Timothée Chalamet didn’t win an Oscar this year, but his hardest-working fan did take home a prize.

Or, rather, she got one sent to her. Shortly after this year’s Academy Awards, Simone Cromer, who operates Chalamet stan accounts on X, Instagram, and Bluesky under the moniker Club Chalamet, posted a photo on X showing off a self-care package sent by the streamer Tubi. The gift included a massage gun, eye masks, and a Tubi-branded baseball cap, along with a handwritten note.

“They wanted to let me know they noticed the hard work I put into supporting Timothée during the awards season, and although we didn’t get the golden outcome we expected, they wanted me to take care of myself with this gift box,” she wrote in a post accompanying a photo of the gift box. “Thank you guys so much!”

It’s a bit of an unusual brand gift, especially in the streaming landscape, where PR packages are often title-specific and are sent to critics, entertainment journalists, or awards voters. But according to CMO Nicole Parlapiano, giving back to fans is a core part of Tubi’s gifting and brand strategy, which also serves as a way to “actively reject the monoculture” she finds can be commonplace in entertainment marketing.

“I always like to tell people, I’m not a fan of the shows; I’m a fan of the fans,” Parlapiano told us.

Continue reading here about Tubi’s gifting strategy.—JN

The fragmented entertainment industry is only shattering further as social media creators and platforms continue to vie for consumer attention—but piecing those shards together could create a fuller picture.

Traditional TV and movies are getting more expensive to make. Consumers are getting tired of spending more money on cable and streaming services. Meanwhile, social media offers free entertainment alternatives, and young people in particular feel stronger connections to creators than traditional celebrities, according to Deloitte’s latest Digital Media Trends report. To combat this, Deloitte recommends studios use social media as both the “start and end” of their marketing strategies.

The average consumer dedicates six hours a day to entertainment, Deloitte found, but as their options for entertainment sources diversify, studios, streamers, social media, and advertisers are all competing for a slice of that time.

Run the play: Streaming and traditional live TV have two big things going for them: news and sports. Of consumers still paying for cable packages, 43% said their main reason for ponying up for more expensive entertainment offerings ($125/month, on average, compared to an average cost of $69/month for four streamers) was to watch news, and 41% said it was to watch live sporting events, Deloitte found.

However, Gen Z audiences aren’t as tied to TV for their sports programming, with a third of Gen Z respondents saying “they don’t subscribe to an SVOD service to watch sports because they watch the clips and highlights on social media.”

Read more here.—JN

As the noise around a US recession grows louder, advertiser demand is expected to take a hit, and retailers banking on ad revenue from retail media might need to look elsewhere for spare change.

Retail media, growing at roughly 20% YoY, has become a core component of planning between brands and retailers, making it less susceptible to media market volatility. However, since it’s a relatively new marketing channel and hasn’t been through a significant recession yet, it’s hard to say definitively, experts told Retail Brew.

Separately, advertising research firm World Advertising Research Center (WARC) has cut its global advertising forecast by $19.8 billion, citing overall macroeconomic uncertainty.

As advertisers face intense scrutiny to justify ad spend, three experts told Retail Brew that while retail media isn’t immune from a recession, it may be more resilient compared to other advertising channels. The throughline is advertisers tend to rely on performance-based ad channels with measurable ROI during economic downturns.

Cautiously optimistic: “I don’t think it’s recession-proof, but retail media is more recession resistant than other channels,” Andrew Lipsman, independent analyst at Media, Ads + Commerce, told Retail Brew. “The primary reason for that is that in recessionary times, there tends to be a flight to certainty—in this case, a flight to performance advertising—where CFOs are demanding higher accountability for media spend. So, retail media, by virtue of being very measurable and also tying directly to brand sales, is one that’s least likely to feel the effects.”

Neil Saunders, managing director at consulting firm GlobalData Retail, agreed that retail media might have a better chance to attract ad dollars given its ability to provide performance results.

“A recession will cause all companies to review marketing spend and this will put some pressure on retail media,” Saunders told Retail Brew in an email. “However, what firms will look for is the effectiveness of their marketing spend and they will try to consolidate it into channels that drive the best results.”

“On this front, I think retail media may be more recession-proof than other media,” Saunders added.

Continue reading on Retail Brew.—VC

Executive moves across the industry.

• Subway tapped PepsiCo alum Greg Lyons to be its global CMO.
• LVMH promoted Louis Vuitton’s Mainland China president and CEO, Ramon Ros, to the role of CEO of Fendi.
• Victoria Beckham tapped Dior exec Sybille Darricarrère Lunel to serve as CEO.