Affluent customers might welcome AI assistants, but premium service means knowing when a human needs to take over. Luxury service has traditionally meant high touch. Like a concierge who remembers your preferences or the salesperson who knows your size by heart. Maybe the hotel that anticipates what you’ll need before you step onto the shiny tiles. But the luxury consumers I know are also super-interested in AI agents and automation. Why wouldn’t they be? If an agent can book the restaurant,...
1 day ago • 2 min read
Kate Moss wore Hunter boots to Glastonbury in ’05 because the field was mucky. Twenty-one years later, that spontaneous choice is still sellin’ the Wellies. Hunter turns 170 this year, and for its anniversary campaign it has reunited with Kate Moss. The connection goes back to Glastonbury in 2005, when Moss arrived in black Hunter Wellington boots, tiny shorts and a waistcoat. The look blew up into one of those fashion images that seemed to be everywhere, and helped turn a practical...
2 days ago • 2 min read
Meta is making virtual reality dramatically lighter and more affordable. The big engineering challenge is making folks around the wearer comfortable. Meta just showed off the coolest VR hardware it has built to date. The new Meta VR Glasses, due in spring 2027 for US$1,299, weigh about 100 grams, way less on both counts than a Quest headset. Most of the computing work has been moved into a pocket-sized puck connected by a wire. The glasses use eye tracking and hand gestures, provide...
3 days ago • 2 min read
After over a century of levity, The Laughing Cow has changed one of its most recognizable brand assets and refuses to say why. Exactly a month ago, I wrote about The Laughing Cow turning its famous cheese wedge into a themed vehicle. Now it’s pulled something even more intriguing with the cow herself. She done stopped laughin’! On September 22, Bel began rolling out special packages of The Laughing Cow Original across more than 4,700 U.S. stores. Looks like the usual classic red cow with the...
4 days ago • 2 min read
New research suggests mind wandering can actually increase purchase intent when the purchase is still some distance away. Marketers put tons of effort into trying to STOP you and me from zoning out. With shorter videos. Faster cuts, sharper hooks, more movement and greater urgency. The assumption is kinda obvious: if our attention wanders, the marketing failed. A new study shows that’s not quite true. Researchers looked at what happens when people’s minds drift while they’re processing...
5 days ago • 2 min read
New research suggests recent consumption has an outsized effect on what people buy next, especially when uncertainty is high. My kids love goin’ to Costco, especially when they know there’ll be lots of sample stations. For them, it’s part shopping trip, part entertainment, part snack time. For brands, it can be serious business. I’ve had clients sampling at Costco tell me some version of the same thing: “When we’re sampling, sales are brisk. When we’re not, totally different.” A new study...
6 days ago • 2 min read
More than 20 years after turning “easy” into an office icon, Staples has created its opposite. Decades ago, we had a Staples Easy Button in our boardroom. Colleagues and clients loved slapping it after we solved something difficult. Every press triggered the same chipper voice: “THAT was easy!” And somehow it never got old. I’ve seen those buttons in several client offices too, including one CEO who mi-iight still have his. That’s an impressive afterlife for an advertising idea. The Easy...
7 days ago • 1 min read
The new Tread Flex solves two obvious barriers to treadmill ownership: space and price. Peloton’s Miley launch ad somehow makes both easy to miss. My wife and I are unusually great prospects for Peloton’s new Tread Flex. We’ve owned Peloton bikes for seven years, and use the system almost every day. A treadmill would expand what we can do, but we have no appetite for permanently surrendering that much floor space to one. Then Peloton announced its first folding treadmill. The new Tread Flex...
8 days ago • 3 min read
Five months after activists opened a fake Lululemon store in London, the parody brand is still online, but there’s no sign the stunt itself caused Lululemon’s sales slide. As a Canadian, I found Mumumelon especially interesting. In April, climate activists opened a fake Lululemon store in London called Mumumelon. The shop deliberately copied Lululemon’s visual language, right down to the logo, minimalist retail environment and coordinated activewear, under the line: “Violating copyright, not...
9 days ago • 2 min read
