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Marketing Brew

Katie Hicks

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Brands are capitalizing on ’90s nostalgic appeal 

Why brands like Osea Malibu, Skims, and Reformation are all capitalizing on throwback appeal. 

The ’90s—and the icons that defined the decade—are so back 

Jasmine Sheena

Why Spotify‘s personalization features are in the marketing spotlight

“People see their friends having fun with Daylist and they want to get in on the action, too,” Spotify’s senior director of global marketing said.

The FOMO effect: Why Spotify‘s personalization features are in the marketing spotlight

Alyssa Meyers

MLS revenue from sponsorship, season tickets, and merchandise is all up

“We have an audience that’s young, they’re multicultural, they’re tech savvy,” one MLS exec said. “Marketers are really drawn to that.”

Two dots and an arrow connected by a curving line denoting marketing brand strategy

Brand Strategy

Jennimai Nguyen

Some say television’s audience reinvigorated when color came onto the scene. Oura is looking for a 

The wearable fitness tech company recently debuted the Oura Ring 4 Ceramic, which is available in four new colors and made from zirconia ceramic, a departure from the brand’s existing metal-forward colors. The product drop also comes alongside new multi-ring support capabilities, along with a new charging case, and additional health features.

To announce it all to the world, Oura rolled out a campaign across social media, traditional TV and CTV, and OOH activations in New York, LA, London, Berlin, and Helsinki, along with a series of “vignettes” called “Ring True to You” that focus on a message of self-expression. It’s all aimed at grabbing Gen Z and millennial consumers, which Oura CMO Doug Sweeny says marks a pivot from the brand’s 

“We wanted to get out of the clichés of ‘young people doing yoga’ and [avoid] the tropes,” Sweeny told Marketing Brew. “We wanted to broaden it up and talk about really living your best life.”

Oura’s “Ring True to You” ad spot and the accompanying vignettes feature the new ring being worn by young people in a variety of scenarios, including a handshake between friends, drumming on a desk, and completing a new outfit. Rather than position the ring in what might be a more expected healthcare or athletic setting, Sweeny said that showing the product off in everyday life was a way to stand out from Oura’s previous approach.

“When we introduced smart rings, the technology or the product itself [fell] into the background. Like, it’s on your body, but it’s sort of discrete,” Sweeny said. “This is a shift in that it’s actually about expression, and it’s about your own style.”

With this campaign and product, Oura is also looking to lean into the idea of tech as fashion.

“Within the smart-ring category, I think we’re breaking new ground here,” he said, noting that the ability to collect and wear multiple colors and styles of Oura rings stands out from other wearable fitness trackers that may not be as interchangeable. With the Oura Ring 4’s colorful appearance, Sweeny said the campaign seeks to emphasize the visibility of the product, as opposed to some other tech-as-fashion products on the market that aim to blend in.

On social media, Oura is particularly focusing on TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram in an effort to reach a targeted youth audience. “We wanted to lean into the audience and where they show up,” Sweeny said.

This isn’t the first time Oura has shown up on these platforms, but this campaign does feature a virtual try-on filter on Snapchat, which is the company’s first foray into that kind of tech. The goal of that filter, Sweeny said, is to help show off the new multi-ring support capability.

The campaign comes a few months after Oura faced backlash for its 

 the software company Palantir, which creates military intelligence and surveillance tools, and its 

 with the Department of Defense, with critics wondering what that could mean for user data privacy. At the time, Tom Hale, Oura’s CEO, responded to the concerns in a 

, stating that the company’s work with the DoD and Palantir is separate from its consumer work, and saying that neither party has access to Oura user data. “Your personal data never touches any government system, and nobody from Palantir or the government has access to your data, full stop,” Hale says in the TikTok.

Sweeny said the Oura Ring 4 Ceramic campaign was not designed in response to the controversy, and said he doesn’t expect to see any lingering effects in the campaign’s reception. Instead, the social-forward and youth-focused campaign is designed to boost what Sweeny called Oura’s “most important 2025 hardware launch,” which means consumers will see the campaign running into the new year.

“There’s no plan to stop supporting it,” Sweeny said.

a woman in a blue athletic outfit sits on a picnic blanket in a park, her head turned. She is wearing an Oura smart ring around her index finger, as is another person in brown pants who is nearly out of frame. 

How Oura’s new colorful chapter aims to connect with young people

Like its new rings, the fitness tech brand’s latest campaign is designed to stand out with Gen Z and millennials. 

A cartoon image of Kristina Monllos created by Morning Brew

Kristina Monllos

A love story is timeless. When it’s done right, the stakes are clear, the audience can’t help but root for the characters to get together, and lots of moments—big and small, good and bad—help show a couple’s life together.

That’s why Uber used a love story to lead a new campaign targeting suburban riders, Georgie Jeffreys, head of marketing at Uber, North America, told Marketing Brew. The hero spot for the campaign, called “In Good Time” and created by Mother New York, uses snippets of a couple’s story over the course of a little over two minutes to show all the different ways suburban riders might use the rideshare company.

“Because this campaign centers on the everyday moments that matter, a love story felt like a natural way to show how Uber fits into all parts of life,” Jeffreys wrote in an email.

Uber is one of a number of brands like Audible, Neutrogena, and Vera Bradley leaning into romance in marketing. As 

 has previously reported, brand marketers recognize that some people want a distraction from doom and gloom, with stories of romance serving as a cheat code to making someone feel something.

Throughout the campaign, called “There Are Drivers In Your Area,” Uber uses the tick of a countdown clock—how far away the Uber driver is from the characters—as a storytelling device. That device works twofold in the hero love-story spot by also educating consumers about the speed they can usually get rides.

“It raised the stakes of it, and it gave ‘In Good Time,’ specifically, it gave it this really beautiful device,” Oriel Davis-Lyons, chief creative officer at Mother New York, said. “But it also has a really practical reason in that one of the biggest barriers for people in the suburbs is that they don’t know if there are Ubers actually available…Most people in the suburbs are no more than seven minutes away from an Uber. That’s something very practical and real that we had to kind of tell people.”

Aside from the love story of “In Good Time,” the campaign is designed to show off Uber’s versatility to non-city dwellers. Other scenarios depicted throughout the ad campaign, including a ride to the airport or needing a larger vehicle to transport recently purchased furniture, are aimed at speaking to suburbanites; those messages will be supported through social, out-of-home, digital, and audio placements.

“People in the suburbs think about the brand a little differently,” Davis-Lyons said. “When you’re out in the suburbs and you [have] maybe one or two cars. So really it was about, how do you remind people in the suburbs of those use cases?”

Some of those ad placements use creative contextual to specific locations or contain messaging that changes depending on how close an Uber may be or what the average wait time for an Uber is in that area, Davis-Lyons noted.

Going forward, Uber will continue to lean into the idea of available drivers through stories that show how people can use the company’s services throughout their lives.

“We wrote hundreds of stories, hundreds of scripts,” Davis-Lyons said. “There’s a depth and a richness to it that feels like we’re just kind of scratching the surface.”

A woman taps on the glass of an Uber car window. 

Could you fall in love before your Uber arrived?

With a new campaign from Mother New York, the rideshare company wants people to rethink how they see the brand.

Can you fall in love before your Uber arrives?

The US might only have 11 federally recognized holidays, but a Taylor Swift album release day just might qualify as No. 12—especially if brand celebrations are taken into account.

On October 3, Swift released her twelfth studio album, 

, and several brands used the opportunity to up their marketing ante. It’s not the first time that 

 at the opportunity to get involved in the pop star’s milestones. But while her album announcement and engagement news had a flurry of brands reacting via social media, 

’s official release inspired brands like Uber, Spotify, and Baked by Melissa to get involved beyond social media, rolling out tangible products and pop-up events to mark the occasion.

“Because the Taylor Swift universe is so broad…we can tap into it in different ways,” Georgie Jeffreys, head of marketing for Uber in the US and Canada, said.

For brands going the extra mile, doing something IRL offers one way to stand out among Swiftie-centric brands that may all be trying to get in on the hype.

“When everyone’s doing something, it’s not special to do that thing,” Douglas Brundage, founder and CEO of brand studio Kingsland, told us during Swift’s album announcement phase. “You have to be additive to the culture.”

On album release day, Uber Eats partnered with Best Friends Animal Society to put on an event called Uber Showcats that featured adoptable cats along with charm jewelry-making stations and photo ops in New York, LA, and Nashville. In total, more than 1,000 people attended, and 28 cats were adopted, the brand said.

The event was aimed at spotlighting Swift’s love of cats along with nodding to Uber’s own history with furry friends, Jeffreys said. In Uber's early days, it ran a promotion that let users book 15-minute cuddle sessions with adoptable cats.

“A lot of brands get involved these days around the Taylor Swiftdom, and…we felt that we had a role to play,” she told Marketing Brew. “We could bring it to life in lots of different angles, both for our rides app, through our delivery app, and by connecting with Uber’s DNA and roots with Uber Kittens.”

Orange truck with cats on display with Uber Eats logo and "Meet the Showcats"

While having a brand connection to the Taylor universe helped inform Uber’s participation, its users didn’t need to be aware of the brand’s own kitten history for it to make sense, and Jeffreys said the company’s efforts were designed to help fans celebrate.

In contrast to Swift’s other recent cultural moments, which came with an element of surprise, this more unique activation was made possible with the gift of advance notice.

“When you have the opportunity, like what we did, where you have a little bit more lead time…it obviously opens the aperture of how you can activate and how you can bring ideas to life,” Jeffreys said.

Spotify also took advantage of a longer lead time to activate around 

, one that was even slightly longer than other brands’ due to the music streamer’s relationship with Swift’s team. On social media, Spotify posted images of billboards with Spotify codes and the album cover around the time that Swift announced 

. But for the album release itself, Spotify hosted a three-day immersive activation that included new lyric reveals and allowed fans to search for and engage with the pop star’s famous Easter eggs.

“We use the time to be quite intentional, and to think [through] every reveal that came through the activation,” Leroy Harris, global head of music marketing at Spotify, told Marketing Brew, later adding that “It’s really about us being the brand that’s able to add a layer of touchability to this exciting moment and really make it something beyond the music.”

Many brands have capitalized on the power of a major Taylor Swift moment throughout her career, but 

 inspired certain brands to get in for the first time or in new ways.

KitchenAid, which makes a cult-favorite stand mixer, used the album to release its first-ever fan-inspired product, giving fans a chance to win one of 12 sparkly orange mixers in the week leading up to the album’s release. This followed Swift’s album announcement in August, when the brand was one of many making social 

 featuring products in the now-Taylor-associated color—but KitchenAid opted to make the product real in time for the album release.

The cupcake brand Baked by Melissa, meanwhile, hadn’t posted about Swift’s new album ahead of last week’s release, but the brand released a limited-edition themed cupcake pack tied to the album for launch week. Founder and CEO Melissa Ben-Ishay said the move was “a no-brainer.”

“I knew that it was going to be successful because you could feel the love and the passion that went into it from my team,” Ben-Ishay told us. “It’s a cultural moment that also gave my team a chance to work on something that they felt a connection to.”

When the cupcake pack became available, the brand’s account took the opportunity to post about it. It marked a departure from her brand’s usual style of content, which is normally founder-led. But the opportunity to show off the Taylor-powered product was too good to pass up.

“Quite honestly, I posted it to social because I was just so excited,” Ben-Ishay said. “Organic social is very sacred to me. I really value the community and the relationships I’ve built, and that’s where I give recipes and just connect on a more human level. But when we saw the response from the public, it did feel like I was just adding value and giving people more of what they want.”

Collage of brand activations featuring Taylor Swift's album's iconography and teal-and-orange color scheme.

Why some brands went beyond social to celebrate Taylor Swift’s album release

Uber Eats, Spotify, KitchenAid, and Baked by Melissa took it offline to activate around “The Life of a Showgirl.”

Throughout the summer, fans convened over themed food and drink, elaborate decor, and shared giggles galore to watch new episodes of the teen drama 

as it was released weekly on Amazon Prime Video. Now, as the teenage love triangle drama has come to a close (for now), ABC’s long-running dance competition series 

No matter the show, the girlies are gathering for watch parties, and the brands are taking note.

A watch party can technically be for any kind of viewing event, but they are typically tied to live broadcasts and are especially common among sports fans (case in point: the Super Bowl). Lately though, content outside of the sports realm and attracting primarily women viewers has inspired the same kind of social gatherings, creating a marketing opportunity that particularly appeals to brands with audience demographics similar to the viewers themselves. Beverage brand Swoon, skin-care brand Hume Supernatural, and fragrance brand Candier are just some of the brands that have been part of the excitement.

Whether the watch parties are big or small, the brand marketers that we spoke to said these events offer unique alignment and a sense of camaraderie and cultural relevance that they are eager to get in on.

“It’s really about supporting people in the things that they’re passionate about, because those really intimate environments is where so much of that passion shines through,” Liza Tagliati, VP of marketing at Hume Supernatural, told Marketing Brew.

In September, TikTok creator Taylor Buck, who has just over 2,000 followers on the platform, hosted a small watch party for 

. As part of it, she put together and handed out goodie bags full of various lifestyle products to guests, which included gifted products from Hume Supernatural and Candier.

Tagliati told us that it’s not unusual for Hume Supernatural to have creators requesting PR and offering to collaborate, but Buck requested for the brand to get involved with the watch party after the creator had organically posted social media content about the brand on her own.

For Hume Supernatural, the appeal of working with Buck around the watch party wasn’t necessarily in the event itself, but rather the creator who was hosting it.

“We really evaluate the authenticity that those requests come in with,” Tagliati said. “If it’s someone who we can tell is passionate about the brand, then it’s the kind of thing that it’s so worth it for us to support, because we know that someone who’s passionate about our product and our brand [is] handing it to 20 of their closest friends and is going to be like, ‘You guys, 

Fragrance brand Candier was similarly interested in the creator connection when it worked with Buck on the watch party gift bags. Marketing Manager Paula Quinones-Roman said she had previously seen Buck’s content, particularly around the show, and she felt that any social content that Buck chose to make from gifted content would be worth the investment.

Plus, several Candier candle scents connect loosely to the show itself, including a hot-cocoa scent that may remind fans of a scene featuring the character Conrad, and as well as a cereal scent called I Can’t Adult Today, which could be seen as poking fun at the character Jeremiah.

“A lot of our community was following the show. I personally watched the show,” Quinones-Roman told Marketing Brew. “Our candles really align with this, and we need to be doing more of this, because our community loves it.”

Though Quinones-Roman said Candier’s gifting strategy doesn’t explicitly require creators to post social content in exchange for product, and Tagliati said Hume Supernatural’s gifting approach centers a “qualitative analysis” of the community impact a creator might bring over measured results, both brand marketers acknowledged that the group element of a watch party can extend the potential social content and brand exposure opportunity.

Some brands are taking advantage of big and small watch parties alike—especially when the party’s show of choice is a natural extension of an existing partnership.

Swoon, a zero-sugar beverage brand that was founded in 2020, has since June partnered with Rylee Arnold, a social media personality and dancer on 

, on a custom version of its pink lemonade. When the show returned for its 34th season this September, Ella Liu, marketing manager, said the brand saw the excitement around 

 watch parties as an opportunity to amplify the brand’s connection to and recognition among fans.

“The people watching the show have some sort of knowledge of who Rylee is. They’ve probably heard her story before and have already fallen in love with her. So really, it’s taking that as an opportunity to show them she’s made this drink,” Sui said.

For the show’s premiere, Swoon’s team put out a call on social media to anyone hosting a 

 watch party to fill out a form for a chance to receive the Rylee Arnold beverage as part of a 1,000-case giveaway. In addition, the brand caught wind of a bigger watch event for the season’s first episode hosted at Mr. Purple, a rooftop venue in New York City managed by Gerber Group.

Sophie Gerber, who oversees marketing at Gerber Group and worked on the event, told us Swoon’s team reached out to the venue looking to supply the watch party with their beverage to be used in bespoke cocktails. Though it was not an official partnership between the beverage and hospitality brand, Sui said showing up at the event gave the whole thing an amplified feeling.

“Let’s say a hundred people are going to Mr. Purple, and only five of them know that [Rylee] has a Swoon can, but they all know who she is,” Sui said. “It’s just a great opportunity to get that in front of them.”

Swoon’s partnership with Arnold ran through the end of September, and Sui said that this September’s monthly social impressions increased 900% compared to last year, which she credited to the combined effect of watch parties and Arnold’s special-edition drink.

It’s not just CPG brands seeing returns either—venues like Mr. Purple have seen the growing popularity of non-sports watch parties affect their business, too. Gerber said that these events are just another way to define Mr. Purple as more than just a rooftop bar, especially as people have directly reached out to organize other TV show watch parties.

 is on. Everyone’s working in New York City, everyone’s hustling,” Gerber said. “Restaurants and bars and clubs and all these places in New York City are not all just meant for staying up until 4am. There are pockets of time where you could have an intimate conversation and an intimate, nice experience.”

Composite image of guests at a watch party hosted on a rooftop bar. People are chatting with others and holding drinks. 

Gather the girls—and the brands—for the next watch party 

Shows like “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and “Dancing With the Stars” have inspired viewers to throw more watch parties, and brands are getting in on it.

Protein was once something that only athletes and gym aficionados paid much attention to. But in 2025, tracking protein intake feels like something just about everyone is doing, and in many cases actively looking to increase—to the extent that it’s driving a 

As interest in protein consumption, especially among diet-conscious Gen Zers and millennials, continues to grow, marketers behind protein-packed products are amping up their efforts to win over those consumers. As they do so, there’s a perception that just about 

 is trying to woo consumers with protein however they can, whether that’s 

 to their offerings or adjusting promotion efforts to appeal to the 

 who may be focused on high protein in small serving sizes.

“It does feel like everybody’s in the protein game or trying to get into the protein game,” Stuart Heflin, GM and SVP of Quest Nutrition at Simply Good Foods, told Marketing Brew. “The biggest thing is that the consumer has changed.”

Heflin, who said that younger generations “just care more about their health,” isn’t alone in recognizing the growing audience for protein-heavy products. Companies like 1440 Foods and Post Consumer Brands are also tracking changing consumption patterns, as are marketers, who acknowledge that a heightened consumer interest in nutrition is having its moment.

“The protein conversation is not just about gym bros, it’s not just about fitness, it’s not just about wellness. More broadly, [it’s] about just nutrition in general,” Camila Caldas, strategy director at Mother LA, said. “With that, there’s all of these really interesting white spots and new audiences that I think are really going to be hot audiences for protein companies to go after.”

To address the growing category, Quest Nutrition’s latest ad campaign, which rolled out in early September and was created by Leo New York, pitches its protein products as a solution to a common food choice conundrum: do you want something healthy or tasty? The creative idea for the campaign was borne out of an effort on behalf of Quest Nutrition to “double down” on its messaging to consumers today, Heflin said; during the company’s fiscal 2025, which wrapped up at the end of August, the company increased its marketing spend, he noted, and Quest tracked double-digit sales growth.

The US protein product market, which the market intelligence firm Mintel 

 at $114.4 billion as of 2024, is projected to grow steadily at an annual rate of 1.9% until 2028, and in a competitive field, some companies are leaning into flavor as a differentiator.

“Over the past couple of years, we’ve really stepped up our game when it comes to new flavor innovation,” Alex Fishman, senior brand director of Pure Protein at 1440 Foods, said.

That sometimes comes in the form of brand partnerships. In August, 1440 Foods announced a partnership with Post Consumer Brands for new Pure Protein products using Post brands, including Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles Protein Bars and Frank’s RedHot Popped Crisps. The partnership is a way for 1440 Foods to make the category, which can sometimes be “overly serious,” Fishman said, “feel more approachable” for consumers.

“We see that protein is driving a lot of consumer behavior today,” Leah Broeders, head of licensing for Post Consumer Brands, said. “As it’s gone more mainstream, people are looking for more ways… to incorporate protein into their daily lives. And we actually have already entered into the protein space with Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles…the flavor translates into that space.”

For Post, partnering with a company like 1440 Foods to make more protein-forward products allows its cereal brands to diversify; for Pebbles in particular, the move could help the brand broaden its reach from being “solely kid-focused” to appeal to people who “grew up with the brand,” Broeders explained.

While marketers are aiming to sway consumers with more flavor offerings, they also recognize that consumers venturing into increased protein consumption may be armed with a variety of information about their nutrition needs and seeking the best possible offerings. That’s why messaging about certain kinds of protein and overall nutritional value can also be necessary to help sway consumers.

“Anyone can just say, ‘We got protein,’” Heflin said. “What we find is, as people move along this curve to become more, I would say, sophisticated and understanding of nutrition and nutritional space and macros, you start to see more appreciation for things like, [what] type of protein does your body actually use?”

At the same time, marketers are also navigating the risk of falling into a sea of sameness for consumers today, especially when myriad brands are pitching consumers on protein. To avoid getting lost in the shuffle, Caldas believes marketers should focus on particular audiences rather than aiming to be the preferred protein source for everyone.

“When you’re looking at a shelf and everything has protein in it, it’s like, ‘Oh, this protein is actually better for you.’ Or, like, ‘This protein is actually made with an audience like me in mind,’ or ‘This protein actually is just the right amount of protein for me,’” she said. “Catering to lifestyle will be huge.”

An illustration of a granola bag with a label noting it contains 50 grams of protein 

Inside the marketing behind consumers’ favorite food fad 

Through brand partnerships, new flavors, and flashy ad campaigns, brands from Quest to Post are looking for ways to stand out.

‘Everybody’s in the protein game’: Inside the marketing behind consumers’ favorite food fad

A brand puts out a new campaign with imagery that looks like it could be AI-generated, eagle-eyed observers point out that said campaign is likely AI-generated, backlash ensues, the brand (sometimes) makes a vague statement of acknowledgement, and everyone moves on. Rinse and repeat.

That cycle has come for big-name brands like 

 in recent weeks. The use of (or, at least, accusations of the use of) AI-generated imagery in ads by major brands may signal a shift in the marketing landscape—namely that, slowly but surely, marketers seem to be getting more comfortable using 

, regardless of whether consumers are comfortable seeing it. (The brands did not immediately respond to Marketing Brew’s requests for comment.)

“You’re already seeing things that used to be a photo shoot, even if it’s just stock imagery, you’re seeing that now be replaced by AI imagery,” Jon Weidman, SVP of development and head of brand content at production studio Wavelength, said. “[Your feed is] filling up with quote, unquote, slop, a volume of content that wouldn’t be possible without these tools. We see it. We’re watching it. I don’t see a world in which the cat goes back in that bag.”

Weidman isn’t alone in the assessment that the steady drip of AI imagery from brands will likely continue and increase.

 from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, 90% of the digital ad buyers surveyed either are planning to use or are currently using generative AI to make digital video ads.

“Every couple months, we have conversations with brands, ‘What do you think about using this technology? Are we? Do we? Does this help? Does it add value? Does it remove friction or cost or anything like that? Are there any risks involved?’” Jason Carmel, global creative data lead at VML, told Marketing Brew.

But even as marketers ask those questions and consider whether or not to use AI-generated imagery in ads, they “don’t want to be in the news because they’re using AI imagery,” Carmel said. “There are a million good ways to use this technology, and we’re exploring all of them, and our brands that we represent are exploring them as well.”

The reasons for that exploration vary. For some marketers, the decision to use AI-generated imagery for an ad campaign is about cost.

“It’s all about the budget,” Abigail Olivas, head of strategy at No Single Individual, a shop that provides talent assistance to agencies and brands, said. At the same time, she added that a sentiment shift helps as “we’re in a cultural swing of, the future is AI, and people are getting more used to it… brands [are] feeling empowered, too.”

The increasing use of AI-generated imagery in advertising comes at a time when brands have tightened the proverbial belt amid economic uncertainty. When 

 found in May that marketing budgets in 2025 were stagnant, agency executives noted that they had seen shoot budgets decrease this year given that uncertainty.

Olivas estimates that shoot budgets for some brands this year had been cut in half. “Let’s say a company that used to do a $750,000 shoot last year, and have a budget for their shoot [of] $300,000 this year,” Olivas said. “And so that is less shots, less output, less scenes, etc., right?”

When that’s the case, exploring the use of AI-generated imagery in ads is a solution that some marketers are more willing to consider. For others, it’s squeezed timelines and the ability to maximize output.

“It’s not just about being cheap, but it’s about being able to respond quickly, and it’s about being able to connect to things quicker,” Scott Thibodeaux, VP and creative director at Transmission, said.

To Thibodeaux, the appeal of generative AI tools for brands and agencies is not about brands spending less than they would before but about a difference in what brands can get with that same budget. “We can do something [for you] that you just wouldn’t have had before,” he said.

As brands test AI-generated imagery for campaigns, some agency execs don’t expect the use to replace shoots and production altogether.

There’s still trepidation about how much AI-generated advertising is viable and an understanding that people will be more critical of the use of it from brands in categories like fashion and beauty.

“We’re still at a point where people are nervous about it,” Carmel said. “We’re gonna start to see drips and drabs, people, brands are going to be more comfortable using it, but I don’t think we’re going to see a whole-hog replacement of anything for quite some time.”

A split photo montage of two AI-generated ads from Guess and J. Crew, one is a blond woman in a dress leaning against a wall and the other is a man with glasses sketching.

Tightening budgets have some marketers opting for AI imagery

But brands like Guess, J.Crew, and Skechers are finding themselves caught in cycles of consumer backlash for the perceived use of the technology.

Tightening budgets and shortened timelines have some marketers opting for AI imagery

It was a summer of celebrity brand deals in the spotlight: KATSEYE x Gap, Gavin Casalegno x Dunkin’, and of course, Sydney Sweeney x American Eagle.

They were buzzy, costly, and omnipresent. Though a celebrity-fronted campaign might be common, Keith Gelman, founder of entertainment marketing agency Talent Partnership Advisors, said that they don’t come without expense and consideration—the AE-Sweeney partnership, for example, was the brand’s 

And the difference between a brand paying top dollar for talent and being able to save some cash? Gelman said that often, it’s simply knowing that it might be a possibility.

“I’d see brands come into the picture and want to work with an artist, and they would spend a million dollars one day, and then the next brand would come in and spend $3 million with the same artist,” Gelman told Marketing Brew. “I always felt that there was like an inequity there that needed to be balanced.”

Over the years, he’s narrowed down what it takes to broker what he calls “the best deal.” Gelman founded TPA after spending eight years at Live Nation, where he was a lead in the global partnerships division and observed the intricacies of how celebrity-brand relationships worked, particularly how each navigated the others’ differing priorities. He’s found disconnect when a celebrity might not understand what an ad campaign is asking of them, or when a brand might request more celebrity assets than necessary, and he’s made it his job to navigate these discrepancies in the interest of the brand.

Gelman said his approach takes a “10,000-foot view,” and he takes stock of all the different parties and goals involved in a campaign. From there, he said he considers, “How can we input a celebrity to maximize and work across as many different verticals as possible, because you have a finite budget and talent only has finite time?”

Timing is key to a well-struck celebrity ad deal. Gelman explained that while brands often work with longer lead times, celebrity talent can be tied to busy or unpredictable schedules, and that’s where he says industry knowledge and preemptive research are paramount.

“When we’re looking at talent with lead time, we need to look into a variety of factors, [including] where the trajectory of their career is,” he said.

One way to strategize for a campaign’s timeline while offering tangible benefits to talent—like exposure and impact—is looking ahead to potential milestones, like a band’s 25th anniversary, Gelman said. If the brand identifies an opportunity like this early on and gets involved, their campaign can become part of “something that’s truly 360,” especially if the talent continues to activate around the milestone moment.

Getting a brand into a celebrity’s world early also helps build the relationship, which can have long-term brand benefits down the line.

“Once we start getting into the nitty-gritty for the actual activation, we find a lot of times the talent is more ready to play with the brand, to explore them,” Gelman said. This way, when the brand needs more from the celebrity, he said they can be more likely to say yes to things like staying later, doing an extra interview, or tagging the product in social posts.

At the core of a successful celebrity brand deal is a word that marketers can’t seem to escape: authenticity.

While brands seek measurable results, Gelman said celebrity talent is often seeking an outlet for “authenticity and creative expression.” Sometimes, each side can get lost in their own sauce, and Gelman finds himself needing to step in to explain and simplify what both brand and celebrity can do to enhance each other’s goals.

Though it can seem simple, taking the most authentic approach to celebrity relationships still isn’t quite par for the course, according to Gelman.

“Some brands still adopt generic strategies without tailoring campaigns to specific talent,” he said. While taking a broader approach might work for short-term partnerships and pop-up activations, Gelman believes longer-term campaigns and relationships will continue to trend and require bespoke approaches.

“It’s not as simple as find a talent, book a talent, have the talent show up in the campaign,” Gelman said. “Every last piece of the puzzle needs to be worked out ahead of time.”

Update 09/30/25: This story has been updated to clarify Keith Gelman’s job responsibilities at Live Nation.

Photo collage of cutouts of Joe Jonas, Snoop Dogg, and Reba McEntire, each placed in separate shapes and breaking the frame.

The art of the celebrity ad deal

Keith Gelman, founder of Talent Partnerships Advisors, has homed in on how to help brands broker a celebrity brand deal that works for all parties involved.