Social media is no longer just a brand awareness tool, it’s where customers go to discover products, form opinions, build trust, and increasingly where they buy. That was the focus of our latest Coolr Sessions – Social Secrets for Retail.
This session brought together leaders across retail and social to unpack one big question: how is social actually driving retail performance today?
A big thank you to our panel: Megan Heinl, Partner & Director of Creative Content, John Lewis Partnership; Gavin Jewkes, Head of Business Marketing (UK, Benelux & Nordics), TikTok; Carl Cunard, Content Creator (12.5M+ followers); and Coolr’s very own Sammy Carrick, Creative Director.
Here are the key takeaways from the session:
The customer journey is no longer linear
Megan from John Lewis explained that customers can switch their mindset instantly on social. They move from entertainment to shopping to inspiration and back again. “People’s missions can change rapidly – faster than on any other channel we’ve had before.” This creates both challenge and opportunity. Brands need content systems built for speed, responsiveness, and relevance.
Discovery commerce has changed the game
From TikTok’s perspective, Gavin highlighted one of the biggest behavioural shifts in modern retail. Traditional ecommerce is still intention-led, customers arrive with a mission. Social platforms, however, are powered by discovery – instead of seeking out products, products come to you. Serendipitous discovery is now one of the most powerful drivers of retail growth.
Creators drive sales, but trust is key
Audiences have become highly aware of forced advertising. The era of overly scripted influencer campaigns is over. Carl notes: “People see straight through it – people believe in real people.”
The content that converts today is built on relatability, honesty, and consistency. Carl also emphasised that success isn’t about likes or follower counts anymore, but whether content is meaningful enough to be saved, shared, or rewatched. Retail brands should focus on creator-led content that audiences genuinely trust and act on.
Trends don’t equal strategy – authenticity always wins
As a heritage retailer, John Lewis is often asked how to balance consistency with trend-led platforms like TikTok. Megan explains: “It’s not just jumping on something for the sake of it. It’s asking: does this make sense for you, for the brand, and for your customer?”
The brands winning on social are not just copying trends, they’re putting their own stamp on things and maintaining a clear identity.
TikTok Shop success: strategy over experimentation
For big brands and premium retailers considering TikTok Shop, the key to success is a committed, strategic approach rather than treating it as a test channel. The platform’s core product, GMB Max, combines organic, affiliate, and paid strategies, which must all be integrated to unlock its full potential.
Brands should approach TikTok Shop with a mid-to-long-term strategy and treat it as an incremental sales channel, not just a marketing tool.
Storytelling still sells, even on social media
Sammy brought the conversation back to creative fundamentals and how storytelling remains the foundation of performance. Brands often rush straight to conversion, but they need to consider the story. His three key focuses are:
– Plot: What are you trying to say?
– World: What universe does your brand create?
– Characters: Who brings it to life?
The strongest brands don’t just sell products, they build worlds people want to be part of.
How to win in 2026
Overall, the panel agreed that the next wave of retail winners won’t be those chasing every trend or relying on viral moments. They’ll be the brands that know what they stand for, build consistency, and create long-term cultural relevance.
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We can’t wait to see you at the next Coolr Sessions!
With Fee Meynell
Fact: Christmas is the king of the social calendar. People are carol singing, shopping, sipping mulled wine. They’re enjoying the festive moment IRL and on their feeds. And why wouldn’t they, given that anticipation is being built across TV, OOH – and most importantly, social.
Given that festive-season sales were estimated to eclipse £88 billion in 2024 in the UK alone, it’s no surprise that brands spend an entire year crafting their Christmas moments. And they’re not afraid to put their money where their mouth is. Adspend hit a record £10.5 billion last year.
But just because you’ve rolled out your campaign, doesn’t mean that now is the time to breathe a sigh of relief. Because in a few short weeks, the fireworks will be going off to ring in the New Year – and with the arrival of Q1 comes one of the most level playing fields a brand can ask for.
This is an opportunity to own a whole new set of conversations. Q1 is stacked with cultural moments. From January’s wellness boom and February’s Valentine’s/Super Bowl double-header to March’s St Patrick’s Day. All are opportunities for proactive and reactive, relevant storytelling.
Yes, it’s noisy. Yes, you’ll fight tooth and nail for every scrap of attention. But should that deter brands? Absolutely not.
New is the order of the day: new behaviours, new trends, new expectations – and new leading brands. And if you understand these – like, really understand them – you’ll be the one cracking open the champagne.
Read the room
So, what does showing up well actually look like?
First, you need to read the room. January isn’t all “new year, new me”. It’s hangovers (both physical and emotional). It’s empty bank accounts. It’s regret about that second helping of turkey. People aren’t arriving energised – they’re arriving exhausted.
That’s why tone matters more than ever. If you want to resonate, meet your audience where they are. Be the pillar that supports them through the slump. Accept their spending power may be reduced, and that now might not be the moment to push hard on sales. Instead, focus on where you can inject value. Get the tone right, and you strengthen relationships (driving awareness in the process).
Next: double down on relevance. Say you’re a hospitality brand dealing in the finer things in life. Chances are you’ll struggle to convince consumers strapped for cash to spend lavishly. So pivot. Spotlight high-value deals and discounts. Match your community’s mindset, rather than the one you wish they had.
And while you’re mapping out long-term social strategy, don’t miss the real-time opportunities unfolding every day. Your community is always open to conversation; you should be too. Keep your eyes peeled for moments to enter the narrative (and yes, sometimes that moment lives in someone else’s comments section).
Culture = your competitive advantage
From here, relevance becomes your superpower.
Look at Valentine’s Day and St Patrick’s Day. The colour palettes for both are predictable – but that doesn’t mean your content should be. You need to demonstrate that you have legitimacy to play in these spaces. And that’s why bringing the right creators into the fold is crucial.
Case in point: if you’re a beer brand trying to cut through the Guinness-heavy noise around St Patrick’s Day, turn your attention to someone like Cassie Stokes. An Irish creator known for her food and drink takes, she brings an aura of credibility to the table. Her reputation enables you to inject some authenticity into your activity.
Alternatively, you can flip the script entirely and use these moments as a springboard for your own tone-appropriate celebration. Who Gives A Crap did exactly that with its pre-Valentine’s ‘World Dump Day’ campaign, leaning into its trademark humour while still tapping into the cultural calendar. Perfectly off-beat, perfectly on-brand.
In terms of reach, few moments come close to the Super Bowl, with 2025’s edition seen by more than 191 million unique viewers. But while TV was once the undisputed star of the show, the real action now happens on social. Super Bowl content generated a staggering 1.4 billion views in the two weeks before kick-off this year.
Best-in-class brands know how to blend both worlds. Doritos’ decision to resurrect its ‘Crash the Super Bowl’ concept wasn’t just nostalgia. The brand recognised that it could tweak the formula so that it remained culturally literate, while simultaneously tapping into the user-generated content (UGC) hype. The result? The announcement video saw a 9.2% engagement rate, while the wider conversation delivered more than 23,000 engagements.
In other words, social brought the scale and the soul.
Don’t get blinded by virality
Viral moments are great. But vanity metrics fade as quickly as they appear.
Brands that endure listen to their communities. They measure sentiment. They track conversations. They analyse engagement. Because these signals tell you whether your content simply landed – or whether it sparked conversations that last longer than a few seconds.
Influencer culture has come a long way from pre-teens making YouTube videos in their bedrooms, a la Zoella, showing us the perfect messy bun or how to layer statement necklaces from Topshop.
What began primarily as marketing’s version of the wild west is now a sophisticated ecosystem; one that shapes culture, rather than just follows it. And CMOs have been quick to take note. Total influencer marketing spend in the UK was estimated to exceed £917 million in 2024.
Historically, decisions on which influencer to partner with were dictated by how many followers they had. And while it’s true that the talent and reach offered by someone like Molly Mae is still seen by most as the pinnacle of influencer collabs, it’s important to understand that the days of influencers as amplifiers are over.
Creators and influencers (and no, they’re not the same) are now shaping strategies, building communities and driving cultural relevance. Even more interesting, they’re using these skills to broaden their horizons and create their own brands. It just goes to show, it’s time to stop looking at influencers as bolt-ons. Bring them into the fold from the start, and they may be able to teach you a thing or two…
Influencers for brands
The smartest brands aren’t looking at the influencers shouting the loudest; they’re building relationships based on fit, not fame.
That means prioritising values over views, tone of voice over follower count, audience and community culture above all. That’s why nano and micro influencers are in such high demand. What they lack in reach, they make up for in trust (a crucial trait for increasing revenue and accelerating growth). They also drive deeper connections, boasting some of the highest engagement rates on TikTok (at 10.3% and 8.7% respectively).
Arguably the most effective partnerships shed the transactional feel altogether. Instead, they’re built on collaboration, with the influencers bringing creative inspiration, distinct voices and original ideas to the table. The question is: are brands ready to co-create, not just commission?
When it came to our work with Lidl and Charity Shop Sue, the answer was a resounding “yes”. Despite having just 19 episodes, Sue’s mockumentary has a cult following. We knew that the content had to inherently feel like her (sarcastic, punny and a little bit self-absorbed), not a knock-off brand impression. The results: a single test phase generated 77,000 paid engagements.
With a new year fast approaching, now is the perfect moment for brands to recalibrate how they measure influencer success. Vanity metrics like impressions or likes don’t tell the full story. The true indicators of value are:
- Comments, shares, saves and reposts
- Shifts in community sentiment
- Increase in advocacy
Influencers as brands
Influencers haven’t sat idle while all of this change has occurred. Many have realised the risks of relying solely on ad revenue and brand deals. Algorithms change, trends shift rapidly and budgets fluctuate.
The result? They’ve grabbed the bull by the proverbial horns and diversified, building brands of their own. And they already have the perfect foundation: an audience that’s deeply invested in their success.
These creator-led brands are anchored by their communities, allowing them to access an entirely new chapter in the marketing playbook. Focus groups and expensive R&D are replaced by using followers as a litmus test. They can rely on honest feedback, in part because the community feels valued and appreciated, knowing they can shape the product and the offering.
The communities can also be used to gauge the level of interest. Take Melissa Holdbrook-Akposoe’s luxury laundry brand, Le Luxe. It’s arguably been one of the most anticipated creator brands of 2025. Not because she lucked into hype, but because she kept her ear to the ground and listened to what her community wanted. In turn, her followers trusted her to bring something with value to the table.
Of course, with great reward comes great risk. Any radical left turn or unexpected experiment can open the door to criticism. Thankfully, there is a clear solution: unabashed transparency.
Grace Beverley executed this to perfection when she pivoted from activewear to creating her own AI influencer talent agency. Given these are the industry equivalents of chalk and cheese, you’d be forgiven for thinking this would have received a frosty response.
But this couldn’t be further from the truth – and that’s because she brought her audience on the journey from day one, documenting her experience (warts and all). That level of honesty didn’t put the brand, or her reputation, at risk: it strengthened them.
TL;DR
Influencers are no longer a last-minute add-on, there to provide some glitz to campaigns. They combine style and substance. More importantly, they possess an inherent understanding of the communities your brand is trying to reach. By partnering with them on a long-term basis, rather than recruiting them for one-and-done briefs, you can go beyond impressions – and start building genuine, lasting relevance.
By Karen Forbes, Chief Growth Officer
We don’t need to tell you brands don’t just stumble into a viral moment or become culturally relevant. No matter how famous your influencer collab or reactive content is, views don’t materialise out of thin air – or make Gen Z give a sh*t about your brand.
To win on the feed, you have to be intentional. Campaigns, activations, posts, comments – everything has to ladder up to something bigger than reach for reach’s sake. Because if you want to convert initial interest into impact, “likes” are just vanity.
And the stakes only heighten when you’re trying to connect with Gen Z – the world’s first true digital natives. This is a generation that values wellbeing over the corporate ladder. Away from the workplace, they have the ability to sniff out brand inauthenticity faster than you can hit “post”.
So, what does the winning formula look like? Coolr’s answer: the Five Cs. The currencies of modern marketing, these form the framework to stop Gen Z from scrolling right past:
- Cultures (and subcultures)
- Community
- Collaboration
- Creators
- Content
Cultures (and subcultures)
Posting a “6 7” meme can be cute – but just showing up isn’t the same as belonging.
Don’t make do with surface-level references. Any blatant attempt to hijack culture for your own sales gains will stick out like a sore thumb. To add value, not noise, you need to drill deeper and immerse yourself in the subcultures that your audience lives and breathes.
There’s nothing wrong with stepping out of your lane, provided you’ve earned the right to play there. Case in point, Gen Z are avid gamers – but that isn’t an excuse for a fashion brand to suddenly pretend that they’re Twitch natives. However, if Nike posted clips of players griddying across the new Springfield-themed Fortnite map wearing Jordans, it could work – because it shows the brand gets its audience.
In the real world (or should I say, virtual world), we followed this recipe when creating Tango’s social-only campaign to promote limited editions of its ‘Tango Blast’ products. Who better to speak directly to Gen Z than Millie Bracewell – otherwise known as the MC that brought ‘M to the B’ to life? With more than 1.7 million TikTok followers, she was the perfect artist for the campaign’s anthem. The result: 60.1 million impressions and 70,400 engagements across Instagram and TikTok.
That’s how you blend brand, product and passion. Don’t settle for participation; show up with purpose.
Community
Just because Gen Zs live online (spending more than an hour per day scrolling through TikTok) doesn’t mean they hate human connection. They’ve just redefined how it happens. The pub’s been replaced by subreddits, a Friday night on the town swapped out for a Discord watchalong.
Every follower is part of a network. Your job is to identify and tap into these shared interests. One option is to plug these dynamics straight into your content.
Look at Paddy Power. Why do you think it boasts such a passionate social following? Because, unlike other betting brands, it has stuck its head above the cultural parapet. It’s traded odds for attitude. The brand banters with the best of them. Rather than speaking at its followers, it speaks as if it’s just another one sporting fan.
But who said that you had to stop at your own content? There’s just as much value to be found from expanding your horizons and taking your message to the people – particularly in the comments feed. We brought this form of community management to life when a TikTok user captured a Peppa Pig balloon heading skyward. We saw the opportunity to bring Lidl’s trademark wit and humour to life in the comments section – something that hit the mark with more than 230,000 people.
Collaboration
Most brands obsess over building the perfect product. Understandable – but Gen Z cares just as much about what you stand for as what you sell.
This is where you can use collaborations, not just to extend your reach but to enhance your credibility. Partner with brands whose values are aligned for a mutually beneficial boost. 80% of Gen Z say that the right partnership can positively impact their perception of your brand.
Look at wagamama. It didn’t jump on the sustainability bandwagon because it was trending. Instead, it went on a phased journey, first committing to a 50% plant-based menu and switching to sustainable packaging – and then teaming up with B-Corp clothing brand PANGAIA to repurpose old uniforms into sustainable merch.
No one questioned the partnership – because it had earned the right to make that move.
Creators
If collaborations build credibility, creators build trust. Almost two-thirds of Gen Z trust influencers and content creators more than brands – so why not listen to what the people want?
These figures don’t just play the role of entertainers. They’re taste makers. They have their finger on the pulse, whispering sweet nothings to their followers (and at the same time, shaping the cultural narrative).
But it’s not as simple as investing your entire budget into the person with the most followers. Sure, the likes of Khaby Lame and Kylie Jenner are recognisable the world over. But do they actually represent the message you’re trying to spread? Will they feel genuine – or will Gen Z see through the charade?
You can’t force the message. You have to feed it authentically, which is what we did with Deliveroo. By partnering with TOPJAW and their network of micro-creators, we developed hyper-local food content that spoke to specific communities. These weren’t your run-of-the-mill influencer ads. These were posts layered with relevance and served with a healthy dollop of storytelling.
(Small humble brag: that campaign won Silver at The Drum EMEA Awards for “Best Influencer Marketing Campaign”).
Content
It’s been a long time since audiences were starved for content. Social feeds are drowning in posts – and the increased amount of AI slop isn’t going to make grabbing attention any easier.
So, if you’re not going to break Gen Z’s door down by bombarding them with content, what is the solution? Answer: go down the Daniel LaRusso road and be the best.
This starts by understanding what content suits which platform. If you don’t know why your TikTok post won’t strike the right chord with Redditors, it’s time to hit the books. Armed with this understanding, you can now accelerate your processes and conceptualise, create and activate at the speed of culture – safe in the knowledge that your content speaks their language.
At the beginning of this process, don’t be afraid to experiment. From alternating between hi-fi and lo-fi production models to switching up between formats and platforms – testing and learning is how you identify what works. But when you’ve done that, don’t keep alternating. A schizophrenic approach makes it almost impossible to make the strategy unique to your brand.
Stopping the scroll
Winning with Gen Z isn’t about shouting the loudest or being across the most trends. It’s about demonstrating that you get them. That you know what’s happening in their communities, which creators push the right buttons, which content gives them pause for thought. And if you don’t know them, that’s fine – that’s why we’re here.
By Ben Jones
Back in the noughties, you’d be in your big monthly marketing catch-up, having just found out which hero product needs to make a splash. Cue an almighty brainstorm: ideas are volleyed around, heads nod in unison and you’d throw celebrity names around like it was the guest list to China White’s (RIP).
The end result: you’ve got the framework for a promo…that might go live months later…if you’re lucky.
Many are still working this way. Not at Coolr though. For us, agility is just as essential as air and water. It is the lifeblood of our agency, informing our every move – from building our teams to hiring content creators.
That’s because the world we live in is defined by speed. Algorithms are tweaked on what feels like a daily basis, trends come and go faster than you can say “Labubu” and conversations change faster than a Labour u-turn.
And this problem isn’t going to suddenly vanish. More than 70% of marketers expect content demand to grow fivefold by 2027. When this happens, social teams can’t spend weeks booking studio time, fine-tuning every frame and over-editing assets to death, only to sit idly by waiting for sign-off.
Putting all your eggs in the “hero basket” is no longer a strategy; it’s a surefire way to miss the moment. The pursuit of perfection should still be the driver – but it’s time to acknowledge that agility is the new ultimate differentiation.
(And I’m 200 words in, and I’m yet to mention the letters ‘A’ and ‘I’).
From side dish to main course
Without wanting to sound like a distorted Spotify song (today’s version of a broken record), everyone should know by now that social has graduated from bolt-on to blockbuster. If you need any further proof, check out Deloitte’s latest research.
It found that social is one of the dominant forces in media and entertainment, with consumers spending just shy of an hour per day on social media – which rises to 1.4 hours for Gen Z. Staying on the shoppers of tomorrow, Gen Z are influenced more by ads and product reviews on social media than they are by ads on streaming services.
In short, social ticks every box. It’s where people discover, debate and decide. It’s why TikTok Shop is becoming increasingly popular. To stay front of mind in this environment, your reaction time will need to rival that of a Lando Norris pole start.
Rewriting the production script
Throwing out your old production model doesn’t mean going rogue – but it does mean being flexible, while ensuring all the correct procedures, licenses and insurances are still in place.
Don’t let your shoots be one-and-done. Build an extensive content library. This not only gives you reusable in-house assets, but also enables creators to remix and reimagine them. Bonus: repeatable formats create economies of scale (and who doesn’t love saving money?). It’s not unusual for the team to shoot six or more pieces of content in a day.
Agility also hinges on being able to escape the paperwork trap. Obsessing over project portfolio management (PPM) may appear the most efficient way to keep tabs on your production’s process, but it will kill momentum faster than you can say “sign-off loop”. One-pagers and trust between makers and clients are more important than ever.
There’s a healthy balance to be struck between polishing your idea and bringing it to life. It’s possible for a picture to be “too perfect” and a video “too realistic”. Authenticity and timing are king on social. Audiences will forgive a few jump cuts and blurry shots, provided the foundation is solid and the idea is original.
And remember: you don’t have to go it alone. No one embodies the speed of social quite like content creators. Take Brandon B, the visual effects (VFX) YouTuber turned founder of his own production studio.
Brandon’s success doesn’t just stem from his ability to keep his finger on the social pulse and create eye-catching videos. He believes that the narrative has to align with his own values – something which also applies to collaborations. “Even if and when we’ve had incredible opportunities to work with my favourite brands growing up, if the story or the idea doesn’t feel right, we unfortunately pull away”.
The importance of genuineness can also be seen in the way that user-generated content (UGC) resonates. In the US, more than 28% of ecommerce marketers believe that it’s the visual content format that impacts purchase decisions most – while a quarter think it generates the most trust. Empowering your audience to be the stars of your show isn’t just cost-effective; it’s culture-effective. Anyone who doubts this need only look at the way Spotify Wrapped takes over Instagram every year.
We feel the need for speed – do you?
It wouldn’t be a future-gazing blog without giving a quick nod to AI – the harbinger of the latest technological revolution.
Fact: AI’s influence on the production process is only going to grow. At Coolr, we’ve already embraced an experiential mindset. Generative AI is being deployed across the agency – from using DALL-E and Midjourney for storyboarding to more advanced tools like Veo 3 to create short-form videos.
Staying ahead of the curve means being open-minded about what AI can offer. Because as these tools continue to evolve and become ingrained in the content creation process, speed won’t be a nice-to-have. It will be the key to survival.
The days of over-processed, over-engineered content are numbered. Moving forward, the winning brands won’t be polishing their campaigns weeks after the moment – they’ll have already moved on to the next trend.
What do you get when you combine television’s spiciest reality competition with a line-up that perfectly blends traditional celebrities with new-age social talent? Answer: The Celebrity Traitors.
Four episodes in and we’ve already been gifted a stream of “OMG, need to drop that in the group chat ASAP” moments. From Tom Daley’s (sorry – Daylee’s) Oscar-worthy eye roll to Celia Imrie’s unexpected flatulence, social feeds are being dominated by a rolling commentary of reactions, recaps and reactions to recaps.
Naturally, brands were quick to jump on the bandwagon. Low-effort memes with “relatable” captions were rolled out en masse as everyone attempted to become the talk of the town, if only for a second.
To paraphrase Kate Garroway: this has left me flabbergasted. Brands love to latch onto these ephemeral moments, thinking they will fast-track them to relevance. But here’s the thing. Yes, you can win by jumping on a trend. But there are rules of engagement that you need to follow. To really stand out, brands should shift their focus away from chasing trends – and start generating them.
Same same but not different
Let’s be honest, the main reason that trend chasing has become the de facto strategy of choice is because it’s easy. The template is formulaic, to the point that it can be distilled into one line:
Meme format + brand mention = job done.
Except the job isn’t done. Audiences have become fatigued by seeing content time and again. Every brand is relying on the same low hanging fruit (i.e. content format and cultural moment), leaving them with no identity or originality. Feeds have become a sea of surface-level commentary, a mass of copy-pasted slop mixed with AI generated content.
It’s no surprise that driving differentiation has become a challenge for even the most valuable brands.
Newsflash: a brand that jumps on anything and everything stands for nothing. And audiences aren’t falling for it; they’re more savvy than you think. This is particularly true of Gen Z. While they like a laugh as much as the next person, humour isn’t a guaranteed winner. This is a generation that prioritises authenticity above all else. They don’t want your brand in their world – unless you’ve earned it.
Cast your mind back to the countless posts that followed the engagement of ‘Tayvis’ (Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce to the uninitiated). There were plenty of ‘Love Story’ references and “funny” callbacks to the duo’s ‘English and Gym Teacher’ nicknames – but they missed the mark. Why? Because these were branded agendas being pushed under the thinly veiled guise of ‘authentic’ content, a surefire way to tank any standing you have with audiences.
If you’re not first – be best
So, what does it take to break through the white noise?
It starts by setting the pace. Although trend chasing can bring your brand into the fold (provided it’s done right), there are limitations. By joining the queue, you’re letting competing brands and influencers muddy the waters and dictate the narrative. Rather than settling for joining the conversation, use your unique personality and POV to start one.
The brands that everyone fawns over on LinkedIn don’t just react to culture – they’re engineering it, setting their own trends and shaping the conversation. For social-first brands that want to thrive in our new world, the real opportunity lies in shifting from participation to ownership.
And if you’re not going to be first, make sure you’re better than everyone else. Just ask Lidl. Like many, the grocer wanted to capitalise on Oasis’ reunion – but it didn’t want to be left looking back in anger at what could have been.
That’s why, rather than going in all guns blazing, we used Berghaus’ release of a new Liam Gallagher-promoted rain jacket as a jumping off point. It just goes to show that you don’t need to force yourself onto audiences; there are more interesting (and organic) ways to play into culture and drive engagement. Sometimes all it takes is a simple one liner.
Too often, brands become so hung up on visibility that they see no other alternative than to opt for reactive post after reactive post. However, it’s not frequency that moves the needle. Being more selective with your activations and emphasising originality helps ensure that your social activity actually delivers value.
No identity, no influence
In the immortal words of Mufasa (who said The Lion King couldn’t be relevant in 2025?!): “Remember who you are”. You can’t shape culture if you don’t know yourself – and I don’t mean what products and services you have to offer. I mean your voice, your purpose, the role you play in your audience’s lives.
Are you a playful brand that acts as a ray of light on a rainy day? Or do you prefer to keep things more grounded in reality, with comms taking a more subtle tone? If you can’t answer these questions, playing in the right trends (or potentially generating them) will become second nature. Fail and you’re not ready to lead the conversation. You’re destined to be just another brand trying to court customers with a meme – which can harm your brand and lead to you being banished.