Spring break season gets into full swing. 

New Morning Consult data shows that nearly a third of all U.S. adults plan to take a trip during the travel period, and their appetite for international travel is quite high after years of pandemic-hindered vacations. While not a historically huge marketing event, some revelry-related brands are taking advantage of the spring break spirit. PepsiCo Inc.’s Mountain Dew is hosting a party at a retirement home in Florida to celebrate the first anniversary of the launch of its hard beverage variant, Livewire. 

South by Southwest (SXSW) is in Austin all week. 

The annual tech, media and culture festival returns to Texas in 2023 with more than 20 unique tracks, including ones focused on advertising and XR and the metaverse. Beyond the educational content, live performances and networking opportunities, the event has become an increasingly large hub for standalone brand activations. Some notable ones this year: Fast Company is hosting its own set of panel discussions at the Fast Company Grill on-site and Slack Inc. will offer an education on how to make meetings more meaningful at their nearby office headquarters.

Social Media Marketing World takes place in San Diego Monday through Wednesday. 

Industry professionals will gather to discuss the latest trends and technologies impacting organic, paid and content marketing on social media channels. The two-day conference offers six interactive workshops and over 20 classroom-style learning sessions.

The UBS Global Consumer & Retail Conference is Wednesday and Thursday in New York.  

Executives from more than 40 leading consumer brands are set to provide forward-looking perspectives on their products, business strategies and the broader economic environment. Keynote speakers include C-suite leaders at Mattel Inc., Molson Coors Beverage Co., Estee Lauder Companies Inc. and more.

NCAA’s March Madness begins Thursday. 

Paramount Global’s CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Turner Sports have already sold out of their linear ad inventory for the annual men’s and women’s collegiate basketball tournaments, with ad sales significantly surpassing the networks’ record of $1 billion set last year. The Coca-Cola Co., Capital One Financial Corp. and AT&T Inc. are top-tier sponsors of the 2023 tournament, estimated to be bringing in more than $400 million in media exposure for involved brands.  

Taylor Swift’s long-awaited “Eras Tour” kicks off. 

Following Live Nation Entertainment Inc.’s botched presale ticket saga, the artist’s first stadium tour since 2018 gets underway on Friday in Glendale, Arizona. My colleague Saleah Blancaflor and I will have a story out early next week breaking down who Swifites are, what drives their fandom and how they’re becoming a force for change in the music industry.

• General Motors Co. has started offering voluntary buyouts to all of its U.S. white-collar employees with five or more years of tenure, part of a broader effort by the company to improve efficiencies as it prepares for a global economic downturn. The automaker expects the buyouts, which include a lump sum payment and other severance-based compensations, to cost $1.5 billion before taxes this year. (CNN)
• Spotify Technology SA unveiled a significant redesign of its homepage, which now includes a vertical, video-heavy feed meant to better integrate the platform’s array of offerings and encourage organic content discovery. It’s the latest user experience update by a major technology to mimic features native to ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok. (The Verge) 
• California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state will not renew a $54 million contract with Walgreen Boots Alliance Inc. that allows for the procurement of specialty prescription drugs used in the state’s correctional health care system. The announcement comes just days after Newsom tweeted that California was “done” with the pharmacy chain in response to its decision not to sell abortion pills in 20 Republican-led states. (Axios)
• The U.S. Department of Justice sued to block JetBlue Airways Inc.’s proposed $3.8 billion acquisition of Spirit Airlines Inc., arguing the deal would leave consumers with fewer options for low-cost airfare. It marks the latest effort by the Biden Administration to curtail big business consolidation across several industries. (CNBC) 
• Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) introduced a bill that would empower the Department of Commerce to ban foreign technologies and companies — including ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok — from operating in the United States if they pose a threat to national security. (The Wall Street Journal) Meanwhile, the short-form video app on Tuesday rolled out a new monetization feature, called Series, that allows creators to post collections of premium content behind a paywall. (Mashable)
• Amazon.com Inc. paused construction on its second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia — where it has committed to investing $2.5 billion and hiring more than 25,000 workers by 2030 — just weeks after the company’s biggest-ever round of layoffs. The delay affects the second phase of the project, which includes three, 22-story office buildings, while a restart date has not yet been specified. (Bloomberg)

66%

The share of all U.S. adults who said they are not interested in watching pickleball on TV, according to a new Morning Consult survey. Three in 5 (61%) self-identified sports fans said the same. In his latest story, my colleague Mark J. Burns uncovers the weak watchability factor of the sport, which has been America’s fastest-growing game for three consecutive years. Read more about the potential branding risks and opportunities for pickleball here: The Pickleball Craze Is Real, but Its TV Potential Is a Different Story.

1) A Brand’s Guide to Gen Alpha 

Morning Consult

2) Gen Z gives social media ads far more attention than TV commercials

Sarah Lebow, Insider Intelligence

3) Did AI write that press release? Stagwell’s Taylor is here to punch up your PR pitches 

Sam Becker, Fast Company

4) Spotify’s new design is part TikTok, part Instagram, and part YouTube

David Pierce, The Verge

5) YouTube is killing the overlay ad format next month

Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica 

6) Elon Musk apologizes after mocking Twitter worker with disability

Jacob Knutson, Axios

7) Meta Plans Thousands More Layoffs as Soon as This Week 

Sarah Frier et al., Bloomberg

8) There’s a new Reese’s in town, hold the dairy

Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN

9) Miller Lite Turns Sexist Ads Into Fertilizer For Female Brewers

Fern Siegel, MediaPost

10) The modern crisis communications playbook

Eleanor Hawkins, Axios

• As video games become cultural juggernauts, marketers still struggle with buy-in (Marketing Dive)
• Paramount Global Launches New Marketing Campaign “Popular is Paramount” (Deadline)
• Walmart will derive more profit from services, ad sales in next 5 years (Reuters)
• From marketing to design, brands adopt AI tools despite risk (The Associated Press)
• What Long-Form TikTok Videos Mean for Brands’ Future Social Strategies (Ad Age)
• WeightWatchers jumps into the prescription weight loss drug business (CNN)
• Best Buy will set up in-home hospital care through a new deal with Atrium Health  (CNBC)
• Lowe’s New Marketing Approach Leans Into the Color Red (Ad Age)
• Marlboro maker Altria agrees to buy e-cigarette startup NJOY for nearly $2.8 billion (CNBC)
• Behind Clairol’s Nostalgic Partnership with Amazon Prime’s ‘Daisy Jones & The Six’ (Ad Age)
• Toblerone can no longer claim to be Swiss-made (CNN)
• More Big Brands Brave the Rocky Terrain of Endorsement Deals With College Athletes (The Wall Street Journal)