7 Trends
to Act on
in 2023

Welcome to Upshot’s annual perspective on key cultural trends influencing the landscape for brands.

Author
Liz Aviles, SVP, Strategy and Insights
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As we do every year, this exercise begins with a reflection on the mood of the moment. If the daily headlines in our news feeds paint a picture of that mood, we can all probably agree that it’s rather glum. Even as the pandemic’s influence on our daily lives continues to diminish, our collective psyche has been buffeted by historic levels of inflation, geopolitical turbulence, climate anxiety, and a myriad of other challenges. Such is the state of things that Collins Dictionary declared “permacrisis” its word of the year for 2022, a choice echoed by our research partners at Kantar Monitor who describe our era of constant stressors as a polycrisis state.    

Peak nostalgia?

In such an environment of unceasing ambient unease, we’re all yearning for a vibe shift in 2023. Over the past two years, our collective quest to feel better has taken the form of a retreat into nostalgia, a trend we explored in last year’s report. Nostalgia ruled and the vibe everyone seemed to be seeking originated in the 90s or earlier. Brands and consumers embraced the style, food, music, and even ad campaigns of past decades for a retreat to seemingly simpler times. And sure, nostalgia will continue to assert its ever-cozy, cultural pull, but when a mayo brand partners with the bejeweled bottoms of Juicy Couture, perhaps we’re running out of nineties fads for marketing inspiration.

A future-forward reset

But, hiding out in the past isn’t likely to yield solutions to our collective challenges today, nor will it meet consumers’ desire for more joy, delight, and positive change in their lives. We believe that rather than look backward, brands have an opportunity in this next year to instead look forward with a mandate to create creative and purpose-driven disruption in the marketplace and, whenever possible, promise more ease and delight for consumers in search of a better mindset. To respond to the current moment, one of volatility, change, and elevated expectations, we believe that a future-forward reset will drive brand creativity and consumer desire this year. 

Inspiring innovation

Developing new brand narratives that promise a brighter future and resonate with today’s consumers requires an understanding of where change and innovation are already happening in both the mainstream and fringe areas of culture, technology, and business. This report highlights a selection of those changes and associated trends that brands can innovate against, be inspired by, and explore with reset-ready consumers who expect brands to serve up both pragmatic solutions in an uncertain economy as well as imaginative fun. Reflecting only a few of the many trends our strategy team is tracking in the culture and marketplace, it’s a collection of diverse thought-starters that should serve as inspiration for brands ready to act and set their sights on what’s next to unlock their potential today and drive their business forward. 

With positivity, optimism, and a solutions-centered focus on our present and collective future, let’s talk trends.  


Contents

Mindful maximalism

Swapping the prescriptive aspects of wellness culture for the unapologetic pursuit of happier, healthier lives.

It’s swell to dwell

Our ever evolving relationship with home in an ever changing world.

The kid in all of us

The irresistible lure of immersive escapism and the desire for transportive play.

Tik tik boom

Powerful progress for all amid the digital gloom.

Wanderlust reawakened

Reimagining travel for new desires and Gen Z expectations.

The purpose paradox

The shift towards pragmatic progress and biodiversity in the spotlight.

Machine dream marketing

Pandora's box or the dawn of a new AI-driven age of synthetic reality?

Mindful
Maximalism

From the NYT’s spotlight on the rise of caviar bumps to a brief obsession with feral girl summer, hedonism emerged as a self-care strategy to stave off the gloom of the mood and cultivate a better vibe in 2022.

But as the year came to a close, we noted a shift away from embracing our inner goblin towards a more mindful take on maximizing our happiness and minimizing our anxiety. As we strive to live richer and more meaningful lives off the hedonic treadmill that characterized our pre-pandemic productivity obsession we continue to see a collective reevaluation of our priorities influencing our relationship with our jobs. Similarly, a desire for equilibrium is evident in Gen Z’s rejection of the more toxic elements of wellness culture from rejecting diets to questioning the hyper-aspirational and perfectionist version of wellness that characterized the “that girl” era of wellness culture. More hikes and less HIIT as Rina Raphael writes in The Gospel of Wellness, a critique of the commercialization of wellness. Instead of diets and five AM fitness routines, think  “soft life” rituals and “rest is resistance” in pursuit of a more emotion-centered approach to well-being in 2023.

From self-care to communal care

In a shift that’s long overdue, we also expect wellness to evolve from self-care to communal care. Consider how the pandemic threw into stark relief the importance of our social relationships to our health. Forced isolation to ward off contagion stressed us emotionally and physically. And yet, three years on, many Americans are still living in what’s been described as an epidemic of loneliness. In our culture, we have fewer friends and spend more time alone than in the past. But awareness of the detrimental effects of social isolation on our minds and our bodies is growing. Gen Z in particular recognizes the importance of friends to their well-being with Upshot research partner yPulse reporting that 77% of young people agree that “hanging out with friends is just as important to my wellness as working out.” Brands should consider how they can hush the hustle and encourage more of us to come together for curative and comforting benefits of strong friendships.

Delighting in the delicious

Mindful pleasure-seeking is also shifting the food and bev landscape. While the pandemic briefly had many of us hoarding our favorite processed food snacks, three years on, we’re now apt to demand more of our indulgences than mere nostalgic comfort. Instead, we’re balancing a desire for food and drink with “health” benefits” with an appreciation for things that are delicious just for the sake of deliciousness. Consumers may be tired of the over-functionalization of our pantries and game for more dopamine-inducing joy and fun from what we eat and drink this year. In a similar vein, a no holds barred flouting of what’s authentic or aesthetically perfect is driving the rise of chaos cooking, AKA culinary cultural mashups, yielding delicious results across a variety of hot, new restaurants. We’re hungrier than ever for novelty, indulgence, and global discovery, so brands will be wise to feed these appetites with maximalist flair. Our advice, “don’t fear the weird in food and bev.”

Perhaps we’ve come to accept that the post-pandemic “roaring twenties” were never meant to be quite so roaring, but even a shaky economic forecast is unlikely to dissuade us from unapologetically pursuing healthier, happier lives well lived on our terms. We expect smart brands will strive to help us do so in ways both large and small.

MANIFESTATIONS

Mindful maximalism in action

Pantone Color of the Year

While some folks may roll their eyes at “color of the year” cogitations, we’re here for the Pantone Institute's selection of Viva Magenta (18-1750) as 2023’s most influential hue. The color, in the words of Pantone, is “brave and fearless, a pulsating color whose exuberance promotes a joyous and optimistic celebration, writing a new narrative.” Meant to express the mood and attitudes of consumers in this moment, the color was chosen to reflect our change in perspective after the past two years’ challenges. According to the color experts at Pantone, the color expresses our sense of emboldened individuality, a desire for fearless empowerment and courage, and a need for positivity and reinvention. We think that’s pretty great inspiration for brands this year. 

Prudential’s Now What Campaign

With its focus on how life’s most hopeful moments can inspire positive action, Prudential’s “Now What?” campaign eschews the insurance category’s usual focus on calamity. Instead, they encourage consumers to capitalize on the sense of optimism and hope that people experience at high points, such as getting a new job, having a child, buying a home, and in those moments, act to secure their financial future. Based on the type of behavioral science research that the brand has long applied to its strategy, the shift to action “when life goes right” should resonate with a consumer primed for positivity and joy.

It’s swell
to dwell

Homes with flow

As the boundaries between home, work, and play have blurred, consumers are seeking solutions that promise greater flexibility and flow. Flexibility may come in the form of new floor plans that provide more privacy than the open arrangements that have dominated residential design for so long. But flow, a higher-order form of flexibility that confers holistic ease, is the desired end benefit of today’s predictive smart home products and services that proactively remove friction and anticipate our needs in and out of the home. Consumers are seeking out furnishings and products that are modular and multifunctional. Services that free up our time to enjoy the homes as hubs and havens for our ever-busy lifestyles also appeal. Speaking to and designing for flexibility and flow will resonate as these priorities drive consumer choice in home and home adjacent categories.

Our homes are never merely places. They are an ongoing process, reflective of our personal histories and always transforming to meet new needs both physical and spiritual.

The many needs the pandemic created when our homes became the center of our lives in altogether new ways continue to influence our relationship with them today. Additionally, the disruptive effects of climate change, our desire for well-being and comfort in anxious times, the rise in at-home gatherings and entertainment, and a challenging housing market are among the factors contributing to evolving priorities as we adapt our homes to new realities this year and beyond.

Havens

The dynamic of our homes as both hub and haven is also evident in how we now experience entertainment in our spaces. Whether via streaming content or gaming, or in how we dine and gather in our homes (indoors and outdoors), the home’s role in how we enjoy ourselves has never been more essential. And while out-of-home entertainment will continue to thrive as consumers remain eager to feel the singular thrill of gathering out in the world, brands will be wise to facilitate our desire to just as quickly revert to homebodies as we all become more intentional about restoring ourselves in our nests of comfort and safety.

Rise of resiliency

Security, a foundational function of our homes, has now broadened to include resiliency as consumers seek out ways for their homes to weather disruptions wrought by a turbulent climate. The threat of more severe and unpredictable weather is creating the need for products and services that provide a sense of control, self-sufficiency, and readiness. Brands and services that help to educate consumers about how to make their homes ‘climate-change ready’ as well as energy efficient will win as consumers look for ecosystems of resiliency in their homes indoors and out. The resulting sense of confidence and preparedness will increasingly become another dimension in the home’s already essential role in cultivating well-being in our lives. 

MANIFESTATIONS

It’s swell to dwell in action

Babcock Ranch

While 2022’s Hurricane Ian wrought billions of dollars of damage on large swathes of southwest Florida, it spared the community of Babcock Ranch, despite its location in the path of the storm. Built with its own solar-powered microgrid, the community’s design integrates both sustainability and resiliency, including the use of native landscaping from yards to streetscaping to prevent flooding. Babcock Ranch’s ability to withstand the wrath of such a powerful storm made national headlines calling attention to the need for brands to provide a holistic approach to building resilient homes and communities as our climate becomes more volatile. Awareness of this case study in design is certain to influence a myriad of other home-related categories and brands as they aim to attract this new mindset in consumers.

Mixed Reality

Apple’s expected launch of a mixed-reality headset this year is generating the sort of speculation and buzz that the brand so reliably inspires among the techerati. Promising technology that surpasses the sensory limitations of Meta’s Quest, the device may ultimately shift in-home entertainment towards a more immersive and multi-dimensional experience, a prediction supported by rumored talks with Disney and other media entities tapped to develop content for the device’s revolutionary features.

The kid
in all of us

Given the permacrisis state of the world and a widespread reconsideration of our culture’s workaholic ways, consumers are actively prioritizing fun and immersive escapism in the form of play. 

No longer just in the kids’ business, but instead claiming to be in the play business, toy companies are responding with a new appreciation for play’s restorative properties with collections and campaigns focused on everyone’s inner child. Razor’s $600 adult version of their classic scooter, Build-A-Bear’s 18+ only Bear Cave collection, Lego’s sets for marketed to adults, many of which command prices in the hundreds, and Hasbro’s Pulse site, which offers an exclusive lineup of toys for grown-ups as well as the option to create a custom action figure in your own likeness, are all meant to tempt the adult in search of childlike delight. 

Prioritizing play

While gaming and games have long attracted adults, the current grown-up love affair with toys appears to be inspired by the recognition that play is an effective way to cope with the stresses of our complicated, modern lives at this moment. Many of the adults driving sales of Funko Pop figurines and American Dolls aren’t merely treating them as collectibles to display, but are just as likely to be engaging with them and sharing that experience with like-minded enthusiasts on social media. 

Given this shift from passive to active enjoyment, brands will do well to tap into this renaissance of grown-up play not just with innovative products and trend-right partnerships, but with events and brand experiences that promise simple joy and the restorative benefits of childhood-inspired pursuits.

MANIFESTATIONS

The kid in all of us in action

Bearbrick x Lancôme Collab

Fronted by Emily in Paris’ Lily Collins, Lancôme’s recent “Call Me Happy” campaign in China featured a limited-time-only product collection and partnership with the cult collectible Japanese vinyl toy brand Bearbrick. The toys are already fetching upwards of $1,400 on sites like StockX and eBay.

CPFM x McDonald’s Collab

One of the year’s most hyped brand collabs, McDonald’s and the niche but coveted streetwear brand Cactus Plant Flea Market (CPFM), featured toys that reimagined McDonald’s Grimace and company with CPFM’s decidedly odd spin that fans immediately found irresistible.

Tik tik
boom

Last year’s tech headlines might incline one towards pessimism about the state of things online, but for those willing to look beyond 2022’s digital drama, new areas of progress will unlock brand opportunities this year and beyond.  

Q4’s ultra-messy crypto crash and NFT winter, Meta’s ailing vision of the metaverse, the dumpster fire that is Twitter, and talk of a tech bubble all created a volatile environment for brands trying to sort out where and how to show up in 2022. But those looking to align with shifting consumer behaviors and elevated expectations of brand interactions will be wise to consider new needs around accessibility, an evolving social landscape, and the demand for greater inclusivity in the global juggernaut that is gaming.  

Ascension of accessibility

The positive implications of a shift towards a more accessible and inclusive online (and offline) world cannot be overstated. No longer is accessibility in devices and in digital environments an afterthought. Inclusive device design, software, graphics, and experience design create a more accessible world for those with disabilities and a concurrent benefit of a better user experience for all. Driven by greater awareness, the threat of litigation, and the vocal influence of accessibility advocates, more brands will prioritize making their digital brand experiences, as well as their products and services, accessible to diverse communities. Inclusive design will fuel brand success as accessibility becomes the norm.

Inclusive gaming

The environments where we connect with others online are also evolving in similarly positive ways. The growth of gaming into a global entertainment juggernaut has accelerated the movement towards greater diversity and inclusivity within gaming experiences which have historically underrepresented women, people of color, people with physical or cognitive disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Already venues of self-expression, games are promoting more diversity in avatars with virtual goods also supporting the need for broader representation and female gamers demanding more body-positive representations, pushing back against typically sexualized female game characters. 

Cozy social

And while some may have declared the age of social media over as content seems to have taken over connection, we contend that instead we’re actually witnessing an evolution driven by Gen Z’s portfolio approach to social. Even as they’ve fueled the ascendance of TikTok, the endlessly addictive app credited with ending the social graph’s reign, they're also seeking out meaningful and authentic connections via social media. This is spurring engagement on platforms such as Reddit, Tumblr, and Discord, where more atomized communities of interest and today’s powerful fandoms connect. Even TikTok is a gateway to the endless multiverse of hyper-personalized interests both mass and niche (some of which you didn’t even know you had until TikTok served them up to you) that the online world offers in both content and connection. In 2023, you are your toks. 

Less shouty and more cozy social media communities create both challenges and opportunities for brands. Meeting consumers authentically in these environments and in the course-corrected versions of Instagram and Facebook that Meta hopes will stem their usage decline requires careful targeting and depth of understanding of what drives these communities to engage. Similarly, legacy social platforms may do well to reconsider the endless changes they’ve inflicted on users as they scramble to capture some of TikTok’s magic and instead focus on what is most meaningful to their users.

MANIFESTATIONS

Tik tik boom in action

Mastercard’s Touch Card

Launched in 2021 and designed for the visually impaired, Mastercard’s Touch Card features a trio of distinct rounded, squarish, and triangular notches that allow users to tell by feel whether they’re holding a credit, debit, or prepaid card. This simple, intuitive innovation reflects the future of both tangible and digital experiences we can all look forward to as inclusive design becomes embedded in our daily lives. Smart brands will take note and look broadly across the total consumer experience for inspiration.

BeReal

With its premise of spontaneous authenticity (or as The Dirt’s Lucas Gelford described, “aggressive normalcy”), BeReal rose in the ranks of the Apple app store last year and quickly attracted brands like Chipotle and Pacsun. Instagram and TikTok soon copycatted the BeReal experience, so it remains to be seen whether the app will hold Gen Z’s mercurial attention. Regardless, its 2023 spike in popularity reflects a desire for authenticity as well as aspiration and entertainment in the generation’s portfolio of social media options. 

Wanderlust
reawakened

Travel is both a mindset and an action. And as pandemic worries have receded, Americans’ renewed zeal for exploration is driving travel’s rebound. Travel associations and brands are already forecasting 2023 travel metrics to exceed pre-pandemic levels despite economic headwinds.

Driving these forecasts is a pent-up desire to reap the emotional benefits that singular and joyful travel experiences can deliver as many of us look to escape the permacrisis mood of our present moment. And with elevated expectations of our travel experiences and new technologies creating more seamless interactions along the journey, travel brands have an opportunity to tap into this revitalized desire to explore, discover and reconnect here and around the world.

TikTok travels

Brands will be wise to look to Gen Z to inspire innovations that benefit all travelers. Despite financial pressures, this generation’s active wanderlust is reflective of their broader “live well now, worry later” attitude. Accustomed to digital solutions that eliminate friction across their days, they expect digital to be embedded intuitively in their total travel customer experience. Brands will need to strike the right balance between offering human engagement and digitizing the more onerous aspects of travel to meet their expectations of service, while creative content strategies also need to acknowledge TikTok’s powerful influence on this generation’s travel aspirations. And with the app’s user base quickly diversifying by age, getting a TikTok strategy right will benefit travel brands’ efforts with consumers of all ages.

From revenge to restorative travel

Travel's role in promoting well-being also continues to grow as a motivation to get away. Travelers are balancing the desire to see more, do more, and discover more with the need to reap the restorative benefits of being mindful and present in their destinations. But wellness as a benefit is no longer limited to traditional spa vacations or yoga retreats. Instead, all travel brands have an opportunity to tap into a broader recognition of travel’s ability to help us manage our mental health and form deeper connections with the world around us. This perspective is influencing an interest in slower forms of travel as well as travel experiences with regenerative credentials that respect the need to mitigate the over-tourism of certain destinations and preserve the cultural authenticity of local experiences.

MANIFESTATIONS

Wanderlust reawakened in action

Spotify

Where would your playlists lead you? That’s the question behind airline easyJet’s recent partnership with Spotify. Their Listen and Book tool encourages travelers to connect their Spotify accounts to the site to discover destinations based on their musical tastes. A clever intersection of two Gen Z passions; music and travel, the feature also appeals with its emphasis on unexpected discoveries.  

Moxy by Marriot

Fandoms are fueling new creative travel experiences from vacation rental brands. Airbnb’s recent Hocus Pocus and Vacasa’s Ghostbusters rentals reflect an opportunity to connect online fandoms with each other in the real world. In a similar playful spirit, Marriott’s Moxy Hotel brand introduced “Moxy Universe, Play Beyond,” an AR experience that gamified guests’ stay via custom avatars and a mobile app. 

The purpose
paradox

Over the past few years, brand purpose has come under attack by activist investors, created confusion for brands questioning its relevance to Zoomers celebrating their decidedly not eco-friendly fast fashion hauls on TikTok, and veered into possible cliche or worse as more brands are accused of greenwashing their sustainability claims and overall virtual signaling in pursuit of ESG credibility.

Despite these challenges, brands’ efforts to address social issues and the challenges of climate change continue to influence consumers’ perceptions of brands as well as their purchase choices. 

A focus on biodiversity

By no means do we believe that brands have to decelerate their efforts to address social and environmental challenges. Increasingly, consumers are holding brands and their corporate parents accountable for the large-scale and complex changes that climate change, plastic pollution, and other global issues demand. Even in this cautious environment, expect to see a bigger spotlight on actions to stem biodiversity loss, an emerging grassroots movement aiming to assign the natural world legal rights, and a growing rejection of the disposability of so many of the products in our lives. 

Ultimately brand purpose has to reflect what consumers value and how those values are evolving in culture and in a world of accelerated change and challenges. Values will continue to drive consumers’ choices. How is your brand helping them to fulfill personal aspirations for themselves, their families, and the communities large and small that they belong to? How can your brand act as a creative force for the common good that advances their aspirations to be better citizens of our world?

Pragmatic purpose

After a turbulent two years, we expect more cautious pragmatism from brands who fear politically motivated backlash from both sides of the aisle. And with savvy consumers (and environmental groups) also questioning the sustainability pledges launched by so many brands over the past few years, some marketers are scaling back their promotion of these efforts in a move recently termed greenhushing. Not only are brands at risk of embarrassing exposure when slow or negligible progress on promises is revealed, but they are increasingly facing lawsuits and governmental fines. We may be seeing less marketing of sustainability efforts and perhaps more resources directed to implementing solution-focused change instead.

MANIFESTATIONS

The purpose paradox in action

Recycle, reuse, and repair

As “right to repair” laws gain traction in the US, more brands are introducing repair services for consumers interested in extending the lives of their purchases. Typically an option limited to luxury brands such as Hermes, Golden Goose, and Bottega Veneta, “aftercare” is becoming another signal of sustainable circularity from decidedly more accessible brands such as Zara and Uniqlo. We’ll be watching those initiatives as well as London-based The Restory, an independent service offering aftercare for a variety of luxury brands, as harbingers of a broader trend towards “less but better” consumption models.

Regenivores

The adoption of regenerative agriculture practices, a trend we highlighted in last year’s report, continues to gain traction across the global food system. As awareness about our soil erosion crisis grows, expect to see more consumers aligning themselves with brands committing to better stewardship of the land that feeds the planet. As noted by the New York Times in their recent round-up of food trends for 2023 “regenivores” are the new “climatarians.”

Machine dream
marketing

Welcome to the age of synthetic reality.

This year has seen dramatic advancements in generative AI technology platforms including both text-to-image generators such as Open AI’s Dall-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion and language generators like Jasper, Open AI’s Chat GPT, as well as Google’s LaMDA Wordcraft. And while still in a relatively nascent state, Meta’s Make-a-Video and Google’s Imagen Video and Phenaki systems are also rapidly refining text-to-video generation powers with some predicting that these platforms will soon allow anyone with access to them to easily translate human imagined stories into video via AI.

Engines of imagination

Widespread access to these AI image and text generators which allow users to create bespoke content with the input of text commands has created a new creative sandbox for consumers and marketers alike. Already, these tools are allowing creative teams to concept, brainstorm, and create moodboards and mock-ups faster, while brands such as Nestle’s La Laitière and Heinz have tapped into these “engines of imagination” for compelling creative campaign work. 

Powering co-creation

Even as input-based bias, IP ownership, and other legal issues with these tools are ironed out, expect AI-generated images, text, and eventually video, to become standard elements in marketers’ as well as creators’ toolboxes. And just as sophisticated smartphone cameras didn’t make everyone great photographers and filmmakers, the output of these tools will still depend on the creativity and skill of their users. Skilled human-led co-creation will drive what’s next as we all become comfortable with the marriage of man and machine.

Unlike last year’s speculative metaverse mania, this technology is here now and quickly embedding itself in our daily lives, it promises immediate utility, and it’s advancing rapidly with truly transformative implications across society. This year, expect more machine-dreamed magic.

MANIFESTATIONS

The machine dream marketing in action

Refik Anadol

The artist Refik Anadol’s new work for MOMA, Unsupervised, provides a taste of generative visual AI’s power to inspire awe. Fed high-resolution images from the museum’s 180,000-plus collection and influenced by light, movement, and even the weather at the moment, its AI engine creates a dazzling “living painting” on the 24 by 24 screen in MOMA’s lobby. How soon before such visual wonders become the everyday stuff of experiential marketing?

Open AI

Open AI’s CEO Sam Altman has predicted that the large language models (LLMs) powering these generative tools will be the foundation of the truly personalized virtual assistants promised by so much sci-fi. How will these “super Siris'' with higher-order interpersonal skills integrate into brand interactions and choice? 

CONCLUSION

At Upshot, we believe that today’s most daring, imaginative and of-the-moment brands are built on a solid understanding of ever-evolving consumer expectations in our dynamic culture and marketplace. Thank you for your time and attention to our annual roundup of some of the current and emerging trends that will help savvy brands invent the future today. Change is fuel for the human imagination, and with consumers ready for both pragmatic solutions and restorative joy, we’re excited to look forward together.

Of course, we’d love to begin a conversation about the specific implications of these trends for your brand. Don’t hesitate to contact us with your thoughts, questions, and predictions about 2023 and beyond.  

For inquiries about working with Upshot or to learn more about our cultural trendspotting, send a note to tedjun@upshotmail.com

  • Liz Aviles
    SVP, Strategy & Cultural Insights

    Driven by an omnivorous curiosity Liz identifies insights and crafts strategy at the intersection of culture and commerce. She has worked across a variety of categories including retail, food and beverages, beauty, and home. With a focus on emerging shifts across the marketplace and culture, her annual trend report helps Upshot’s clients act on the forces rewriting the rules of business in today’s dynamic marketing environment.

  • Empowering brands to own the moment since 1994, Upshot is at the forefront of integrating consumer advertising, marketing, and brand activation with daring, imaginative, of-the-moment ideas, activations, and experiences that build powerful consumer-brand relationships.

  • In no particular order, here’s a bonus reading list of some of the thought-provoking reads we’ve bookmarked the last few months. Apologies for paywalls, but they’re worth it.


    Wired compiles 22 Things That Made the World a Better Place in 2022. Legal beavers!

    A prescient 2014 read that still enlightens. Check out The Great Fragmentation: We Are All Weirdos Now.

    Why Everything Looks the Same, a cautionary “take” for many a marketer. And a good argument for more distinctiveness, boldness, and imagination from brands.

    Consider if your outlook has changed as you read Did the Pandemic Change Your Personality? Possibly. 

    A must-read for food and bev folks. The Great Food Instagram Vibe Shift from Eater.

    Yes, to more “pleasure without purpose.” What Is Fun? Can I Have It? Will We Ever Have It Again? Also, NYT digital design at its best. So. Good.