Zillow Gone Wild is, indeed, going wild.

The cross-platform social media account, which highlights some of the weirdest and most extravagant home listings on the real-estate platform Zillow (like this castle in Southlake, Texas, or this AI-looking house in Victoria, British Columbia), has accumulated an audience of nearly 5 million across social media and its newsletter. Now, it’s also a TV show on HGTV and Max.

Samir Mezrahi, a former BuzzFeed social media director who created Zillow Gone Wild on Instagram in 2020, said that even though he made the account without any official ties to Zillow, he began receiving positive messages from its employees almost immediately.

“You never know which brands are cool and nice or fun, or immediate cease and desist,” Mezrahi told us. “Zillow was really cool about things.”

Beverly Jackson, VP of brand product marketing at Zillow, told us that the company has opted to embrace the account and its use of Zillow’s marks and logo, instead of fighting it. It’s been a net positive for the company, she said, and has led to greater brand affinity. In addition to driving traffic to listings, Mezrahi noted that Zillow Gone Wild has even led to some home sales, while also creating brand partnership opportunities for him.

“I feel like it’s positive all around,” he said.

Continue reading here.—KH

Tired of paying the big bucks for ads that never reach the right audience?

Perk up and join in-the-know marketers who are moving to Tubi—the free streaming service with 75m users and counting. That’s more people than pickleball players in the US. Interested in tapping into this audience? Partner with Tubi to reach 1 in 4 US households. Talk about an ace.

With Tubi, you’ll align with high-quality content that’s completely free for TV and movie lovers everywhere. You’ll also reach a dedicated, diverse, and loyal fan base.

They’ve got fans in high places, too. Like Nielsen, where Tubi is currently sitting at 1.6% on Nielsen’s Gauge—and that’s just as of March.

Wake up and start streaming.

Unilever has been doubling down on its sports marketing—or should we say tripling down.

The CPG giant, which owns brands like Dove, Hellmann’s, Axe, Ben & Jerry’s, Tressemmé, and Vaseline, has increased its sports media spend threefold since 2020, when sports sponsorships took a dip in the early days of the pandemic. In more recent years, sponsorship revenue has bounced back, and many brands have reported seeing returns on their investments in sports.

“It works really well for our brands,” Herrish Patel, president of Unilever USA, told Marketing Brew. “It allows us to get to audiences and cohorts that really resonate with us, and it also allows us to deliver some of the purpose work on brands like Dove and Hellmann’s.”

Both brands advertised in this year’s Super Bowl, with Hellmann’s returning for the fourth year with an ad tackling food waste, and Dove coming back for the first time in nearly 20 years with an ad about body confidence among young girls in sports. Dove will advertise again during the Super Bowl in 2025, Patel said.

That’s not the only major moment on Unilever’s annual sports marketing calendar: March Madness is a big focus for the company’s brands, along with soccer and college football later in the year.

Read more here.—AM

People truly do seem to be stuck on Band-Aid: It topped Morning Consult’s Most Trusted Brands list for the third year in a row.

The list is based on data from surveys conducted from January 1 through March 31 among an average of 10,070 US adults per brand. To determine the rankings, Morning Consult asked respondents how much they trust each brand “to do what is right,” then calculated their net trust, aka the share of people who answered “a lot” or “some” minus the share who said “not much” or “not at all.”

Sticky supremacy: Not only did Band-Aid clock the highest net trust among all US adults, but it also came in first or second among four generations, men, and women.

• Lysol made the top-five list among all adults for the second year in a row and was joined by UPS, Google, and Dove.
• Amazon and Kleenex landed in the top 10 this year, falling from last year’s top five.
• Colgate, The Home Depot, and the USPS rounded out the top 10.

Generational differences: In addition to Band-Aid, Amazon and UPS were both included in the top 15 most-trusted brands for each generation, but there were some notable differences among age groups.

• CVS Pharmacy, Spotify, Target, Vaseline, and PlayStation were unique to the list of most-trusted brands among Gen Z adults.
• Costco, M&M’s, and Doritos were only in the top 15 among millennials.
• Lowe’s, Energizer, and General Mills only appeared on the list for Gen X.
• Baby boomers had the most unique list of brands, including Ace Hardware, Campbell Soup, FedEx, Betty Crocker, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, and Heinz Ketchup.

Continue reading here.—AM

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Perfect your influencer marketing IQ with Christopher Douglas, Senior Manager of Strategy at Billion Dollar Boy, on June 25 in New York. Christopher will discuss the complexities of measuring ROI in influencer marketing—an essential yet challenging task for marketers in an industry that’s rapidly growing but constantly changing. Marketing Brew brings you a unique chance to hear firsthand from agency and brand experts about practical strategies and real-world insights into impressions, clickthrough rates, custom codes, and more. Grab your ticket now.