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The stage is set! Advertisers, don’t miss this cultural moment. ADWEEK House The Big Game is headed to New Orleans on February 7. RSVP. Paramount is setting itself up for a big win in the AFC Championship game. Today, the company announced that, for the first time, it’s bringing live, shoppable ads to Sunday’s NFL playoff matchup between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs. To do so, the company is promoting its CBS Sports HQ digital storefront, a second-screen shoppable experience. Here’s how it works: Using a phone or tablet, viewers can shop the CBS Sports HQ Store and peruse featured products that cater to an NFL-viewing audience. Among the goods, fans can shop for snacks and entertainment, with sports marketing partners like Pepsi coming on to make it happen. NFL and Bleacher Report Team Up for Content Rights and Super Bowl Coverage The storefront is run through Shopsense technology. Paramount previously kicked off its Shopsense partnership at the 2024 CMT Music Awards red carpet pre-show and had a Shopsense AI Lens at the MTV VMAs. According to Paramount Advertising, unlike previous QR code experiences, the CBS Sports HQ Store activation is all bout immediate fulfillment as it looks to drive results for participating brands and companies. The goal of the live sports activation is to make a frictionless experience, according to the company. Additionally, shoppable activations for the CBS Sports HQ Store will run during commercial inventory, much like Paramount has done in its other marquee programming, such as its NFL Thanksgiving game.  The company has a history of success with introducing interactive ads during major sports matchups, previously partnering with Innovid for interactive ads in Super Bowl 58. During the game, Paramount+ ran its first-ever “Add to Watchlist” interactive ads to promote content including Ghosts, Halo, The Chi, Tracker, Fire Country, Family Stallone, Lioness, The Tiger’s Apprentice, and Mission Impossible 7. At the time, Paramount+’s interactive ads outpaced expectations, coming in at 6% higher than Innovid’s benchmarks. You can see the NFL AFC Championship on Sunday, Jan. 26, at 6:30 p.m. ET on CBS and its streaming platforms. Bill Bradley is Adweek’s deputy TV, Media and Sports editor. Adweek is the leading source of news and insight serving the

deputy TV, Media and Sports editor. Adweek is the leading source of news and insight serving the brand marketing ecosystem.

ADWEEK House is heading back to Vegas! Unpack commerce trends and technology at ADWEEK House Las Vegas on March 25. RSVP. Following the 75-day extension for a possible TikTok ban in the U.S., Instagram is aggressively courting top creators. Over the past couple of weeks, Instagram has rolled out a flurry of updates aimed at creators. Instagram’s short-form Reel videos now last up to three minutes, a revamped profile layout looks similar to TikTok’s 4:5 ratio, and Instagram is offering cash bonuses to incentivize creators to make Reels. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri has also actively been sharing insights and updates for creators through his account on how to make effective videos native to Instagram and how often to post to Instagram. Despite Instagram’s efforts to become a new hub for creators coming from TikTok, creators told ADWEEK that they still face challenges that the platform must address before they’re willing to go all-in on Instagram. It’s also not clear how long Instagram’s courtship with creators will last. “It is tough because it does feel like a back-and-forth game, and it can get discouraging,” said fashion creator Tayla Santos. A spokesperson for Instagram said that the company is providing creators with one-to-one help from members of its partnership team. Instagram will also use Mosseri’s account and a dedicated creators account to provide education resources to creators about its platform. Meta is also offering a free year’s trial of Meta Verified, a subscription product that helps with account support and protection. Instagram often tests new features with small user groups before broadly rolling out products. For example, Instagram recently introduced a tall grid format. However, creators did not get enough time to prepare for the update, Mosseri acknowledged in a post. Plus, the feature is not available to all creators. Creators told ADWEEK that the tall grid update isn’t the only feature rollout that Instagram has botched. Some creators said that it’s frustrating that updates don’t roll out out to everyone at once. “It puts people at an unfair advantage or disadvantage when the app isn’t the same for everybody,” said Santos. Inaccessible features can demotivate creators from using Instagram because there are not equal tools for everyone. In one example, Santos said that her

from using Instagram because there are not equal tools for everyone. In one example, Santos said that her account didn’t have the option to add 20 pictures to a carousel post—a feature Instagram rolled out in August—until January. “It was the day the Tiktok ban happened—that’s when I got the ability to post 20 pictures on my carousel,” Santos said. Santos said she was frustrated about the slow rollout to her page because she has a large audience and consistently posts content on the platform. Creators told ADWEEK that they tend to prefer the variety that TikTok’s algorithm offers compared to Instagram’s version. For instance, on TikTok’s “For You” page, users encounter a diverse range of videos from dancing to cooking. In contrast, Instagram’s algorithm does not provide the same level of variety and struggles to balance different interests, said lifestyle creator Sean O’Donnell. “The algorithm is entrenched in Instagram,” O’Donnell said. “It makes it hard to expand—you have to go actively looking for other things, type them in the search bar, and make them pop up.” Unlike Instagram, O’Donnell said the TikTok algorithm evenly shows content that represents his interests. “If I pull up a video on Reels of a car, and I swipe to another one, it’ll be another car video,” he said. “On TikTok, it feels like every one of the interests that I have is at least evenly represented.” On Jan. 22, Meta announced a bonus program for creators, allowing them to apply for up to $5,000 in exchange for posting to Instagram and Facebook. The program specifically targets creators who are new to the platforms. According to the program’s description, creators can earn money from Reels, videos, photos, and text posts through Facebook’s invite-only Content Monetization program. Despite the allure of cash, creators that ADWEEK spoke to were frustrated with the lack of clarity around the program. They said that it’s not clear on the exact amount of money that Meta is offering and what steps a creator must take to qualify for the bonus. Renee said that Instagram’s payout program is not as clear as YouTube’s version, which provides specific

Instagram’s payout program is not as clear as YouTube’s version, which provides specific dollar amounts based on the success of content. “It needs to be more like YouTube, where I know if I’m getting X amount of views, I’m getting X amount of dollars,” said Renee. “If you are trying to push to be the No. 1 app, you need to make it worth it.” Benjamin De Almeida, a comedy creator, believes that Instagram has the opportunity to become the new primary monetization platform for creators given TikTok’s uncertain future. But first, Instagram needs to address creators’ frustrations. “I never really used Instagram other than for pictures, but since TikTok has been threatened to be banned, Instagram Reels does feel like a bit more of a viable place than TikTok,” he said. Adweek is the leading source of news and insight serving the brand marketing ecosystem.

vet, has high hopes for commerce media to turn things around. AdExchanger is where marketers, agencies, publishers and tech companies go for the latest information on the trends that are transforming digital media and marketing, from data, privacy, identity and AI to commerce, CTV, measurement and mobile.

For many advertisers and agencies, returning to TikTok this week felt a bit like remote working through a natural disaster: Business as usual, except not really. Several agency sources told AdExchanger that many of their clients – or even all, in some cases – are already back running ads on TikTok again, especially those with businesses that depend on the platform. But now that everyone knows firsthand what a ban would actually look like, that bell can’t be un-rung. “It feels different, because we now have such an acute awareness that our contingency plans may be very real plans,” said Davitha Tiller, head of social and integrated communications at Havas.  Still, many clients remain “super jazzed and super optimistic about TikTok,” said one ad agency VP, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak freely.  “The prevailing perspective is: There’s a bump in the road, but not panic.” Between when the TikTok ban was signed into law in April and when it was set to go into effect on Jan. 19, agencies and their clients had plenty of time to figure out how best to build their backup plans. For a lot of brands, this involved reviewing paid media spend, updating influencer contacts, gathering and preserving TikTok data and securing presences on other channels if needed. Channels like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, for example, are already performance drivers for many brands. There’s also been renewed interest in ad buying on Pinterest, Reddit, Snap and Spotify, and even some very early conversations about RedNote – a Chinese-language social app that Amercian TikTok users unexpectedly signed up for in droves last week – as an organic branded outlet. Get our editors’ roundup delivered to your inbox every weekday. According to Sean Clayton, CEO and co-founder of Myosin Marketing, most of his agency’s clients were already getting better performance results from Google, Facebook and Instagram than on TikTok, because it’s easier to create more sustainable communities within those ecosystems. “You don’t build a lot of brand loyalty and brand advocacy and TikTok – it’s like a quick hit,” said Clayton. “It’s more chasing the trends than it is actually building a long-term, sustainable brand using social media.” Some brands, however,

actually building a long-term, sustainable brand using social media.” Some brands, however, have been able to tap into more responsive communities on TikTok and planned to follow those users and creators to other platforms. This meant being a agile in the moment – especially when TikTok returned unexpectedly. “We’ve seen so many brands activate reactively on Instagram, posting their favorite TikTok moments from over the years,” Tiller said. “And even as they were doing that, that’s when the platform came back.” On the dawn of the final day – Jan. 19 – some brands paused their existing campaigns ahead of time or even moved their ad spend elsewhere entirely. Others, meanwhile, took what one might think of as a “till-the-wheels-fall-off” approach and chose to wait it out. No one, however, seemed to expect how quickly the platform would disappear and then reappear – almost like a switch flipping off and on, said Ross Martin, president of independent full-service agency Known. “That was, for many brands, terrifying to see,” Martin said. “And it reinforced the power of the platform, which is really hard to fathom unless it’s taken away from you.” Now that TikTok’s back, there are conflicting reports about how the brief closure may have impacted the ad buying experience. Some media buyers say the platform has been glitchy and that the algorithm is acting strangely, which could affect targeting. Others say they haven’t noticed any technical changes at all, but that the mood of the app feels very different as users share their relief and confusion. Performance metrics – or the lack of them – tell a similarly contradictory tale. Most of the sources AdExchanger spoke with said it’s too soon to know whether the brief shutdown has impacted the performance of current campaigns, although Clayton said he’s noticed a sharp increase in followers on his own account and in engagement across the app overall. Live data from ecommerce insights platform MikMak suggests that, at least among its own customer base, 7% of paid media traffic is currently coming from TikTok – back up to pre-shutdown levels, but nowhere near the 2024 average of 25% to 30%. Another commerce data platform, Charm.io, told Digiday that total sales volume on TikTok Shop increased by

data platform, Charm.io, told Digiday that total sales volume on TikTok Shop increased by $5 million in the seven days leading up to the shutdown, and an additional $500,000 on the day the platform came back. That data seems to jibe with the pronounced vibe shift on the platform itself, where users are eager to get back to scrolling and shopping. “There’s a real appreciation that it’s back,” Martin said, “and there’s a lot of hope and optimism that this means it’s here to stay.” Being stuck in app store limbo means that user growth on TikTok might begin to stagnate. It may even decline, if the platform’s recent Trump-supportive messaging inspires another politically motivated social media exodus à la Meta and X. So far, however, agencies and their clients don’t seem worried. TikTok has elicited strong love from its user base up to this point, and fewer people – including ad buyers themselves – seem to be responding with the same levels of outrage as they did in past news cycles, noted the aforementioned anonymous agency VP. “You got Bezos next to Zuckerberg [at the Trump inauguration],” they said, “and you don’t see people going, ‘Ah, screw it. I’m not going to use Amazon.’” But once you’ve seen The Matrix for what it is, you can’t go back. Some TikTok users are starting to think more about their content and communities as separate from the platform itself. “They’re beginning to question TikTok’s goals,” said Katie Secret, EVP and global head of marketing of Outbrain. Although not affiliated with an agency, she said she’s been having similar conversations with publishers about how to tackle the fragmentation that comes with managing a diversified social media presence. “It’s healthy for brands, publishers and consumers to have scrutiny about how the various content on that platform is being served and managed, and whether it’s coming from a source that is a publication or an entity that they can trust,” Secret added. Even if TikTok shuts down for good next time, most agencies feel there won’t be another bout of all-hands-on-deck, the-sky-is-falling hysteria –

bout of all-hands-on-deck, the-sky-is-falling hysteria – not if they’re agile enough to pivot, or large enough not to take too big a hit. Which means that, as always, it’ll be small businesses and individual creators that suffer the most in a TikTok-free world. “When you’re watching pundits talk about the merits of TikTok, it can seem like an academic conversation or a philosophical conversation,” said Martin. “But there’s nothing academic or philosophical about it for brands and creators who are counting on that for business imperatives.” In light of T-Mobile’s plans to buy Vistar Media, Atmosphere TV’s business model shines a brighter spotlight on the grey area between connected TV and DOOH billboards. Lauren Newman, a news publishing and affiliate marketing vet, has high hopes for commerce media to turn things around. A new storyline is emerging around curation, one in which publishers feel they’ve lost out to middlemen on yet another opportunity to monetize their audiences. Commerce media just went shopping. On Thursday, ecommerce marketing company Rokt acquired customer data platform mParticle for $300 million. Multiple criminal rings around the world are orchestrating surgical phishing scams that target ad industry media buyers. Specifically, fraudsters are duping ad buyers who log in to Google Ads after running a Google Search. The Trade Desk has said it will buy Sincera, a startup that aggregates and supplies metadata to ad tech companies. This is TTD’s second-ever public acquisition. Brick-and-mortar retail is blowing it – and their efforts were on full display at the NRF’s Big Show in New York City last week. The existing CPM model is broken. In what other industry would we accept paying full price for a product that delivers less than half of what was promised, asks Raphael Rivilla, chief media officer at Marcus Thomas. Nielsen earns MRC accreditation for its Big Data + Panel measurement solution, which includes its legacy panels and bigger data sets. Netflix’s overall revenue grew 16% to $10.2 billion last year thanks to subscriber and ad revenue growth, with operating margins up 27%. Lauren Newman, a news publishing and affiliate marketing vet, has high hopes for commerce media to turn things around. AdExchanger is where marketers

The stage is set! Advertisers, don’t miss this cultural moment. ADWEEK House The Big Game is headed to New Orleans on February 7. RSVP. Paramount is setting itself up for a big win in the AFC Championship game. Today, the company announced that, for the first time, it’s bringing live, shoppable ads to Sunday’s NFL playoff matchup between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs. To do so, the company is promoting its CBS Sports HQ digital storefront, a second-screen shoppable experience. Here’s how it works: Using a phone or tablet, viewers can shop the CBS Sports HQ Store and peruse featured products that cater to an NFL-viewing audience. Among the goods, fans can shop for snacks and entertainment, with sports marketing partners like Pepsi coming on to make it happen. NFL and Bleacher Report Team Up for Content Rights and Super Bowl Coverage The storefront is run through Shopsense technology. Paramount previously kicked off its Shopsense partnership at the 2024 CMT Music Awards red carpet pre-show and had a Shopsense AI Lens at the MTV VMAs. According to Paramount Advertising, unlike previous QR code experiences, the CBS Sports HQ Store activation is all bout immediate fulfillment as it looks to drive results for participating brands and companies. The goal of the live sports activation is to make a frictionless experience, according to the company. Additionally, shoppable activations for the CBS Sports HQ Store will run during commercial inventory, much like Paramount has done in its other marquee programming, such as its NFL Thanksgiving game.  The company has a history of success with introducing interactive ads during major sports matchups, previously partnering with Innovid for interactive ads in Super Bowl 58. During the game, Paramount+ ran its first-ever “Add to Watchlist” interactive ads to promote content including Ghosts, Halo, The Chi, Tracker, Fire Country, Family Stallone, Lioness, The Tiger’s Apprentice, and Mission Impossible 7. At the time, Paramount+’s interactive ads outpaced expectations, coming in at 6% higher than Innovid’s benchmarks. You can see the NFL AFC Championship on Sunday, Jan. 26, at 6:30 p.m. ET on CBS and its streaming platforms. Bill Bradley is Adweek’s deputy TV, Media and Sports editor. Adweek is the leading source of news and insight serving the

deputy TV, Media and Sports editor. Adweek is the leading source of news and insight serving the brand marketing ecosystem.

ADWEEK House is heading back to Vegas! Unpack commerce trends and technology at ADWEEK House Las Vegas on March 25. RSVP. Following the 75-day extension for a possible TikTok ban in the U.S., Instagram is aggressively courting top creators. Over the past couple of weeks, Instagram has rolled out a flurry of updates aimed at creators. Instagram’s short-form Reel videos now last up to three minutes, a revamped profile layout looks similar to TikTok’s 4:5 ratio, and Instagram is offering cash bonuses to incentivize creators to make Reels. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri has also actively been sharing insights and updates for creators through his account on how to make effective videos native to Instagram and how often to post to Instagram. Despite Instagram’s efforts to become a new hub for creators coming from TikTok, creators told ADWEEK that they still face challenges that the platform must address before they’re willing to go all-in on Instagram. It’s also not clear how long Instagram’s courtship with creators will last. “It is tough because it does feel like a back-and-forth game, and it can get discouraging,” said fashion creator Tayla Santos. A spokesperson for Instagram said that the company is providing creators with one-to-one help from members of its partnership team. Instagram will also use Mosseri’s account and a dedicated creators account to provide education resources to creators about its platform. Meta is also offering a free year’s trial of Meta Verified, a subscription product that helps with account support and protection. Instagram often tests new features with small user groups before broadly rolling out products. For example, Instagram recently introduced a tall grid format. However, creators did not get enough time to prepare for the update, Mosseri acknowledged in a post. Plus, the feature is not available to all creators. Creators told ADWEEK that the tall grid update isn’t the only feature rollout that Instagram has botched. Some creators said that it’s frustrating that updates don’t roll out out to everyone at once. “It puts people at an unfair advantage or disadvantage when the app isn’t the same for everybody,” said Santos. Inaccessible features can demotivate creators from using Instagram because there are not equal tools for everyone. In one example, Santos said that her

from using Instagram because there are not equal tools for everyone. In one example, Santos said that her account didn’t have the option to add 20 pictures to a carousel post—a feature Instagram rolled out in August—until January. “It was the day the Tiktok ban happened—that’s when I got the ability to post 20 pictures on my carousel,” Santos said. Santos said she was frustrated about the slow rollout to her page because she has a large audience and consistently posts content on the platform. Creators told ADWEEK that they tend to prefer the variety that TikTok’s algorithm offers compared to Instagram’s version. For instance, on TikTok’s “For You” page, users encounter a diverse range of videos from dancing to cooking. In contrast, Instagram’s algorithm does not provide the same level of variety and struggles to balance different interests, said lifestyle creator Sean O’Donnell. “The algorithm is entrenched in Instagram,” O’Donnell said. “It makes it hard to expand—you have to go actively looking for other things, type them in the search bar, and make them pop up.” Unlike Instagram, O’Donnell said the TikTok algorithm evenly shows content that represents his interests. “If I pull up a video on Reels of a car, and I swipe to another one, it’ll be another car video,” he said. “On TikTok, it feels like every one of the interests that I have is at least evenly represented.” On Jan. 22, Meta announced a bonus program for creators, allowing them to apply for up to $5,000 in exchange for posting to Instagram and Facebook. The program specifically targets creators who are new to the platforms. According to the program’s description, creators can earn money from Reels, videos, photos, and text posts through Facebook’s invite-only Content Monetization program. Despite the allure of cash, creators that ADWEEK spoke to were frustrated with the lack of clarity around the program. They said that it’s not clear on the exact amount of money that Meta is offering and what steps a creator must take to qualify for the bonus. Renee said that Instagram’s payout program is not as clear as YouTube’s version, which provides specific

Instagram’s payout program is not as clear as YouTube’s version, which provides specific dollar amounts based on the success of content. “It needs to be more like YouTube, where I know if I’m getting X amount of views, I’m getting X amount of dollars,” said Renee. “If you are trying to push to be the No. 1 app, you need to make it worth it.” Benjamin De Almeida, a comedy creator, believes that Instagram has the opportunity to become the new primary monetization platform for creators given TikTok’s uncertain future. But first, Instagram needs to address creators’ frustrations. “I never really used Instagram other than for pictures, but since TikTok has been threatened to be banned, Instagram Reels does feel like a bit more of a viable place than TikTok,” he said. Adweek is the leading source of news and insight serving the brand marketing ecosystem.

The stage is set! Advertisers, don’t miss this cultural moment. ADWEEK House The Big Game is headed to New Orleans on February 7. RSVP. Meta has added a new topic to the list of its recent right-leaning actions, as several providers of abortion pills experienced issues that have been intensifying over the past two weeks, according to The New York Times. Posts from two of those companies were blocked, blurred, or removed on Facebook and Instagram, while several abortion pill providers said their accounts were suspended and they were excluded from appearing in recommendations and search, the Times reported. Some of those companies told the Times that over the past two days, content from their accounts on Instagram was no longer visible, and in some cases, their accounts were gone altogether. Specifically, Aid Access told the Times it has been blocked from accessing its Facebook account since November, its Instagram account was suspended and restored this past week, and some of its posts were removed from Facebook and blurred on Instagram. Just the Pill and Women Help Women told the newspaper their accounts were suspended and restored in recent days, saying Meta told them the accounts did not follow its standards on guns, drugs, and other restricted goods. And Hey Jane head of marketing Rebecca Davis told the Times the company’s account had been invisible when searching on Instagram. The Times reported that some accounts and posts were restored Thursday after it contacted Meta. A spokesperson for the company told the newspaper that the actions were tied to rules that prohibit the sale of pharmaceutical drugs on its platforms without proper certification, and that “over-enforcement” may have been an issue in some cases. Meta took similar steps regarding abortion pills when Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in June 2022. The abortion pill controversy joins a growing list of recent activities by Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg that many perceive as cozying up to the administration of President Donald Trump, including: The Times noted that telehealth providers are allowed to prescribe medication online and deliver prescription drugs that cause an abortion, including mifepristone and misoprostol, per Food and Drug Administration regulations. But 12 states have banned abortions, while several others placed gestational limits or restrictions on mail-order pills. Meta Scraps Third-Party Fact-Checking For X-like Community Notes. Some Claim It’s Gone ‘Full MAGA’  David Cohen is a freelance writer for ADWEEK, covering breaking news. Adweek

’  David Cohen is a freelance writer for ADWEEK, covering breaking news. Adweek is the leading source of news and insight serving the brand marketing ecosystem.

, that includes a little something extra. C4 has pouring rights at the Kaseya Center and is also doing sampling there, and hopes to eventually do the same with the other teams, she said, though teams don’t always own their arenas, which can complicate pouring rights deals. Beyond tapping into the NBA’s audience—a younger, diverse crowd likely to frequent the gym and reach for energy drinks—Geyer said C4’s move into basketball is an effort to redouble ongoing efforts to be associated with high performance. “We call ourselves the athlete’s energy drink,” she said. “We really feel like we’re made for athletes.” To back it up, C4 holds the National Science Foundation’s Certified for Sport certification, a third-party certification program for products that is recognized by the US Anti-Doping Agency and leagues like the NBA, NFL, and MLB. Working with one of those leagues, then, is perhaps a no-brainer. “By diving into the NBA, we’re able to really spread that message and own that platform,” Geyer said. C4 also has the endorsement of other leagues and athletes. Its sports partnerships span WWE, Top Rank Boxing, Overtime, Austin FC in MLS, and several top NFL athletes. Since it’s early days in basketball for C4, Geyer said her team plans to evaluate how the next year or so goes before moving deeper into the space, but further deals with teams and players aren’t off the table. Geyer said she’ll look to see brand awareness and sales growth in those three markets, as well as increases in social impressions and engagement for the brand. “Assuming we see the ROI, I think there’s more to come for us in the NBA,” she said. Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.

The energy-drink brand announced multiyear deals with the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, and Miami Heat. This week, the energy-drink brand expanded its sponsorship slate into basketball, announcing multiyear deals with three NBA teams: the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, and Miami Heat. The deals, which include sponsorship assets like LED and courtside signage, digital ads, retail displays, and hospitality opportunities, came out of a desire to reach the fans of the three teams, according to Katie Geyer, VP of partnerships and experiential marketing at C4 parent company Nutrabolt. “What we know about these fans is they really believe in the sponsors and the partners of the teams, and they’re very influenced by that,” Geyer said. “Not only that, but their fans tend to be younger, they tend to be more diverse, and they also tend to be more interested in sports and athletics and fitness, so for us…it just makes all the sense in the world.” The partnerships also present an opportunity for C4 to expand its foothold in major east coast markets and differentiate itself from other energy-drink brands via an association with elite athletes, Geyer said. The Knicks, Celtics, and Heat are all storied NBA franchises, plus the Celtics are the reigning champs, which may be reason enough for a brand to want to partner with them. C4 was also interested in targeting the Eastern Conference markets, since those geographic areas tend to over-index in energy-drink consumption, Geyer said. Another benefit: the brand has “key business partners,” like retailers and distributors in those areas, too, she said. At risk of inflaming basketball rivalries, the Knicks and Heat can perhaps thank the Celtics for serving as the start of the deals. A smaller partnership between C4 and the Celtics at the end of last season that involved local retail displays and social posts “was incredible for us,” Geyer said, and was “what propelled us to this three-team strategy that we’re going out with this year.” Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides. It’s the Heat partnership, though, that includes a little something extra. C4 has pouring rights at the Kaseya Center and