Can we feel good about the Christmas ads, at least? Celebrities as VCs and Heineken invest in Gillian Anderson's G-Spot.
Issue #32
Weekly Exhale
Usually, the weekly exhale is a reflection on the week's marketing news, mixed with a glimpse into my charmed life. But this week is different.
On Monday, news broke that Quincy Jones had passed—a titan in music, a musical loss as vast a continent. Then Tuesday arrived, and with it, the 60th U.S. quadrennial presidential election. My dear friend from Oregon texted, 'Tonight, we're all American.' By Wednesday, hopes for a historic breakthrough had dissolved into déjà vu. For a moment, I thought of my goddaughters and wondered about the world they're inheriting. The stock market, however, seemed content enough.
By Thursday, looking for a hot take on Christmas ads for this exhale, I reached out to another dear friend, a creative heavyweight in the industry. He didn't have one. "I've fallen out of love with the business," he said. His get-up-and-go had gotten up and gone. I shared a bullish piece from the Financial Times on the value of holiday ads, but truthfully, we all know they're a lifeline for legacy retailers clinging to formulas as old as their business models.
So, let's skip the usual commentary this week. Let's just sit, breathe and feel the weight of it all. We'll return to regular programming next week, if that's alright.
Let’s rise together with every issue. ♡
Market Movements
Shares surge post-US election | CNBC
Band of England cuts interest rates to 4.75% | Financial Times
Sainsbury's warns of price rises | The Guardian
Brand Beat
Did Sephoria take advantage of election 'doom spending'? | Fast Company
UK advertising attracts record spending but shuns television | Financial Times
Data: Christmas ad spend to hit record levels | Marketing Beat
Greggs teams up with Nigella Lawson for first-ever Christmas advert | Retail Gazette
How Oreo's new DTC platform fits an evolving data strategy | Marketing Dive
Why is simplicity sacred for LEON's marketing strategy? | LBB
Starbucks needs to cut the crap from its brand positioning | Marketing Week
GAP's new Christmas campaign is full of song | GAP
The Vogue Business TikTok trend tracker | Vogue Business
Advertisers grow spending on Amazon's DSP as adoption increases | Digiday
Ten die and 100 sent to hospital after taking off-brand Ozempic | The Times
System 1's ad of the week goes to Dawn French and M&S | System 1
As M&S wins brand of the year | Marketing Week
Why brand historians are a CMOs new best friend | AdAge
First Tesco, now Asda: why are UK retailers backtracking on flexible work? | Startups
'It's just not right': consumers decry changes to Quality Street | The Guardian
The right way to build your brand | Harvard Business Review
Resource: Watch all the latest Christmas ads | The Drum
Starting Up
Your business has no clients yet—here's how to get started | Maddyness
Former Meta AR boss join UK startup AllFocal as it raises $5.3m | Sifted
Heineken acquires minority in Gillian Anderson's G Spot drink | The Grocer
The overnight success myth has to stop | Anna Mack's Stack
Tech Tidbits
Google is getting in on the latest ad craze: curation | Digiday
Crypto spent over £130 million on the US election. It paid off | New York Times
The $50 million movie Here de-aged Tom Hanks with AI | Wired
Canada orders TikTok to close business in the country, but won't block the app | Fortune
AI can now authenticate sneakers by their smell | Business of Fashion
Venture Vibes
The Chainsmokers want to bring a different kind of value to B2B companies | TechCrunch
How celebrities became VCs and VCs became celebrities | Fortune
AI parenting is here, and a16z is ready to back it | AutoGpt
Ada Ventures launches AI pitch review tool, AdaGPT | Tech.Eu
Design Driven
An unfiltered look at 2,143 McDonalds through Google | Creative Bloom
Stranger Things 5 releases eerie new episode titles | Forbes
The visual language of death | It's Nice That
Audi launches a new brand in China without the four-ring logo | The Verge
Hello, Happiness
Why "slow productivity" is the key to great work and happy teams | Big Think
Achieving happiness at work | Forbes
One city's secret to happiness: the annual burning of a 50-foot effigy | New York Times
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Stay gold 🙏🏻
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