Brands try to reflect culture, and in 2025, culture was prone to getting riled up. Don’t believe it? Just look at Oxford University Press’s word of the year. That’s right. It’s “ragebait.”

Throughout the year, brands like American Eagle, Skims, e.l.f., Dunkin’, Swatch, and The Ordinary, to name a few, made people very mad—so mad, in fact, that those brands got a lot of attention. And, as marketers previously told us, in the age of the attention economy, any kind of engagement—even angry engagement—can sometimes be worthwhile.

“Brands are desperate right now,” Sam Ogborn, a marketing strategist and consultant, told Marketing Brew. “Brands have recognized that they can game the system, the system being the algorithm, to get attention, and free attention at that. The way that they’ve learned they can get this cheap, easy, free attention is through ragebait, but it’s fleeting and it’s volatile.”

The surge in ragebait comes at a time when getting consumer attention has only gotten harder. For years, though, algorithms have favored rage, and the ripple effects of how the algorithms work have seemingly trickled into every facet of culture. But the year of ragebait marketing isn’t as simple as it may seem.

Continue reading here.—KM

Sports programming’s availability on subscription streaming platforms is leading to new sign-ups, but that doesn’t always translate to retention, according to data shared in Antenna’s State of Subscriptions: Sports & Streaming report.

During the NFL’s 2023 and 2024 seasons, Paramount+ saw an average of 117,000 daily sign-ups, a 41% higher average sign-up rate compared to the NFL offseason in those years, according to the report. Peacock, meanwhile, averaged 76,000 daily sign-ups during those seasons, up nearly 25% compared to the offseason periods, Antenna found.

Meanwhile, consumers who cancelled Peacock following the streamer’s WWE Premium Live Events were 40x more likely to watch WWE Raw on Netflix, according to the report.

Antenna, which aggregates information from data collection partners that provide consumer opt-in transaction records like digital purchase and cancellation receipts, tracked continued growth in league-level sports services, virtual MVPDs, and regional sports networks as sports continues to expand its foothold in the digital world. Marketing Brew has rounded up some of the other highlights from the report below.

New kids on the block: The continued interest in live sports on streaming was demonstrated through the new sports streamer ESPN Unlimited, which picked up 1.7 million sign-ups through October since its August debut, per Antenna. Two-thirds of those sign-ups were for bundles, like the ESPN Unlimited/Disney+/Hulu offering, Antenna found. Fox One, a similar paid streamer that includes access to live sports and also hit the market in August drew 2.3 million sign-ups through October, 60% of which came from Amazon Channels, according to the report.

In all, Antenna estimates that ESPN Unlimited and FOX One had a combined 4 million sign-ups by the end of October.

Read more here.—JS

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Keisha Taylor Starr is CMO of The E.W. Scripps Company and GM of Scripps Networks. She’s also held high-level marketing roles at media companies including Recount Media, Turner Broadcasting, and CNN.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? One of the most meaningful projects I’ve led is evolving Ion into a destination for both general entertainment and women’s sports. We saw an opportunity to reimagine what Ion could stand for, not just in programming, but in purpose. Viewers wanted to follow rising stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, yet their games weren’t always easy to find, and we saw an opportunity to change that. By securing broadcast rights for both the WNBA and the NWSL and creating the first national prime time franchise nights dedicated to women’s sports, Scripps filled a major gap in the television landscape. What made this project so meaningful was knowing it opened the door for more people to discover and experience women’s sports. It was a powerful reminder of what can happen when the right platform meets the right moment.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? I absolutely live for the Publix holiday ad campaigns. Publix is one of my favorite grocery brands, and every year they masterfully blend their products with the sentiment and spirit of the holiday season through thoughtful storytelling. Their creative always celebrates connection and the beauty of sharing moments with the people we love most. Whenever a new campaign drops, I know it’s time to grab the Kleenex!

Continue reading here.

AI can draft a press release in two seconds and build a media list in five. But what happens when the bots start talking to the journalists? Sarah Evans will outline how to use AI for ruthless efficiency without losing the human credibility that actually gets you placed. Consider it the essential guide to staying ahead of the pitch deck curve.

Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• Athletic Brewing partnered with OpenTable to create an interactive map showing restaurants that serve its non-alcoholic beers for Dry January.
• Cheez-It joined the list of new Unrivaled partners headed into the league’s second season. (The snack brand’s parent company, Kellanova, has recently doubled down on basketball.)
• Omega became the official timekeeper of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TGL as part of a multiyear deal.