It’s officially spring, which means longer days, seasonal allergies, and the telltale sound of plastic meeting paddle.

That’s right—it’s pickleball season.

The sport first boomed during the pandemic, and as leagues formed and merged in subsequent years, hundreds of brands picked up their metaphorical paddles. And in worse news for anyone who can’t stand the sound of pickleball, the sport has been quickly maturing from a sponsorship standpoint, with assets like team and tournament naming rights grabbing the attention of marketers at major brands across industries.

“There’s clearly interest, as more and more non-endemic brands are coming into this space,” said Samin Odhwani, chief strategy officer of the United Pickleball Association (UPA), the holding company that was created when Major League Pickleball (MLP) merged with the PPA Tour. “Brands are trying to get creative. They’re trying to cut through in different ways, and [naming rights] is a really interesting [way] for them to do that in a sport in America, where, for all intents and purposes, American sports don’t really allow.”

Keep reading here about the brand interest in pickleball.—AM

Last year, the mobile app advertising platform AppLovin enjoyed a meteoric rise, catching the eyes of advertisers and analysts alike. Lately, though, it’s also caught the attention of critics—including, namely, a quartet of short-sellers who have claimed the company’s success is built on sand.

In March, Muddy Waters issued a report that claimed, among other things, that the mobile gaming ads platform appears to be “impermissibly extracting” user data, violating the terms and services of ad giants like Apple and Meta. Muddy Waters joined a pile-on of short-seller investigations from other firms including Culper Research, The Bear Cave, and Fuzzy Panda.

It’s a bout of bad press for a company that had recently become something of a Wall Street darling. At one point last year, AppLovin’s valuation was up as much as 550%; the company reportedly even submitted a last-minute bid for TikTok.

AppLovin has repeatedly denied the short-sellers’ claims, and in a press release in late March, it announced that it had hired a law firm to “conduct an independent review and investigation into recent short report activity.” When asked for additional comments, AppLovin spokesperson Joshua Grandy pointed Marketing Brew to blog posts the company had recently published. Despite the drama, AppLovin was still considered a “buy” among most analysts in late March, Bloomberg reported, meaning they still considered the company to be a good investment.

“We are fully committed to defending the company, its operations, and its reputation from those seeking to manipulate the market through false narratives,” Adam Foroughi, co-founder and CEO of AppLovin, said in the March press release. “We will take all necessary steps to ensure the facts are known and to protect our employees, stockholders, and partners.”

Read more here.—RB

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Lindsey DiGiorgio is chief marketing officer at the ad tech company Yieldmo. She’s also served in senior marketing roles at TripleLift, iSpot, and NinthDecimal.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? A highlight project for me is definitely the rebranding of my current company, Yieldmo. I have always considered myself a much more formal product marketer and researcher, but delving into branding, messaging, and getting creative has truly opened my eyes to the impact hundreds of little details and choices can have on a brand—bringing them together unlocks a brand’s personality in ways you wouldn’t have expected before the process began. It’s been a lot of fun thinking about the things that, if done right, no one notices because they feel so organic.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? Wendy’s has always had brilliant marketing (and, most recently, social media). Still, it all started with “Where’s the Beef?”—one of the first moments in advertising that used humor and created a lot of FUD for competitors to react to.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I’m super disciplined in my daily routine, and when I’m not working, I’m probably far away from a screen.

Continue reading here.

Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• BuzzFeed partnered with the retail media platform Shopsense AI to introduce shoppable ads to its site.
• MidOcean Partners, a private-equity firm, is buying GSTV, the video ad network formerly known as Gas Station TV.
• The NFL and Adobe announced an expanded partnership geared toward younger fans.
• Goldfish rolled out a campaign with comedian Ben Marshall of Please Don’t Destroy and SNL fame.