September is officially the month of the content reset. Summer recaps are wrapping up, fall content is taking over, and some of the strongest formats right now aren’t complicated concepts at all. They’re clever transitions, fast visual storytelling, relatable humour and formats that brands can easily make their own.

This month, we’re seeing everything from horizontal GRWMs and micro-moment montages to chaotic product reveals, AI-powered company-age transformations and intentionally sharing your recent “flops.”

Here are 11 social media trends worth having on your radar this September, plus exactly how creators and brands can use them.

01. The “Leg Transition” Trend

What’s the trend?
Creators sweep a leg across the camera to transition from one clip into another. Each movement reveals a different outfit, location, activity or product while making completely separate clips feel like one continuous sequence.

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There’s a shift happening on social media that I think is going to become much bigger over the next few years.

For years, social strategy has revolved around one question: “What should we post next?” A Reel on Monday. A carousel on Wednesday. Jump on a trend Friday. Start again next week.

But some of the most recognizable brands, media companies and creators have been playing a completely different game. They aren’t constantly inventing individual pieces of content. They’re building formats.

Vogue has 73 Questions.

Vanity Fair has Lie Detector Test.

WIRED has Autocomplete Interview.

InStyle has The Intern.

And creators are doing the same thing on a much more personal scale. Chloe Shih created 30 Lessons by 30, Raegan Lynch turned Starting Over My Whole Entire Life into an ongoing story, and Hannah Trenches built Deinfluencing Diaries.

Different audiences. Different budgets. Completely different types of content, but the strategy underneath them is the same: Create something recognizable enough that the audience knows what they’re watching before they even press play. And I think we’re going to see a lot more of it.

InStyle: The Intern turned a fashion magazine into a show

This might be one of my favourite recent examples.

Instead of another celebrity interview or fashion-office BTS Reel, InStyle created The Intern, an improvised mockumentary-style social series built specifically for TikTok and Instagram.

Real InStyle editors appear alongside creators playing exaggerated versions of themselves. The office becomes the set, while ordinary workplace situations become storylines.

The important part? InStyle wasn’t primarily trying to use the series to push people toward articles. Editor-in-chief Sally Holmes told Marketing Brew that its social shows are intended to be “entertaining first” and it worked.

Within roughly its first year, The Intern had produced 8 seasons, 40+ episodes and more than 36 million views. Its season-three premiere alone reached 3 million TikTok views in 24 hours, with 99% coming from non-followers.

But I actually think the comments tell the story better than the views. The Shorty Awards noted that one of the recurring reactions from viewers became: “Shut up, my show is on.” Read that again: Not: “InStyle posted.” Not: “Cute Reel.”

“My show is on.” That’s the difference between creating social content and creating something audiences actively return for.

Vogue: 73 Questions became bigger than the interview

Vogue understood this long before the current signature-series boom.

73 Questions began in 2013 and has an incredibly simple premise: A celebrity moves through a space while answering 73 rapid-fire questions, filmed in Vogue’s recognizable single-shot format.

The guest changes, the location changes, the answers obviously change but the container doesn’t.

Over the years, Vogue has put everyone from Kylie Jenner and Dua Lipa to Adele, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicki Minaj, Bad Bunny and Anna Wintour through the format, and that’s exactly why it works.

If Vogue simply uploaded: “An Interview With Dua Lipa” that’s one piece of content. Instead: Dua Lipa Answers Vogue’s 73 Questions immediately connects that episode to years of previous content.

You know the rules before watching, you know what kind of experience you’re getting, and if you enjoy one celebrity’s episode, there are dozens of others waiting for you.

The strategy: Familiar format, unfamiliar guest. The celebrity creates novelty. The series creates recognition.

Vanity Fair: Lie Detector Test made the format the hook

Vanity Fair took an equally simple concept and turned it into one of its core video franchises: Put a celebrity on a polygraph, ask uncomfortable questions, see what happens: That’s Lie Detector Test.

The series has featured everyone from Ariana Grande and Charli XCX to LISA, Emma Chamberlain, Jennifer Lawrence, Marc Jacobs, Nicole Kidman and Andrew Garfield.

Again, notice what happens here: The title itself creates curiosity. You don’t need: “Ariana Grande discusses her career, relationships and Wicked.” You get: Ariana Grande takes a lie detector test. I already want to know what they’re going to ask her.

Vanity Fair doesn’t have to reinvent the concept every time a celebrity walks into the studio. The person changes, the questions change and the cultural conversation changes.

The recognizable tension stays. That’s signature-series marketing at its best.

WIRED: Autocomplete Interview turned Google searches into IP

Then there’s WIRED’s Autocomplete Interview.

You know the format even if you don’t know its official name: Celebrity sits down, Big white board appears, They peel away strips revealing the internet’s most searched questions about themselves. Then they answer them. That’s it.

But that visual became so recognizable that the format itself became part of WIRED’s identity, and this is where signature series become incredibly powerful.

WIRED didn’t need to own celebrity interviews. There are thousands of those. It needed to own a way of doing celebrity interviews. That’s a very different thing.

The creator version is becoming even more interesting

What’s changing now is that you don’t need Vogue’s celebrity access, Vanity Fair’s production team or InStyle’s office to create recognizable IP.

Individual creators are building signature series around their own lives, and some of the strongest examples are ridiculously simple.

Chloe Shih: 30 Lessons by 30

Chloe Shih built 30 Lessons by 30 around one very clear promise: Thirty lessons she’d learned before turning 30.

Instead of randomly posting: something I learned about money, something I learned about my career, something I learned about failure - each idea became part of something larger.

• Lesson 1/30.

• Lesson 2/30.

• Lesson 3/30.

Suddenly every piece of content advertises another piece of content.

You see lesson seven? There are 23 more coming. You discover lesson 24? There are 23 previous episodes you can go back and watch.

Numbering creates a built-in content loop, and because the series had an ending, people could follow the journey toward something.

It wasn’t simply educational content. It had progression.

Raegan Lynch: Starting Over My Whole Entire Life

Raegan Lynch’s series works for a completely different reason.

“Day 1 of starting over my whole entire life.” That’s a hook AND a series premise.

A breakup, change, rebuilding, moving forward: her actual life becomes the storyline, and the minute someone sees: Day 17, there’s an obvious question: Wait… what happened on Day 1?

That’s powerful because one viral episode doesn’t just generate views for that Reel. It can send someone backwards through the entire series. And if they become invested in the story? Now they want Day 18.

That’s the difference between audience attention and audience investment. One asks: “Was this video interesting?” The other asks: “What happens next?”

Hannah Trenches: Deinfluencing Diaries

Hannah Trenches’ Deinfluencing Diaries shows another version of the same strategy.

Instead of creating disconnected opinions around shopping, consumption and influencer culture, she gives those conversations a recognizable home: Deinfluencing Diaries.

The title itself tells you what world you’re entering. That’s important because creators often misunderstand what a signature series actually needs. It doesn’t always need a dramatic storyline. Sometimes it simply needs: a recognizable name + consistent subject + repeatable structure + clear perspective.

Now Hannah can explore dozens of different topics without abandoning the format: The topic changes, the series identity doesn’t.

And beauty brands are starting to catch up

This is where I think things become particularly interesting for marketers.

In 2026, Sephora and Makeup by Mario launched Mario’s Beauty Booth, a seven-episode TikTok-first series.

The format puts Mario Dedivanovic alongside beauty creators and experts, with each episode built around a beauty problem or conversation that Mario helps solve. Guests include Glamzilla, Carli Bybel, Danessa Myricks, Erica Taylor and Sofie Pavitt.

Instead of: Makeup by Mario x creator sponsored Reel, they’ve created: an episode of Mario’s Beauty Booth.

That’s a subtle but VERY important distinction. The creator isn’t the format. The creator enters the format, which means the brand can change guests without rebuilding the entire creative concept.

That’s exactly what Vogue has been doing with 73 Questions for years.

Why Signature Series Work

1. They make content recognizable

Brands obsess over recognizable: logos, packaging, colours, fonts and photography.

But there’s another type of brand recognition emerging on social: format recognition:

• You see the autocomplete board? WIRED.

• 73 rapid-fire questions? Vogue.

• Polygraph? Vanity Fair.

• Chaotic fashion-office mockumentary? InStyle.

Eventually the audience shouldn’t need the logo. The content itself tells them who made it.

2. They create return behaviour

Most content strategies are obsessed with reach. But reach answers: “How many people saw us?” A signature series introduces a much more valuable question: “How many people came back?”

That’s television behaviour:

• Episode one creates curiosity about episode two.

• Episode eight sends new viewers back to episode one.

A cliffhanger creates tomorrow’s viewer, a numbered series makes people want completion, a recurring guest format makes people wonder who’s next. You’re no longer constantly trying to manufacture completely new attention.

Previous episodes start helping market future episodes.

3. One idea can become 50 pieces of content

This might be one of the biggest operational advantages. Social teams constantly complain about needing more ideas.

But look at 73 Questions. The core idea doesn’t need to change. The guest does. For a creator: The format stays. The story does. For a beauty brand: The format stays. The beauty problem does. For a fashion brand: The format stays. The outfit does.

A strong signature series isn’t restrictive: It’s a creative container, and ironically, having that container can make content creation easier.

The Hidden Strategy Nobody Talks About 👀

The biggest advantage of a signature series isn’t consistency. It’s anticipation.

Most brands create content hoping someone stops scrolling. The best signature series eventually create audiences who are waiting for the next episode.

And that’s an entirely different relationship. It’s why: “Shut up, my show is on” might be more impressive than 3 million views, because the ultimate goal isn’t: I recognize this brand. It’s: I recognize this brand’s thing.

But Everyone Is About to Do This Badly

We’re about to see A LOT of:

• EPISODE 01: Come to the office with me

• EPISODE 02: Pack orders with us

• EPISODE 03: Meet our founder

…and then no Episode 04 😭

Putting Episode One on something does not make it a signature series. A strong series needs a repeatable promise.

73 Questions promises: 73 questions + celebrity + one continuous journey.

Lie Detector promises: celebrity + uncomfortable questions + polygraph.

30 Lessons by 30 promises: one lesson + one episode + 30-part journey.

Starting Over promises: another chapter in an ongoing personal transformation.

The episode changes. The reason for watching doesn’t.

What Brands & Creators Can Steal From This

Before adding another random content pillar to your strategy, ask: Could this idea survive 20 episodes?

Then build five things around it:

01. NAME

Something people can remember and eventually search for.

02. PROMISE

What will someone consistently get from watching?

03. FORMAT

What remains recognizable every episode?

04. VARIABLE

What changes so it doesn’t become boring?

05. RETURN TRIGGER

Why should someone want the next episode?

For example: A beauty creator doesn’t need: weekly makeup videos. She could build: Makeup I Was Scared to Try: Different intimidating trend every episode.

A fashion creator doesn’t need: outfit inspiration. She could build: One Piece, Five Personalities: One item. Five completely different aesthetics.

A skincare founder doesn’t need: founder BTS. Create: Rejected By The Founder. Every episode reveals a product sample, packaging idea or formula that didn’t make it.

A salon doesn’t need: hair transformations. Create: Fix My Hair: One client’s hair problem, one transformation, every episode.

You’re creating franchises.

M’s Marketing Take 💭

The smartest social accounts aren’t trying to make every post completely different anymore. They’re trying to make certain posts recognizably theirs.

Vogue has been proving this with 73 Questions for more than a decade. Vanity Fair built Lie Detector Test. WIRED made internet searches into Autocomplete Interview. InStyle took the same thinking and adapted it perfectly for TikTok and Instagram with The Intern.

Now creators are doing it without huge production teams:

• Chloe Shih needed a number and 30 lessons.

• Raegan Lynch needed a life chapter and a Day 1.

• Hannah Trenches needed a strong point of view and a name: Deinfluencing Diaries.

That’s why I think signature series are about to become one of the most important pieces of social strategy.

Stop asking: “What should we post next?”

Start asking: “What could we make that people would want Episode 2 of?”

Because going viral once is great. Building something people recognize, remember and come back for is better.

Why the person behind the brand is becoming one of its most valuable media channels

There’s a noticeable shift happening across some of the fastest-growing consumer brands: founders are no longer appearing only for launch announcements, press interviews or the occasional “why I started this brand” video. They are becoming recurring characters in the brand itself.

Look at Rhode and Hailey Bieber, Reale Actives and Alix Earle, or Good Girl Snacks and founders Leah Marcus and Yasaman Bakhtiar. The founders are involved in teasing products, explaining decisions, creating content, responding to their communities and, increasingly, generating the attention that would traditionally have been bought through advertising.

This isn’t exactly influencer marketing either. The difference is ownership.

Rhode: Hailey Bieber doesn’t announce products, she lets the internet find them.

Rhode is probably one of the clearest examples of founder-led marketing at scale because Hailey Bieber’s personal influence and Rhode’s product marketing constantly overlap. A new Rhode launch often starts before Rhode actually announces anything:

Take the Lip Case:

In February 2024, Hailey posted a seemingly normal mirror selfie. But attached to her phone was an unreleased grey case specifically designed to hold a Rhode Peptide Lip Treatment.

There was no traditional product reveal. The image itself created the reveal.

The case went on sale weeks later, sold out and became one of Rhode’s most recognizable products. Vogue reported that at one point approximately 200,000 people were waiting for the Lip Case, while the Peptide Lip Tints had a waitlist of roughly 400,000.

This is where Hailey’s role becomes interesting. She doesn’t always have to tell consumers what Rhode is launching next. Sometimes she only has to use it publicly.

Pocket Blush followed a similar playbook:

Before Rhode officially launched Pocket Blush in June 2024, Hailey had already been teasing cheek colour on Instagram. Vogue was writing about the hints before the formal launch, and Hailey later revealed that the product itself had been in development for two years.

Then came Peptide Lip Shape.

Again, Hailey began wearing the unreleased product before the announcement. In December 2024, Allure spotted what appeared to be Rhode’s upcoming lip liner in one of her makeup tutorials. Hailey didn’t identify it; the publication noted that the product had already been heavily teased. Rhode officially launched Peptide Lip Shape the following month, after roughly a month of teasing.

The pattern is remarkably consistent: Hailey wears it → followers notice it → beauty accounts discuss it → speculation builds → Rhode reveals it → the product already feels familiar by launch day.

The founder effectively becomes the teaser campaign.

The strategy: Founder as aspiration + distribution

Rhode has essentially turned Hailey’s personal visibility into an owned distribution advantage.

Her beauty routines can introduce products. Her personal aesthetic gives those products context. Her Instagram can create speculation. Her celebrity generates earned media from what would otherwise be a simple product tease.

It means Rhode can blur the traditional sequence of: campaign → awareness → interest → launch into something closer to: founder sighting → curiosity → internet speculation → earned media → reveal → launch.

That’s much harder for another beauty brand to replicate than Rhode’s packaging.

Reale Actives: Alix Earle spent years creating the founder story before there was a brand

Reale Actives is a different version of the same shift. Alix Earle didn’t build her audience around perfect skin. Quite famously, she did the opposite.

She openly documented her acne, Accutane experience, breakouts and dermatologist appointments. Her followers watched her struggle with the exact problem that would eventually become central to her first company.

According to Fortune, Alix’s acne content was part of the period when she gained her first million TikTok followers. That gave Reale Actives something most new skincare companies would have to spend years trying to manufacture: context.

When Alix eventually said she was creating acne products, her audience didn’t need a polished founder-origin video explaining why. They already knew why.

Then she turned the actual launch into an internet mystery.

This is where the Reale Actives launch becomes particularly smart. Before revealing the company, Alix had been quietly showing unlabelled skincare products in her content. Then a new Instagram account appeared: @wtfisalixdoing

Instead of immediately saying, “Alix Earle is launching a skincare company,” the campaign encouraged people to work it out. There were clues, creator seeding involving puzzle pieces and a mystery surrounding what Alix was actually building.

The account itself became part of the story. Then, once the mystery was revealed, @wtfisalixdoing transformed into the Reale Actives account.

According to Fortune, that account had already accumulated more than 500,000 followers around the launch.

Think about the difference. Most new brands launch an Instagram account and then begin trying to convince people to follow it. Reale Actives created the curiosity first and revealed the brand afterwards.

The strategy: Founder as lived proof

This works because Reale Actives connects three things that already existed: Alix’s problem + Alix’s audience + Alix’s product.

She didn’t suddenly become an acne spokesperson because she had something to sell. Her audience had watched that story unfold long before a product existed. That gives the brand a level of founder-product fit that a traditional celebrity endorsement can’t easily reproduce.

Good Girl Snacks: What happens when the founders become the entertainment

Good Girl Snacks gives us another version of founder-led marketing because Leah Marcus and Yasaman Bakhtiar weren’t celebrities before starting the company. They made themselves recognizable through the company.

The pair spotted the growing online obsession with pickles and launched Good Girl Snacks, with Hot Girl Pickles becoming the product that introduced many consumers to the brand.

But instead of building a conventional food-brand Instagram filled with packaging photography, recipes and polished lifestyle imagery, they put themselves into the content. And importantly, they started doing this before the product launched.

Leah has explained that the founders realized early that they would have to put their faces online. They practiced making content before they began consistently posting in October 2023.

Some of the content that initially broke through wasn’t even really about eating pickles. It was about building a pickle company.

In one account of their early growth, Leah explained that a handful of videos discussing their branding, their story and why two best friends quit their jobs to start the company helped bring in roughly 10,000 followers within days.

That’s an important distinction: People weren’t only interested in:

Would I buy these pickles?

They were interested in:

What are these two girls doing with this pickle company?

The founders had turned entrepreneurship itself into content. Eventually their audience started recognizing them as “the pickle girls.”

And the organic distribution became meaningful. Leah later reported that Good Girl Snacks had reached 100,000 Instagram followers while maintaining $0 customer acquisition cost through paid advertising or influencers, attributing much of that growth to consistent organic content and community building.

The strategy: Founders as entertainment

Good Girl Snacks shows that founder-led marketing isn’t reserved for people who already have millions of followers.

Hailey and Alix brought audiences into their companies. Leah and Yasaman built an audience by bringing people into the company. That’s a completely different route to the same outcome.

The Same Pattern Is Appearing Everywhere

Once you start looking for this model, you see different versions of it across consumer brands.

Grace Beverley - TALA

Grace’s audience gave TALA a powerful early distribution channel, but what’s more interesting is that she continued using her personal platform as the company became substantially bigger.

Her content can move between products, business decisions, company growth and what is actually happening behind the scenes.

That makes the audience feel closer to the process of building TALA rather than simply being marketed TALA products.

Her role: the builder.

Krissy Cela - Oner Active

Krissy already belonged to the world Oner Active wanted to sell into. Fitness, strength training and women’s confidence were part of her content and community before they became commercial brand pillars.

That makes her presence within Oner Active feel logical. She’s not a CEO awkwardly appearing in a Reel because the social team decided “founder content performs.”

Her role: the expert and customer.

Huda Kattan - Huda Beauty

Huda is arguably one of the earlier blueprints for this entire model.

Her beauty authority and audience existed before Huda Beauty became the global company we know today. Tutorials, reviews and beauty education established trust first; products came later.

Even after the company scaled, Huda herself remained intrinsically associated with the brand.

Her role: the educator and authority.

Mari Llewellyn - Bloom Nutrition

Bloom similarly benefited from an audience that already understood Mari’s personal wellness story before the products arrived.

Consumers weren’t necessarily introduced to Mari through Bloom. Many were introduced to Bloom through Mari.

That makes her personal transformation part of the company’s credibility and content engine.

Her role: the transformation story.

Why This Is Working Now

The obvious explanation is that people connect with people more easily than logos, but I think the commercial advantage goes much deeper than that.

1. The founder gives the brand an ongoing storyline

There are only so many ways you can photograph a serum, but a company being built has almost unlimited episodes.

A founder can show product samples that failed, packaging decisions, a first retailer meeting, an office move, a customer complaint, a manufacturing visit, a launch that sold out, a product they’re secretly testing or the moment something goes completely wrong.

The business itself becomes episodic content.

Good Girl Snacks can make people care about what happens next at a pickle company because the company has characters.

2. The founder can become the pre-launch campaign

Rhode is probably the best example of this. Before Pocket Blush was officially available, people were already looking at Hailey’s cheeks. Before Peptide Lip Shape launched, people were already spotting it in her routines. Before the Lip Case launched, people had already screenshotted it from her phone.

Instead of buying attention only when the launch begins, the founder creates attention while the product is still becoming a story.

3. Founder-led brands can build audience before product

Reale Actives took this almost literally. The audience existed before the company. Then the mystery account existed before the reveal. Then the audience following the mystery account became the brand’s audience.

So rather than: make product → launch product → find customers, the sequence becomes: build audience → understand audience → create curiosity → reveal product → convert existing attention.

That’s a fundamentally different marketing advantage.

What Brands Can Steal From This

Before building a founder content strategy, decide what role your founder naturally plays.

• Founder as aspiration: I want her taste, routine or lifestyle.
  Example: Hailey Bieber / Rhode

• Founder as proof: I’ve watched this person experience the problem they’re solving.
  Example: Alix Earle / Reale Actives

• Founder as entertainment: I genuinely enjoy watching these people build their company.
  Example: Leah Marcus + Yasaman Bakhtiar / Good Girl Snacks

• Founder as builder: I want access to what happens behind the company.
  Example: Grace Beverley / TALA

• Founder as expert: I trust this person’s knowledge in the category.
  Examples: Krissy Cela / Oner Active and Huda Kattan / Huda Beauty

• Founder as transformation: The company’s promise is connected to something I’ve watched this person experience.
  Example: Mari Llewellyn / Bloom Nutrition

Then build recurring content around that role, because “meet our founder” is a post. “Watch me build this company” is a content franchise.

M’s Marketing Take 💭

I don’t think the lesson here is that every company needs a celebrity founder. Good Girl Snacks proves otherwise. The real advantage is having a founder people have a reason to keep watching.

Hailey Bieber can wear an unreleased Rhode product and turn a personal post into product speculation. Alix Earle turned WTF is Alix doing? into a pre-launch audience for Reale Actives. Leah Marcus and Yasaman Bakhtiar made two girls building a pickle company interesting enough that people started following the founders alongside the product.

That’s the shift. The founder used to sit behind the company while marketing created attention for the brand.

Increasingly, the founder is helping create the attention themselves, and I think we’re going to see a lot more brands realize that their most valuable media channel might already be sitting inside the company.

Makeup content is getting fun again. We’re moving away from everyone recreating the same “perfect” makeup look and into an era of colour, experimentation and visual storytelling.

From turning every day of the week into a different makeup look, to building an entire look around one unexpected colour combination, creators are treating makeup less like a routine and more like a creative format.

1. The “Makeup Flatlay Tutorial” Trend

Trend Strength: ★★★★★ (9.5/10)

Read more

Fashion content is getting more visual, playful and transition-led and right now, some of the strongest formats aren’t about complicated concepts. They’re about taking a simple outfit reveal and giving people a reason to stop, watch and wait for the payoff.

From turning real-life surroundings into outfit prints and showing multiple looks in one Reel, to bedazzled transformations, intentionally failed transitions and beat-synced group outfit reveals, these formats are essentially turning the classic outfit check into entertainment.

And the best part? Most of them can be recreated without huge productions or budgets.

Here are 5 fashion trends we’re currently seeing plus exactly how fashion brands and creators can use them. 👀💭

1. “Living Print” Trend (FASHION)

Trend Strength: ★★★★★ (9.4/10)

What is it?

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• TATE 01

• TATE 01 BY TATE MCRAE

• TATE BY TATE MCRAE

All three cover the same beauty and lifestyle categories, and that’s where this gets interesting because this doesn’t look like someone simply protecting the name of a celebrity perfume.

What has actually been trademarked?

The filings cover:

• Fragrance: perfume, eau de parfum, scented body sprays

• Skincare: cleansers, moisturizers, skin peels + serums

• Body: body mist, body mousse + body lotions

• Cosmetics: lip gloss + essential oils for cosmetic purposes

• Home: candles

All three applications are currently listed as new applications that have not yet been assigned to an examiner, meaning we’re still extremely early. So no, this does not confirm that Tate McRae is launching a beauty brand, but the breadth of those categories gives us quite a lot to analyze.

Prediction #1: Fragrance will probably be the entry product

If I had to predict the launch strategy, I don’t think Tate launches twelve beauty products at once. I think TATE 01 starts with fragrance.

Why? Look at the name. TATE 01 sounds less like a traditional celebrity beauty line and more like the first chapter of a collection: TATE 01, TATE 02, TATE 03: that naming architecture is almost made for fragrance.

And fragrance is explicitly listed first across the trademark goods: fragrances, eau de parfum, perfume and scented body spray.

My prediction: Hero fragrance → body mist/body products → beauty extensions → broader Tate universe. The trademark gives her room to expand without forcing her to launch everything immediately.

Prediction #2: “01” could be the smartest part of the branding

This is what I’m watching most closely. Why protect: TATE 01 AND TATE 01 BY TATE MCRAE AND TATE BY TATE MCRAE? Potentially because they’re still protecting different ways the brand could appear commercially but strategically, TATE 01 is the most interesting name.

It separates the product from simply being “Tate McRae’s perfume.” It feels like its own brand, and 01 naturally implies continuation.

If this becomes fragrance-led, you can immediately imagine: TATE 01 → TATE 02 → TATE 03. Different scents. Different moods. Different Tate eras.

That creates something celebrity brands desperately need: collectability.

Prediction #3: She’s already been building beauty authority without owning a beauty brand

This is where the timing becomes REALLY interesting.

Tate became a global ambassador for Neutrogena in 2025, and Kenvue later said the campaign helped Neutrogena reach younger audiences; company commentary cited more than 8 billion earned-media impressions around the campaign and said Gen Z household penetration had increased.

And she’s still visibly associated with beauty now. Her August 2026 Lollapalooza glam prominently featured Neutrogena products, with her makeup artist discussing the products used to prep her skin.

Think about what that does strategically. Before Tate ever has to convince consumers: “Trust me in beauty.”

She’s spent more than a year appearing in beauty campaigns, beauty routines, makeup content and skincare conversations. In other words: ambassador first → founder second.

Whether intentional or not, the audience education has already happened.

Prediction #4: The Neutrogena relationship becomes VERY interesting

And this may be the part marketers should watch closest. 👀

Tate is currently associated with one of the biggest skincare brands in the world while trademarks connected to her name cover: cleansers, moisturizers, peels and serums.

Those are actual skincare categories. That doesn’t automatically mean there’s a conflict: we don’t know her contract, exclusivity terms, timing or whether any of these products will ever launch.

But strategically? It creates a fascinating question: What happens when the ambassador potentially becomes the competitor?

Celebrity partnerships have traditionally rented cultural relevance. Celebrity-founded brands own it, and we’ve seen the power shift: celebrity → ambassador → audience trust → founder → equity.

If Tate eventually moves into skincare herself, the Neutrogena era could retrospectively look like an important chapter in establishing her beauty credibility.

Prediction #5: I don’t think this should become a traditional “celebrity makeup brand”

And I hope it doesn’t. The trademark itself gives Tate a much more interesting route. Look at the combination: perfume + body mist + body mousse + body lotion + essential oils + candles

That’s not necessarily a makeup brand. That’s a sensory lifestyle brand. Think less:

Here’s Tate McRae’s foundation.

And more:

Here’s what Tate’s world smells and feels like.

That positioning would make FAR more sense for her current image: Music is emotional, fragrance is emotional, candles are emotional and body products are experiential.

There’s a natural bridge between artist world-building and scent world-building, and that’s a much more ownable territory than entering an already overcrowded celebrity makeup market.

Prediction #6: Tate’s music eras could become product drops

THIS is where I think it could get fun. Artists already understand something beauty brands spend millions trying to manufacture: eras.

Every album already has:

• a visual language

• a mood

• a color palette

• a personality

• a fan community

• a cultural moment.

Now imagine translating each era into scent. An album launch doesn’t just get merch. It gets: a fragrance.

A tour doesn’t just get a T-shirt. It gets: a limited body mist. An album anniversary gets: a candle.

Suddenly beauty isn’t separate from the music business. It’s another piece of the Tate McRae universe, and TATE 01 is an unusually good naming system for exactly that.

The Bigger Celebrity-Brand Strategy

The most successful celebrity brands increasingly don’t feel like merchandise. They feel like independent brands that happen to have an extremely powerful founder. That’s the difference Tate’s team needs to understand.

The opportunity isn’t: Tate McRae has fans → sell them lip gloss. That’s short-term celebrity merchandising. The bigger opportunity is: Tate McRae has a recognizable aesthetic + enormous cultural relevance + an audience already familiar with her beauty identity → translate that cultural equity into a standalone consumer brand.

That’s how you build something with longevity beyond an album cycle.

What I Would Do If I Were Marketing TATE 01

I wouldn’t announce the brand immediately. I’d make people discover it.

Soft-launch 01 everywhere without explaining it.

• A tiny 01 on Tate’s nails.

• 01 hidden backstage.

• A mysterious 01 necklace.

• An 01 projection during a performance.

• A bottle barely visible in a GRWM.

• Creators receiving completely unbranded packages marked: 01

Then let TikTok do what Insta & TikTok does:

WHAT IS 01???

Let fan accounts investigate, let Reddit speculate, let beauty creators find the trademark, and et everyone become convinced they’ve discovered something they weren’t supposed to know.

Then reveal Tate 01, because the smartest launch wouldn’t start with an ad, it would start with a mystery.

What I’m Watching Next 👀

There are a few signals that would make this much more concrete:

1. New trademark classes — especially retail/e-commerce services.

2. Social handles/domains beginning to appear around TATE 01.

3. Beauty-industry hires or executives becoming connected to the project.

4. Packaging/logo trademarks rather than only standard-character word marks.

5. Tate beginning to use “01” visually across her content.

6. A shift in or end to beauty-category partnerships that could overlap with a future brand.

M’s Prediction 🔮

75%: TATE 01 begins as fragrance.

55%: It expands into body products relatively quickly.

35%: It becomes a full skincare/makeup business.

80%: “01” is designed to leave room for future products/chapters.

Those percentages are my strategic predictions, not information contained in the trademark filings.

The biggest wildcard? Candles.

Because candles + fragrance + body mist + lotion together make me think the long-term ambition could be less celebrity beauty brand and more Tate McRae sensory/lifestyle universe, and THAT would be much more interesting.

M’s Marketing Take 💭

The trademark isn’t the story. The architecture behind the trademark is.

Three names filed simultaneously. Beauty categories extending from perfume all the way into skincare. Candles sitting alongside body mist and essential oils. And a celebrity who has already spent over a year establishing herself inside the beauty conversation.

If Tate’s team plays this correctly, TATE 01 doesn’t need to become another celebrity beauty brand. It could become something far smarter: the commercial extension of the Tate McRae universe.

Music creates the mood, Tate creates the aspiration. TATE 01 bottles it, and if I suddenly start seeing “01” mysteriously appearing in Tate’s content over the next few months? Yeah. I’m taking that as my sign. 👀

Giorgio Armani has named Jonathan Bailey its new Global Fragrance Ambassador for I Will, the house’s first major new men’s fragrance pillar in more than 20 years. And while casting one of the biggest actors of the moment guarantees attention, the interesting part is that Armani didn’t build the campaign around Jonathan Bailey’s fame. They built it around what he represents.

The entire campaign comes back to one line: “It’s not about luck. It’s about will.” And suddenly, the celebrity, fragrance name, campaign film and even the product-development story all connect.

The Campaign

The fragrance

I Will combines:

• bergamot, lavender + violet leaf

• dark Bourbon vanilla

• smoky woods

• leather

The fragrance was created by master perfumers Alberto Morillas and Nathalie Lorson and reportedly took around four years and 2,800 trials to perfect, which makes the campaign positioning even better: A fragrance about determination took years of determination to create.

The face

Jonathan Bailey arrives at exactly the right cultural moment: Bridgerton, Wicked, Jurassic World: Rebirth. But Armani isn’t simply borrowing his current popularity.

Bailey has spoken about ambition, longevity, creativity and intentionally building his career, themes that naturally fit a fragrance called I Will.

Why This Campaign Works

1. Celebrity casting with actual narrative alignment

A lot of celebrity partnerships follow: Famous person → campaign shoot → product → done.

Armani went: Celebrity story → brand philosophy → campaign narrative → product

Jonathan Bailey isn’t just there because people currently want to look at Jonathan Bailey. His career story makes the idea of “will” believable. That’s the difference between: celebrity reach and celebrity-brand fit.

2. They gave the fragrance campaign a plot

This isn’t simply Jonathan Bailey looking sexy while holding a bottle.

The campaign film, directed by Todd Field, follows Bailey playing an actor in Los Angeles searching for inspiration before stepping into his next role. There’s uncertainty. Movement. Dancing. Driving. Eventually: momentum.

Even the visuals move from black-and-white into colour. The fragrance becomes part of a story about: finding the will to move forward. That’s far more memorable than another glossy perfume ad.

3. The product name became the entire marketing strategy

This might be the smartest part.

I WILL is simultaneously: the product name → the campaign message → the character journey → the ambassador story → the product-development story

Even: “It’s not about luck. It’s about will” doesn’t feel like copy pasted underneath a fragrance campaign. Everything was constructed to make those two words mean something. Great naming gives marketing somewhere to go.

4. Armani is selling a different version of masculinity

Think about traditional men’s fragrance advertising: power, seduction, cars, muscles, dominance.

Armani goes somewhere softer: Jonathan Bailey’s campaign feels: introspective, creative, sensual, playful and self-assured. And the fragrance follows that contrast too: fresh aromatic notes against dark vanilla, leather and smoky woods.

Instead of masculinity = dominance, Armani is positioning masculinity as: confidence in who you are. That feels significantly more aligned with where men’s luxury marketing is heading.

5. The PR campaign makes the ambassador choice stronger

The campaign doesn’t stop at the hero visuals.

Bailey’s press interviews expand the world around the fragrance through conversations about acting, identity, scent memories, masculinity and his relationship with Armani.

One particularly clever connection? Bailey has discussed using specific fragrances while developing characters. So fragrance already plays a role in how he approaches storytelling and identity.

Meaning Armani can move the narrative from: “Jonathan Bailey is advertising perfume” to: “Scent is part of Jonathan Bailey’s creative process.” Much stronger.

6. Even the development story proves the campaign message

This is such an overlooked piece of the campaign. The fragrance reportedly required: 4 years, 2,800 trials, 2 master perfumers, to arrive at the final formula.

Now go back to the tagline: “It’s not about luck. It’s about will.” The philosophy isn’t only being projected onto Jonathan Bailey. It’s built into the creation of the product itself. That makes the storytelling feel earned rather than manufactured.

The Hidden Strategy Nobody Talks About 👀

Armani isn’t really using Jonathan Bailey to sell what I Will smells like. They’re using him to establish what I Will means, and that’s important in fragrance because consumers can’t smell an Instagram campaign.

Brands need to translate an invisible product into something consumers can emotionally understand. Armani chose:

• determination.

• creative ambition.

• self-belief.

• forward movement.

Jonathan Bailey becomes the human embodiment of those ideas. The celebrity essentially becomes the scent’s personality.

What Brands Can Steal From This

• Beauty + fragrance brands: Stop choosing ambassadors based purely on relevance. Find the intersection between the talent’s existing story and your product proposition. Your campaign will immediately have more depth.

• Fashion brands: Give campaigns a narrative arc. Instead of “model wearing collection,” build a character, tension, setting and transformation around the clothes.

• Founder-led brands: Your product-development process can BE marketing. If something took 40 prototypes, two years or hundreds of reformulations, tell people. Persistence creates perceived value.

• Celebrity partnerships: Ask one question before signing someone: “Could this campaign concept still make sense if we had to explain WHY we chose this person?” If the answer is only their follower count, the fit probably isn’t strong enough.

Campaign Prediction:

BIG BRAND-BUILDING WIN

This isn’t necessarily a campaign engineered around a viral moment. It’s doing something more valuable for Armani: building a new fragrance franchise.

And when you’re introducing your first major men’s fragrance pillar in more than two decades, longevity matters more than one week of virality.

I expect we’ll see more luxury fragrance brands move toward:

• cinematic storytelling

• softer interpretations of masculinity

• personality-first celebrity casting

• narrative-driven fragrance positioning

• ambassadors whose personal stories become extensions of the product

M’s Marketing Take 💭

Armani’s smartest decision wasn’t hiring Jonathan Bailey. It was giving his fame a job. His popularity gets people to look. His career makes “I Will” believable. The film makes it emotional. The four-year development story makes it credible, and the fragrance gives consumers a way to buy into that identity.

The best celebrity campaigns don’t just borrow cultural relevance. They find the one thing the celebrity and the product can authentically say together, and build everything around it 🖤

Urban Decay could have launched three complexion products with a standard “blur your pores” campaign. Instead, it attached the launch to one of the internet’s newest TV obsessions, and built an entire creative concept around a word already loaded with Gen Z cultural meaning: ghosting.

The collection includes new launches

• All Nighter Ghosting Paste Primer

• All Nighter Ghosting Powder

• All Nighter Ghosting Spray

The products are all positioned around blurring texture, shine and pores without relying on heavy coverage. Urban Decay currently lists the Paste, Powder and Spray at $34 each, with the powder offered in five translucent shades and the spray in three tints.

But the actual campaign idea is bigger than complexion. It’s basically: blur what you don’t need → keep what matters. And Mika is the perfect person to carry that message.

Why This Campaign Works

1. Urban Decay tapped Off Campus while the cast is still becoming culturally valuable

This might be the smartest part of the partnership.

• Mika isn’t a legacy celebrity whose image has already been attached to fifteen beauty brands. She’s a rising actress whose cultural relevance is still being built in real time. That gives Urban Decay something much more valuable: first-mover association.

• When audiences think of Mika’s first beauty era, Urban Decay gets to be part of that memory, and because Mika is set to move further into the spotlight as Allie Hayes, the partnership has room to become more valuable as the franchise grows. Allure specifically notes that she is set to star as the protagonist in Off Campus season two.

• Most brands wait until talent is fully established. Urban Decay is getting in while the audience is still forming the obsession.

2. “Ghosting” does double duty as a product name AND campaign concept

This could easily have just been: pore-blurring primer + powder + spray. Instead, Urban Decay gave the system a culturally recognizable idea: Ghosting.

The campaign language plays with removing things that don’t deserve your attention, while the products literally “ghost” shine, pores and texture. Mika herself described the campaign’s version of ghosting as being comfortable letting go of things that no longer make life easier or serve you. That creates a neat bridge: physical blur → emotional boundaries.

Now the launch has something people can talk about beyond product claims.

3. The campaign sells a three-step system instead of three random products

Urban Decay didn’t release:

• primer.

• powder.

• spray.

It released: prep → blur → set. That matters because systems are easier to understand and easier to sell.

If you want the “Ghosting” finish, the brand has already told you exactly what the complete routine looks like: Ghosting Paste → Ghosting Powder → Ghosting Spray.

Instead of asking the customer to choose one hero product, the collection naturally encourages multiple-product purchase. Very similar to what Rhode does well: make every SKU feel more complete when paired with another SKU. That can increase basket size without needing a traditional bundle discount.

4. Urban Decay is responding to filter fatigue without abandoning perfection

This is where the positioning gets interesting. Beauty culture is moving away from the hyper-filtered, full-coverage perfection that dominated previous eras, but consumers haven’t suddenly stopped wanting beautiful skin.

They just want it to look: less obviously manufactured. So the promise becomes: not “cover everything” but: make real skin look better.

That lets Urban Decay sit in the middle of two competing beauty desires: I want texture to look like texture, and I still want my skin to look insanely good.

The Ghosting Trio gives them a product story for both.

5. Mika makes the campaign feel younger without forcing Urban Decay to abandon its identity

Urban Decay has always had a rebellious, slightly anti-perfect brand voice. Even its recent “Battle the Bland” partnering with digital creators like TikTok star Ari Kytsya to call out the “blandemic” of repetitive beauty trends, leaned into nonconformity and creative self-expression.

Mika works because she gives that attitude a newer cultural reference point. The campaign copy: “not everything deserves your attention” and “no AI here” feels more internet-native than traditional complexion marketing.

It’s not: clinically perfected pore reduction. It’s: ghost the BS. That feels far more aligned with the audience Urban Decay wants to speak to now.

@urbandecaycosmeticsbreaking news: we are in a blandemic. it’s not just makeup that’s suffering, it’s individuality. let’s blur the bland and put bold, self-expression back at center stage. @Ari Kytsya #urbandecay #arikytsya

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6. They’re using entertainment fandom as distribution

This campaign doesn’t only live on Urban Decay’s audience. It travels through:

• Mika fan accounts

• Off Campus pages

• entertainment media

• beauty media

• TikTok/Reels edits

• campaign BTS

That means one celebrity casting decision opens multiple distribution ecosystems, and fan communities are especially valuable because they repost voluntarily. The campaign becomes content for people who might not have followed Urban Decay at all. That is the hidden media value of casting someone attached to a fandom.

The Hidden Strategy Nobody Talks About 👀

Urban Decay isn’t only borrowing Mika’s fame. They’re borrowing the momentum of a fandom before it peaks.

When a brand hires someone after they’ve become universally famous, it pays for established attention. When a brand hires someone while the internet is still collectively discovering them, it gets to participate in the rise.

Urban Decay is effectively attaching itself to Mika’s “before everyone had her” era, and if Off Campus continues growing? The campaign gets more culturally valuable after launch. That’s a much smarter ambassador strategy than simply choosing whoever currently has the biggest follower count.

What Brands Can Steal From This

Beauty brands

• Stop looking only for the biggest celebrity. Look for the person whose audience is becoming obsessed with them right now.

• The best partnerships often happen between: breakout moment → saturation. That’s where cultural momentum is strongest.

Fashion brands

• Use entertainment casting strategically.

• If a show, book adaptation or character is beginning to dominate fan culture, find the cast member whose personal aesthetic naturally connects with your product. Don’t just sponsor fame. Sponsor the conversation around the fame.

Skincare brands

• Build your product naming into the campaign concept. If the collection has a strong name, don’t treat it like a packaging copy. Create an entire language around it.

• Urban Decay took “Ghosting” from: product name to: attitude. That’s how a launch becomes more memorable.

Founders / creators

• Pay attention to timing.

• You don’t always need to collaborate with whoever has the biggest audience. Sometimes the better question is: Who’s about to become much bigger than they are today?

• Cultural timing can outperform follower count.

Prediction 🔮

STRONG CULTURAL WINNER

I don’t think the biggest win here will simply be whether all three products sell out. The bigger signal is whether Mika becomes repeatedly associated with beauty after this campaign.

If the partnership lands, expect more beauty and fashion brands to move aggressively toward the Off Campus cast and other breakout streaming talent rather than relying solely on established celebrity ambassadors.

We’re already seeing beauty brands attach themselves to the Off Campus moment more broadly, which suggests the franchise is becoming a talent pipeline for marketers, not just entertainment.

And expect more complexion launches to move away from: “perfect skin” toward: real skin, strategically blurred.

M’s Marketing Take 💭

Urban Decay’s smartest move wasn’t hiring Mika Abdalla because she’s famous. It was hiring her while the internet is still deciding just how famous she’s about to become.

That’s the sweet spot. The campaign gets the Off Campus hype now, while also potentially benefiting from everything that comes next.

Sometimes the smartest ambassador isn’t the biggest name in the room. It’s the name everyone is about to know.

Inside this week’s report, you’ll find:

• Viral content formats worth using now

• The psychology behind each trend

• Creator and brand applications

• Marketing predictions

• Actionable ideas you can steal this week

1. “Pinterest vs Me” Trend (MAKEUP, JEWELRY, SKINCARE, FASHION)

Read more

What’s Happening?

• TRESemmé has launched its new Bouncy Curls collection.

• Actor Belmont Cameli fronts the campaign following the viral attention around his natural curls.

• The collection replaces the brand’s former Flawless Curls range with upgraded formulas featuring a Peptide Blend designed to hydrate curls while fighting humidity and frizz.

• The campaign also reveals Belmont’s actual styling routine using the collection:

  • Bouncy Curls Defining Mousse

  • Bouncy Curls Defining Cream

  • Bouncy Curls Layering Hairspray

• The entire campaign is built around one seasonal message: “Hot Curl Summer.”

Read more

1. “I’m Too Shy To Take Photos In Public” Trend

What’s the Trend?

A two-person trend where one creator claims: “I’m too shy to take photos in public.” Then, the video then cuts to their photographer friend doing the most unhinged, embarrassing, acrobatic, or public stunt imaginable to get the perfect shot. The humor comes from the fact that the person being photographed thinks they’re the shy one, while their friend is:

Read more

Influencer trips aren’t new, brand birthdays aren’t new, even creator gifting isn’t new. But Anastasia Beverly Hills’ celebration for Love Island star Olandria wasn’t really any of those things, it was something much smarter.

For four days in Miami, ABH transformed a birthday weekend into a fully immersive brand experience where every single touchpoint reinforced the same message:

Olandria isn’t just partnering with the brand, she’s living inside it. And that’s exactly why the internet can’t stop talking about it.

The Shift We’re Seeing In Creator Marketing

For years, brands focused on: getting creators to post.

Today, the smartest brands focus on: creating moments creators want to post.

ABH didn’t send Olandria a PR package and hope for the best. Instead, they built an entire universe around her.

Every detail, from the hot pink aesthetic to the custom cocktails, branded coconuts, yacht merch, Pilates class, and even a birthday banner plane, was designed to create shareable moments.

Nothing About This Weekend Was Random

The easiest mistake would be looking at the event and thinking: “Wow, that’s a lot of branding.”

Because the branding wasn’t the strategy. The consistency was. The entire weekend revolved around one visual language:

Hot Pink.

The room drops, the workout accessories, the Pilates mats, the cocktails, the champagne tower, the branded cups, the birthday details. Everything looked like it belonged in the same Instagram carousel.

That matters because repetition creates memory. When audiences scroll through hundreds of stories and posts from the weekend, they’re not just remembering Olandria’s birthday. They’re remembering: Anastasia Beverly Hills.

The Real Product Wasn’t Makeup

This is where the campaign gets interesting.

ABH wasn’t selling: lipstick, brow products, makeup palettes. They were selling: friendship, luxury, celebration, belonging.

Throughout the entire weekend, Olandria and her guests were wearing ABH products, but the products weren’t treated as the main character. They became part of the lifestyle. That’s much more powerful.

Consumers don’t buy makeup because it’s makeup. They buy makeup because of how they imagine they’ll feel wearing it. ABH understands that.

Why The Plane Banner Was Genius

Out of everything that happened during the weekend, one moment stands out: The birthday plane banner.

Because it’s the perfect example of: spectacle marketing. Everyone at the event sees it, films it, posts it. Suddenly, one activation becomes dozens of pieces of content across multiple creators.

The best marketing moments aren’t the most expensive. They’re the most shareable and a plane flying over Miami with:

“Happy Birthday Olandria, Love ABH” is extremely shareable.

The New Era Of Influencer Trips

The most successful creator activations today don’t feel like campaigns. They feel like experiences.

Look at ABH X Olandria’s itinerary:

• private chef

• custom room drops

• yacht day

• massages

• Pilates

• luxury dinners

• photo shoots

• branded gifting

Every activity created a different content opportunity: Lifestyle content, Beauty content, Fashion content, Travel content, Friendship content, Behind-the-scenes content.

ABH didn’t create one campaign. They created hundreds of content assets. That’s the difference.

What Brands Can Learn From This

The biggest takeaway isn’t: spend more money. It’s: create more moments.

Whether you’re a beauty brand, fashion label, restaurant, or startup, the question shouldn’t be: “How do we get people to talk about us?”

It should be: “How do we create something worth talking about?”

ABH understood that attention follows experiences, and experiences create stories.

M’s Marketing Take 💭

The smartest thing about this entire weekend? ABH never made the celebration feel like a campaign. It felt like a birthday.

A very pink, very luxurious, very Instagrammable birthday, and that’s exactly why it worked.

Because the best marketing doesn’t interrupt the moment. It becomes the moment 🩷

Rhode’s summer collection officially drops on June 9, but let’s be honest: the campaign started 18 months ago, and that’s exactly why this launch will probably sell out.

New launches

• Pocket Bronze

• Pocket Brush

• Highlight Milk

Summer extensions of cult products

• Bronze Peptide Lip Tint

• Bronze Peptide Lip Shape

Limited-edition lifestyle merch

• terry beach bag

• towel

• summer lip phone cases

Instead of launching random new SKUs, Rhode built: an entire summer fantasy ecosystem

Why This Campaign Works

1. Rhode mastered “slow hype” marketing:

This is the biggest genius move.

Most brands do: announce → launch → pray

Rhode does: tease → soft launch → fan speculation → obsession → sell out

For FOUR months, fans were decoding mystery products after Hailey teased: an opalescent milk, bronzer packaging, subtle sneak peeks

Even crazier? The bronzer was teased 18 months ago in Hailey’s content.

Meaning: anticipation became marketing.

2. Rhode sells identity, not makeup

Rhode never says: “here’s a bronzer.”

Instead they sell: the Hailey Bieber glow

Everything ladders back to: bronzed skin, healthy glow, effortless beauty, and model-off-duty energy.

The messaging isn’t: contour harder. It’s: glow naturally.

That matters. Consumers buy: identity, not ingredients.

3. Product ecosystem marketing (GENIUS)

Rhode didn’t launch: one hero product

They launched: a system.

Example:

Pocket Bronze → Pocket Brush → Lip Tint → Phone Case → Beach accessories

This increases: AOV (average order value) without feeling salesy.

4. Limited-edition scarcity psychology

Rhode LOVES: controlled scarcity.

Examples:

• seasonal lip tints

• summer-only colors

• limited merch

• special cases

Psychology: fear of missing out

Consumers think: “if I don’t buy now, it’ll disappear.”

This creates: urgency without discounts

5. Founder-led marketing still wins

Rhode’s biggest advantage? Hailey Bieber herself.

Hailey doesn’t feel like: celebrity founder. She feels like: cool beauty friend

Every teaser becomes content, every GRWM becomes product placement, every “accidental” sneak peek becomes: launch marketing.

The founder IS the funnel. That’s powerful.

The Hidden Strategy Nobody Talks About 👀

Rhode doesn’t market products. They market: internet obsession.

Notice: They let audiences theorize, speculate, zoom in, discuss, predict.

The audience becomes: unpaid marketers.

This is community-powered hype.

What Brands Can Steal From This

• Beauty brands

  Don’t reveal everything immediately. Instead: tease texture, blur packaging, soft-launch products in content. Let audiences guess.

• Fashion brands

  Don’t launch: summer collection

  Launch: summer character

  Example: Not: linen pants. Instead: “The South of France girl”

  Sell a fantasy.

• Founders / creators

  Soft-launch BEFORE launching. Casually show: prototype, blurred packaging, moodboards, BTS.

  Make audiences feel: involved.

• Wellness brands

  Create: seasonal rituals, not just products.

Sales Prediction:

HUGE WINNER

This will likely: sell out immediately,

But more importantly: You’re about to see: “summer skin” marketing everywhere

Brands will start copying:

• glow positioning

• bronzed visuals

• warm neutrals

• seasonal capsules

• lifestyle accessories

Rhode just gave beauty marketing its summer moodboard.

M’s Marketing Take 💭

Rhode’s biggest genius move? They made waiting feel luxurious.

Most brands are terrified of anticipation but Rhode weaponized it.

And in 2026? That may be one of the smartest marketing plays in beauty.

“Drawing GRWM” Trend:

Read more

01. “YES, BUT” TREND (High priority trend)

Based on the viral format where creators show the glamorous/aesthetic version of something followed by the messy reality.

Example:

yes: owning a social media agency but: crying over 14 client revisions at 2AM

Why it’s trending

Psychology: It creates:

• relatability

• emotional connection

• humor

• vulnerability

• high watch time

Cultural reason

The internet is exhausted. Everyone is tired of fake perfection. This trend says: “Yes my life looks cool, but I’m human.” That instantly builds trust.

Who’s already using it

Creators

• beauty creators

• fashion creators

• founders

• freelancers

• photographers

• fitness creators

Brand categories already winning

• beauty

• wellness

• skincare

• fashion

• agencies

• hospitality

This works especially well for founder-led brands.

How creators should use it

Hook ideas

“Yes, I run my own business… but”

“Yes, I work with luxury brands… but”

“Yes, I’m a content creator… but”

“Yes, I moved abroad… but”

Best niches

• founders

• creators

• freelancers

• fitness

• beauty

• personal branding

• wellness

How businesses should use it

Beauty clinic

yes: perfect client transformations but: clinic chaos, reschedules, content filming

Agency

yes: viral campaigns but: 37 Slack messages + 8 revisions

Restaurant

yes: dreamy plating but: kitchen madness

Read more

If you’ve been following us on Instagram, you already know what we do. We cover the campaigns as they drop, the pop-ups, influencer trips, retail expansions, nostalgia revivals and the hottest marketing news the second it starts circulating.

We don’t wait for think pieces. We spot it early but here’s the truth: Instagram is fast, reactive, visual and limited. We can show you what’s happening, we can hint at why it’s smart but we can’t fully unpack it there.

And that’s exactly why this space exists.

1. What This Page Is Actually About

This isn’t just a founder interview series or daily/weekly marketing news or just trend commentary. It’s a place where marketing, culture, and business intersect and we actually break them down.

We’ll be covering the best marketing moves daily and giving a roundup weekly: the campaigns, the brand activations, the retail expansions, the pop-ups, the influencer strategies. Not just what happened, but what made them effective in detail.

We’ll sit down with the biggest founders and operators in beauty and marketing and talk about longevity, community, timing, risk, and scaling.

We’ll decode internet trends before they turn into recycled takes. We’ll look at nostalgia waves, creator shifts, algorithm changes, and cultural moments with a strategic lens.

And we’ll also take you behind the scenes of building Marketing with M: an agency started 1.5 years ago at 24 by Malissa, built from scratch without investors, learning in real time. The wins, the mistakes, the systems, the pivots.

3. The Kind of Space We Want This to Be

A space for people who care about branding beyond aesthetics. For people who notice when something feels intentional. For founders, creators, marketers, and operators who are building something and want to understand the bigger picture.

This isn’t about hot takes. It’s about patterns and insights. We’re not here to chase every trend. We’re here to understand which ones matter.

4. What You Can Expect

We’ll publish weekly.

• Instagram will continue to be where we share what’s happening in real time.

• Substack will be where we explain it properly.

• Free subscribers will receive weekly breakdowns and selected founder conversations. As this grows, we may introduce deeper strategy layers for subscribers who want more structured frameworks and advanced analysis but everything here will always be built around value first.

If you’ve ever read one of our posts and thought, “I wish there was more to this,” this is the more.

Subscribe if you want the full version of what we already do without the algorithm cutting it short 🤍