Walgreens is copying you—and every other big brand
Plus: Gap is the new Stanley cup, Glossier is braving politics, and Rhode is going international.
Morning,
Welcome to all the new subs! And thanks to all of you who have been sharing the letter—cool and kind.
If you only read one thing in this letter I recco: BLATANT DUPES. It’s kind of blowing my mind. The FUN FOR THE WEEK is also packed with gems.
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.
As always, this pod is casual. A chat between friends. Fun listening. Diving into the biggest trends, shifts, and brands of today.
Let’s dive in!
CULTURE
FERTILITY IS TABOO? // TikTok and Google are rejecting ads about IVF, egg Freezing, and fertility. Meanwhile erectile dysfunction and sexual endurance products for men—alive and well on all platforms. Perhaps a giant brand needs to buy out a billboard in Times Square and offer it up to the FemTech market a la Swelh/Seed/Bobbie.
SWINGING FOR THE FENCES // Glossier took out a full-page spread encouraging women to ‘Vote For You’. Unsurprisingly the comment section took off with people bemoaning brands getting political. My favorite comment pointed out that the ad “doesn't mention any candidate or party by name”.
SEX AT THE MUSEUM // Sexual wellness brand, Maude, is sponsoring a museum at the Louvre. Two of Maude’s devices will be showcased in the exhibit alongside 470 works. This is a fun move for a small-ish brand.
Kirsten’s LA Breakfast Club is growing! If you want to join, it’s every second Friday of every month. 9AM at Rose Cafe in Venice. Here’s the LinkedIn group if you want to join!
F&B
HEALTHY KIDS -> Feed Me // Erewhon launched a kids’ meal. For $20 you get a kid-sized main, a side, and a dessert.
interviewed who said “It just feels like they are quickly diluting that brand equity” but we know she’s talking about this unfathomable Chevy smoothie collab they just did. The kids’ thing is just smart.SAVORY PROTEIN IS WINNING -> The Hustle // The fastest-growing snack in America is a meat stick. Chomps has seen sales grow 206% over the past year. “Better-for-you” snacks, a market worth ~$47B and only growing thanks for GLP-1s. I content the savory high-protein, low-sugar, no-sweetener, snack market is wildly underserved. Both for adults and kids.
BUT HERE’S THE DILL // Vlasic Pickle has partnered with the Association of Pickleball Players on a crunchy, savory snack. The ladies love pickles, these in particular, so this feels genius. Not sure you need the pickle ball tie in but I guess it gives it a reason to be. Speaking of pickles, I missed this but Kin has a Picklesecco canned bev—just a little more evidence of pickle love. Also fascinating how they are getting into the glucose-balancing train.
BIG CPG, BIG TROUBLE // Kellogg’s is having a rough week. But as Kiva Dickson points out, the trust in big CPG is low. “I expect this creates a profound period of dislocation in consumer products and health / wellness: sharp shift in market share, policy change, acquisitions and divestitures.” A shake-up is looming.
DRUGS
HOLD MY BERO -> Snaxshot // Tom Holland launched a non-alc beer. The branding is nice and very reminiscent of the David protein bars. Is this the new ‘healthy’ look? While I have celebrity brand fatigue, Tom has been talking about his alcohol abstinence for at least a year so I do like that it’s tied to his lifestyle. This aesthetic certainly fits high-end hotels/bars better than Athletic Brewing (though can it compete on taste?!)
SILVERS, ALPHAS & ZS
YES BUT NO // Due to my constantly talking about Silvers as an underserved market, I get sent a lot of ‘pro-aging’ content. This campaign is well-meaning but missed the mark for me. Using AI to create idealized, classically sexy portraits of silvers to draw attention to ageism confuses me. The message is spot on, and I know the execution was likely budget-constrained so maybe I need to be less bothered.
ALPHAS ARE SHOWING RETURNS // The toy brand KiwiCo has surpassed $1 billion in lifetime revenue. The most striking bits of this story were 1) KiwiCo has generated an operating profit for seven years—people don’t love consumer brands right now but this is much better than most tech brands. 2) KiwiCo has also raised only $10 million in venture backing, a Series A in 2015—hardly child’s play.
MAMMOTH MARKETPLACE -> AfterSchool // In addition to the expected "great wealth transfer" (I’m skeptical of this as silvers are living longer) the "great stuff transfer" is coming for us—this I’m certain of.
nailed: “I can’t even begin to imagine what Facebook Marketplace’s growth is going to look like in the next decade.” There are so many businesses that will be born out of aging. The number of my friends who love estate sales is insane and there’s not even a perfect major player there.ZARA LOOKING AT ALPHAS // Zara launched a new section of the site this week called Z3D, targeted at tweens. Rather than me dissecting the baggy looks we went straight to an Alpha for their POV:
RETAIL
VS SUCCESS? // I truly couldn’t tell you if the Victoria's Secret show was a success.
says it’s all over her FYP—so maybe? But was underwhelmed and said it looked ‘budget’. said only the merch has sold out. My take is I couldn’t tell who it was for. Not nostalgic enough to be fun, not sexual enough to make heads turn. They drummed it up and didn’t use the momentum to the fullest. Interesting that Intimissi cast Heidi for their campaign the same week.ULTRA TRANSPARENT // Urban Outfitters’ President, Shea Jensen, has to win for the week’s most transparent earnings call. “As these shifts occurred and a new generation began coming of age, we lost focus on our customer, and we lost track of how to win with them in today’s dynamic retail environment”—wow. They have since decided that sales are the answer —never the solution. They need to start with the product, just like A&F, and faster than they are used to doing it.
SLIDING INTO BASE // Zendaya and On launched another campaign. This time shot in Switzerland ( this slide is fantastic in real life). The vibe of the campaign is silly yet elegant. It’s nice to see her bring a personality to the brand. It’s also super interesting that she’s not an athlete and On isn’t trying to make itself another ‘sports-led’ brand.
NIKE IS REGROWING FROM ITS ROOTS // Nike seems to be getting back to doing what Nike does best. This ‘Winning Is Never Comfortable’ campaign hits the sweet spot of IYKYK-meets-inspiration. Classic Nike.
TECH
FIXING A PAIN POINT -> The Hustle // Airbnb has launched a network for owners to hire co-hosts. Some companies fix this pain point but nothing this 1-click. And they are allowing it to be 1-time-use versus recurring. Love this move.
believes that consumer AI is being underestimated. People are down on consumer companies, yet “of the consumer companies that went public, 18.8% had an IPO at a valuation of more than $10B, nearly double the 9.6% rate for enterprise companies.” He’s usually right.SPORT
NFL IS GOING GLOBAL -> Offball // This year’s Super Bowl will reach its biggest Spanish-speaking audience ever thanks to a joint rights deal that will see both Fox Deportes and Telemundo produce broadcasts. The NFL has also been putting massive investments into growing the UK market too. In the next few years, we could see the Superbowl watched globally—get ready.
WELLNESS & BEAUTY
BLATANT DUPES // In a fascinating play, Walgreens has released a private-label collection of dupes—and they are literally naming which brands they’re mimicking—fascinating. Dupes have lost their stigma recently but typically brands don’t refer to dupes AS dupes. I’m not sure Walgreens is endearing themselves to other brands but it’s obviously a play for the hearts and minds of budget-conscious alphas and GenZ.
SOOTHING MEDICINE -> PSFK// Neko is a new player in the high-street medicine space founded by Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek. They have 2 locations in Sweden and are now expanding into the UK. The interiors alone will get people to go. It’s not quite at the full MRI level but you can get full-body scans and lots of bloodwork at a relatively affordable price.
KOREA IS TAKING FRANCE’S THRONE // Korea has surpassed France as the top exporter of beauty to the U.S. this year. This report claims one of the drivers is the availability of ODMs (Original Design Manufacturers) in Korea. Essentially making it super easy to formulate, manufacture, and package. This tidbit caught my eye too: Strong opportunity in K-Beauty with older demos. Also, as trends in Asia usually migrate, top Korean searches: Ultherapy (95.0K), Lip Fillers (85.6K), Mesobotox (76.9K), and Thermage (70.4K)—all about that lift!
TRAVEL
HAVEN IN SPACE // Vast, the California space startup founded by crypto billionaire Jed McCaleb, is launching the world’s first commercial space station next year. Trips are expected to average 10 days. Peter Russell-Clarke, a former Apple designer, did the interiors.
I’m headed to Paris at the end of the month. Anything must see? I used to live there so not the classics this time.
FUN FOR THE WEEK
McDonald’s advertised McChickens on the Sphere and I’m loving it.
Offball says this new shoe brand, Moolah is one to watch.
Big week for brick-and-mortar. Babyletto and Business & Pleasure both opened their first stores. Both in LA.
Saks is building a luxury and luxury-adjacent brand incubator.
Rare Beauty did their first big campaign, focused on mental health. This is one of the few brands that has earned the right to play here. But maybe it could be more fun?
Told you these glitter freckles would be popular. Alpha makeup could (will) be big.
These Hermes windows in Singapore in collaboration with Lauren Clay are mind-blowingly lovely
Alex Mill’s holiday shop ‘In Great Company’ is full of tasteful collabs.
Prada designed a space suit.
Melinda Gates launched a $250M women’s health fund.
Beis’ TSA bins is fun OOH inspo.
Grindr is testing an AI 'wingman'—this does not sound good.
Moncler’s new ‘City of Genius’ launched Saturday, this time in Shanghai.
Rhode opened a pop-up in London. People LOVE mirrors so that room is gonna kill/
This Baccarat display is stunning.
Dogs are the gifting strategy of 2024. Crocs and Dusen Dusen have both launched canine collections for the holidays.
Love this New Balance video. Feels high effort but also fun.
This is an insight for grocery. Singles are a huge demo, in kids too.
Louis Vuitton opened a cafe inside Heathrow airport
Rainbow Bright is coming back. This will hit with nostalgic parents.
Susan Alexandra x Bose did a collab. Headphone charms could definitely become a thing.
Starbucks is killing it with teens. It was the fifth-most popular destination for Greenlight cardholders, behind only Amazon.com, Target, Apple, and McDonald’s.
Taylor Swift is self-publishing The Eras Tour Book and launching it exclusively at Target on Black Friday—good for Target!
Gap saw Stanley's growth strategy and said ‘We can do that’ and it’s working.
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.
great roundup as usual!
Our Perelel ads for our fertility-related products all get removed from TikTok too. Another day, another double standard.