*buzzing: CHARLI XCX FOR NOTHING
I saw a lot of people rant about how this wasn’t a match and I couldn’t quite agree – to me this is a match made in tech-community-heaven. Charli is the personification of niche-maxxing, coming from a small artsy community that went big and mainstream with brat summer. Nothing is the ultimate nice brand built around their Fanatics. Now they got together, not just for a campaign with their first ever brand ambassador, but with their new shareholder – of course shot by Aidan Zamiri, Charli’s visual mastermind and the director of “THE MOMENT”.
And that’s the twist that actually makes this interesting. The ambassador game had started to bore me a little. But what if celebrities weren’t just hired to become the face of a brand – what if they became actually invested in its success? That changes everything.
*buzzing: GENTLE MONSTER’S VEGGIE COLLECTION
Gentle Monster used their recipe for success AGAIN. After the flower collection and the iconic matching film with FKA Twigs, they launched the veggie collection through a tomato-filled film starring Aespa's Karina. And since nobody's asking: none of the sunglasses actually feature a veggie design. The reference is purely a storytelling element and that's it – and it works. Especially the video of Karina harvesting pairs from a field of Jellycat veggies. Just 10/10 incredible.
But since Gentle Monster is always up for a surprise, they just announced the Veggiemon keychains dropping June 5 – AI fruits and veggies brought to life. I'm dyyyyying.
*buzzing: TINDER X DIESEL FOR PRIDE
Tinder is always up for a good fashion collab, like their recent Ottolinger one. Now they're back for Pride Month together with Glenn Martens' Diesel. Next to content and store takeovers about dating life, they dropped a capsule of meshed-up underwear, t-shirts and denim – for people to take a look under the surface on the first date, and the ideal outfit for Pride parties throughout the next weeks.
*buzzing: APPLE’S NO PHONES EVENT
Last week I spoke to a very cool human about how brands could move from being the product to being the content – and how brands like Apple already manage to not only create desirable products but also the content we consume through them. Apple Music, Apple TV.
Now they’re taking this one step further by offering IRL experiences that fans then CREATE content from on their IPhone – like their fan-exclusive show with Lady Gaga or the brand new “Music Room” format they just launched with Lola Young.
And no, this isn’t about a fan event. This is about building a non-advertisy entertainment ecosystem as a tech brand. And it’s genius.
*buzzing: MCDONALD’S NZ X AUCKLAND FC
Speaking of genius... We (and by that I mean I) kept hyping all the big international McDonald’s partnerships, while a very small market in the furthest east is quietly turning the brand’s collab game around without the global eye noticing yet.
In New Zealand, McDonald’s partnered with Auckland FC, a club playing in the Australian A-League Men (btw love that they don’t just call the men’s thing THE league and the women’s thing the “women’s league” like us stupid Germans do), to release pickle juice – a product that literally goes to waste after McDonald’s removes the pickles – now repackaged as an electrolyte boost after a workout or football training. I love everything about this.
*buzzing: SERVICE95 X GOOGLE
Dua Lipa not just a global superstar, she’s also a (somehow still IYKYK) icon for the geeks and freaks. And while tbh I’m not the biggest fan of her music, I’m a sucker for her Service95 book club newsletter turned platform where she and her team not only share their favorite books, but also recommendations on basically anything from spots to visit during city trips to upcoming fashion brands and events all around the globe. And they just partnered with Google to bring all of this knowledge to Google Maps. This makes total sense and it’s still coming as a surprise. That’s the kind of parnterships we need. (Also, go join the book club!)
*buzzing: THE ORDINARY’S BUS-LINE
Apparently in Brooklyn there’s a transit gap. To get from one neighborhood to another, you have to take the subway all the way to Manhattan and back – a ridiculous amount of time for what should be a short trip. So The Ordinary jumped in with their own bus line. It runs once an hour, it’s completely free, and no, they’re not changing their business model.
This is just another way for them to bring their democratizer role to life. A few weeks ago they sold eggs at ORDINARY prices while grocery costs kept climbing. Then a London market with fruit and veg at ORDINARY prices. Now ORDINARY transport. Free. True to the brand and actually useful beyond the usual brand stunt territory.
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