The non-alcoholic beverage era is over
Plus: The cool kids say merch is cringe
Morning,
I fell down a LOT of rabbit holes this week. Lots of little links and lots of side notes this week. As always skip to what strikes your fancy!
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
IS MERCH CRINGE? -> As Seen On -> Feed Me Every Substack I’ve read this week has mentioned Sam Hine’s ‘merch is dead’ article. “Merch was once tied up with ideas of exclusivity. It was ephemeral and limited edition. You wanted to be one of a small hard-core group of fans to have earned those stripes.” Now, that’s gone. But, on the flip side, Ana Andjelic wrote that merch still serves a purpose. Lipstick or coffee shop swag from a luxury brand=merch and an opportunity to participate in the brand at an affordable price point. Is merch dead? No. But the ‘cool’ factor is wearing off. Similar to collabs, when something becomes ubiquitous it becomes more boring. The lesson here is that you have to do it well.
, the sage she is, took on Gary Vee’s take on social. It’s not just about quantity, it’s timeliness. “Engage as soon as possible [or] you’d be better off not engaging at all. Which means you miss out on a lot of opportunities to not only be part of the conversation but also to…be the conversation.” Best-in-class example? Marc Jacobs. “Their TikTok strategy is basically: Track down the most niche-viral internet stars of the moment (and I do mean moment — their timing is astounding), put them in Marc Jacobs clothes, and let them do what they do best: go be funny on the internet.”F&B
CHAGEES COMING FOR STARBIES A super popular tea chain is going to overtake Starbucks in China. They have some snazzy store locations (which would require some translating to a US market). They launch new locations with these fun tearaway cups that reveal (occasionally, high value!) prizes. These stickers for their very cute cold brew are also adorable. Think they’ll try stateside? These look like they’d be popular. Rumor has it they are about to IPO.
IN PURSUIT OF OZEMPIC USERS -> Feed Me Nestlé launched a new frozen brand called Vital Pursuits targeting GPL-1 (Ozempic) users. J.P. Morgan Research predicts that total GLP-1 users in the U.S. may reach 30 million by 2030—or around 9% of the population—so it’s a huge market. I’m pretty disappointed with the brand photography—not going lie. Frozen food has been reinvented already and Nestlé should be trying harder.
NICHE FOOD MED F&B ON THE RISE
says the next wave of CPG products will be hangover products (they should target hotel minibars). And highlighted migraine-friendly snacks (40M Americans get migraines). We’re moving beyond ‘functional’ which was very wishy-washy into ultra-specific food-as-cure products. But brands have to be careful not to over-claim or they could end up with a lawsuit like Poppi got hit with this week.RETAIL
GANNI’S GIVING AWAY THE PLAYBOOK -> As Seen On June 12th Ganni is releasing a hands-on guide to building a more responsible business within today’s fashion landscape. The key phrase they are going with is ‘progress over perfection’ which is probably smart. To co-inside with the announcement they have a pop-up with SOJO (a repair and tailoring service). Saying it again: repair is the sustainability trend of 2024.
ON IS GOING BIG THIS YEAR -> Snobette Rumor has it that On is following up their FKA Twigs collab with Zendaya. Z is always associated with cool, lux brands so this is good positioning play. On is never the cheapest but it’s usually worth it. At my daughter’s Swiss daycare, the parent shoe pile at pickup was ALL On. But the Swiss are used to high prices. US consumers need a bit more convincing.
POSEN IS PROMISING The amount of real estate the Zac Posen Anne Hathaway shirt dress had in my feed this week was wild. Posen is pulling the cool kids people into stores for launch events—how Y2K. As we’ve been saying, mainstream legacy brands are making a comeback! Now they just need to pull it all together with revamped store experiences.
TECH
AI BUILT ON TWEETS -> As Seen On Elon raised $6B for xAI, his alternative to OpenAI. According to the xAI pitch deck, it will use your tweets as data. "X represents the world's most timely dataset of real-time human conversations, interests, and trends for xAI to form its intelligence. X's dataset will also become valuable as it progresses on its 'everything app' vision."
’s comment “Looking forward to seeing all your bad behavior reflected in those AI models” made me spit out my tea—she’s such a fun read.UGC ADS MADE WITH AI -> Digital Native
had a good dive into the changing landscape of commerce recently, and one section shared a viral TikTok ad. The ad features a real-life creator’s video content. Only the voice and the audio are changed using AI to get her to promote a cleaning wipe. The video isn’t perfect but it’s convincing. I truly wonder about consumer sentiment for brands that do this type of thing.GOOGLE’S ‘AI OVERVIEW’ NEEDS REVIEW -> SatPost I promise to not turn this section into all thing AI. But Google rolled out its “AI Overview” for certain search results this week. It, umm, has been a bit of a mess, giving users terrible answers to questions. Funny examples: suggesting using gasoline to make spaghetti spicier, adding glue to foods to make them ‘tackier’ and drinking urine to hydrate yourself (possible but not great advice). The problem? Google’s pulling from everything, including silly posts by kids on Reddit that jokingly (key) suggest dumb shit.
points out “Google has a serious business dilemma. Embrace generative AI — which is the future modality — and put its "greatest business model ever" $300B search ad business at risk. Or do nothing and slowly lose share to competitors.” Regardless, now is a good time to think about how you want your brand to show up in generated search results.SPORT
FERRARI IS THE #1 LUXURY BRAND Ferrari has launched a driving school (with retired race car drivers), Corso Pilota Classiche. Teaching you everything from how to drive a stick to making turns on a racecourse that replicates corners from some of the world’s most challenging racetracks—fun and a great content opp. They also give attendees access to vintage models to test drive. I live down the road from here. If anyone has a Ferrari and would like to send me to driving school, let me know. The world-building happening in luxury right now, from hotels to driving schools, is fun.
DICK’S IS IN CHARGE OF YOUTH SPORTS -> AfterSchool Did you know that Dick’s makes an app called ‘Game Changer’ for youth sports and it’s set to earn $100M this year? They’ve onboarded more than 1M teams and last quarter, 5 million users spent a half hour per day on the platform. Wild. It uses AI to take live streams and auto-generated highlight reels from games—so smart. The cross-selling potential for team uniforms and gear though is pretty genius, users have a 2x the revenue profile.
WELLNESS
CAN BEAUTYCOUNTER BOUNCE BACK? To catch you up, Beautycounter, a big, vocal and early player in the clean beauty space, was purchased by private equity. Then, in what seems to be a terrible trend, they went bankrupt giving employees zero notice and no severance. Now Greg Renfew, the founder, is buying it back (sounds VERY Foxtrot, right?!) but former employee and all the independent sellers are pretty pissed off. Affiliate is so big now that many of these sellers probably have plenty of other places to go. Brand repair on this scale requires a deft hand. But if Martha Stewart’s personal rebrand teaches anything it’s that 1) fortune favors the bold and 2) anything is possible.
Side note: “Beautycounter’s experience with private equity isn’t uncommon. California Polytechnic State University has found that 20% of companies acquired by private equity firms through leveraged buyouts go bankrupt within 10 years, as compared to only 2% in the control group.” Not a great look for PE.
DUPING THE DUPE -> AfterSchool Dupes have lost their cringe (everything can be repositioned!). Social media experts say brands should embrace it (and see it as a form of flattery). But brands aren’t having it still. One example: Olaplex. Last September they sponsored TikTok influencers to hail a Olaplex dupe under the name Oladupé. But when the influencers’ link was clicked, shoppers were taken to the official Olaplex page and told there was no dupe because nothing can be as good as the real deal. A better example: Alexander Wang’s new campaign—so hysterical and a good model for how to call things out without shaming (bet this campaign was on their concept board)
TRAVEL
LEAVE ME ALONE, I’M DATING (MYSELF) -> AfterSchool Single travel/dining/outings are not new. Yet brands haven’t fully tapped the potential. ‘Single’ offering are still lacking. There’s so much potential here for brands.
Side note: Another ‘single’ opportunity that is untapped is single-child families (26% of US families and a whopping 49% of European fams). 50% of my friend group—tracking with the data—fall in this group. Vacationing with a solo kid is fun but I’d contend that hotels haven’t caught up to us. We don’t need/want ‘family hotels’ (unless they are the Swiss kind, which are on another level). We’re looking for a hybrid. Food for thought. And fodder for a fun campaign.
PRIDE IS A DESTINATION There’s been a 300% surge in Gen Zers traveling globally for pride. Gen Z interest is notably strong in “emerging hotspots” like Cleveland and Charlotte; globally, San Jose, Lima, and Prague are among the popular Pride destinations for young people. Ads for Pride are only good if they’re done correctly (somehow Target is managing to repeat last year’s fiasco). But this is an opportunity if done right. Certainly good info for sponsorship.
FUN FOR THE WEEK
This Hermes pop-up is delightful
Ms Rachel's commencement speech:the imposter syndrome pep talk you need
Love Rube Goldberg machine? Jacquemus delivers
Ayo Edebiri’s ‘show’ for Vanity Fair is fun
Netflix ran ads that parody iconic LA lawyer billboards—hysterical if you know LA
An F&B brand should buy this
Baby gear is exiting its taupe era
Noah opened a cafe at their Seoul location
The comment section on this Under Armour x Balenciaga collab is a funny read
Loved this ‘things I know’ list.
DoorDash is bullish on booze.
Tory Burch’s got Emily Ratajkowski + Sam Youkilis to team up
Christina Ricci’s came out with a Tarot Deck—odd but at least it’s not a coffee brand.
Complex acquired Family Style Food Fest
Gentle Monster’s Shanghai store is wow
Crazy cotton candy is huge in Asia. Such a fun event activation idea. Shocked this chain isn’t all over the US.
Loewe took over a remote cabin for events. Another strategic use of an event. But the details are a bit of an eyesore (I love Loewe, but you can’t cover paneling like this, it looks like bad seaming)
That’s all, folx!
-Chris
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Did I miss the part about "The non-alcoholic beverage era is over" ?
Where's the non-alc content? Literally clicked just to read it...