Marketing can be a lot like your TikTok feed: some trends are genius, and others make you scroll right away.

As we look back on 2024, we asked CMOs and other top marketers what they believe to be the most overrated trends in marketing today. Whether it’s inauthentic celebrity endorsements or ad-tech buzzwords like “curation,” they didn’t hold back.

Here are some of their answers.

So-so celebrity endorsements: “Traditional celebrity endorsements without an authentic narrative…The best celebrity endorsements are rooted in authentic fandom. We only work with creators and celebrities that are true brand superfans with a public history of loving Chipotle. Consumers are savvy and can tell when celebrity spokespeople are not authentic users of the brands they are promoting.”—Stephanie Perdue, VP of marketing, Chipotle

Half-hearted brand activism: “When brands align with causes their audience cares about, it can build deeper trust and a true connection. But when brand activism lacks real substance, it comes across as performative and can quickly lose credibility. Especially for Gen Z, authenticity matters more than ever—well-meaning words and hashtags alone won’t earn trust.”—Selby Drummond, CMO, Bumble

Outdated creator partnerships: “The traditional influencer marketing model—where brands contract influencers and creators to ‘sell’ their products—is no longer that relevant. Instead, brands should embrace the creator model at the core of their marketing team and structure, shifting their internal focus to behave like a creator and investing in talent that can help build their brand with that creator approach in mind.”—Manu Orssaud, CMO, Duolingo

Continue reading here.—KH, AM, RB, JN

Not just anyone gets to vote on sports league MVPs, but there’s another kind of MVP that fans do get a say in: the most valuable posts.

Marketing Brew asked a dozen teams and leagues which of their social media posts saw the most views and engagement in 2024, and the results spanned from in-game action to locker room antics to TikTok trends.

Here are some of the top sports social posts this year.

The NBA’s Derrick Jones Jr. dunk: The NBA’s most viral post of the year, with 241 million views on Instagram, is a video of a play from a late-March Mavericks-Jazz game that starts with a steal by Luka Doncic and ends with an alley-oop from Kyrie Irving to Derrick Jones Jr.

Manchester City’s Erling Haaland throwing a water bottle: A video of Man City forward Erling Haaland throwing a plastic water bottle on the ground out of frustration and accidentally landing it in a trash can racked up 171 million views across TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. The clip was also featured in the team’s documentary, Together: 4-In-A-Row, about winning its fourth straight Premier League title.

• Man City’s most viewed single post, with 115 million views on Instagram, shows the pitch and stadium being prepped for the team’s May 19 matchup against West Ham United, during which Man City clinched its fourth consecutive Premier League title.
• Match-day coverage and other content from Etihad Stadium in Manchester help the team connect with its international fans, Michael Russell, Man City’s head of production, previously told Marketing Brew.

Major League Soccer’s tough call: The best-performing post by engagement for MLS was a TikTok of a referee announcing that VAR review determined a play was not offside, to which the crowd cheered. After a pause, he then adds that due to a foul by St. Louis City SC, the other team would receive a direct free kick, and the cheers turn to boos. The post has over 1.5 million engagements.

Read more here.—AM

It was the best of collabs, it was the worst of collabs.

This year, the trend of pairing one brand with another, no matter how nonsensical, did not seem to let up. Perhaps that’s because it draws media attention? Overlooking our role in this nonsense, here are some of the brand x brand moments that made us grin (and groan) this year.

• Just when we thought we were safe, Heinz and Absolut brought their vodka pasta sauce back for the second year in a row. Carbone is not shaking.
• Not to be outdone, Taco Bell introduced the Big Cheez-It this year.
• Where do you go after the cheese martini? Jewelry, apparently. Velveeta and George The Jeweler created a 14-karat gold lip cuff designed to look like a drip of cheese, for those who want to spend $70 to look like they need a napkin.
• Gap teamed up with Cult Gaia to make a clothing line that promised to be “a representation of feminine strength.” We’re still not sure that an asymmetrical jean jacket’s gonna give you all that.
• Duolingo partnered with Crocs on a pair of green clogs designed to look like Duo the owl, offering a more physical reminder to do your Spanish lesson.
• Crocs also partnered with luxury designer Simone Rocha, in case you wanted to upgrade your Jibbitz to pearls.
• Because the collab limit apparently does not exist for Crocs, it also made rubber boots with chip-can holsters with Pringles. Just don’t wear them when it’s raining.

Continue reading here.—KH