Hi Little Loves. Can you believe it’s already January? A new year always feels full of possibility, and this one feels extra wild for me: LVPR is turning ten this year. Ten years of building, learning, failing, celebrating, and somehow still loving the chaos.
New year means new ideas, new challenges, and more chances to do what we love, with the people and projects that make it all worth it. Let’s do it!
Xx,
Ali
Inside this issue:
A little reflection, a little side-eye, and a lot of real talk. In this issue, we’re celebrating a big milestone, sharing hard-won lessons from a decade in business, unpacking why trend-jacking gives us the ick, and rounding it all out with the little things currently fueling our group chats.
Maybe we are a bit biased- I mean, we’ve only been at this for a decade, but we have a feeling that if you fill out this form, 2026 is totally going to be your year.
2026 is LVPR’s 10th anniversary, which is wild. I never stayed at a job for more than 3 years before I started LVPR, hopping from agency to agency, excited by new clients and opportunities. Little did I know, I was an entrepreneur in waiting. Over the past 10 years, I have worked on some of the coolest brands, met amazing founders, industry peers, and colleagues, and finally fulfilled my entrepreneurial itch by continuously ideating and innovating as our industry evolves, starting multiple side projects, and learning how to fail but not quit.
Learnings:
Operations - Outsource your weaknesses. I like knowing how the platforms work and peeking in on them, but organization isn’t my strength, and my disorganization or procrastination when it comes to things I don’t like hurts the company.
Finance - I have always struggled to find the right consultant to successfully manage finances and have been unable to relinquish control, as I would see invoicing, reconciling, cash flow management, forecasting, and consistent reporting on the state of the business fall through the cracks. I still maintain majority control of these functions and have spent way too many hours on them with customer support to navigate them. Send any consultants my way PLEASE!
Marketing - I am a marketer at heart, whether it’s my kids sports teams, school merch, my friends new business idea, or clients. But ask me to market myself and I shrink and become paralyzed. We are trained to be behind the camera, not in front of it, and breaking that mindset has been one of the hardest parts of growing brand awareness and sharing successes.
Hiring - I usually hire based off energy and how an employee would fit into our small team. I don’t foresee that perspective ever changing but that has also backfired very badly in getting too comfortable with employees and not keeping the boundary between colleague vs friend. I have found that I need to be the last interview vs first - and let my more direct and critical team members vet before me.
Legal - I have rewritten client and employee contracts annually, if not more often, due to unforeseen circumstances I would never think could happen. I also have signed many contracts without thoroughly reading them or including protective redlines that have cost me a lot of money.
Trust - I have always been and will always be someone that trust people are good and will do the right thing. But I have been burned by employees and clients by not putting terms in writing or holding people accountable.
Accountability - I am big on karma, and I have had to pay clients back when it wasn’t always necessary, but I felt it was the right thing to do. I also run the business to take accountability personally when I F-up and encourage my team to as well. I have worked at so many agencies where we would never admit fault and always pass the blame and that never works out.
I could go on and on, but plan to share others throughout the year to reflect and hopefully help others that feel just as lost at times as a business owner. LMK if there are other topics you’d like to hear about. Believe me, I’ve been humbled repeatedly.
New year, new lists. Here’s what has our Slack channels abuzz
What the Little Ladies are Reading:
The Dinner Plan by Maggie Hoffman (IG: @maggiejhoffman): Recently discovered, a podcast and newsletter from food media legend that gives the perfect inspo to the inevitable “what’s for dinner?”
Axios Communicators: Staying up to date with our industry.
Beach Read by Emily Henry: Fiction is important, too! Two writers. One Summer-long challenge. Many pages of a good time.
(Listening to) The Proof podcast (IG: @proofcrimepod): True Crime hits hard in the dregs of winter
What the Little Ladies are Obsessing Over:
Triangle Scarves/babushkas: Being cold never looked this cute.
Cherry Coke Zero
The Traitors
Admin Nights: did gen-z just make productivity cool?
The Beckham family drama
@Lillianclaireee on IG and TT
Oh, and Cretors Cheese & Caramel Popcorn
What Winter Wellness the Little Ladies have Bought into:
Trying out a salt spa, reflexology, acupuncture, and cupping
Using the ‘ol vibration plate again
Finding the wearable that does everything we want but also doesn’t ruin the vibe: Oura Ring?? Apple Watch?
What’s your current cold-weather fixation? Spill in the comments so we can add it to the rotation.
AI is one of the hottest headlines in the new year. No need to ask Chat: shoppers are totally using their fave LLMs to make shopping decisions.
People are AI what to buy, what to trust, and what’s worth it. And increasingly, those answers are shaping decisions before brands even know they’re part of the conversation.
That shift is exactly why we’re expanding our service offerings for 2026. From AI & GEO reporting that shows how (and if) your brand appears in tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, to strategic marketing calendars that bring clarity to launches, storytelling, and sales priorities, we’re helping brands show up more intentionally, everywhere decisions are being made.
More on this coming soon. In the meantime, if you’re interested, you can learn more and reach out here. We’d love to chat.
INDUSTRY BABY
Meet Sarah, our Gen-Z Account Exec: she’s talking to industry pros to figure out what’s actually popping.
It gets me every time. I’m scrolling, minding my business, when my heart jumps the second I see a notes-app screenshot from a brand. Except lately (albeit, I wrote this when the trend was actually trending), these aren’t confessions or apologies, but ads. They’re selling us stuff. Ew.
Then there’s the posts that are “mistakes” made by “interns,” the posts where the brand calls me their “bestie,” the posts where I am led to believe that I am seeing something internal, something I shouldn’t as an external public. Aimed at my attention to stop the scroll and sell us stuff. Ew.
I’m not hating the game. Finding creative ways to pitch products is literally my job. But there is something so painfully inauthentic, so ick, about brands jumping on trends just to do it. There’s a difference between brands having a conversation with their audience and brands jumping into a conversation for clout.
To get more perspective, I turned to internet big sis and Sorella Creative founder, Sophie Hunter. Another huge fangirl moment. Her posts and annual social calendars are fabulous and if you’re not following her, wyd??
Q: What are your top-level thoughts on brands/companies jumping in on social trends?
At their best, brands jumping on trends can feel like they’re part of the internet with us (not just talking at us). It shows cultural awareness, agility, and a genuine understanding of how communities behave online. Buuuut at their worst, it can feel rushed, forced, or like a brand trying on an identity that isn’t theirs. Trends move fast, and not every brand needs to chase every moment. Sometimes the smartest move is sitting it out.
Social gives brands instant access to engaged audiences. We all know that. We also know “just because you can doesn’t mean you should,” and yes, the classic “would you jump off a bridge just because all your friends are doing it?”
Brand FOMO is real. If they’re not on socials and not “engaging,” they lose, right? But I get the ick when I see a clothing store acting like a college student leaked a mediocre sale in the middle of holiday season. Strip away the trendiness and the “everyone else is doing it” FOMO: it’s ineffective promo. I’ll stop scrolling, sure, but I won’t convert. At best, it’s an inauthentic miss. At worst, it looks scammy. Or late. Or cringe.
We’re all talking directly to our publics. But would you talk to them in the same tone everyone else uses just because everyone else is using it? Sometimes skipping a trend is protecting the relationship.
So I’m taking it back to those school assemblies on cyber safety they made us sit through in the mid-2000s/early-2010s: THINK before you post.
Q: What are some questions brand SMMs should ask themselves before hopping on a trend?
I always come back to three things:
Does this make sense/is it relevant for our brand voice and audience?
Would we still post something like this if the trend wasn’t “performing” right now?
Are we actually adding anything to the conversation or just echoing what others are doing/saying?
...Oh and bonus question if you pass the above... can we actually get this turned around quick enough for it to be timely (e.g. content creation, resource, legal sign off etc).
Not every brand has to be our best friend. I’m perfectly fine with a paper towel brand not calling me “bestie.” Sophie’s point stands: if you’re not adding to the conversation, does it even make sense to post? When brands are bandwagoning and pushing out the same slop, even if it’s engineered to catch the attention of my lizard brain, it’s inauthentic.
Timing also matters. I think often about the meetings, Slack threads, approvals, edits, and sign-offs it takes to get a single post out the door. Momentum can build, stall, or die entirely. There’s no point in jumping off that bridge a full week after your friends did, especially if you hate swimming.
So, let’s get to the bottom of this:
Q: Why do you think brands jumping in on trends sometimes feels inauthentic or cringey?
Because audiences are way better at spotting when something isn’t genuine than we usually give them credit for. When a brand that’s never been playful suddenly tries Gen-Z humour, or when a serious brand jumps on a meme without context, it can feel kinda jarring. Inauthentic trend-jacking often happens when performance is prioritised over personality. The brands that pull it off best aren’t chasing relevance. They already know who they are.
Yep. Enough said. Proactive PR matters, but not if it doesn’t fit the client. If you know your brand, you know when to sit out the bridge-jumping.
But honestly, could you look your boss in the eye (or the inbox) and say you’re skipping a trend because it’s cringe? I could, but LVPR has a main pillar of authenticity.
What do you think? What trend do brands butcher the most? Have you ever jumped on a social wave and instantly regretted it? Spill.
Chat soon,
Sarah
P.S. Want to yap with Sarah or see your takes in the next Industry Baby? Hit the button below!
Alix Earl launching her Netflix show by “Calling her Dad(dy)”: the brilliance and irony further proves why Alix has been so strategic in her career choices and building the best team around her. Alex Cooper, bow down.
Aviator Nation x UMiami merch for the Championship game: as a UM alumni I caved because Miami never gets good merch, this isn’t rocket science but limited edition for the underdogs will always sell
Are early-2000s-staged pap shots returning?: 94-year-old William Shatner’s “candid” cereal photos were actually a staged campaign teasing his Super Bowl ad. The faux-paparazzi approach sparked buzz and got everyone talking before the spot even aired
The Jeni’s x Bridgerton Launch is Royally Sweet: Limited-edition flavors drop online and in scoop shops, giving fans a delicious, timely way to celebrate the show’s return. It’s a fun example of cultural alignment done just right.
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