Boom Boom times ahead. Steak, booze, and leather are back.
Plus: Skims is positioning for an acquisition and Merit is worldbuilding.
Morning,
I need your vote for SxSW London: Super Creator Economy and Span the Spectrum: Alphas to Silvers by Dec 19th. Thank you!!
If you only read one thing in this letter, I recco: BOOM BOOM.
As always, the lens of this letter is a best-of-the-best on culture, trends, marketing, etc. What I’m dropping to friends on Slack or finding useful in meetings with brands.
Let’s dive in!
CULTURE
CRAVING HUMANS -> Feed Me -> As Seen On // We’re craving humanity. Think moms going to raves, people pouring their souls out, stuff like Meet Cutes, Big Talk, and Subway Hands. (The latter of which Instagram smartly tapped for their MTA Holiday campaign). Very Mad Realities ‘show’ Hollywood IQ matches the vibe. As we roll into 2025 and AI-everything, consider the possibility that your brand can choose to deliver the other side of the pendulum swing.
BIG ROLLOUT, SMALL SCREEN -> The Hustle // Season 2 of Squid Games the Barbie treatment. There are full Squid Game experiences in NYC, Sydney, and Madrid. A collab with Knorr for Korean noodles (the ad is weird and fun). A partnership with DuoLingo. There’s a Crocs collab—obviously. A lot for a show that did well in Season 1.
BOOM BOOM // People ready for abundance. And nothing says abundance like 80’s work-hard-play-hard, win-at-all-costs business chic like this aesthetic.
calls it ‘Boom Boom’. But it’s not just an aesthetic trend. It’s tied to a desire for less regulation. Think: the new Texas ‘less regulated’ stock exchange. Bari Weiss’ The Free Press growth. Olympics with steroids. Veganism in decline. ‘Clean beauty’ becoming a dirty word. Steaks and booze (p49+76). Excess is back.ALL IN ON CHRISTMAS // Brands are all-in on Christmas joy. Cartier is sending butlers to set up Christmas trees. Tower28 is gifting orange trees. Alex Mill had an adorable 12-days of Christmas tune. Tiffany’s made an ‘art advent calendar’. Big Night got Amy Sedaris (flex) to narrate a Christmas story. Flamingo Estate made dog toys. And Marco Zamora who made THE viral tree of 2023, went even bigger this year. I’m here for it all.
F&B
PRIVATE EXCITEMENT // Fred Hart did us a solid and went to the biggest private-label tradeshow. The big takeaways: global cuisine and GLP-1-friendly options can exist in this space and should, based on The New Consumer report.
DRUGS & BOOZE
COSTLY WATER // A major issue N/A bevs have: price. When the fave N/A option is water, everything seems expensive. It’s tough for small brands to compete on price. We’ll see roll-ups.
’s scathing review of a Perrier Jouët ‘pop-up’ made me cackle but it points to something bigger. People are drinking (p44), but champs hasn’t kept up. “Cut-out teal butterflies hot glued onto white and gold” ain’t cutting it. ‘Boom Boom’ feels made for champagne—someone should get on that.THE GUINNESS GIRLS // “Guinness sales have skyrocketed among Gen Z”. The new "split the 'G'" challenge on TikTok contributed. But people also miss “a drinking experience they could only have in person.” Humans, I’m telling you, like other humans.
SILVERS, ALPHAS & ZS
BABY BREAKTHROUGH // Amazon Fashion may finally be moving in the right direction with this Sofia Richie Grainge kids line. It looks very Zara Kids (a compliment) and the outerwear prices are competitive. Kids are the gateway drug.
KIDS ON THE COURSE -> Profluence // Do you know where your kids are? On the golf course. Junior golf participation rose 82% between 2019-2023. With 1MM new players, golf is now the “fastest-growing sport among kids ages 13-17”. Watch this space.
PRAISE B //
’s interview with Tremaine Romeo, the Head of Retail at 242 Mulberry was great. Tremaine has quite the retail pedigree. I particularly enjoyed falling down the Merz B rabbit hole and finding this fun campaign they did. Silvers are cool.RETAIL
MUSICAL CHAIRS // Matthieu Blazy is moving to Chanel, meaning they are taking having good product seriously. And Louise Trotter is taking his place at Bottega. Louise’s work for Lacoste was great. She’s big on quality product, too. Good product is like good underwear; it makes everything better. I’m excited for this chapter.
SKIMS EMPIRE // Skims’ new flagship is right 5th, right next to Cartier (and across from Victoria’s Secret—ha.) With their new ski collection, and now this move, they are positioning themselves as luxury. Expect more category expansion and an acquisition.
MIXING IT UP // Speaking of category expansion, Merit is selling earrings inspired by the bottle of their new fragrance Retrospect. Merit does a good job with storytelling. Not many quiet luxury / luxury-adjacent brands are doing world-building. Watch this.
TECH
AI FOR CREATIVES -> Zoe Scaman // Springboards is a new AI made for creatives and agencies. Unlike traditional AI, it’s built to spark possibilities—interesting.
SUPER GOOGLE // Google’s new quantum computer is a big deal. It will change cyber security as we know it and much more. Google’s AI updates are also significant. One feature, Deep Research, focuses on facts (an AI weakness). Google is back.
SPORT
ADVANTAGE PADEL // Is Padel about to become the new Pickleball? Padel is big in Europe already. One advantage it has is that it’s quieter than pickleball—a big country club complaint. But that won’t matter for this court floating of the coast of Miami Beach.
THE FULL EXPERIENCE // Experiential sports is exploding. The Intuit Dome installed a mosh-pit and The Wall. UFC is holding games at the Sphere. Cosm is taking off. The Ra Ra Room is a new in-stadium private dining club. This is the tip of this potential iceberg.
WELLNESS & BEAUTY
WOO WOO WORLD // LaDoubleJ’s founder, JJ Martin’s love of woo woo is the best. At their new NYC pop-up, they had a sound healer, a psychic, and a “crystal whisperer.” This is another example of worldbuilding.
BIG HEART // A while ago, Dr Mary Clare posted this. It stuck with me. 80–90% of cases of heart disease are preventable. GLP-1’s may be coming to the rescue. And AI too (HelloHeart and Cleerly). This space will get big.
PERI POTENTIAL // Perimenopause is finally getting its due. “Oura released its first Perimenopause Report. It affects 1B people but the research is nearly non-existent. To quote
: “2025 will be the year of female healthcare. Amen.”TRAVEL
GIVE ME ME -> The Hustle // 56% of Americans “consider alone time vital to their mental health.” The word used was ‘essential’. Anecdotally, more moms are asking for solo nights in hotels—an untapped campaign insight.
FUN FOR THE WEEK
Alaïa new location is giving ‘corporate fetish.’
called this in 2023.PornHub’s annual report says searches for ‘coworker’ are up 92%—coincidence?!
J.Crew made, Julia Collier, SKIMS’ SVP of Marketing, their new CMO—good call.
Subaru should work with this kid.
Having Caleb Simpson do a ‘home tour’ of the new Aritzia store in NYC = fun.
This had me laughing for a solid minute.
Mini arm lifts are up 25%. This prediction is already coming true.
That’s all, folx.
-Chris
If you read this and liked it, that little heart is there for that. The algo and I appreciate it.
I love Skims, but I was shocked that they're now doing skiwear. Going outside their core product offering (underwear, shapewear), I feel like they're moving towards brand dilution. Ski wear, to me, is quite a jump outside the lines. But maybe it's just me that feels that?