Okta’s digital agents are spearheading the identity security company’s growth: It reported subscription growth of 11% YoY in its Q1 earnings, and, according to CRO Jon Addison, new product innovation now represents 25% of bookings.

“AI agents are rapidly becoming a new workforce inside every organization, creating a wave of identities that must be secured and governed alongside human users,” said Okta CEO and co-founder Todd McKinnon in a press release.

Addison sat down with Revenue Brew to discuss how AI agents are benefiting Okta’s customers, especially at a time when more and more companies want the most advanced methods used for their cybersecurity needs.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What role do you think AI should play in cybersecurity?

The question is how do enterprises think about the relationship between AI, agentic deployments, and the efficiency that they can create for them, but also how you manage their risk. That’s how it relates to security—and what we’ve seen over the last couple of years is that there has been a lot of top-down energy in businesses to get going with AI and agents. That’s driven a lot of bottom-up activity and innovation. What we’re seeing now is quite traditional when we see these big technology shifts that we have now a lag, where companies are investing in and addressing two things primarily. One is the governance gap, which is: How do we govern what these agents are doing? The second is much more about financial and the cost benefit of these agents and whether all of the innovation that’s been done is actually generating any financial benefit to companies. We’re right in the heart of that as companies are thinking about agents, security, and the cost benefit of them.

Keep reading for Okta’s strategy in driving that growth.—LI

As international soccer fans enjoy the novelties of American culture during the World Cup, small businesses and host cities are reaping the benefits.

According to new data from fintech company Square, analyzed between June 11 and June 27, cities hosting World Cup games are seeing a major lift in transactions since the tournament kicked off. Among the cities hosting games, Boston has seen transactions increase 28%, Philadelphia 23%, Seattle 21.8%, and New York/New Jersey 18.5%.

The data shows that bars and breweries have experienced a revenue lift of 8% during the group stage, with an over 20% increase in transactions during late-night hours (specifically between 10pm and 1am). Among these businesses, the following purchases have seen an uptick:

• Food orders increased 13.6%, with burgers seeing a 11.6% lift and ranch dressing sales increasing by 11.5%.
• Nonalcoholic drinks and mocktail sales grew 11.8%, while beer sales increased 8.8%. Soda sales grew by 11.1%.
• Full-service restaurants saw a similar increase in revenue with a 3.5% jump in sales and in quick-service restaurants 3.1%.

“The world’s biggest football tournament coming to North America is more than a global sporting event, it’s a meaningful economic moment for local businesses,” said Alex Fisher, global head of revenue at Block, Square’s parent company, in a press release.—LI

Kevin Durant is an NBA champion, an MVP, and a gold medalist. Perhaps more importantly, he’s also the face of legs.

Earlier this year, skin care brand CeraVe declared Kevin Durant to be the “new face of legs” in a campaign that riffed on a 2021 viral post from former NBA player Isaiah Thomas about Durant’s long (and apparently dry) limbs. Durant kicked off the campaign with a video responding to the post and its replies on X, a platform where he’s long been active and has developed a reputation for clapping back.

“‘Next time you take a matter into your own hands, make sure it’s lotion,’” Durant reads in the video. “That’s actually pretty funny. I don’t have a reply to that.”

The three-week campaign featured a hero video with a drawn-out pan of Durant’s legs and could be seen across TV placements, OOH, and point-of-sale promotions; however, the primary focus was on social, Esther Garcia, GM at CeraVe US, told us.

The “New Face of Legs” campaign led to a 43% sales lift for CeraVe, in addition to more than 4.1 billion PR impressions and 83 million organic video views, the brand exclusively told Marketing Brew. At Cannes Lions this week, CeraVe will be celebrating the success of the campaign with Durant at Stagwell’s Sport Beach, co-hosted by Durant’s media company, Boardroom.

We spoke to Garcia and James Rowe, president of the branded entertainment and content studio Bolded at OBB, about how the campaign came together and how it fits into CeraVe’s broader strategy of using comedy and native-seeming content to drive big results.

Read on for how the campaign broke through on social media.—KH

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CFOs can help their companies avoid becoming victims of purchasing the wrong tools, and consequently wasting precious resources, with the right approach.

H&M, Primark, Etsy, and ThredUp demand sales-tax exemptions for resale clothing (Retail Brew)

A coalition of fashion brands and resale marketplaces wants to abolish the sales tax on resale clothing, arguing that because sales tax was collected when the items were new, taxing them when they’re resold amounts to double taxation.

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Healthcare Brew has been covering developments in the health tech space closely this year, reporting on everything from policy changes to the rise of AI to big tech’s partnerships with hospitals.