Even the Duchess of Sussex isn’t above a link in bio.

Earlier this month, Meghan joined affiliate marketing platform ShopMy and shared commissionable links for everything ranging from a Reformation button-down to a Uniqlo trench coat.

Meghan is certainly not the first public figure looking to make a buck off a product recommendation, and this isn’t her first rodeo, having used affiliate platform LTK prior to becoming a royal. But her decision to join ShopMy as one of the world’s most influential and recognizable people marked a high-profile moment for affiliate marketing and led some online to wonder whether everyone will soon have a monetizable lookbook as part of their online presence.

Based on the booming business of affiliate marketing, it doesn’t feel entirely far-fetched. LTK, which was founded in 2011, was valued at $2 billion in 2021 and says it now drives $5 billion in annual sales. Earlier this year, ShopMy, which was founded in 2020, was valued by investors at $410 million, a fivefold increase from the year prior. Each month, more than $50 million worth of products are sold through creators’ ShopMy links, Tiffany Lopinsky, ShopMy co-founder and president, told Marketing Brew.

Lopinsky said the affiliate marketing space is seeing growth as creators and celebrities look for additional ways to generate revenue and brands seek organic-seeming ways to connect with consumers. As of January, more than 550 brands had ShopMy subscriptions, and a majority of them don’t create more traditional sponsored content with influencers, she said.

“People are starting to see affiliate as [almost an] alternative to sponsored posts,” Lopinsky told us.

We spoke with Lopinsky about the changing nature of affiliate marketing and where ShopMy goes from here.

Continue reading here.—KH

On Monday night, the Seattle Storm had the No. 2 pick in this year’s WNBA draft as the result of a major multi-team trade that went down earlier this year during the WNBA’s free-agency period.

While fans reeled from the shocking news that the Storm were trading longtime favorite and Olympic gold medalist Jewell Loyd to the Las Vegas Aces, the Storm’s marketing team was already thinking months ahead to last night’s draft.

The draft comes on the heels of March Madness and right around the time senior athletes don their caps and gowns, so the timing presents teams with an opportunity to capitalize on heightened excitement around women’s basketball. Since the Storm have the second pick, it was all but guaranteed that they would draft a player with some name recognition; on Monday night, the Storm selected French teen phenom Dominique Malonga with the No. 2 pick.

Even before the 6-foot-6 Malonga was picked, the team’s marketers had big plans for her.

“These players are starting to make noise,” Storm CMO Will Gulley told Marketing Brew ahead of the draft. “We don’t know who we’re going to get…but we can definitely take advantage of March Madness and the connections there that people are having and build it into what we’re doing next.”

Read more here.—AM

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

Audrey Melofchik is global chief brand experience officer at VML. She’s spent more than three decades in the industry, and has previously served as CEO of Wunderman Thompson NA, president of DDB NY, global client lead at BBDO, and chief client officer at Organic.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? Hellmann’s “When Sally Met Mayo” was our most recent Super Bowl work for this fantastic Unilever brand. We brought Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan back together at Katz’s Deli to enjoy a delicious sandwich and teased the reunion for weeks on social media, creating tons of buzz and desire for Hellmann’s.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? The iconic JWT campaign for De Beers, “A Diamond is Forever.” One of my favorite aspects of this work is that they drove culture when they created the right-hand ring, celebrating that you don’t need a man to buy you a diamond. I love work that drives culture and this is a great example.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Great creative work is finally showing up all the way from brand to shelf. We’ve even baked it into our new model of how we work together on our Unilever team, WPP Unite. Retail marketing used to be detached from the rest of the brand and largely straight promotional offers. Creativity is more important than ever, and you see it everywhere. Just look at the Oreo Codes work we did for Mondelez, where we celebrated playful Oreo cookies hidden in plain sight, unlocking offers with every sighting. It was essentially a coupon, but it was also clever marketing at its finest.

Continue reading here.

We're four months into 2025, and the digital advertising landscape is rapidly evolving. Our analysts are closely monitoring shifts around increased regulation, commerce media, AI transformation in search, and the growing influence of creators.

Prepare for the changes shaping ad strategies with data-driven insights from our analysts in the full report, available here.

Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• Ally Financial became the official banking partner of the WNBA, joining the league’s Changemakers program and inking a deal with No. 1 pick Paige Bueckers.
• Coach was announced as the official handbag of the W and the presenting sponsor of WNBA Pride.
• Sephora inked a multiyear deal with the Golden State Valkyries, and United Airlines signed on with the Valkyries as their founding partner and official airline.
• Barilla is now the official pasta of F1, joining several other consumer brands that are breaking into the sport.
• Malibu tapped Brian Cox for its latest campaign.
• Moburst, a digital marketing agency, acquired podcast company Kitcaster.