Uber is offering room service now
Plus: Brands are sleeping on over 50s + Monster puts Apple to shame
Morning,
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
CREATOR CRUSHES CAN CRUSH BRANDS -> LinkInBio
People are resonating with SET Active’s creator-led TikTok strategy. The brand hired an influencer to run their account and it’s now growing. Seems great at first blush. But others, like First Finds, have tried this, and when the creator (whom everyone loves) leaves, fans leave the brand account (and leave a lot of negative comments). Rachel has written about this before. Her takeaway? You better have a VERY GOOD plan for when the face of your brand on social leaves.
CRUSHING IT BUT CRUSHING ASSUMPTIONS
This ‘Assume I Can’ campaign for The Canadian Down Syndrome Association is really good. Having it start with them buying a margarita versus renting an apartment was the cherry on the cake. That’s an assumption change right there.
Rent The Runway announced they are giving away $1 million in 1-month subscriptions to women who announce a promotion or career accomplishment on LinkedIn. It’s a good cause because it challenges likability bias. We expect men to be assertive and expect them to promote themselves. When women do it they are liked less. Based on the lack of posts, sadly the campaign hasn’t taken off. Not great as RTW just announced a reverse stock split which often signal a company is in distress and is a bid to be relevant and avoid being delisted. They should have been louder with this campaign.
GEN-Z CALLING ROBLOX BULLSHIT?
In a recent survey, half of Gen-Z respondents had created a virtual avatar but when asked what would make brands seem “cool” to be on Roblox or Decentraland just 32% agreed. And, only 16% of Gen Zs believe that branded NFTs would make a brand seem cooler. Not sure when we’ll cross the virtual clothing chasm but we’re not there yet.
According to the Forerunner Annual Report released this week, we’re no longer into saving our money and retiring early (FIRE). A new trend of Die With Zero is emerging. Using your money while you’re alive to live your best life. YOLO is back. Something for hospitality to tap into for sure.
If you’re a friend of the letter, as the cool kids say, then you’ll know about my undying passion for brands that target the over 50s. There is so much potential for brands that don’t target Gen-Z but the expectations of this generation are high. They want cool brands just made for them. There are more over 65s than ever before and they have more money than ever to spend. Who’s ready to work on this space?!
BRAND BECOMES AGENCY -> Feed Me
The founder of Topicals launched a new creative services company called $CODB, or Cost of Doing Business. It feels like a basic how-to guide for a DIY branding initiative at the moment but it will likely evolve. The Storytelling download is basic stuff but the last page is good. Is brand to agency the new actor to agency?
F&B
Not crappy, just made by Who Gives A Crap. The brand has created a beer that builds loos. For every can of the Cheeky IPA sold, $1.50 will be donated to clean water and sanitation initiatives around the world. And they are promoting it with an adorable little truck-turned-cooler.
EXPO WEST SHOWCASING TRENDS ON TRENDS
Expo West Trends: 1) Natural brands are cranking up vibrancy and tone of voice—finally. 2) Functional benefits overload is upon us—predicting there’s consumer backlash coming here. 3) Niches are ‘nicheing’. Read: Brands are positioning deeper and deeper to differentiate in a crowded market. 4) Plastic is a bad word but many brands don’t have solves for it 5) Regenerative agriculture is the rage but this is hard to scale.
Monster is essentially the repositioning story of the century. Monster Beverage has been the top-performing stock in the past 30 years. In 2012 Hansen's Natural rebranded to Monster Beverage after the energy drink became its top-revenue generator. Solid proof that pivots can be great. Here are the top 5 stock performers over that span (ballpark figures):
Monster Beverage (+200,509%)
NVR (+71, 598%)
Apple (+55, 912%)
Cooper Companies (+48, 925%)
Ross Stores (+32, 736%)
ALPHAS
While this report focuses on Gen-Z, it applies to Gen-Alpha too. “Brands need to be where the people are: traversing the infinite loop of inspiration, exploration, community, and loyalty. Because there's no start or end point to the purchasing path today.” Truth. These stats were interesting:
70% only trust a brand after carrying out their own research
46% find not being able to get independent info or review a turn-off
44% find getting time-sensitive deals before being ready to purchase annoying
41% find ads disrupt the content they are consuming
RETAIL
A DIRECT TRAIN TO WHOLESALEVILLE, PLEASE
If Nike can’t make DTC work then who can? The brand announced this week that while the “Consumer Direct Acceleration Strategy has driven growth and direct connections with consumers, it's been clear that [they] need to make some important adjustments. It plans to bring athletes to the forefront of its marketing and it will work with wholesale partners to do that, recognizing that wholesale partners help their “innovation and newness” and connect the brand with “the path of the consumer.” As we’ve been saying, retail is back.
RH (apparently ‘formerly Restoration Hardware’. Do people refer to it as RH now?!) has opened yet another huge retail space, this time in Brussels. They are going after international expansion it seems. The pace of these giant retail store openings is staggering. In December their stocks took a tumble because the housing market costs were affecting furniture sales. Tried to find out more on social but, right, they aren’t on social so it was just full of conspiracy theories. Where there’s a void…
THE DOCTOR WILL REPAIR YOU NOW
Dr Martens launched a repair shop. As we’ve said, repairs are the sustainability trend of 2024. You can add specific repairs to cart which is cool. A different strategy to Veja Cobbler stores. Enjoyed this bit of copy from the Dr. Marten’s description:
“Together for mosh pits, protests, adventures, late nights, muddy festivals. But time takes a toll. Living hard ain't easy. That doesn't mean it's over. You earned that break in. Breathe new life into your favourite pair. Repaired and reborn.”
Speaking of repairs, Barbour partnered with Oxfam to launch a rental scheme at the Glastonbury Festival. Barbour cleaned, repaired, re-waxed, and customized each jacket, with many featuring reused materials and fabrics from past Glastonbury Festival t-shirts and merchandise. An interesting way to get Barbour into a young consumer’s hand and tie them to sustainability.
GENTLE MONSTER’S GIANT RETAIL SPACE
South Korean fashion eyewear label Gentle Monster has revamped its Shanghai multi-brand retail space. It features several installations including a crazy croissant gym in their cafe. The top floor is a dedicated exhibition space currently hosting an interactive exhibition/treasure hunt that will give 5 lucky explorers who find the secret keys a choice of free items. Love to see brands having fun with retail.
TECH
This video of Elon Musk’s Neuralink in action is mind blowing. Nothing brand-related here (yet), just cool.
OpenAI’s Sora showcases 7 videos made using the platform. Frankly most feel like bad film school experiments but the short film about a balloon man is cool. What this shows us is just because you can make cool stuff doesn’t mean it’s interesting.
CANVA CLOSING IN ON ABODE -> The Information
Canva, the design startup valued at $26 billion, acquired Affinity increasing its pursuit of Adobe. The acquisition will help Canva push deeper into the professional creative product segment. Social teams we work with love Canva. Again, the biggest issue here is the quality of output and that has little to do with the tools.
SPORT
Nike has ousted Adidas. The German national football team is ending its 77 years of sponsorship with Adidas. US rival Nike will become the main supplier of kits in 2027. Nike committed to supporting “amateur and grassroots sport” as well as women’s football in Germany with the goal “to make the German team a global brand, and to make their athletes global heroes.” Let’s see.
WELLNESS
Swiss skincare company Galderma that owns Cetaphil, a TikTok favorite, surged on its first day of trading, trading as high as 18% to 62.68 francs. It was the largest IPO placement volume in Switzerland since 2017 and could be one of the biggest flotations in Europe this year. Still think this brand could do more with itself but clearly, they don’t need help.
There's a reason Matilda Djerf's hair is famous. And now fans can get their hands on two products to help them get the look. They are going after all the PR points in this article: “100% recycled PCR packaging”, “lowest possible price point”, and “Swedish manufacturer in Djerf's backyard”. They are doing a pop-up in partnership with Dyson opens in NYC during the launch week. ‘Celebrity’ hair care is having its moment.
AN OLD IS MAKING NEUTROGENA FAMOUS -> LinkInBio
This adorable man has made Neutrogena’s discontinued product TGel go viral. The question is, will Neutrogena do the smart thing and bring it back?
LOCAL SUPERSTAR OVERPOWERS OUR BEAUTY
Sephora is closing its Korean locations. The LVMH-owned beauty retailer will cease all local operations in Korea beginning May 6. They were unable to compete with locally beloved Olive Young, which operates over 1,200 stores in the nation, and struggled with a “highly selective consumer base.” In reading about this there was so much love for the idea of Olive Young coming to the US. They should get on that.
TRAVEL
GOODEE EPISODE OF BRANDE HOTEL ROOMS
We’ve talked about branded hotel rooms before and here’s another. This time a collab between Goodee and Ace Hotel. It’s not remarkable but none of the others we’ve seen have been either. Very ready for a brand to do something more fun with this trend.
Everyone’s favorite ‘I’m turning 50’ hotel, Aman has for 35 years made its name by charging eye-popping nightly rates—often exceeding $2,000. But they are now opening a cheaper chain, Janu. The first location in Tokyo has 122 rooms. People are up in arms that ‘cheaper’ doesn’t mean cheap but that’s not the brand DNA. Regardless, it’s easier to move people down in price than up. This expansion makes sense to us.
ROOM SERVICE BUT MAKE IT UBER EATS -> Feed Me
Hotels are teaming up with mobile dining apps inviting guests to bring in outside food or order takeout from on-site restaurants. They are also adding food-delivery stations in the lobby and easy ways to get your food while sitting at the pool. We’re in team dinner-at-the-bar but many parents know love hotels just for the room service so this is an interesting amenity extension.
FUN TO FOLLOW
This video of fluted brick being extruded
Website full of brand guidelines
Play LA is opening at The Platform April 4th and they are looking for more kid-owned/started brands to showcase. Have one in mind, share this with them! They are also seeking corporate sponsors, if you’re brand side and want to support kids/mental health projects that have a very active mom/parent audience, this page is for you.
JUST FOR LAUGHS
This New Yorker illustration, even though it’s dating itself
The worst sponsored posts ever seen
Celebrity brand fatigue
This ever SSense SSense’s trend report that states people want to ‘try’ capris. Help us.
That’s all, folx.