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In some ways, beauty brand Merit delivered the Gossip Girl revival that HBO didn’t.

A recent “get ready with me” video featuring actress Kelly Rutherford—known for playing Lily van der Woodsen on the mid-aughts CW show—is now Merit’s most-watched, most-liked TikTok video to date, with over 9 million views and more than a million likes.

The idea was to tap into customers’ sense of nostalgia, CMO Aila Morin told us, which falls into the brand’s larger strategy of listening to audience interests. As a makeup brand that promotes ease of use, Morin said a big focus is providing an antidote to pain points, something that “can be so lost [in marketing] today,” and connecting with audiences directly.

“It’s just creating stories that really make sense for the consumer and are relevant for our consumer, and knowing who they are,” she said. “What are the things that [create] nostalgia for them? What are the things that are inspiring or make it easier to get ready? What are the fashion brands that have resonance? And finding how to put a voice to that in a way that feels really relatable, frankly.”

Fresh and organic: The Kelly Rutherford video isn’t the first time the brand has gone viral organically: Last summer, Merit’s TikTok video about the release of its Solo Shadow eyeshadow product also did numbers, and Morin said it’s essentially become “a case study for what we’ve always done, but in a really clear way.”

“What we really set out to do was make an incredible product and then make you feel something about it,” Morin told Marketing Brew. “There was no traditional viral playbook; there were no celebrities, no gimmicks, and I think it resulted in a really strong emotional connection with the brand.”

Continue reading here.—KH

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The video begins with two girls lying on a bed, gawking over a magazine picture of a fictional death-metal-inspired character named “Glothar.” And then, in a stroke of the supernatural, Glothar jumps out of the magazine and into the room, where he helps the girls decorate their faces with “Corpse Paint.”

It ends with an absurdist twist: The mother of one of the girls enters the room, bearing a tray of “vegan ghost blood.” She stops at the sight of Glothar. “I haven’t seen you in, like, 15 years,” she says. The camera pans to her daughter, decked out in black-and-white face paint. “Mom,” she says, over sentimental music. She then turns to Glothar. “Dad?”

The 55-second ad, which has been viewed more than 50,000 times on YouTube since its March 26 release, is the latest piece of zany content produced by Liquid Death, a canned-water company that takes a different approach to marketing.

The company’s marketing team considers Liquid Death to be an entertainment brand first, one that also sells consumer packaged goods.

“Ninety-nine percent of human beings don’t want to actually be marketed to. Usually marketing is interrupting your day,” Andy Pearson, Liquid Death’s VP of creative, said. “The premise of Liquid Death is really, can we literally become the most fun, hilarious brand on the planet? ”

Keep reading here.—JN

NBCUniversal is sold out of ad inventory for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2024 Paris Olympics on both digital and linear platforms, according to Dan Lovinger, NBCU’s president of Olympic and Paralympic partnerships.

With just over 100 days to go until the Summer Games, NBCU has so far netted $1.2 billion in ad sales, Lovinger said during a press call Tuesday, putting the network on track to break the record for the most ad revenue in Olympic history.

“Paris ’24 is shaping up to be the biggest games we’ve ever had across both linear and streaming,” Lovinger said. “As the games move to Paris, then Milano-Cortina, and eventually to LA in 2028, there’s an unquestioned resurgence in Olympic interest.”

Going for gold: The record for Olympic ad revenue is just above $1.2 billion, Lovinger said. While NBCU hasn’t passed it yet, Lovinger said he is “highly confident” it will be broken this year. (The network, he added, already passed its own record for digital Olympic ad revenue.)

Of that revenue, more than $350 million has come from first-time advertisers to the Games, according to Lovinger. There’s been “significant increases in the non-alcoholic beverage, CPG, financial services, and retail” categories, he said.

Take my money! Last year, Lovinger told Marketing Brew that Paris Olympics ad sales were “pacing ahead” of past games, and certain inventory seems to be particularly popular. NBCU’s new ad format, “Prime Pods,” which promotes individual ad campaigns during prime-time programming, was sold out as of October.

Halftime sponsorships for team sports, notably basketball and soccer, have been popular, and sports like gymnastics, swimming, and track and field have proved attractive to advertisers, he said. Overall, nearly 95% of NBCU’s “custom prime-time activations” are sold out, Lovinger said.

Continue reading here.—AM, JS

Press play on your video strat. We teamed up with Wistia to take a reel good look at the state of video marketing today—and laid out the top insights we found in our new article. Get the lowdown on engagement rate benchmarks + how to make engaging videos and develop a cohesive strategy.

Stories we’re jealous of.

• The Atlantic wrote about how brand perceptions of some dating apps among young people have started to sour.
• The New York Times wrote about the British prime minister’s decision to wear Adidas Sambas—and wondered if he may have tanked the shoe’s cool factor.
• Glossy wrote about how Warby Parker and Herbivore factored the solar eclipse into their brand marketing.