Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and creative ideas that are redefining how brands connect with audiences.

This newsletter is sponsored by Tracksuit, the always-on brand tracker built for marketers and agencies to answer the question “Is my strategy working?”

Today’s newsletter includes: BÉIS refreshes its Core Collection; Gap introduces the capsule collection in collaboration with Hailey Bieber; Timberland and Jacquemus reinterpret a footwear icon; ASOS appoints Rina Lipa as Style Dilemma Director; IKEA reimagines the concept of home with KOMPISHÄNG; Liquid I.V. enters the entertainment world with Spider-Man™: Brand New Day; Hollister launches the Made for this Moment campaign with Freya Skye; SKYLRK opens an immersive retail experience in New York; Shinola presents The Restaurant; Yahoo collaborates with Marky’s Caviar; and Sol de Janeiro enters the men’s category.

BÉIS unveils the renovated Core Collection through a campaign featuring Shay Mitchell

BÉIS announces a major refresh of its Core Collection, led by The Weekender, the brand’s bestselling bag that helped establish its identity in the travel space.

The project was driven by direct consumer insights: the updates are the result of community feedback, analysis of social media conversations, and an in-depth product education process.

To support the launch, the brand developed a multi-phase creative campaign, turning the renovation process into a compelling brand story.

Ahead of the debut, BÉIS built anticipation through a series of unconventional initiatives, including mysterious product “disappearances,” farewell messaging, an Instagram reset, a temporary website blackout, and recovery-themed content featuring founder and Chief Creative Officer Shay Mitchell.

Gap introduces The Hailey Jean in collaboration with Hailey Bieber

Gap introduces The Hailey Jean, a limited-edition denim capsule created in collaboration with Hailey Bieber. The collection brings together Gap’s iconic ’90s identity with Hailey’s personal style, built around a relaxed, effortless and contemporary aesthetic.

The capsule features two relaxed-fit denim styles inspired by Hailey’s favorite vintage Gap jeans, with updated proportions and personalized details such as the 1996 reference, her birth year, and her signature printed inside the pocket lining.

The campaign follows the same creative direction, blending nostalgia, minimalism and a touch of irony. The campaign film takes audiences on a journey back in time through the soundtrack of Linger by The Cranberries, strengthening the emotional connection with an era associated with spontaneity and authenticity.

“Hailey understands denim in a very instinctive way — from proportion and fit to how it actually moves and wears on the body,” said Jane Pattinson, SVP and Global Head of Design at Gap. “Together, we built the collection around the relaxed silhouettes she naturally gravitates toward and the effortless way she styles them in her everyday wardrobe — refining everything from the washes and fabric to the understated ‘1996’ detailing throughout. The pieces feel effortless, personal, and very true to both Hailey and Gap.”

Translating The Brand Waves for the Boardroom

In every edition of Brand Waves This Week, we analyze new campaigns, new creative ideas, and the mechanisms behind the brands that manage to stay relevant over time. But what is their real impact?

Over the years, numerous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of brand investment. They have also highlighted the risks of stopping it.

According to Nielsen, brands that completely stop their advertising presence can lose around 2% of their long-term revenue after just one quarter. The challenge is that brand value rarely shows up in the same way as performance results: it does not always appear on a weekly dashboard, and it does not always translate into an immediate conversion. Instead, it accumulates over time through familiarity, trust, and preference.

The real challenge is that brand value rarely manifests itself in the same way as performance metrics: it does not always appear on a weekly dashboard and does not necessarily translate into an immediate conversion. Instead, it is built and accumulated over time through the familiarity, trust, and preference that consumers develop toward a brand.

And this is where the real challenge for many marketers begins: building a case that Finance teams and boardrooms are willing to fund.

This is exactly the gap that Tracksuit University aims to close.

Created by James Hurman, an internationally recognized expert in marketing effectiveness, the course helps marketers translate the value of brand into the language of the boardroom: from defining the right level of investment, to balancing brand and performance, all the way to creating a one-page strategic plan that can be taken directly to the CFO.

Get 20% off the Tracksuit University course with the code THEBRANDWAVES.

Get access to Tracksuit Uni

Timberland collaborates with Jacquemus to reinterpret the 3-Eye Lug Boat Shoe

Timberland and Jacquemus present their second collaboration for Summer 2026, introducing the Timberland® x Jacquemus Authentic Boat Shoe, a silhouette that combines the outdoor brand’s heritage with the French fashion house’s contemporary and distinctive approach.

The new limited-edition style is imagined as a celebration of an idealized summer, reinterpreting an iconic shoe through a fresh aesthetic perspective.

The model arrives in the Lagoon Blue colorway, a shade inspired by Art Deco architecture and the bold colors of the 1980s Memphis movement, previously featured in the Jacquemus Spring-Summer 2027 collection, titled Le Bonheur, meaning “happiness.”

ASOS appoints Rina Lipa as Style Dilemma Director

ASOS announces the appointment of Rina Lipa as Style Dilemma Director, a new role created to help customers solve their everyday style dilemmas.

The initiative follows research commissioned by ASOS, which found that 92% of UK online fashion shoppers aged 18–35 would like to see complete outfits styled for them, while 74% consider everyday, trend-relevant fashion inspiration the most useful resource when deciding what to wear.

The appointment of Rina Lipa represents an evolution of ASOS’ role from a shopping platform into a true digital style advisor.

The strategy is based on co-creating with talent whose style authority resonates with their communities, placing creators and cultural figures at the center of the fashion curation and presentation process.

IKEA introduces the new KOMPISHÄNG collection

IKEA launches KOMPISHÄNG, a new global collection featuring 13 affordable and easily portable products, designed to meet the needs of a generation of young adults who are increasingly accustomed to moving between homes, neighborhoods, or cities.

The collection responds to the reality of many young urban dwellers, for whom moving is no longer a one-time life event but a recurring part of life shaped by the rental market, career mobility, and a more flexible urban lifestyle.

To develop KOMPISHÄNG, IKEA closely observed the habits of young adults aged 20 to 28 living in central London, analyzing how they choose, use, and transport objects in their everyday lives.

The research revealed that every purchase is also evaluated with the next move in mind. Products therefore need to be easy to carry, durable over time, and able to adapt to different living spaces.

Liquid I.V. partners with Spider-Man™: Brand New Day from Sony Pictures

Liquid I.V. announces a new collaboration with Spider-Man™: Brand New Day from Sony Pictures, becoming the film’s exclusive functional hydration partner.

As Peter Parker/Spider-Man faces a new chapter in his life, Liquid I.V. highlights how everyday people can take on their own challenges through scientifically developed hydration solutions.

Through this partnership, Liquid I.V. aims to transform ordinary water into a more complete hydration experience, helping consumers approach their daily lives with greater energy.

Hollister launches the Made for this Moment campaign featuring Freya Skye

Hollister Co. introduces Made for this Moment, a new campaign dedicated to its Fall 2026 women’s denim collection, starring rising pop star Freya Skye.

Through a series of dynamic imagery and video content, the campaign follows Freya on stage, behind the scenes, and in everyday moments, positioning Hollister denim as an essential piece for expressing personal identity.

Beyond advertising, Hollister will launch a limited-edition collection, serve as the official sponsor of Freya Skye’s tour across North America, the U.K., and Europe, and host exclusive in-store events with the singer at select locations in the U.S. and Europe throughout the fall.

SKYLRK opens a pop-up in New York City

SKYLRK opens an immersive physical retail experience in New York City, located at 60 Tenth Avenue, transforming a temporary space into a meeting point between fashion, design, and technology.

The pop-up aims to showcase the brand’s constantly evolving universe through an experience that goes beyond a simple purchase.

The space has been designed as an immersive environment, combining sculptural elements with interactive product moments.

A large geodesic-inspired installation welcomes visitors at the entrance, while expansive LED screens help create a dynamic and recognizable visual atmosphere.

Shinola introduces its first brand campaign

Shinola reintroduces the Runwell, the watch that defined the brand’s identity, through the launch of its first global brand campaign.

The campaign is built around the concept of Set The Pace, focusing on the value of time while challenging the idea that success must necessarily be measured by speed.

The launch comes to life through The Restaurant, a cinematic short film that moves beyond traditional product advertising to create a true narrative experience.

Through the sound of ticking seconds, the film explores the everyday pressure of keeping up with others and the moment when someone chooses instead to follow their own path.

Yahoo introduces collaboration with Marky’s Caviar

On the occasion of National Caviar Day on July 18, Yahoo is partnering with Marky’s Caviar, a company specializing in the global distribution of premium caviar and gourmet food products, to creatively reinterpret the viral “caviar bump”phenomenon.

The collaboration is built around a play on words between two highly recognizable behaviors: on one side, the “caviar bump,” a gesture that has become popular in food and lifestyle culture; on the other, its digital equivalent, the email bump, referring to the classic follow-up message sent to bring attention back to an unanswered email.

From this contrast comes the campaign concept: “Less Email Bumping, More Caviar Bumping.”

The limited-edition Yahoo x Marky’s set includes a tin of Marky’s Osetra Caviar and a mother-of-pearl caviar spoon, becoming a symbolic object of the campaign and a physical extension of the creative concept.

Sol de Janeiro launches its first collection for men

Sol de Janeiro introduces Cheiroso Cologne Mist, its first collection dedicated to male consumers, marking a significant expansion for the brand.

The launch arrives at a culturally relevant moment, during a season when soccer captures global attention. Sol de Janeiro uses this cultural territory as an entry point to tell its brand story through pelada, Brazil’s tradition of spontaneous and casual soccer games.

More than a competition, pelada represents a moment of connection, friendship, and belonging: values that become the narrative foundation for the brand’s entry into the men’s category.

If you’re looking for even more inspiration, check out last week’s edition of Brand Waves This Week for more standout campaigns and unmissable creative ideas!

The wave doesn’t stop here.

We’ll be back next week with more stories shaping the future of brands, tech and culture. Catch the next one with us.

Subscribe now

Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and creative ideas that are redefining how brands connect with audiences.

This newsletter is sponsored by Tracksuit, the always-on brand tracker built for marketers and agencies to answer the question “Is my strategy working?”

Today’s newsletter includes: Bath & Body Works launches Fruit Fusion with Hilary Duff; Herbal Essences unveils the Scent of Your Dreams campaign with Amaya Papaya; Dunkin’ brings the King Kylie™ era back into the spotlight; HEINZ transforms football’s red and yellow cards into the new Penalty Packets; Spacegoods enters the ready-to-drink coffee market; BOSS BY BECKHAM launches the new Summer Capsule; adidas presents TRIONDA FINAL, the official match ball for the final stages of the FIFA World Cup 26™; LEGO and FIFA turn the world’s most iconic football trophy into a record-breaking build; and Sweetgreen celebrates seasonality with a new salad created with Alice Waters.

Bath & Body Works launches Fruit Fusion with Hilary Duff as campaign ambassador

Bath & Body Works introduces Fruit Fusion, the new body care franchise that combines fruit-inspired fragrances with intense hydration, transforming the everyday routine into a sensorial and engaging experience.

The collection features four new fruit-inspired fragrances: Watermelon Whirl, Tangerine Twirl, Berry Bliss and Banana Blend.

For the launch of the collection, Bath & Body Works has chosen Hilary Duff as ambassador and creative partner of the campaign.

Singer, actress and cultural icon, Duff brings an image of authenticity and confidence to the project, values that align with the positioning of the new line and with the idea of a more inclusive and personal approach to beauty.

Herbal Essences presents the Scent of Your Dreams campaign

Herbal Essences launches Scent of Your Dreams, a new campaign that highlights the role of fragrance as a self-care tool capable of influencing mood and creating a sense of well-being.

The campaign stars Amaya Papaya, known to fans of the seventh season of Love Island for her vibrant and authentic personality. Her presence strengthens the brand’s positioning and embodies the values of the Herbal Essences woman: curious, radiant, and confident in her own identity.

In the campaign, a sensorial shower transports Amaya to the “above world”, a fantastical universe floating above reality, filled with clouds, lush green hills, and vibrant roses. Through a visual language inspired by the brand’s communication heritage, Herbal Essences transforms the everyday haircare routine into a moment of escape and pleasure, showing how fragrance can become a powerful tool for emotional connection.

Translating The Brand Waves for the Boardroom

Over the past few years, performance marketing has taken up an increasing share of marketing budgets: clicks, CPA, ROAS, and conversions are immediate metrics that are easy to measure and easy to bring into a Finance meeting.

The limitation? Performance marketing mainly works on existing demand, capturing people who are already ready to buy. Brand, on the other hand, creates future demand by building familiarity and preference among people who will enter the category in the future.

In other words: brand creates demand, performance marketing converts it.

Research from Tracksuit and TikTok shows that brands with high awareness achieve a 2.86x higher conversion rate compared to less recognised brands. The reason is simple: when people already know a brand, every acquisition activity becomes more effective.

The challenge is that many marketers still struggle to translate this value into the language of Finance. That’s why Tracksuit University was created: a course that helps marketers build a strong business case for brand investment - from deciding how much to invest, to balancing brand and performance budgets, to turning the entire argument into a one-page plan they can take to the board.

Use code THEBRANDWAVES to get 20% off the Tracksuit University course.

Get access to Tracksuit Uni

Dunkin’ unveils The King Kylie™ Collection with Kylie Jenner

Dunkin’ has launched The King Kylie™ Collection, bringing back one of the most iconic moments of Kylie Jenner’s image: the King Kylie™ era. The limited-edition collection features three pink-colored beverages with a blend of fruity, creamy, and indulgent flavors.

The campaign spot is directed by Dave Meyers and stars Kylie Jenner as her King Kylie™ alter ego. The story opens with Kylie calling a corporate meeting with one clear objective: to “serve pink” this summer.

As everyone else gets caught up in typical corporate jargon, Kylie cuts through the noise and shifts the focus back to the heart of the campaign - the drinks - introducing The King Kylie™ Collection.

“At Dunkin’, we know our guests are looking for drinks that taste as good as they look, and The King Kylie™ Collection delivers on both. It sets the tone for a summer lineup full of visually stunning, refreshing sips and bold flavor,” said Jill Nelson, Chief Marketing Officer at Dunkin’.

HEINZ launches Penalty Packets

HEINZ introduces Penalty Packets, a new campaign inspired by one of the most recognisable symbols in football - the red and yellow cards - to turn a moment of frustration for fans into a flavourful experience.

During the world’s biggest football tournament, the brand identified a simple consumer insight: for HEINZ fans, one ketchup or mustard packet is often never enough.

From this observation comes a creative idea that connects the language of sport with an everyday habit, introducing a new packet format designed to deliver more product with every use.

Inspired by the cards that regulate the game on the pitch, Penalty Packets flip the traditional meaning of a penalty: the “foul” is no longer about players’ behaviour, but about a lack of flavour at the table.

Spacegoods enters the UK coffee-to-go market

Spacegoods introduces its first ready-to-drink canned beverage: the next evolution of Rainbow Dust, the mushroom-adaptogen coffee blend that helped define the brand’s positioning in the functional coffee space.

With this launch, Spacegoods enters the fast-growing ready-to-drink coffee category in the UK, bringing its formula of mushrooms, adaptogens and coffee extract into a convenient format designed to fit into consumers’ daily routines, wherever they are.

In partnership with SARAL

The Creator Edit - Spacegoods

Behind Spacegoods’ growth is also a creator-driven strategy that has transformed influencer marketing into a true acquisition engine.

Through SARAL, Spacegoods has built a scalable creator community, moving from simple product seeding to an ongoing partnership model based on authentic content and measurable performance.

Today, the brand manages more than 1,000 active creator partnerships with a team of just two people, generates more than 100 new affiliate partnerships every month and uses influencer-generated content as its main source of creative assets for Meta campaigns.

The model combines community, content and performance: affiliate revenue helps fund new paid partnerships, while the continuous flow of creator content fuels the brand’s growth.

This is where SARAL comes in: the InfluencerOS helping consumer brands build repeatable, measurable and scalable influencer programs.

Book a demo with the SARAL team and mention that you discovered them through this newsletter to receive $500 off, white-glove onboarding and monthly strategy sessions included.

BOSS BY BECKHAM presents the Summer Capsule for Spring/Summer 2026

BOSS BY BECKHAM presents the new Summer Capsule for Spring/Summer 2026, a collection of smart-casual pieces designed to bring together elegance and comfort during the warmer months.

The capsule focuses on lightweight tailoring, seasonal fabrics and clean silhouettes, reinterpreting the summer wardrobe through a palette of neutral tones and an understated aesthetic.

Through three key looks, BOSS BY BECKHAM showcases a more fluid and contemporary approach to summer tailoring, where lightweight suits, shirts and knitwear adapt to different occasions.

adidas unveils the official TRIONDA FINAL match ball

adidas presents TRIONDA FINAL, the official match ball dedicated to the semi-finals, the third-place play-off and the final of the FIFA World Cup 26™.

Following the launch of TRIONDA, unveiled in October 2025, adidas evolves the design of the official match ball by introducing, for the first time, a model specifically created for the final stages of the competition.

The design of TRIONDA FINAL draws inspiration from the journey towards football’s most prestigious trophy. The premium gold finish references the FIFA World Cup™ trophy, while the black base creates an elegant and distinctive visual identity designed to enhance the decisive moments of the competition. Dynamic colour details complete the design, adding energy and connecting the ball with the aesthetics of modern football.

LEGO Group and FIFA unveil a LEGO® brick recreation of the iconic FIFA World Cup Trophy™

The LEGO Group and FIFA have unveiled a spectacular recreation of the iconic FIFA World Cup Trophy™ at Rockefeller Plaza, entirely built from LEGO® bricks.

Standing 8.47 metres tall and made with more than 1.36 million LEGO bricks, the installation represents the largest mobile LEGO build ever created and the most impressive recreation of the FIFA World Cup Trophy™ ever made.

The installation is part of the LEGO Group’s strategy to inspire new generations through creativity, imagination and play, transforming one of the most recognisable symbols in global sport into an experience designed to engage fans of all ages and celebrate the connection between football and participation.

Sweetgreen unveils the new Alice Waters’ Peach & Goat Cheese Salad

Sweetgreen launches the new salad created to celebrate chef, activist and author Alice Waters. The recipe combines organic arugula and spring mix, peaches, goat cheese, cucumbers, basil, mint and almonds, finished with a lemon tarragon vinaigrette and a garlic parmesan crunch.

Part of Sweetgreen’s Summer 2026 campaign, You Wait for This, the new salad celebrates the short window when peaches reach their peak sweetness and juiciness.

The new salad will also support The Edible Schoolyard Project, an organization dedicated to helping students build stronger connections with food, the environment and their communities.

If you’re looking for even more inspiration, check out last week’s edition of Brand Waves This Week for more standout campaigns and unmissable creative ideas!

The wave doesn’t stop here.

We’ll be back next week with more stories shaping the future of brands, tech and culture. Catch the next one with us.

Subscribe now

Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and creative ideas that are redefining how brands connect with audiences.

This newsletter is sponsored by Tracksuit, the always-on brand tracker built for marketers and agencies to answer the question “Is my strategy working?”

Today’s newsletter includes: Shopbop celebrates Elle Woods; Valentino Beauty launches a new era of fragrance storytelling with Dakota Johnson and Alexander Skarsgård; LEGO reinvents pop culture with Olivia Rodrigo; BOSS expands the concept of success beyond gender boundaries; Burberry presents Escape to the Countryside; Benefit Cosmetics partners with True Religion; Reddit launches a campaign that puts communities at the center; Gonna Need Milk introduces the Milk Man Hydration Calendar; and adidas debuts its new university partnerships.

Shopbop unveils a new capsule collection inspired by Elle Woods

To celebrate the premiere of Elle, Prime Video’s new series set in the Legally Blonde universe, Shopbop has launched a new exclusive capsule collection.

The collection features more than 60 pieces from a range of fashion brands, including L’AGENCE, Cinq à Sept, LoveShackFancy, and alice + olivia.

Available exclusively on Shopbop.com and The Shop by Shopbop on Amazon, every piece is designed to help shoppers embrace their inner Elle Woods and stand out all summer long.

Dakota Johnson and Alexander Skarsgård become the new faces of Valentino Beauty

Valentino Beauty is launching a new chapter in its fragrance strategy by choosing Dakota Johnson and Alexander Skarsgård as the brand’s new faces.

The two protagonists are positioned as partners in crime within a narrative that places authenticity, connection, and unfiltered emotional expression at its core.

The choice of these two personalities further strengthens the brand’s aspirational positioning, playing on two complementary energies that embody a contemporary vision of attraction.

“We are pleased to welcome Dakota Johnson and Alexander Skarsgård to the Valentino Beauty family. Their unique personalities and magnetic presence perfectly embody the emotional intensity at the heart of this new era,” says Claudia Marcocci, Global President of Valentino Beauty.

Translating The Brand Waves for the Boardroom

If you work in marketing, there has probably been a moment when the conversation in your team shifted from “what works” to “what gets funded.”

Three decades of independent research - from Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, Les Binet and Peter Field, together with IPA and Analytic Partners - converge on the same conclusion: companies grow when they balance short-term activation with long-term brand building.

The debate is settled. The problem is not whether brand “works,” but how it gets funded.

And this is where brand often loses. Not because it doesn’t work, but because it isn’t described in the right language for finance teams and boardrooms.

This is exactly the focus of the first course from Tracksuit University, developed by James Hurman, one of the most cited strategists on the commercial case for brand investment.

A course designed not to explain why brand works, but to teach how to get it funded: translating brand value into a language CFOs and boardrooms are willing to approve.

Discover the course that teaches marketers to speak the language of the boardroom - and use code THEBRANDWAVES to get 20% off the Tracksuit University course.

Get access to Tracksuit Uni

Read more

Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and creative ideas that are redefining how brands connect with audiences.

This newsletter is sponsored by Tracksuit, the always-on brand tracker built for marketers and agencies to answer the question “Is my strategy working?”

Today’s newsletter includes: Reformation collaborates with Umbro; New Balance and Miu Miu bring tennis into the luxury world with Coco Gauff; Mercedes-Benz collaborates with KidSuper; NOYZ turns a restock into a marketing campaign; Gucci celebrates Italian identity with Jannik Sinner; Pinterest takes inspiration beyond the screen with Manifestival; SIPMARGS creates a new summer spotlight with Alix Earle; Spotify Beach puts fandom at the center of Cannes Lions 2026; and Doritos Loaded combines food and Formula 1 with Gordon Ramsay and George Russell.

Reformation launches a new collection in collaboration with Umbro

Reformation expands its brand universe with a new limited-edition collection created in collaboration with Umbro.

The six-piece capsule reinterprets heritage sportswear through the American brand’s distinctive aesthetic, featuring feminine silhouettes, coordinated color palettes, and a contemporary approach to everyday dressing.

In doing so, the stadium, the pub, and the city streets become new spaces for self-expression, transforming spectator style into an extension of the fashion lifestyle.

New Balance and Miu Miu continue their collaboration with Coco Gauff

New Balance and Miu Miu continue their collaboration with a new campaign featuring Coco Gauff, the tennis player who has won 11 singles titles and is currently ranked world No. 2.

At the heart of the project is a collection that reinterprets the tennis wardrobe through the intersection of athletic performance and contemporary luxury.

Photographed by Chaumont and Zaerpour, the campaign brings this vision to life through imagery that highlights strength, dynamism, and personality while maintaining a refined and sophisticated aesthetic.

Translating The Brand Waves for the Boardroom

The challenge for many marketers today is not proving that brand has value, but making sure that value is understood in the rooms where budgets are decided.

Nike is one of the most interesting examples of this tension. In 2024, the brand remained one of the strongest names in influencer marketing in the United States, demonstrating the power of its cultural relevance and creator ecosystem. At the same time, however, the company faced a $7.6 billion sales gap. The lesson is not that brand stopped working, but that even the strongest brands need the right balance between immediate performance and future demand creation.

This case highlights an important question for marketers: how do you translate brand impact into a language that management teams can understand and fund?

Marketers often talk about awareness, consideration, emotional connection, and brand equity. Finance teams, on the other hand, think in terms of growth, efficiency, and return on investment. The real opportunity lies in building a bridge between these two worlds.

This is exactly the need that led to the creation of Tracksuit University.

Developed together with marketing effectiveness expert James Hurman, the 8-module course helps marketers measure brand value, communicate its impact, and build stronger arguments when it comes to securing investment inside the boardroom.

Use code THEBRANDWAVES to get 20% off the Tracksuit University course.

Get access to Tracksuit Uni

Read more

Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and creative ideas that are redefining how brands connect with audiences.

This newsletter is sponsored by Tracksuit, the always-on brand tracker built for marketers and agencies to answer the question “Is my strategy working?”

Today’s newsletter includes: Hollister enters the home category with Target; Polaroid launches a campaign against over-digitalization; e.l.f. Beauty brings haircare into its creative universe; MKI MIYUKI ZOKU returns to Tokyo for SS26; Ricola turns soccer fandom into an engagement platform; McDonald’s brings back the Fried Apple Pie; Lyft launches Save the Money. Check Lyft; UNO brings Social Clubs to new cities.

Hollister unveils The Hollister Collection at Target

Hollister is expanding beyond apparel and making its debut in the home and décor category with the launch of The Hollister Collection at Target.

The new line stems from a multi-season partnership with Target and includes nearly 60 products across men’s and women’s apparel, bedding, and bedroom accessories, marking a significant evolution in the brand’s strategy.

The collection combines Hollister’s laid-back style with Target’s expertise in home and dorm design, bringing a fresh perspective to the home décor category.

Polaroid launches a new campaign against over-digitalization

Polaroid has installed a large billboard on Coney Island Beach in New York as part of its ongoing effort to champion the value of real-world experiences in an increasingly screen-dominated world.

The installation is part of the global campaign The Best of Summer Is Analog, developed to support the launch of the new Go Generation 3 camera. The campaign’s core message encourages people to live in the moment rather than simply documenting it or experiencing it through a screen.

The outdoor ads are running across New York, London, and South Korea, featuring slogans such as “You can’t bask in blue light,” “Dance like nobody is recording,” and “What a glorious day to stare into various screens for hours on end”.

“For Polaroid, the simple act of existing is already an act of rebellion,” said Patricia Varella, Creative Director at Polaroid. “While our campaigns are provocative and challenge our relationship with technology, we’re not anti-digital. We know we have to live alongside it, but we’re deeply pro-human, and know what humanity gives us. And we know what we stand to lose if we don’t protect it. That’s a fight worth fighting,” said Patricia Varella, Creative Director at Polaroid.

Translating The Brand Waves for the Boardroom

Brands that maintained their advertising spend during the 1980s recession experienced 256% higher sales growth in the years that followed.

Yet whenever a period of uncertainty arrives, brand investments are often among the first things to be questioned. Not because companies don’t believe in the value of brand, but because brand is still too often treated as a marketing expense rather than a long-term strategic asset.

The real challenge is not proving that brand works, but translating its impact into a language that CFOs and boards are willing to fund.

Marketers talk about awareness, salience, and emotional connection, while finance teams think in terms of returns, capital allocation, and long-term growth. The same idea - building future demand - ends up sounding like two different things.

This is precisely the gap that led to the creation of Tracksuit University, the course developed with James Hurman. Its goal is to give marketers the language, evidence, and structure to bring brand into the rooms where investment decisions are made.

Use code THEBRANDWAVES to get 20% off the Tracksuit University course.

Get access to Tracksuit Uni

Read more

Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and creative ideas that are redefining how brands connect with audiences.

This newsletter is sponsored by Tracksuit, the always-on brand tracker built for marketers and agencies to answer the question “Is my strategy working?”

Today’s newsletter includes: American Eagle launches its new campaign with Lamine Yamal; Nexxus presents Claim Your Space with Ciara Miller; Khloé Kardashian expands her beauty universe with XO BLUE; Jonathan Bailey steps into the role of MARTINI Man; Brussels Airlines turns support for the Red Devils into a collective moment of brand engagement; Oatly brings the future of beverages to New York; Tropicana translates juice energy into experience; Eight Sleep launches House of Sleep; Create Wellness unveils its campaign with Kendall Toole; Gap introduces the new limited-edition Get Blue collection; and OREO celebrates BTS with a limited-edition release.

American Eagle presents Ready for the World with Lamine Yamal

After announcing a five-year partnership with Lamine Yamal in January, American Eagle unveils its first campaign with the young football talent, titled Ready for the World.

The initiative arrives at a particularly significant moment in the athlete’s career, portraying him as he prepares to step onto the biggest stage in world football.

The campaign highlights not only Lamine Yamal’s sporting abilities, but also his growing influence in fashion and contemporary culture.

American Eagle therefore chooses to present a personality that goes beyond the football pitch, emphasizing values such as authenticity, confidence, and individuality.

NEXXUS launches Claim Your Space with Ciara Miller

Nexxus presents its new campaign Claim Your Space, featuring breakout star Ciara Miller, with the goal of celebrating the power of presence and a form of self-confidence that becomes an expression of identity.

In a new social-first spot, the campaign shows Ciara moving through the city in a visual narrative where volume becomes presence, hair turns into attitude, and personal confidence literally reshapes the perception of the surrounding space.

The narrative is built on a clear cultural insight: for years, women have been implicitly expected to be “less” - quieter, smaller, less visible. Nexxus flips this perspective through the metaphor of hair as an extension of individual freedom, rejecting any idea of flattening, whether aesthetic or social.

Translating The Brand Waves for the Boardroom

According to the recent The Awareness Advantage report by Tracksuit × TikTok, brands with 60% awareness convert almost 3x faster than brands with 20% awareness. Yet in most boardrooms, this evidence still struggles to translate into budget allocation.

Not because marketers don’t believe it, but because the real challenge is explaining brand as an economic system to CFOs.

The issue is that marketing speaks in terms of awareness, salience, and mental availability, while finance teams speak in CapEx, returns, and capital allocation. The result is that the same idea - building future demand - ends up sounding like two different things.

This is precisely the gap that led to the creation of Tracksuit University, the course developed with James Hurman. Its goal is to give marketers the language, evidence, and structure to bring brand into the rooms where investment decisions are made.

Use code THEBRANDWAVES to get 20% off the Tracksuit University course.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Tracksuit, the always-on brand tracker built for marketers and agencies to answer the question “Is my strategy working?”

In this newsletter, we analyze one of the most interesting contradictions in modern marketing: how the growing ability to measure everything has ended up pushing many companies to focus only on what generates immediate results, neglecting what builds long-term growth.

Starting from research that has been challenging this trend for years, we explore the concept of Future Demand and the role brands play in creating it, looking at how these principles manifest in reality through the cases of Patagonia and Nike.

Finally, we focus on the central problem today, which is not so much proving that brand building works, but translating its value into a language that CFOs, finance teams, and boardrooms are willing to fund.

The era of total measurability and the silent growth of the short term

Over the past fifteen years, marketing has undergone a radical transformation. The arrival of digital platforms such as Meta Ads, Google Ads, and TikTok Ads has made it possible to launch a campaign and observe every single behavior in real time: clicks, conversions, leads, sales, return on investment. It is a change that has made marketing more precise, more technical, and seemingly more rational, because every investment can be linked to an outcome.

However, this evolution has produced a less visible but much deeper side effect. Many companies have started optimizing for what delivers short-term results, neglecting everything that does not show up right away but builds value over time.

When marketing started optimizing the present while forgetting the future

As early as 2013, the study The Long and The Short of It1 by Les Binet and Peter Field warned against this drift. The risk, according to the authors, was that marketing was increasingly investing resources in convincing people already close to purchase to choose a specific brand, while neglecting all those activities that make a brand known, relevant, and desirable in the long term. In other words, companies were becoming increasingly good at converting existing demand, but less and less attentive to creating the conditions for new people to choose that brand in the future.

The invisible part of the market that drives growth

To understand why this is a structural problem, we need to shift our perspective on how demand is created. The concept of Future Demand2, introduced by James Hurman, clarifies that every market is made up of two distinct groups of people: on one side there is existing demand, consisting of consumers who are already in the market - meaning they have an active need and are considering a purchase in the short term; on the other side there is future demand, formed by a much larger population of people who are not currently thinking about that product at all, but who will eventually enter the category and need to make a decision.

The crucial point is that the second category is almost always much larger than the first. However, most advertising investment is concentrated on the first, because it is easier to reach and, above all, easier to measure. If someone clicks an ad and makes a purchase, the result is obvious. If someone develops a preference for a brand after months or years of exposure to messages, content, and cultural associations, that journey becomes invisible to attribution systems.

How and when purchase decisions are truly formed

Yet the problem is not only technical, but also cognitive. Most purchase decisions are not formed at the moment a person enters a marketing funnel. They are formed much earlier, through a gradual accumulation of experiences, memories, emotions, and associations linked to brands. By the time the moment of purchase arrives, people rarely choose from scratch: they choose within a mental framework that has already been shaped.

This is where marketing splits into two fundamental functions3. Performance marketing works on existing demand, trying to convert people who are already ready to buy through measurable levers such as clicks, leads, and sales. Brand marketing, on the other hand, works on future demand, gradually building awareness, trust, familiarity, and above all preference. The first captures demand, the second creates it.

Brand, demand, and the cost of losing the long term

This distinction may seem theoretical. In reality, it is visible in the brands we encounter every day. Some of the world’s most iconic companies became so precisely because they invested for years in building future demand. And when this balance breaks, the effects begin to show even in business metrics.

Few cases illustrate this better than Patagonia and Nike.

Patagonia: when not selling becomes the strongest marketing strategy

To make this distinction concrete, the case of Patagonia is extremely clarifying. Patagonia does not simply sell outdoor clothing: over time it has built a system of meanings tied to sustainability, conscious consumption, and environmental responsibility. The product becomes almost secondary to the worldview the brand represents.

A defining example is the Don’t Buy This Jacket campaign, launched during Black Friday in 2011. At a time of year when every brand pushes for maximum commercial performance, Patagonia chose to explicitly ask people not to buy unless necessary. From a performance marketing perspective, this is counterintuitive, as it sacrifices immediate sales. From a brand marketing perspective, however, it is an extremely powerful gesture: it reinforces the consistency of the positioning and turns the brand into a symbol of integrity.

The same principle can be seen in the Worn Wear program, which encourages repairing and reusing garments instead of continuous purchasing. Here again, the company appears to be sacrificing short-term gains, but in reality it is investing in something more durable: trust. Every action strengthens the brand’s narrative consistency and increases the likelihood that, in the future, Patagonia will be the natural choice when a need arises in the outdoor category.

Nike: the brand that built desire before the product

If Patagonia represents an almost pure example of future demand building, Nike shows in an even more interesting way the tension between brand and performance marketing.

For decades, Nike has been one of the strongest examples in the world of brand building. It has never simply sold shoes, but a much broader idea: ambition, discipline, overcoming limits, and personal identity.

The slogan Just Do It is not a description of a product, but a philosophy of behavior. Campaigns featuring athletes such as Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, Cristiano Ronaldo, or LeBron James have never focused on the technical features of shoes, but on building extremely strong mental associations between Nike and the concept of excellence.

In recent years, however, Nike has also become an interesting case of a potential imbalance between the two dimensions of marketing. Starting in 2020, under the leadership of John Donahoe, the company progressively increased its focus on performance marketing, influencer marketing, digital channels, and direct-to-consumer sales. The goal was to increase efficiency, control, and measurability.

In the short term, this approach appeared consistent with market trends, but in 2024 significant signals emerged: a decline in digital sales, reduced profits, loss of market share, and, most importantly, a decrease in brand consideration and brand preference. Although these results cannot be attributed exclusively to marketing, it is notable that the indicators linked to future demand weakened.

In other words, it was not only the ability to sell today that weakened, but also the ability to be chosen tomorrow. And this is precisely the critical point: when the brand stops being nurtured, performance can continue for a while, but it gradually loses the foundation it relies on.

Recent campaigns such as Winning Isn’t For Everyone and So Win therefore seem to signal a return to brand meaning-building. They do not speak directly about products or promotions, but about identity, sacrifice, competitiveness, and a winning mindset.

Nike thus appears to be returning to investing in what has made the brand so powerful for decades: the ability to occupy mental space before a need even exists.

The real problem is not marketing, but translation

If there is one lesson that emerges from all this research, from the cases of Patagonia and Nike, and from over a decade of studies on marketing effectiveness, it is that the debate between brand and performance has long been settled.

The question is no longer whether brand building works. Dozens of independent studies have shown for years that brands grow when they are able to balance capturing existing demand with creating future demand. The Long and the Short of It already proposed a guideline allocation of 60% of investment toward brand-building activities and 40% toward activation4. More recent studies, such as Effectiveness in Context, reach very similar conclusions, suggesting a ratio close to 62:38.

And yet, in many companies, this discussion keeps resurfacing.

Not because marketers do not believe in brand building, but because their arguments are often brought into boardrooms using a language that decision-makers in finance do not speak.

Marketers talk about awareness, salience, share of voice, and mental availability. CFOs talk about capital allocation, compounding returns, pricing power, and sustainable competitive advantage. They are observing the same phenomenon, but through different vocabularies.

This is where brand risks getting lost in translation.

In recent years, our partner Tracksuit has helped make brand more measurable, enabling companies to track metrics such as awareness, consideration, preference, and emotional connection. In other words, it has helped marketers demonstrate that brand building is not an abstract creative exercise, but an investment that produces tangible effects over time.

But measurement is only part of the problem. The other part is the ability to translate those data points, evidence, and insights into an argument that the boardroom is willing to fund.

It is precisely from this need that the first course of Tracksuit University was created, developed by James Hurman. Its objective is not to convince marketers that brand works. The goal is to equip them with the language, evidence, and structure needed to make that case in the rooms where investment decisions are made.

The most interesting part, however, is that the course does not end with theory or certification, but with a tangible output: a one-page brand investment plan.

A concise document, built in the language of finance, that translates the role of the brand into terms understandable to CFOs, finance teams, and boards.

The good news is that there is also a basic version of this template, available as a free download on the Tracksuit website, designed to help marketers get familiar with the framework before diving deeper into it in the course.

Because in the end, the problem is not knowing that brand works, but securing the investment needed to make it work.

Stop fighting the brand budget battle on vibes alone.

Use code THEBRANDWAVES to get 20% off the Tracksuit University course!

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Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and creative ideas that are redefining how brands connect with audiences.

This newsletter is sponsored by Tracksuit, the always-on brand tracker built for marketers and agencies to answer the question “Is my strategy working?”

Today’s newsletter includes: Kith Women introduces the new Summer Escape; Nike turns football into a narrative universe with Rip the Script; McDonald’s brings the FIFA World Cup 2026 into a global brand experience; 818 Tequila launches Best Summer Ever; adidas Originals collaborates with Willy Chavarria; rhode accelerates its global expansion with the Summer ’26 Collection; Aimé Leon Dore debuts in womenswear; and Corona presents the Beach 100 2026 guide.

Kith Women unveils the Summer Escape collection

Kith Women launches Summer Escape, centered around the Island Hiatus chapter, which places the swimwear collection within a specific travel narrative, using the coastal landscapes of Antigua as both a backdrop and a source of inspiration.

The campaign, photographed by Cameron Hammond, highlights Kith Women’s deeper exploration of the swimwear category this season, featuring matching tops and bottoms as well as one-piece swimsuits.

The entire Summer Escape collection is structured around chapters - destinations, moments, and wardrobes - giving the swimwear launch a narrative dimension that positions it as part of a broader seasonal story.

Nike unveils Rip the Script

Nike presents Rip the Script, its new manifesto dedicated to football fans around the world, built around a message that encourages players to break away from predefined systems and embrace a creative, instinctive, and entertaining style of football.

Set inside a massive Hollywood film studio, the film shows the greatest football stars of yesterday and today as they decide to ignore the script and follow their instincts, unleashing a wave of creative chaos that celebrates free-flowing play.

The project brings together some of the biggest names in contemporary football, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, and Vinícius Júnior. Alongside them appear legends such as Eric Cantona, Ronaldinho, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Didier Drogba, and Jorge Campos, as well as figures from worlds seemingly far removed from football, including LeBron James, Travis Scott, Kim Kardashian, Ted Lasso, Kate Scott, Channing Tatum, Young Miko, and LISA.

“We know the magical moments in football happen when players trust their instincts,” says Helena Thornton, VP, Nike Brand Management. “That’s the kind of football we love: fresh, instinctive, unexpected and creative.”

Translating The Brand Waves for the Boardroom

One of the biggest tensions in modern marketing is not whether brand building works, but whether it can be credibly explained in a budget meeting.

We operate in a context where everything is measurable and every euro must justify itself immediately. But the most important effects of marketing rarely show up in immediate data: they are built over time, in memory, in preference, and in future demand.

The result is that marketers talk about salience and emotional equity, while finance teams think in terms of return, efficiency, and capital allocation. Two different languages describing the same value.

The real challenge is not proving that brand works, but translating its impact into a language that CFOs and boards are willing to fund.

This is where Tracksuit University comes in, the course developed with James Hurman, designed not to convince people that brand building works, but to help translate it into the language of investment decisions.

Use code THEBRANDWAVES to get 20% off the Tracksuit University course!

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Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and creative ideas that are redefining how brands connect with audiences.

This newsletter is sponsored by Tracksuit, the always-on brand tracker built for marketers and agencies to answer the question “Is my strategy working?”

Today’s newsletter includes: Giorgio Armani presents its new campaign set on the Amalfi Coast; adidas Originals and Bad Bunny launch the new Ballerina Vivid Red; Tommy Hilfiger brings New York preppy style into global football; Balenciaga presents A New York Minute; Wingstop reinvents loyalty with Maura Higgins; Chili’s revives one of pop culture’s most iconic jingles.

Giorgio Armani unveils The Mare 2026 collection campaign

The new Giorgio Armani Mare 2026 campaign is set against the evocative backdrop of Villa Cimbrone in Ravello, suspended between sky and sea along the Amalfi Coast.

Armani continues to refine one of its most recognizable brand pillars: the construction of a narrative form of luxury defined by restraint, light, and controlled naturalness. The images shot by Francisco Canton and the video directed by the Pantera collective do not aim for spectacular impact, but instead create an almost cinematic interpretation of everyday life.

At the center of the campaign, models Valerie Scherzinger, Nakul Bhardwaj, and Balthazar Dib embody this idea of effortless elegance, moving naturally through a setting that enhances without overwhelming.

The proposed wardrobe fully reflects Giorgio Armani’s aesthetic language, defined by fluid silhouettes, weightless fabrics, and a palette that interacts harmoniously with summer light.

Translating The Brand Waves for the Boardroom

If you read our weekly newsletter, you probably already know how central brand value is to building long-term business growth.

What continues to challenge marketers and agencies, however, is being able to communicate the value of brand strategies to finance teams and bring it into the rooms where investment decisions are made.

And yet the data is clear: brands that invest at least 50% of their budget in brand see a 31% ROI, compared to 18% for brands focused mainly on short-term promotion.

According to our partner Tracksuit, the issue is not a lack of belief in brand value, but the difficulty of translating it into the language that the boardroom already recognises and uses.

The first Tracksuit University course, taught by James Hurman, is designed to close this gap: giving marketers the vocabulary, the evidence, and a one-page brand investment plan they can take directly to the CFO.

Stop fighting the brand budget battle on vibes alone.

Use code THEBRANDWAVES to get 20% off the Tracksuit University course!

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Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and creative ideas that are redefining how brands connect with audiences.

This newsletter is sponsored by Tracksuit, the always-on brand tracker built for marketers and agencies to answer the question “Is my strategy working?”

Today’s newsletter includes: On and Erewhon transforming wellness into a cultural ecosystem; Zara launching BENITO ANTONIO with Bad Bunny; Victoria’s Secret relaunching its It Girl aesthetic with Hailey Bieber; DIESEL entrusting Dove Cameron with the launch of ONLY DESIRE; McDonald’s entering the sneaker world with Nike and Devin Booker; Samsung and Google unveiling intelligent eyewear developed with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker; e.l.f. Cosmetics entering the SURVIVOR universe; and Calvin Klein reinterpreting its icons with Jung Kook.

On announces a new partnership with Erewhon

On and Erewhon announce a multi-year partnership launching with a running collection and the introduction of the On x Erewhon Wellness Club.

The collaboration brings together product, community, and culture, and also includes a co-branded On x Erewhon beverage designed as a post-run ritual for hydration, replenishment, and recovery.

The launch campaign, shot inside Erewhon’s Manhattan Beach store, reinforces this direction by reinterpreting the everyday grocery run through the language of movement and performance.

Runners moving through the aisles transform the retail space into a hybrid environment between supermarket and training ground, highlighting how the boundary between daily life and physical performance is increasingly dissolving.

At the center of the partnership is also the launch of the On x Erewhon Wellness Club, a community-driven initiative debuting in May 2026 and engaging Erewhon’s wellness-focused community.

Zara launches the BENITO ANTONIO collection with Bad Bunny

Zara launches BENITO ANTONIO in collaboration with Bad Bunny, a 150-piece collection deeply rooted in the artist’s personal identity.

The collection was previewed during major cultural moments such as the Super Bowl Halftime Show and the Met Gala, as well as through a surprise store takeover at Zara’s Plaza Las Américas location in San Juan.

The collaboration with Bad Bunny’s longtime creative director Janthony Oliveras further strengthens the project’s coherence and translates the artist’s personal point of view into a retail product.

Tracking The Brand Waves – Zara

Despite Zara continuing to operate on a global scale and maintaining strong cultural visibility - to the point of dressing one of the most closely watched artists at the Met Gala - brand perception data tells a more complex story.

According to Tracksuit data, Zara’s consideration has decreased by 6 percentage points over the past year, falling from 21% to 15%. At the same time, preference has also declined from 7% to 5%.

This points to a structural challenge affecting the fast fashion category as a whole rather than the individual brand. Even in the presence of high-visibility cultural collaborations such as BENITO ANTONIO, the data suggests that visibility is not translating into a proportional increase in consideration or preference.

This analysis is powered by the kind of continuous brand intelligence Tracksuit shares fortnightly in their newsletter, Shorts. If you want marketing advice, consumer insights, and case studies like this delivered to your inbox, subscribe below.

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Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and creative ideas that are redefining how brands connect with audiences.

This newsletter is sponsored by Tracksuit, the always-on brand tracker that shows whether you’re building awareness, driving consideration and gaining ground on competitors. You’ll always have the evidence to back your next brand move.

Today’s newsletter includes: Hawaiian Tropic launches its new campaign with Alix Earle; Aerie strengthens its positioning around authenticity with Pamela Anderson; Burberry partners with Hôtel Belles Rives; Hinge explores the emotional state before love in dating apps; H&M collaborates with LOTTO; Kith builds its Summer 2026 collection; Liquid I.V. brings hydration into 2000s pop culture alongside FLO; and Vita Coco expands its Treats universe.

Hawaiian Tropic launches new campaign starring Alix Earle

After the success of last summer’s Tana Sutra campaign, Hawaiian Tropic returns with a new campaign featuring global social media personality Alix Earle.

At the center of the campaign is a music video built around I Touch Myself, the iconic ’90s hit by Divinyls, reinterpreted through a choreography designed to go viral on social media.

Developed in collaboration with BBH USA and directed by Aerin Moreno, the campaign aims to modernize the communication around sun protection, transforming a functional product into a lifestyle and self-expression statement.

The choreography, created by Grammy Award-winning choreographer Robbie Blue, playfully incorporates Hawaiian Tropic products into the dance movements, simulating the application of SPF on the body and turning it into a visual, ironic, and instantly shareable social media ritual.

Aerie launches 100% Aerie Real with Pamela Anderson

Aerie introduces its new 100% Aerie Real campaign featuring Pamela Anderson, reinforcing its positioning around the concept of authenticity.

The brand continues the path it began when it decided to eliminate retouching from its campaigns by choosing as its protagonist an actress who, since 2023, has chosen to appear publicly without makeup, including during events and press appearances

Tracking The Brand Waves - Aerie

In the current marketing landscape, the debate around artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming a matter of brand positioning rather than simply production efficiency. Aerie is a particularly interesting case because it is a brand that has historically built its identity around the concept of authenticity.

However, Tracksuit US data (October ‘25 - March ‘26) shows that, despite strong brand visibility, equity signals remain relatively weak. Among consumers aware of Aerie, only 31% associate the brand with the statement “it is a brand I trust”, while 29% perceive it as “a brand for people like me”.

At the same time, commercial signals appear more immediate. According to the company, in Q4 2025 brand awareness grew by double digits, while sales increased by 23% compared to Q4 2024. The fact that the new “no AI” pledge also became the brand’s most-liked post on Instagram further indicates strong cultural resonance and high engagement.

This analysis is powered by the kind of continuous brand intelligence Tracksuit shares fortnightly in their newsletter, Shorts. If you want marketing advice, consumer insights, and case studies like this delivered to your inbox, subscribe below.

Subscribe to Shorts

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Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and creative ideas that are redefining how brands connect with audiences.

This newsletter is sponsored by Tracksuit, the always-on brand tracker that shows whether you’re building awareness, driving consideration and gaining ground on competitors. You’ll always have the evidence to back your next brand move.

Today’s newsletter includes: adidas presents Backyard Legends for the FIFA World Cup 2026; Zendaya and On build a Dream Lab; The Ordinary deconstructs the pricing logic of the beauty industry; Lulu and Georgia launches There’s an Art to It; NikeSKIMS redefines studio wear with Studio Stretch; ROSÉ returns as the protagonist of PUMA H-Street’s lifestyle narrative; Bottega Veneta brings Venice back to the center of its new campaign; Huda Beauty enters the fragrance world; and Canva launches The Thing That Makes Anything A Thing.

adidas presents Backyard Legends campaign for the FIFA World Cup 2026

adidas launches its new Backyard Legends campaign for the FIFA World Cup 2026, shifting the focus from the major sporting event to the cultural meaning of football, transforming neighborhood pitches into symbolic spaces where identities, collective imaginaries, and legends are born.

The campaign brings together personalities from different worlds with a cast including Timothée Chalamet, Lionel Messi, Bad Bunny, Lamine Yamal, Jude Bellingham, Trinity Rodman, Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, and Alessandro Del Piero.

The message You Got This represents the strategic core of the campaign, aiming to inspire athletes around the world to bring freedom and joy to every pitch. The film leans heavily into nostalgia, with its soundtrack, streetwear, and 1990s terrace-inspired aesthetic creating an emotional imagery capable of connecting different generations.

“Everyone remembers that feeling: playing for the joy of it, no pressure, no expectations. With Backyard Legends, we celebrate that freedom. It’s a reminder that self-belief and playfulness are the real winning mindset,” explains Florian Alt, Vice President Global Brand Communications at adidas.

Zendaya and On unveil their first co-created collection

On presents its first co-created collection with Zendaya, a project that merges performance and personal style through refined, essential silhouettes.

At the center of the campaign is the film Shape of Dreams, directed by Spike Jonze and set within the Dream Lab, an imaginary space that functions as an extension of Zendaya’s creative process. Here, the product is not simply presented but “generated”: garments and footwear expand, contract, and transform until they reach their final form, turning design into an almost cinematic experience.

Tracking The Brand Waves - On

In the sportswear industry, competition is increasingly defined by the ability to build cultural desirability. On is a particularly interesting case because it is a relatively young brand that is accelerating its relevance through a strongly entertainment-driven strategy.

Tracksuit data (April 2025 - March 2026) shows that the brand is still in a build phase within the category. In the United States, On reaches 22% awareness, well behind established leaders such as Nike (96%), New Balance (85%), and Asics (64%).

The real strategic signal, however, is not awareness but desirability: 52% of consumers considering On say “It is a brand I want to be seen wearing”, the highest figure in the category, ahead of Nike (51%) and Hoka (41%). This is a key indicator, as it measures not only purchase intent but status-building potential.

The gender breakdown is also notable: among women, this perception rises to 56% for On, surpassing Nike at 53%. A gap that appears closely aligned with the brand’s increasingly editorial and cultural direction, where collaborations like the one with Zendaya do not function simply as endorsements, but as accelerators of desirability and aesthetic coding.

This analysis is powered by the kind of continuous brand intelligence Tracksuit shares fortnightly in their newsletter, Shorts. If you want marketing advice, consumer insights, and case studies like this delivered to your inbox, subscribe below.

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In today’s newsletter, we explore how Lulu and Georgia is redefining what it means to design and narrate a space, shifting the focus from static interiors to a dimension closer to performance, movement, and cultural composition.

We spoke with Jenna Kincaid, VP Brand & Creative at the brand, to go behind the scenes of the newly launched campaign, There’s an Art to It. A film that doesn’t simply present a collection or an interior style, but transforms how domestic design is told in marketing - showing not the finished product, but the process that brings it to life.

What emerges from the conversation is not just the story of a campaign, but a very clear point of view on what it means to build a lifestyle brand today: less speed and constant output, more intentionality and control over the creative process.

Inside Lulu and Georgia’s creative leadership

To understand this campaign, it’s essential to start with the person behind it. Jenna Kincaid, now VP Brand & Creative at Lulu and Georgia, has grown within the company in a way that perfectly reflects the brand’s own nature: not a linear, strategic construction, but a gradual evolution shaped by adaptation, opportunity, and continuous experimentation.

“I’ve been with Lulu and Georgia for nearly 13 years now. I joined the company as a freelancer helping with data entry to get products onto our, then, very manual website. I studied database design in school (who knows why) and I was quite Excel literate, which helped earn me the job. I was one of 4 team members at the time, including our founder, Sara,” says Jenna Kincaid.

This trajectory is not just a biographical detail, but a key to understanding the brand. Lulu and Georgia did not emerge as a closed, perfectly defined system, but as something built over time - much like the spaces it tells stories about today.

It’s no coincidence, then, that one of the brand’s most distinctive principles is the absence of a single, fixed style.

“At Lulu and Georgia, we don’t subscribe to one style or aesthetic. We are a team of people that are passionate about and inspired by many eras, regions, and types of design,” explains Jenna Kincaid.

This openness is not just a stylistic choice, but a strategic decision. It allows the brand to remain in constant motion across collections, collaborations, and new drops, operating more through curation than rigid consistency.

It’s a perspective that reflects a broader shift in how people inhabit spaces: homes, like people, are not static. They change, evolve, and reorganize themselves.

The new campaign There’s an Art to It

The new campaign There’s an Art to It, launched just in recent days, starts from the idea that a home is never a finished object, but an ongoing process of construction, relationship, and composition.

To translate this concept, the brand created a film in which real ballet dancers interact with the space and the furnishings as part of a choreography. The scene follows a couple as their environment takes shape, transforming design into a true performance.

“We wanted to show the journey of a space coming together. The collaboration and consideration that it takes. The title ‘There’s an Art to It’ came to us before the campaign was even fleshed out. Our team considers every detail that goes into designing a home you love - form, scale, color, and composition. Like all art forms, the process starts with unrefined concepts and ideas that we iterate on rigorously to create a final product that truly elevates your home,” explains Jenna Kincaid

But what makes the campaign relevant is not only its visual language, but the strategic position it takes within the current context. At a time when AI and generative tools are compressing the time and cost of creative production, Lulu and Georgia chooses not to compete on speed, but on the depth of the creative process.

“And yet, with the emergence of AI, we see a growing number of steps being taken to turn art into something “easy” and instantaneous - with little regard for process or personhood. When our team is designing products and considering the stories to tell around them, we are often pulling references from art forms extending beyond the world of furniture and decor. We look to fashion, food, music, dance, and theater, and let the details of those worlds mix with the details of ours,” says Jenna Kincaid.

The choice of ballet as the campaign’s visual language

The decision to use ballet as the campaign’s visual language doesn’t stem from a stylistic exploration, but from a very concrete representational challenge: how to tell something that is inherently dynamic using a language that, in interior marketing, is almost always static.

“For one, it’s a beautiful art form that captures attention immediately. We toyed with the dance being something more modern, but ultimately ballet felt the most in line with the product we wanted to showcase, the space we wanted to shoot in, and the story we wanted to tell. Ballet has structure and specificity to it, but can be deeply expressive and emotive, as well,” explains Jenna Kincaid.

Ballet thus becomes a narrative structure, not a decorative element. It serves to introduce what is normally missing in design communication: time, coordination, and the relationship between elements.

“The graceful movement of the dancers and the swell of the orchestral score immediately feels cinematic, captivating, and engaging. The hope is that this film inspires people to bring their own artful eye to their own spaces,” says Jenna Kincaid.

In this sense, the campaign doesn’t just change the brand’s aesthetics, but the very grammar through which it tells interior design stories. A static image is not used, but choreography instead.

The invisible complexity behind 60 seconds

As is often the case with highly ambitious projects, this campaign also had to confront an element that rarely makes it into the final narrative: production constraints.

“We originally had a vision of the dancers physically moving the furniture into the space via some sort of rig or movie magic, but after working through the choreography challenges, we decided to pivot to having each piece placed in the scene with the dancers. Probably for the best, ha!” explains Jenna Kincaid.

This reflects a very typical dynamic in creative marketing: the initial idea is never the final product, but a system that is continuously recalibrated between creative ambition, feasibility, and message clarity.

In the final result, this complexity did not remain behind the scenes in an abstract sense, but was translated into extremely detailed work on every single element of the film.

“Our choreography team and dancers prepped for days leading up to work out even the tiniest details—how a foot was placed, how a table was moved. The florist carefully crafted arrangements that felt specifically graceful, like they could be seen on the stages of ballets. The wardrobe team tested tutus and leotards until the most perfect combination came together. Hair and make up sought to create looks that felt natural and elegant. Photography filmed black and white stills of the dancers in motion. The lighting crew pushed ethereal warmth through the windows. Cinematography aimed to capture balletic movements in motion. With all of those elements so thoughtfully attended to, we needed the furniture showcased in the space to be impactful in a bare room. One of our team’s favorites lately is the Perenne rug—luxe and soft under foot in the prettiest hue of blue, it felt like a natural choice. Adding a curved sofa was our homage to the feel of ballet, poised and elegant. From there, we added shapely furniture and lighting for a modern, minimal Parisian feel,” explains Jenna Kincaid.

The film lasts 60 seconds. But the real product is not the final content, it is the process that makes it possible. And it is here, too, that the campaign becomes a broader brand statement. Lulu and Georgia is not simply talking about interior design, but about the way cultural value is built today through the care of process. A logic that is also reflected in how the brand interprets its relationship with its community.

“It’s a reminder of why we do things the Lulu and Georgia way. Our community, we know, appreciates our attention to curation—that’s why they trust us. They want something artful, something intentional, something slightly off the beaten path, that they might not find somewhere else. That’s why we felt, now more than ever, that an appeal to each person’s inner artfulness was meaningful,” says Jenna Kincaid.

In this sense, There’s an Art to It is not just presenting an aesthetic. It is making visible the idea that differentiation today is not only about what is produced, but about how much human process is embedded in what is produced.

If you missed the latest edition of Brand Waves This Week, catch up now to discover more standout campaigns and unmissable creative ideas!

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Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and creative ideas that are redefining how brands connect with audiences.

This newsletter is sponsored by Tracksuit, the always-on brand tracker that shows whether you’re building awareness, driving consideration and gaining ground on competitors. You’ll always have the evidence to back your next brand move.

Today’s newsletter includes: Samsonite presents the new Chocolate Mauve collection starring Olivia Culpo; Sprite launches the It’s That Fresh platform; Burberry and Hunza G redefine swimwear as visual storytelling; Lacoste brings tennis back to the center with Life is a Beautiful Sport; adidas unveils the Pet collection for the 2026 World Cup; S.Pellegrino presents Dinner Dialogues with Lewis Hamilton; and Romain Gavras directs a music short film for GENER8ION blending dystopia, school life, and collective choreography.

Samsonite unveils its new campaign starring Olivia Culpo

Samsonite presents the Chocolate Mauve collection with Olivia Culpo as the protagonist, continuing the development of its brand platform It’s Not Just a Bag, It’s a Samsonite.

The setting of a dreamlike, high-fashion patisserie is not merely scenography, but becomes an integral part of the brand narrative, where textures, sculptural desserts, and deep tonalities help shift the product from the realm of luggage to that of emotion.

However, the true strategic element of the campaign is the Chocolate Mauve color itself, which emerges as a distinctive asset of the entire project.

“Olivia Culpo brings an authentic point of view at the intersection of travel, food, and style,” said Nicole Adriance, Head of Brand and Marketing at Samsonite. “That’s exactly where today’s consumer is and where we see travel becoming more personal, expressive, and culturally connected. This campaign reflects that shift, showing how Samsonite fits naturally into the way people move, explore and experience the world.”

Sprite launches global platform It’s That Fresh

Sprite returns to the center of global street culture with the launch of It’s That Fresh, a new brand platform that unifies visual identity, sonic identity, and strategic collaborations across music, basketball, streetwear, and spicy food. The move reinforces a presence that extends far beyond the beverage category.

At the core of the initiative is the construction of a consistent brand expression system, which includes a new logo, a refreshed visual identity, and most importantly the Sprite Sound, a sonic signature developed with producer Mustard, designed to make the brand instantly recognizable on an audio level.

Tracking The Brand Waves - Sprite

Cultural relevance is one of the key metrics that today separates brands that are truly growing from those that remain only superficially relevant.

Tracksuit data shows that Pepsi still holds an advantage in overall Preference compared to Sprite, a sign of stronger authority among mainstream audiences. Between December 2025 and February 2026, Pepsi stands at 16% preference versus Sprite’s 9%.

However, the picture shifts significantly when looking at Gen Z. In the 18–34 age group, Sprite rises to 15% preference compared to Pepsi’s 10%. This is where the real value of the brand strategy emerges: the ability to translate cultural presence and activations into tangible relevance among the audience that is currently defining language, aesthetics, and consumption patterns.

In this context, the new It’s That Fresh platform goes beyond simply communicating freshness. It aims to build a continuous system of cultural participation, where the brand becomes an active part of the codes Gen Z creates, shares, and consumes on a daily basis.

This analysis is powered by the kind of continuous brand intelligence Tracksuit shares fortnightly in their newsletter, Shorts. If you want marketing advice, consumer insights, and case studies like this delivered to your inbox, subscribe below.

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Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and crea…

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Coachella is not simply a music festival. It is a full-fledged cultural system, where music, internet culture, celebrities, and brand activations converge into a single, high-density flow of attention.

The 25th edition took place at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, across two consecutive weekends (April 10-12 and 17-19), once again confirming its central role in the global cultural imagination.

With hundreds of thousands of attendees and global distribution via livestream, Coachella no longer operates as a traditional festival, but as a real-time cultural distribution machine.

And in 2026, that machine took a very specific direction.

Coachella 2026 and the return of nostalgia as a shared language

In 2026, Coachella clearly aligns with a trajectory that marketing had already begun consolidating in previous months: nostalgia as the dominant language of contemporary culture. No longer just an aesthetic reference, but a framework for interpreting the present.

Within the festival narrative, a recurring definition emerges - Bieberchella - not only due to Justin Bieber’s presence as a headliner, but because the entire imaginary shifts toward a collective re-enactment of 2016: early internet aesthetics, the origins of YouTube culture, and a social media era that felt less algorithmic and more spontaneous.

The most talked-about moment comes during Bieber’s performance, when he sits at a desk, shares his MacBook screen on the main screens, and scrolls through memes, old videos, and fragments of his career, turning the stage into a live timeline of digital culture.

Alongside him, the headliners reinforce this narrative construction. Sabrina Carpenter builds a pop aesthetic made of immediately recognizable emotional and cultural references, while Karol G, the first Latina artist to headline the festival, further expands the global and generational dimension of this edition.

One of the most symbolic moments occurs during Sabrina Carpenter’s set, when Madonna makes a surprise appearance on stage - a true “full circle moment” between two pop generations. Together they perform Vogue and Like a Prayer, turning the performance into a direct dialogue between past and present.

In the same context, the premiere of the third season of Euphoria is also featured, screened at the Coachella Campgrounds. The screening, synchronized with its official April 12 debut, marks the first of its kind in the festival’s history.

Nostalgia, therefore, is not just an aesthetic, but a shared structure that holds together languages, generations, and different formats.

When brands stop sponsoring and start building worlds

If music generates attention, at Coachella 2026 brands are no longer just sponsors, but actors designing environments, rituals, and complete experiential systems.

From Pinterest’s phone-free world to e.l.f.’s distributed experiences, from Gap’s Hoodie House to the immersive spaces of 818 Outpost, brands are no longer simply occupying the desert - they are transforming it. Each activation introduces its own language, overlapping with the musical one and shaping how the festival is experienced and narrated.

Below, we analyze the activations that generated the most conversation during Coachella 2026, across immersive formats, cultural strategies, and new models of engagement.

Pinterest returns to Coachella with a phone-free experience

Pinterest returned to Coachella by flipping the festival’s social-first logic with a phone-free experience built around a key insight: people want to create more creative and authentic memories, not just document them.

The activation invites participants to leave their phones at the entrance and enter an analog space, featuring beauty touch-ups by e.l.f. Cosmetics, creative activities, and moments designed to generate physical memories, such as the Joy Guide sent home after the festival.

The brand presence also extends into e.l.f.scape to Balm Desert, where Pinterest boards become tools for discovery and creative activation.

“Coachella is one of the biggest moments of the year for self-expression, and Pinterest is where people go to discover what they want to try next,” said Sara Pollack, Global Head of Consumer Marketing at Pinterest. “This year, we’re inviting festival-goers to stop scrolling past their lives and start living them. By creating a phone-free experience, we’re making it easier to be truly present with friends, embrace the moment, and bring inspiration to life.”

e.l.f. Cosmetics introduces e.l.f.scape to Balm Desert

e.l.f. Cosmetics presented an activation capable of building an ecosystem that extends beyond the boundaries of the festival.

With e.l.f.scape to Balm Desert, the brand transforms the launch of its new Glow Reviver Melting Lip Balms into a distributed narrative spanning both physical and digital spaces. The Drink It Up! collection was released in three poolside-inspired shades, such as Pink Lemonade, Island Colada, and Blue Razz Slushy.

Inside the space, a large Pinterest wall approximately 4.5 meters high displays seasonal festival-inspired visuals, while e.l.f. makeup artists translate them into real looks through touch-ups on eyes, lips, and face.

The experience expands through personalized balm gifting, photo-ready installations, immersive gaming experiences on Roblox via e.l.f. UP!, and integrations with Beauty Squad, the brand’s mobile app.

Gap conquers the desert with the Hoodie House

Among the most successful debuts at Coachella 2026, Gap conquered the desert with its Hoodie House activation.

As the exclusive apparel sponsor and official merchandising partner, the brand quickly became one of the festival’s most visited destinations.

The format revolves around customization and desirability: constant lines, extremely high demand, and widespread organic visibility - worn by creators, tastemakers, and attendees - made Gap hoodies one of the most recognizable visual elements of the weekend.

The success was further amplified by celebrity-driven moments, such as a surprise appearance by EJAE from KPop Demon Hunters and Central Cee, who performed wearing a custom version of the hoodie.

The result is an activation where style, customization, and culture merge into an experience that turns an iconic garment into one of Coachella’s most visible symbols.

SKYLRK turns merch into an independent business

Among all activations, SKYLRK is the one that most clearly redefined the boundary between music, fashion, and branding.

Founded by Justin Bieber in 2025, the brand built a retail ecosystem inside the festival with SKYLRK Oasis and SKYLRK Shop, transforming the space into a hybrid of store, installation, and physical desert retreat.

In just the first weekend, SKYLRK generated approximately $5.04 million in sales, breaking all-time festival records for merch.

But the financial figure is only part of the story. SKYLRK makes a paradigm shift explicit: merch is no longer an extension of the concert, but an independent brand that exists within the festival.

Products are designed with a distinct aesthetic identity and are often worn by Bieber before being available to the public, turning each appearance into a pre-launch commercial moment.

The result is a total fusion of performance, product, and the hype economy.

method transforms reset into a cultural experience

If SKYLRK builds desire, method operates on the opposite moment: the pause.

For the third consecutive year as the festival’s official body wash, shampoo, and conditioner sponsor, the brand turns Coachella’s in-between moments - showers, preparation, reset - into multisensory experiential rituals.

Through installations spread across the Main Grounds and Campgrounds, method creates environments where scent, color, and sound redefine personal care.

818 Outpost and the construction of a shared cultural environment

818 Tequila, the brand founded by Kendall Jenner, returns for the fourth consecutive year with a format that now goes beyond the logic of a side event.

818 Outpost has become an invite-only space where brands, creators, and communities coexist within a highly curated and coherent environment.

This year’s aesthetic - inspired by Mid-Century Googie architecture and space-age retrofuturism - fits seamlessly into the nostalgic language that runs throughout Coachella 2026.

But the real strategic layer emerges in its multi-brand structure.

This is not a simple aggregation of sponsors, but a system in which each brand contributes to building a coherent experience. Postmates brings the Los Angeles food scene through an immersive food garden, Snapchat turns participation into content via photobooths with custom lenses, while brands like Blank Street and LaCroix focus on beverages.

At the same time, brands such as Khloud introduce gamification dynamics with casino-inspired installations and interactive giveaways, further expanding engagement formats.

Alongside them, a constellation of brands - from Rhode to Kylie Cosmetics, and even Sprinter and Uber - use the Outpost as a space for launch and amplification.

The key point is not just presence, but audience coherence. The participating brands share the same cultural territory and tap into heavily overlapping communities. In this sense, 818 Outpost is not just an event, but becomes an immersive brand-world environment.

“818 Outpost is about coming together to celebrate with delicious tequila in a setting that feels intentional and inspiring,” says Kendall Jenner, Founder of 818 Tequila. “Each year we build on what we’ve created the year before. We’re so excited for this year’s Outpost and the world we’ve built!”

Benefit Cosmetics chooses a roaming format with the Blush Bus

Benefit Cosmetics focuses on a mobile format, the Blush Bus - a roaming experience designed to intercept audiences at key moments throughout the festival.

Created in collaboration with West Coast Customs, the bus traveled across the Coachella Valley with surprise pop-ups between influencer houses and hotspot locations, offering express touch-ups and beauty services designed to last all day.

The tour also becomes a launch vehicle for the brand’s new products - Play Daze and Juice Stick - turning each stop into a high-virality moment.

Coachella as an integrated cultural system

What emerges is a clear model: music generates attention, creators distribute meaning, brands build environments, and nostalgia provides emotional coherence.

Bieberchella is the synthesis of a system in which celebrity culture, cultural memory, and brand experience converge into the same narrative flow.

Why Coachella works for brands

The lesson is not about presence, but alignment.

The brands that stand out are those that insert themselves into the festival’s cultural mechanisms: interpreting the dominant emotion, turning products into experiences, and designing environments rather than simple activations.

In this sense, Coachella is no longer an event to sponsor, but a cultural system to inhabit and build.

If you missed the latest edition of Brand Waves This Week, catch up now to discover more standout campaigns and unmissable creative ideas!

The wave doesn’t stop here.

We’ll be back with more stories shaping the future of brands, tech and culture. Catch the next wave with us.

Subscribe now

Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and creati…

Read more

Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and creative ideas that are redefining how brands connect with audiences.

This newsletter is sponsored by Tracksuit, the always-on brand tracker that shows whether you’re building awareness, driving consideration and gaining ground on competitors. You’ll always have the evidence to back your next brand move.

Today’s newsletter includes: Zendaya and On present their first co-created collection; Victoria’s Secret presents the The Season of Strapless campaign; Kylie Jenner transforms Sprinter into a lifestyle platform; Spotify launches an OOH campaign; Anna Wintour and Meryl Streep share the cover of Vogue; Aimé Leon Dore presents SS26 Delivery 4; and KitKat turns a theft into a brand narrative.

Zendaya and On unveil their first co-created collection with the film Shape of Dreams

Zendaya and On present their first co-created footwear and apparel collection, developed with the aim of balancing performance and personal style through refined silhouettes, colors, and textures.

The centerpiece of the campaign is the film Shape of Dreams, directed by Spike Jonze, set within Zendaya’s imagined design world, the Dream Lab.

Throughout the film, the creative process takes on a surreal and boundaryless quality, with outfits expanding, contracting, and transforming until they reach their final form.

“It’s been so much fun to collaborate with Law and the On team on these essentials,” said Zendaya. “We wanted to create pieces that feel versatile and easy to wear – styles that move with you across different moments. We started with the idea of making people feel confident and effortless, and we built everything out from there. Working with Spike Jonze brought that vision to life in a really special way – the world he created gave it a whole new dimension.”

Victoria's Secret presents The Season of Strapless with Angel Reese

Victoria’s Secret presents the global campaign The Season of Strapless, starring Angel Reese, who becomes the first WNBA player to lead a brand campaign, marking another step in the evolution of Victoria’s Secret’s positioning.

Photographed by Renell Medrano and styled by Carlos Nazario, the campaign - shot in Barbados - introduces the brand’s new season through a visual language that blends sensuality, performance, and lifestyle.

Tracking The Brand Waves - Victoria’s Secret

With the choice of Angel Reese, Victoria’s Secret is clearly pushing toward a more contemporary definition of femininity, where athleticism, confidence, and cultural relevance become central to the brand’s narrative.

Tracksuit data confirms the direction of this strategy. In the premium underwear and lingerie category, Victoria’s Secret leads on the brand association “makes me feel confident” at 55%. That’s 15 points above the competitor average and ahead of both SKIMS and Savage X Fenty.

This is significant because confidence is no longer just an emotional attribute in lingerie marketing, but a true driver of brand equity.

Brand repositioning is always a long-term process, but Victoria’s Secret shows what happens when creative direction and perception data move in the same direction. It’s a reminder that brand equity is not only built through campaigns, but validated through measurable shifts in how consumers perceive and respond over time.

Find out what brand qualities drive the most purchase intent!

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Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and creative ideas that…

Read more

Welcome to The Brand Waves, your weekly snapshot of the most innovative marketing campaigns from around the world. In this edition, discover stories, strategies, and creative ideas that …

Read more