Earlier this week, marketing leaders, innovators, and experts joined us in New York for our first annual Marketing Brew summit, The Brief.

Questions were asked, wisdom was shared, and finger foods were eaten. For those who weren’t able to join us, here are some takeaways from the day.

Show, don’t tell

When it comes to crafting a brand image, Vans global CMO Kristin Harrer told us, “The No. 1 rule: Don’t use the word authenticity.”

• She said staying true to Vans’ legacy of supporting the skate community and communities that “other brands don’t pay attention to” is “why consumers describe us as the most authentic brand out there.” Not because it has incorporated the word into its marketing strategy.
• While Vans has gone viral a few times over the years for things like “Damn, Daniel” and shoe-flipping, Harrer said she doesn’t think brands can reverse-engineer virality, and it’s not something they should try.

American Eagle’s CMO, Craig Brommers, also emphasized the importance of being real—or, rather, BeReal.

• He said the brand’s presence on the platform, where its social media coordinator engages with the max number of followers allowed on the app (1,000) on things like daily deals and Black Friday behind the scenes—“goes back to what we feel, and that’s about showing the more authentic, real side of yourself.”

Keep reading here.—KH

Not all advertisers are yet sold on Elon Musk’s “hardcore” version of Twitter.

As we reported earlier this month, advertising companies including IPG, Havas, and Omnicom were quick to recommend clients pause their ads on the platform after Musk took over, with IPG citing an “unpredictable and chaotic” environment. WPP media agency GroupM has reportedly told clients that ad buys on the platform are “high-risk,” according to Digiday and Platformer.

When Musk took over, some users took advantage of Musk’s new (but since paused) Twitter Blue verification to impersonate brands like the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, which apologized to those who had seen a “misleading message from a fake Lilly account.”

Meanwhile, Semafor and Ad Age have put together running lists of which brands have confirmed they’re pausing their Twitter ad spend.They include Volkswagen, General Mills, Pfizer, GM, Mondelez International, United Airlines, Chipotle, Eli Lilly (lol), and Macy’s, which has paused its ads on Twitter ahead of its annual Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Conversely, NBCUniversal’s Linda Yaccarino, who is chairman of the company’s global advertising sales partnerships, told Ad Age that “there is no surrogate for Twitter” and that it is NBCU’s “single, No. 1 biggest content partner, content distribution partner.”

“He understands safety and transparency…He can learn advertising,” she said.

FWIW: Advertising accounted for 92% of Twitter’s revenue last quarter.

What’s next: Some advertisers are moving money that would’ve gone to Twitter to other platforms. A CPG company is reportedly shifting “roughly $10 million” to TikTok, Google, and streamers, according to the Wall Street Journal. And an agency exec told Digiday that advertisers might put more dollars toward TikTok, for instance, “where the community is much more welcoming and it’s a fun place for brands.”—RB

Future Social is a weekly newsletter on social media, content, and creators from Jack Appleby, a Morning Brew creator who’s worked in social media for 10 years at companies like Beats by Dre, Microsoft, and Twitch. Check out an excerpt from one of his pieces below, and sign up for Future Social here.

Boy, Elon sure has a way with brands, don’t he? First, he claimed “activist groups” were the reason advertisers started bailing on Twitter, only for media agencies to say, um, not really. (Don’t forget about his quixotic chase of bots.) Threatening became the next tactic, tweeting to expect a “thermonuclear name & shame” of advertisers leaving Twitter “if this continues.”

Childish playground bullying aside, the big question the industry is grappling with has become: Should brands stay on Twitter, or is it time to abandon the bird app? Let’s dig in.—JA

Mad skills: Meta shared tips for marketers in newly released episodes of its Social Skills series.

Try on: Google released new search tools ahead of the holiday season, including AR shopping capabilities.

Who’s there?: TikTok has a new Audience Insights tool in its Ads Manager platform—here’s how it works.

Retail space race: From DTC upgrades to live social-shopping capabilities, the e-commerce world is *busy.* Marketing Brew discussed the fresh e-comm strategies being leveraged for the holidays and beyond, right here. Sponsored by mntn.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Which headlines are real marketing news, and which one is fake?

1. Steve from Blue’s Clues has a f***load of fun in campaign for Flock Freight
2. Coors Light’s nail polish changes color at ideal beer-drinking temperature
3. Pete Davidson and Manscaped wish us all ‘Season’s Groomings’
4. The Keebler elves go rogue for Fudge Stripes cookie vodka

Keep scrolling for the answer.

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

• World Cup’s US ad sales reach records in an unusual year
• Mood Board: Every Taylor Swift era, everywhere, all at once
• VMLY&R Commerce’s Jacquelyn Baker explains how marketers are leveraging e-commerce strategies this holiday season