As anyone who has ever been to a sorority house on a Monday night knows, ABC’s The Bachelor franchise sunk its teeth into America’s collegiate women many seasons ago.

And, as anyone who followed the #BamaRush trend on TikTok knows, sorority members tend to wear a lot of jewelry from Kendra Scott.

Kendra Scott’s marketing team is well aware of how its average customer spends their Monday night. “Our customers love The Bachelor and The Bachelorette,” Kellyann Miller, Kendra Scott’s director of brand marketing, told Marketing Brew. That’s partly why, when MagicSpace—the company that produces The Bachelor Live on Stage—approached Kendra Scott with a sponsorship opportunity, the team jumped at the chance.

Step back: If you haven’t been sucked into the vortex that is this franchise, Bachelor Live is basically an IRL version of the show that travels to different cities. Hosted by ex-Bachelorette Becca Kufrin, women are “hand-picked from the audience” to compete for a former Bachelorette contestant’s heart. This year’s Bachelor Live kicks off in March.

• “Our customer loves it—when they see that Bachelor Live is coming to their town, we really do think that our Kendra customer is there, and so we want to meet them where they are,” Miller told us, adding that the stops on the tour are in core markets, many with Kendra Scott retail stores. “It’s a fantastic marketing opportunity for us.”
• Plus, The Bachelor franchise is basically an influencer factory, and all of the bachelors at these live events are contestants from previous seasons with sizable followings. Miller described this as “a cherry on top” of an already fitting sponsorship. “We were like, ‘Okay, let’s get creative, and let’s start nourishing these relationships,’” she said.

The deets

Miller told us that influencer partnerships are a “very large” piece of Kendra Scott’s marketing efforts, citing its Gems campus ambassador program as an example. This sponsorship serves, in part, as an extension of the brand’s influencer strategy.

$$$: Kendra Scott is paying a sponsorship fee, but declined to share specifics with Marketing Brew. ABC did not respond to requests for details. As part of the deal, Miller said Kufrin and all of the onstage bachelors will sport Kendra Scott jewelry (the brand rolled out a men’s line, called Scott Bros., last year) during Bachelor Live events and photo shoots. Additionally, the winner of each live show will get some free Kendra Scott bling to take home.

• The sponsorship also includes in-store meet and greets, where that night’s bachelor heads to a Kendra Scott store near that night’s Bachelor Live show to meet fans beforehand. That way, Miller said, people have the opportunity to meet the star of the show before attending—while surrounded by Kendra Scott jewelry, of course.
• When each bachelor does a meet-and-greet event, Miller said he’ll post about it and tag Kendra Scott on social. Kufrin is tagging Kendra Scott as well whenever she announces info about Bachelor Live on social.

Read more about the sponsorship here.—PB

While Valentine’s Day inevitably stokes lovelorn skepticism every February, many Americans don’t seem to mind the holiday.

By the numbers: Consumer research platform Attest conducted a survey of 1,000 US adults about Valentine’s sentiments on behalf of Marketing Brew, and the results are more sweet than bitter:

• 61% of respondents thought that Valentine’s Day is a “nice tradition.” About half that share (30%) viewed the holiday as “invented by marketers.”
• Out of those who are celebrating, 44% of survey respondents said they’re giving cards, 39% are going out for dinner, and 32% are buying flowers.

So, unlike buffets, the pandemic didn’t cancel Valentine’s Day completely. According to Attest’s findings, 60% of Americans “definitely” or “probably” plan to celebrate the holiday this year, and Valentine’s Day spending is on track to reach $23.9 billion this year, up from $21.8 billion last year, the second-highest year on record, according to the National Retail Federation.

Nothing but flowers

With fewer people planning to go out to dinner this year than before the Covid era, some could be doubling up on flowers. The flower industry has seen a “huge spike” in demand in the past two years, according to Kate Penn, CEO of the Society of American Florists (SAF), which offers marketing resources to its more than 2,500 members.

“Over the course of the pandemic, people have fully embraced flowers and found a new appreciation for what they represent. With the isolation and separation brought on by Covid, people turned to flowers in a big way,” she told Marketing Brew. “Even as people are gathering and starting to go back to the office, we’re not seeing that spike in demand taper off.” Of course, the current wedding boom helps.

Click here to read how 1-800-Flowers.com has been promoting the holiday this year.—AM

As expected, this year’s crop of Super Bowl ads didn’t rely on heavy or somber themes. Instead, celebs (and robotic dogs?) were everywhere, nostalgia had a moment, and Coinbase’s QR code commercial ended up crashing its app.

Last week, we asked Marketing Brew readers to make some guesses about this year’s game. Here’s what nearly 650 of you had to say…and how your predictions stacked up.

• About a third of you thought a beverage company would run the first ad after kickoff, while 25% thought it would be a car company. Both guesses missed the mark—it was an ad for Jurassic World Dominion.
• Nearly 40% of you predicted that more than 10 commercials would feature celebrities, and you were right: Brands ranging from Planet Fitness to Uber Eats to Rocket Mortgage leaned on star power this year. And many ads had more than one celeb.
• Yes, this year was the Crypto Bowl. Roughly two-thirds of you thought we’d hear the word “crypto” more than five times throughout the broadcast. But between commercials for Coinbase, Crypto.com, and FTX, the word was actually only uttered once—in FTX’s ad starring Larry David.

+1: The majority of you (53%, to be exact) agreed that wings are the best Super Bowl snack.—MS

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Reels: Get your IG Reels inspo for this week here.

Design: Speaking of inspo, check out some graphic design trends to look out for this year.

TikTok: We found a beginner’s guide to its algorithm (2022 edition).

Check out this brand-new superpower. With Tubular Labs, you can see what no one else sees. Interested in understanding how content drives culture? Tubular provides a unified view of shifting audience values, interests, and shopping behavior across social platforms, so brands can make decisions that grow their business. Take a peep here.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Is this an ad for 7Up from 1953 or last night’s Michelob Ultra spot?

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• The sports betting boom: How advertisers are handling its legalization
• Fernish is driving sales with a Super Bowl score discount
• How NYC’s pay transparency law could impact marketers