new.now.next #11
your essential edit of what's shaping culture + brands this week
Everything I've been saving this month is pointing in the same direction. A collective turn toward the physical, the playful, and the considered. People want to use their hands, hear something live, be somewhere. Not because nostalgia is having a moment, but because optimisation is exhausting and I think we're all feeling it. The brands paying attention are responding accordingly. Here's what I've been noticing.
new
are we having fun? the maxxing era
Funmaxxing has been in the cultural conversation for a while, but something has shifted in how it’s showing up. Games nights. Dinner parties. Creative Gatherings. Talking Salons (so much chic-er than a panel convo) People are gathering around things that are slow, physical, and deliberately, unapologetically fun.
Brands are leaning in too. Burberry used dice and a wooden puzzle for a recent activation (I read that it was handcarved!). Alex Earle announced her skincare line with a billboard that was a puzzle. Mel Walker (LOVE) created this cool creative for Aritzia. Papier launched board games last year and sold out. Réalisation Par put a leopard print photobooth in their store. These aren’t novelty. They’re products and spaces designed to bring people together, and people are showing up because that’s exactly what they want right now.
A puzzle on someone’s dining table stays there for days. A photobooth strip lives on a fridge for years. But a reel is gone in four seconds. The brands that understand the difference are building in a completely different register.
leon bagels x tony’s chocolonely
Tony’s Chocolonely popped up at Leon’s Bagels on Thompson Street in New York for three days, debuting a brown sugar cinnamon bagel with salted caramel cream cheese and chunks of Tony’s Everything bar. Silly, specific, completely of its moment. This is what a localised activation looks like when it’s done well: two brands with strong points of view finding a genuinely fun overlap, making it time-limited, making it worth the trip.
now
sound on
From listening parties to campaign films, music isn’t the soundtrack. It’s the strategy.
I’m still thinking about the way Rosalía invited fans into a darkened former bank in Williamsburg to hear LUX for the first time. Phones sealed away, stark white benches, near-total darkness. Before the music began, a single question appeared on the wall: “When was the last time you were in complete darkness?” It was beyond a launch event. It was an experience that reframes what an album can be, and more broadly, how sound can work in any space.
That mood is everywhere right now. Grassroots listening spaces in London where people go to listen like Shia Space and Spiritland. Music is so often just background to daily life, but when you listen with full focus on great speakers, you notice the amazing details. Sometimes you hear a song you already love in a completely new way.
Then Chanel, who just made the most interesting brand film in recent memory. A full reimagining of Kylie Minogue’s “Come Into My World,” directed by Michel Gondry who made the original, with Minogue herself appearing 25 years on. The song is the entire idea, and the PR it delivered proved it.
Bandit Running (cool interview here) built a hi-fi listening room into their West Village store (NY). Le Baus in Paddington (Sydney) launched with vinyls, coffee and menswear. The brands getting this right aren’t using music to fill space. They’re using it to create it. That could show up for you in curated playlists for collections, exclusive audio drops, or events that lean into music and the talent already in your world.
the third space is back. brands are building it.
Something is shifting in how the best brands think about physical space. Not “where should we open” but “what reason do we give people to stay.”
Sporty & Rich just opened on Melrose: 5,000 square feet, a garden, a coffee section, and it is beautiful. The café and garden isn’t just a nice detail it’s creating a reason to pop in.Two blocks down, Aritzia acquired Fred Segal and signed back the lease on the original ivy-covered 29,000 square foot flagship, vacant since 2017. They’re restoring the ivy. The plan is an experiential destination combining retail with community programming, designed to transcend traditional retail and function as a lifestyle hub.
A store that only sells things is a warehouse with mirrors and better lighting. The brief isn’t “open a store.” It’s “create a reason to be somewhere.” The brands that understand that are building community around their brands and that compounds beyond a campaign.
next
affiliate: the most underrated lever in your toolkit
Instagram just launched affiliate, and now is the time to make sure your strategy is set. When I first started working in PR and brand I didn’t fully understand it. Now I think affiliate is one of the most misunderstood and underused tools available.
The rise of Shop My, curated storefronts, and affiliate for press and influencers is enormous, but it’s hard to get right. What makes it interesting right now is the connective tissue it creates between community, culture, content and creative. Non-influencers, founders, and everyday customers are using affiliate links in their bios. Anyone can be a source of discovery regardless of their following size. Your customer is an influencer. The question is whether your brand has made it easy for them to act like one.
If you want to dig into what a proper affiliate strategy looks like in practice, I’m doing a small number of 1-1s this month.
pinterest is becoming a full commerce platform. pay attention.
Pinterest just annouced its first shoppable TV series on Roku, “Bring My Pinterest to Life,” a six-episode show pairing creators with everyday Pinners to turn their boards into real spaces, with QR-enabled shopping built directly into each episode.No traditional ad breaks and brands woven into the story. Pinterest is extending its planning behaviour into the living room, positioning inspiration-led viewing as a pathway to measurable action.
This is a platform that has always sat at the top of the purchase funnel quietly doing its work. It’s now moving toward closing the loop entirely, from inspiration to transaction without the user ever leaving. The brands that have been building on Pinterest seriously are about to be very well-positioned.
also worth your time: Rachel Karten’s recent LinkedIn post on how brands should approach their social feed and she just released the Q1 social report too here
things I’m currently loving
The Calmm Rose Bay which is in a former little Church - I had my first lymphatic drainage treatment. Turns out I’m stressed, and my jaw knew before I did. I’ll be going back!
Aussie friends - Norma’s Tiramisu in a Tin, the best example of gifting-as-branding I’ve seen in months
Le Index; Anna Noelle Rinke’s Substack, which I’ve been enjoying
Sheet Society: the item I wanted wasn’t in stock so they sent it with a handwritten note and the most fun copy on the packaging.
Donni’s colour palette right now. Just love it
The Ladies Who Launch podcast with Aila Morin, CMO of Merit. Not one I typically listen to but I took a lot of lessons from it.
The Quiet Media Mag inaugural edition by Charlotte Rubesa ordered it, loved it
Jennifer Cook’s MOM Friend issue 131: 15 things I wish I had in my wardrobe. For my shopping friends
And I’ve been sitting with something Emma Grede said in a WSJ interview last week: that she thinks about time with her children like limited-edition fashion collabs, creating high-impact core memories through big moments rather than constant presence. My husband and I do something similar, carving out half a day each on weekends for the things that fill our cup. For me that’s (sometimes!) a workout and then writing this newsletter in a coffee shop. Sometimes I go shopping and marvel at moving through stores without a giant double pram, being able to touch things without stressing about my toddler pulling a mannequin over. And my favourite thing to do is go to a gallery and be quiet. I need that time to be better at everything else. I think a lot of us do, and I think we’re finally giving ourselves permission to say it out loud.
What do you think? Share with me anything cool you’ve been noticing this month.
💙 So keen to get your thoughts on Quiet Media! Thank you for the thoughtful mention ☺️
Devastated I don't live in Aus so can't sink my teeth into that tiramisu in a tin!