Brand Waves This Week
Hollister enters the home category with Target, Polaroid challenges over-digitalization, and McDonald’s brings nostalgia back to the center of its strategy.
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.
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e.l.f. Hair launches the new What the h.e.l.f.? campaign
e.l.f. Beauty is expanding its universe with the launch of e.l.f. Hair, the brand’s first-ever haircare collection. The new category debuts with the What the h.e.l.f.? campaign, a project that combines creativity, storytelling, and entertainment to transform a product extension into a true brand experience.
Directed by Ulf Johansson, the campaign stars Peyton List and Yonna Jay in a journey that is both epic and surreal, featuring the unexpected presence of Bigfoot, played by Robert Strange.
The campaign’s concept is built around a simple yet powerful insight: when your hair looks this good, it can really go to your head.
To make the launch even stronger, e.l.f. is bringing the brand experience into the digital world through Roblox.
MKI MIYUKI ZOKU returns to Tokyo for the SS26 collection
MKI MIYUKI ZOKU presents its Spring/Summer 2026 collection by returning to Tokyo, the city that helped shape the brand’s identity and foundations. The new campaign showcases an 80-piece range through a setting deeply connected to the brand’s philosophy, bringing together fashion, architecture, and design culture.
The city’s urban landscape, defined by glass, steel, and concrete, becomes an integral part of the narrative, highlighting MKI’s distinctive codes: minimalism, technical innovation, and functionality.
Through this campaign, MKI shows how fashion brands today no longer communicate just a product, but rather a system of values and cultural references.
e.l.f. Cosmetics turns BookTok into a growth channel
e.l.f. Cosmetics recently launched an activation tied to the debut of the Prime Video series adaptation of Every Summer After by Carley Fortune.
As BookTok started talking again about the story, the characters, and the classic summer romance feeling, e.l.f. tapped into the cultural moment by creating a natural connection between beauty and reading.
Built around the concept Books that make you blush, the brand sent selected creators a mailer designed specifically for that community: a signed copy of the book paired with its new Soft Glam Cream Blush & Bronzer Sticks.
The idea works because e.l.f. didn’t try to insert a product into an existing conversation. Instead, it created an experience that already belonged within that cultural context.
BookTok, in fact, has become much more than a community of readers: it has evolved into a cultural force capable of influencing beauty, fashion, lifestyle, and purchasing decisions.
In partnership with SARAL
The creator edit - e.l.f. Beauty
The e.l.f. case study highlights an important shift happening in the influencer marketing landscape: creators are no longer simply people brands send products to hoping they will post about them, but the bridge between a brand and the communities that truly matter.
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Ricola launches Keep Your Voice in the Game
On the occasion of the World Cup, Ricola is helping fans keep their voices ready for every match with its Keep Your Voice in the Game campaign.
Whether they are cheering for their national team, chanting from the stands, or celebrating a game-winning goal, fans often put their voices under strain. With this campaign, Ricola positions itself as an ally to supporters, helping them stay match-ready from kickoff to the final whistle.
Launched in June 2026 across Canada and the United States, the initiative includes outdoor advertising, digital activations, and creator partnerships. It also marks the first time Ricola has altered its logo to celebrate the passion and energy of soccer fandom.
McDonald’s brings back the Fried Apple Pie
The original Fried Apple Pie is returning to participating McDonald’s restaurants across the United States for a limited time, bringing one of the brand’s most recognizable and beloved products back into the spotlight.
The initiative shows how McDonald’s continues to use the power of nostalgia as a strategic marketing tool. More than just a product comeback, the Fried Apple Pie is an item capable of connecting the present with personal experiences and childhood memories.
The Fried Apple Pie was not born as just a menu item, but as a family recipe. In the 1960s, McDonald’s East Tennessee Owner/Operator Litton Cochran created a fried hand pie filled with apples.
From a local favorite, it eventually became a true McDonald’s classic, building an emotional connection with generations of customers.
Lyft launches Save the Money. Check Lyft
Lyft launches Save the Money. Check Lyft, a new campaign that transforms a research insight into a character capable of creating an emotional connection with audiences.
At the center of the campaign is Bill, a one-dollar bill who becomes the symbol of the money users lose when they don’t compare different rideshare options before booking.
In the creative story, Bill finds himself soaked outside a bar, abandoned near an airport, and eventually slipping through a street grate. He is not angry, just disappointed, because he believes the situation could have been avoided.
The idea comes from an independent NBER study conducted by economists from Harvard and Johns Hopkins, which found that in 2024, New York City riders left around $300 million in potential savings on the table by not comparing both rideshare apps before choosing a ride.
UNO brings Social Clubs to new cities around the world
With a history spanning more than fifty years, UNO continues to evolve alongside its fans by transforming the game into an increasingly social and contemporary experience.
Following the success of last year’s first edition, Mattel has announced the global expansion of UNO Social Clubs, with a new five-city tour across the United States and the arrival in nine new international destinations.
The first global tour will visit some of the world’s most important cities, including Barcelona, Berlin, London, Mexico City, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Tokyo, and Toronto, in addition to the U.S. stops.
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!
Brand Waves This Week
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.
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.
The e.l.f. BookTok activation is such a good example of the difference between inserting yourself into culture and participating in it. The partnership makes sense because it starts with the community rather than the product. That's much harder to do well than people realise!