Retail latest amenity: comedy clubs
Plus: 5 solid/fun/niche trends hospitality should be watching
Morning,
Thanks for the love on last week’s letter!
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
THE BUMBLE FUMBLE PART DEUX -> In case you’ve been on offline for a week, right on the back of their rebrand flop, Bumble released a tone-deaf campaign mocking celibacy. It didn’t go over well. That said, people liked the apology (the OOH offer was a good one). The only thing more mind-boggling than this whole thing is that
hasn’t done a reel making fun of it.ARCHIVAL WEALTH AND NOSTALGIC NICHES -> Feed Me Nostalgia worked for JCrew (they are very much back) so now Vogue is trying it. This week they introduced a new newletter, ‘Vogue Nostalgia’. It will draw on the 131 years (!) of archives. The first letter has essays Joan Didion did for Vogue after college in the 1960s. People seem (rightly) excited. Publications coming out with niche newsletters is a big thing right now.
F&B
GROCERY STORE > DATING APPS Snaxshot’s Instagram stories this week has been filled with tales of people meeting their SO’s at the grocery store. Apparently, there’s one Chicago grocery store that’s THE place to hook up. This insight would have made a much more fun Bumble campaign.
’s prediction that ‘grocery stores are the new 3rd place’ is a fun trend to take advantage of.2 SIDES OF FRIES McDonald’s has 2 new Happy Meal campaigns and they couldn’t be more different. One is a campaign in the UK that drops the smile from the Happy Meal box because ‘It’s ok not to feel happy all the time.’ The other ran in China and featured a corgi and orange tabby cat modeling a new line of Happy Meal toys. The latter campaign stemmed from an insight that many people were using their dogs in UGC with last year’s toys. One feels fun and designed for people to engage with. The other feels like a play for an award and a headline. I’m all for mental health but I’m just not sure McDonald’s is where I’d go to have those big life chats with my kid.
OCCASIONS > SEASONAL Move over Pumpkin Spice (jk), brands are getting on board with ‘occasions’ to drive sales. “Whether it's aligning an LTO with a Taylor Swift album drop or deciding what snack to buy for a Vanderpump Rules Reunion watch party with friends, brands and retailers that solve for occasions in culture will outpace their peers.” My VERY favorite brand strategist, Jen Kaplan, has been preaching this to brands we’ve worked on together for YEARS. It’s spot on.
DRUGS
BODY POSITIVITY HAS A NEW FOE -> Snaxshot People are using Zyn to lose weight. First Ozempic came for all of the body positivity progress and now Zyn’s here to help it along. As soon as someone designs a good-looking Zyn alternative it will be over.
ALPHAS & ZS
GEN-Z FOR GOVERNMENT > AfterSchool I’ve been talking about the rise of 2nd and 3rd tier cities for a good decade now. It seems like Gen-Z is on board. They are rejecting tech jobs and looking for more stable jobs in government. And they moving to DC.
RETAIL
A+F IS THE ARTIZIA OF MENSWEAR ->
Apparently, A+F is filling more than the affordable wedding dress gap. It’s the place for affordable yet fashionable menswear. “Every trend is on display at once. There are frills upon frills and matching sets abound. This kind of hyperaware trendiness has been absent from menswear and masc fashion retail more generally in the US.” This brand’s revival is one for the ages.DTC KING TO BRICK-AND-MORTAR STAR -> Feed Me Warby Parker announced that revenue jumped 16%YOY to $200M in Q1. The main growth driver was store openings. They had 8 open in Q1. And are anticipating 40 in 2024.
says this “strategy has helped them keep customer acquisition costs low – the main concern of most of the consumer founders I speak to (heard this from two who co-founded public companies yesterday).” Brick-and-mortar expansion being a cheaper acquisition strategy than digital is wild. But as I’ve been saying: retail is back!PARAGON AFTER DARK -> AfterSchool For those not from NYC, Paragon is the OG sporting goods stores in the city. And this week it’s also a comedy club. Underground Overground Comedy, led by Gen Zers David Levine and Ethan Mansoor, organizes comedy shows in unconventional locations across NYC and took over Paragon for a sold-out, two-night, eight-show, 30-comic festival. Such a fun retail activation. Love this for such an old-school brand.
CORTEIZ SHOOK BROOKLYN -> AfterSchool Corteiz brought its crazy, gamified drop strategy to Greenpoint this week. Similar to the ones we’ve seen them do with coats in the past in the UK, they did an exchange, this time with denim.
shared this TikTok of the madness. I’ve been in lots of chats with brands wanting to mimic Corteiz’s drop strategy—and no wonder.TECH
THERAPY IS ABOUT TO GET MUCH CHEAPER AI is getting good at emotions. GPT-4 can help people reappraise a difficult emotional situation better than 85% of humans, beating human advice-givers on the effectiveness, novelty, and empathy of their reappraisal. That said, they are also 87% more likely to persuade you to their assigned viewpoint, which is scary. But if you are looking for start-up ideas the new GPT-4 generates startup ideas ‘that outside judges find to be better than those of trained business school students’.
AI WILL MAKE SALES PERSONAL Given the evidence above, it’s no surprise that companies are starting to use it for sales. AI is about to make the sales process a lot more personal. 1:1 versus 1:many. It will also mean we’ll all have personal landing pages, personal product experience, etc. “Everything will be white glove and concierge, rather than mass-produced.”
SPORT
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL FOR THE WIN Not only is Candace Parker stunning in this new Skims x WNBA campaign but she’s now the president of Women’s Basketball at Adidas. Women’s basketball (really, women’s sports in general) is really getting its long overdue time in the spotlight. It will be fun to see more brands get on board with this new era.
WELLNESS
THERE ARE TOO MANY DICKS IN THE BOARD ROOM This campaign by E.L.F is hysterical. We’ve been seeing lots brands get more into gender partity with campaigns lately but the humor used in this one cut through.
MENTAL HEALTH IS GETTING RECONSIDERED And not just because Dua Lipa says she prefers astrology to therapy. New studies show that mental health campaigns in schools provided much-needed access for some, but for others, it caused an increase in self-labeled depression and catastrophizing. I’m pro-therapy but it does make you look at that McDonalds Happy Meal campaign differently.
HOW OLD IS YOUR HEART? Oura Ring, aka every optimizer’s favorite accessory, announced that it will soon be able to track your heart's ‘age’ by measuring arterial stiffness. Preventative med services, like ‘calcification’ tests and private MRIs, is a big wellness trend to watch.
TRAVEL & HOSPITALITY
MOMS WANT ROOM SERVICE -> Cassandra Daily Not much remarkable happened this Mother’s Day other than Molly Baz’s Swelh campaign getting banned from Times Square (best type of free PR). But I did notice a trend on my feed: ‘I’d like a day off and I’d like a quiet hotel room to myself’. And the data backs it up. 23% of moms wanted a vacation as a gift this year. Hospitality groups should capitalize on this next year. I’ve also noticed this outside of Mother’s Day, with many moms I follow booking bi-monthly ‘nights off’ in a hotel room solo.
THE MARRIOTT’S ABOUT TO SMELL AMAZING Flamingo Estate is really in a collaborative mood lately. A toilet last week. This week they announced they’ve made a scent that will be pumped into all the halls of the JW Marriott Essex House. They even developed a soundtrack to go along with the scent (multi-sensory seems to be a growing trend too. Check out this multi-sensory book by Penguin Random House that ties into your lights and speakers).
LET’S CALL A SHUTTLE Uber announced a new feature, Uber Shuttle, that will let customers prebook shared buses to airports, concerts, and sporting events for “a fraction” of the typical Uber fare. The need is there. Last summer, when Taylor Swift played in the Los Angeles area, Metro had to add a special service to SoFi Stadium to help with traffic. Feels like a fun OOH opportunity for brands to sponsor at events. Everyone loves the party bus!
DIAL ‘1’ TO END YOUR HANGOVER IV bags are the ‘it’ hospitality amenity. Some Four Seasons spa locations have IV drip clinics for guests looking to refuel. Shoppers can take a break from swiping their cards with IV drips at clinics inside Harrods in London. Carnival Cruise guests are letting people book IV drips at sea. I’m honestly surprised these aren’t bigger at airports.
SCREENLESS CITIES COMING TO A TOWN NEAR YOU Maria Dollé, the brilliant mind behind In Bed With Social, shared this article with me. The residents of the small village of Seine et Port 54% of voters responded favorably to the Mayor’s proposal to ban screens, paving the way to becoming a screenless city. Honestly, no one is shocked this is happening. Parents worldwide are battling screentime. According to the Mirador app, searches for things like outdoor activities (+35K), forest school (22K), and ‘farm parties’ are all on the rise. Great opps for hospitality businesses to pay attention to.
FUN FOR THE WEEK
Seed restoring Swehl x Molly Baz’s ad to Times Square using their buy 🤌
The least interesting use of AI for a campaign ever?
This Luxury Law interview should convince you to take risks on unknown talent
There’s a new NYC neighborhood coming
This fridge magnet outfitting idea is cute
This fashion influencer educating on ectopic pregnancies
These aerial videos of skiers are a campaign waiting to happen
Dublin x NYC ‘portal’ didn’t go as planned—no shit.
Brands are making films again. Here’s another.
Scent for your suitcase feels like a collab waiting to happen
Bean dip drawer. Content genius.
These photos and this book of illustrations=love
This interactive Heinz billboard in Chicago is clever.
Always a sucker for a rube goldberg machine.
Tribeca is now the bridal district (consolidating this is smart, behaviorally)
Moms dancing like they did in the 80s is an adorable TikTok trend
Is this the new alternative to Hedley and Bennett staff aprons?
That’s all folx.
- Chris