In-House Influencing
Plus a monumental commercial moment for women's sports.
1. Introducing the chief influence officer.
Brands are hiring top influencers as marketing executives amid a high-stakes race to make social content more relatable and relevant to target audiences. Set Active recently hired influencer Sam Vicchiollo to run its growing TikTok account, where he posts videos showcasing his dual professional life as a corporate employee and content creator. This marks a shift in consumer brands hiring for pure talent and creativity over traditional education and experience. It also highlights an increasing desire amongst influencers to control the chaos of their lives with normal 9-5 jobs and salaried income.
In today’s media landscape, for better or worse, years of agency experience don’t hold a candle to individually-earned follower counts and fandoms. CMOs could very well become CIOs.
2. Hobbies inform high design.
Fashion designers smartly insert themselves into customers’ everyday hobbies and activities with products that are elegant, functional, and justify the cost-per-wear. Celine recently debuted luxury leather headphones in an “audio collaboration” with Master & Dynamics, turning a mundane, yet increasingly ubiquitous, accessory into objet d’art. Leaning into the roaring return and diversification of music festivals, Barbour collaborated with Glastonbury on rentable jackets with copious pockets for long days and nights of musical revelry. Beyond a well-designed product, the rental model is a memorable business concept endearing the brand to consumers.
Download our Activities & Interests report for product opportunity inspiration.
3. Women’s brands enter their jock era.
March Madness was for the ladies this year with record-breaking viewership and novel brand deals in the wake of new NIL regulations that allow college athletes to profit off their name and likeness. As interest in female athletes and sports fandom upticks, and the industry moves towards a more equitable future, brands are capitalizing with collaborations and creative athletic offerings.
Outside women’s basketball:
Charlotte Tilbury taps into the rise of F1 in its first ever sports partnership, spotlighting female drivers.
Acne Studios harnesses increased interest in women’s soccer with luxury jerseys.
Expect to see more brands step up the women’s sports-partnership playbook.
4. Pranks are peaking.
April Fools Day has become Christmas morning for marketers aiming to get clicks and attention with humorous content. It’s also become an R&D testing opportunity for brands to gauge consumers’ interests on experimental products or collaborations. Last year, Spritz Society turned a pickle flavored canned seltzer prank into a real product collaboration with Claussen that quickly sold out. While consumers are indeed growing fatigued by all the April Fools marketing noise, some jokes were too good to ignore.
A few prank products from this year that could (and should) come to fruition:
Oreo selling cookies and cream separately.
Cheez-It x Bocce dog treats.
Graza olive oil flavored Gushers.
Olipop x Pringles sour cream and onion soda.
Moving forward, consider pranking a year-round opportunity, no longer siloed to the now-saturated April Fools marketing holiday.