and to be transparent with them in order to build trust. Does that sound familiar, marketers?

+1: Starbucks’ recently unionized workers at a Buffalo store are already unhappy about the company’s handling of the pandemic. Six walked off the job yesterday, claiming they don’t feel equipped to work safely as cases surge, according to NPR. “The company has again shown that they continue to put profits above people,” the union said in a statement.

Zoom out: While certain communication tactics will be useful for companies as they roll out vaccine and testing requirements, a hard sell isn’t the way to go, according to Unger. “It’s really more of a dialogue and a communication process,” she explained, “as opposed to employees feeling like they’re being advertised to.”—AM

Unless you drank one too many cosmopolitans during December in light of the Sex and the City reboot, you probably remember Peloton’s chaotic partnership with the real-life actor who played Mr. Big. But even those who started Dry January early might have missed the news about Match’s new venture with the real Carrie Bradshaw, Candace Bushnell.

• Last week, online dating service Match tapped Bushnell—who penned the book SATC was based on—to play matchmaker for members on the app who opt into its new “Expert Picks” feature.
• Expert Picks, which came out in November, works like this: Members take a quiz, then, for $4.99 a week, one of Match’s 50 “experts” tries to find the user their perfect…well, match.

One of those experts is Bushnell, who’s apparently “overseeing” the new feature and helping out with matches temporarily. Amy Canaday, Match’s head of PR, told us her team is promoting the partnership via organic social postings across Match and Bushnell’s accounts, as well as letting Match users know about it via email.

“We wanted to leverage the buzz and excitement around the new SATC reboot,” Canaday told Marketing Brew.

The in the room: The drama around Noth and Peloton didn’t scare Match away from partnering with another celeb in the SATC orbit. “It didn’t impact our plans at all,” Canaday said, adding that the new And Just Like That episodes make Bushnell “very relevant right now.”—PB

Your New Year’s resolution to level up your career isn’t going to work out unless you develop a game plan to stick with it.

Well, here’s a game plan: Join the Morning Brew Accelerator program…for free. Learning at Morning Brew is giving away tuition to one MB/A applicant who applies between today and Jan. 10. Just select “Morning Brew Contest” in your application when prompted, and you’ll be entered to win. US entrants only.

Apply here.

NBCUniversal–owned streaming service Peacock is getting another chance to stick the landing with the Olympics.

Less than a month away from the kickoff of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the streaming service said it plans to cover every single Olympic event on Peacock’s Premium tier, which costs most customers about $5 a month.

That means all of NBCUniveral’s broadcast and cable coverage of the games, including NBC’s nightly primetime show, coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies, medal ceremonies, and studio programming, will all be available to watch on the streaming service. After coverage streams live on Peacock, subscribers will also be able to watch full replays immediately.

A 180: The move marks a considerable reversal from the Comcast–owned broadcaster’s approach to the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. During those games, Peacock only aired a handful of live events, including only some men’s and women’s gymnastics and track and field; men’s basketball was mostly paid-tier. Watching other events required either broadcast or cable TV subscriptions, or YouTube searching.

That approach, to say the least, didn’t win over many fans—and it may have affected how many people tuned in. Last summer’s games were the least-viewed Olympics on record. In October, NBCUniversal executives were noticeably quiet about how the Olympics helped Peacock’s user base during a call with investors in October.

Zoom out: The programming decision also marks one of the first major moves involving Peacock President Kelly Campbell, the former CEO of Hulu who defected in October.—KS

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

Community: How to build one for your brand, even on a budget, according to the marketing pro who did it for the Skimm and Jiggy puzzles.

Quality leads: Advice on how to make the most of your lead quality in Google Ads, even without the ideal backend data.

Social savvy: Get inspo from these seven social media campaigns, including ones from Cadbury and Oreo for those with a sweet tooth.

Looking for more? Check out Marketing Brew’s article on The Great Resignation, sponsored by Salesforce.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Welcome to our second new newsletter section. Like the first, Tuesday Trivia, this section is also pretty self-explanatory: It’s market research. Every Thursday, we’ll break down a piece of analysis we think you’ll want to see. If you’re into data, this section is for you. And if not, maybe we’ll convert you.

Today’s analysis comes from data intelligence company Morning Consult, which looked at public perception of some key themes at CES. The TL;DR:

• Travel in the metaverse is gaining momentum, with 44% of Americans at least somewhat interested in visiting a real-life destination in a virtual reality space.
• So is cryptocurrency, especially among millennials, men, and Black and Hispanic adults.
• Sustainability is important to consumers, making it corporate America’s problem too: 68% think corporations should address climate change.
• Data privacy is of concern. While the majority of respondents said they’re at least somewhat comfortable sharing their email addresses or shopping history with brands, they’re more sensitive about other personal information.
• AI assistants still creep people out. On average across eight types of businesses, 74% of consumers said they’d rather interact with a human.

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

• Why star power isn’t enough to boost celeb-led beauty brands, according to new research
• How the US ad industry lost $17 billion in the pandemic’s first 13 months
• How the spirits industry is taking on Big Beer—and using marketing to do so