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Caliber is reimagining how stories are created, shared, and valued by meeting audiences on their terms, in their tone, and on their time.

Using insights from its own success on social media, Caliber simplifies social to move brands forward—

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Ryan Barwick

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 X ad costs, engagement continue to fall, per report 

Data from Tracer provided a snapshot of the ad platform ecosystem.

 X ad costs and engagement continue to fall, per report 

Katie Hicks

Influencer at the center of a ring light being scanned

Deepfakes are spreading, putting creator and brand safety at risk

Michel Janse, who said her likeness was recently used without her consent, told Marketing Brew the experience was “violating.” 

How brands are thinking about a possible TikTok ban

Duolingo, Osea Malibu, and Truff are among the brands that tell us they’d turn to alternative short-form video platforms, like Instagram Shorts and YouTube Reels.

An @ symbol denoting social media and influencers

Social & Influencers

Kelsey Sutton

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself 

Sophie O’Rourke is senior director, influencer marketing, Dialogue New York. She has also worked at Full Picture and at d2 publicity.

 One of my favorite and most creative campaigns I’ve worked on was for our five-year client, Little Spoon. Leaning into the nostalgia of the ’90s, we developed and executed a viral influencer program in support of their Lunchers launch (a build-and-eat array of healthy meals and snacks for big kids) that blanketed social media, driving home the overarching message that you’ve changed since the ’90s, why hasn’t your kid’s food? Our multi-tiered strategy engaged iconic ’90s celebrities, traditional macro influencers, and parent tastemakers via a range of personal, strategically timed partnerships, including paid campaigns, UGC content collaborators, and widespread gifting.

 I loved what the team at Crown Affair drummed up for their launch of the Finishing Spray. From the ode to ’90s New York to the newspaper PR mailer and movie-night screening of 

 in NYC, this campaign was creative, inspiring, and most importantly, stayed so true to their identity. They leveraged custom photography, graphic design, comic writers, and original artwork to deliver a 360-degree campaign that touched editorial, digital/social and OOH activations, effectively flooding the feeds of their target consumer and driving huge swell at launch. Such brilliant work.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile:

 I’m currently taking French lessons! While I studied it throughout my early schooling, I’m more determined than ever to speak fluently after spending a summer in Paris last year (and realizing how much of the language I’d forgotten in the years of disuse).

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? 

The influencer space has grown at such a colossal rate, and because of that, we’ve begun to see “influencer fatigue,” which is an indicator that real change needs to happen—and I’m excited for that change. At Dialogue, we’ve always believed in authentic storytelling and building impactful relationships with influencers, agents, clients, etc., but I’m excited to see more creator-led content driven from an authentic love for the product and mission over traditional “hashtag ads.”

I’m not pessimistic about any of the current trends, but I’m a little wary of AI-generated influencers, or virtual influencers, and the impact that could have on the industry. Talk about the wild, wild West!

What’s one marketing-related podcast/social account/series you’d recommend?

Coworking with Sophie O’Rourke

She’s senior director, influencer marketing, Dialogue New York. 

Coworking with Sophie O’Rourke 

If you can’t beat ’em, entertain ’em.

 this year, first releasing the sketch comedy series 

 in the spring to promote the release of its GetSet Blush. Now, the makeup and skin-care brand has followed it up with a series on Instagram and TikTok that encourages people to join a casting call to become one of its models for an August 2026 product launch campaign, as well as other potential future campaigns. The casting call, as well as the series promoting it, focuses on people with skin conditions like eczema, acne, and psoriasis, and the series shows characters going through the audition process much like the real-life applicants.

With the final episode of the latest series now out and applications for campaign auditions closed as of November 1, Alex Kalatzis, director of marketing and communications at Tower 28, told us that the brand saw more than 4,000 sign-ups, which exceeded its goal fourfold. The applicants, she said, will hear back on final decisions by the end of the year.

We spoke with Kalatzis about the brand’s latest social campaign and why it’s continuing to go all-in on scripted comedy as a marketing vehicle.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

 influenced the decision to make another scripted social series with this latest campaign?

 What we saw back in March was that our audience really resonated with this high-production content trend. We had never done anything like it before, and I think it had strong entertainment value; the characters, the humor, it all hit. Some of the performance we saw from that exceeded our expectations. We were 37% above our average engagement. It was the most-shared content of that period and also the most-viewed content of that period, so that was definitely a key driver in our decision to test skits again.

In this case, the goal and KPI were a little bit different. 

 was about announcing a new product franchise and really speaking to the POVs of the product, whereas this skit was meant to drive sign-ups to our first-ever nationwide open casting call. Essentially, we needed a vehicle for mass reach and word of mouth to spread, so we took a pretty big swing with our first-ever full-page 

, and then to amplify it further, the second big swing was testing our hand with another content series. The intention here was to use entertainment to take a somewhat basic announcement and turn it into something fun…It was an opportunity to deliberately evolve the format…We tried to make the content feel a little bit less produced than the first round, which had more of a commercial value. This was meant to feel a little more iPhone, but it wasn’t [shot on] iPhone. [The skits] are a bit shorter in length. Humor-wise, we took a lot of inspiration from 

…but there was more of an emotional connection to the audience here. More wholesome, sweet, come-as-you-are, step-outside-of-your-bubble message.

What do you think it is about this serial, comedic, highly produced content that is resonating with your audience?

 We had never done anything remotely like it [with 

], so I think that was new and different, which caught our community’s attention. Everyone’s looking for entertainment more than being sold to directly, so I think from that perspective, it hit.

The premise of the latest social series is about a character auditioning for Tower 28’s casting call for a product launch campaign next year, which is actually happening. Tell me about the real casting call and what that looks like.

 We tried to use a lot of the parameters for application within the skit. We made fun of the fact that one of the characters in the second skit was applying a ton of makeup, thinking that’s what she needed to do in order to submit her application. But in our New York Times ad and in the qualifying notes, it says, “We want to see you as you are. We want to see bare-faced, natural skin.” So it is meant to explain how to apply within those skits.

Are you capturing content as part of the actual casting call and putting out any reality-type serial content as part of the campaign?

 We haven’t figured out Part 2 yet…but I would love to do some sort of MTV [style] behind-the-scenes, “making of” [content], showing the journey of the people that we end up casting in our future campaigns.

Do you have any indication of what’s driven the most sign-ups of those 4,000+ applications?

 We do, because one of the application questions asks where they found out about the casting call, so we saw that around half of our audience came through Instagram and the other half was email, SMS, etc. Then a scattering of people came from the New York Times, word of mouth, that sort of thing.

What do you see as the benefit of recruiting talent from the general public, as opposed to taking the traditional route and working with professional models?

 One of the biggest inspirations for launching this initiative was that we have a really challenging time casting models that have real skin conditions, and that’s something that’s really important to us in terms of brand DNA and authenticity…We actually worked with an influencer named Jada [Jones], who we met at the National Eczema Association Expo last summer, and she was going through topical steroid withdrawal. When we launched our most recent product, our GoGo Shimmer sticks, we 

 in the campaign because she has active eyelid eczema. The response from our community was so strong…we’re sure that what we’re doing right now is going to really resonate.

 and this other series, what are your next big aspirations in scripted content?

 We’re actually cooking up a series right now that we think could be a through-line in our marketing next year. Essentially, we’ll be introducing a suite of characters that you’ll see throughout the year and use them as a way to debut new launches, whether it’s merch, [or] interesting brand campaign moments. We’re figuring out what that might look like and what the cadence of that would be, but that would be an opportunity to even bring in bigger names or faces.

For marketers interested in doing scripted, comedic social content of their own, what would you say are the best use cases?

 For us, I would never want to overuse this. I think it’s best used sparingly for those moments you really need to cut through. In the case of 

, we were launching during a very competitive time, there were a number of blushes launching at Sephora, some even in very similar packaging, so we knew we needed to do something really different. In this case as well, we’ve seen casting calls before, but we wanted to do something that really captured the attention of the sensitive-skin community. We use this as a tool when we really need to stand out.

Do you see this as the future of reaching people as social media audiences become more savvy and averse to branded content or traditional ads?

 Ultimately people will stop and watch whatever speaks to them. If you have perfect skin or you are incredibly camera-shy, you probably didn’t stop and engage with this content, which is totally fine. It was meant for a very specific subset of people, but I think no one really wants to be marketed to in a traditional way anymore. Everyone’s seeking entertainment value.

A screenshot from a Tower 28 TikTok video advertising a "Sensitive Skin Casting Call," next to a still image of four women in a wood-paneled room waiting for a casting call, and anothr image of a person holding a New York Times featuring a Tower 28 ad advertising a casting call for "Your (Sensitive) Face Here"

How Tower 28 is using scripted comedy to break through

Alex Kalatzis, director of marketing and communications at Tower 28, shared how the beauty brand strategically uses skits to drive results.

How Tower 28 is using scripted comedy to break through on social

Jennimai Nguyen

In 2024, Binoy Zachariah, a musical artist and tennis coach living in LA, said he experienced an attempted home invasion. Luckily, he thought quickly, fighting off the invaders until they left.

How did he fend them off, you ask? He grabbed the nearest weapon he could find: an Owala water bottle.

In October of this year, Zachariah recounted the rather unbelievable story in detail on his TikTok and Instagram accounts, with the videos on TikTok racking up 13.7 million and 19.4 million views. The posts caught Owala’s attention, too, and within a week, the company sent Zachariah a custom PR package featuring a safe filled with Owala water bottles (dubbed the “Sipcurity Safe”) as well as an all-expenses-paid weekend trip to a destination of his choice.

It was a scenario neither party could have ever predicted, but one that Owala’s marketing team felt they had to respond to, according to Chad Sorensen, brand director for Owala.

“We recognize that this is truly wild,” Sorensen said. “So we wanted to recognize the human side of things and not just something for the brand to take advantage of.”

Sorensen credited Owala’s social team’s social listening efforts for catching wind of Zachariah’s story and bringing it to the larger marketing team’s attention, paving way for them to brainstorm ways they could get involved.

Sorensen said his team crafted their response to toe the line between being “fun and playful…and helpful.” While the giant safe made for good social fodder, the weekend trip was meant to help Zachariah “decompress [and] get out of that environment for a little bit,” Sorenson told us.

Wild as it may be, this is not the first time a water-bottle brand has been involved in a customer’s personal traumatic event. In 2023, a woman 

 a story of her car being destroyed in a fire via a video that showed the charred remnants of her vehicle—plus her Stanley cup, largely intact, with ice still inside. That video brought in more than 60 million views.

Stanley, which did not provide an on-the-record comment, also got involved at the time, gifting the Stanley cup owner new cups and a new car. Other brands and founders, like 

, have also found themselves mentioned in moments of unpredictable personal traumas, and responded in their own ways.

Commenters on Zachariah’s video were quick to reference the car-fire incident, with one calling his response to the break-in attempt “better marketing than the Stanley cup fire.” Sorensen said his team was “familiar with the hydration landscape,” but ultimately, he said, Stanley’s viral moment didn’t factor into how Owala responded to Zachariah’s video.

“[We’re] not looking for any sort of competition or anything like that, just legitimately looking at individuals and trying to find ways to, honestly, blow their minds,” Sorensen said.

On the whole, Sorensen said that Owala approaches gifting and customer stories on a case-by-case basis, and while some opportunities, like Zachariah’s, might be apt for a bigger response designed to be memorable, other moments are handled more quietly.

“If it felt private, we’ll respond privately,” Sorensen said. “If it was obviously posted on social media with millions and millions of views and the person who posted seems like they would respond well to something like that, then we would probably match it in a very different way.”

That could help explain the fact that, according to Zachariah, after he sent Owala an email describing what happened in 2024 after the break-in attempt happened, he received a 15% off coupon in response. According to the company, its customer service team handled his initial email, and the larger team wasn’t aware of the break-in story at that point.

The break-in story didn’t only serve as marketing material for Owala. Zachariah told us he made the videos about the experience as part of an effort to build his own social following, suspecting that it could be useful content for the company as well as himself.

“At the start of this year, I was really committed to just posting more on TikTok. I am a musician, an artist by profession, and it’s obviously a huge part of being in the music industry,” he said. “That comes with the pressure, the expectation, to post multiple times a day and try and figure out what your voice is.”

The idea to post about the attempted break-in story came to him as he tried to hold himself to a daily posting quota, and it quickly took off. As the comments rolled in, Zachariah said he was “amazed” to see the number of comments from people writing that they were learning of the brand for the first time or expressing increased loyalty to Owala. By the time the Sipcurity Safe package arrived, he said, he recognized the marketing gold he had helped create.

“As I was filming [the unboxing video], I just thought to myself, I’m gagged by this, so surely anyone seeing this would be equally as gagged,” Zachariah said.

While the viral videos helped bring Zachariah a surge of TikTok followers, he said he is looking for ways to convert his newfound following to engage with his music, too. For now, he’s continuing to feed the Owala-fueled hype while keeping an eye toward longevity.

“I almost view it as a really crazy and lucrative side quest that I sort of decided to step out on,” he said. “At the end of the day, I am just ultimately grateful for it all. I just don’t want to be the water-bottle guy, you know?”

Side by side screenshots of the broken glass door to a home and a dented green Owala water bottle

How a home invasion turned into marketing gold for Owala

Binoy Zachariah, an artist and content creator, said he found an unexpected use for his Owala water bottle—and the brand sent him an out-of-the-ordinary PR package.

There’s nothing unwell about leading a media company, a beverage brand, and an ad agency—unless, of course, Alex Cooper is the one doing it.

Earlier this month, the podcast host and internet personality announced Unwell Creative Agency, a new advertising outfit offering services like creating content, developing campaigns, and strategizing events, according to Unwell’s chief brand officer, TJ Marchetti. The agency’s unveiling was announced alongside a multiyear partnership with Google that includes Unwell’s use of Google devices and a new ad for Google Pixel and T-Mobile called “Get Lost.”

Cooper’s not the only well-known entertainment figure to dip into the advertising world in the past few years (see: Kristen Bell’s Dunshire Productions or Ryan Reynolds’s Maximum Effort), but she does straddle an interesting line between full-blown celebrity and internet-native influencer. The company is positioning Cooper’s understanding of her chronically online Gen Z audience as a strength that will allow its work to uniquely cut through the noise. Amid a growing field of celeb-led advertising expertise, the fledgling agency is framing Cooper’s unique perspective as the edge that sets Unwell apart.

“Alex is involved in everything we do. Some people think that, given all of the demands of 

 and being the co-CEO, that she would be a figurehead or something. That’s not the case,” Marchetti told Marketing Brew. “This company is built on that DNA.”

Marchetti told us he believes the marketing funnel and traditional agency approach are “broken,” and that Unwell Creative Agency can help fix it and reach younger audiences that may be wary of other forms of advertisements.

“In this demographic, they don’t really trust brands that can’t relate to them,” he said.

While Marchetti said that Cooper aims to be as hands-on as possible, and Unwell’s first spot with Google stars Cooper, Unwell will create ads that don’t all star Cooper, who recently told the Wall Street Journal that she 

 to be the face of every campaign produced by the agency. Marchetti said each project will require different degrees of Cooper’s involvement, and the agency’s work will carry her approach while relying on a “roster of creatives” to help ideate and produce campaigns.

For brands, working with celebrity-fronted agencies can be one way to cut through in culture. Alyson Griffin, head of marketing at State Farm, said that tapping into a celebrity’s perspective and personal network is a common value proposition that celeb-fronted agencies have approached her with, and she personally appreciates when a celebrity has “skin in the game” and works directly on a campaign. The insurance company has previously worked with Reynolds’s Maximum Effort on everything from viral stunts to shifting media spend from linear TV to digital advertising, and Griffin said State Farm has also explored working with other similar agencies.

“They bring this cultural fluency, credibility and relevance, and I think therefore some brands can look at it as the fastest path to a virtual front page of the internet,” Griffin told us. “We don’t do it all the time, but [working with celebrity agencies] will get some interest.”

When State Farm worked with Maximum Effort to place Jake from State Farm 

 of a Philadelphia Eagles game next to Travis and Jason Kelce’s mother, Donna Kelce, Reynolds’s involvement generated its own 

, mostly focused on the virality of the stunt. Griffin said that virality was only made possible because of speed (the whole stunt was developed and executed over a Friday-to-Sunday timeline), and that speed was only possible because of a sense of trust State Farm had already established with the agency—a requirement whether an agency partner is celeb-led or not.

Unwell is similarly looking to establish those trusted relationships with brands, and is aiming to build off of any virality for longer-term results.

“Our agency is about building long-term relationships with brands and helping them build relationships with the audience,” Marchetti said. “It’s not through a one-off. It’s through creative that truly connects.”

As Unwell builds out its client roster, Marchetti said his team is looking to stay selective, and will emphasize its experience in live events and distribution channels as a way to stand out.

Meanwhile, Griffin is keeping an eye on influencers and their advertising offerings, too, particularly as some of them prove adept at building distribution networks around themselves.

“Creative influencers,” she noted, “are like a cultural media ecosystem—much bigger than celebrity.”

Alex Cooper poses with a Google Pixel phone.

What Alex Cooper’s creative agency is bringing to the celebrity advertising world

As celebrity-led agencies continue to proliferate, Cooper’s team is looking to connect with audiences beyond viral moments. 

An Unwell addition: What Alex Cooper’s creative agency is bringing to the celebrity advertising world

When it comes to affiliate sales, Sephora is going straight to the source.

Last month, the beauty retailer launched My Sephora Storefront, an affiliate program where creators can display their favorite products on the Sephora website, generate shareable, shoppable links for social media, and earn sales commissions.

It’s the latest sign of growth for the creator commerce and affiliate space, which is set to be 

 by 2028 and is currently dominated by third-party affiliate platforms like 

, and TikTok Shop, as well as retailers like Amazon with Amazon Storefront. Last month, 

 announced it was developing a creator storefront of its own called Vette, which is set to be released next year.

As creators’ influence continues to grow, Brent Mitchell, VP of social media and influencer marketing at Sephora, told us he sees the retailer’s opportunities to offer monetization options to creators is also expanding. Already, he said, Sephora has 1,000 live creator storefronts, exceeding the company’s initial projections for the remainder of the year.

“We really see ourselves as being additive to this ecosystem,” he said.

Mitchell said the timing of the Storefronts release is to align with its annual Sephora Savings event later this month, which he called “UGC-palooza,” and to prepare for the holiday season, which is ripe for gifting and shopping based on creator recommendations.

Sephora began marketing its Storefronts two weeks ago at an event in LA, where Mitchell said more than 200 creators signed up on the spot. Right now, Sephora is restricting applications to creators with more than 3,000 followers on either Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, which Mitchell said are the brand’s platforms of interest; it’s also looking for creators who can “represent Sephora well” while driving sales conversions.

“They’re not brand ambassadors the way our Sephora Squad program is,” he said. “But they do get to have the Sephora.com URL, which is a pretty major thing.”

The plan, Mitchell said, is to eventually scale the program and open it up to an even broader audience that meets the application criteria. The idea is to engage with creators who have never worked with Sephora before, or who applied but perhaps didn’t make the cut for the Sephora Squad paid partnership program, which has produced a lineup of more than 300 creators and alums who regularly work with the retailer.

“We have so many creators that are already tagging us in their hauls, in their store visits,” he said. “Now we’re giving them the opportunity to get paid for that content.”

Sephora is offering a 15% commission on Storefront sales, putting it in line with commissions on ShopMy and LTK, which, per the platforms’ websites, tend to range between 10%–30%. Mitchell said he also hopes to roll out “IRL rewards” and additional incentives for creators as the program scales, as well as bring more third-party brands into the Storefront ecosystem.

“We already have a waiting list of brands that are wanting to get involved in this program,” he said. “That is definitely one of our biggest priorities for 2026.”

Despite the competition in the affiliate space, Mitchell said he thinks there’s enough space for everyone.

“We’re able to bring in new creators that would never have thought about this before,” he said. “And then, on the flip side, for those super-active, micro creators out there that are converting superstars, we’re yet another platform for them to convert on. It’s really additive to both ends of the spectrum.”

Sephora logo being clicked by a mouse pointer with money emerging from the 'O'

Sephora has 1,000 creator storefronts. What does that mean for affiliate marketing?

We spoke with Brent Mitchell, VP of social media and influencer marketing at Sephora, about why the brand is going all-in on affiliate.

Sephora now has 1,000 creator storefronts. What does that mean for affiliate marketing?

Victoria Bachan is SVP, creators, at Wasserman, a sports marketing and talent agency. She was previously president of Sixteenth, the Whalar Group-owned creator talent management company, and she has also worked for the producers of the Vans Warped Tour, Coachella, and Governors Ball.

 One of my favorites has been launching Nonipup, the wellness brand from internet sensation and client Doug the Pug. Expanding the world’s most famous pup into a pet lifestyle and wellness brand was such a meaningful challenge. We spent over two years in R&D, and Doug tried every single product we put out, so it was a launch journey full of love and personal experience, and we hope every single customer feels that when they are buying the product for their four-legged family member.

I’ve had the privilege of building alongside other incredible creators, too, like helping Ashley Alexander bring her DTC matcha brand Nami Matcha to market, which now has over $2m in sales and is available in 139 countries. It has been the honor of a lifetime to be an AAPI executive working alongside an AAPI client to launch an AAPI-founded brand.

” just goes to show that, even within communities, there is such vast diversity, and it is so important to welcome that. Maybelline did a beautiful job bringing such a diverse group of AAPI trailblazers together. As a young girl, I would’ve loved to have this, and I am grateful the next generation does—and that brands, when taking an intentional opportunity to connect, can truly nail it.

 Since starting my career on the Vans Warped Tour to now, I have been to all 50 states and six continents. Travel awakens our ability to appreciate culture in ways you can never think of, and I genuinely feel it has made me a better leader and talent representative to take myself out of what I “know” and to be open to learning every day. While you can probably tell from my LinkedIn that I’ve worked on some of the biggest festivals and brands in entertainment, what it doesn’t show is how much those experiences taught me about resilience and problem-solving in unconventional settings, like troubleshooting backstage at a festival with tens of thousands of people counting on you.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least?

 I’m most optimistic about the fact that the creator economy has fully stepped into entertainment. Creators are now talent, producers, and often platforms themselves, with communities that rival traditional media. I see this firsthand working with clients who have built direct-to-fan businesses that feel as powerful as traditional entertainment and consumer brands.

I’m least optimistic about the obsession with short-term metrics. Constantly chasing clicks or trends can dilute storytelling. Longevity comes from consistency and deeper brand building, not just the latest viral moment. We always tell our clients to strategize remaining on trend without being trendy. Stick to your voice and your foundational pillars and ride the waves, and ultimately the vision will win out over the ever-changing trends.

When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead

 by Simon Sinek. For newsletters, I recommend 

Coworking with Victoria Bachan

She’s SVP, creators at Wasserman.

Earlier this year, Andrew Downing, director of social media at Cava, tasked his team with coming up with a show for social media after seeing other creators and brands 

 and sensing an opportunity in the unscripted reality space.

“We were seeing some of these [social series] that resemble old TV shows,” he said, noting that series like 

, which tours the dirty and often bizarrely decorated rooms of men in New York, resembles MTV’s 

where single contestants’ rooms were inspected by potential dates. “I told people to go research some old reality shows and see how we can spin that into a social show.”

About 15 ideas later, the Cava team landed on 

, a six-episode, weekly Instagram dating series hosted by creator and stand-up comedian Daniela Mora. In each episode, created with the Very Online Agency, two contestants build each other a Cava bowl while answering questions about each other and ultimately deciding whether or not they are, in fact, “bowlmates.”

Season 1 has now officially wrapped, and Downing says the brand’s bet on love has paid off enough to start planning Season 2.

“This is just an expansion of the Cavaverse and trying to figure out other touch points that we know people are interested in,” Downing said.

 lives on its own Instagram account separate from the official Cava brand account, which has more than 300,000 followers. While 

 1,000+ followers may pale in comparison, Downing said it was a conscious decision to game the Instagram algorithm as it pushes content to non-followers. A separate account also provides an easy way for viewers to watch all the episodes in succession without other, non-

Starting fresh on any new account can make it harder to get eyeballs, but Downing said that the first two videos received more than 300,000 views without any paid media, which“outperformed [his team’s] wildest dreams.” The number of inquiries the brand has received from viewers asking to be on the show as contestants, he said, has been another unexpected indicator of success.

“We can actually tally the amount of DMs we get now asking us to be on the show,” Downing said. “That was something we never even thought of.”

 to take note of the fact that many young people are looking for love off of the dating apps, but being part of people’s potential love stories can have other positive effects. Many of the contestants on the show have noted that they’ve never tried Cava before, which Downing said wasn’t intentional but has shown the brand the potential of reaching new customers through this method.

is designed to encourage word-of-mouth and organic discovery, and Downing said it was important to get the right host to help boost awareness. Mora, a Bronx-born comedian who has more than 320,000 followers on Instagram, was Cava’s first choice.

“We knew that we wanted a comedian to riff between two people, just in case, for whatever reason, the conversation stalled,” he said. “[Mora’s] online presence and the content she shares about dating and real-life, Gen Z stuff definitely factored in.”

The final episode of Season 1 premiered this week, with almost every episode ending in an agreed-upon bowlmance, and Season 2 is now putting out casting calls for New Yorkers.

According to Downing, Cava’s decision to continue with Season 2 was based on the level of engagement in the show’s comments and DMs. He said he’s excited about the potential of using the series to release holiday content or to promote things like new menu items in future seasons. A “Where are they now?” segment with couples from Season 1 is also not out of the question.

“Anything that is a trope in a reality show or in dating content, we’re very well aware of it and we’re always thinking, ‘Oh, could we do that? Could we do this?’” he said. “I think it would be a really fun addition.”

screenshots from Cava's Instagram series, "Bowlmates."

Social & Influencers

Coworking with Sophie O’Rourke

How Tower 28 is using scripted comedy to break through on social

How a home invasion turned into marketing gold for Owala

An Unwell addition: What Alex Cooper’s creative agency is bringing to the celebrity advertising world

Sephora now has 1,000 creator storefronts. What does that mean for affiliate marketing?

Coworking with Victoria Bachan

How Cava is building brand love (and real love) on Instagram

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