No More Nostalgia and Restraint in the Real World
The weekly look at three curious points of tension, plus positive ‘what if’ ideas for what to do moving forward.
Nostalgia is not a Strategy
Up to speed on Davos? If your feed is anything like mine, it’s been fairly hard to miss. Carney, Dimon and Macron’s directness may just have signalled an end to the moral emptiness of leadership (we hope) and if anything, kicked up some necessary questioning for the nostalgia-fans.
Moving forward: There’s a time and a place for nostalgia, and we may have overindulged. I say that as somone who loves to indulge (vinyl, not caps). But credit where it’s due, I think ANU put it best: “Can brands stop relying on nostalgia as a crutch and start crafting strategies that address contemporary cultural tensions?” And for anyone struggling to get their teams imagining better futures, get in touch - it’s quite literally what I do with brands every day.
“Too Soon to Tell” vs. “tHe SpEeD oF cULTuRe”
A couple conversations caught my eye over the past week that seemed to rhyme - one being Yuval Noah Harari’s long-view perspective on AI’s impact-to-date and another being Joey Zeleen’s reminder on the slowness of human cultural history vs. the corporate obsession with pace. Whatever some might say about moving at tHe SpEeD oF cULTuRe, it really doesn’t reset to tiktok’s nano trend timeline, nor quarterly for that matter.
Moving forward: Consider the Iroquois’ Seven Generation Decision Making model while maintaining the day-to-day cultural listening. Think storytelling that embeds over the years not burning through forgettable week-long campaigns. Here’s a little something I’ve written on it earlier.
Restraint and the real world
“The first problem is growth without meaning” Music to my ears. Business of Fashion’s CEO, Founder and EIC, Imran Ahmedgave a speech calling for fashion brands to exercise “restraint”. And elsewhere on the wild, wild topic of…regularmaxxing and Dive Bars: "I mean living in the sense of the nitty gritty of being a human being." Could this be the (continued) rejection of hyper-consumption and bait-first, content-led living?
Moving forward: Do less, but better. Discernment and 2026 as the year of experiential marketing was a common theme at Web Summit last year and doing it well requires really, really getting back to those brass tacks. This is the time for meaningful, tangible ways people can get involved with your brand. Strike now.
Signal tracking and tension mapping is where the thinking starts. The real-world work happens when we make it truly actionable inside teams, systems and strategies that set the future in motion.
If you’re curious about applying this kind of thinking to your brand, check out how we work below.