Sororities make brands go viral

Plus: Moms make great trend forecasters & Neiman Marcus is feeling fresh

Morning,

This letter coming to you from a sunny deck in Rhode Island. European summers are divine but there is something I love about a lobster roll and wooden siding.

I’ll be in NYC the second half of next week if anyone wants to meet for coffee or a drink. Also, please send reccs for anything ‘must see’.

If you only read one thing in this letter I recco: RUSHTOK RECAP for cuteness. Followed by SHARKS IN THE COLLEGE WATERS because it’s very related.

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

DROP DEAD GORGEOUS // Exit Here, Sparrow, Poppy’s and Altima are repositioning death. Think way less old and depressing and more ‘celebratory’, modern and clean. Just like everything else, today people want every experience in their lives, including the end of it, to align with their vibe. I have a ton of examples I’ve collected on this topic, as I think death will be yet another taboo topic that will come out of the shadows, much like menopause. I’ll try to share soon. 

HOTELIFICATION OF CO-WORKING // The headline of this article is misleading, it makes you believe it’s about offices, yet actually it’s about how co-working. is ramping up amenities to get people back. Think cold plunges, restaurants etc. They are trying to reposition themselves as the new country club and I think they might do better if they just made that hard pivot.  

UNVARNISHED CREATION -> AfterSchool // Creators are starting to adopt a ‘no edit’ approach. More off the cuff, more raw, almost no editing of the content at all. This is our approach to the podcast. For us it’s ease, speed and a better reflection of our personalities. I don’t see brands hoping on this trend any time soon but it is a notable counter-trend to ‘films for social’. 

F&B

DAVID’S A GOLIATH -> Snaxshot // David, the new protein bar (yet to be released) by the founder of RXBar is now a  “platform that designs tools to increase muscle and decrease fat.” Protein is a huge category due to GLP-1 and weight-lifting surging. $10M in seed won’t take them too far, so it won’t be a huge category expansion yet but I could see them taking on an ‘authority’ role in the space, much like Zoe and Seed have done in theirs.

SUBWAY, SUB PAR -> The Hustle // It’s hard to say what caught my attention more in this chart, Subway’s poor numbers or Portillo’s great ones—people love hot dogs! To combat their decline, Subway is price-capping their footlongs at $7 for 2 weeks. This kind of effort could jump-start sales for a hot minute but they need a bigger overhaul. Subways are the least inspirational environments of this bunch, so I’d want to start there. But maybe they should try a fragrance like everyone else.

DRUGS

HIVE EXPANSION -> The Hustle // Beyoncé has partnered with Moet Hennessy on a new whiskey. The brand, SirDavis, is named after her great-grandfather. I like the cocktail photography. Hoping they worked with @discocubes as—clearly—her work was on the mood board. But most of all, the copywriting needs love. ‘The future of whiskey’—they deserve better.

SOFTENING MARKET FOR SOFT SPIRITS -> As Seen On // Soft Spirits, L.A’s first non-alcoholic bottle shop, is closing. Boisson, another NA store filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy about half a year ago. This isn’t the death of NA. It’s a situation similar to DTC’s issues. Wholesale is more effective and cheaper to scale. Kin, Ghia, and several others are now at Target. Safeway is getting in on the game. The supermarket shelf is where this business has moved. But, in a sea of options, not merchandised as enticingly, the challenge is how all these brands will stand out.

ALPHAS & ZS

I LOVE A BASIC -> AfterSchool // Perhaps this is the trickle-down of ‘quiet luxury’ and the ‘unbranding’ of everything but Gen Zers are obsessed with “basics.” According to Google Trends, searches for “capsule wardrobe” increased by 60% in the last 12 months and searches for “uniform” were up 42%. Basics were a huge part of the back-to-school hauls that

Casey Lewis

covered in her delightfully thorough way. 

RUSHTOK RECAP -> AfterSchool //

Casey Lewis

also had her mom take notes of RushTok trends and it might be my favorite thing of the week. Think her mom needs a weekly column in the letter. Hopefully she doesn’t mind me sharing this from behind the paywall—it was just so delightfully refreshing.

THANKS BUT I’LL WALK -> AfterSchool // It’s not just Gen-Z, everyone hates insurance but Gen-Z isn’t having it. GenZers share of new and used car sales is declining year over year. As I shared recently, +50s is the average age for a car purchase currently. Time for insurance and the car industry to take a hard look at the landscape. 

MEN WON’T SETTLE // 1-in-5 male college graduates under 25 are neither employed nor actively looking for work. They can afford to because 73.2% live with relatives, a shift a lot of brands should be paying attention to. Not to stereotype an entire demo but video game companies and sports are looking good right now. Maybe this is why Taco Bell opened a retirement community for GenZs.

RETAIL

EXTRAORDINARILY GOOD CHOICES //  Neiman Marcus’ new Fall campaign felt worth sharing for a few reasons. 1) It taps in to the ‘film on social’ trend in a delightful way 2) It’s directed by Tyler Mitchell whom I, and just about everyone, love 3) The casting is great 4) Working with @LadiesofMadisonAve is a lovely touch. Bravo.  

THE BRAT EFFECT //  Charli XCX’s has a single on her Brat album is named after Von Dutch. And they are, rightfully, trying to capitalize on the moment. They were recently acquired and are revamping their site and are on a hiring spree. I’d be happy to help if anyone wants to put us in touch!

TECH

A SPOT OF REBRANDING // Spotify launched a new logo with a fancy new ’signature P’ and a dynamic type face. It don’t dislike it by any means but because I follow @gabrielanamie, all I can see is YouTube music. 

NOT STEALING IS BIG MONEY // Story Protocol, a blockchain startup that tackles copyright use, raised $80M. Story Protocol allows creators, such as artists and writers, to register their intellectual property on blockchain in order to track and monetize usage of their work. AI’s copyright infringement issues are one of its greatest challenges. Conde Nast recently agreed to let OpenAI show content from Vogue, The New Yorker, and others in search. Many teams who work on ‘limited editorial budgets’ were quick to say their editorial contracts need renegotiating now that everything is ‘commerical’. Maybe these issues are why most of Gen-Z feels guilty about using AI.

A FRIGHTENING STREAK // This piece is a great deep dive into the impact SnapChat and the effect its feature Snapstreaks is having on Gen-A friendships. Long streaks = a badge of honor. Broken streaks = rifts. You can also ‘pin’ 3 best friends which, obviously, is a recipe for disaster. It’s a tough world out there for kids.

SPORT

SHARKS IN THE COLLEGE WATERS -> AfterSchool // Gymshark, the athleticwear brand, and Prime, the energy drink, sponsored Alpha Chi Omega at The University of Tennessee for back-to-school. This video has over 2.1M views when I wrote this. Good engagement for sponsored content.  

@utkalphachiALL SET FOR MC ‘24 WITH @PRIME @Gymshark @Gymshark Women 🩷💛💙#gymsharkcampus #utkaxo #alphachiomega #utk #tennessee #sorority #rush #rushtok #greeklife

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WELLNESS

NEUTROGENA IN NEUTRAL // While skincare brands like CeraVe ad Cetaphil has been surging, Neutrogena has not. It’s parent company, Kenvue, that also owns Aveeno, Clean & Clear and Ogx, has lost more than 10% of its skincare market share since 2019. Neutrogena launched a new range, Collagen Bank, targeting younger consumers with a ‘TikTok-first' rollout’. Based on these numbers I’m not sure they nailed it. Personally, the one person that I know that is a die-hard Neutrogena fan is my mother-in-law. Maybe they are sleeping on an older audience. Or maybe they need a team that actually gets TikTok. Or both.

FLO AWAY // Flo health, a women’s health and period tracking app, has a new ‘partner’ period tracking feature. Unsurprisingly, the internet is not impressed. This is just really one of those cases when having the right team for the job makes a big difference (and potentially why you shouldn’t have ChatGPT help with you copy—this is my best, most generous, guess at what happened here).

GOING WITH THEIR GUT // Interest in Gut Health is not dying down. #GutTok has posted 452% year-over-year growth and an increase of 2.4 billion in total views. Seed has been on this since the beginning. The link they are making here between your gut and your skin is one I think we’ll see a lot more of in 2025.

TRAVEL

GROWING IN THE MIDDLE // The Middle East is becoming increasingly becoming known for tourism. It used to be just Dubai but now several cities are on the rise. Most of the tourists are coming from within the Middle East. Europe and the US based retailers might want to be worried given that MENA tourists have done well for them in the past.  

FUN FOR THE WEEK

• Skims got Charli XCX in a campaign. They are always so on it. 

• Why is e.l.f so successful? One reason—they think—is that every single employee has equity. 

• Merch lines are a bit last year but this Lipton collab isn’t bad. Most of all, I appreciate the photography and casting.  

• Tupperware rebranded. The ‘T’ now has a lid. That’s all I’ll say. 

• The new Calvin ad ft Greta Lee feels classic is the right way. 

• Lancôme staged this just so they could work with this creator, @jackieg, who is deaf and known for reading lips. Mixed feelings on the staging but JackieG’s audience doesn’t seem mad.

• Back at the start of the year, Pinterest Predicts called the ‘body skincare’ trend and The Ordinary, Soft Services and Rare Beauty have all taken notice.

• Charm bracelets are cool again.This has been coming but brands could play with this and the “arm party” for sure. 

• A PowerPoint birds and the bees talk—brands have been using this PowerPoint trend but this lady feels like an opportunity for someone. 

• Rupaul is teaching people to change tires. There’s an opportunity here for sure.

• Hinge wrote a romance zine of real Hinge stories. I like this a lot. 

• Dunkin’ is rolling out a spiked pumpkin spiced latte.

• Chick-a-fil is getting into the streaming game.

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.