Work

What we really want is to remember we are alive.

Does your brand’s social strategy have tension?The best brands understand the perception audiences have about them and their industry, and use their social media to twist that. The result of that tension—a brand going against expected norms—leads to surprising moments that delight their audience. Oftentimes, *that’s* what people are reacting to whe... See more

As we know, a brand does not exist except in the consciousness and perceptions of its consumers.

It's not just about creative assets or campaigns, it's about ensuring every touchpoint reinforces the product's core value.

When a brand achieves fandom, it's no longer just selling a product or service; it's co-creating meaning and belonging. It's the sacred space where a brand's 'why' meets a consumer's 'who I am' or 'who I want to be.' It’s earned, not bought.

A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is—it is what consumers tell each other it is.

And strangely, people are open to it. There’s a growing appetite for radical reinvention of spirituality, identity, belonging, health, work and community. We want novelty, but we also want roots. We want control, but we’re exhausted by optimization. We want to feel something, and the brands that learn to hold this tension will feel like portals.

When a brand can hold two opposing ideas without collapsing, like sex and idealism in American Apparel’s case, they reflect peoples’ inner conflict back to them, and that’s a magnetic energy to project.

For all the talk of coherence in the world of branding, it is tension that is the real engine of meaning.