Last year, Ulta Beauty became one of 28 brands to formally take the Fifteen Percent Pledge, vowing to dedicate at least 15% of shelf space to Black-owned brands. It did so just months after investing $25 million in DE&I efforts in February of last year, with $4 million earmarked for marketing Black-owned brands.

“It was the first time that we really said, ‘Let us now be that much more intentional about galvanizing all of our work,’ and putting it, to be honest, out in front so that we can also hold ourselves—and others can hold us—accountable,” Karla Davis, Ulta’s VP of marketing, told Marketing Brew.

By the numbers: According to new data from Morning Consult, more than half of Black adults surveyed said they would be more interested in a company if it took the Fifteen Percent Pledge. Even more—72%—said they believe it’s important for brands they support to sell products created by Black- and minority-owned businesses.

Ulta must have heard them, because this year, the company is doubling its DE&I commitment to $50 million, with more than half going to marketing and media, and the rest going to charitable donations, employee training programs, internal programming, and more.

See and be seen

According to Davis, one of the key goals of this year’s initiative is to amplify underrepresented voices. “This was really about how we’re putting investment dollars into both the media and who we’re putting the media behind,” she said.

• This includes about $25 million of media spend toward multicultural platforms, 10% of which will go toward Black- and Latinx-owned media outlets, like xoNecole.
• The company is also putting $8.5 million toward marketing Black-owned, Black-founded, and Black-led brands. Davis said the money will be spread across channels, from programmatic ads to media partnerships to content marketing.

One brand that Ulta customers are excited about? Fenty Beauty, which is coming to Ulta stores next week and will also receive marketing support from Ulta. “We’re trying to make sure that we balance across both up-and-coming and established brands across the portfolio,” Davis said, adding that brands like Pattern by Tracee Ellis Ross, Flora & Curl, and Melanin Haircare will be featured as part of Ulta’s marketing push.

A new undertaking Davis is particularly excited about is its brand-partner accelerator program, which will provide resources and mentorship to BIPOC brand owners. She also highlighted a $5 million commitment to New Voices, a VC firm, which will go toward founders of color. “I feel like it’s putting the dollars really at the base of the community in a way that will absolutely propel their businesses in meaningful ways,” she said.

Big picture: All in all, she said, the goal of the $50 million commitment is as much about generational wealth-building for BlPOC business owners as it is for customers seeking a more representative selection and products made for them. “As the largest beauty retailer, we do believe that we have a responsibility to lead the way for others and for them to see that if we can figure it out, being big and complex and all the other things, ideally it gives them inspiration to figure it out for themselves as well.”—KH

Netflix will no longer chill in Russia.

The streaming giant, which had four Russian originals in the works, has reportedly halted all future projects and acquisitions in the country amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The pause is one of several moves by entertainment giants as they weigh their current and future business arrangements in the country. Most of those decisions have been made at the Russian box office:

• Disney paused Russian releases of upcoming theatrical films, including the animated Pixar film Turning Red.
• Warner Bros. halted the Russian release of The Batman, which was slated to open there on Thursday.
• Sony said it would postpone all theatrical releases, including the film Morbius.
• Paramount Pictures said it would pause the theatrical debut of upcoming films, like The Lost City and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, in Russia.
• Universal Pictures announced on Tuesday that it had “paused planned theatrical releases” in the country.

A unified front: The global entertainment industry is making other moves signaling their objection to the invasion and their support of Ukraine. The Stockholm International Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival said they would ban Russian state-backed film organizations, while European TV company Banijay placed a freeze on all activity in Russia “until further notice.” The Motion Picture Association, the trade group and lobbying arm that represents most major film studios, issued a statement expressing its “strongest support for Ukraine’s vibrant creative community, who, like all people, deserve to live and work peacefully.”

Box-office breakdown: The Russian box office grossed $445 million in 2021, according to Box Office Mojo, but its size pales in comparison to other major markets around the world. The US box office grossed nearly $4.5 billion in the same year, while China, the largest box office in the world, exceeded $6.2 billion.—KS

Ah, TikTok—the place where “unca jams” posts, suspicious ADHD ads, and videos of talkative toddlers can all bleed together in one seemingly endless scroll.

But the app has its more…educational corners. Take Dulma Altan, who runs what she described to Retail Brew’s Erin Cabrey as a “TikTok B-school for women” on the app. Altan has garnered nearly 50,000 followers and more than 1 million likes since starting the account last year, “gaining notice for analyzing Glossier’s recent missteps (298k views) and why Ariana Grande’s R.E.M. Beauty might ‘flop’ (740k views),” writes Erin.

Credentials: A 2014 Brown University grad, Altan worked at branding agency Red Antler and Google’s SMB AdWords team before starting Potion, an online natural fragrance store. That gave her a “crash course” in running a DTC company, Altan told Erin, but she ultimately shut it down after realizing it wasn’t scaleable.

• “I learned exactly how hard it can be to wear all those hats,” Altan explained. “It was a lesson in the importance of having large gross margins, and all the stuff that you need to take into account when you start a business.”

Now, Altan dishes out advice for CPG entrepreneurs on TikTok. Read some of her top takeaways in Retail Brew’s story here.—MS

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

Free agent: TikTok rolled out a feature to help creators connect with talent agents and brands.

Seat at the table: Comparing the social platforms’ gender diversity at the top.

Never too late: How to get your brand started on the ’Tok, even if it feels like that ship has sailed.

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

• Nielsen’s latest initiative
• How companies have responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
• Inside Insider’s new podcast venture
  

Which headlines are real marketing news, and which one is fake?

1. Justice temporarily rebrands as Limited Too in a nostalgia campaign
2. Dolly Parton unveils the “Dollyverse,” her answer to the metaverse
3. Old Navy lets TikTok write its spring ad campaign
4. Jerry Seinfeld is making a multimillion dollar movie about…Pop-Tarts?

Keep scrolling for the answer.