It’s the question everybody has—are advertisers spending or not? After a timid start to the year, it seems we’re finally getting an answer.

If you ask the investment bank William Blair, the digital ad market is “still soft,” but a slow rebound is coming, per a survey from the firm based on responses from buyers and participants in the digital ad industry, published in early July. It concluded that “brand spend is being heavily scrutinized for the second half of 2023,” but many budgets haven’t really been cut. Most respondents said they saw budgets rise during the first half of the year.

An analyst’s note from the financial firm Macquarie found that the ad market’s “underlying tone is positive,” and that agency media buying is strong.

• How about the holding companies? In Q2, Publicis saw organic revenue jump 7.1%, while IPG’s sank almost 2%. Omnicom played the role of Goldilocks, reporting organic revenue growth of 3.4%.
• Hmm. Well, what about Big Tech? Google and Meta, which represent more than a healthy chunk of the digital ad ecosystem, both reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings. YouTube’s ad revenue popped for the first time in three quarters, growing 4% and reflecting “further stabilization in advertiser spend,” Philipp Schindler, Google’s SVP and chief business officer, said on the company’s earnings call.
• Meanwhile, some major companies are also upping ad spend: Kraft Heinz said it increased marketing spend by 23% year over year in Q2, while Nestlé said it plans to continue ramping up marketing investments in the second half of 2023.

When stitched together, everything seems pretty…normal? “The advertising market is fine. I would not use the word soft to describe it. It’s normal,” Brian Wieser, a marketing consultant and principal at consultancy Madison and Wall, told Marketing Brew. Keep reading here.—RB

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It began with Emma Chamberlain. Now Clean Creatives is taking on the rest of the influencer community.

Last week, the group released its Creator’s Pledge, which asks them to “decline any future contracts with fossil-fuel companies, trade associations, or front groups.” Previously, the group had been mostly focused on encouraging agencies, like Edelman, to reject working with fossil-fuel clients.

Jacob Simon, associate creative director at Clean Creatives, told us the goal is for creators to cut ties with the fossil-fuel industry, but not necessarily the agencies that work with these clients. Instead, he said, “we want [creators] to be aware of the agencies that are working with fossil-fuel [companies] and open a dialogue with them.”

Clean Creatives worked with six creators from EcoTok Collective, including Gabrielle Langhorn and Kristy Drutman, to get the word out about the pledge. In her post about it, TikToker Carissa Cabrera said that “what we’re doing in the climate movement is working” based on what she described as a “scramble” from Big Oil to pump out influencer campaigns.

“It’s kind of like a natural jump for [fossil-fuel companies] to target creators because creators have so much power and reach—perhaps more than traditional advertising nowadays,” Simon said. “Based on just everything I’ve seen, it’s clear that fossil-fuel companies want the public to see them as doing the right thing and making the planet a better place.”

As influencer marketing has grown in recent years, so too has oil companies’ interest in it. Continue reading here.—KH

AB InBev reported tanking US sales in its Q2 earnings report released last week, after battling a months-long conservative boycott of Bud Light.

The company’s US revenue declined 10.5% during the second quarter of 2023. Wholesale revenue fell 15% and retail sales dropped 14%, which AB InBev attributed to the “volume decline of Bud Light.”

Despite not explicitly mentioning the Bud Light boycott, AB InBev mentioned that it has surveyed more than 170,000 US consumers since April, about 80% of whom had a “favorable or neutral” view toward Bud Light.

Overall, the company reported a 7.2% YoY spike in organic revenue, in part due to growth in AB InBev’s international markets. Its performance beat analyst expectations; it maintained its guidance from last quarter, forecasting 4%–8% growth.

AB InBev plans to lean on its partnerships to help strengthen its US performance. “As part of our long-term plan, we increased investments in our key brands, invested in measures to support our wholesalers and continued key initiatives such as partnerships with NFL, NBA, Folds of Honor, and Farm Rescue,” the company shared in the earnings report.

Read the full earnings recap here.—JS

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Throwback: A look at how Looney Tunes reworked its social strategy to court a younger fanbase.

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Executive moves across the industry.

• Thomas Ranese, Uber’s former global CMO, was named CMO of Chobani.
• Kim McCullough, previously VP of marketing at Jaguar Land Rover, was hired by Parella Motorsports Holdings as CMO.
• S. Chris Jacobsen, Texas Roadhouse CMO, resigned after 20 years with the company.