Hey yall. Here we are in 2024. I hope everyone had a lovely break over the holiday. I got covid and grinded thru a bunch of freelance work, but it was a relief to not feel pressure to do anything festive if i’m gonna be honest! [just expat things] anyway, wishing us all a smooth transition into circle-back-week.
SubwayHands is doing branded content right
Everyones fav niche nyc subway account started getting to the bag recently and somehow do it better than most;
I just love this branded carousel they did with Tory Burch. Branded, but in a way that respects the audience (they didn’t ask the creator to deviate). The Tums in the 3rd slide are a cute touch. Styled by Michelle Li who has some of the cutest outfits on IG.
They did another one recently w/ Topicals:
GORGEOUS.
Some conflicting thoughts about AI’s impact on advertising
I know this is such a dry and draining topic to even think about (i got tired typing that headline), but I saw/heard two interesting things over the past week that both had very opposing but convincing perspectives on AI that i wanted to share. Bc i know a lot of you come for the #opinions.
Brad Troemels latest, the AI Report, speculated that brands will in future look different to everyone, thanks to dynamic generative AI. That the people in Bud Light ads, for example, will look completely different to you than they will to me. He talked about this through the lens of representation, etc. Specifically, he noted that Brands will simply no longer have to take a stance on anything anymore, or have any values; Brands will dynamically adjust to reflect the values of whoever is seeing the creative asset. It’s a pretty dystopian vision and thats why it feels believable.
Greg Isenberg on ‘Marketing Against The Grain’ podcast # 187. This guy crosses my feed sometimes in a way that has a lil bit of a grifty threadboi vibe (just being honest) but he said a lot of interesting things on this episode! He goes deep on ‘community’ as a concept but something that jumped out after watching Brad’s report was his stance on AI; that “AI will kill so many different brands, and level up so many different community-based brands. In a world where you have all these incredible, powerful [AI] tools you’re going to see a flood of content for brands all over, and whats going to happen is a lot of these brands are going to look and feel the same. its going to feel like you’re walking into a McDonalds. [..] The brands that will stand out will be the ones that build something, like Seth Godin says, ‘purple cow’.”
so wdyt? Will the midjourney content spam lead to a bunch of noisy ‘personalized’ content that replaces all of us? Or will it create opportunity for much richer moments like Greg is talking about? I am leaning towards the former but I hope to be wrong.
Megan Thee Stallion is ‘mothering’—- fitness mothering
A lot of chit chat about the new Megan stuff from Nike including the AirMax 97 (Nike By You) she teased, but not enough about the cute Planet Fitness spot that preceded it.
“Mother Fitness was angered!” took me out!!!
The bejeweled swoosh bodysuit is eyecatching but I really feel like Planet Fitness won this round creatively. This spot was done by this delightful femme creative duo who i hope get all the flowers they deserve. I have a separate thought brewing on how footwear brands keep fumbling the womens bag but I will save it for another newsletter.
Abercrombie beat out …. NVIDIA (!?!)
NVIDIA has been the talk of the podcast finance bro town for a while now due to their absolutely astronomical growth over the past year. It turns out humble/cursed ol’ Abercrombie & Fitch has made gains of over 285% as reported on by BOF, eclipsing even NVIDIA. I wanted to understand why, so I
watched this lil mini MBA youtube about it - great history/backstory
looked at Grailed listings (sort from High to Low. illuminating.)
landed on this lil yachty fit pic:
draw your own conclusions. ultimately, i think Fran deserves the accolades Satya is getting. She made a set of clear-headed strategic choices and they are paying off.
Anecdotal, but ive been deep on a menswear project the past couple of months and every single ‘cool’ guy ive interviewed talks about Abercrombie as a guilty pleasure of theirs. INTERESTING.
The Current State of NYC
I’ve had a friend in town from Australia, and every time someone visits it prompts me to reflect - in both direct and indirect ways - about what has changed about NYC lately. I know a lot of my friends and I all joke about how the latest batch of transplants is different but i saw this video in passing a few days ago, and Angelo just articulated it so well, specifically about the myth of ‘roughing it’ for people that move here;
I then read this piece from Teddy Brown entitled ‘What Does Culture Look Like’ riffing on Dimes Sq (dread!!!!) and realized this may be what i’ve been doing (i hope not?)
"I’ll also go one step further and say that, much like ancient Mayans or Heaven’s Gate, New Yorkers of a certain type desperately want to live through a specific sort of end times. Dimes Square being the last breath of downtown culture means that you were there when New York finally ended, witness to the death of the cool. If you’re sure there’s nothing interesting going on then you’re not missing anything.”
I do think NYC has way less weirdos / creatives / natives that it used to, and i miss them. Bringing it back to The Biz™, I also think this has interesting implications for brands who do heavy energy/cultural marketing; for whom NYC has always been a shortcut to cool or the central point of activation. It isn’t necessarily serving a creative or cultural community to the same extent it once was. idk. I am also due for a vacation so take this with a grain of salt.
Handy competitive tool
If you’re trying to lurk an ecomm competitor this resource seems very handy. Maybe i’m the only one who didn’t know about it, in which case ignore me. The list includes the biggest brands on Shopify (not in a strict order) but when you click into them, it also gives you details on their tech stack, and recent marketing comms- good for your audits, etc:
Shoe Dog zone👟👟
how long until Teddy recreates this photo of JFK Jnr. for an ALD/NB lookbook or collection?
I really enjoyed this episode of the Monster Children podcast with an interview from Damon Way, who co-founded DC shoes in 1994. The beginning is painfully awkward (in a relatable way that I appreciated, the mans social anxiety was overt lol), but they get into a really interesting conversation around what an intense exercise shoe marketing/production has become.
I do not love this janky new balance/apple derivative balenciaga ad. I need the girls to invest in their own Brand Voice, identity, and strategy. I’m really trying to not be shady here, but welcome any further commentary in my inbox.
3sixteen boots, dropping today, are the thinking mans’ camion:
thinkin about the OG designer sneaker… definitely had a huge resurgence over the past year. I wonder if prada will do something with the organic groundswell it has had.
Tyshawn was snapped wearing Adidas AE1s 🛹🏀 - really nice colorway
Thats all. Thanks for making it this far! Wishing us all this energy going into 2024:
GG x