Call it the C(reator) suite.

This year alone, T-Mobile made Druski its chief switching officer. Candy company Katjes named Jake Shane as its chief creative officer. And the NFL dubbed Dhar Mann its chief kindness officer for the Super Bowl.

As influencers take on founder roles at their own companies and business executives get under the social media spotlight, some brands seem happy to tap internet personalities to fill executive-level positions—or at least executive-sounding positions. It’s a continuation of a trend that Lily Comba, founder and CEO of creator agency Superbloom, said can be smart for any brand looking to stand out and build stronger ties with creators beyond traditional partnerships.

“Influencers have real input, and they’re not just faces on the internet,” Comba told us. “Brands that are doing it are taking it to the next level, as they should be.”

Why opt for a creator over a more traditional hire? In a word, impact. Last month, creator-turned-reality-star Whitney Leavitt of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives was named chief creative and brand officer of the New York soft-drink-shop chain Cool Sips; Andrew Moger, CEO of Cool Sips, told us that the brand opted to bring on Leavitt instead of a seasoned executive because of her social capital, which he hopes will help it scale and turn “viral interest into real-world demand” for dirty soda.

“Dirty Soda didn’t start in a boardroom, it grew through culture and social momentum,” Moger said in an email. “As one of the original drivers of that movement, Whitney has an authentic connection to the audience and a proven understanding of what resonates.”

But it’s not always simple bringing a creator into the boardroom, actually or metaphorically. We spoke with marketers about the ins and outs of creator executive deals and what to consider before any big promotions.

Continue reading here.—KH

Ready or not, the age of AI-assisted online shopping is here.

Traffic to US retail websites coming from AI spiked 393% year over year in the first three months of 2026, according to recent data from Adobe.

That’s not all: “What’s also caught the attention of brands is the conversion of that traffic,” Loni Stark, VP of strategy and product at Adobe, told Marketing Brew. “What they found was that traffic coming from these LLMs are higher converting, and they’re worth more than just average traffic.”

With AI increasingly facilitating online shopping, some brands are looking for new ways to scale their presence in AI tools while also figuring out how to effectively deploy agentic AI in-house—and Adobe wants to be part of that scaling effort. The software company is building out brand visibility and agentic AI tools that are aimed at helping brands stand out to LLMs while allowing them to utilize agentic AI tools across their enterprises, according to Stark.

When it comes to agentic AI in particular, Adobe is keeping an eye on what aspects of agentic protocol, which enable agent communication, actually get adopted.

“The standards are there,” Stark said. “Adobe Commerce and the rest of the Adobe portfolio is committed to supporting them, but we are doing [it in] a very pragmatic way with our customers to see which parts of [agentic AI] they’re adopting first.”

Read more here.—JS

It’s no secret that Victoria’s Secret’s once-booming bra business lost some lift over the last decade.

As shoppers increasingly chose comfort over sex appeal, and the ideal of its Angels fell back down to Earth, its sales and market share eroded. But one year into CEO Hillary Super’s turnaround plan, Victoria’s Secret’s bra sales have achieved annual growth for the first time in four years.

Last year, Super, who took the helm in 2024, introduced the company’s four-pillar Path to Potential turnaround plan, which included shifting the retailer’s leadership structure to three brand presidents for the Victoria’s Secret brand, PINK, and beauty. Chief Merchandising Officer Anne Stephenson was tapped to lead Victoria’s Secret, tasked specifically with Super’s strategy of “supercharging bras” and regaining its “authority” in the category, Super said on an earnings call.

The company has also remodeled its marketing, increasingly turning to influencer marketing and new faces, like WNBA star player Angel Reese, to market the brand. Reese, the first pro athlete to walk its fashion show in October, serves as “a great example of part of who we see as our future,” Stephenson said.

It’s switching up its voice, too. The brand got “a little serious,” Super said last year. Now, it’s having a bit more fun. While “it’s hard to sell a sexy story and combine it with tech,” Stephenson noted, it’s employing a more “modern, relevant” voice to market its products’ benefits. The company touted last July’s FlexFactor as “better than being braless,” while a February campaign for its T-shirt bra dubbed the product “your favorite T-shirt’s favorite bra.”

Read more on Retail Brew.—EC

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Executive moves across the industry.

• Rivian tapped Uber alum Jenny Lewis to serve as VP, head of marketing and e-commerce.
• Chipotle hired Burger King vet Fernando Machado as chief brand officer.
• PayPal brought on board Antonio Lucio as chief marketing and corporate affairs officer as part of a broad restructuring. He joins from HP.