So for this week I wanted to look at one of the most used consumer products on earth but rarely celebrated for their individual brilliance and the role they played in creating a bigger moat for their brand.

Airpods first game along in 2016 as the evolution of the wired apple headphones which were already fairly iconic because of the ads for iPod back in the day where the cables became part of the story back in 2003 with these ads. Damn I just aged.

In 2016 when the new AirPods launched they were already pretty iconic because they were so new in terms of design and the market we knew to that point. Wireless, individual headphone in each ear and they were at a higher price point than the average consumer was used too and there was a lot of online debate and fun made of them at first. I remember distinctly when they came out a friend of mine got a set from his dad on Christmas Day, went snowboarding with them and proceeded to have one fall out whilst snowboarding and… being white… that one was never found again. I was also at the time kind of like, why would you spend this much money for something I can lose so easily?

Turns out the internet was doing internet things back then and rejoicing in Meme culture.

And of course, as with all things Apple. Then I tried them and everything changed. They have a knack of doing that, it’s easy to neighsay the brand but the whole unboxing and first use experience is always so on point. You just flip open the lid and the product connects to your phone in seconds. No messing around with “is bluetooth on”, then of course great sound quality to go with it.

AirPods have evolved since then to the AirPods Pro which feature noise cancelling, spatial awareness and device switching and from a product stand point they have gone from being a “why would I need them?” To “I cant operate without them”. Which as apple have proved over the years is the secret sauce they manage to pour over everything. Whilst other brands rely on well known people to back their products, Apple as with this ad just focused on the best damn product they could.

To that end, they have done marketing but its always seemed like with Apple they must spend so little on marketing (reportedly 0.5-1% of revenue) as the product is so damn good that you have to tell your friends and word of mouth is what drives the awareness more than anything else. That will be my next post I think *Caveat I guess thats changed as the brand has grown and likely when they dropped 1984 during Super Bowl that was a huge chunk of revenue.

AirPods being sold in the Apple temples of retail around the world also helps. As much like the Aime Leon Dore example, they understand that if you build your own experience you can curate the entire world around it and that is something Apple understood before anyone else in the electronics space.

What this also has done for the brand is not purely just sell headphones but it re-inforced the whole Apple ecosystem yet again. It made giving up the Apple drug even harder than before as now you have this beautiful integration into Audio and knowing where music, podcasting, voice notes and in future voice activated Ai would be headed, this has become a huge part of building that moat which keeps others out.

And so this is where the story of Apple shifts from the AirPods to Tim Cook.

If you ask most people for the great founders in the space you will usually get a few of the same names of Jeff Bezos at Amazon, Elon Musk at Tesla and Steve Jobs at Apple. Steve Jobs was the man who created world changing innovation through the iPhone, iPad, App Store and how they show up at retail.

Whats been interesting is the narrative around Tim Cook in the 15 years since he took over has been that he hasn’t been able to create his version of the iPhone. Which is true. A product so transformational that the world will shift on its axis. Which in some regards might be completely correct. He hasn’t. But the products and more importantly services he has built around it have been the big story here. So in his time, Apple have launched Apple Watch (which has sold 30-50m units and $100bn in revenue, source), AirPods, Apple Pay, Apple TV+, iCloud+ along with a bunch more of course along with a couple which havent batted out the park in the form of the Vision Pro. However of these standouts, the Watch and AirPods have been physical products adding to the folklore and revenue of the brand. Meanwhile Apple Pay, Apple TV and Icloud+ are all services which gently co-erse you out of money each month through subscriptions or charges.

Thats meant that between 2011 when he took over and 2025 the company has gone from
Revenue - 108 bn to $416bn

Market Cap - $350bn to 4 trillion.

Created a services business of over $100 billion from scratch.

So to go back to AirPods it’s worth looking at them if they were a stand alone company as quite often they are seen as an after thought. Something you might pick up at the airport if you lose one, the nice upgrade that means you might not need to upgrade your phone and hey if your lucky your company might even offer them as a perk.

However the numbers on AirPods are staggering :
2017 - 15m units

2019 - 60m units

20025 - 90m units.

Making a total of over 500 million pairs and they have generated 100bn for the company since launch with around 18-25bn each year in revenue according to counterpoint research.

To put that in context, who does everyone use for their music these days? Either Spotify or Apple Music. Well, in AirPods Tim Cook built a business with higher annual revenue than Spotify, equal to Levis, Higher than Ferrari, Ebay and all the emerging brands we all cant get enough of like Hoka, ON, Satisfy and the rest.

The whole story was nearly so clean and clear. So just after Tim Cook came in and before the AirPods were launched, Apple bought Beats for 3bn which was its largest ever acquisition. Most people at the time assumed that Apple would then just shift the white cabled headphones into Beats and we would all be running around with Beats headphones like Serena and Lebron at the time.

However the move which they made that really made the whole world work together was they didnt seem to buy the brand for the headphones but for the intellectual property, connections and know how of Jimmy Iovine who founded the brand with Dr Dre in 2006 (who isnt a Dr as my kids keep asking me). Beats became the foundation of Apple Music and created better connections to key artists and labels.

They then kept Beats and AirPods differently targeted. Beats continued in the world of music, moved into Sport with its big push around athletes with Neymar, Lebron and more focused on the over ear headphones whilst AirPods was more of the everyday listen, the choice of the creative and of most iPhone users. They used guerrilla marketing at World Cup moments with Neymar and others to get branding in a way unseen in the category before by having so many athletes show up en-masse wearing them.

Having two major players in the same category is never easy because of Canabilisation but they managed that side of the market place well. Ultimately though the Beats connection cemented their move into music which with it brought people like Zane Lowe and this iconic piece with Fred Again…

So was it great marketing that made AirPods the powerhouse they are?

Well, through great product you can get the most valuable marketing, Word of Mouth, so, I yes, but the real story has to be creating a new segment in an adjacent category and owning it with perfect product market fit. A product which just becomes the Verb for the category can do the heavy lifting that marketing would usually do. Category Building is uniquely hard but given the scale that Apple have when they develop a new space, they have the ability to make it into the daily vernacular for all of us.

So next time when you lose an AirPod and go to replace them, have a thought for how integral they have become to many of us and the role they play in keeping us on the Apple ecosystem.

And of course use some of these stats at christmas quiz time as AirPods are one of the unsung heroes of the apple universe, bigger than many stand alone brands we trust every single day.

We stayed at Mama Shelter East and from there its a few kms down to La Marie where the showroom is and a few more to where the Golf Gallery showroom was from the lads at Wrks who are doing gods work for Golf.

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The first morning I had to get down to the showroom and instinctively it being hot I didnt wanted to sit in an Uber so said I’d grab a lime bike. Two minutes later with the wind in my hair (well, buzzcut since its summer) and I was off feeling like a true Parisian only missing a cheeky cigarette and some cooler sunglasses as I peddled through the city.

A couple of days of this ensued with the same pattern : Need to go somewhere, get a lime bike, feel local, get to destination smiling.

Which kind of made me think when did Paris become this cycling oasis?

And by this I mean the city now has over 1000km of cycling infrastructure with much of that being protected lanes where you dont share the road with cars, buses and trucks including the now-famous ‘Corona pistes’ - pop-up bike lanes created during the COVID-19 pandemic that later became permanent due to overwhelming public support. Basically you can go from one side of town to another in relative safety. There’s less traffic, more bike infrastructure and a surprising number of commuters criss crossing the glorious river city morning, noon and night. The reason? A lot of it comes back to the vision, focus and dedication of the city’s Mayor, Anne Hidalgo.

Elected in 2014, Hidalgo’s agenda was clear from the start and has since been whittled down to just two sweet words - ‘Plan Vélo’. Then, in 2020, that Hidalgo proposed her “ville du quart d’heure” concept - the idea of a quarter-hour city. Working closely with Sorbonne professor Carlos Moreno, the pair fronted the media to discuss Paris moving into a post-vehicle era.

“We need to reinvent the idea of urban proximity,” Moreno said. “We know it is better for people to work near to where they live, and if they can go shopping nearby and have the leisure and services they need around them too, it allows them to have a more tranquil existence.”

Cycling now accounts for over 11% of all trips (however ChatGPT is only giving me 2023 numbers) which is impressive as in 2010 it was 2% of trips being by bike. Whats even more impressive is that car trips have dropped from 13% to 4% in a 10 year period.

So how did this all happen?

Well to start they didnt just start by asking the end user to start cycling and putting the emphasis on the individual to create change. The government led by example but investing a lot of money, 400m in total to create the 1000km of dedicated lanes and 1600km of bike friendly routes.

So I guess it’s a case of “Build it and they will come” but in this regard “build it and they will use it”. It’s also worth noting that during that period walking traffic has also increased by 50%.

The stat which really blew me away was that Paris now has over double the amount of dedicated cycle lanes than Amsterdam. However after thinking about it, Amsterdam is a smaller city and biking is so engrained in the culture you hardly need a bike lane as it’s everywhere. But none the less, impressive and a good stat for you on summer holiday this year.

The other point of note is that London has invested twice what Paris did but still dont have a network as connected as our French friends can boast. I often think this when I go to a city where bikes arent one of the main forms of transport, how much a city can learn from Paris and of course Amsterdam & Copenhagen in terms of how to build cities which are ready for the future.

So usually we focus on brands finding their tipping points and achieving mainstream adoption. In this case its a city understanding infrastructure and that by providing the right environment through infrastructure design and making it very usable, the public will create a community around it so people visiting the city on vacation or in my case to ride a rental bike very sweatily from showroom to showroom they feel right at home.

Take a trip to Paris, rent a bike. You’ll love it I promise.

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There’s a lot to be written about brands including Purple Mountain, 3 Putt Golf, the golf Gallery, Our Legacy and more but for todays quick update I wanted to feature a brand that I’d heard about but not seen much from before Vollebak. We met one of the guys during a run one morning which was obscenely hot and way too fast for me and my new shoes which unfortunately are a size too small I think. We visited their space and were met by Nick Tidball one of the most animated and passionate characters of the week.

The interesting thing for an apparel brand, he isnt a designer but comes (along with his brother) from an advertising creative background. With that background they understand the power of viral moments to create word of mouth marketing including floating a house down the Thames as an awareness play for Air BnB. You can see that very much in play at their work with Vollebak.

They also understand that for all the gimmicks you can do, if you can make product that makes people sit up and take notice, your making life way easier for the marketing people (which is also them in this case) but it really does mean that by obsessing new innovations and solutions for tomorrow and essentially building the brand as the apparel brand of the future they are able to own their position.

A few of the things that stood out :

The Copper Full Metal Puffer

Now this one has a ton of innovation packed into it including (yes, pulling from their site here)

60% metal fibre in the outer shell, giving it its liquid-metal appearance.

Filled with 100% recycled 700-fill down for real insulation in sub-zero conditions.

Uses Schoeller’s c_change® membrane, which adjusts its breathability in response to heat and moisture while remaining waterproof and windproof.

Weighs around 1.7 kg, so it’s substantial but designed as a true winter jacket rather than a concept piece.

But what really stood out for me was how well the jacket keeps it shapes and returns to puffed form (I wish I had a technical way to say that) but its a really impressive piece and one to get people talking. It retails at 2500 gbp which is a lot but I assume once in this kind of space your appealing to a select few consumers who dont baulk at price.

The 100 Year Hoodie

They had a range called Indestructible which includes fireproof jackets, pants and more. This range was really interesting as it looks very wearable but has a really unique innovation story.

The Sonic Jacket

What caught my eye when we went in was this piece. I couldnt work out if it was a mobile soundstage but turns out its something very different.

It features 180 speakers, and weighs a mellow 30kg.

Nick who we met is convinced you can change people’s brain state and body state by firing sounds and frequency through them which considering how much of a proponent of playing Bob Marley to new born kids because the 60 beats a minute is the same bpm as when being carried by a mother in the womb so the baby is feeling calm.

I pulled the tech spec from their interview in Dezeen :
Created in collaboration with special effects studio FBFX – known for sci-fi films like Dune, Prometheus and Project Hail Mary – the jacket is covered in 180 speakers that face inwards.

Each of the 32-millimetre-wide speakers was mounted in a laser-cut hole and generates frequencies that range from four hertz (Hz) to 20 kilohertz (kHz).

The speakers are controlled by an MP3 player loaded with 10 pre-set frequencies, while a Micro SD card reader allows additional frequencies to be played.

I think what really pulled me in was remembering back to when Analog had storm trooper inspired white jackets inline and then one high end version with lights on the shoulder that went in the window. It was the first time I realised that sometimes the product you sell and the product you market arent the same thing quite often.

Look at this years World Cup. Those pink boots Cristiano or Erling are wearing arent the ones they will make their money on as theirs cost around $350 whilst they have 6 versions all the way down to $60 kids versions.

So whats the lesson here?

Well, the car industry has done this for years but by making concept cars you can get people to believe in the future, in your future and what you as a company can achieve and if you can make people dream, they will have a lot of optimism about the returns that can bring long term. Many brands will focus on “this material is 3% lighter or stretchier than the competition”. What Vollebak are doing is trying to re-imagine what apparel means as we move into the future and therefore creating their own path forward.

Thanks for showing us around gents.

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I’ll admit this World Cup started slowly for me. Maybe it was the games. It certainly was the time zone, meaning in Europe we get one or two games at normal hours, but a few are going on through the night, which hasn’t helped. I was kind of missing that feeling you usually get in summer: games three times a day, the second screen on during work, early drinks to watch the football. You know the style. the glory days of when Trippier was scoring and beer went flying….

However, last week felt like the day when it all kicked off and got into gear.

That was the day Argentina started their campaign and Messi bagged a hat-trick in the first game. Then came Norway, where of course Erling Haaland banged in two. Then France, where after looking pretty ordinary for the first 65 minutes, Kylian Mbappé scored two, assisted by Michael Olise.

The next day was England, and a very tanned Harry Kane, who looked like he’d been playing golf for a month, strolled in and grabbed a couple of goals against Croatia. Shout out Jordan Pickford also for doing Brits proud with his obvious anti suncream agenda.

The only one who couldn’t muster it up was Cristiano, who struggled to get going. But sitting here writing this in Portugal, I have everything crossed that he lights up the tournament this evening.

It did get me thinking, though. Whilst most World Cups do have their share of top players, we just have to look at the rough top five from the past few:

2022 Qatar: Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Emiliano Martínez, Julián Álvarez, Luka Modrić, Gareth Bale (even though he and Wales stunk out the place, I had to get one Wales reference in).

2018 Russia: Modrić, Cristiano, Mbappé, Griezmann, Hazard, Kane.

2014 Brazil: Messi, Neuer, Müller, Robben, Rodríguez and yes, that German team.

2010 South Africa: Iniesta, Xavi, Sneijder, Müller, Villa.

2006 Germany: Zidane, Cannavaro, Beckham, Klose, Pirlo, Cristiano.

Whilst they are all amazing players and have their own legacies, where this World Cup has felt different is that it feels like a pretty monumental changing of the guard between players who have been at the top for a very long time.

Legends Who Are Likely Playing Their Last World Cup

• Messi – 39

• Cristiano Ronaldo – 41

• Luka Modrić – 40 (he must be tired by now – little Guardian Football Weekly gag)

• Neymar 34 (if he plays, that is)

  And a few who might not be playing the last but are certainly in the twilight..

• Salah – 34

• De Bruyne – 35

• Kane - 32

The last few might still knock out another one, but they have all played at a high level for a very long time.

And then you have the players who are coming through or already in their prime to take over the mantle:

• Mbappé

• Haaland

• Bellingham

• Lamine Yamal

• Michael Olise

• Vini Jr

It may be due to advances in pitches, health and wellness, and medical advances in surgery, but growing up, a player was kind of rounding the corner on their career at 30.

You wouldn’t really sign a player at 32 unless, in the case of Robin van Persie, it was a surefire league-winning bet.

If you look at the best players from the period up until around the 2006 World Cup, you had people like Zidane, Beckham and even Rooney, all of whom had long careers, but they were generally 10–12 years.

For example, with Rooney, as amazing as he was, by 28 he was slowing down. But it’s worth considering that he started playing at 16 with that wonder goal for Everton. Yes we need to watch it.

That being said though, must be something in the water in Portugal vs Manchester which is helping longevity in the game,

Especially in the case of Messi and Ronaldo, it’s worth remembering that these two played in their first World Cup in 2006.

Twenty years ago.

That’s six World Cups.

That is a hell of a run.

All the while also winning Champions Leagues, Ballons d’Or, league titles and more.

And also scoring...

973 for the Portuguese number seven and 914 for Messi.

Where this could get interesting is that whilst Cristiano seems hell-bent on scoring 1,000 goals before retiring, without caring which league he is playing in, Kylian Mbappé is already at over 450 goals and Erling Haaland is at over 350 at age 25.

So who is to say where they will get to?

To go back to the age thing, if we were to see the same level of dominance from a young player at their level and age — thinking Lamine Yamal here — do you know which World Cup he would be playing in when he decides to call it curtains?

Yep.

Crikey.

Honourable mention here also for Luka Modrić, one of the absolute best midfielders the game has ever seen, who similarly played in 2006, won the Golden Ball in 2018 and got Croatia to the final that same year.

In 2018 he won the Ballon d’Or, the only time in a decade that it wasn’t Messi or Ronaldo.

So I hope that when he bows out of this tournament, people put the respect on his name that it deserves.

I think that’s why it’s also so interesting with this changing of the guard, because many of these players have been so integral to their national teams.

Especially in the case of Modrić, Salah, Haaland and, yes, formerly Gareth Bale, these are players who don’t come from traditional footballing royalty but are able to drag their countries to remarkable achievements through togetherness and tenacity. Yes this is Gareth Bales best goals for Real Madrid as the Wales goals arent allowed due to Fifa and Uefa restrictions.

So all that is to say: savour this World Cup.

For all that people will argue about Messi versus Ronaldo, it’s worth remembering that we may not see players like this for a while.

Or maybe they’re already with us.

Or maybe it’s simply that we may never again see two generations all playing in the same tournament at once.
Enjoy

As I escape that chaos its into the shopping district. A couple of classics including Rimowa and Calvin Klein and then comes Victoria’s Secret. Everytime I fly I always think “damn I should write an article about the downfall of VS, theres no one in the store and all the product looks like bras and underwear with sequins on it”.

Victorias Secret Lisbon Airport this morning. I swear there is some sparkly bras and a family called “Very Sexy”.

But hey, what do I know? Last week I hear that on Monday the stock has jumped 47% in a single day based on 15% earnings growth. My god if their CEO would just fix Nike that quickly my stock at the beaverton sports giant might look a bit healthier than it does right now.

So here comes that article except I never saw this chapter coming.

They seem to be getting Victorias Secret back on the rails?

So let’s set the scene a bit.

The 90s and 2000s

Victorias Secret was one of the darlings of the period. They held a runway show called the Victorias Secret Fashion show started in 95 and discontinued in 2018 (but has recently been restarted) which at its peak attracted around 10 million television viewers and turned the angels into global celebrities. In which they would debut the new line but it essentially seemed more about who was walking for them as ‘Angels’ than anything else but it was a cultural moment for some in the same way the NBA finals or World Cup is for sports fans. From 1995 the revenue grew from 1.8bn to 8.1bn in 2018 at the peak.

It was the brand who put sexuality on the high street of many cities around the world opening stores around the world leading to them having 1600 stores world wide. However there was always an undercurrent about the unreal standards they were setting for most people. It was the kind of store that if you had a girlfriend at the time you might try and sneak into with her or buy something from there in the hope you knew remotely what she might like. I usually didnt.

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2016ish - 2023

Fast forward to an era in which body positivity and inclusivity became more part of the cultural narrative it quickly became a challenge to see how the brand was relevant in this new world. The whole notion of the Angels dissappeared, the fashion show was cancelled and they saw a 19% in annual earnings. I was working in Nike during this period on the women’s business and for us they almost became enemy number 1 as it was objectifying women rather than celebrating them for their achievements. Along the way they launched Pink to bring in younger consumers and for a while it felt like that was maybe more of the visible brand than anything else aimed at teenagers. During this time it also felt like any time you walked past a Victorias Secret there was a sale on. Getting desperate for revenue is a sure fire way to lose brand allure as many brands have found to their peril. As I say its also felt like bras with sequins on felt a bit like harking back to a weird age of fashion over function.

Then of course in this time you also saw Kim K launching Skims which was a completely different way of looking at underwear. Supportive, sculpting whilst still having the appeal to bring people into the brand and most importantly having viral products and a loyal following doing a lot of the marketing for them.

2024 - now

So on 9th September 2024 Hilary Super came in officially became CEO of Victoria’s Secret & Co after previously running Savage X Fenty and Anthropologie. To be fair, what a name for a CEO who is coming in to turn things around. In 2025 they posted revenue of 6.55bn, operating income of 403m which is the strongest growth in 5 years. Then what sparked the 47% growth in the stock was the +15% revenue growth and revenue guidance raised to over 7bn for 2026 which sent the stock flying to result in a 200% growth since she joined. That doesnt get them back to where they were but if sustained correctly it could be a resurgence worth watching.

So what has been the catalyst to this change?

Brand position

They have managed to find a balance in terms of what they stand for. I assume there was a tug of war behind the scenes some who wanted to go all in on inclusivity and body positivity meanwhile I assume some lifers want to continue as if we were back in the 90s but they seem to have found a middle ground where the tone on one end was “Everyone can be a Victoria’s Secret Angel” whilst on the other end “Only supermodels belong here” to now more like

“Feeling attractive isn’t a crime.”

And when you look at what SKIMS is doing, they arent showing up as the ultimate in body positivity messaging, sure Kim isnt a size 2 but they are leaning into her look which is for many very aspirational.

Product

This area I know little about so just doing some research it seems that judging by repeat purchases and cross category purchases they have been able to grow in categories that matter with bras being one of the main battle grounds. We always said this at nike if we could get someone in to get a Sports Bra fitted that worked well, you could then convert at a high % and then follow up to cross sell extensively.

Discounting

As mentioned above, one of the hardest pills to swallow for anyone is having to step backwards in order to walk forward. For many publicly traded companies this is so difficult. If you look at nike now they are trying to comp 40bn in revenue but in reality they have lost the premium end of the sneaker market so they are having to make up that top line revenue through lower margin products and unfortaunetly discounting to work through inventory. Stopping discounting means needing a world class merchandising team who can really accurately forecast trends, product market fit and number of weeks product is needed on hand to make sure to sell out as the season ends.

This one is so easy to gloss over but the longer I work in the industry the more convinced I am that whilst marketing and creative is important, ensuring that everyone is moving in the same direction in terms of not discounting, getting the right product out etc.

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A thought from leftfield for reason number 4.

GLP1s

This one might sound a bit out there but humour me. GLP1s are huge. If you are reading from the US you will know this. If in Europe you soon will. Just look at the growth of users (and the stock price of the companies in this space). How big?

Well in the US according to this poll (KFF), 12% of the population or 31m people are taking GLP-1. Thats roughly half of the UK on it. Imagine that. And 47m have tried it at some point (18% of the population).

A friend of mine is on it as between having injuries, becoming a father, getting older and work he gained a few extra kilos meaning the running and cycling became more challenging. Since taking it he has been able to get back to biking and running, lost over 10kgs and been able to keep it off now it’s easier for his body.

So with this that means if half of those on it are women thats over 15m women who are losing weight fast and likely feeling better about themselves and buying clothes to fit their new bodies. Suddenly a brand built around confidence, attractiveness and lingerie starts looking relevant again. And bras and underwear are for sure a couple of the pieces that will need updating faster than others. Many commentators are talking about GLP1s eventually being as revolutionary as as fitness tracking apps, if not more as for many it might be the change they needed. Not proof of causation, but a very compelling correlation worth exploring.

I am still struggling to see that Victoria’s Secret is really back, especially when I walk by that store in Lisbon Airport most weeks but hey, I’m not the consumer and so would love to know especially from women, your take on Victorias Secret, if they are back, if they never left and am I misreading the GLP-1 thing?

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We’ve all heard of Aimé Leon Dore by this point. It’s one of the brands that understands every step of the experience. Much has been said, written and videos created about how, under the leadership of Teddy Santis, they are now cited as the masterclass in cultural desirability through consistency, community and world-building. There is a ton to unpack in terms of the creative they put out into the world, but since so much has already been said, I’m going to put one video here and that’s all you get, as the real reason for writing about ALD is two things: performance marketing and retail experience.

So, as above, two things which are worth looking at.

Performance marketing.
Meta and Google ads. They don’t do any. None. On going through Facebook Ads Manager, you don’t find anything from them. This is something I find really interesting, as for many brands it seems to be the number one drug of choice on the street because, once you start, it’s quite nice. You get some good return versus what you put in, and you think to yourself, this is a way to scale. Before you know it, they’ve got you, and now you’re spending a decent amount of your marketing budget on ads trying to find new customers or banging people over the head trying to get them to buy another item from you. Even brands who have a real aura right now, like Satisfy, are playing the game with the Silicon Valley behemoths. The challenge with that is the economics have got dramatically worse over the last five years and, well, they have you in handcuffs. Wanna give up the drug? Say goodbye to a decent amount of revenue.

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ALD never did this. So it’s a bit like your friend who doesn’t drink but still goes to the party, has a great time and watches everyone else in the usual routine of: go to the party, get excited, get drunk, get blurry, start falling over, throw up in someone’s garden, regret everything. Meanwhile, your friend is there probably chatting to the cute girl and not pre-empting a kebab run to avoid a hangover the next day. There is a science about that. Must be.

So there is where point one goes into point two.

They take that percentage of marketing spend they would have paid to Facebook and Meta and spend that on brick-and-mortar retail.

Retail experience, customer service and scarcity.

So yes, they are building out physical retail. New York on Mulberry Street, which includes Café Leon Dore with an amazing outdoor space on the street in Nolita, London in Soho and, most recently, LA on Melrose with a beautiful café to go with it.

So you’re thinking, how do three physical stores outweigh the eyes you can get from ads online?

This is where my trip to NYC comes in. What they are doing is creating a must-see experience when in each city. Almost like a folklore-style moment. The whole thing is beautifully managed from end to end and something so many brands can learn from, but so many are obsessed with measurable ROI on digital they won’t get this far. But for this, I’ll walk you through my own experience at the store. Caveat before we begin: I’m British and slightly squeamish at high-priced products sometimes, so this definitely isn’t my swim lane. Here goes.

So we’re in New York, had an amazing week launching our own pop-up and, on the last day, our Art Director William and I go for a wander through the streets of New York checking out the brands and their flagships. Between Braindead, Stussy, Noah, Supreme and more, we end up at ALD. We go to enter. A cool AF security guy gives you a look up and down. Where do they find these guys?

“We’re full, you’ll have to scan this and book to come back later.”

Now this is a shift. They used to just make people line up, but I guess it got insane with the traffic on the sidewalk. But the good old look up and down remains, which, whilst in the beginning feels indignant, also means when they say sign up, you think, “damn, I must have dressed ok today.” Note this is the first time that voice in my head shows up.

So we sign up, go for a walk around and 45 mins later we get a text: “we have space for you now.” So we drop everything and head there like we have been summoned to meet our date for prom night. We get welcomed in, doors fling open and inside… serenity. Beautifully curated, wonderfully thought out, with a vintage Porsche in the entrance. And considering the “we’re full” from earlier, only a handful of people in there. There’s probably two people for each member of staff.

I start looking around. The caps, the golf stuff and, before you know it, a nice denim chambray shirt. As I pick it up, probably the coolest-looking 50-year-old with a silvering beard is folding clothes.

“Oh those are beautiful, the handfeel is amazing.”

Of course my brain chimes in: “you DO have good taste after all if this guy is down.”

So I search for a price. Of course there isn’t one. By this point another guy comes along, younger and very handsome, and asks if I need a size.

“Yeah, XL and L.”

So off he goes and we meet at the changing room where he has reserved me a cabin.

I’m really feeling at home here now. Who knew this was my calling?

So he brings the two shirts along, gets me set up and I try them on. Then I start asking for his opinion like we’re old friends. XL is too boxy. He feels it doesn’t accentuate my body shape. Is he complimenting this 46-year-old? I go back in, try on the large.

“Yeah, that’s perfect for you.”

Ok, now I am going to blush.

So the cool young guy says this shirt is the one for me. I still don’t know a price, but for some reason I walk over to the cash register and the older guy is there.

“Oh great choice.”

Validation.

He rings me up. Wraps up the shirt beautifully, carefully places it into a good-looking bag for my walk around town. We get to the price.

“How much?” my brain screams.

But by this point everyone thinks this piece makes me look great. Who am I to say no to them?

I swallow all the memories of my British upbringing and pay the most I ever paid for a shirt, mourn for my credit card getting beaten up and say my goodbyes to my newfound stylist friends, give the cool AF security guard the obligatory “thanks mate” and off I go with an ALD bag around New York.

What this whole experience really taught me is the power of retail, the power of scarcity, that you can’t just walk in and buy anything like a pint of milk. It HAS to be an experience. And this experience is so well curated it’s like going to Disney World. Everyone knows the character. The customer service is second to none. For many, they think customer service is what happens after you buy and something goes wrong. The brands getting it right are those who know it starts before you even start trying to shop.

It also reinforces the notion of word-of-mouth marketing. Since that trip I have probably told 10 people. How many times have you told 10 people about the latest Instagram ad you got?

What this also does, in terms of scarcity, is it makes the brand hard to get. It means by the time you get in there, try the thing on, you are almost obliged to buy something. The conversion rate of shoppers entering the space must be unbelievable.

This is why I wanted to write about what ALD is doing. As I say, culturally they have the creative and the content all on lock, which is something so few brands are doing to this level.

However, what I love about what Aimé Leon Dore is doing is that they are going against the grain. They have a completely different model. They aren’t trying to compete on the same metrics as many others. They are owning their distribution and, importantly, owning their own marketing without the traditional digital gatekeepers.

Imagine this. If they do a theoretical number of 50m, let’s say, and they spend 10% on marketing, for many brands half of that might go to the digital channels, so 2.5m roughly. With them not spending that each year, they can invest that into physical retail. You can start building a few stores in some high-profile places to continue driving awareness and continue to spread that folklore of the brand.

Now to do that you need to ensure the very best experience for each and every person, as one wrong salesperson and the wheel can stop spinning. But for now, they have got this playbook dialled and it’s one of the very best to learn from.

Damn, I loved writing this one. Thanks for reading.

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That world of physical artifacts remained for the best part of another two decades, with DVDs taking the mantle after VHS, and print media fought the good fight too. This was all fuelled by marketing dollars from the brands. Look at any issue of those mags and you’ll see them loaded with print ads from brands, the films had logos at the beginning and on the box and, say it quietly, but those brands also had a say in who was in those films and, in recent years, in terms of print, it has also started to seep its way into conversations about who gets the covers of the magazines. Not such an independent media, you gasp? Well, as those budgets tightened, people needed to get scrappy.

Somewhere along the way, people shouted “print’s not dead”. People started making web series, pumping out weekly content (hello Helgasons.com and Stale’s blogs, amongst others). Now people could get their fix nearly on the daily instead of waiting to see the latest NBD the following winter. Remember Torstein and his triple? Pretty sure that banged out right away in in 2011 whilst when Travis Rice smashed a double cork over Chad’s Gap, we had to wait till the leaves were falling to watch that beauty in full Technicolor at home back in 2006 so times were a changing already.

And whilst people were scrambling for the lifeboats, some were being bought out, rebranded and repackaged, and we as the consumer started seeing the magazines either get thinner or stay the same size but with an increase in ads. Of all the things we should be at the gates of Meta and Google for, the demise of print is one, as now those ad dollars were being spent on Instagram ads to get direct clicks to your site, cutting out the middlemen. And whilst the industry mourned and looked around the burnt earth of the publishing and film industry, one crew of pirates had built their own new boat and were setting sail for a new foreign land which lives behind a paywall. That’s right, when Stab launched its premium service in 2020 it was revolutionary. I mean, it still is in the action sports world, to be honest.

Stab, for those who don’t know, is a surf title who have essentially flipped the whole model. If brands are now going direct to consumers, now so are they as a media title, going direct to the viewer and aiming to get them to subscribe through amazing content put out at a hell of a pace. Stab was started Stab in 2004 in Bondi, Sydney so to go for 16 years and then have the foresight to go to a subscription model is impressive.

Their switch to a subscription model was launched with a simple post on their site with this explanation :

”Stab going to a subscription is something we’ve talked about for some time, but when Covid rolled into town, 10 years happened in 10 months and our hand was forced. Google and Facebook take 60 to 70 percent of all digital marketing spend and we expect that percentage to grow. The sun has passed midday for ad-supported media. For those left it will be a race to the bottom, and speaking from experience, when you’re chasing clicks, you get lost in the outrageous and contagious. Think graphic shark attacks and Ellie-Jean Coffey nudes.”

In the past 6 years I would say that a lot of what they said has come to pass in terms of rising cost of media and the chaotic nature of trying to feed algorithms and so the move looks smarter by the day. I love that they took a bold move to ensure the business had a future.

To fuel this, they have also (as we have seen in many other brands) built themselves some franchises which they come back to time and again, including:

“Stab in the Dark” – A world-renowned and well-loved surfer testing 10 blanks from different shapers and giving their honest opinion, which is amazing as it’s like getting Ronaldo to have a kick about in Adidas and asking him what he thinks of the new Predators. The honesty is as refreshing as it is engaging. There was a decent amount of controversy that Kelly Slater, or “the GOAT” as the WSL won’t stop ramming down our throats whenever he is on a broadcast, picked his own shaper to win the last edition. Coincidence or well planned? Much like the article Good to Great that I wrote, there is likely a bit of both, as he knows where his bread is buttered. The comments section alone is worth paddling out through.

“How Surfers Get Paid” – If there is a better web series in action sports, tell me what it is. This is so insightful, speaks about how much people have been paid in real numbers, people talk real about others, with a decent amount of shit talking happening. The episodes with Jordy and his take on modern-day surfing are quite something to behold.

“Electric Acid Surfboard Test” – Alternative shapes, ridden by many of our modern-day favourites including Co and Mason Ho. What’s not to love?

Hell, these guys even boast their own event series – Stab High – which is usually bringing surfing forward in terms of progression faster than much of the WSL has done, since it’s a more open alternative format which also attracts many of everyone’s favourite surfers, many of whom haven’t made it to the WSL or opted against that path.

How many subscribers do they have? That I am not sure of. But it’s enough to get the budget together to put all of this amazing content on and so, I suppose, the main takeaway from this, especially for those screaming that print’s not dead and video-part-style films are still relevant….:

The desire for the content is still there. It’s just the medium has changed and the format evolved. The hunger for what’s next, and that same appetite me and so many of my friends had 20 years ago to see what JP would drop in his new part or what Dane would have logged that year in Kai Nevilles new film, yes, the kids still want that. And they are happy to pay for it. 70 bucks a year pay for it. It’s just the style of content they want is changing and if media doesn’t change, it fades away.

We can talk about Blockbuster and Netflix, but even Netflix evolved the model from mail-order DVDs to streaming, then original content and now their foray into sport. Please let the Champions League and Premier League be next on their evolution of the model.

So back to Stab, just a word to say: if you want to see how sports and their media can evolve, look no further. Yes, we can all talk about F1 and Drive to Survive and how that has been the awareness driver which took the sport into the mainstream, but each sport is unique and the way that Stab have taken surfing is something to really learn a lot from. Maybe the WSL could learn something about their approach to content where viewers get insight, behind the curtain knowledge and a pretty good time along the way.

The right creative – knowing the target audience at a race where you need to finish in under 3:30 to even qualify, so they were speaking to the target audience.

The wrong context – at some point along the line it seems like a geo team got hold of this campaign and adapted it to use at Parkruns in the UK. For those who don’t know about Parkruns, they have been phenomenal in the UK, where many people go and take on the Couch to 5K challenge and run in very fun local events. Some sprint, others walk, kids join in—it all seems like a great way to encourage people to begin running. So this is where the context is lost by using this campaign. For many of these people, a 5K—even if being walked—is the highlight of the week, month, or year, so are these the people to be calling out? Potentially not. If the campaign was only used in Boston, it would have been in the Nike DNA. However, in the vein of the London Olympics “Greatness” campaign, that was using peak physical achievements—“greatness”—but allowing everyday people with a goal to be the vehicle to get there.

The real question – Nike has always been bold and played on these moments. On Nike Training we called out the CrossFit Games with our ad, “Don’t ban our shoe, beat our shoe” harking back to the classic Jordan 1 moment when they took a fine every week to allow Jordan to wear collared sneakers on court. The best marketing they ever spent. The question for me though is why they walked this one back. Once you have committed to a position, just own it. It’s already out there, and the people you offended are already pissed—going back on your campaign only weakens your position.
The Metcon launch at the Crossfit games. Copy when done right works.

With all that being said, today’s post isn’t about that.

It’s actually about a deal signed last week for Nike to regain sponsorship of the Champions League ball, with a new four-year deal just signed for €40–45m a year, which is double the previous deal. We don’t know what everyone else bid for this, but it’s likely they outbid and paid a premium for the right to do this.

For many people this might seem like a very simple, straightforward branding play where you know that when the referee walks out before the big game, he will pick up the Nike-branded ball. When the highlights are shown, it’s a Nike ball in the back of the net. That’s guaranteed return in terms of exposure. Maybe they are mitigating this because they recently lost the ball deals for the Premier League, Serie A, and La Liga to Puma, and so are saving all those smaller investments for the big one—or “big ears,” as some commentators call the Champions League. But the reason I find this interesting is that in my time with Nike, and long before me, they have never been the brand sponsoring the tournaments themselves. For example, Adidas has long been a partner of the Champions League and World Cup, and during my time in Sports Marketing, everyone was very, very proud of the fact that the Swoosh is a brand for the disruptors—for the star players, the Jordans, Cristianos, LeBrons, Serenas, and Tiger Woods of this world—and so have poured more into the stars than the events themselves.

Which then brings me to this question for you. From last week’s epic Real Madrid vs Bayern game, what was everyone talking about on Thursday morning? Yep, it was without doubt Michael Olise, the French wing odyssey who rose through the ranks of clubs around London before making a name for himself at Selhurst Park with Crystal Palace. His pre-match routine checking the grass in his slides, which boots he wears (seems to be Nike but without a deal), his post-match interviews (very subdued), and his nonchalance on the pitch—almost a disregard for the norms of the game—and his stunning last-minute winner to take the game beyond Real.

Was anyone talking about the ball? Nope, I thought not.

And that’s the trade-off here. To the point earlier: do you want the ball or the league, or the star player?

Maybe it’s a question of needing guaranteed coverage, which hasn’t ever been a Nike thing—it’s been about taking chances on the renegade players. Eric Cantona, Ian Wright, Zlatan, Rooney, CR7, and now Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland—the two giants of the game today. I don’t know enough about the amount that Nike would pay individual players, but I would assume €45m a year would get you a top-tier player or two at least. Whilst we are on the subject of Cantona, I couldnt write this without leaving this goal, arguably his best in a Utd shirt which shows his unique brilliance.

In terms of big clubs, they have Spurs and Chelsea in the Premier League, who are with them, but both—by their own admission—are struggling through some challenging times. In Paris, of course, they have the current crown jewel with PSG, but the one-time greats PSG are also going through a period of transition. They are investing in the German national team, which will be interesting to see the impact in revenue numbers in the country as that deal changes hands in one of the larger economies in the world, along with the US and UK (who they also have).

So in summary, it will be interesting to see if this is a sports marketing strategic shift to more support of the leagues and their rights, or if it’s to complement the records that Erling Haaland is breaking and the beautiful game PSG is playing right now.

As you can see, I love writing about football and marketing when combined. Any other stories in this sphere you want covered, say the word—I can’t get enough of it.

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So yes, this week is about one of the Balearic Islands, Mallorca, or for us Brits, “Majorca.” And if you really want to perfect some of your best (or worst) English accent, please try and say, “the water, in majorca dont take taste like what it aught to.” Ok, so here’s the phonetic way to say it: “Da watta in majorka dont taste like wot it aouta.” Writing this made me think where this came from and it was this classic

And growing up, that was how Majorca was known in the UK. A beautiful island where you went as a rite of passage to go get drunk on a package holiday and try to see if you could slide up to a potential mate for the week. Not quite as heavy a dance scene as Ibiza, or “Ibeefa” to the English, but it offered a good amount of all that nonetheless.

I also found that Majorca did some heavy real estate sand or pool game. By which I mean anytime you go to the pool there would be a bit of a war as to who could get their towel down fastest in the morning. On my first vacation with my now wife, one morning I declared I would get up early, around 6am, to which she replied, “oh amazing, to get a towel down by the pool.” Of course I replied, “no, to go for a run.” But as you can imagine, it’s still a running joke. Whilst we are on the subject of some ads from the 80s and 90s that wouldnt make it today, this one was where my head went when my wife first mentioned the towel thing…

The same is true—in some spots in summer you go to the beach, snag your 1 x 2m slice of heaven, and before you know it you’ll have either an English, German, or a few years back a Russian cosying up to your towel, and before you know it that beautiful golden sand looks like a pretty bad patchwork pattern, with towels bought at one of the millions of Spars all selling the same selection of ice cream, sun cream, and inflatables, and of course penis-shaped bottle openers. Because what else says I miss you than bringing home a loved one a wooden cock to open your Bud Light on the weekend.

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So. I am way off track here, but back to it. After having kids and moving back to Europe, Mallorca has become somewhere we have been going to for a few years now for a quick getaway in the spring. We’ve stayed at fincas, beach towns like Cala D’or, but this time we stayed up in the north in Alcudia, a family-friendly resort which seems to have made cycling one of its main attractions. From here, or Porto Pollensa, you can cycle around the coastline quite easily, as testified by the older Austrian couple we met today who were having the time of their lives, or you can head up into the hills of Formentor or tackle the beautiful coastline of Valdemosa, Adeia, all the way to Soller, on easily one of the most beautiful stretches of road I’ve seen ever, which is right up there with the Pacific Coast Highway in Oregon.

What I found amazing in Mallorca is the welcome and courtesy afforded to cyclists. It’s like the whole island has welcomed its arms to a new subset of visitors in the shape of bikers in various forms of lycra-clad outfits and expensive bikes. And honestly, I loved to see it. Older people, groups of girls & guys, young people, whole crews of friends staying at hotels (there is now estimated to be over 200 bike-specific hotels on the island). Back in the day it felt like the only option for holidays was which island in the Mediterranean to go get drunk on for a week, but now with this as an option it makes a holiday cycling around the island from one beautiful coffee shop to another really look so appealing. A few of the crew from work visit regularly and it looks so much fun.

It’s estimated that every year there are around 250,000 cyclists visiting Mallorca, bringing in 150m into the tourism economy each year. That number was around 100k in 2010, so it’s steady growth. These numbers are still small in % terms vs the 12m total per year, but it’s the kind of consumer that started visiting with cycling which is interesting. Firstly, the existing consumer group was in general quite set: cheap flights, cheap alcohol, focused on the beach towns, coming in summer, and what with the bars and clubs that leads to all kinds of societal challenges.

With cyclists you have people who like to visit out of season, especially Feb till June and then September till November, which for any tourist destination, the shoulder seasons are when you can make or lose your year in terms of profit.

It seems there was no golden bullet or single thing which made this happen, but more of a gradual shift to Mallorca becoming a Mecca for cycling. What they did do was realise, as a country, they already had:
Over 2,000 km of roads and routes suitable for cycling
Dedicated cycle paths (e.g. 24km segregated coastal routes)
Well-maintained roads + signage designed for riders
Mountain + flat terrain mix

The government did commit to:
Road quality upgrades
Maintenance + safety improvements
Building selective cycle paths (not blanket networks like Paris or Amsterdam)

Then for the hotels who wanted to shift their business, they repositioned as bike-specific hotels, including:
Bike storage rooms
Repair workshops
Nutrition-specific food
Guided routes

The north of the island, including Alcudia & Pollensa, repositioned as cycling hubs.

So in terms of why I find this interesting, there was no great push—it was just looking at what resources they already had and layering on top of that. From there, they did get pro teams coming to train, and once you have the pros coming, the average Joe thinks that’s ok for them. That leads to groups coming, and before you know it everyone’s at it.

You also have all the major brands with their own stores in Mallorca now, including Rapha, Pas Normal, and more, including a Swiss company who have seemingly stolen the market on bike rentals and shops in Alcudia, who were cruising it.

I guess this is similar to how Mayrhofen in Austria have been approaching resort tourism and trying to fill those end-of-season weeks in a world where climate change is a real thing. They started by bringing in Snowbombing, which for over 15 years has brought in ravers from the UK for an epic end-of-season party for the week, with an amazing music line-up, stages around the mountain, which has kept local hoteliers very happy by having 10,000 happy ravers come through the town (mostly in fancy dress). They also recently welcomed a German heavy metal festival, have for a few years hosted the Altitude comedy festival also, and this year welcomed the Brits back to the Penken Park.

It’s a good learning that if you have resources of hotels and beds, the outdoors, venues, and good weather, you can achieve a lot.

I’ll be back next week with another focus on a brand.

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So for those of you who dont know Corteiz is a streetwear brand out of the UK, repped by many of the biggest names including Stormzy, Central Cee, Drake from the music world. The brand was founded in 2017 by Clint Ogbenna who has driven the brand himself since day 1. Clint (aka Clint 419) remains deeply connected to the brand’s core audience and is hands on in terms of engagement which I also think is why fans think so highly of the brand. I scoured Reddit to see why they are so stoked and this one really stood out to me :

“It’s not something that can be explained to people not in the culture. But when you support crtz you don’t feel like you’re supporting a global company, you’re just supporting a genuine guy tryna make it from a bad position. He will let you know you’re paying for a £30 for a £10 tee with a logo printed on it. This leads to why? This is because the meaning of Alcatraz and brand is relatable, it’s about escaping the bounds of society (a prison), the opposite to people that obey society rules (grow up, go to university, get married, die) it’s about ruling your world, making it your own.

Corteiz runs the world”

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Now they have done Collabs with Nike along the way which of course have helped propel the brand to the heights it now finds itself today including building a pop up store right next to Tower Bridge where some people had to line up for 14 hours to get a pair of the Corteiz air max such was demand.

But when it comes to the way they do their marketing, is it’s not really marketing. For anyone who has worked in marketing, one of the most classic questions you will get is “so what are you going to do in marketing to sell this product”

and honestly what I live about Corteiz is the distribution strategy is in fact the marketing. Keep the product scarce. Drive excitement. Get people to line up. Make it local and keep repeating this to recreate the energy over time.

The first time I saw the brand was through ‘the Great Bolo exchange’ one of their trademark launches where fans could only get a new Crtz jacket by trading in a real bolo from Moncler, North Face, Arcteryx and more. After the event, Clint revealed that the jackets obtained from the exchange, worth £16,000, were donated to St. Lawrence's Larder, a charitable organisation committed to providing meals for the homeless. If you want some inspiration this video sums up the vibes pretty well

Another example they did was selling new Corteiz cargos for 99p and you can only pay with 99p exactly, no change, no card

which of course led to this…

Which then had Darnell making more Vlogs about the drop.

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Having this kind of hard to get, gamification of drops is such a smart way of looking at marketing. The marketing is built in way before the sales plan is even locked. I became a bit obsessed by the book Oversubscribed by Daniel Priestley recently and he is constantly speaking about this notion of getting people to sign up and in effect making the purchase journey harder.

It goes against what most digital savvy people will tell you. its normally “reduce friction, enable fast check out, all payment options, heck maybe change the buy button if you want to go crazy”.

However what we learn from Corteiz and Glastonbury is the opposite. Romance people, make it harder to purchase, make it part of the experience. Make it a shareable experience. I think thats what SNKRS app was designed for but it got taken over by bots buying at some point.

Anyways, the other thing I have enjoyed recently is Clint is also uploading a bunch of insightful videos with advice on life and building a business including this one about finding greatness in your peer group.

I’ve always been a fan of brands and people doing this differently and so this post is just a shout of appreciation to all going their own way especially Clint419. This piece from NYTimes with this title sums it up “How Corteiz Restored Streetwear’s Long-Gone Thrill”

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Its been one of the best things we’ve done at Db in marketing.

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To launch Weigh-Lighter The team embarked on an epic trip to Nordcap the northernmost part of Europe, the literal last piece of land on the continent. The result was epic with Hypebeast amoungst others picking it up including interviewing our Creative Director, the wonderfully talented Vincent Laine who as always dropped this line…

“As a team, we have never done this much heavy lifting just to create something this light.”

When the team got home, they were pretty quick to plant the next flag on the map and declare “we might need some more budget, next year we are going to Svalbard”. Before you know it a familiar plan started to come to life. An amazing internal crew, a content creator crew of dreams, media and a destination even more remote than last year along with a new collection with an inspired name “Weigh Darker”. There was talk of guides, polar bears, midnight checks for the polar bears and 150kms on snowmobiles. Sometimes its worth going that extra mile.
The last thing i asked when they left, was just to take a flag.

The thing I love about these projects is that they come from the team, they decide the concept, the destination, the media all based on the target audience. The level of planning, foresight needed, flexibility is so amazing to see it take shape and so this weeks post, its basically a shout out to my team for constantly raising the bar and taking things to the next level.

Why do trips like this? Much to the point of my article about doing things without an ROI there are plenty of other ways to spend marketing budget however when building a brand there is a certain mystique, a certain story telling that needs to be brought to life to bring people into a world where other brands wont go.
Yes it means you can get insane imagery from the shoot, yes you can film those beautiful landscapes but quite often its about the organic relationships we make along the way. All of which is only done when you are lucky enough as I am to work with people who are happy to go the extra mile.

This isnt an agency putting this together, in that picture its our Art producer, PR Manager and Art Director in minus 20 out camping in one of the most remote locations you can find. This whatsapp sums up the way the team work together and its such an amazing team to be part of. This approach builds those relationships which create longer term partnerships with media and hence why we feel these kind of activations are so important and its been amazing to see the media pick it up.

So some background to the trip…

169km on Snow Mobiles.
-20℃ Camping.
70kg firewood burned.
78 hand warmers used.
30 reindeers spotted.
1 walrus kind of spotted.
1 polar bear almost spotted.
6500 photos taken.
1 million layers of clothing.

So this weeks post is very different to the usual focus on brands like ACG or the difference between good and great its more of a thank you to the team for going the extra mile and also a shout for marketing leaders to always listen to your team, no matter how wild and out there the ideas they have are. Sometimes its best just to get out the way and hope you get a postcard.
Thank you to the team who went on the trip, the whole crew who helped plan it back at HQ and all of the people in logistics, planning and finance to bring this whole thing to life.

Check out the collection here

Thanks for reading, Jon

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“You know, these days you should never be doing any marketing you can’t measure.”

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I’ll hasten to say the call was with a company who are licensing brands and have notably overseen the demise of a couple of well-known brands over the past few years. It struck a nerve for me and really made me question my own approach to marketing. But then pretty quickly it made me think about a lot of the work I’ve done and am quite proud of, and also work other brands have done through the years, which probably wasn’t measurable.

And I think, to be honest, you likely can’t measure some things. And i’m fine with that. In fact i celebrate that fact. Building a brand takes a certain mystique and is a long game.

Now in theory, yes, you have the larger metrics: revenue, whether cost of acquisition goes down. However, how closely can you measure the output in terms of cold hard facts on some of the most disruptive moments in marketing?

The reality is every brand optimises toward the same things:

• Lower CAC

• Higher conversion rates

• More efficient ad spend

• Better attribution modelling

Eventually it becomes a race to the bottom of optimisation.

The company that wins is simply the one willing to spend the most on performance media.

However that doesn’t build iconic brands.
It builds efficient sales machines, but not decades-long brands.

Since it got me thinking, I thought I would pull together a few examples to see if I am delusional or if there is something to this.

1. Red Bull Stratos

In 2012, when Red Bull sent Felix Baumgartner to jump from the edge of space in the Red Bull Stratos mission, it wasn’t a product campaign.It was essentially a scientific stunt broadcast on YouTube.At the time it cost an estimated $30M+ and had zero measurable path to sales. They did get 8 million live viewers (okay, some ROI), but it was done to cement Red Bull as the ultimate media company — an impact-moment brand disguised as an energy drink. You can imagine someone at Red Bull HQ thinking “yeah but 30m on lower funnel ads, imagine the revenue we could drive instead!!”

2. Nike Breaking2

In 2017 Nike attempted something most people thought impossible: a sub-two-hour marathon. The project, known as Nike Breaking2, brought together scientists, engineers, and athletes including Eliud Kipchoge. Again — no clear ROI. It wasn’t even an official race. However Nike did launch the Vaporfly 4% shoe around it, which in the following couple of years became the staple for marathon runners the world over, so there was a long tail in terms of the return.

Seeing the stats here i am realising after only 2 examples that maybe reframing of ROI is likely needed. Less short and more long term wins being the key metric.

3. Liquid Death x Yeti

Most brand collaborations are “brand X and brand Y” — when they work together they create “Z”, and some of this has become quite played out. That would have been easy.

But for Liquid Death they created a Yeti coffin cooler, almost as a nod to their brand, which they then sold online. The price went to $60k and was actually purchased by a 16-year-old on his parents’ credit card. So some ROI on that sale, but the value came from the organic media earned along the way.

4. Patagonia — “Don’t Buy This Jacket”

I think many remember this, and many brands have tried to emulate it, as they want consumers to take on the brand’s commitment to environmental responsibility and longevity. It certainly didn’t mean more sales the next day, week, or month.But intrigue and brand desire — ultimately creating a bigger moat around the brand?

Yes. 100%. Its a fascinating story and one many have tried to replicate since.

5. Db x Looking Sideways Fund

At Db we partnered with Matt Barr from Looking Sideways to create the Db x Looking Sideways Fund.

We give away $5k and mentoring from ambassadors like Chris Burkard, Timothy Myers and Luis Medearis. The goal is for us to help aspiring creatives get their first project out into the world. As a brand we believe inherently that we need to support the next generation and give them a leg up. So every year we do this, resulting in two standout projects so far. That’s as far as it goes, but it’s very important to us as a brand as it continues to build our position.

So did this guy really hit a nerve or am I being sensitive?

Well, I think every brand budget should have line items for things which don’t have a direct ROI, but are right for the community around the brand that you are building. Based on the Nike and Red Bull examples, maybe i should shift my own perspective of what ROI even is and the fact that sometimes the return may come 1, 2 or 3 years later as we saw with the Vaporfly 4% shoe. It needed to be something imagination capturing enough to really focus the world on the one thing for a moment. A shoe that can help you run 4% faster.

Now this flies in the face of what I was told on the aforementioned call, but I firmly believe that to differentiate your brand from others, it’s needed to do things, just because….. because it creates a position for your brand in the market, and without that position, what do you have?
Yes, some products — but they get old.

A strong position, as shown in the cases of Red Bull, Nike, Yeti and Patagonia, might come in and out of fashion in the short term, but they are brand houses which can’t be destroyed by performance marketing optimisation.

That’s the short version of the ūmmi story.

The longer version is far more interesting.

Because ūmmi isn’t just another beverage startup. It sits directly in the middle of one of the biggest shifts happening in the drinks industry: the global move toward low-alcohol and alternative alcohol beverages.

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And the brands that understand this shift early are beginning to build serious momentum.

The rise of the “better drinking” movement

For decades alcohol followed a predictable playbook.

Beer.
Wine.
Spirits.

But the drinking culture of the next generation looks very different.

Consumers are increasingly looking for drinks that feel:

• lighter
• cleaner
• lower alcohol
• made with better ingredients

They still want the ritual of drinking, but not always the heaviness that comes with it.

This shift has created one of the fastest-growing segments in beverages: low & alternative/no-alcohol drinks.

Globally the alternative market was worth around $25.7 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $46.5 billion by 2034.

Growth is being driven by health consciousness, moderation trends, and the rise of the “sober curious” movement, particularly among millennials and Gen Z.

Industry analysts expect the category to grow at around 6–7% annually through the next decade, outpacing many traditional alcohol segments.

Put simply:

The future of drinking is likely lighter, more functional and more intentional.

Why kombucha is entering the alcohol world

Kombucha has been quietly building cultural momentum for years.

Originally positioned as a wellness drink, the fermented tea built credibility around:

• probiotics
• gut health
• natural fermentation
• craft production

Globally, the kombucha market has grown into a $4+ billion category and is projected to more than double by 2030.

But kombucha had one limitation.

It wasn’t alcohol.

Hard kombucha changes that equation.

By allowing the fermentation process to naturally produce alcohol, brands can create drinks that sit somewhere between:

beer
cider
natural wine
functional beverages

The result is something entirely new.

A drink that delivers complex flavour, natural fermentation and moderate alcohol, without the heaviness of traditional drinks.

And that’s where ūmmi enters the story.

Product first, brand second

In beverage startups there’s a common trap:

Spend more time on marketing than on product.

ūmmi appears to have taken the opposite route.

Hard kombucha is not easy to make well.

Balancing fermentation, acidity and flavour requires precision. Done poorly, it tastes like vinegar.

Done correctly, it becomes something genuinely different.

The team behind ūmmi focused heavily on craft fermentation and flavour profile before thinking about scale.

That approach has allowed the product to land somewhere interesting:

high-end hospitality.

Tastemakers before supermarkets

Most drinks brands chase supermarket distribution first.

ūmmi did something different.

It showed up in places where trends around food and drink tend to start.

Places like:

• Soho House
• Scorpios Mykonos
• Six Senses resorts
• Sala de Despiece (Madrid)
• The Clumsies (Athens)

These venues don’t just sell drinks.

They signal culture.

Winning placement in these kinds of spaces often matters more than selling thousands of units early.

Because when bartenders, chefs and tastemakers start serving something, it has a habit of spreading.

The founding team advantage

Another ingredient in the snowball is the founding team.

Rather than coming purely from traditional beverage companies, the group around ūmmi spans worlds like:

sports
hospitality
creative industries
consumer brands

People who spend time in environments where drinking culture is evolving in real time.

That matters.

Because the opportunity for brands like ūmmi isn’t just a new product.

It’s a new way of drinking.

Jonathan Weaver
Former Nike and Burton marketing executive and now CMO at Db Journey. Weaver has spent most of his career building global consumer brands across sport, lifestyle and outdoor culture. His background in brand building and athlete communities helped shape ūmmi’s early storytelling and network.

Greg Martin
Partner at Friday Productions, a talent management and production company deeply embedded in action sports and creative culture. Martin also co-founded the Lisbon café concept Comoba, giving the team strong roots in hospitality and lifestyle spaces where trends often start.

Chris Hotell
Founder of Alex Bottle and formerly with Oakley and adidas. Hotell brought deep experience from sports and consumer brands, particularly in product and brand positioning.

Laura Briesenick
Founder of Copenhagen Coffee Lab and former operator of Comoba café in Lisbon. Her hospitality experience and understanding of specialty coffee and premium food culture helped shape ūmmi’s early distribution approach.

Tiago Rodrigues Jorge
Founder of Lisbon food concept Mercearia da Mila and deeply connected to the Portuguese hospitality scene.

Marlon Lipke
Professional surfer and entrepreneur who helped connect the brand with the surf and creative communities that would later become some of ūmmi’s earliest ambassadors.

The numbers behind hard kombucha

While still early, hard kombucha is one of the fastest growing segments in alternative alcohol.

Some estimates suggest the global hard kombucha category could grow from roughly $54 million in 2023 to over $420 million by 2032, representing annual growth of more than 23%.

Other forecasts are even more bullish, projecting the category could reach $1.7 billion by 2031 as consumers search for healthier alcohol alternatives.

Growth is driven by three converging trends:

1. moderation

2. fermentation and functional drinks

3. premium craft beverages

Together they form a powerful tailwind.

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The Snowball Effect

That tailwind is there for ūmmi:

A strong product.

A category growing quickly.

Placement in culturally influential venues.

And a team connected to the communities shaping drinking culture.

If the shift toward cleaner and lighter alcohol continues, brands like ūmmi may find themselves in the right place at exactly the right time.

And that’s usually how the snowball begins.

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It started slowly with subtle tweaks to the more observant viewers of us out there with Nike Trail slowly disappearing and many styles that work for Trail running getting rebranded to ACG which started to signal there was a shift at play.

From the orange ACG train that we saw trundling through the Italian alps with athletes, creatives and yes even Francis Bourgeois onboard it was a real moment as they showed one of those “only Nike could do this” moments where they took the train to the Nth degree with everything from miniature train set built onboard to custom made accessories for the passengers.

ACG at the Olympics
Then of course you have the winter Olympics products from ACG including the inflating medal stand jacket as the highlight to the whole USA athlete kits they received they really stole the show. The summer Olympics has always been such a prestigious moment for the brand, but the winter games have always been the poor relation whereas this one really felt like they took the opportunity to go all out and serve winter athletes. I mean with the roster the US always brings to the games though, it’s a perfect opportunity.

What’s been interesting is that they used the Olympics (which along with world cup and The golf and tennis majors are the biggest moments in their sporting calendar) usually resulting in a final day medal ceremony with either Tiger, Serena, Lebron or in this case Chloe Kim on the podium decked out in beautifully subtle swoosh branded outfits, this time that couldn’t have been further from how they showed up.
There was no swoosh. There was only ACG logos as the main logo. Only 5 or 10 years ago this would have been sacrosanct within the Berm in Oregon to have a person win a medal and not have the swoosh on the chest or the hat.

Nike having Humility
However I think this humility and understand as to where consumer sentiment is right now is genius. I ran the Cascais half marathon early Feb (I know you likely heard about it already from me right). At the start gate I looked around; I must have seen around 100 people lined up and probably about 5 pairs of Nikes. No joke. Its honestly wild to me as 10 or 15 years ago the number would have been around 50-70% Nike. We know the brands but Hoka, On, Asics, Brookes and many more have come in and eaten their lunch. With this shift I am seriously interested how and where Nike can make that 46bn revenue number with the drop in running, but that’s a story for another article.

Back to the shift though, they were smart as they realized that this is a genuine challenge and swoosh branded inflatable jackets might not move the needle. But ACG, the cool outdoors brand with iconic silhouettes? Oh yes please.

It’s also fascinating as the other part of the business that gas is being poured into right now is NikeSKIMS. Another non subtley swoosh branded product. I mean yes there is a swoosh tonally but this is a long way from Tiger strolling up Augusta on Sunday in a red polo with a simple white swoosh in high contrast. My last piece on SKIMS is here

The ACG background
To give the background quickly on ACG before we continue, the brand was started in 1989 after recognising its lightweight performance footwear could extend beyond traditional sport into outdoor exploration. ACG wasn’t designed to compete directly with mountaineering brands like Patagonia or The North Face. It was designed for a different consumer — urban, culturally driven, curious about exploration but not defined by it. ACG became popular with creatives, skaters, photographers, and urban explorers. It represented freedom, experimentation, and identity rather than technical superiority. ACG became one of Nike’s first true cultural sub-brands.

However over time as the brand got a grip in football (soccer for my American friends), Basketball, Running and various other huge revenue streams competing for resources it was deprioritised as can happen at a huge brand.

Since then there has been 3 major shifts:
The first was that Nike appointed Errolson Hugh as Creative Director of ACG in 2014. Hugh was not a traditional fashion designer. He studied architecture and co-founded ACRONYM, a Berlin-based technical apparel brand known for highly functional, systems-driven clothing. Under Hugh, ACG shifted dramatically to Less colourful, more minimal styles, less lifestyle, more functional pieces and technical storytelling and performance credibility which regained the brands credibility.

The second was in 2018 when Nike appointed James Arizumi as ACG Creative Director. The James Arizumi who i worked alongside at Nike SB, had a BBQ chez Moi this summer, but more famously helped create icons like the What the Dunk and Stefan Janoski line. He reframed ACG as a bridge between city and nature and ultimately made ACG culturally relevant again. That’s the power of a creative who has been in the trenches on skateboarding for over a decade as he knows the power of product, market fit and storytelling and has an unmatched style in the space. Just look at his work on revamping Nike Golf afterwards and you can see the impact he has had at Nike, a position which I feel the brand should cherish more as he is one of the most talented out there.

Then the third is this shift we see here where now that the foundations have been laid, the brand is able to be driven to scale with a new attachment to trail running which yes is where the energy is right now but also helps give the brand a sharp point. One challenge until now is that whilst the brand has been culturally relevant it hasn’t maybe had that tip of the sphere nod to performance which is an area that without Nike can struggle sometimes. But with Trail running they now have something to hang the brand on and from there scale to the outdoor inspired masses.

Winning the Trail?
Could it become the next Arcteryx as in the jacket the roadmen of London adopt? Let’s see. First, they have to win the Trail community and the jury is out on that as to whether they have products that meet the standards being set. Since their last push with ACG we have now seen Norda come in, Satisfy launch the Rocker with their very own imitable style and that’s before you look at Hoka, On, Asics, Salomon, New Balance and more in both the Trail and Running space so it’s certainly a much more competitive space.

What I will say from the outside looking in, where they are doing really well is again, in being Humble which is something that I didn’t think I would see from the brand after the last decade. But they seem to realise they don’t have all the answers. They are hiring external PR teams to drive the brand (for example Canoe in the UK), they are looking at external sales teams (which is something I never thought I would see) and they are showing up to other events like UTMB and not thinking they need to own everything. I have another article lined up somewhere and one of the main areas I found an issue was the needing to own everything themselves. There is already community out there, go get involved and support it instead of needing to do it all yourselves and put a swoosh on the end of it. It seems those days are over which is super refreshing.

Ultimately as great as the concept led apparel and Olympics outfit looked, if they really want to crack into Trail properly though, it will take a trail shoe that captures the imagination of core trail community. Its one thing to make a cool brand, but to take ACG from cool to needed is the challenge. With Hoka dropping a new shoe for UTMB thats highly anticpated, ON really stepping up and the afore mentioned Satisfy, Norda and more, until Nike ACG have a shoe to really challenge, the jury will still be out. However to get there I think there has to be one main question.

Can ACG follow the Nike SB model?
In terms of my hopes for the brand, I don’t know the intricacies of who is running ACG these days in terms of category leadership, but I do hope its people from the outdoors or trail space who understand the consumer. One of the biggest challenges I found with Nike SB is that when it started it was long time skateboarders in most of the roles from product design (James Arizumi) to sales (Scott Keating) to marketing (Hunter Muraira) and sports marketing (Kaspar Van Lierop) all amazing people who bled skateboarding. They were then backed up by reps from the industry and people who understood every nuance. So, whenever they showed up in a room you knew they were legit.

Without doubt the best crew at SB led by Sandy.

Over time Nike would send various people from around the company into SB because people would find it a fun diversion or something novel on their career CV outside of running. And those people sorry to say at times were more interested in furthering their own career than the sport they were working on. And so, I really hope that in ACG they can revive that feeling almost of a pirate ship under its own steam doing what’s right for their consumer.

If they let people who care about Trail and the outdoors define the brand, they can crack it. If its just a ploy to try and win some cool factor, i worry it might falter at the crucial innovation stage.

Linked to that importantly is people. Please don’t do a reorg in 12-18 months if it’s not working out. Please give the category and the people time. The number of good ideas and sub brands and products I have seen wilt away because of the damn re-orgs is insane. It also wrecks relationships with community leaders. The community need partners internally they can rely on for 3 to 5 years so they can build effectively instead of needing to convince a new person every year about why their project is relevant.

So in closing, I feel like much the same as Nike SKIMS is there to try and connect better with the female consumer, I think ACG can be a great way to reconnect to performance running in cool, authentic way without needing to get everyone back to wearing swooshes right away and its demonstrated two things :
Some humbleness and awareness of the situation they are dealing with
Some beautiful product explorations. And at the end of the day, that’s what we’re here for.

Off for a run now as in head-to-toe ACG. Yes, in proper British English a full kit wanker. You got me.

If you want to support this kind of work, I enjoy writing. Drop a subscribe below and you’ll get one of these each week for free like this about Volvo or this about Korua which are my most read pieces. Let me know what you want to hear about too. Happy to explore.

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Last November I was doing some Christmas shopping and as always I then thought about what to get my wife. Now after being together for a couple of decades nearly we’ve both been around the block on what to give each other. She has a great knack of asking my friends and surprising me with something great. Subo slippers & Satisfy running T shirt, hello.

I am probably the poor relation in this department as in her words “I just buy what I want anyways anytime of year” so there isnt much in the realms of buying herself something she wouldnt buy for herself. So I thought about the Kanye and Kim buying her some stocks (which actually in end became something I did for the kids which is a nice way to teach them about money). Then I thought about her start to the year - a week in Florence for a trade show, a few days in Paris for a trade show and another trip to Scandinavia. So that all whilst sounding lovely when it comes to culinary delights, in terms of late nights, flights, general health of people in January I thought something to help her stay healthy would be ideal.

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I know, especially the women reading this are thinking wow what a charmer this guy is, how romantic, a multi vitamin for Christmas.

So my attention turned to AG1 after hearing about it for years on podcasts, social media and various affiliate links I went to investigate. And the minute you start to look at it, all you can do is switch on instagram for ads for it. Being November there was a Black Friday deal so I dropped in and a week later I got a couple of the single use multi packs, perfect for travel. So December 25th the gift was unwrapped (yes the 25th, I am clinging on to traditional Christmas vs the evening of the 24th for my German side of the family). She was very happy to try it.

The next morning when she tried it, pretty sure she found her gag reflex was alive and well, coughing like she had just had a bag of bees for breakfast. I didn’t find it so bad but it’s certainly an acquired tasted. For this taste it better be good for us. Which kind of got me to thinking, what is it and is it any good?

I’ll go into what it is and the story of the brand first but then what has fascinated me with this one is the reaction of what my friends think

The product :

Founded by Chris Ashenden who was a high-performance athlete struggling with injuries and health issues. He created a greens blend to support recovery and energy—initially selling direct to consumers online.
AG1 is marketed as a single daily scoop containing:

• Vitamins and minerals

• Adaptogens

• Probiotics

• Greens (spirulina, chlorella, wheatgrass)

• Mushroom extracts

• Digestive enzymes

The revenue :

• 2018: ~$20M

• 2020: ~$100M

• 2021: ~$160M

• 2022: ~$250M+

• 2023–2024 estimate: $300M–400M annually

Valuation based on a 2022 raise: $1.2 billion

So what was it that got the brand to grow so fast?

Well, one of the main levers was through podcast advertising.

They sponsored:

• Tim Ferriss Show

• Joe Rogan Experience

• Huberman Lab

• Rich Roll

• Andrew Huberman

• countless performance and business podcasts

It felt like everyone serious about performance used AG1.

The other thing they did was really focus on price and packagingas a differentiator

Price:
• $79/month subscription
• $2.63 per serving

The thing is, you can go buy other greens powder for $20–40/month.

The thing with AG1 its a bit like walking into Yoga class with Alo Yoga on, its a signal.

The box itself is all a bit over the top in a world where we are supposed to care about materials and the environment but again its done in a premium way and the signal use sachets are actually great for travelling, I try to take protein on the road with me and its a bit of a mes where you are stressed you think the border control think you are bringing some kind of narcotics over the border.

So…. All that to be said that most important part here and intriguing to me is how split people are over this.

I asked a question on Instagram :

Is AG1 good for you or Snake Oil?

The responses I got back where really interesting to look at and it turns out way more people take it every day in my friend group than I had originally thought :
The positives :

“I love it, havent had a cold in two years”

“Taking everyday for 3 years and this works for me as I hate greens”

“I think AG1 is actually pretty good!

“I love it”

“Prob good for travelling if you cant get good veggies”

“no mate its amazing, I swear by it”

“I take it every morning, have this then wait 30 mins before coffee. It’s great when travelling.”

“My husband has been taking it for 2 years, it’s a love hate relationship.”

“I take it but I dont like the taste, however I havent been sick since covid”

So a pretty great response in the positive column from a lot of people I trust and look up to.
So then if we weigh up the negatives :
“personally I think its snake oil, look up the guy who started it and you’ll see”

“Snake oil, I’ll send you a link”

“Debunked as not effective dosage 3 years ago”

“What I heard is not so good”

“Snake oil, way overpriced”

“Loads of stuff about what a crock of shit it is”

“Better of with a good organic multivitamin”

“Its overpriced BS, you can get the same for 20$ a month”

“I saw recently its snake oil”

So a pretty similar number of comments, crucially though the first group have all tested it and reported some benefits. Is that a science backed way to test it? No. So here is a couple of those videos explaining the reasons its not all its claimed to be…

So is it worth it from what i heard from friends?
Well, from the comments the price alone seems that there is way cheaper stuff out there in various forms that could be better for you potentially. That being said, the way marketing works, we could all drive a Dacia Duster to get us from A to B but most of us choose something a little nicer and even though it does the same main job (transporting us), we are happy to pay more for a better brand and ideally product.

For me, if it’s something that helps keep me healthy during flu season I have got no problem with it (will report after a couple more months on that) then I am happy with it. I’ll check around to see what else there is out there but for now, if it’s working for you, go for it. I think the thing that blew me away is just how many mixed opinions, sources and facts there are and after all with marketing, you always want people to feel something. Either good or bad. And if you can get people to feel something, it generally means you are doing something right.

Also makes me wonder how much money they spent on podcast advertising and if they caught the wave of it being cheap enough yet effective still?

Thanks for reading, let me know if you have tried it and felt any benefits?

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It hooked me in

It made me think

It was very shareable

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Now I know there is likely more metrics but from these 3 it was a great piece of work, as clickable as it was insightful.

Around the same time I started feeling that I was too often at the beck and call of my phone and being a parent who is trying to share responsible cell phone and screen use with my kids I also realised I should probably address my own screen time ritual which depending on the day and how I’m feeling, is too high.

So after the ad I also saw another friend mention it on IG (ironic I know) and he mentioned there was a free version so I dropped in on that to test it out. Its been really interesting as I’ve been using it to block social media between 9-12 and 1 -5 during the week and after 8pm so it means I am not just mindlessly scrolling for the sake of it during the day but to be honest I should tweak it so its off 6-7am and 5-7 when the kids come home. I guess I basically just need to be off social media but anyways thats a longer story.

I guess whats interesting as they (as with Duolingo or MyFitnessPal) are gamifying everything which does make it work and just makes you think twice about why you are going onto Instagram for an example.

From what I can find they are at around 17m revenue and raising money to help fund their growth, whilst there is a few other brands doing similar things including Brick who have a physical product.

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So, has it worked for me?

Well I have definitely reduced my screen time to around 3-4 hrs a day (this does include podcasts and all phone usage, only criticism that is counted as screen time), down a couple of hours from before and one thing is has made me do is try 1 day a week without any phone usage. That I have found to be a real game changer. So dont even turn the damn thing on style. Thats been really good. It’s also once again highlighted how damn reliant we are on our phones especially with kids.

Driving to a kids party? Whats the address for google maps.

Need some music whilst cooking? Heres Spotify.

Wait a minute, hows about a recipe? Hello ChatGPT.

Of course…. Whats the swansea score. You get the point.

It’s a bit of a shame that for social media we all (and I mean me as a middle aged dad) need help to get off some apps but here we are in the post iPhone world and as someone remarked after work today, the fox is already in the hen house so we have to just do our best.

Again, it’s not always just about one thing that makes brands blow up but sometimes it can be one ad that just makes people sit up and take note. Kudos to your creative team as this ad is a hell of a piece of work.

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Following that I moved into the women’s business and honestly, I struggled to find where I fit in. Influencer culture was at its height, we didn’t have a sport category or community to lean into because a gender is very different to a sport. This was marketing to half the planet. It did lead me to some very interesting insights work to try and create cohorts amongst vast swathes of the population which I still use today and helped me take out objectivity from my skill set. One challenge that a lot of people have is their own bias clouds their view of the world for example in snowboarding some people love a certain style because thats what they grew up idolising but maybe isnt the same as what the consumer is actually buying into, so this was a great learning at the time.

But the marketing itself, I was still struggling to find my place. So I went back to the “find something you can own”. Sneakers - had plenty of people. Running - lots of people a lot more passionate about it than me. You get the point. The one thing that I could see as a huge opportunity, which no one seemed to own was our sports bra and tights business. So for the next two years I spent all my time at Nike focused on that part of the business. Over $2bn revenue and for many at Nike, in between running a marathon in under 2 hrs, winning world cups, NBA finals, this category was overlooked.

So we started with insights, we focused on trying to clean up and simplify our line and reduce the number of SKUs, and ensure that we offered tights which had great handfeel, no issues with opacity and could be easily used at every part of the day. We built out a room, we tried to get everyone to understand the opportunity at hand and focused our efforts on the category.

One of the things that we did make sure of was also to warn of potential competitors in the space. I could see brands coming in as disruptors, including Alo Yoga, Lululemon, Gymshark and many more. The thing that these brands had was a point of view that they owned. All was high end Yoga. Gymshark was the Crossfit/lifting community. Of course Lululemon had their moment in 2013 when the then CEO Chip Wilson said when questioned about quality of their tights “It’s really about the rubbing through the thighs, how much pressure is there over a period of time, how much they use it. Some women’s bodies just don’t work with our tights.”

Which of course horrified many but also was a subtle signal that for many they wanted to be a Lululemon consumer. Then of course you had a lot of DTC brands including Girlfriend collective and every celebrity/trainer starting their own brand. It was a quite simple strategy from each of these. Get 1% market share from the incumbent brands.

So I have always been fascinated by this space because of the fluidity of the market, the speed of change from consumers and how brands take hold. One brand I have been fascinated by is SKIMS, originally going to be called Kimono Intimates, which started as the idea of Emma Grede who had started Good American. She went to Kim Kardashian with the idea who had been making her own shape wear for years to fit her body and skin tone. So in that regards it was a great mix of business acumen and product insight. It was also a category when you look at shape wear that had incumbents such as Spanx and then brands which were built for concealment, not confidence.

I find it fascinating because of the way they have approached building the brand from a marketing standpoint. From the outside looking in, it has all the ingredients for making the perfect DTC brand:

• Product with high repeat purchase rate

• Easily packable for good logistics costs

• One of the worlds most influential people when it comes to building brands and driving conversion

With Kim Kardashian, they could easily have made the brand DTC only online, driven through Kims channels. They could have kept things tight and likely spent less on marketing and driven decent margin following the lead of Warby Parker, Allbirds, and Monos

But they didnt and why not? And does this mean the age of DTC pure brands such as is over?

Well, I think its it’s something to do with the old adage of “want to go quick, go alone, want to go far, go together”. They are trying to build a brand that will become a staple vs a flash in the pan. Does that mean DTC brand era is over? No. But in their case they have chosen a different path than the one silver bullet of Kim driving a DTC business, so lets explore what they are doing :

1. Great product : They started there. The reviews flooded in, friends tell friends, an important part of the marketing in itself. Worth remembering that no amount of marketing without great product will solve your problem long term.
2. Disruptive products : The nipple bra anyone? This one tapped into the cultural zeitgeist of style today, whilst also solving issues for women who have had to go through a mastectomy. So it’s a functional product that is also importantly wildly shareable.
The pierced nipple bra? They took the original and pushed the envelope. They use these as the way to drive organic brand awareness and have very shareable moments. How many buy them? Who knows, but they created so much value from a couple of campaigns that spread wider than any Super Bowl commercial.
This is such an overlooked and undervalued part of any marketing mix.

3. Collabs : They tapped into the key times of the year, with Fendi x SKIMS which put them on another level which sold out instantly with over $1M+ in under a minute. The North Face x SKIMS collection in winter in their own color palette was next and more recently the Nike x Skims collection which is a story for later on.

4. Partnerships : WNBA Becoming the underwear partner of a thriving league as its popularity exploded was a master stroke as they got to work with many of the most iconic women in global sport.

5. B2B & DTC Physical retail : If you walk into any major high end department store in the US such as Nordstroms, Selfridges in the UK, Die Bijenkorf in Amsterdam, you will see either a shop in shop or their own space with fitting rooms etc. That distribution has grown to stores like END carry the collection and this goes along with their own DTC stores which are popping up across the US.

6. Timely marketing : Everyone has watched and talked about White Lotus so pulling in breakout stars from The White Lotus (Simona Tabasco & Beatrice Grannò) was a master stroke. The post went semi-viral, with marketers calling it a “holy‑shit moment”

7.Only SKIMS marketing : Some brands attain that “only they could do this”. Nike during a World Cup. Liquid Death x YETI. The stuff of legend. SKIMS have kind of mastered this on the women’s side of things. They are putting out ads which only they could do. Couple examples below…. I would love to have seen someone who rolled in with the brief to the agency on these ones. I doff my cap to you.

So it was likely 7 things (and of course Kim, so maybe 8) but it wasnt one single thing it was likely doing many things well converging to create momentum.

The next chapter with Nike?

Around a year ago (yes on earnings day for nike) they announced a new partnership to launch a collection together which dropped in Autumn ‘25 to rave reviews and a stellar launch moment (congrats to the team who worked on it!)

Where it’s interesting is that after 10 years of Nike focusing on women’s performance, winning and dreaming crazy dreams, with the brand still struggling to find a foothold on women’s they are choosing to work with a brand like SKIMS to try and get them going again. Some of the SKIMS work reminds me of some of the old Nike campaign work for a tight where the tagline was “best butt ever” which was something I had tried to find since but seems to have been wiped from the corridors of history such was the disdain for the work so this U turn is interesting.

All that to be said, I think it’s a smart move from Nike which has been reflected even when it was announced as the stock price jumped 10% so there is excitement about it in the market. Long term it will help Nike, especially on the women’s side, get back moving as they have needed a kickstart to compete against the disrupter brands and this looks to be one of the things to try and make it happen, at least thats what they will be hoping inside the berm.

Let me know what you think about their journey and other brands you would like a deep dive on?

This Substack is again a little different than the usual look at brands in the traditional sense of consumer goods, but when it comes to building personal brands, I don’t think there is anyone who has come close to the journey Jimmy Donaldson, aka “Mr Beast”, has been on. So I thought it warranted a few words.

Firstly, as a dad, it’s easy to turn your nose up at a YouTuber and watching their content, especially if, like me, you were brought up with regular TV networks — particularly in the UK with our very strict diet of only four channels. My kids first showed me his videos, and after initially being dismissive, I realised how damn fun the shows he is making actually are.

Mr Beast, in my eyes, has come as close to replicating ‘appointment TV’ or ‘water-cooler TV moments’ as we have seen in the last few years. Yes, we have had series like Tiger King during the pandemic and Stranger Things, etc., but that has all either been reality shows or scripted. This feels quite unlike anything I have seen before, as it’s almost a recreation of traditional TV shows but done in a completely different way. Maybe my dose of UK TV game shows like Bullseye, Big Break, and I guess Gladiators aren’t exactly the modern reference point, but he seems to have found a way to make content that is so sticky you can’t help but be sucked in.

And to illustrate the point about the impact of Mr Beast, here are some insane numbers which maybe explain:
a) why he can afford to do such wild shows with huge prizes
b) why Amazon paid him for Beast Games.

I’m a Celeb (UK TV) → ~9–11 million viewers
US network TV average → ~4–4.5 million viewers
Survivor (US) → ~5.6–6.3 million viewers per episode/week

And take a breath — here are the numbers for Mr Beast:
MrBeast (YouTube views) → ~800–900 million per week

So if the numbers are so big, it’s worth looking at some of the episodes I’ve been drawn in by, like the classic clickbait one of “Stop This Train, Win a Lamborghini”:

The show itself is centred around challenges, with people vying for life-changing money, cars, or yes, private islands. Is it outlandish? Yes. But Jimmy has figured out what he needs to do to get enough views on his videos to make the whole money merry-go-round work. So smashing up a Lambo to get 250m views — I guess that’s the ratio he needs. Cars, fire, trains, rockets, machine guns, and all the rest are how he makes it work. Does it feel a bit clickbait with the tile cards? Yes. but it captures your imagination straight away. But certainly no “look what you could have won, Jim — a speedboat for your house in Tamworth”.

That being said, some of his challenges focus more on mentally demanding tasks, which in many regards look way harder. For example, being chained to your ex in a tiny home for 30 days:

Sounds easy, especially if you’re still harbouring desires for your ex, but without any TV, internet, phones, or books, those 30 days don’t half drag on. Then he drops in special challenges to spice things up a bit.

What’s been interesting is that every episode challenges the viewer to think a bit more about how much we take for granted. For example, in many of his videos, some of the hardest challenges are about surviving boredom — something that, in today’s world, we never really have to experience.

This week, and the reason for the article now, is that he has just launched Beast Games Season 2, which is only available on Amazon Prime. For someone who has built his name on YouTube, you can only imagine what they paid him for this. But it makes sense — besides sport, it feels like there isn’t much on TV after the Christmas holidays. This gives people a reason to get on Prime, binge the first three episodes (available now), and then come back every week for the subsequent episodes. Amazon also recently released Clarkson’s Farm, which has also been on the must-watch list (admittedly that’s more me than the kids). Below is the trailer to the new series

What I have also found interesting is that if you ever listen to podcasts with him, it feels like he has completed the internet. He understands exactly what he needs to do to hit however many millions of views, how much that will generate through ads, and therefore can just go bigger and bigger. But besides his new teeth, it doesn’t seem like he’s into a particularly lavish lifestyle. He comes across as a sweet, internet-nerd kind of kid who completed the internet and is now just playing with it. Fair play and good luck to him.

Another reason I appreciate his approach is that he seems to do a lot of good for people around the world. In a world where the internet quite rightly has a bit of a bad name, he is a shining example of how it can be used for good — for example, giving 2,000 people the chance to walk again by buying them new prosthetic legs. He could just swim in his money like Scrooge McDuck, but he’s out there doing good. Take the flowers, Jimmy — you earn them especially in a day and age where through algorithms the internet is awash with disinformation and pretty horrible content.

This is a timeline of his growth on YouTube:

2012 – Uploads his first YouTube video (Minecraft/gaming era, channel originally MrBeast6000).
2017 – Breakthrough video: “I Counted to 100,000” → first true viral hit and algorithm unlock.
That year he also hit 1M subscribers.
2018 – Format breakthrough: pivots to extreme challenges + money giveaways → defines the MrBeast formula.
2020 - Makes his “me in 5 year video”

2021 – Mainstream moment: “$456,000 Squid Game In Real Life!” becomes a global cultural hit.
July 2022 – Hits 100M subscribers on his main channel.
Nov 2022 – Becomes the most-subscribed individual male creator on YouTube (passes PewDiePie).
2023–24 – Escalates production into studio-level spectacles (islands, cities, survival builds).
June 2024 – Becomes the most-subscribed YouTube channel overall, overtaking T-Series.
July 2024 – First creator ever to reach 300M subscribers.
2024 – Largest productions to date: “50 YouTubers Fight for $1,000,000” and celebrity challenges.
2025 – Amazon-funded Beast Games.

I was telling a friend about the series last night, and his response was, “Yeah, my kids watch it.” My feeling is: take an interest in what your kids like. Watch it with them. We can all learn something from someone who has completely changed the viewing landscape of what was TV and what is now streaming. And if it means you manage to get a shared TV evening with your kids in this day and age, go for it.

And to Mr Beast? Congrats on winning the internet.

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For today it’s the story of DopeSnow. A brand that has likely had so much shade thrown their way because their approach has been different as you see above from the Youtube Comments section. Which I find a little ironic for snowboarding and it’s “we’re welcoming to anyone” narrative. My piece today isn’t to say if they are good, bad or indifferent but more to how they have done it.

So to set the scene. I lived in Austria from around 2003 to 2012. An amazing time in my life getting to snowboard a lot, to meet my wife and buy our first place. It’s still got a very special place in my heart and a place we go back to every winter which the kids now absolutely love.

During that time the brands we knew of were the usual suspects. Burton, Volcom, Patagonia, The North Face. Then Nike and Adidas came in and started taking their piece of the pie (before leaving once again). In 2012 we then went to the US with Nike for their snowboarding program. Essentially we were based there and till around 2019 I didn’t ride in Europe. When our daughter was born we managed to take paternity leave and so we headed back to Austria to rekindle the relationship with the Austrian alps which was one of the few reasons we decided to move back to Europe (as ultimately, we love the mountains of European and yes the beaches too)

So in 2019 going back on hill in Europe after a 7 year hiatus I realised that there were a few new brands popping up, one of which was Dope Snow. I hadn’t really heard of it as we closed our snow program in 2014 so for 5 years I was out of the loop in Europe. On returning I saw it everywhere in mayrhofen. Kind of like zero to 100 in 7 years and it was mostly very bright colors and prints, lots of coordinated looks and it was seemingly mostly being worn by people on holiday having the time of their life.

So this is where I find DopeSnow and their journey very interesting.

Ski and Snowboard gear in terms of price has been on a march upwards over the last 20 years and all brands seem intent on providing ever more technical, higher priced pieces. If you look at X Games in 2022 all of the Burton team were wearing AK which was a range traditional reserved for the backcountry riders on the team and similarly consumers who needed higher end gear. So you now had park kids running $800 jackets which I guess was down to a very strange athlete seeding strategy and probably didnt make the retailers love them having all riders supporting one part of the business. We used to do it with Nike at X games that each rider had outfits based on their relevance to which accounts, price points and distribution so this is a bit foreign to me.

Anyways, back to the story. This is the part that DopeSnow got 100% right for their business.
They didnt bother with the high end part of the market.

I’m pretty sure they looked for an insight (remember, an insight is something which is not obvious, but obvious once you see it - Andrew Missingham), they found their insight to be something along these lines :

The market is making ever more technical and expensive gear, making the whole experience so out of touch for many people. However for the vast majority of people going on holiday to the mountains, they want to go skiing or snowboarding when the sun is out, the snow is good, its bluebird, they will be on the slopes.

However when it’s cold, snowing or even raining, the chances are you’ll find this consumer group tucked up in a mountain hut drinking hot chocolate with enough rum in it, the spoon can stand on its own, or taking a day off in the sauna.

They likely realised that if they wanted to run a successful business they could appeal to the bottom 70% of the market in terms of price and forgo even trying to win the upper 30% of the market.

This goes completely against what most of us marketers would tell you to do, it certainly is against the way I was brought up in terms of my education, mentors and work experience but thats why I find this so fascinating as they picked a lane and figured out how to grow. Mine was usually aim for the top 5% of your audience and focus on what they need. Dopesnow took it a completely different way.

A lot of their marketing is social media focused, shareable and attainable. So instead of showing people doing cliff drops in Alaska a lot of its good looking young people riding in beautiful locations having fun with friends. Again, seems counter intuitive but the barrier to entry is low, people tag, they get reposted, they want to be part of what they are creating.

The classic Dope Snow post.

They do support it with great content from riders like Jesper Trader and Sven Thorgren to show the aspirational side but have very much found their niche. Thats also an area I find interesting recently as there has been a few debates in snowboarding about what constitutes a core brand, can ski brands make snowboards and many have said, well, as long as they pay athletes its ok, so thats something DopeSnow have always done going back to Kevin Backstrom and more.

Along with social first and athletes they also have an amazing level of customer service with an army of people working the phones especially in the winter months where they hire seasonnaires remote so they get the benefit of :
1) people in key resorts being advocates for the brand
2) people who want to work 3-10pm which is when the keys time for snow customer service is
3) I assume they have a great repeat purchase rate because they develop such a loyal fan base. I heard stories of their customer service team being invited to weddings they are so helpful.
Try it on their site, I was impressed how good they are and how the conversations start with a personal connection such as where you are riding this winter instead of being straight to conversion or even worse arguing with a chatbot the whole time.

So the moral of the story?

So what can we learn from the story of Dope Snow?
1) Dont follow the herd. Look for your insight and deliver value to that community.
2) Learn about the content that serves them well. In this case UGC from beautiful places to ride.
3) Once you have consumers, obsess how to make their lives better. With Dopesnow it was through customer service.

Let me know what you think, would love to hear from you in the comments as normally people always have all kinds of opinions about Dope Snow.

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A Recent Example

Last week, an up-and-coming athlete texted me asking for some Db gear. No problem—I fixed him up with a box worth about £1,000.

A couple of weeks later, he won an event (amazing news), and I saw him tagging every sponsor on social media… except us.

When I asked him to remember us next time, his response was basically: “Oh, why’s that?”

And I’m thinking: “We just gave you a grand’s worth of free product.”

Are we paying him? No. Does he technically owe us anything? Also no. But as someone who once hustled as a semi-pro snowboarder, I always knew how to squeeze the most out of any opportunity. If you’re an up-and-comer trying to build relationships with brands, a little proactivity goes a long way.

And this isn’t an isolated case—we’ve had other athletes ask for free gear but feel no need to promote the brand in return. My question is: if you don’t want to work with a brand, why ask for stuff?

The Three Types of Athletes

After two decades in the game, I see three main groups of athletes and ambassadors:

1. The Superpros – the best to work with, true professionals in every sense.

2. The Pretenders – those who think they’re superpros but don’t know how to handle their business.

3. The Up-and-Comers – appreciative, eager, and usually pretty cool.

The difference?

The superpros get it. They understand that professionalism isn’t just about performance—it’s about how you handle the business side of sport.

The up and comers are getting it. They are learning the ropes and usually are on the journey.

The challenge is the group in the middle who think the industry owes them something but in reality they arent making enough of a difference for the industry to look after themselves.

So what Sets the Greats Apart from the good?

Well as much as I wish it was purely an in sport thing, the reality is in many sports unless you are a Messi or Ronaldo level athlete for everyone else, its hows well you can work with sponsors and media to create the best value for yourself and the brand. Its been interesting to watch the Stab episode of How surfers get paid with Mick Fanning where all of Micks sponsors speak to him showing up for sales meetings, for high fiving reps and shop kids and importantly answering emails and phone calls. The fact he is one of the worlds best surfers does the heavy lifting but its the extra 10% he goes which likely earns him twice his salary each year.

The other thing I’ve realised in recent years is the ability to communicate and yes speak in front of an audience. With the rise of podcasts, YouTube interviews and whole host of other opportunities, the ability for an ambassador of your brand to get up and energise an audience is another way to set yourself apart from the rest.

So to that end, I wanted to list out some of the best in the game when it comes to the greats of any industry.

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Sage Kotsenburg

When I joined Nike, Sage was on the come up doing well with some 2nd place finishes, but then he went in for the Olympics risked it all and laid done a never before done line to win Olympic gold, but his professionalism goes way beyond results and I think thats why he has had an amazing career for over 15 years from knocking out amazing video parts year in year out, rider of the year awards and Natural Selection wins. The thing I love with Sage is if you need a product insight? He’ll sit with designers. Need a video for a sales meeting? You’ll have it within 24 hours. That’s why brands like K2 and Oakley trust him with signature lines—he delivers consistently.

Sage winning gold. I earnt him 50k by getting those goggles on his head right then but thats a story for another post.

In the same breadth as Sage I would also mention Spencer O´Brien. Winning X Games, world titles and more but off the board always ready to work with the brands, whether thats Nike or now Korua and Arcteryx she has always been one of the best in the game and with her, its been inspiring how welcoming she is to the next generation of talent too which I think is a wonderful trait, knowing its a world of there is enough for everyone.

Cristiano Ronaldo

In 2015, whilst working on Nike Training we organise a whole shoot with CR7 across football, training and sportswear, in total 2 hours including make up. For us on training we had just 23 minutes to shoot content for all our channels on training after make up and wardrobe.. However for Cristiano he arrived on time, listened to the brief, locked in, and gave 100%. For a global superstar with endless commitments, that level of focus is one of the reasons that he has enjoyed such a successful career commercially as well as on pitch for over 2 decades. He wont be showing up being your best friend, he doesnt have too but he will get done whats needed to help that brand.

JP Walker

When I first met JP at a Burton event in 2005, I was a 25 year old very stoked grom meeting my hero who I had watched videos of for years on repeat. What impressed me most was how easy, down to earth and respectful this guy was from the first “whats up bro” and bro hug which made me an even bigger fan. He knew that I as a team manager had a role, to get the best out of him and the team for the brand and his work ethic
Whether it was retailers, kids to give stickers too he was always down. The wildest night was we were in Moscow at around 3am on the way home from a party in a minivan and a bunch of kids saw us at the traffic lights and realised it was JP and started freaking out. They were so hyped. JP as ever the bro, opens the door to the van “whats up dudes” and signed a bunch of their gear and left them as lifelong fans. One engagement like that can be the difference for years to come. That kind of connection creates lifelong brand loyalty.

Miles Chamley-Watson

Fencing isn’t mainstream, but Miles managed to get his foot in the door through the Olympics and he well and truly kicked that door wide opened and made sure he wasnt leaving the room again. Since then over 10 years ago Miles has shown up in global nike campaigns, hes walked a bunch of shows, is at the met Gala and recently got his own Nike shoe. Thats pretty unheard of from a sport on the fringes like Fencing but he is making it cool, making it aspirational. As a person though it doesnt matter if you only met him once, he is down for you. Hes texting, hes in your dms, and if you need anything Miles is right there for you.
He delivers more value than expected, and that’s why brands love him.

Chris Burkard

Coming from a photography background into film maker into now what seems to be extreme endurance athlete all of which running a creative studio and being a husband and father, Chris is a force of nature. His work is beautiful, it’s iconic if you think about the images of surfing in Iceland at night you know what I mean. Where Chris really comes alive though is in two ways, firstly the ability to take beautiful imagery and experiences and translate that into books and films that can be monetised over the long term and secondly, he is one of the best public speakers you have ever seen. He is, like any good public speaker, very nice and friendly usually but when game time comes around and he goes on stage he can flip a switch and have a crowd eating out the palm of his hand for an hour and usually by the end you are ready to quit your jump, cycle across Asia and make a book about the whole thing. That has been one of the biggest game changers i have seen in the last 10 years the ability for athletes and ambassadors to show up and provide extra value for the community (and brand). That has led to Chris being on the Rich Roll podcast and more which shows the way that they can bring their message to a wider group.

Chris captivating a crowd at Kendall mountain festival with Matt Barr at one of the Db creative exchanges.

The Trap of the Middle Group

The biggest challenge isn’t with the up-and-comers or the superpros—it’s with the middle group.

These are athletes and ambassadors who feel the world owes them more, expect everything for free, but don’t feel the need to give back.

So how do you avoid getting stuck here? How do you move from up-and-comer to superpro even without world-class results? By learning the business side, and by being a great ambassador for your brand.

Some of the best in snowboarding would have been Bryan Fox who after 2 decades of video parts is still signing new sponsorship deal, the one and only late Marco Grilc who after winning Air and Style went on a journey to show the world how cool it was to be a parent, or Tim Humphreys who was the first snowboarder to master a GoPro and that became his thing for a decade. None of these examples are people relied solely on results, but all built long careers by playing the game right.

Advice for Young Athletes

If you’re starting out and want to build long-term sponsor relationships, here’s my best advice:

1. If you get free product, ask what the brand needs. Offer UGC content, feedback, or posts.

2. Keep the brand updated. A quick email every couple of months with photos or links goes a long way.

3. Reply quickly. Even if it’s just “I’ll get back to you next week,” it shows respect.

4. Show up for the people who pay for that free product or that hotel room. Shake hands, smile, take selfies—small moments build big loyalty.

5. Play the long game. That team manager giving you a box today could be running marketing tomorrow in an even bigger company. Relationships matter. Think how you can make that person look great. A nice update, pdf at the end of season, plenty of ammo as to why that person deserves that product.

Final Thoughts

The difference between good and great athletes isn’t always talent. It’s professionalism. If you look at some of the great talents in football who have fallen by the way side you will see what i mean. The greats deliver more than expected, respect their sponsors, and show up every time. That’s why their careers last longer, their partnerships are stronger, and their legacy endures.

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