BRAND STRATEGY

Tower 28

Beauty brand pop-ups are nothing new. But a beauty pop-up with no products for sale? That might be.

Tower 28, a beauty brand focused on sensitive skin founded in 2019, brought its brand to life in two back-to-back, notably not-retail-heavy, pop-up experiences this fall. The first, a collaboration with Jell-O called Jell-o-teria spotlighting the brands’ upcoming co-branded lip product, offered visitors Jell-O-inspired frozen yogurt, exclusive merch, a raffled PR box prize, and Jell-O product samples at a stand in Venice, California.

Then, two days later, Tower 28 opened up its first physical storefront—although it aimed to function less like a traditional retail shop than a community center, bringing nearly 2,000 visitors through the doors. Called the Sensitive Club, the pop-up space was designed with the goal of engaging new and existing fans of the brand, Amy Liu, Tower 28’s founder and CEO, told us. At Sensitive Club, visitors could get shade-matched for the brand’s new Swipe Serum Foundation, refill bottles of the brand’s SOS Spray toner, and purchase limited-edition merch. While there were plenty of opportunities to get hands-on with the brand’s products, none were for sale, a tactic that Liu hopes will encourage focus on true community-building.

“This really is not to make money. To be honest with you, I’m pretty certain we will not make money,” she said before the pop-up opened. “I know it sounds silly, but honestly, the intention here is really more love and depth of relationship.”

For more on why Tower28 focused on fostering long-term customer connection in its physical space, continue reading here.—JN

      

Sponsored By Contentful

AI can move fast, but marketers leaders face five decisions AI can’t make: autonomy, judgement, legibility, measurement, and ownership.

Autonomy starts with boundaries. If every agent has to propose an action and wait for approval, as 21% do, the approval tax eats efficiency gains. Judgement matters, too. Automation can remove the entry-level work of trained marketers, and 25% of organizations have already replaced some of that hiring with AI.

Then comes brand legibility. With 85% of marketing leaders worried that AI summaries will make brands sound alike, differentiation can’t become beige soup.

Measurement is messy. Only 31% measure answer-engine visibility, while 24% audit brand mentions in agent output. And ownership? Just 4% worry most about it. Which feels adorably optimistic.

The real AI question isn’t what can be automated. It’s what still requires a marketer.

SPORTS MARKETING

Overtime

State Farm is planting its flag in flag football.

Next summer, sports media company and league operator Overtime plans to host an All-American girls flag football game, which will feature top high school flag football athletes from around the country in partnership with NBC Sports, giving them a platform on traditional media and Overtime’s social channels. The game will now be sponsored by State Farm as part of an extended deal between the brand and Overtime, the companies shared exclusively with Marketing Brew.

As part of the agreement, State Farm will continue its presence in Overtime’s basketball and 7-on-7 football leagues, with an additional NIL element.

State Farm is synonymous with sports partnerships, with heavy investment in traditional football and basketball leagues. Overtime’s content resonates “with the next generation of athletes and sports fans” who are highly engaged on digital platforms, Kristyn Cook, State Farm’s chief agency, sales, and marketing officer, said in an email, noting that it was a key element as to why State Farm doubled down on the partnership.

“State Farm has always been a believer in what we’ve been building for the next generation of athletes,” Marc Kohn, president of content and media at Overtime, told Marketing Brew.

For more details on the expanded deal and why State Farm wants to get in on the ground floor of flag football, read more here.—AM

      

AI

Illustration: Morning Brew Inc., Photo: Nectar Social

Before launching Nectar, an AI-native social operating system, in 2023, sisters Misbah and Farah Uraizee spent years working at Meta—Misbah in product and Farah as an engineer. While there, they watched the way consumers discovered, discussed, and shared products shifted from public feeds into private channels, communities, and DMs. They saw brands struggling to keep up with that behavior—and the growing number of places where customers were talking about them.

What surprised them most was how little room brands had to respond to it.

Marketing teams were running lean while being asked to manage more channels, build relationships with customers and creators, and defend every dollar to their CFOs, said Misbah. The kinds of interactions that can make a brand memorable aren’t always the easiest to measure.

“There’s a constant push from a C-level to constantly be thinking about ‘How do I justify the spend that I’m doing in these channels if it’s not in paid media?’” said Misbah.

That realization shaped Nectar’s approach: using AI to help small teams manage the growing number of conversations happening around their brands.

Nectar, Misbah said, can surface comments and DMs, respond to customers, recommend products, and connect hidden social interactions with purchase data. According to their website, Nectar has worked with brands including Babylist, Caraway, Goop, and Daily Harvest.

“AI is like a scale multiplier; it’s going to help multiply your voice. It’s going to help multiply your team, but it’s not going to invent your brand,” Farah said.

For more on the story behind the brand and its founders, continue reading on Founder Brew.—JH

      

Sponsored By Runway

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Morning Brew Inc.

AI is making marketing more important than ever, but bigger expectations and flat budgets are pressuring top practitioners. This report digs into what that means for CMOs.

METRICS AND MEDIA

Stat: $12.9 billion. That’s Netflix’s third-quarter revenue. While it’s up 12% YoY, it marks the streamer’s slowest revenue growth in three years. The company also lowered its full-year ad revenue forecast by around $300 million, to $2.7 billion.

Quote: “For us and our community, Halloween is kind of gay Christmas…It makes perfect sense to turn up at Halloween, because it’s where our audiences are.”—Tristan Pineiro, CMO of Grindr, speaking to Adweek about the company’s Pleasure Ball, a Halloween costume contest and event that has seen increasing audience and brand interest

Read: “Adidas spent a fortune on World Cup marketing. Now comes the hard part” (the Wall Street Journal)