“newstalgia”—a desire for familiarity combined with novelty

Top Gun: Maverick. Twisters. This is driving force of pop culture right now.

Or, said another way:

“take something that feels familiar and put it into a modern context.”

It’s not the 90s that are back. It’s the 90s as reimagined today that’s in.

Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context – a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.

Every interaction your customers have with you accumulates to your brand experience. How does each one fit together to make the whole you want?

As Tom Asacker says, the goal is to “to create an experience that resonates deeply.”

And so, Swift has put up something of a door: access to her costs fans at least $12.99. Here’s the thing about doors though: while they keep people out, they also keep them in.

Does your brand have a door?

Citing continued inflation and high interest rates, 33% of consumers say they will spend less this year on holiday shopping than in 2023, per a new report from Bankrate.

Almost half of all those surveyed by Bankrate said they would start shopping for the holidays by Halloween.

I understand the vibe, but I would not be surprised if this completely changes post-election.

Despite Apple’s long lead, Spotify Technology SA. and Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube have now become the most popular places to listen to podcasts.

A study published last month shows YouTube as the most popular podcast listening platform in the US, with 31% of respondents saying they use it. It’s followed by Spotify at 21% and Apple at 12%.

Through the lens of legacy Apple, the lack of focus on podcasts makes sense, despite basically creating the medium. But ads-and-services Apple has to be missing the potential of being the dominant player in a sector with growing ad and monetization potential.

YouTube, meanwhile, cracked the discovery code for podcasts. A persistent shortcoming of traditional podcasting apps.