Rebel Marketing's Yasmine Robles and Izzy Dadoski focus the world of TikTok and the current buzz surrounding its ban.

They explore Sabrina Carpenter's viral Dunkin' campaign, which smartly targets Gen-Z coffee lovers, and discuss the importance of diversifying your social media strategy.

Whether you're an influencer or a business owner, Yasmine and Izzy share actionable insights on transforming followers into loyal customers and ensuring your brand thrives on multiple platforms.

Plus, they touch on personal branding, the rise and demise of digital platforms like Vine, and how to effectively trial emerging social media channels.

Hot Moments

00:00 Sabrina Carpenter stars in funny Dunkin' campaign.

03:46 Turning followers into customers amidst TikTok uncertainty.

07:43 Creators prepare for potential TikTok ban impacts.

13:15 Strategically monetize influence and brand identity.

15:45 Hair dye and energy drink preferences discussed.

19:35 Experiment and evaluate platform usability before committing.

20:43 Strategically trial, observe, set goals, gain insights.

Hot Takeaways

Rebranding and Evolution: Rebel Marketing, formerly known as Robles Designs, signifies growth and adaptation in business identity.

Engaging Campaigns: A successful marketing campaign example discussed was Sabrina Carpenter's collaboration with Dunkin', which cleverly targeted the younger demographic and effectively blended humor with product promotion.

Diversification of Platforms: The potential TikTok ban emphasizes the importance of diversifying social media presence to safeguard against platform-specific disruptions.

Backup Strategies: Gathering followers' email addresses and promoting alternative platforms (like Instagram and YouTube) are crucial for maintaining audience engagement.

Trial and Error for New Platforms: Experiment with emerging platforms like BlueSky; assess their usability, audience, and alignment with business goals before fully committing.

Developing Merchandise and Products: For influencers, leveraging their personal brand to create related products (e.g., Emma Chamberlain’s coffee) can lead to substantial income and brand loyalty.

Ethical Product Development: Ensure that products associated with personal brands (like merchandise or unique items) are high quality and genuinely beneficial to avoid damaging reputation.

Utilizing Link Trees: Use link trees in social media bios to provide easy access to all other platforms and revenue-generating activities (e.g., YouTube, Patreon).

Strategic Content Goals: Before trying out new platforms, have clear goals—like gaining followers or monetizing content—that guide your approach and measure success.

Continual Engagement and Adaptation: Constantly engage with followers, keep up with trends, and adapt marketing strategies to maintain relevance and connection with the audience.

Stay in touch and get the latest updates by following us on:

• Instagram: @myrebelmarketing
• LinkedIn
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• Rebel Marketing

The Rebel Hour

Join us for a live, no-fluff strategy session where you can ask real questions, get real answers, and finally fix what’s not working with your marketing. Whether you’re stuck on content, confused by SEO, or spiraling over your site, this is your space to vent, troubleshoot, and walk away with the next steps you can actually use.

Submit your question ahead of time or grab the mic live. It’s bold, it’s unscripted, and it’s built for small businesses ready to grow.

Copyright 2025 Rebel Marketing

Thank you everyone for joining us on another episode of Market Like It's Hot, where we bring you the information that we have for marketing and make your marketing look really hot. My name is Yasmine Robles of Rebel Marketing. We have recently changed our name. We were Robles Designs, but we are now Rebel Marketing, and I am the founder, the owner, and the one who pays the bills. And Izzy is here with me today. She worked for me, which thank you, Izzy, for staying on for so long. Izzy, why don't you introduce yourself?

Hi. I'm Izzy Dodosky, and I do the analytics and social media stuff.

All that you do, though.

Yeah. I like dillydally here and there, and, you know, I tackle what's needed. Email marketing, showing my face places, different things. So

Yeah. Chugging hot sauce. Really kind of a

situation. Yeah.

Yeah. So, Izzy, let's start off today's episode with something that you have recently found in marketing, on social media, something funny.

Yeah. So going off of Sabrina Carpenter and what she's been doing. Sabrina Carpenter is probably one of the top people of 2024. So to end the year, Duncan came out with a, new campaign with Sabrina Carpenter. She's very popular because of her song espresso. So they took that and they, created this campaign with her for a shake of espresso, and it's probably one of the funniest ads I've seen all year where, she's shaking the shaker full of the Dunkin' Espresso, and the whole campaign is her saying, I'm shaking that s instead of what it sounds like it is. And at the end, she even, like, says, oh, it kinda sounds like I'm saying shake that beep, and I think it's amazing. And it, like, it one, it caters to the Dunkin' audience, because a lot of the coffee drinkers are, like, teens going to Dunkin' before high school or, like, college students, and those are the type of people what it is.

It is. Everybody went to Dunkin' before high school.

Go to Dunkin'?

Yeah. Dang. Yeah.

Starbucks has to work on their branding.

Well, Starbucks is more expensive than Dunkin' too. So it's like

That's true.

A lot of those younger people who are also her audience are the people who are going to Dunkin'. And then now that they have introduced that and be like, this is Sabrina Carpenter's Drake. More people who even went to Starbucks are probably going to go to Dunkin' to get the shake and espresso. But, yeah. I just thought it was like really smart because it captures both those audiences. Like, one, who her listeners are, and 2, who's Duncan is catering to. So and then, I mean, like, even if you don't know who's Rita Carpenter is, like, I like a shake of espresso. So I feel like it goes both ways.

But shake that s was very funny.

Yeah. I would I would recommend looking it up. It's on YouTube, and I I like the whole thing. And it's not just Sabrina shaking that I mean, she it's like a it's contagious. Everybody was shaking that s.

Even her grandma.

Grandma. Yeah.

Grandma was shaking that

s. Which those are goals right there. I I wanna be that kind of grandma. The one that's like, don't let her near the tequila. She's gonna start shaking that s.

Oh my god.

She might not have saved for retirement, but she knows how to shake it.

Right. Right.

Oh, yeah. Alright. So, Izzy, what are we officially gonna be talking about today?

We're gonna be talking about how to turn your followers into customers on social media. So right now, especially with TikTok, maybe seeing the end of it, according I think it's on January 19th. They decide if it's gone or not. It's kind of weird to see all these influencers who are really big racking it in with the TikTok creator fund, be scared because they're not gonna have that income come in anymore. And they didn't really diversify what they were doing besides just posting videos. So it's, like, a really big deal, and I think, like, TikTok has contributed to, like, almost I think I think it might have been the 1,000,000,000 for, how much money it's, like, brought to creators in the US. So the fact that they're banning that is, like, really crazy because, I mean, it's not like a 9 to 5 job, but like it's still providing like income for a bunch of people. So just, we were gonna talk about how, like, if you were in a position of being an influencer, like, what other steps might you take to maybe you don't have to influence as much? So if you have anything to add on to that, Yasmeen.

No. I mean, from I to be quite honest, I have stopped a lot of my Facebook. Like, I used to be when I when I was young and Facebook came out, that's what I use. And then, now I don't use Facebook that much because it just it just doesn't appeal to me. So and then Instagram has it's it's still cool. Like, I still use it every so often, but TikTok has become my greatest love. Like, if I need to just zone out on something or make purchases I probably don't need, TikTok is the way to go. But it just because it also the I mean, I don't know what they are doing with the algorithm, but it knows exactly, like okay.

She right now, she's probably been working all day. She probably needs to watch people fall down on in the snow or in ice, or now she needs to see puppies. And maybe we'll give her some political stuff, but then we know that's gonna be hard on her, so we're gonna give her some something hilarious. Yeah. I I I bet you they even know, like, maybe TMI, but feminine cycles and, like, it it'll show me videos of babies, and I'm like, maybe maybe can I has one? And then I'm like, no. Show me something and then it'll it'll stop that. And I'm like, you read my mind. So I love TikTok, But I and I'm sad that it's going away.

But as an entrepreneur, what like, if we did even whether it's TikTok or Instagram or any of them, if we have started a strategy to try to gain followers, what the heck can we do now? And, hopefully, this comes out be maybe there's a last minute change for TikTok. But what can we do to safeguard ourselves on any platform? Because I think before the show you were talking about, they took away Vine. And so what what on earth can we do as you help us?

Apparently, I'm just saving grace for this. But basically

You have less gray hairs. So

I mean, I've had gray hair multiple times. I just dyed it. But basically

Oh. Just multiple times.

Yeah. Multiple times. Multiple times. Basically with 1, if you're like at a influencer position rather than a business position. That's why I kinda talked about Vine before this. A lot of people from Vine at that time who were making money from Vine, like, it with Vine, they were getting some money just for posting, but a lot of them turned to brand deals and different things like that. But when Vine was taken away, those brand deals were gone, and so was the money from posting. But a lot of them ended up turning to YouTube and then made even more money from YouTube because they had these loyal fans who wanted to follow them.

And even when we were it was up in the air, Vine was even getting banned. A lot of these people already made that transition over and made sure that their audience knew that they were on there. I feel like right now with TikTok, it's like, well, let's just hope. It's like TikTok isn't, like, going to be banned or, like, we've been talking about the TikTok ban for, like, 2 years. It's, like, it's good to have yourself set up set up in a situation just in case because, I mean, I don't want TikTok to be banned, but if I wake up on January 19th, because I'm not allowed to, like, post and stuff. That's gonna be, like, really sad. And with those people, it's like now they don't have that same engagement that they did on that platform. So it's like right now if they were to be like, hey.

Just in case TikTok does get banned, here are some other, like, avenues if you like like me and my personality, like, go on Instagram, YouTube, all these other things that we know are gonna stick around rather than just be like, oh my gosh. My creator fund, like, type post. I would rather that, like, be like, here's here's some other options, and I'll probably be posting on there more now. Just, like, 1, establish who they, like, I will be posting on here, and 2, just, like, kind of direct their attention over to that platform rather than TikTok at the moment. But, yeah, what do you what do you do you think the same thing?

Or Yeah. So I if you are in it for money, whether whatever kind of biz whatever kind of money you're trying to get off of so of off of the interwebs, you really need to have a backup plan. And my my biggest thing is trying to get their email addresses, get them on an email newsletter or something because it can go away. So right now, like, I'm on not myself, Patreon, but I support some creators on Patreon and whatever small amount I can give. But now they have my email address. And so if Patreon goes away, they can still get ahold of me. So I think getting there and I don't know, Izzy. What what would the strategy be? So let's say I'm an amazing influencer on TikTok dreams.

But, what would the strategy have been, whether it's around now or later or whether it's Instagram or any of the other ones that are out there? What would the strategy be? Do I you mentioned for me to talk about these other platforms I'm on. Should I have a website or a splash page? Should I get on Patreon? Should I what how what can I do so that I can really make sure that the people who are following me be, fans and clients and by March or whatever?

I think for influencers, it's more about the link tree in their bios to get everything else that they need. But what the main point I think is is that they should have just been, like, diversifying what they're doing anyway. So, like, when you're in that position and you're making that much money, you don't wanna just sit and do one thing. One, if you have all those followers, they'll probably buy something from you. But make sure it's a good product because then that could also be the downfall of your career right there. So, do you know, like, the Sterniolo triplets? Do you know who those people are? No? K. There are these big YouTubers, and one of them came out with, like, a ChapStick. And this ChapStick is supposed to be better than all ChapSticks.

Why did he come out with the ChapStick? Nobody knows. But it's a $40 ChapStick. And people bought it, and they're like, I feel like this is the stuff that I get at, like, those freebies at the convention tables. Like, there's really nothing special about it. So you just kinda made everybody angry who supports you because you just made them spend $40 on ChapStick. And I feel like you also need to see who you're associating with. So, like, with that deal, they were also the ones who did another problematic influencer, and then that made it, like, reflect back on him. So it's like, 1, are you gonna sell merch? What's the merch? Is it actually gonna be good? Are people gonna buy it? 2, Patreon is great.

I subscribe to multiple Patreons because I wanna see the behind the scenes content and, like, get everything from them. That's mostly, like, for podcasts that I listen to or, like, just YouTube channels. But those two things, it's like if you're able to create a product that people like or if it's just merch or the Patreon. But the thing with making it a product that has nothing, like, really to like, a great example of this is Emma Chamberlain. Do you know who Emma Chamberlain is? K. Emma Chamberlain was a YouTuber, and, she got this huge following of girls probably when I was a junior in high school, I think. She's around my age, but basically, everybody started wearing puffy coats and scrunchies because of Emma Chamberlain. Emma Chamberlain is so good at what she does.

After she moved to LA, started doing all these things, she started a podcast. And then she was known for drinking coffee every morning. Like, she made herself coffee every single morning. Now she has made Chamberlain coffee. And Chamberlain coffee is one of the top selling coffee brands in the US now, and it's all because she took the time to make sure the product was good. And that is her. And now she doesn't even like, I saw a podcast the other day where she's like, I don't even check my bank account anymore. Because yeah.

And I'm like, k. You live in a multimillion dollar mansion and you're just like selling coffee and people buy it because it's good and they're repeat customers, so you keep having them come back. But all she did before was just be a YouTuber. It's like, you have to think about those different avenues that you could take if you have that money already from being an influencer. And, like, how can I make this bigger for me? Like, James Charles with his makeup line. I don't think James Charles is that good of a guy, but do still like, people still buy his products. You know what I'm saying? It's like different things like that. It's like it has to identify with your brand, but it also can become a brand itself without, like, people thinking about you.

Like, I know my like, I knew a friend who bought Chamberlain Coffee the other day and had no idea it was Emma Chamberlain's brand. So

yeah. So I think that's pretty cool. I just Googled her, and I do know I have I have kids, so I have seen her face multiple times on the television. And you said she started bringing like, she started wearing the scrunchies. I mean, I was wearing scrunchies originally, okay, when I was a kid. She just she just brought something back that was kinda like

She brought them back and she also sold scrunchies. And then also she was very into thrifting. That's why thrifting is so big now and the Goodwill is not the same price it used to be. But, she's like now the face of Deepak. Yeah. And Deepak's out of the selling app for do you know Deepak? It's like a thrift store app, basically, and she is now the face of that. She has been on multiple red carpets because everybody thinks, like, her, style is so different compared to everybody else because she'll bring back these different trends. So she's basically, like, created this whole portfolio for herself just based on her doing YouTube.

I mean, I that's pretty cool. I don't know if she was told or if she thought of it herself or somebody just said, hey. You probably have to diversify, and she looked at what it would do. What is part of my personal brand? And it was coffee. Right? Or scrunchies. And she's like, you know what? I can I can dive in on this? Yeah. That's pretty cool.

But she doesn't have to worry about how it's not being there.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's so crazy.

So I get so, Izzy, if for you personally, if you had a bit of a following, what product would you would you come out with?

For me, it would probably be hair dye, because how much I dye my hair. And the other thing is I hate a lot of hair dyes because of certain things that they put into it. So I would make sure that mine would actually stick on your head and it was good ingredients and wouldn't make your hair sizzle and it would also smell good. So, just little things like that or like sometimes it's like hard to achieve colors. So, like, actually, like, lay it out for them. How do you dye your hair to get it to that color and different things like that? That would be definitely be, like, one of mine or, probably an energy drink. I drink a lot of energy drinks. That's true.

That's true. But I don't wanna betray red blood like that.

Oh, maybe you could, you know, do some kind of joint venture with Red Bull.

True. Like like a collab

sponsor us.

Yeah. Yeah. I would love that. Totally. I'm their biggest fan.

See some cases of Red Bull to put them on the podcast.

I mean, I I've tweeted at them multiple times. I don't even have Twitter anymore. Jimmy John's used to follow me, but, like, had to give that up because I deleted my Twitter.

See, I just left it. I didn't I didn't delete it, but it it yeah. I don't know Twitter. I think I would do

on Instagram, follow me back.

Instagram, all the places in case one of them goes away, follow Izzy. LinkedIn.

Jimmy John's follow me on LinkedIn. Drop.

Yes. Yeah. Come to one of our workshops. Yeah. I think Izzy would probably melt or explode.

I would cry. I would cry. Jimmy Jones came to a workshop.

Yeah. Yeah. I was trying to think of when you were saying okay. I feel like the hair dye, the energy drink that fits. I don't know. For me, it would be something like some kind of hot sauce because I really like like, if I'm not if if if my face is not leaking, I don't think it was hot enough. And I would want to come up with some hot sauces. And, yeah, I think that would be great or, like, a margarita mix.

Yeah. The fact that you didn't say tequila was wild to me.

Yeah. Well well, see, to I don't know about alcohol, all the shipping regulations, but we could we could. I know someone who they own there's a a local coffee place here in Columbus. Well, they sell coffee, Cafe Graciela, and I found them at a pop up, bought their stuff, loved it. So I've ordered some more, and they have a farm. I'm gonna mess up which country, so I'm not gonna mention where. But they have a farm, and they ship it over here. And so if somebody has a farm where they can make tequila in Mexico, I will obviously have to go taste test, and I will also have to go to your competitors because you can't you have to do competitive analysis.

And maybe we can come up with a rebel marketing tequila.

I think rebel tequila sounds awesome.

Yeah. Cool. We'll put that on our list. I'll let our I'll let Erin from our team know. She'll roll her eyes a little bit and then

Hey. We're transitioning. We are now a tequila brand.

Alright. So I have a question though about what about new platforms? So there's a couple of new ones new to me at my age, but, like, blue sky. And then my kid was like, oh, I don't check TikTok anymore. And I was like, what else are you on then? Because you're literally staring at your phone all the time. So if we, as older people who own businesses, hear about these new platforms, Do we go on them? Like, is there a strategy? We don't want the same thing to happen as with Twitter and Vine, but should we test it out? How do we even know if it's the right fit?

I would just say trial and error. Like, 1, go on there. Make an account for your personal self before you do your business. See if it's even something that's worth dabbling in. Like, do you like the platform? If you don't, is it is is it easy to use? Like, are there other companies on this platform right now? Like, I know that you could also be, like, the first person to do it, and then you get that large following, but the chances of that are also, like, 1 in a million to do. So just, like, make sure that, it aligns with what you wanna be doing and what they are offering. Like, I don't like the layouts of a lot of the new apps that they're trying to roll out so that I don't even use them because it's like, oh, it's not easy enough. It's frustrating.

It's not what I'm used to. So, yeah, I think it's all just trial and error. And then if you like it, start it with the business, see if it does anything for your business. I would try to do it for, like, 3 months. And if after you're not feeling it, don't do it.

Yeah. I'd say go in trial and error strategically, see what everybody else is doing and really pay close attention to, yeah, to what's working, what's not working, but have a goal for it. If the goal is to just start out and see if you can gain followers or is it to make money right off the bat, which I probably shouldn't be the goal if you're trialing trialing all these things, if you're just, you know, on the trial and trial and journey. But go in with some kind of goal. So, like, if you for example, if you had been trying to grow on TikTok and you had a couple of followers, the goal would be to gain followers and then maybe start to pitch a product. But, yeah, just test it out like anything else.

I I just feel like that's the best answer.

Of course it is. Alright. Any last words of wisdom, Izzy? Or you can close us out.

Shake that s in 2025.

Yes. It'll make 2025 so much better.

What do I do?

For me? Oh, oh, well well, according to one of our our previous, meeting, I have to learn how to floss the dance. I get to do that. And then my biggest words of wisdom, though, for anybody is always that nobody, no crime. So make sure nobody, no crime. And then just ask for a lawyer and post the the cops will lie to you. So Mhmm. I've learned that from a lot of podcasts who are the ones that I, you know, provide money for on Patreon. Maybe they can help me out.

Maybe they'll make a podcast out of me. Yeah. Either way, if I if I do either thing or disappear or something yeah. Yeah. I'm investing in my future podcast episode.

So true. Good. Good.

Alright. If you would like a marketing audit or have us take a look at your website, feel free to check out rebel mark my rebel marketing dot com. And if you want to download a freebie, we have revamped our marketing audit worksheet. It's a couple pages now, more than a couple pages. There's videos that go along with it, and it's free. So go to my rebel marketing.com/checklist. And with that, I we will catch you in the next episode.