Being served food at an ear-piercing studio may sound like a case for the health department. Turns out, it’s been a major marketing strategy for ear-piercing and jewelry brand Studs.

After the 2021 Studs Loves New York line featuring bagel, pizza, martini, and dumpling-shaped earrings did well, Studs co-founder Lisa Bubbers told us that it sparked an idea among her marketing team of four.

A review of the brand’s Instagram audience data revealed that Studs customers, whose median age is 27, were more likely to be interested in viral food content than fashion, Bubbers, who advises and leads the brand and marketing efforts, said.

So in the last year, Studs has partnered and hosted events with restaurant chain Shake Shack and bakeries Glace and Noa to give away everything from burgers and custard to crookies and hot chocolate. For Halloween this year, the brand partnered with the candy company BonBon to give away candy at its NoLita location on October 26.

Studs’s growing retail footprint and the foot traffic stores receive are the “growth engine of the business,” Bubbers said, noting that the brand generally spends less than 5% of its revenue on marketing. So far, she said food collabs are “really working” to drive up foot traffic and generate organic social content that can boost engagement.

Continue reading here.—KH

While makeup products are only skin deep, Rare Beauty’s first-ever global brand campaign maintains that inner beauty is what the brand is all about.

The new campaign from the cosmetics brand founded by Selena Gomez is designed to remind current customers and potential future customers of its core ethos, according to Rare Beauty CMO Katie Welch.

“Selena was talking to some Sephora Beauty Advisors, and she talked about how when we started the brand—and she touched her heart—and she said, ‘We care about beauty on the inside,’” Welch told Marketing Brew. “And I was like, that’s it. That is what we have to capture, and that’s our point of difference.”

A moment of gratitude: The new campaign, titled “Every Side of You,” includes a 60-second spot called “Love Your Rare,” which features Gomez narrating a message of self-love and acceptance over a young cast experiencing various emotional moments while wearing and using Rare Beauty products. As the spot depicts people laughing, doubting themselves, or strutting with confidence, Gomez acknowledges every version of “you.”

Welch described the spot as a message to Rare Beauty’s customers that coincided with the company’s fourth anniversary in September. “It’s a letter of gratitude. It’s a letter of recognition to the community. And [Gomez] at the end is sort of the sign-off of her words,” Welch said.

Though Gomez is the face of the brand, she doesn’t appear in the spot until the very end. Welch said this was an intentional choice.

“I think this spot tells that story also, that while it’s Selena’s company, it’s more than just her,” Welch said.

Read more here.—JN

Tired of endless remakes and shows that are more of the same? So is Tubi, which is bringing brands into its project to bring new creative voices to Hollywood.

This month, Tubi debuted the first batch of content from Stubios, an initiative first announced by the streamer in May aimed at bringing younger and more diverse creatives into Hollywood. Through the program, creators, or “Stubio runners,” make various kinds of programming for Tubi, and if their shows hit genre-specific, undisclosed viewership thresholds, the creators will automatically be green-lit for their next productions.

Brands are also coming along for the ride, and PepsiCo’s Starry has come aboard as its first brand partner. One of the first Stubios series, a half-hour scripted comedy Mo’ Waffles set in Atlanta and starring TikTok creators Grant Gibbs and Ashley Gill, features Starry product placements integrated throughout, according to Nicole Parlapiano, Tubi’s CMO.

“This challenging financial climate that we’ve found ourselves in across Hollywood [means] less things are getting made, and we are seeing tons of franchises and reboots instead of new voices and new stories coming to viewers,” she said. “Stubios [is] passing the camera to anyone who has a story to tell, and puts the power of the green light in the hands of the viewer.”

Continue reading here.—JS