☕ Sweet escape

Inside MCoBeauty's bid to build audience connection.

March 02, 2026 View Online | Sign Up | Shop It's Monday. Netflix opted not to counter Paramount Skydance's latest offer to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, paving the way for Paramount to acquire the storied movie studio and TV company. If HBO and Nickelodeon are soon under the same corporate umbrella, maybe we'll finally get that Sopranos-Spongebob crossover episode we've been dreaming of. In today's edition: Make it micro Extra credit Good attention —Jennimai Nguyen, Kristina Monllos, Jeena Sharma SOCIAL & INFLUENCERS Escape route Illustration: Shannon May, Photos: MCoBeauty Why settle for prestige beauty products when the hunt for an easier-on-the-wallet dupe can be a thrill? That's the premise powering MCoBeauty's latest campaign and entertainment-driven activation. The effort, called "If You Know, You MCo" (or IYKYMCo for short) includes a seven-episode microdrama social series starring Tana Mongeau, in which the creator gets locked in a pink, lab-like room somewhere in MCoBeauty's offices that requires beauty-themed puzzle-solving to escape. Audiences who wish they were there IRL can get involved, too: at 30 Escapology locations nationwide, MCoBeauty has set up real-life beauty lab escape rooms for guests, complete with free product giveaways. Together, the series and in-person games are meant to create a more tangible brand world, according to Meridith Rojas, CMO at VidaCorp, MCoBeauty's parent company. "You've heard a lot of brands talk about community, community, community, and how do you bring them into your marketing campaigns," Rojas told Marketing Brew. "How do you bring them into feeling more part of it, and not just [saying], 'lean back, watch something,' or trying to hawk them products? Instead, we wanted them to feel immersed in this world that we are creating." Continue reading here.—JN Presented By The Crew The algorithm will change New platforms pop up. Trends peak before lunch. Creator budgets keep climbing—along with the pressure to prove they work. On May 12, join Marketing Brew in NYC (or virtually) to unpack attribution, predictive analytics, and platform diversification. Because going viral isn't a strategy. And vibes aren't a measurement framework. DATA & TECH 'What we do' Nurphoto/Getty Images For a few years, it seemed like every company that could create a retail media network would—so much so that retail media outgrew its original moniker and instead became known as commerce media. Why not try to get a bigger piece of the pie when, per WPP's 2025 forecast, commerce media could account for nearly a fifth of total ad revenue by 2030? Last October, Mastercard officially debuted its own offering, Mastercard Commerce Media, joining the ranks of the financial institutions jockeying for some of those ad dollars. To hear it from Nili Klenoff, executive vice president of Commerce Media at Mastercard, doing so wasn't simply a matter of getting skin in the game. Instead, the push into commerce media marked an evolution of the company's existing personalized card-linked offers business. "We took a look at our solution and said, 'This is really fit for purpose for this moment,'" Klenoff told us. "It's now about taking that and evolving that into a broader value proposition, supporting more kinds of content—not just incentives and discounts, but also digital ads—and then having the ability to flex between an ad to build awareness or a well-timed incentive at the right moment to actually drive the conversion." Read more here.—KM BRAND STRATEGY Controversy and curiosity Syrn From her American Eagle ad that polarized audiences to her new lingerie brand, Syrn (as in "siren"), Sydney Sweeney has become something of a case study for a long-standing marketing question: Is all publicity ultimately good publicity? For Syrn, the launch strategy leaned straight into attention. A fiery campaign rollout and a Hollywood Sign stunt once again split the internet. According to one marketing professor, whether that's good or bad for business is…complicated. "She's such a presence right now, even starting from the American Eagle ad, she's already kind of this flashpoint figure," Wendy Zajack, adjunct faculty at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, told Retail Brew. "So you could be like, 'I hate her because of the American Eagle,' or you love her because of the American Eagle, but no matter what, you're talking about her. For a brand launch, that's always a good thing. Controversy and craziness and all that kind of stuff is good for initial curiosity." Once the initial curiosity fades, however, even a celebrity-led brand needs to have a good product and an audience that buys into its messaging. Read more on Retail Brew.—JS Together With Tracksuit x Ekimetrics A growing concern. Likes and links don't impress board members—growth does. Morning Brew Inc. teamed up with Ekimetrics and Tracksuit to unpack how marketers can better track the success of creator campaigns to maximize their budgets and more. Read the report. Level up your career with these resources from our sponsors! The AI maturity gap: How 23% of marketers are reclaiming 13 working hours with autonomous processes Make creator marketing count: How marketers can effectively navigate its complexities FRENCH PRESS Morning Brew There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren't those. Diamond in the rough: Lessons in marketing and brand growth from a jewelry brand that's projecting $20 million in business. Hangin' by a thread: How Threads comments can help boost engagement. Get revenue with me: A tip sheet for creators looking to level up their negotiations. IN AND OUT Francis Scialabba Executive moves across the industry. Topgolf tapped Chuck E. Cheese parent company CEC Entertainment vet David McKillips as CEO. The US Tennis Association hired Australian Open alum Craig Tiley as CEO. Atlassian, the software company, hired LinkedIn CFO James Chuong to serve in the same role beginning March 30. SHARE THE BREW Share the Brew, watch your referral count climb, and unlock brag-worthy swag. Your friends get smarter. You get rewarded. Win-win. Your referral count: 0 Click to Share Or copy & paste your referral link to others: marketingbrew.com/r/?kid=77999182 Written by Jennimai Nguyen, Kristina Monllos, Jeena Sharma, Jasmine Sheena, and Kelsey Sutton Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. Get smarter in just 5 minutes Business News: Morning Brew Tech & AI News: Tech Brew Markets News: Brew Markets Real Estate News: The Playbook Money & Career: Bossy   Take The Brew to work CFO Brew HR Brew Revenue Brew IT Brew Retail Brew Healthcare Brew Interested in podcasts? Check out Marketing Brew Weekly on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. ADVERTISE // CAREERS // SHOP // FAQ Update your email preferences or unsubscribe here. View our privacy policy here. Copyright © 2026 Morning Brew Inc. All rights reserved. 22 W 19th St, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10011