Anna Holmes defines 'hype aversion' as a reflex against being told what to like, suggesting that popularity can create pressure rather than signal quality. This feeling can lead to a deliberate choice to resist mainstream culture.
C-suite clients are getting treatments to age themselves down, with a focus on looking energetic, young, and full of vitality. Plastic surgeons report a significant increase in demand for facial procedures among executives.
The convenience of sourcing online is fraught with more pitfalls than most of us want to admit. Try finding adequate photos of a vintage piece's condition-close-ups of the fabric, video of damaged areas, any images of a piece's rear or underside!
Participating in London Fashion Week is not a luxury but a necessity for any emerging brand aiming to go global. It's your ticket to the world of international fashion. - Katie England, Creative Director of Topshop and curator of the New Generation program
The campaign begins with a gamified DOOH execution placed in high-footfall Gen Z locations including Dhoby Ghaut, Bugis, Singapore Management University, and the Central Business District. These locations help bring the Grimace Shake campaign into the flow of Singapore's daily urban movement.
We've started to notice all these things in Meta advertising, where the majority of our marketing spend is. Things like your text being used to train AI, and more and more AI things you have to opt out of - like AI pictures and AI videos that can alter the image of the thing you've uploaded quite dramatically. You have to opt out of each one, individually, every time you post something.
There is a persistent anxiety in brand storytelling that runs beneath the surface of nearly every conversation about reaching international audiences: that the closer a story is to its origin, the less likely it is to find purchase somewhere else. This assumption is responsible for many an organization filing down its content's edges in pursuit of a universal appeal that, paradoxically, renders it all the less memorable.
This year has been volatile for brands. With tariffs taking effect, the job market slowing, and consumer spending barely keeping pace with inflation, it's no surprise that ad spend has slowed in tandem. Amidst economic uncertainty and an onslaught of unanswered questions, brands are increasingly looking for demonstrable ROI in their marketing and design budgets. Some may choose to invest in a costly new campaign or commit to a new brand identity, while others will default to slashing their budgets altogether.
How do you create brand meaning that's algorithm-proof? By creating moments so meaningful that when the customer's need returns, the brand does too, without any algorithmic assistance. I call it appreciated generosity. In a marketing world increasingly optimized by AI, personalization engines and predictive systems, it's tempting to believe relevance can be engineered entirely through data. But the brands people default to, the ones they don't search for, compare or ask AI to recommend, are built through small, generous brand acts.
To paraphrase a quote credited to poet and author Maya Angelou, people forget what you say and do, but they never forget how you make them feel. That understanding is becoming increasingly relevant in modern marketing, where differentiation is driven as much by emotional experience as by execution. For agencies, this means thinking beyond deliverables to the full experience clients and audiences have at every touchpoint.
