Teeth Tattoos. Microdosing. Healthy Stress.
And...did Oreo just break up with milk on social media?
From London
Talk about popping at shelf. Australian oral care brand Hismile is practically leaping out of the toothpaste section at my local Boots with a cosmetics-meets-candy aesthetic that’s a far cry from Colgate. The category disruptor is pushing a pure Gen Z-focused flavour play with SKUs like Cereal Milk, Gummy Bear, and Pistachio– plus licensing partnerships with the likes of Chupa Chups and the Wonka and Barbie franchises. They’ve also launched SmileStikas, which they describe as ‘tooth tattoos’ to help you “style your smile” (shapes include lollipops, French fries, and pretzels). Add a plushly-funded social media strategy and big ticket influencers (inc. Kim K.) to a positioning white space in oral care and, well, you get a 500% YOY increase in online sales globally with $1 billion in annual revenue projected for 2025. Not bad for a brand taking on businesses with an extra century of category experience. Is the product any good, though? Reviews are mixed.
I’m calling it: NAD+ (peptides that activate cellular functions and possibly support energy and gentler aging) is going to be the biggest supplement trend of 2025. (And I’m not alone. The global NAD market is predicted to expand at a CAGR of 24.9% to reach $655 million by 2028).
Speaking of supplements, will no one bat an eye at microdosing psilocybin in a few years? I reckon it’ll follow a cultural trajectory similar to CBD as people get more educated on the benefits and usage moves from early adopters to mainstream acceptance. We’re already halfway there with functional mushroom usage (the UK is catching up to the US; I can now pick-up lion’s mane coffee at my local supermarket and London-based Spacegoods recently secured £2.5M to help supercharge its functional mushroom and nootropics blends). Meanwhile, many of my female friends (I’m talking at least 50%) have daily microdosing protocols to help them through everything from dealing with the stress of high-powered jobs to managing the tedium of parenting to navigating perimenopause and menopause (of course, this is indicative of a much deeper problem regarding lack of support for women but, like always, when the system fails us, we take matters into our hands). Get ready for the ‘shroom boom.
Gen Z's fascination with bygone eras is powering the rise of neo-vintage packaging, a savvy fusion of rose-tinted 70s vibes with a contemporary edge. It’s not so much about cloning past designs but, rather, reinvigorating them. Mixing old-school charm with new-school eyes to create something inspired by the past yet perfectly pitched for present tastes. Here are some fun examples I spotted at Selfridges over the weekend…
From Chicago
From microdosing to micro-moments: Mia’s right— women are microdosing like mad these days. I hear about it constantly. And, in practically the same breath that they talk about their mini trips, they mention a mini visit to a “wellness lounge” where they go for a flash cold plunge or red light therapy treatment. I’ll admit, when CryoBars started popping up all over Chicago about a decade ago, I was super skeptical (“Who’s really going to do that more than once?”). To me, they sounded more like amusement centers vs. frequently visited treatment centers. But now, cryotherapy spas and the like are still going strong— presumably because they’ve expanded their services to include all sorts of health-inducing micro-moments: cold ones, hot ones, drippy ones, pressurized ones. The name of the game is hormesis, a term traditionally used in medical labs to describe the body’s beneficial cellular response to moderate and intermittent doses of stress (aka “healthy stress”). Although most mainstream wellness brands and gurus aren’t using the “hormesis” lingo just yet, it seems a matter of time before this word replaces “microbiome” as the health topic du jour.
Is goop a goner? Last week, business reporters on this platform and elsewhere seemed to delight in the news that goop had just laid off 18-20% of its staff. Although the company emphatically states that this drastic maneuver is part of a larger restructuring…I’m not so sure. The writing seems to be on the wall for Gwyneth’s long-time ego empire. Those in the know— like these two marketing geniuses— probably could have predicted goop’s downfall years ago when Gwyneth elevated her stature in the business instead of letting the spotlight shine from a different vantage point, on a broader ideal. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Gwyn, maybe you need to follow Kim K’s lead and just fade into the background a bit. It seems to be working for her to let Lana Del Rey, Nicola Coughlan, and a bunch of W/NBA stars take centerstage for SKIMS.
I feel really sorry for milk. Oreo just announced all over social media and its home turf that its new “bestie” is Coke Zero— as if its long-standing relationship with milk is a distant memory. Apparently, the cola-cookie duo already has two children together, and the cookie offspring has taken the Coca-Cola name (see image below). Reports stand that older generations are shunning the couple, but the 13- to 18-year-old crowd is more accepting. Milk, best wishes. This too shall pass. I have a feeling Oreo is just trying something new for the start of school (after all, the back-to-school season is marketers’ version of a Hallmark holiday) and they’ll be back knocking on your glass by Christmas.
Milk, perhaps you need to return your loving gaze to the cereal aisle. In case you haven’t noticed, many General Mills brands have gone mini lately. Initially, I was concerned about the cannibalistic risk of these launches (no company— particularly one in a category as competitive as breakfast cereal— wants to see their product turns slow as a result of their own doing). But then I tried the little cuties and realized that I went through a box about 2x as fast. It wasn’t because they were 2x delicious, just that it took about 2x the amount to fill my cereal bowl. Smart. My guess minis were developed to capitalize on the difference between how people buy cereal (price per box or ounce) and how they consume it (volume per bowl). Ugh, explains the tight pants.
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