This week's marketing winners, losers and newsmakers.

Winners

State Farm: The insurer got a lift in buzz and engagement for a quick response after its Jake from State Farm spokescharacter was spoofed on “Saturday Night Live.” In the sketch, host Michael B. Jordan plays a Jake who gets a little too neighborly with a family. State Farm tweeted the video, adding “Like a good neighbor, we know when to leave. You had us howling, Michael B. Jake from State Farm and @nbcsnl,” and had Jake from State Farm add his own take on this Twitter account as well. The responses led to an organic gain of 1,375 followers over the course of Sunday, Jan. 29, according to a State Farm spokeswoman. 

New Balance: The brand signed MLB star Shohei Ohtani to a multi-year footwear and apparel endorsement deal in an agreement that netted significant media coverage. Ohtani had been with Asics. New Balance stated it would work with Shohei “on a variety of campaigns across the brand,” including  a special, limited-edition 574 Cleat, which it described as “a new take on one of the brand’s classic models.”

Publicis: Despite economic woes and scores of ad agency layoffs, Publicis Groupe had reason to smile this week. The holding company reported a 20% rise in 2022 revenue, thanks to its Epsilon and Sapient divisions, which exceeded expectations, according to Chief Executive and Chairman Arthur Sadoun. Data and tech now represent nearly a third of Publicis’ revenue.

Losers

GoodRx: The telehealth and prescription drug company agreed to pay a $1.5 million fine after the Federal Trade Commission said it shared the personal health information of its customers with Facebook, Google and others without notification. GoodRx said it will no longer share such information for advertising reasons and will in the future require customer consent.

Empire State Building: The iconic New York City landmark lit up in green and white Sunday in response to the Philadelphia Eagles clinching a Super Bowl berth. That pissed off a lot of New Yorkers, because—duh!—the Giants are rivals of the Eagles.

Southwest Airlines: “SNL” also came after Southwest Airlines in last week’s episode—but unlike State Farm, the carrier is still working to repair its image following scores of holiday cancellations and delays. The sketch only reminded viewers of the frustrations the airline caused in December. Weeks after Southwest’s holiday scheduling chaos, consumers still had a negative opinion of the airline, an Ad Age-Harris Poll found. In addition, experts say that overall leisure demand in travel may be softening amid economic uncertainty—a sign that Southwest can use all the help it can get, and that’s not coming from “SNL.”

Tweet of the week

Number of the week

2 billion: The number of daily Facebook users, up from more than 70 million a year ago. Parent company Meta reported the stat this week as it announced better-than-expected fourth-quarter sales. 

Quote of the week

“This is adding a new character to a story to add a little extra interest and intrigue—it’s a logical way to break through the clutter of yet another Super Bowl commercial by giving it an extra twist.”—Cristel Russell, professor of marketing at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, on the role of brand partnerships, one of the Super Bowl’s hottest trends.

Read more: The Super Bowl's hottest ad trend—brand partnerships

On the move

The U.S. Travel Association hired Ellen Davis as executive VP of business strategy and industry engagement. She was most recently executive VP of industry engagement at the Consumer Brands Association.

Tech company MediaMath hired Manny Puentes as chief technology officer. He had been chief executive at Rebel AI, which he founded. The company also hired Christine Napoli as chief financial officer. She had been CFO of Peacock.