Extravagant Influencer Perks Prompt Consumer Backlash; 'White Lotus' Finale Surprises Coffee Mate Brand

The brand practice of lavishing extravagant trips and gifts on social media influencers has sparked a consumer backlash, causing some brand marketers to give perks to customers instead. 

According to Marketing Brew, hydration-packets brand Waterboy and makeup brand Refy took customers on trips to Mexico and Spain, respectively, last year. In January, beauty brand Cocokind hosted seven customers on a trip to Napa Valley. Cocokind encouraged customers who regularly purchase, review or share the brand’s products to apply for the trips. 

“It really wasn’t about their social [media] presence,” said Cocokind CMO Maria Maciejowski. “It was about seeing their authenticity and enthusiasm for the brand.”

Priscilla Tsai, Cocokind’s founder and CEO, picked up the selected customers from the airport and gave them necklaces and hand-packed lunches once they arrived in Napa. 

Jane Prior, chief marketing officer of beverage brand Vita Coco, said consumers are “sick of influencers getting all the attention and benefiting from all of this gifting from brands.”

For Coffee Mate, ‘White Lotus’ Season Finale Came Without Warning

This brief contains spoilers for season three, episode eight, of the TV show, “The White Lotus.”

When Coffee Mate launched its piña colada-flavored creamer in a marketing collaboration with the HBO series “The White Lotus,” the brand didn’t know that a poisoned piña colada cocktail would nearly kill one of the show’s main characters during its April 6 season finale.

“Well, this is awkward,” Coffee Mate said on Instagram the next day. 

Daniel Jhung, president of Nestlé USA’s coffee division, told The Wall Street Journal that the show’s team had encouraged the brand to develop a piña colada-flavored creamer for their partnership. 

Jhung said the marketing team was watching the finale and responded quickly with the Instagram post.

“This is the new way of marketing,” Jhung said. “You give them maybe a few principles, but then you empower them. If they’ve got to go through five layers of approval, you’re not going to be able to do these things in real-time. It will take forever.”

Pandemic, Politics Have Lowered Employees’ Moods, Report Finds

Some 75% of U.S. workers say politics and current events have lowered their moods, according to a survey from Modern Health, a company that provides workplace mental health services.

In the survey of 1,000 full-time employees, 62% say they feel pressured to work through burnout or other mental health struggles. Among Gen Z respondents, 54% say their mental health has never recovered since the pandemic.

“Despite hopes that the worst of the pandemic’s toll on workplace mental health is behind us,” the fallout continues, says Dr. Neha Chaudhary, the company’s chief medical officer.

Global political turmoil is also fueling mental health issues in the workplace, Modern Health’s report says. Some 74% of employees surveyed say political uncertainty increases burnout at work.

Moreover, 58% think their employers’ conversations about mental health are insincere. Half of the survey respondents admit they’d feel safer talking to an AI chatbot about their mental health than discuss it with their HR department.

Does C-Suite Trust Your Chief Marketing Officer?

Asked to grade their chief marketing officers, less than a quarter (24%) of U.S. CEOs give them an “A,” says a survey by the Boathouse marketing agency. The survey showed that most of the 150 CEOs surveyed (71%) gave their chief marketing officer an “A” or a “B.”

In the C-suite, “marketing continues to be less trusted,” said John Connors, Boathouse co-founder and CEO.

CMOs received high marks for “soft skills” such as understanding business goals (65%). Some 61% of CEOs said their CMO “is performance minded,” while 57% said their CMO “solves problems effectively.” 

Half the CEOs surveyed said they have “great confidence” in their CMO, while 53% said their CMO is “easy to collaborate with” and 56% said their CMO “supports me in driving my long-term vision.”

However, the number of CEOs who rated their company’s overall marketing capabilities as “average” or “underperforming” increased, and fewer than half said the CMO shares their values and is on their side.

Board Members With Military Experience Tougher on CEOs

A recent study finds that chief executives at poorly performing companies are more likely to be fired if at least one of the company’s board members has a military background. 

As The Wall Street Journal reports, the odds of a CEO being dismissed for underperformance rise if more than one director on the board has served in the military.

Researchers identified publicly listed companies with board members who had served in the U.S. armed forces. Slightly more than a quarter of the companies studied had such a board member.

About 2.1% of all CEOs were fired when their company was underperforming its peers. Having a board member with military experience raised the dismissal probability to 2.9%. Two directors with military experience increased that probability to 3.9%, and three such directors raised it to 5.2%, the researchers found.

The study found that board members with military experience value personal accountability, which makes them more inclined to blame poor company performance on the CEO.

Intern Roles, Job Offers After Graduation Both Down, Report Finds

Large companies across industries plan to trim intern roles, causing overall intern hiring to fall by about 3%, a report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers finds. However, more than 70% of organizations still expect to maintain or increase intern hiring for 2024-25.

For students, internships related to their major or career goal allow them to work in a professional setting. Internships help organizations fill their needs and scout talent. 

About three in five employers who responded to the survey said they plan to provide a hybrid work experience for their interns. But employers still rely on in-person fairs and on-campus recruiting to attract potential interns. 

According to the report, employers extended fewer offers of full-time employment to their 2023–2024 interns than they had in the past. At 62%, the average rate at which interns were hired for full-time jobs after they graduated was the lowest in more than five years.

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