Caliber

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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Marketing Brew

Ryan Barwick

marketingbrew.com

 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

Jennimai Nguyen

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?

Kelsey Sutton

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

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.

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

 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.

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

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."

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

Andrew Downing, director of social media at Cava, shared the strategy behind the brand’s newest social series, “Bowlmates.”

For the chronically online, one of the most painful parts of flying might be disconnecting from content creators.

Through a new partnership with YouTube, the airline is introducing ad-free content from certain creators to seatback screens and other in-flight entertainment accessible via personal devices. As part of the deal, podcasts, music, and videos from creators including Kinigra Deon, MrBeast, Michelle Khare, and Mother Goose Club will be available for Delta customers to tune into during flights.

YouTube is the most-watched streaming service in the US, per 

, and offering it on seatback screens will keep Delta’s programming up to speed with modern media habits, according to Julieta McCurry, VP of in-flight entertainment and connectivity at Delta.

“Our data was actually telling us that customers want personalization and they want choice,” McCurry told Marketing Brew. “We saw that there was an increasing turn to creator-driven content and podcasts that really reflects the interests of the customers.”

Like the TV, film, and streaming brands that 

, creators who are part of the program stand to get a boost from being part of airlines’ seat-back entertainment options and find new audiences mid-flight, representing just the 

Delta’s YouTube partnership, first announced at CES earlier this year, was a year in the making, according to McCurry, and is designed to reflect the company’s vision of the future of travel and entertainment. One major difference? YouTube content will be ad-free in order to align with other viewing experiences on Delta.

“This is a premium experience,” McCurry said.

Creator Kinigra Deon, whose content is part of the partnership, said creating a premium experience was also important to her. While her typical viewers may be accustomed to ad breaks unless they pay for YouTube Premium, she said, she hopes that viewing her content in this seat-back context might lead to increased interest later on.

“I’m hoping that once the passenger lands, it allows them to [think], ‘Who was that? I want to watch more,’” Deon told Marketing Brew. “Go watch 1,000 more once [they] figure out that I have 1,000 other videos.”

To choose the creator content featured on planes, McCurry said Delta worked closely with YouTube and placed a priority on diversity. “We have a very diverse customer base by the nature of being a global airline, and so we wanted to make sure that there was a cultural relevance with these creators across the board,” she said.

The current creator content selection will remain available for the next few months, a timeframe that will allow the team to glean audience insights, McCurry said.Content performance will eventually be evaluated on a monthly basis, like the rest of the programming available on Delta Studio, the airline’s in-flight entertainment platforms.

“It’s important to stay current, and important that we are delivering the type of content that customers are looking for,” McCurry said. “We’ve got a lot of frequent travelers as well, so we want to make sure that we keep the content fresh and relevant for them.”

For Deon, the opportunity to distribute her content on Delta was a dream, since she considers herself to be a “Delta girl” through and through, she said.

Deon sees her content as fitting in on Delta’s in-flight experience because of how the platform mirrors the home watching environment. About 70% of her content’s watch time already comes from CTVs, she said, and she hopes her long-form, scripted content will feel at home next to the feature-length films and traditional TV shows that plane audiences might already expect.

The seatback and in-flight experience is ad-free, and Delta isn’t paying creators to make their YouTube content available on its planes. But for creators like Deon, the promise of exposure and potential new audiences—plus the opportunity to revel in a new milestone with her existing audience—is more than enough, she said.

According to McCurry, the plane audience is uniquely positioned to pay deeper attention to programs while flying and to seek to continue their entertainment journeys after their flights. In this sense, creators on planes are set up to build connections with audiences in a whole new way.

“The aircraft is really a very unique environment,” McCurry said. “It’s offering creators and YouTube an opportunity unlike anywhere else where you have this uninterrupted, guaranteed engagement in an age that is really defined by fragmented, hyper-short attention spans everywhere else.”

Glowing seatback screen collaged next to a Delta plane

 Creators prepare for takeoff as YouTube content comes to Delta planes 

YouTube creators like MrBeast, Kinigra Deon, and Michelle Khare have landed on a new way to find audiences. 

A cartoon image of Kristina Monllos created by Morning Brew

Kristina Monllos

The staff at Dunder Mifflin Paper, the fictional company at the center of 

, aren’t exactly known for being star employees. For the B2B expense management platform Ramp, that was the point.

This past Wednesday, Ramp put Brian Baumgartner, best known for playing the lovable, bumbling accountant Kevin Malone in the hit sitcom, in a transparent box in Manhattan’s Flatiron Plaza for seven hours. Inside, Baumgartner processed expense receipts in real time—an entertaining commentary both on the drudgery of the work and how the platform can help companies streamline those efforts.

The activation, which was in the works for five months, drew a rough estimate of 10,000 in-person attendees, Kendall Tucker, head of creative experimentation at Ramp, told Marketing Brew; a livestream on X garnered 380,000 viewers over the course of about a week. Across platforms, Ramp estimates the activation has had “at least 85 million views,” Tucker said.

The effort came about shortly after the company’s first foray into Super Bowl advertising earlier this year, where Ramp executives were itching for their next big push to pitch businesses on Ramp, especially when there can be hesitancy to switch software.

“Once a company switches to our software and our corporate card, they love it, but helping them to understand that they have a problem, that their current expense management solution is not great, is actually really hard,” Tucker said. “Accountants have been using the same software for 30 years, they’re not looking for alternatives. So we’re like, ‘How do we make that pain feel visceral?’”

And putting Baumgartner, arguably the most famous accountant in pop culture, in a glass box for hours processing receipts was one way to highlight those pain points front and center.

Before landing on the idea for the activation, Tucker spoke with Rohan Kumar, a “professional internet surfer” and the former head of vertical platforms for MrBeast who brought on the co-founders of production shop Coming of Age. Kumar and Coming of Age co-founders Lewis Atallah and Mattias Russo-Larsson joined the Ramp offices for a week of brainstorming, at which point they came up with the idea.

But it wasn’t as simple as just making a deal with Baumgartner and calling it a day. Throughout the course of the seven-hour stunt, Ramp added different bits to break up the monotony and keep things interesting. Internet personality Christian Joseph, aka The Rizzler, comedian Zarna Garg, and 

costar Andy Buckley all popped up at different times throughout the day. Even more unexpectedly, Baumgartner officiated a real wedding of a Ramp employee in the box. (Tucker said she sent out a message to the company a week before the stunt and got three couples to volunteer to be married by Baumgartner.)

The day wasn’t scripted, but it wasn’t entirely off-the-cuff, either. The team worked with Baumgartner to identify the right moments to play up throughout the day. The stunt itself was “broken up into 15-minute segments,” Tucker said, which helped structure improvisation.

“[Baumgartner] had an in-ear [piece], so we would say, ‘Hey, the private equity guy is coming in right now. Just seem kind of annoyed by him,’” she said. “And he knew from his 30 pages of beat sheets that this guy was just going to come in and railroad him.”

To document the day, Ramp had five cameras inside the glass box and one outside the box to show the reactions of the crowd. The company set up a livestream, which Tucker said was designed to “impress upon the audience that this is for real”; camera operators could switch between the different angles for the livestream throughout the day.

For the stunt, Ramp signed two contracts with SAG-AFTRA, Tucker said, including a new media agreement covering the livestream of the event, as well as a commercial agreement covering the ads and social video content created out of the event.

It’s possible that the livestream helped the brand get more eyeballs on the stunt, encouraging people to tune in and 

unexpected nature of the activation is really what made it stand out, Eunice Shin, CEO and founder of brand strategy consultancy The Elume Group, said.

“With so many brands getting canceled for their marketing moves, people are playing it safe, marketers are playing it safe,” Shin told Marketing Brew. “And to me, that equates to boring in a sea of sameness, of a lot of marketing that just doesn’t get people’s attention. So whenever anything feels a little bit interesting or fun, I think, everyone’s like, ‘Hey, look at that.’”

Tucker is optimistic that the response to the stunt so far encourages other brands to say yes to strange ideas, even if it’s not duplicating the activation exactly.

“I hope the takeaway is that companies and individuals should just try wild things,” Tucker said. “I know we’re gonna continue just doing really interesting things that are physical and real, and I hope other companies take that away, more so than like, ‘Yeah, you lock a guy in a box, or do a livestream.’”

two photos of actor Brian Baumgartner for a recent marketing effort for the brand Ramp

Inside the making of Ramp’s viral livestream with Brian Baumgartner

The B2B expense management platform planned an experiential activation that drew some 10,000 in-person attendees. 

Michael Lamp is chief digital and social officer at the agency Hunter, where he has been for nearly two decades.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in marketing?

 I help brands figure out how to make their (often) old business models feel native to a digital audience, blending traditional methods with emerging technologies to meet people where they are online, engage them (first), and sell to them (second).

 The first project that pivoted my career from traditional PR to digital was back in 2009. I’d been with Hunter for one year and was an account executive on the food/bev team working on the Grey Poupon biz at Kraft. Fox News was making news out of President Obama’s burger order (adding Dijon mustard), calling him an elitist and not “of the people.” So we wrote an open letter, riffing on our brand heritage, urging Obama to “pardon” those who believe in free choice when choosing condiments. This was during the primitive days of social and digital, so we developed a microsite and pitched it to the media. The results were great and ranged from 

,” from the 3G rollout of Apple’s iPhone. I love anything that successfully blends utility with entertainment. This built off that tension perfectly, positioning these then-new devices as more than just phones but keys to solving daily problems and on-demand entertainment. The concept of time-shifted anything was still a very premium novelty (like TiVo!), so all of this in one’s pocket was game-changing. And apps propelled this further, showing how they’d easily sustain innovation over time.

 My first “internship” in college was actually the College Program at Walt Disney World. I was very good friends with Pluto and Eeyore (IYKYK), and that’s where I learned the art of IRL animation and honed my early presentation chops.

 Funny enough, both are tied to AI. I’m most optimistic about LLMs and their impact on communications, specifically our ability to drive better discovery of non-paid content (notably earned coverage and earned-on-owned social content). I’m least optimistic about where we are with the generative creative side of AI. The rapid innovation has not been dually met with rapid regulation, and I think creative is the longer-term threat to disinformation than the written word.