Marketing is often undervalued, which is not news to many reading this newsletter. When companies are looking to make budget cuts, they often begin by looking to their marketing teams and campaigns. But a new white paper from insights company TransUnion and marketing trade organization MMA Global uses their Brand as Performance (BaP) framework to determine the true value of campaigns, and finds that traditional measurement methods have undervalued brand marketing’s impact on sales by as much as 83%.

BaP was first introduced by MMA Global in 2022, and connects softer marketing outcomes—including consumer sentiment and brand perception—with hard measurable outcomes, including sales. It also broadens the timeline that’s measured, looking at how household feelings and purchase behaviors change over time.

“Brand as Performance gives marketers the language and evidence to prove what they’ve always known: brand drives growth,” Executive Vice President of TruAudience Growth Strategy at TransUnion Matt Spiegel said in a statement.

The latest white paper, which examines campaigns from Ally Bank, Kroger and Campbell’s Soup, demonstrates the importance of brand favorability. Using marketing to bolster how consumers think of brands can drive favorability by as much as 24%, the research found, even for an already well-known brand. Conversion rates were as much as 4.7x higher among consumers who see a brand favorably. And the effect of a successful campaign continues, with long-term impact up to 6x greater than in the short term.

There are less traditional forms of marketing that are also driving results. One of the more popular today are influencer storefronts, where a retailer lets influencers create their own collection of products available on the retailer’s website. Recently, beauty store Sephora and publisher Condé Nast announced their entrance into the storefront game. I talked to Corinne Travis, director of marketing and creator growth at BrandCycle, about influencer storefronts. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

So far, most generative AI platforms haven’t explicitly used user data for targeted ads—but that’s about to change. This week, Meta began to notify users that their interactions with its AI tools will be used for targeted ads on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, writes Forbes senior contributor Kate O’Flaherty. In a blog post, Meta writes that data drawn from AI will help the company improve recommendations across its platforms, better serving users with content they’re interested in.

The tech giant says it will continue to protect user privacy. Conversations and requests about religion, sexual orientation, political views, health, racial or ethnic origin, philosophical beliefs or union membership will not be used to inform ads. Meta also added that its ad preference tools can help adjust what you see. And users in places where there are laws limiting default use of user data—including the U.K., EU and South Korea—are exempt.

But there is no voluntary opt-out to keep AI data private after the policy takes effect on December 16, writes O’Flaherty. While this policy could help Meta provide better targeted ads, Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at ESET, said that it could have another effect: causing people to switch to other chatbots. At the moment, there are several that provide similar services, and only one is promising to use user data for ads.

Nike CEO Elliott Hill has made a series of bold choices in his push for the company to recapture its previous spirit and success, and another

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