Smash Hits. Gig Economy. Sexy Dates.
And why timing matters when redesigning your brand.
Here’s what’s on our On Brand radar lately, from London to Chicago.
From London (Mia)
I started my career touring in an indie band, Electrelane, so I know firsthand that merch is big business for people trying to make a living from music—especially when gigging is no longer a guaranteed money-maker. Which is why Tim Burgess’s Merch Market caught my eye. Last month, bands were able to sell their gear without giving up a single % to the venue—a sharp contrast to the typical 20–25% cut that often disappears into venue pockets. As streaming pays peanuts and touring margins shrink, merch has become one of the last bastions of direct artist revenue and fan connection. The Merch Market points to a bigger shift: artists (and fans) pushing back on legacy models that quietly siphon value out of the ecosystem. Expect to see more of this energy—and more creative ways artists reclaim their margins—across the live music economy and beyond.
There’s a new kind of anti-diet messaging popping up in food outlets. And it’s not subtle. In Paris last week, I spotted a sign outside a taqueria on Rue Saint-Honoré that read: Eat your tacos. Sip your Mezcal. Fuck your diet. My local London fast food chain has one too: Exercise? I thought you said extra fries. This isn’t Big Food co-opting the anti-diet movement for profit. It’s rawer, louder and more like a middle finger to the clean-eating, self-optimisation industrial complex. Think Anthony Bourdain’s “Your body’s not a temple. It’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride,” splashed across a sandwich board. In a culture still saturated with guilt and virtue-signalling around food, there’s something refreshing about seeing retail spaces embrace pure, unapologetic pleasure.
Speaking of brash, I discovered a new (to me) South Korean perfume brand last week: BORNTOSTANDOUT. Founded in 2022 by a former investment banker, the brand has an on-the-nose positioning (the website states: We believe in the power of the ‘I don’t give a fuck’ attitude). and proactively named perfumes like Naked Laundry, Drunk Lovers and Fig Porn. The scents are disappointingly meh in my opinion, but what BORNTOSTANDOUT knowingly sells is attitude: genderless, playful, subversive, kinda bratty. It’s not my vibe and it gets my goat when the product doesn’t rise to meet expectations, but I’m not the brand’s target. This is perfume purposely built for Instagram captions, dinner party chatter and online buzz. It taps the same cultural undercurrent that’s fuelling everything from the rise of anti-perfection beauty to the primal renaissance that’s happening after years of cultural sanitisation and ‘clean girl’ aesthetics. There’s a return to rawness, sleaze and hedonism happening and I’m curious to see how it plays out for brands.
Bottled attitude. BORNTOSTANDOUT is going for a ‘headline bait’ approach to product naming. Antler is quietly building a British brand playbook worth watching. Off the back of a 3rd year of double-digit growth, the 110-year-old luggage company has set its sights on becoming a £100 million brand by 2029. Smartly evolving from ‘just luggage’ to a broader lifestyle positioning is helping them get there, with travel bags and accessories forecast to grow 310% this year. The pivot is backed by strong fundamentals: 120% growth in UK wholesale (John Lewis, Selfridges), fast-expanding US ops (+43%), and a hero product in its new Icon Stripe collection. But for a brand with roots and reach, moving into lifestyle might be Antler’s smartest trip yet.
From Chicago (Ellen)
Is Smash Foods the next Goodles in terms of center-store grocery domination? Grocery’s center aisles are where CPG legends are made. My childhood was the era of convenience brands like Kraft, Campbell’s and Uncrustables. Then came Millennial-fave organic brands like Annie’s, Purely Elizabeth and Justin’s. Gen Zalpha is now putting their mark on the modern era of center-aisle legends, and, in recent years, they’ve dropped Goodles into mom or dad’s grocery cart on just about every shopping occasion. So much so, the brand has its own 6-foot section in boxed meals and pasta in many premium and mass grocery stores these days. Up-and-comer, Smash Foods, seems set on the same course. Like Goodles, Smash offers no-brainer, better-for-you versions of center-aisle staples that are darn tasty! It doesn’t take a PhD in chemistry, knowledge of some woo-woo food science, or zero taste buds to fall in love with the stuff. Until recently, Smash Foods was called Chia Smash, but in 2023 they changed their name and updated their visual identity to expand into new markets and categories… and they’re rolling now! I first spotted the re-brand about a year ago at a small gourmet grocery. Now, they’re all over mass grocery in jarred jams, protein snacks… even at check-out.
More dates with Date Better. Above mentioned, Smash Foods, leans into dates as a key ingredient, but modestly so compared to newer-on-scene candy brand, Date Better. DB makes dates downright sexy which is a bold move considering the dried fruit is commonly confused for prunes, a favorite digestif at nursing homes and retirement villages. I’ll be honest, I think they’re onto something. The post-meal occasion of needing something small and sweet to “cut the grease” (as my father likes to say) has two main players today, Dove and Ferrero Rocher, neither of which can claim superfood fruit ingredients or true digestion aid benefits (if you know what I mean— wink, wink). Not sure you’ll want to share them on a date, but for a party of one— yes, ma’am!
Maybe I AM in my geri era? Not only do I think dates are sexy, but this news recently caught my eye. Tylenol is getting into the joint support supplement game complete with “easy twist” caps and straight-up swoopy Osteo Bi-Flex design. They’ve hired the late-90s SNL star, Molly Shannon, as their spokesperson. One might think this is Tylenol’s play to appeal to an older audience, but nah— I think they’re talking to me. At 46, I never would have considered preventative joint care if not for the Tylenol/Shannon endorsement. It’s the perfect combo of feel-better reliability (Tylenol) and aspirational ageless vitality (Shannon). Thinking about it.
Design, then distribution— m’kay— sequence matters. Surf, volleyball, and superfood fans have probably known of Laird Superfood for close to a decade. It’s the ingredient-forward, plant-based creamer and supplements brand started by surf legends Laird Hamilton and Paul Hodge and Hamilton’s volleyball-superstar wife, Gabrielle Reece, in 2015. The company IPO’d in 2020 with about $13M in net revenue, generated largely from online sales. Revenue nearly tripled in the first 18 months after IPO driven primarily by consumer expansion through existing and premium outlets. Then things flat-lined. Undoubtedly, one of the brand’s Achilles' heels was its original packaging design with its elite coastal lifestyle vibe and bad Bulletproof resemblance. This look was never going to take in mass. Thankfully, they re-designed, just in time to gain distribution in several mainstream grocers like Albertson’s, Safeway and Wegmans. Now they’re sitting on five consecutive quarters of double-digit revenue growth and a consumer base that commands function and flavor. Had they planned to execute this strategy in reverse— distribution before design— well, they may never have secured the new distribution (mass grocery loves shiny, new flavor and occasion-forward packaging). And, any new distribution gains would likely have been disrupted by the drastic packaging change. Online is way more forgiving to package design changes than brick-and-mortar. Well played.
Laird Superfood packaging re-design before and after; image courtesy of designalytics.com
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Sexy dates? Yes, please. Ensure, take notice.
...and we could go on and on. Let's farm out our collective expertise and rename everything marketed to people of a certain age.