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’

Scroll to the end of the newsletter for the correct answer!

HEADLINE ACT

Filipino pop is having a festival moment. Weeks after BINI made history as the first Filipino act to perform at Coachella—and drew the kind of online attention that’s usually reserved for much higher-billed acts—SB19 are gearing up to perform at Lollapalooza. Novelty bookings these are not: BINI’s 2026 world tour includes stops in the US, Europe, and Asia, while SB19 reached 1B Spotify streams at the start of the year. 

BINI and SB19 are perhaps the highest-profile examples of a broader shift: across Southeast Asia, local-language artists, homegrown formats, and culturally specific stories are rapidly gaining ground. This isn’t one ‘wave’ replacing another, rather the emergence of multiple local scenes with increasingly engaged audiences. 

While previous SEA exports like NIKI and Rich Brian saw international success singing and rapping in English, these newer acts are finding global audiences while performing in their own languages. There’s still a place for global culture, but SEA consumers are becoming more confident that what’s made close to home belongs on the biggest stages.

OUR TAKE

Interest in local acts is intertwined with the evolution of K-pop. As the genre’s focus has shifted towards global audiences—think English-language releases, multinational line-ups and international training systems—it’s become both a global template and less of a geographically fixed category. But this has also allowed for the idol infrastructure to be adopted and remixed across SEA, as the all-Indonesian girl group NO:NA reveals. Although trained in an idol pipeline, they’re distinctly ‘local’, with gamelan, Balinese cymbals, and music videos set in rice terraces.

Meanwhile, the systems around these emerging local acts are also being built locally, through a mix of government funding, major-label investment, industry bodies, and international competition formats. Thailand’s Creative Economy Agency is in year three of Music Exchange, a program that’s seen 95 artists participate in 64 international festivals. In Vietnam, Sony Music took a 49% stake in YeaH1 Group’s music production unit to build a ‘direct pipeline’ for V-pop to reach international charts. And this November, Bangkok will host the inaugural Eurovision Song Contest Asia .

Of course, consumer interest in local acts predates export programs or investment, but now the scale is almost impossible to ignore. OPM’s share of Spotify’s Philippine daily Top 50 rose from 44% in 2023 to 63% in 2026 (note that we’ve been tracking this since budots crashed brat summer in 2024). Meanwhile in Thailand, daily music charts are a mix of K-pop and T-pop and Thai hip-hop, with Jeff Satur (the second most-streamed Thai act on Spotify globally) touring arenas across Asia and Latin America. Homegrown Malaysian acts like K-Clique are building a dedicated regional fanbase. And while Singapore remains an outlier, with K-pop, Western pop, and Mandopop still dominant, interest in local stories is surfacing in other formats.

Single x 35, a manga set in Singapore, recently went viral with fans praising the depiction of MRT commutes, bidding wars for in-demand apartments (brutal), and career stagnation. It sits alongside other webcomics like Woke Salaryman and Indonesia’s Tahilalats as an example of homegrown IP built on everyday anxieties and humor that—crucially—don’t need to be explained to the audience. Brands are starting to get it, too. Airbnb’s partnership with MILLI turned the Thai rapper into a cultural translator who guides travelers through Bangkok’s creative neighborhoods. Using an artist as an access point into a place and a culture works because MILLI’s credibility with that audience is earned.

For years, the safe bet for brands in SEA was to borrow cultural credibility from global acts. More recently, attention has shifted closer to home, but a partnership with BTS, BLACKPINK, or similar was still a bet on the biggest name in the room. Now, with local talent seeing chart success (at home and abroad), those ‘safe’ choices are starting to look less like the smart ones.

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

Scroll to the end of the newsletter for the correct answer!

“THAT’S ALL.”

The Devil Wears Prada 2 opens this week and promises all the fan-favorites of the 2006 blockbuster and more—more Miranda-isms, more New York City, and definitely more fashion. Ahead of the movie opening, brand collaborations have multiplied, from Samsung mobile phones to L’Oreal Paris makeup. One would expect all these brands’ ads to play in the movie theater right before the lights dim, but the curious thing is—these brands might not even be in the movie.

OUR TAKE

Brands using movies to create cultural cache isn’t new but it is clear that brand marketing in movies has evolved from product placements to become an extended form of content and engagement. The latest slate of brand and movie marketing don’t just feature actors holding up products, but hero storytelling and feel like bite-sized extensions of the movie brought IRL. 2023’s Barbie broke the floodgates for this, with experiences such as AirBnB’s bookable Barbie’s Dreamhouse placing consumers right in the middle of the story.

Much of the more interesting marketing content tied to The Devil Wears Prada 2 goes beyond just product placement within the movie. Brands are now accessing more creative avenues to convey their message and integrate in people’s lives. Immersive storytelling and IYKYK nods to deep cuts can create stand-alone featurettes and open up other enticing parts of the world of the movie.

For behind-the-scenes footage of Runway magazine, look at the campaign from beauty brand Lancôme where actors Pauline Chalamet and Caleb Hearon reprise their movie roles to tackle a classic ‘impossible’ Miranda task. Coca-Cola brand Smartwater’s mini-game makes players search for the right shade of blue—a throwback to Miranda’s cerulean monologue in the first movie. Starbucks, which does physically appear in both movies, launched a real-life secret menu with the characters’ go-to orders and even brought back actor Adrian Grenier where he meta-comments on his hated character, Nate.

To partner with movies, brands now don’t have to be limited to the actual run-time of the movie, but can create these “pocket universes” that still feel true to the story and give audiences space within the world.

One example is not even a promotion for a movie, but accesses the legacy and shared moments of a decades-long cinematic collaboration between two veteran actors. To promote the Shogun Burger, McDonald’s Hong Kong created an entire music video with home-grown artists Louis Koo and Jessica Hsuan, channeling scenes from the multiple movies where they’ve played love interests. The campaign also included an Instagram Live session with the artists and collective trading cards riffing on their romantic scenes from movies.

At a time when demand for IRL experiences is heightened and cultural status comes from being in-the-know, brands have a real opportunity to leverage movies for their iconic scenes, characters or IYKYK moments to build their own cultural capital within the movie hype cycle. This is especially so for films with a rich history (easy for sequels, remakes and  franchises, which seem to be the norm in Hollywood today) where core fans are eager for more content and experiences to get closer to the movie-world, and it doesn’t hurt that cinema attendance is on the rise with Gen Zs, especially in APAC.

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

Scroll to the end of the newsletter for the correct answer!

FANDOM MEANS BUSINESS

On flights from Manila to Seoul last week, Philippine Airlines offered some euphoria to BTS fans by offering banners to any passenger who could prove ARMY credentials. The thoughtful gesture was a hit on social media, with some calling for other airlines to follow suit. For those that missed out, Incheon International Airport provided consolation in the form of farewell messages on departure boards in the days following BTS’s comeback concert. 

That concert – held in Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square – drew over 75,000 people from Korea and beyond, with 1 in 4 flying in from abroad to witness the event. The largest share of overseas fans came from Thailand, followed by Vietnam. BTS’s return from mandatory military service is, of course, big news for the record label but local Seoul businesses benefitted too: a traditional liquor maker tripled production for a highball brand endorsed by member Jin. Restaurants in Gwanghwamun hired temporary staff who speak Spanish, Uzbek, Burmese, and Japanese. And BTS-themed tours are doing brisk business nationwide. 

On the surface, these are examples of brands catering to BTS fans. But there’s an underlying shift here and it’s the idea that fandom doesn’t just drive culture. It also drives demand.

OUR TAKE

Long-term readers will know about the concept of the Culture Wallet, and how consumers spend around the passion points that express who they are and where they belong. For BTS fans, that means concert tickets, albums, merch, hotels, themed looks or accessories. Practical and emotional investments that allow them to be part of the moment.

But the Culture Wallet doesn’t stop there. When fan spending scales and concentrates, it results in a second wave of economic activity that ripples far beyond the artist. For example, Asian airlines are adjusting schedules and flight paths in response to K-Pop touring cycles (some carriers are adding temporary flights timed to concert dates). 

And according to data from tour sponsor Visa, foreign travel to South Korea surged more than 25% in the week of the concert, with travel spending up around 20% from an average week. (Side-note that Visa’s role goes beyond sponsorship, with the brand giving cardholders direct ticket access and running on-site merch booths across APAC tour stops). The Korea Culture & Tourism Institute estimates that one BTS concert can generate up to ₩1.2 trillion (around US$815 million) across retail,  hospitality, staffing and local commerce. These demand spikes should be anticipated in the same way as other major seasonal or event-led surges.

Another thing that makes this moment different is not just the spending, but the structure of fandom itself. In the past, fandom was often dismissed as irrational excess or a closed loop of repeat purchases. Today, it functions more like a live participation network: continuous, global and always-on. Fan-to-fan connection can be just as important as fan-to-artist devotion. The main event — in this case, the concert — is one part of the appeal. The evolving lore matters too, as does collecting proof and mementos that they were there. 

For many superfans, cultural devotion is both personal and communal. The real value doesn’t sit only in the concert itself. It comes from everything that’s around it: the travel, the community fans meet, the side-quests, the visible signals of belonging and, of course, the commerce that forms around all of that.  

For marketers, the opportunity is more than a one-off partnership or a themed product drop. Recent data from Live Nation found that 97% of fans want brands to play a bigger role in live entertainment and when brands are involved the effects are positive: a 75% uplift in brand consideration, while 80% leave liking the brand more. Fans don’t just tolerate brands’ presence at live events – they are inviting them into the space. And that means that the brands that see success here will be the ones that see past the ‘main event’ and build for everything that fans do around it. 

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

Scroll to the end of the newsletter for the correct answer!

PARTY IN THE U.S.A

The recent release of Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special on Disney+ has sparked much fanfare, from watch parties in bars to fervent introspection from Gen Z and Millenial fans of the Disney Channel tween sitcom (2006-2011). The series follows a classic double-life: regular kid Miley Stewart is actually pop sensation Hannah Montana but still deals with school-time shenanigans. Child actress Miley Cyrus eventually became a bona fide pop star, and the anniversary special is part concert, part reminiscence of the series’ impact on pop culture and fandom.

OUR TAKE

Brands have tried to harness nostalgia in many ways. Past products are re-released constantly, with messaging invoking the good ol’ days. When done haphazardly, brands run the risk of being seen as only capable of rehashing previous greats, with no capacity for creativity and innovation. Every brand has some level of heritage and history, but how might one utilize the past without being burdened by it?

We believe the key is deep understanding of what makes the brand tick and smart story-telling. The Barbie movie surprised audiences with its combination of tongue-in-cheek humor and the modernisation of Barbie’s image to authentically reflect the multifaceted nature of womanhood. Easter egg moments were also fun nods to old fandoms, as viewers could point out their favorite discontinued toy character depicted on screen. We’ll be watching to see how the Masters of the Universe film and the hotly awaited Harry Potter HBO Max series will fair.

It’s important to use these throwback moments with thought to feel fresh. The CHANEL 25 Handbag Campaign is a short film-esque commercial directed by French filmmaker Michel Gondry, featuring actress Margot Robbie (again!) set to Kylie Minogue’s beloved track “Come Into My World” (also in time for the 25th anniversary of the song). The film follows Robbie’s character going through a day in her life, and doesn’t beat audiences over the head with the fact that it actually recreates the old music video – a true IYKYK moment.

The way your brand uses nostalgia is about how you speak to consumers. It’s a question of brand longevity and whether your story can be seen as evergreen — can you resonate with both existing and new fans?

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

Scroll to the end of the newsletter for the correct answer!

A WORLD OF STORIES

In the last Culture Wire, we briefly talked about book merch—logoed T-shirts and caps that signal niche literary interests, letting readers wear the story. This week, we found something that goes even further.

The Boyfriend Book Box reframes each $497 subscription as a ‘gift’ from the male lead in a dark romance, filled with items designed to bring the character to life. More than 20,000 people are already on the waitlist.

Fans don’t just want to consume stories; they increasingly want to inhabit them. In China, romance narratives are moving off the page and into real life. In a fast-growing offshoot of the murder-mystery roleplay format jubensha, players spend hours acting out tragic love stories alongside paid ‘love companions’. The wider industry now spans roughly 168,000 companies, with 72,000 founded in 2025 alone—up 16% year-on-year.

And remember Love and Deepspace? New updates allow characters to call players by name, creating a more personal experience. Some players are even extending character relationships into ChatGPT and DeepSeek. At the far end of the storytelling spectrum, character.ai users are building companions from scratch.

OUR TAKE

To frame this cultural shift as pure escapism misses the point.

Fictional worlds don’t just entertain—they’re where people go to feel understood, explore connection, and experience emotions everyday life doesn’t always deliver. Some Love and Deepspace players say the game fulfills emotional needs they didn’t even realize were unmet.

Back to books. In Indonesia, where the Reading Interest Index jumped from 66.77 to 72.44 in a single year, BookTok is helping revive reading and turn it into a social identity marker. More than half of readers (62.5%) now discover books through social media.

As reading becomes social, spaces are evolving. Jakarta’s Gramedia Jalma bookstore is designed as a third space blending bookstore, coworking space, and café. Singapore’s National Library Board just launched Chapters, a collectible card game that turns 30 years of library history into a playable narrative.

We’ve previously explored how people are pushing back on frictionless consumption in search of meaning. Narrative is what ties it all together. BookTok, bookstore third spaces, and AI companions may look different, but they point to the same shift: in an uncertain world, people want stories they can enter, extend, and shape—not just watch or read.

Referencing literary culture is easy. Building a narrative people want to step into is harder but far more valuable for brands in the long-term.

In China, Mixue turned sales receipts into serialized fiction, sparking a viral craze. Alipay Alipay partnered with novelist Liu Zhenyun to create a Convenience Store Literature Corner, where everyday people co-create stories. Dr. Seuss reframed reading itself as travel with a faux travel agency where every ‘booking’ leads to a book.

The opportunity for brands is clear: move beyond storytelling, and build worlds people can participate in. Because if anything is clear from BookTok to AI companions, it’s that the demand for stories people can live inside is only accelerating. 

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

Scroll to the end of the newsletter for the correct answer!

WHERE’S EVERYBODY GOING?

“Revenge travel” has now become TRAVEL (all caps, no cap), as Klook’s Travel Pulse 2026 illustrates just how primed people are to take trips this year. 88% of Millennial and Gen Z travelers plan to maintain or up spends, with those in Asia Pacific 50% more likely to spend more, compared to their European and US counterparts. 

At this scale, the popular image is of mainland Chinese tourists propping up overseas luxury shopping. But that would only be one facet of the 2026 Traveler. Klook’s study shows that it’s actually Singaporeans who index most highly on travel, even outspending the rest of Asia Pacific on long-leisure trips. Singaporeans are choosing experiences over just hauls, with a high willingness to spend on specific interests such as outdoor activities and theme parks.

OUR TAKE

We’ve previously mentioned how consumers utilize their Culture Wallet—spending in service of their passion points to reinforce identity. Gen Z now faces economic turmoil and societal structural changes that Boomers and Gen X didn’t have to deal with, where big-ticket “I’ve made it” items (e.g., hefty mortgages) are out of consideration. What is still possible, and where Gen Z consumers are checking off the boxes, is smaller-scale luxury in the shape of hobbies and interests to self-actualize and signal identity. 

This can often be beauty or clothing, which is categorized generically (and unfairly!) as non-essentials. Looking at the spending habits of Indonesian Gen Z, the largest in SEA and a market maker—they prioritize lifestyle spending (beauty and personal care come first) over essentials. They’re not just chasing one feel-good moment either. They’re actually closely examining which brands align with their personal values before purchasing. 

As the Culture Wallet is so closely tied to expressions of identity, young people make statements about their individuality and personal brands viscerally through small items, such as DIY charm-encrusted combs that are heavily personalized. Affordability remains important, but the size of a consumer’s Culture Wallet isn’t always directly tied to their bank account. Time and effort spent are also flexes, illustrated by how the 2026 Traveler is heavily reliant on trawling social content and AI tools to craft max-ROI itineraries. There is a clear appeal to signal IYKYK, as seen in the surge in popularity of smaller off-the-beaten-path cities. 

Once derided as the lowest common denominator of signalling identity, even the logo-emblazed t-shirt is now being considered with thought and nuance, in the form of merch to showcase a love of reading, small-batch bookstores, and an enthusiastic community. At the end of the day, consumers want to reflect their passion points and POVs out to the world in an authentic way. If brands show that they get this mindset, people will definitely respond.

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

Scroll to the end of the newsletter for the correct answer!

NEW YEAR, NEW APP

Move over, WeChat. This Lunar New Year, some of China’s biggest tech companies turned a cultural tradition into an install prompt, tying red envelope campaigns directly to their AI apps. Alibaba’s Qwen chatbot offered bubble tea at ¥0.01 as part of a ¥3 billion ($431 million) campaign, processing over 10 million orders within nine hours of launch (yes, it was chaotic for the delivery drivers). Tencent’s Yuanbao AI assistant ran a ¥1 billion red envelope promotion with users invited to share links with contacts to win cash prizes; meanwhile Baidu’s Wenxin AI followed with its own ¥500 million push.

Converting curiosity into engagement was also Duolingo’s play at the Super Bowl. The brand launched Bad Bunny 101 ahead of the rapper’s historic halftime show, encouraging fans to learn Spanish phrases from his songs. After 140 million people tuned in to the performance, Duolingo saw a 35% week-on-week jump in Spanish-language learners.

Clearly, there’s no shortage of brands inserting themselves into cultural moments. But there is a gap between using shared moments as a user acquisition funnel and actually earning a place inside those moments. Ramadan is the next test case, with global brands increasingly turning to local artist collaborations, commissioning poets, illustrators and street artists to shape the creative direction from the outset, rather than just endorse a finished product. 

OUR TAKE

Tying red envelopes directly to AI tools to seed adoption at scale paid off: Qwen processed 120 million orders in six days and surged to the top of China’s App Store, while Yuanbao unseated ByteDance’s Doubao. WeChat dominated China’s app ecosystem for years. Now, these AI companies are using the country’s biggest cultural moment to come for WeChat’s crown – and not just among early adopters. Nearly half of Qwen’s orders came from county-level and rural areas, while 1.56 million people aged 60+ made their first-ever online purchase through the app. Now the bigger question is, can that engagement outlast the moment?  

As we’ve previously explored, rituals (such as red envelopes) and seasons help people anchor themselves in uncertain times. But that means that the stakes for brands entering those spaces are considerably higher. Ramadan – the major cultural event for 25% of the world’s population – is a case in point. In both Indonesia and Malaysia, heartfelt family storytelling ranks as the strongest marker of authentic Ramadan advertising, above discounts, influencer campaigns, and celebrity endorsements. 

Ferragamo’s Threads of Light with Emirati poet Fatima AlJarman and Lacoste’s collaboration with Indonesian illustrator Yfana Khadija Amelz (who designed the brand’s full local Ramadan campaign) are examples of brands trying to meet that bar. But this is about more than partnerships with local talent, it’s about when they’re brought in. Inviting an artist to approve a finished brief isn’t enough – when they’re involved from the start, the finished campaign gains a credibility that can’t be faked. 

Brands have always inserted themselves into cultural moments. What’s changed is consumers, who are better able to spot tokenism and quicker to reject it. The seniors using AI chatbots to make purchases, the consumers who put storytelling above discounts and the surge in Spanish learners post-SuperBowl are all part of the same story: familiar moments and traditions can lower the barrier to unfamiliar brands or technologies. Of course, that all depends on the brand earning a place in the moment, rather than just showing up for it.

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

Scroll to the end of the newsletter for the correct answer!

I WOKE UP LIKE THIS

From the frenzy of year-end festivities to the upcoming Lunar New Year period (never known as a stress-free holiday), the signs of emotional wear and tear on the psyche continue as people seek out balance. Fashion has always been a reflection of our own psychology, and our yearning for calm can now be channeled into low-energy dressing. On the surface, this would suggest that on the min-max scale, our appearance to the rest of the world has reverted to Minimum Viable Product as energy levels run empty.

OUR TAKE

The end look, when viewed in isolation, may suggest emotional decline or a complete void of joy and feeling. But the mindset and methodology indicate far more dynamism and self-assuredness than what the name alone might convey. Softer, quieter colors and silhouettes can indicate confidence, an acceptance of identity that is unshackled by a million different details—or a million different algorithms. From our perspective, low-energy dressing and friction-maxxing are both tools for people to take back control from chaotic socio-economic forces and chronic digitization. Completing these small tasks aid the search for equilibrium and connection, and inject a bit more meaning into our lives.

Products and brands still have a part to play in these habits and rituals, but the overarching desire for holistic wellness and belonging is clear. It’s no longer just about correcting a flaw, but creating a healthy approach to everyday life. The increasing global awareness and popularity of Thai beauty (T-beauty) is a result of Thai brands and providers flexing legacy wellness traditions and ingredients as commercial differentiator. Kim Kardashian’s Bangkok clinic playbook goes hand in hand with acclaimed brand Pañpuri. Modern wellness methods intertwine with age-old practices. Even the Chinese government is pouring money into scaling traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with AI and technology.

The enthusiasm for rituals is especially present as a trend in food, with fashion and beauty brands taking note of the preference for sensory experiences and everyday “guided rituals” as a path to balance. Sensory comfort can also be attained in the form of mini analog tasks such as using punch cards to hit one’s goals, far more satisfying than using the Reminders app and a vehicle for self-expression on social media.

For consumers, the search for meaning remains a constant, and brands should take heed as we head into another heavily commercialized holiday. What sort of evergreen ritual can your brand cultivate?

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

Scroll to the end of the newsletter for the correct answer!

 BRAND HOST WITH THE MOST

Everyone’s looking for a place to just be, and brands have taken notice. In the past few months, we’ve seen Coach open its first restaurant at Jewel Changi Airport, building on an NYC-inspired bar that had previously opened in Singapore. Porsche is also bringing hospitality to Jewel with a lifestyle-led concept store that includes Café Carrera, developed in partnership with Baker & Cook. Meanwhile, Recess and Aesop just unveiled a bathhouse in Montréal—complete with a communal sauna and hydrotherapy.

This isn’t exactly new territory. Ralph Lauren’s Ralph’s Coffee debuted in New York in 2014, and the first international MUJI cafe opened in Singapore in 2015. But the retail-hospitality crossover is accelerating, with brands betting that time spent is worth more than a transaction.

Is this soft-selling with a cocktail menu? Maybe. But the consumer pull is real: many people are looking for offline, collective experiences that give them a reason to meet others (and, ideally, put their phone away). Younger consumers in particular show interest in ‘shared room’ moments—2025 saw a 25% increase in cinema attendance among US Gen Z, while Gen Alpha increasingly say they prefer the big screen to watching at home .

OUR TAKE

Brands aren’t only competing for consumers’ wallets anymore; they’re competing for consumers’ time. That’s an important distinction; one that explains why the race to build third spaces is heating up. These are environments designed to sit between home and work, places where lingering—and not purchases—is encouraged. The metric that matters isn’t conversion. Instead, brands are measuring dwell time. How long do people stay? Do they come back… and do they bring their friends?

In fact, community is becoming more valuable than conversion. Nearly nine in 10 consumers say being part of a like-minded brand community strengthens their connection more than influencer marketing ever could. The same survey found that almost a third of consumers first discover a brand through community interactions rather than ads or feeds.

We’ve previously discussed how younger consumers in particular are tiring of dopamine-fueled microtrends, algorithmic spectacle, and constant novelty. That same exhaustion is pushing them toward brands that offer something slower: narrative depth and a sense of belonging.

Something else we’re noticing. Third spaces are increasingly being linked to adjacent interests, most notably health and wellbeing. Dior’s growing portfolio of branded spas extends the brand further into daily rituals, while New Balance’s Run Hub—which landed in Malaysia in November—blends retail with a gathering space for runners.

The brands that get this right won’t just earn visits. They’ll become part of how people structure their weeks. But it requires building a space people actually want to return to, not just another backdrop to scrolling.

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

Scroll to the end of the newsletter for the correct answer!