The New Horizon: Anime As A Lifestyle

EXIT THROUGH THE MERCH STAND

Say Hermès aloud. How’s your pronunciation? If it’s not quite up to par, fear not – it’s common enough that Duolingo built a campaign around it. After its own research revealed that 62% of Americans were confident they could pronounce Hermès but just 15% got it right, the language learning app created The Phonetic Collection. Unveiled at New York Fashion Week, the seven-piece collection spells out tricky designer names phonetically (‘air-mess’ for Hermès, ‘zhee-vahn-shee’ for Givenchy). Existing learners can spend their streak bidding on items at the NYC pop-up, while those new to Duolingo have a reason to download the app and start one.

Merch has come a long way from logoed tees for loyal fans, with some brands using it to pull in new customers. Duolingo does it with an unserious twist. 7-Eleven Japan is at it too, last week announcing an apparel range that will include Hello Kitty hoodies. It’s all part of a push to reach younger female shoppers. So let’s unpack the merch mania.

OUR TAKE

Merch is a way for wearers to signal something about their taste and lifestyle, spending power, how in the know they are, or where they’ve been. Simple tote bags from luxury hotels and resorts have become a status flex because the brand logo is often only recognisable and affordable to a select few. And while the Aman Essentials’ classic monogram tote will set you back $2,700, IYKYK merch doesn’t have to be expensive. Trader Joe’s viral mini tote provides cultural literacy for $2.99 (although some go for much more on the resale market).

What a brand can get away with though, depends on what it already is. Duolingo’s phonetic collection works because turning a language lesson into a fashion joke fits its well-established ‘unserious’ brand identity. In the UK, Greggs can sell steak bake bean bags (yes, really) because it’s a national treasure and being in on the joke is part of the appeal. Coca-Cola can redesign chopsticks in the shape of its contour bottle because the silhouette is a logo. 

For brands looking to reach a new audience, borrowing cultural cachet is an option. That’s the route 7-Eleven Japan is pursuing, first by tapping And ST’s brands like Niko and Lowrys Farm and through the Hello Kitty items. An early pilot suggests that this could make the brand more appealing to Gen Z: overall apparel sales more than doubled during a 2025 trial that saw seasonal products and other merchandise introduced, with women making up more than 70% of customers. Younger shoppers were over 1.5 times more represented than usual.

Still, while merch can help brands extend reach, some of the biggest successes are often a reminder of how much fans want in. Some viral hits – Trader Joe’s mini tote, we’re looking at you! – play to existing stans, who spend 2.6 times more than the average shopper and visit stores more. And with 44% buying the totes as gifts, the reach goes further than the buyer. That doesn’t necessarily mean new customers, but it gives existing fans a way to share the love. Here, merch functions less like recruitment and more like an outlet for fandom. 

In 2026, merch is big business, with larger brands looking to replicate the success of indie pioneers, who showed that people will buy things that make them feel part of something. But as the merch field gets more crowded, it’s harder to stand out. The brands that continue to see success will be those whose merch has a reason to exist: it fits who they are and gives people a way to express something about themselves. After all, being a walking logo only appeals when it says the right thing about you.

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BEATS A JET2 HOLIDAY

The vacation-flex, be it Dolce & Gabbana-branded hotel towels or a behind-the-counter photo with a Michelin-starred chef, has always heroed glittery objects and covetable landscapes. However, the latest travel trend applicable across mass and luxury is rooted in a desire for transformative personal growth. Especially popular with time-poor working professionals, the skillcation is a manageable one-to-two week trip laser-focused on tangible ROI — to learn a new craft or hobby. 

OUR TAKE

We previously discussed how the 2026 Traveler now chooses experiences over just hauls. It’s common to associate travel with seeking a sense of accomplishment or even ticking a box, especially with voluntourism and destination bucket lists. The skillcation may be the epitome of a ‘working on myself first’ mentality, to satisfy the urge to learn something hard that makes you a little bit better. Also termed ‘skilliday’, 48% of surveyed Europeans say they plan to learn a new skill on holiday, and 57% of Gen Zs already have a skill-based trip booked. 

Versus checking a city or experience off the list and then forgetting about it, a skillcation often continues across multiple installments in the theme of getting the steps in to master something — often related to language, food, and crafts. 76% of people surveyed think that it’s the skills gained on a trip that are the ultimate long-lasting takeaway, more so than any purchased souvenir. Trying out surfing at a resort in Bali is one level, but intensive surf camps require commitment and create goals to strive for. Beekeeping classes in Switzerland aren’t just one-and-done, but can lead to maintaining and keeping a hive alive yourself.

Skillcations lend themselves well to solo travelers, who now tend to be older Millennials and increasingly from Southeast Asia (Indonesian travelers accounted for a 72% bump in searches for solo travel). Many of these trips actually emphasize a communal experience, which is exactly what consumers rate highest, even when traveling somewhere alone — quality time with others and learning. This can mean embedding in a local community and group of expertise, and establishing bonds with like-minded travelers. 

Luxury travel and hotel brands have taken note and offer curated experiences under the label of workshops and mentorships. Imagine funneling an interest in fishing into spending time under the tutelage of local fishermen to learn about sustainable seafood practices. For non-travel brands, these themes still resonate — consumers want to focus on and associate with apprenticeship, self-improvement, and skill accumulation. 

All of this can, and does, still live on social media in the form of ‘skillsflexing.’ Displays of uniqueness and value can take the form of luxury-branded objects and now also extend not just to performances of great feats of expertise and effort, but to the grueling journey. A destination marathon or HYROX tournament is the end goal, but the 0-to-1 training montage to max out stats (i.e., health) is especially important to get people invested and engaged. Brands now invest in storytelling that showcases the world behind the scenes to invite consumers to connect with the craftspeople and production processes involved. 

Vacations remain the top category that people are willing to spend extra on, with entertainment at #2 and almost evenly split between out-of-home and at-home. Across digital and IRL, work mode and vacation mode, consumers want and expect a brand experience that fits and accompanies them on the journey they themselves are on. #GOALS has never rung truer. 

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OFF THE RECORD

The fourth iteration of A Very Laufey Day – which takes place this weekend – is a very global affair, spanning 25 countries, including Bangkok, Singapore, Jakarta, and Manila. Curated by Laufey, Gen Z’s favorite singer-songwriter, it’s a celebration of the arts that encompasses symphony orchestras, ballet, jazz, opera and museums. According to Laufey, the goal is to help younger listeners connect with ‘high culture’, although there are less intimidating entry points like bookstores and coffee shops. She started the fan event in 2023 as a way to inspire Lauvers to get outside by sharing her ideal one-day itinerary, soundtracked by her upcoming second album. It’s expanded every year since.

Laufey isn’t the only artist meeting fans somewhere other than the music. Dua Lipa has a book club. The Weeknd streams video games and champions indie studios. Later this year, Korea’s SM Entertainment will stage a 10k race followed by live performances from idols. Taken together, they reveal new points of connection between artists and fans. For brands trying to reach the same fans, that’s important.

OUR TAKE

A side hustle used to mean a fragrance deal or a co-designed fashion label. Now, what artists do when they’re not making music is becoming more than a support act – it’s a way to build community with fans around interests that extend beyond the music. There’s interest in this type of crossover: a 2026 Eventbrite study found that 69% of 18-to-35s in the US and UK want more events that combine different interests, like crafting and cocktails or culture and movement.

The Weeknd sought out the makers of indie games he loved, spent hours with them talking about design and posted about it. Vietnamese rapper Binz eschewed a traditional listening party and instead celebrated the launch of his debut album with a painting workshop for fans and collaborators. Or consider secondhand fashion marketplace Depop, who partnered with Spotify to give music lovers access to the wardrobes of six up-and-coming artists. That gave fans a way to buy into the  taste or style of an artist, important in an age when subcultures provide fewer ready-made identity codes.

Artists’ community building efforts might not be lucrative, but crossover fandoms can result in surprising benefits. Diplo’s run clubs, which first launched in 2024 (5k, followed by a 90-minute live DJ set), expanded to 10 US locations this year. Despite attracting 10,000 to 15,000 people to each event, profitability isn’t guaranteed – the logistics are expensive. But the run clubs did help the DJ/producer become a global ambassador for Whoop and appear in an ad campaign with Cristiano ­Ronaldo. 

Plenty of brands are chasing the same thing: a loyal community that gathers and stays. It comes more easily to Laufey and co., because the interest is real and not reverse-engineered from a growth target. When BINI’s Aiah hosted the group’s second BINI Run in 2025, she called running her ‘safe space’ and hoped Blooms would feel the same benefits from exercise. That kind of genuine interest is hard for a brand to manufacture, making artists both a useful partner and a potential competitor. So where does that leave a brand that wants in? 

Brands can fund artist-led run clubs and book clubs and there is genuine demand here, with young people seeking in-person events. Thoughtful and relevant sponsorship has a place, and the wellness brands that handed out products at some of Diplo’s events are one example of that. But the community belongs to the artist, so it’s the artist’s crowd that decides if a brand is ‘worth’ letting in. The brands that earn entry will offer something the fandom couldn’t easily access (Laufey gave fans a route into art galleries and symphony halls, for example). Access, a venue, an experience, or a tool: the question isn’t which artist to book, it’s what your brand contributes to the community. 

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A STAR IS BORN

Pop Mart’s latest empire-building chess move is a double-punch opening of a two-story retail store and baked goods space in Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa. Pop Bakery is a casual, more grab-and-go experience, not to be confused with Pop Mart Cafe in Bangkok, and is the first of the sub-line to open outside of China. The character Twinkle Twinkle is the literal star of the show, though other Pop Mart IPs will also feature in the form of food, collectibles, and character meet-and-greets.

Pop Bakery is the latest in a long, ever-morphing line of branded experiences that focus on physical spaces as a channel for brand expansion and consumer loyalty cultivation. The ROI and long-term impact of these activations on brand health and longevity are still under scrutiny. When everyone and anyone is doing it, what makes a branded experience truly additive to the brand and community?

Pop Mart Co-COO and Executive Director Si De has namechecked the Disney playbook for how the company aims to maintain the longevity and value of its IPs via multiple form factors and business lines. Starting with collectible blind box toys, the ‘Disney of China’ has expanded into animation, film, as well as the ultimate Disney stamp of approval – theme parks. 

In Southeast Asia, Pop Mart’s largest region of business after China, the company already launches collaborations at breakneck speed. The region is ground zero for Pop Mart’s retail++ themed experiences after they’ve gone through the testing grounds of China, starting with F&B. 

The accessibility and communal aspect of F&B is the perfect channel for brand extension, also lending well to content creation and shareability. Pop Mart even experimented with dessert trucks in China before deciding on brick-and-mortar. Luxury retail especially is no stranger to F&B, using cafes and restaurants as lifestyle gateways into the brands. Tiffany & Co’s Blue Box Cafe launched this summer in Singapore, and Cafe Carrera serves as Porsche’s watering hole for the community (it’s important to note that this is a stand-alone cafe, and not just a coffee bar in a car showroom). 

Branded experiences are tools in the ongoing attention economy where consumers increasingly demand touchpoints that go beyond digital and into spaces where community and identity are formed. We touch upon this in previous reporting on luxury brands organizing literary salons. All brands want to become a ‘way of life’ for consumers, with experiences as a way to speak to and bolster communities anchored around the brand. Make-up brand Glossier was adept at this, creating a world around its direct-to-consumer community-driven launches, making the ‘Glossier Girl’ into a covetable everyday identity for friend groups. Malaysian coffee brand ZUS Coffee created Drip & Drop block parties as a way to cement association with these daily rituals and community activities.   

We’re not advising that every brand immediately go set up a food truck, and certainly not everyone has deep enough pockets for theme parks. With branded experiences, consistency and thought are especially important – whether a brand is seen as spraying and praying, or is truly invested in building a story and community. Activities should not be done in a vacuum or seen as long-term guaranteed engagement in isolation.

Disney celebrated its Disney100 corporate centennial in 2023, and Mickey Mouse has his 100th birthday in 2028. Pop Mart definitely has its eyes on the prize.

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HEART, SOUL… AND SILLAGE?

Forget Le Labo. The fragrance that’s proving hard to get across China this year belongs to Rafayel. The catch is that Rafayel is not a person. He’s a romance interest in the popular otome game Love and Deepspace. His birthday scent, a marine fougère which is fitting for a character tied to the sea, sold out across licensed platforms within minutes of its March release, with follow-ups for two more characters since.

Rafayel fans are buying a scent and a new way to belong to the Love and Deepspace universe. See also Pop Mart, which rolled its Petals in Four Acts fragrance sprays out across Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand in April, sold (of course) with blind-box mechanics. Street Fighter 6 is also getting room scents built around individual characters.

  OUR TAKE

Scent marketing isn’t new. Subway and Abercrombie have long used smell to pull customers in. Hotels and airlines have filled lobbies and cabins with signature scents for decades (some of them are now available to take home). But as more of the brand experience moves onto a screen, the parts that can’t — the ones that require smell, touch, or physical presence — need to do more work. Scent has a particular staying power. It can’t be experienced through a screen, yet it’s closely linked to emotion and memory.

As shopping moves online, the physical store has become less about the transaction and more about the experience. Brick-and-mortar offers the sensory stimulation and social interaction e-commerce can’t, and shoppers want more of it — 56% of surveyed consumers seek immersive, creatively designed experiences. ION Orchard, which has diffused its own 20-note signature scent for years, has re-positioned as a cultural destination, with SEA’s first Prada Caffè and Tiffany’s first regional Blue Box Café located in the mall. Rolex is staging museum-grade exhibitions of its history while luxury houses across China are turning stores and temporary spaces into galleries.

Scent is also playing a bigger role in how Gen Z constructs and expresses identity, with younger consumers interested in scent stacking, layering multiple scents to suit their mood or the occasion. This doesn’t just apply to women – 75% of Gen Z men say they layer multiple scents. Niche fragrance brands are another way to signal individuality, taste, and membership to a particular in-the-know community. On TikTok, fragrance is something to research, collect, and purchase with knowledge accruing its own cultural capital (see #smellmaxxing or one influencer’s 100 spray rule). The irony that this is all happening via a screen will not be lost on you. 

It makes sense that brands and entertainment properties want to be part of this story. FC Barcelona recently commissioned an olfactory identity: a scent ‘DNA’ developed from the club’s emotional, cultural, and distinctive attributes. Two fragrances have already been released, while an AI perfumer will allow the club to create future collections and personalized versions without losing the underlying Barça codes (for inquiring minds: the two launch scents lean on grass, bergamot, vetiver and sandalwood — a nod to the pitch but not the locker room). And with South Korean startup Deepscent able to turn moods and images into scent on demand, expect olfactory identities to become more adaptable, with custom options for launches or events. 

A scent identity has a similar function to a color palette or a sonic logo because it’s an ownable set of codes a brand can keep building from. But IP fragrances go further. FC Barcelona uses scent to evoke place and memory while Love and Deepspace gets more immersive by using it to make a fictional character feel real. Rafayel’s cologne isn’t marketed as ‘inspired by’, it’s sold as something the character would wear. 

For brands and IP owners, scent is an increasingly important way to reach people who are already spraying and layering fragrance as a form of self-expression. Thinking about how your brand might smell is just the start. What would wearing it allow someone to say about themselves? And who or what would it help them feel part of? 

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ARE WE ALL JUST CREATOR-MAXXING? 

The World Cup has never been more star-studded (covered in a previous Culture Wire), as Capital-F Famous People from across fandoms converge to celebrate one of the biggest global cultural events. So imagine the size of Unilever’s content creator Rolodex as the official personal care brand of this year’s World Cup announced it’s adopting a “Super Bowl every two days” marketing strategy. The brand has partnered with 50,000 creators worldwide across online and offline activations and campaigns, ranging from big-name athletes to micro-creators.

Once viewed as simple amplification channels for whatever direction agencies were hired to push, creators now seem to be center stage, with a seat at the table at the start of a brand’s creative funnel. Is this the dawn of a new era?

  OUR TAKE

Have we really arrived at Creator 2.0? Maybe the more interesting development is not that brands are just talking about creator-maxxing, but that heavy-hitters are investing in and scaling more diverse voices in communities and fundamentally retooling the marketing production process to bring creators to the drawing board. 

Unilever operationalized this with a Cannes Lion stamp of approval in the creative process for the 2025 Bronze Lion-winning Part of the Game with Arsenal Football Club.  The campaign message was completely overhauled based on the input of Arsenal Women’s athlete-creators, which speaks to the trust placed in the creators as the credibility sign-off. Unilever Global CMO Leandro Barreto stated that this new SOP, in which creators are recognized as voices of authenticity, double-team with agencies, and don’t just act as spellcheckers, required a shift in “relationships [and] control”. This might be an understatement, as the company now works with 30x more creators versus just two years ago, with a roster of 300,000 creators.

Brand-building has always meant partnering with different stakeholders: the classic celebrity spokesperson for clout, and a movie tentpole or IP for scale and to get the word out. As the new generation of YouTube talent gains name recognition and starts commanding dollars, these creators are now celebrities to which proximity is coveted (however mundane-seeming).

A big name doesn’t always equate to credibility, though. Celebrities and mega-influencers can be seen as Too Big To Trust. Brands are increasingly engaging with micro-creators and voices in micro-communities to build trust with consumers from the ground up. Nano-creators (1K-10K followers) in APAC are spotlighted for having higher engagement rates across platforms than macro-creators, with trust and authenticity cited as the top reasons consumers engage with creators in the first place. Visa even terms smaller creators as micro-SMBs, a fast-growing category in the USD 135.2B (2023) APAC creator economy. 

Sports brands are especially active in doing so by engaging with amateur and niche sports communities. Nike, in its battle against growth headwinds, is tapping into smaller-scale creators and communities to reposition itself and build influence. In fact, Nike and other previously entrenched multinational brands already face heightened competition in China, where key local brands are seen as more culturally connected and anti-generic. In South Korea, the popular Private Road Running Club positions itself as a community “for not only running but Korean culture across the board”, and brands must engage with it in ways that feel authentic and enrich people’s daily routines. As even these communities become more diverse, there’s growing demand for non-sports and non-performance-based brands to engage with these running groups in accessible ways.

The ways brands and creators work together are ever-evolving and increasingly corporatized, but one thing remains evergreen: how can one stay relevant and build in the culture? One marketing strategy doesn’t guarantee lasting cultural stickiness. Which communities has your brand been engaging with, and how are you crafting the brand story together?

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THE CO-AUTHORED BRAND

Coach continues to appeal to Gen Z with two new initiatives. First up is &Coach, a new content series created with Gen Z communities, creators and cultural figures including Charli xcx, activist Malala Yousafzai, WNBA star Paige Bueckers, NASCAR driver Toni Breidinger, singer PinkPantheress, actor Avantika and South Korean girl group KiiiKiii. The content will be delivered on dedicated TikTok and Instagram accounts, with new ambassadors and community participation options to be added. It expands on themes like self-expression and identity that were part of Coach’s Spring 2026 book-focused Explore Your Story campaign, extending them into new cultural spaces.

Last – and by no means least – this week saw Coach announce a global cultural partnership with Spotify that will focus on experiential marketing activations for Gen Z, both on-platform and IRL. When viewed together, these activations show that Coach is taking a more holistic approach to connecting with Gen Z across culture, music, sport and activism.

  OUR TAKE

The luxury industry spent the last decade chasing Gen Z with passion-point strategies. While the logic was sound — Gen Z are passionate, community-oriented and typically spend where their interests live — it assumed those interests stay separate. And they don’t! According to Mastercard’s 2026 Next Growth Generation report, 65% of global Gen Z think of themselves as creators building their own personal brand, assembling an identity from music, sport, activism, fashion and more at once. Showing up in one place and hoping for a halo effect is no longer enough.

The brands that have worked this out are building around the spaces where identity actually forms. Luxury’s move into literary culture is one example: Miu Miu’s literary club and Jil Sander’s Reference Library at Milan Design Week show that, for many luxury brands, cultural credibility is the new currency. But most of these initiatives tap experts and institutions for authority, and the consumer mostly remains passive, attending and absorbing but not always contributing or building. Coach is trying something more participatory and, given that the brand spent much of the 2010s in the bargain bin, it had good reason to try something different. 

Coach CMO Joon Silverstein is a former cultural anthropologist who still visits the homes of women aged 18-30 with the goal of understanding who they’re trying to become. “A lot of brands mistake data for real insight,” she told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year. “You don’t learn about people or culture by reading research reports or by studying them afar.”

That thinking helped to shape Explore Your Story which included book bag charms developed by Penguin Random House and featured titles chosen by Gen Z customers. &Coach applies the same logic more broadly: Charli and co. aren’t there to lend cultural credibility. They represent the non-categorical way younger consumers build identity. The Spotify partnership builds on the same idea: music isn’t the passion point, connection is.

Coach sales hit US$2.14 billion in Q2 2026 (up 25% YoY) and the brand continues to gain traction with younger consumers (Gen Z represented roughly one-third of new consumers globally during the quarter). By 2030, Gen Z is projected to represent 25% of global luxury spending, up from 4% before the pandemic. As Silverstein explained at the Spotify launch, the brands that win won’t just be the ones that reach people; they’re the ones that bring people together.

Other brands are testing the same shift. In China, Salomon invited emerging designers to reinterpret its archive, then put the results to a public vote at its Shanghai concept store, with the winner getting a long-term collaboration. The archive remains Salomon’s, but consumers get a say in what gets made from it. See also the Vaseline Originals line that turned viral beauty hacks — many developed by early content creators who never got credit — into commercially available products. 

What Coach, Salomon and Vaseline have in common is a willingness to make the brand less of a finished story and more of a world consumers can build inside. For Coach, that means moving across multiple passion points and betting that Gen Z consumers want brands to make room for every part of their identity. For a brand without much signature aesthetic to protect, that may be an advantage. What does that mean for brands still betting on a single story?

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WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS

The 2026 World Cup really is for the fans—and we actually mean all the fans, not just the soccer ones. From the cinematic universes created by mainstays Nike and Adidas that weld together soccer stars and pop culture icons, to the concertification of sporting events with the first-ever World Cup half-time show, it’s easier and more satisfying than ever to enjoy the ride via shared rituals and passion points—and they might not even involve caring about the actual matches.

  OUR TAKE

Brands have always participated in the World Cup to court the true-blue soccer and sports fans, and it was a halo effect if the ‘normies’ happened to engage as well. The event has always been a party that brought together people with communal and high-energy fanfare—it was fun and low stakes to pop into the pub with your friends to watch a game. Even the soundtrack permeated mainstream consciousness (Ricky Martin’s The Cup of Life for 1998, Shakira’s Waka Waka for 2010) by being great pop songs and sheer omnipresence. 

Fashion and music are still anchors of the event, but the catchment area for brands is now bigger. Consumers now feast from a huge spectrum of fandoms and interests, many of which cross-pollinate and rub shoulders. Brands, in order to meet consumers where they are most engaged, now need to be cognizant and thoughtful of this multi-hyphenism. For brands engaging with soccer and the World Cup, maximum cultural impact means touching many different types of consumers and sustaining their attention post-event.

It’s a no-brainer to leverage the biggest bands on earth for this. The reveal announcement for the half-time show had Coldplay’s Chris Martin, characters from Sesame Street and The Muppets (not a coincidence that these are some of the biggest kids’ IPs in the world) FaceTiming BTS. An entire 18-track official album was created, with artists from BLACKPINK’s LISA to content creators such as IShowSpeed. Masked J-pop singer Ado has a soccer jersey collaboration with Adidas and music video that channels peak storytelling from sports anime. 

It almost feels like the World Cup is playing catch-up to the sports event + concert combination, which brings in the music-slash-live-events crowd, as exemplified by the Super Bowl and F1.

Soccer jerseys are one thing; fashion and luxury brands now look to be always-on. This means a longer pipeline and lifecycle of culturally rich moments—it’s one thing to imagine yourself dressed as a soccer player on-pitch, but the off-pitch ‘civilian’ possibilities are endless. Loewe and Spain’s national soccer teams’ new partnership is for off-pitch and travel wardrobes, and spans World Cups up ‘til 2030. PEACEMINUSONE, Nike, and the Korea Football Association have a streetwear collection that is said to reference blokecore (British football culture), but really embodies the most culturally resonant thing—G-DRAGON’s weird, wonderful mind. Even WAGs (wives and girlfriends—another British term popularized by soccer) are analyzed from a fashion lens and are often content creators and reality stars in themselves, with the male athletes as background dressing.

Cameos and Easter eggs, beloved for the IYKYK cache, have even spun off into multiple storylines that evoke some of the hottest topics online. The GOATs’ Goodbye, Nike’s feature-within-a-feature from Rip the Script, tapped into the intrigue and speculation around the stars’ retirement plans, which culminated in Serena Williams rounding out the cast. Ted Lasso is literally everywhere—in the Nike commercial, as well as Burberry’s “A Good Sport” campaign. The performance by JI Blue is a winking nod to fandom, as the singers and songwriter are bona fide soccer fans who also happen to be idols and musicians (members of boybands JO1 and INI, and legendary J-pop artist Taku Takahashi of m-flo).

Toy and video game companies are also taking the chance to tap into the broader culture of play. Video games such as Electronic Arts’ EA Sports FC and Konami’s eFootball are long-running soccer game IPs that include World Cup skins. LEGO’s soccer-themed playsets and Singapore pop-up aim to bring in both young and older audiences. Roblox has an official tie-up with FIFA for World Cup-themed games. Roblox creators are also adding their own (non-FIFA affiliated) World Cup and soccer spin to their games—user-generated content that will live beyond the tournament in forever games.

Given the way consumers and brands now interact, this World Cup season feels both broad and hyperlocal, with a tail that will extend to years after. Whatever activation or collaboration that emerges, the moments that have true staying power are the ones that feel most authentic—like distinct pieces of culture. When the quick solution is to market towards just the one passion point, how will you evolve the cultural playbook and stand out?

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 ESCAPING THE CLIPPING MINES

Is anything you see online real anymore? From the excitement surrounding Justin Bieber’s performance at Coachella to the backlash against Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle commercial, there is evidence that a significant part of the discourse was inorganic and manufactured.

Synthetic hype isn’t just limited to chatter about pop stars and Hollywood actors. That Reddit thread about sunscreen brands? The debate around the latest bestsellers on BookTok? A good deal of it may actually be covert advertising, versus actual discussion in a healthy community. If everything online is dismissed and distrusted as marketing slop, it becomes harder and harder for brands to build quality connections with consumers.

  OUR TAKE

Clipping has upended social media. This refers to the now seemingly ubiquitous practice of hiring third parties to turn your content into bite-sized pieces that are then posted and shared by a network of accounts (that often turn out to be created for the sole purpose of content distribution). “Narrative campaigns” form the next step—artificial comments and opinions are planted to resemble authentic consumer banter.

The previous high-water marks of digital marketing, maximum views and engagement, can now be so juiced that brands are trying to step away from -maxxing in order to differentiate themselves. “Going viral” is no longer the end all be all, as brands think about how to build long-term relevance, credibility, and genuine loyalty.

One avenue that brands are investing in is long-form content, especially via YouTube. Passive scrolling and the trend-base algorithm exacerbate digital fatigue, reportedly felt by 58% of Gen Zs and 54% of Millennials in Deloitte Global’s recent Gen Z and Millennial Survey. Long-form allows brands to communicate with more nuance, and take advantage of a longer effectiveness tail where brand integrations have a longer shelf life instead of disappearing after 24-hours.

Even the quality of SponCon can hit different, as long-form content allows for more room for storytelling.  Creators can speak with genuine appreciation for a brand or product in a longer video essay without being immediately dismissed. YouTube has tools that identify creators organically mentioning brands, improving the match-making with advertiser needs.

Brands are also expanding what they do offline. As it becomes harder to distinguish between a flesh-and-blood netizen versus a bot account, people look to IRL events to build emotional connection, and authentic fandoms. As we previously covered on Culture Wire, brands recognize the power of community-building in these spaces, where consumers are choosing to invest their time, dollars and social ties. Literary salons by fashion houses such as Miu Miu offer the opportunity to signal shared identity and interests with real people. Prime Video announced Obsessed Fest, a convention centered around its new slate of streaming content based on Young Adult IPs.

Online, anything is now table-stakes or just plain homogenous. As the attention economy continues to evolve, brands need to be more creative than ever and truly think end-to-end to build lasting power with consumers.

For those of you born before 1997, ‘fax, no printer‘ is Gen Z speak for ‘undeniable facts I agree with’

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