(my)notes today
5/21/2025: Marketing memos written in my actual notes app
Ellie the Elephant, the mascot for the WNBA’s New York Liberty, is taking on celebrity endorsement it seems with a campaign for Away Luggage and Essie nail polish (WSJ).
(my)notes: Think outside the box when it comes to getting eyeballs. Essie and Away saw Ellie as an opportunity to jump into a culturally relevant conversation for their audience (women’s sports) and realized that “influence” doesn’t just have to be in a traditional sense. Think distribution and who is owning a piece of the cultural and conversational pie (even if it’s only for 15 minutes) in a category that’s interesting to your audience.
“Ulta Beauty is leveraging store associates who already make social media content for an ambassador program designed to connect directly with consumers while also fueling and informing the company’s social marketing strategy.” (Glossy)
(my)notes: EGC (employee generated content) is the new UGC. Think of your employees as not only ambassadors but content creators (many of them may already be creating their own personal content and be comfortable with it). When you’re hiring, as their comfort level of being on camera. When you’re looking at trending content on TikTok, think about how your employees could recreate it for your brand. Give them agency to be creative.
Marketing tactics are going to change as retailers not only have to cater content to human shoppers but a future evolution of AI shoppers. These AI agents won’t be deterred by beautiful imagery or emotionally-relevant content. Instead, they're going to be after data and information to achieve the goal of the human shopper they’re performing the task for (WSJ)
(my)notes: Marketing to bots in addition to humans is a wild idea and one I didn’t even think about. Bots will be looking at ranking when searching for a product (paid search will help here); how items are displayed on a site (are photos even necessary?); and pricing - bots won’t feel emotionally connected, they’re going to search for the best price, if that’s part of the prompt.
ICYMI by Lia Haberman had a great newsletter this week about a subject that I’ve been talking about for a long time - group chats and fireside communities. She mentioned brands who are partnering with creators who have their own micro communities on platforms such as WhatsApp, Discord etc. and are doing it in smart ways to get eyeballs from a hyper engaged audience from a creator that audience trusts.
(my)notes: I love the idea of communities as a town square or living room. There are times where both have been relevant, but with such LARGE town squares or endless newsfeeds, there is a desire for more tapped in communities where people can actually connect (in the living room).
When brands are evaluating talent, they should be looking beyond the standard mega platforms and connect with talent already engaging in a hyper niche way OR determine if the talent is capable of driving that type of excitement, conversation and reach and the brand can instead "host" the dialogue.
A good example Lia mentioned is Offball partnering with LeBron James for a WhatsApp group chat during Draft Day.
Your brand could engage talent to ‘host’ the live chat during your brand's digital or IRL event. The talent could share BTS, answer questions etc. A one time event creates urgency and appeals to new audiences who feel connected to the creator or talent.