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🐝 Pollen [week of June 8]

Insights, ideas, and inspo to get your brain buzzin and make your brands break through.

• I need your help! I am writing an article for Inc.com about culture’s portrayal of dads and if you are a MILLENNIAL DAD, ✨ please take my survey ✨ (or send to millennial dads you know)!!! I only need 18 more respondents for a stable sample size. 🙏

• LinkedIn is rolling out a new impressions metric: in-network vs. out-of-network reach. This is a VERY important update as it will help you understand if your content is resonating with just your close network, or a wider group of people, and therefore driving more impressions.

• The dotcake trend is going bananas and tbh not sure why bc it’s literally just cake with sprinkles (like remember cronuts??? those were impressive) but anyways Play-Doh did it here, Food & Wine did it here, and Jimmy John’s did it here (maybe my favorite 😅).

• Cool BTS video of what a face designer does at Barbie and what an artisan does at de Gournay. Reminder that many things employees do day to day might seem mundane, but is actually very cool to other people.

• Have you noticed? Running is getting remixed: Bandit’s Grand Prix, an F1 inspired race, Diplo’s run club DJ parties, On’s On Squad Race, an elimination-style relay race. Even HYROX’s fitness racing. Running is anything but boring these days and I love seeing how brands are reinventing the space. This is reflecting a bigger shift around fitness becoming social experiences, and everything turning into entertainment.

• MAFIA is a new reality TV show by Founders Fund - think Silicon Valley meets Traitors - featuring people like Sam Altman, Bryan Johnson, and Dylan Field. TBPN wrote about why this works here: “Take a proven format (Late Night, Shark Tank, a talent competition, a cooking show) and rebuild it for a niche community you know better than anyone.”

• I’ve heard a few moms mention this and it feels like a trend bubbling under the surface that might take off soon: 90s kids summer, which is all about analogue activities - think board games, riding bikes, libraries, LEGOs. Sign me up

• National Geographic’s bee-boards for their Secrets of Bees documentary are so fun and so fitting for The Pollinatr! I loooove creative OOH.

• Parenting brands Peanut and Nuna just released The Motherhood Index - a report diving into the mindset of moms and what they need. A few standout stats:

  • 93% of mothers report experiencing burnout, with 58% saying they feel burned out often or almost always.

  • 47% of mothers have scaled back, paused, or left their careers since having children.

  • 58% say flexible and remote work is the single innovation that would most improve their lives - ranking it above healthcare investment, affordable childcare, and policy reform.

• Parenting is an extreme sport. Liquid Death’s campaign is spot on 😅

• Menopause might be getting its moment in the spotlight, finally. Melinda French Gates is calling for a menopause revolution.

• AI can’t save a brand with bad taste. Great read by

• It feels important that Polly Pocket has entered the TikTok chat.

  

  @pollypocketI never left actually 💟#pollypocket #nostalgia #girlcore

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• Paramount just announced Paramount Games and this is going to be huge. It’s being led by Tony Driscoll (who I worked with at Epic Games). He shared, “Games have become one of the most powerful forms of storytelling and community-building in the world. At Paramount, we're building games as a core content pillar alongside film, television, and streaming. That means investing in original worlds, deepening fan relationships, and creating experiences that can grow into the next generation of franchises.” Think of Paramount’s IP that might turn into games: Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, SpongeBob, Sonic the Hedgehog, PAW Patrol (a current fav in our house). Will be interesting to see if this is more successful than Netflix’s games approach so far. I honestly don’t see people talking about gaming a lot on Substack but gamers are some of the most passionate audiences I’ve ever marketed to.

• Knicks mania is taking over NYC and Canes mania is taking over Raleigh. That game was wilddddd on Saturday! Sports are so much fun right now!!!

• Speaking of sports, I can’t NOT include the 6 minute world cup film, “Rip the Script,” from Nike. It could have been really serious but I love how much FUN they baked into it.

Have a buzzy week my friends!!!

🐝 Michelle

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🐝 Pollen [week of June 1]

Insights, ideas, and inspo to get your brain buzzin and make your brands break through.

• These are the cutest shop signs and great inspo for creative OOH

• My old boss and Co-CEO/Head of Strategy at Baldwin&, Ashley Yetman, wrote a great article for Fortune, “Everyone is blaming AI for the death of ‘craft.’ Take a good look in the mirror”. A recommended read this week

• Love this activation from Domino’s for the World Cup where they’re giving away $1M of “emergency pizzas” if the US gets a red card. Super smart way to be involved with the cultural moment without spending bajillions on being a sponsor.

• If you’re not convinced you should be on LinkedIn (esp for B2C brands), I saw a great influencer campaign last week for a new snack food called Wilde. Nate Rosen from , Mya Shell (who posts day in the life content), and Enara Roy (who works in CPG social media) all posted about this new snack they eat during the work day and it broke through my feed.

• Speaking of CPG, Chomps released “Le Chic’ken” a limited edition purse that looks like a rotisserie chicken to celebrate their new chicken stick flavors. we looooove a chomp in our house and this is hilarious 😂

• I saw this on Substack “Has anyone else noticed that their parents are now glued to their phones like they're teenagers?” which prompted me to read more here and post about it here. I haven’t seen this covered a ton and it is a cultural conversation that needs to be had. BRICK I HAVE AN IDEA FOR YOU. If anyone knows anyone on Brick’s marketing team, lmk.

• Last week Substack put on the Substack Media Summit, a slick event for their top writers and it looked bangin. Really exciting to see them investing in marketing.

• Local media is making a comeback thanks to neighborhood newsletters on Substack. My fav is and gives me sooooo much nostalgia for living there.

• The Pope published his encyclical, MAGNIFICA HUMANITAS: ON SAFEGUARDING THE HUMAN PERSON IN THE TIME OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. This is a great overview. Of note, the co-founder of Anthropic gave a seven minute speech, which was quite compelling. One quote that stood out: “We need moral voices that the incentives cannot bend.”

• Figma threw a funeral for the “death of design.” FUN

• Blue Bell USA is a cute commercial for the ice cream brand. It’s 10 months old but I just saw it on TV last night. This feels like a huge brand platform they’re sitting on - could turn this into an entire brand world.

• Typos are the new tell

👉🏼 How Pinterest, Air, and Slack do B2B2C marketing

In the past few years I’ve noticed a change in the B2B world: B2B brands are adding a Consumer segment, B2C brands are adding a Business segment, and some B2B brands are just acting like B2C brands entirely.

This mashup gets me really excited for B2B marketing because it’s forcing a creative reckoning and birthing new strategies. And if you know me you know a hill I will die on is that B2B marketing should NEVER be boring (I’ve talked about it here, here, here).

In case you’re not familiar with what B2B2C is, or Business to Business to Consumer, here’s a graphic from Hubspot that shows the classic B2B2C model:

Think a B2B tool like Slack that is sold to enterprise companies (B) but also markets to their end users (C) to build cool factor and ultimately more adoption.

In-between we have the B2B + B2C split, companies like Doordash, Instacart, and Airbnb who have multi-sided marketplaces with drastically different audiences.

On the other end of the spectrum, Consumer companies are increasingly investing in their Business segments (e.g. Pinterest’s activation at Davos). I’m calling this B2C2B, which I’m defining as business marketing tactics that drive interest with consumers.

And then some B2B brands like Air, Ramp, Figma, and Slate are throwing out the distinction entirely and straight up acting like B2C brands, hallelujah [insert bieber meme here].

Here are a few stats about the growth in this space:

• According to Dynamic Web, 79% of B2B companies report selling directly to consumers, up from 66% in 2024. (This study was focused specifically on e-commerce, however, it is a signal that shows this space is growing)

• Per Google Trends, b2b2c search interest has increased by more than 3x in the past five years worldwide

Why is this evolution happening?

• Companies are trying to find new revenue streams, like Headspace selling their offering to companies as a wellness benefit

• Changing customer expectations (especially as Millennials and Gen Z become business decision makers). Aka we don’t like boring marketing!!!!

• “Brand” as a B2B moat is on the rise. As AI commoditizes work, the things that will stand out are craft, creativity, and taste - key ingredients of powerful brands.

What’s the impact of this?

This shift has created a lot of interesting strategic questions around the best way to approach your marketing plans, especially in a world with the same (or less) budget and resources.

How should you think about your marketing strategy? Does the distinction even matter? Are there smart ways to reach both audiences the same time? How do you “unboring B2B”?

SO, I decided to ask the experts how these shifts have impacted their approaches and advice for marketers who might find themselves in a similar situation.

I chatted with Sara Pollack, VP Global Head of Consumer Marketing at Pinterest, Jeff Tousignant, Head of Marketing at Air, Sabrina Barezkai, Director of Social Media at Slack, and , brand strategist and author of .

Below the paywall we’ve dive into:

• 👀 Traps to watch out for when you’re developing your B2B2C/B2C2B approach

• ⚡️ Marketing strategies to consider for your plans straight from the experts

• 🤩 Some of my favorite examples of brands doing B2B2C/B2C2B well (and a story about how Pinterest Predicts came to be)

• 🌈 Tactics to consider no matter where you are on the spectrum

Read more

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🐝 Pollen [week of May 25]

Insights, ideas, and inspo to get your brain buzzin and make your brands break through.

• Roughly 1 in 4 U.S. fourth graders lacks basic math proficiency, a gap that research suggests begins forming before kindergarten. This is why Lovevery released The Math Skill Set, to build a better math foundation. I’m obsessed with our Lovevery toys and excited to check the math ones out.

• “Women in SPAM” is the new phrase you need to know. SPAM = Social media, PR, Advertising, and Marketing. It doesn’t sound quite as…esteemed…as women in STEM but I find it hilarious and THIS is what I visualize when I hear it. 🤣 This girl might be the one who coined it (hard to say) but she did start a LinkedIn group if you want to join it lol.

• While cancer mortality is declining, cancer is actually on the rise in younger populations (people aged 50 or younger). Colorectal cancer and breast cancer are two of the biggest contributors. And it’s affecting genders (and races) disproportionately - according to the American Cancer Society, “women under 50 have an 82% higher incidence, up from 51% in 2002.” I’ve seen a big push around getting colon and breast cancer screenings for younger populations, but my guess is we are also going to start seeing younger, fresher-feeling brands develop around the cancer space as this trend continues.

• Speaking of cancer, if you want to watch something truly inspirational (and heartbreaking), watch the 60 minutes interview with Ben Sasse, a former US Senator who is battling metastatic pancreatic cancer and on a “press tour” about what’s most important in life as he nears his death.

• Nanit released a heartfelt video about the perfect parent myth. In case you need to hear it, you’re doing a great job.

• Boy vs Girl internet is an interesting theory broke down recently about the pervasive and distinctly different narratives men and women are seeing in their social feeds.

• I wrote about how to be a culture-first brand last year and broke down three ways to do it - tapping into culture, shaping culture, and creating culture. I had put Bobbie in the middle tier and posited that to be considered a “culture creator” brand is very difficult and most won’t ever reach that level. Well last week, I officially put them in the center bullseye.
  
  Bobbie partnered with non-profit The Breasties to introduce a bill to Congress that will provide insurance-covered formula and donor milk for new moms who have had mastectomies. Up until now, new moms get a free pump covered by insurance when they have a baby, but for anyone who has had a mastectomy, a free pump obviously doesn’t help.
  
  They went to DC and got bipartisan backing(!!!) for “Connie’s Bill”, named after one of their original Bobbie Breasties, Connie, who lost her life to breast cancer last year. A brand that introduces legislation that will impact women’s lives for years to come is absolutely creating culture. Kudos to the team at Bobbie and The Breasties and if you want to get involved, write to your rep here (it takes less than 1 minute!).

  

• Trading cards are having a moment. The Athletic shared that the trading card market hit record highs. Business Insider wrote about “How Pokémon turned kids into dealmakers.” And stores like Dicks have created dedicated “Collectors Clubhouse” spaces in their House of Sport locations for kids and parents.

• If you’re looking for a good TV show, my husband and I have been enjoying The Men Who Built America: Frontiersman on Netflix. It’s a fantastic look at the triumphs and sins of America’s early years highlighting people like Daniel Boone, Shawnee warrior Tecumseh, and Davy davyyyyyy crockett, king of the wild frontier.

• Unwell just dropped a vintage Americana video to celebrate their new red, white and blueberry energy drink. Will be interesting to see how many brands lean into Americana vibes as we approach the 250th anniversary of the U S of A.

• For anyone in Raleigh, Quarter Note coffee has THE BEST iced blueberry latte in the world. I had it twice last week. 100/10

  

• Vermont Creamery buttered up their influencers, literally, by sending them butter statues of their heads. so smart, so fun, so creamyyyy

• If your cold calling isn’t working, maybe you should try cold caking.

• I’m loving Scully & Scully’s TikTok videos with their sweet older associate, Frank, highlighting their products like Herend bunnies, Moser crystal, and leather animal footstools. If you’re not familiar, Scully & Scully is a high-end store where people register for things like China. They are being unabashedly themselves and it is quite endearing. It’s a great reminder that you often have the right ingredients in front of you to make fun content.

• RELATABLE 😅

• Last week I highlighted how the women in AI convo is fraught, and then I asked my LinkedIn followers what they were seeing in their feeds. It sparked a huge conversation that was genuinely helpful and nuanced about the state of AI sentiment right now, touching on morals, the dichotomy around feeling the need to adopt it but being worried about it, and how the conversation differs across platforms. Think of this like a mini focus group findings - there are some great quotes if you need one for a brief or deck.

• Speaking of AI, here’s some interesting data commissioned by Adobe about small business owners and how AI is helping them stay afloat: “A survey of 1,000 American small business owners found that today’s entrepreneur is simultaneously playing customer service representative (54%), marketer (44%), bookkeeper (43%), social media manager (41%) and creative director (35%), often with little idea of how much each role would demand.” I totally relate to this and personally use AI for helping with things like redlining legal documents, creating proposals and SOWs, and time tracking.

• Maycember is over PTL and I barely survived. This is an important cultural moment for brands with parent audiences to consider and find ways to help them out. We need it!

Have a buzzy week my friends!!!

🐝 Michelle

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🐝 Pollen [week of May18]

Insights, ideas, and inspo to get your brain buzzin and make your brands break through.

• YETI and WK PDX just dropped a new spot: “If you live for it, there’s four letters for it.” Love loveeee this concept. So simple and ownable for them.

• Have you been birding? Well I haven’t but it sounds like fun and I keep hearing about it! It’s on the rise, especially with teens and younger kids. I find this fascinating and encouraging given it’s a hobby that centers around nature, no technology, and being extremely present.

• The Era of the Tiger Mom Is Over. Enter the Beta Mom. This could not be more relatable: “I’m not willing to spend my time sorting socks.” I’ve never been one to pick a side when it comes to parenting styles but if I had to pick, this one might be it. This is an important cultural shift taking place - expectations for AND from moms are becoming way more realistic.

• Keep the Meter Running is a new TV Show (on YouTube) by Kareem Rahma, the creator of @subwaytakes. It’s produced by him and Adam Faze and they are giving this show the Hollywood treatment: They’re using language like “Watch on your TV, new episodes Wednesdays”, and they had a premiere party last week at The Metrograph with the who’s who in the NYC media scene (, Macy Gilliam, etc.). This makes so much sense because YouTube IS TV and is a very smart approach. My husband and I watched it this wkd and really enjoyed it - feels reminiscent of Bourdain.

• The women + AI conversation is FRAUGHT rn. There’s a bunch of chatter about the AI gender gap with stats like “women adopting AI around 25% slower than their male counterparts” - and a TON of criticism that follows anyone talking about it. (Nasty Gal founder and #GIRLBOSS author) wrote about it here saying people lost their minds, wrote about it here, Reese Witherspoon got roasted for her video here. What’s resulting from this are women-focused AI initiatives launching like AI Girl Gang. What I find interesting is the uproar seems to be happening more in the non-tech/consumer space. I’m not seeing this conversation bubble up as much in the tech space anymore. Perhaps it’s just my algorithm, but most people in my feed seem to be passed the moral + societal implications and worried if they don’t adopt AI they will be left behind/fired/replaced.

  • Speaking of AI, highly recommend subscribing to . She just did a great deep dive for the NYT, “Silicon Valley is Bracing for a Permanent Underclass.”

• I’m obsessed with Southern Living’s new episodic TikTok series called Test Kitchen Diaries. They’re turning up the drama a la Southern Charm …“Quit being ugly!” 😂

  

  @southern_livingThe iced tea in the Southern Living Test Kitchen is suddenly piping hot. Tune in tomorrow! 👀

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• NFL teams are getting creative on TikTok with their schedule release posts: LA Rams with food, NY Jets with paint, The Patriots with slime. This could be a fun format for any brand that has a schedule or seasonality.

• Why you should read children’s books even if you don’t have kids

• Spotify launched party of the year so you can find out your first ever streamed song in celebration of their 20 year anniversary. Feels similar to Wrapped but on a smaller scale, I wonder if they’ll do more of these. In case you were wondering, my first streamed song was Chiddy Bang in 2011 and if that doesn’t scream Millennial in NYC I don’t know what does.

• wrote about The Six Megatrends That Define 2026, which is full of amazing charts and stats related to culture, how we spend time, health, AI, employment, politics, and media that would be useful for most any brief

• LinkedIn is launching a brand partnerships alpha creator program, which will allow brands to more easily find relevant creators (currently it is very manual) and give them direct access to alpha creators’ data (yours truly was selected! 🤩). This signals to me that creators are going to become a key strategic pillar for LinkedIn, similar to other platforms like YouTube and IG.

• and I are starting a B2B summer pop up Substack Live series to chat creativity in B2B marketing. Here’s our first episode!

Have a buzzy week my friends!!!

🐝 Michelle

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🐝 Pollen [week of May 11]

Buzzy insights to make your brand break through.

• Don’t forget, if you want to reach moms, I wrote the playbook here.

• World Cup is heating uppppp and YALL this five minute Adidas ad is absolutely on FIRE. People are calling it the best world cup ad in 20 years. And this continues the trend that long-form storytelling videos are way more compelling than 30 second ads.

• Classic Mother’s day social posts that are so cute where you have kids draw your porduct. Chanel did it here. JCrew did it here. Poppi did it here.

• Speaking of moms, loved the Gap partnership with Molly Baz and her adorable son Boots. Millennial gold right there.

• A few friends recently have mentioned they’re considering home births and so I wanted to see what the stats were saying. While home births account for less than 2% of births in the US, it is growing with a 70% increase between 2016 and 2024, totaling 50k births in 2024.

• A fun social idea for Mother’s Day next year. My feed was filled with mom’s pics of their kid’s “about my mom” form that school helps them fill out. It is always very cute and funny (I’m apparently 4 months old). Recreate this but make it “about my brand”

• Another very fun social format: croissant balloons. Film your product hanging on strings upside down and cut them so that it looks like they float away.

• Don’t forget America’s 250th birthday is coming up and brands are starting to activate. Keystone just dropped the wildest Americana ad for their new apple beer that I’ve ever seen. It looks like someone from the White House social media team made it, if that gives you any idea of what to expect 😅

• Also coming up are the Las Culturistas Awards on June 19th. Their nominations were just released and I can’t stop laughing. I think every brand has the opportunity to come up with their own bizarro nominations. Maybe even get back into live-tweeting the event.

• Really great inspo for the best brand PR packages. (I want the Miu Miu ice cream!!!)

• Facebook is back????? Rachel Karten wrote about it here and Oliver from Mischief gave more background here. Will be interesting to see how this evolves and might be worth testing out your Facebook page again to see what happens.

• This guy went viral for getting fired from Ashley Furniture for rapping about couches while working (internal comms gone way wrong…could have been a Staples Baddie moment), and now he’s picking up paid partnerships like this one with Maybelline. Get that bag.

• Claude’s first developer conference, Code with Claude, looked like a blast. Cardputers, 8 bit pixel sticker photo booth, Claude-powered typewriter…very creative and elevated.

• Anyone in RDU who wants to hang?! I’m starting something and want your input.

Reflections on motherhood my second time around 🫶

My husband I weren’t necessarily convinced we were going to have kids. We were married for seven years before we decided we should start trying. We loved our DINK lifestyle and independence. I had been bit by the ambition bug and climbing the corporate ladder. I couldn’t imagine anything being more important (lol).

But ultimately we decided we wanted to have kids more than we didn’t want to have kids.

The second we started trying, that was the only thing I could think about. It’s a funny thing how that works. By God’s grace, we were able to get pregnant in an average amount of time with no complications.

Fast forward, we have two boys - 3.5 yo and 5 months old - and they are our biggest blessings. And they will forever be the biggest accomplishment of my life.

We also know that we are done with having kids, so I have been thinking a lot about this entire experience the second, and last, time around.

Here are some of my reflections about motherhood - the beautiful surprises, hardships, and revelations I wasn’t expecting:

1. JOY. I love how one of the first things a baby learns to do is smile. At 2 months old, before many other major developments happen, your baby smiles. What that tells me is that joy is at the root of our existence. Even though our world is broken, joy still exists and persists.

2. PERSPECTIVE. I liken having a kid to going outside of your home country for the first time. You realize there is a whole other world out there with so much to relish, learn, and enjoy. Everything else in life shifts to make room for this new perspective and priority. Work gets put in its place in the most healthy way, bc you realize that while yes, work is rewarding, it is not the only thing anymore (thank goodness).

3. SLOW. Something I both deeply struggled with and absolutely adore is how life slows down. You go from living at a 3x speed to a .25x speed. Time warps - an hour passes in a moment. A moment feels like a year. Sitting and staring at my baby is one of my favorite activities.

4. PRESENCE. If you ever want to learn how to live in the present, to notice things, and to find joy in the ordinary, have a kid. I’ve never stared at someone’s ear for so long (while breastfeeding) and been so amazed. The hundreds of mini hairs, the way it’s shaped, how cool ears are?? Or going on a walk with a toddler. It will take you a year to go a block, but it will make you pick up on details about the trees, the blooms, the clouds, your child, that you would never have otherwise.

5. AWE. I am completely in awe of the female body and how it was designed. How it just knows what to do, how it creates LIFE. I know people have babies all the time but if you stop and think about it - it is profound and mysterious. It reminds me of some of my favorite scripture, Psalm 139:

¹³ “Certainly you made my mind and heart;
you wove me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I will give you thanks because your deeds are awesome and amazing.
You knew me thoroughly;
¹⁵ my bones were not hidden from you,
when I was made in secret
and sewed together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb.^”

6. INSANE. They say sleep deprivation is a form of torture and I couldn’t agree more. I’ve never felt more insane (and weirdly more energized????) during the first few months postpartum.

7. INTENSITY. Everything about birth is wildly intense. That I expected. But something I didn’t expect is the intense eye contact your baby craves from you. They love to stare deeply into your eyes and it is one of my favorite things. Also, the science behind it is very cool - your brainwaves sync up.

8. BLOOMING. I can’t stop thinking about the analogy of a child growing up like a flower blooming. Flowers unfurl in this beautiful way, showing off new facets of itself over time. It’s the same with kids - each season reveals beautiful new attributes of their personalities, the way they look, what they love, what they’re scared of, what their dreams are.

9. FUN. People talk about how HARD parenting is (which is true), but people don’t talk enough about how FUN it is. You learn to play again, to be silly, to make believe, to not take yourself too seriously. To try not to laugh at the incessant poop jokes 😅

10. MEANING. I expected parenting to be meaningful. But I wasn’t sure exactly how. Some of the most meaningful things about parenting I’ve learned now is that you get to help your kids find themselves, introduce them to passions, overcome their fears, to fill their minds with wonder and beauty, to teach them cool things about the world, to be kind and generous and sensitive. To love deeply. To create the future you want to see.

11. POWER. I was surprised at how powerful motherhood makes me feel. That MY body not only created life, but also sustains it??? I am so proud of the fat rolls I made all over his body, especially this one in the middle of his bicep that seems impossible to have a roll on.

12. PRIMAL. Motherhood is primal. Being a mom brings out something deeply instinctual in how you love, protect, and act. I would not wake up for anyone or anything every two hours for four months if you paid me a million dollars. Besides my baby.

13. FAITH. My journey through motherhood has deepened my faith in a million ways. It’s helped me understand the dimension of God as my father, a concept I know logically but haven’t always known. The other day my 3yo came running to tell me he got a boo boo. I was so glad that he did, because I always want to know when he’s been hurt so I can take care of him. It hit me in that moment that even though God knows about all of our boo boos, he wants us to run to him to tell him about them, so he can comfort us too.

14. GRIEF. I have been taken aback by the grief that comes with parenting. Each new stage your child goes through is so exciting, and also very sad at the same time. There are little deaths each day, week, month. The last time you breastfeed your baby. The last time they take a nap on you. The last time they crawl. The last time they say that word that silly way. The last time they say, “mommy hold me.”

15. FRAGILE. I always knew life was fragile, but you don’t appreciate the depth of life’s fragility until you have a baby. That we’re really not in control of anything no matter how hard we clench our fists and hold on tight. It could all be gone in a second. Every single day I thank God for my children, I pray for protection, and I try to soak it all in.

I’m only a few years into the parenting journey but I can’t wait to continue to learn, grow, stretch, cry, teach, care, serve, and love.

Have a buzzy week my friends!!!

🐝 Michelle

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🐝 Pollen [week of May 4]

Insights, ideas, and inspo to get your brain buzzin and make your brands break through.

• Speaking of the Devil Wears Prada, I think it was very strategic to premiere the movie the weekend leading up to the Met gala. Also I loved that they made a real Runway magazine to promote the movie. Vogue also did some very fun reporting about the real Emily. The Met gala is tonight and the theme is “Costume art”.

• After I posted about the Girls Scout stat last week, a new brand in the comments caught my eye. Cuqui Media calls themselves “The future of youth culture.” It’s founded by an impressive team who have worked at culture-first media brands like R29, Seventeen, Teen Vogue, MTV and Dazed. They’re starting it because “We're moms seeing what this social landscape is doing to our kids. You can't tell kids to log off without giving them something worth logging into.” This category is growing with the recent announcement of WYouth. Watch this space.

• Have you heard of Salone (what Americans call Milan Design Week)? It broke through my feed this year and brands are starting to take notice. I chatted with of (read her fantastic recap here) to get advice for brands who want to activate there:

  • “I went last year and it got half the press. The tradeshow itself is ancient, but Fuori (the outside events), have been growing for the last 3-4 year. This year felt mega and I would say next year will be a must-do for many brands

  • Italians are protective of their culture (there were some negative comments about RH’s store opening on The stanza) but activations that consider the public is not a bad thing.

  • Historically Salone was only for ‘home’ brands but that’s no longer true. Before Fuori became the draw for influencers/creators/designers, these events were and still are attended by the Milan public. Many of them are geared towards moms and kids who aren’t yet in school or who don’t go to school full time yet.” For example, this super cool fruit and veggie merry-go-round, or McDonald’s Damien Hirst-inspired ball pit.

• F1 Miami happened yesterday and is the perfect example of the reality TV-ification of sports I wrote about last year. The sport has massively skyrocketed in popularity over the past few years with 42M followers on IG, more female and younger viewers, and Vanity Fair wrote an article about the sport if that tells you anything.

• What are your favorite small brands? One of you mentioned in my reader survey that highlighting small brands would be nice. I’ve started reaching out to some of my favs, but would love to hear from you! Just reply to this email.

• There’s a new coworking company called Switchyards, “the world’s first neighborhood work club”. There’s 30+ locations across the South and they’re opening a location in Raleigh soon. This feels different from WeWork in the best way - local, personal, and more like a hotel lobby bar or cool coffee shop than an office. tbh I might sign up.

• Selfie sticks for Series A: The rise of the young founder-influencer is a great read from Business Insider. It highlights the importance of storytelling from the start, and why you’re seeing so many founders more active on social.

• Claude launched a supper club and their marketing approach continues to be elevated, creative, and a step ahead of ChatGPT.

• Naked nails are the new status symbol (thanks for the link, Em!)

• One of my fav collabs last week was Bobbie x Jones Road. They released a Sleepless Night kit, did a pop up at the Jones Road NYC location, and are gifting some lucky moms two nights of sleep at a posh hotel. They clearly get what moms actually want for Mother’s Day. I spoke with Kim Chappell, Bobbie’s Chief Brand Officer and she shared:

  • “This is what happens when two mom founded companies get into a zoom and realize they all have miserable sleep scores and that there’s nothing we can do about it: no beauty product or bottle of formula is going to get you or your baby sleeping through the night. So instead of selling a false promise, we’re celebrating our collective exhaustion. The Sleepless Nights Kit was born by tired moms for tired moms who are growing businesses, babies and brands and knowing so many of our shared customers at Bobbie and Jones Road are doing the exact same.”

• Speaking of collabs, American Girl and Hill House just partnered and I LOVE it. It is so smart because it 1. Plays into an existing behavior of matching your doll (and moms with daughters) - but now you can do it in cute clothes instead of Victorian PJs I wore to match my Samantha doll 😅 2. It taps into nostalgia in a very smart way because my guess is Millennial women are their core shoppers who grew up with American Girl Dolls and 3. The brands are spiritually aligned vibes-wise

• And speaking of nostalgia, Pizza Hut brought back their iconic summer reading program BOOK IT! and it’s littttt(erate) lol

• Did you know that Japan celebrates 72 microseasons? Currently we’re in “peonies bloom” (which is in fact true, my peonies are blooming!) and tomorrow “frogs start singing” commences. Here’s a deep dive about why they do this.

• My three favorite B2B posts last week: Christina Pearo’s bedtime story fairytale for Slate, Ramp’s ramp season post 🥬, and Hubspot’s “If sales was like the NFL Draft” post.

• J Lo is on LinkedIn ( first flagged in ) as the CEO of Cruz airline, her character in the upcoming romcom, Office Romance, and she posted the trailer on her page. So smart and creative!

Trendsettrs: Oliver McAteer

Trendsettrs is a Pollinatr column about marketers blazing their own trails who share tactical advice from the front lines that will inspire your work.

Meet Oliver!

Oliver caught my eye last year when I saw him posting provocative POVs on LinkedIn about the advertising industry. I looked at his profile and saw he was the head of new biz but also the head of marketing for the agency, Mischief @ No Fixed Address, which also had a fantastic LinkedIn presence (I’ve analyzed hundreds of advertising agencies’ LinkedIn pages, and Mischief is in a league of their own.)

If you’ve worked in the ad world for any stint of time, you’ll know that agencies notoriously do not prioritize their own brand, much less promote it. Mischief does the opposite, and has seen major success because of it.

If you’re not familiar, Mischief was cofounded by Greg Hahn, and burst onto the scene in 2020. Their tagline is “We make work that creates a stir because we believe the riskiest thing a brand can do is be ignorable,” and that’s what they actually do. Since, they’ve done break-through work like Tubi’s fleshy cowboy head, Goldfish’s tiniest Macy’s parade float, Coors Light’s case of the Mondays, and NPR’s recent Why campaign.

They’ve racked up almost every award imaginable for being creative AND effective, a very rare combo. They just won the Iridium Effie for the second year in a row for their work with eos, nbd. 🤯 called them “the blueprint for modern independent agencies” and IMO, they are one of the hottest shops in the industry right now.

Our convo below covers:

• ✨ How Mischief markets themselves

• ❗️Why every agency (and brand) should be posting on LinkedIn

• 🤔 Something most people don’t know about Mischief

Michelle: What is a career highlight of yours or something you’re most proud of?

Oliver: Being a part of a Mischief from the ground up.

Michelle: What does your role entail? It seems really unique.

Oliver: I think we created an entirely new role. It’s a growth role that marries new business and PR. These two disciplines are not joined at the hip—they ARE the hip. There wasn’t even a title or job description when I joined Mischief. It was just, “how can we grow the agency in a way that feels true to what we stand for?”

Michelle: Why does Mischief have a marketing department and what’s your approach?

Oliver: It’s funny; agencies complain about pitching, but if you put yourself in a marketer’s shoes you can understand why most feel like a pitch is absolutely necessary: Agencies are trying to be all things to all people. Which makes them nothing to no one. There’s a danger of diluting yourself so you can cast your new business net wider. It’s no wonder marketers pitch—they don’t know what all these agencies stand for and what makes them different.

From day one, we wanted Mischief to communicate that we just do one thing really, really well: We create work that makes a stir, because the riskiest thing your brand can do is be ignorable. We want to make an impact on business and on culture. That’s not for everyone. But we’d rather be rejected for who we are than be accepted for who we are not.

As for what our approach to marketing ourselves actually looks like, we have a cheeky growth engine we lovingly call The Circular Sauce. It starts and ends with the work. There’s a lot that goes into it, but a big part is content—positioning it as our process disguised as entertainment, constantly being in your feed with lowfi buzz, and making our partners and their people famous. The stories we lay down publicly are essentially answers to RFI/RFP questions. We want marketers to feel like they know us before they need us.

Michelle: Why should every agency (and brands!!!) be posting on LinkedIn across the company and employee pages?!

Oliver: Because it houses the biggest opportunity to showcase your brand personality. If TikTok is absurdly human, and Reels is slightly more manicured human, LinkedIn is largely still more corporate robot when it comes to the type and tone of content. This means there is a higher likelihood to cut through the noise if you bring that TikTok energy to LinkedIn—it’s the least expected platform for unpolished.

Michelle: What impact have you all seen from posting on Mischief’s, yours, and Greg’s LinkedIn? Have you ever gotten a client because of it?!

Oliver: Yes. We do see the Mischief and our people’s social presence are a powerful collective new business driver. It gives our clients and the work a powerful microphone and immense longevity. One campaign, for example, is not treated as a contained moment at launch—it is a thousand and one different stories about the business problem and impact, the strategy, the BTS production stories, the creativity.

Michelle: I love that y’all have a Substack (). What is next for the Mischief brand? Can we expect any IRL events, swag, and/or campaigns?!

Oliver: I think what’s really exciting about Mischief is that we’re only just getting started. We will keep evolving based on what clients need from us.

Last year, for example, we launched an unbiased approach to media buying that truly integrates creativity, as well as launching our AI-native production arm The Candy Factory. We view our growth not by size or headcount or offices, but by how much impact we can have on business, culture, and the ad industry.

Michelle: I was wondering who was the voice behind the Mischief page, and it’s you! What about your background as a journalist sets you up for this role?

Oliver: It’s less about a specific background (although, sure, I think being able to form a sentence and write really fast helps), but everything about the environment you’re able to play in.

Mischief is a safe place for dangerous ideas—and that’s not isolated to the creative, it’s all departments. I’ve been given a playground to experiment completely free from fear. It is so liberating and exciting. Mistakes will be made—mistakes have been made—but that’s all part of the process.

Mischief launched under the question: “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” You’re seeing that in action.

Side note: I find it so compelling that Oliver, a partner at the agency, is the one writing the LinkedIn posts (and other channels). He believes in the value of it SO much that he is doing it himself.

Michelle: How do you not pitch as an agency?!

Oliver: So we definitely do pitch. We’re just really choiceful about when and how we pitch. A lot of invites can feel like unfair asks (huge list of deliverables, a big dog and pony show, and a budget that doesn’t balance out—if that’s shared at all).

If the ask is fair, then we need to figure out if the process is setting us all up to succeed. Mischief’s process is super collaborative. It’s just two steps: Figure out what to say, and decide how to say it in the most interesting way.

That first step is strategy. And strategy for us is collaboration, collaboration, collaboration. Our magic is in lots of little “ah-ha!” moments with our partners. That way, by the time we get to the idea it just feels like the natural answer to all the homework we’ve done together.

Pitches are rarely set up for this much collaboration because it’s overbearing for marketers to do that amount of work with several agencies at once. So it creates more of a “tah-dah!” show where the agency vanishes for several weeks and tries to sell in an idea. Mischief sells nothing—it solves. We find the best way to start a longterm partnership is through a project to try this process on and grow from there.

Michelle: Tell me something most people don’t know about Mischief, like how y’all are actually the best strategy shop cleverly disguised as a hot creative shop...

Oliver: Yes. I think a lot of people see the big buzzy cultural work and might miss that it’s all part of a bigger, smart and highly strategic long-term brand play that is helping evolve brands over multiple years. Our effectiveness is dangerous. So much so, that if you’re a public company, we’ve found a direct correlation between working with Mischief and seeing rise in share price. We’ve been named the World’s Most Effective Independent Agency for the last two years (Effies 2025, WARC 2026), with more news to come soon.

Michelle: Is building a personal brand “cringe”? Tell me about your new year’s resolution and how your personal Instagram is taking off. What doors has it opened? What do you love about it?

Oliver: I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, because I did once believe it was quite cringey. That was just the British inside of me. Once you get past the cringe barrier I’ve found it opens up more doors than you have people telling you you’re cringey. So the risk versus reward is just a no brainer. Also, if people think it’s lame to put yourself out there, I argue is it far more lame to just sit on your couch and absorb the content of people putting themselves out there. One of those feels more productive than the other.

My New Year’s resolution was to create something every time I felt the urge to consume. That flip has led to more content across Mischief and my personal channels. The latter opened up an unexpected sidequest as the unofficial CMO of New Jersey as a British guy who loves living there. Would you believe that that too has led to new business conversations at Mischief (turns out there are a lot of marketers in NJ) and connections to reporters at publications who are interested in talking about Mischief work. (Side note: I saw Oliver in the wild quoted in a Washington Post article because of his vid of a crossing guard diva)

Michelle: A lot of agency people I’ve talked to either feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start, or are paralyzed by perfectionism. What advice do you have to help people just start posting?

Oliver: Yeah. Perspective. In 100 years from now we’ll all be dead and no one will remember you. Have fun while you can. It’s not about the pursuit of perfection of happiness—it’s the happiness of pursuit.

Michelle’s final thoughts: DAYUM that last quote got me good wbu? What they are cooking up at Mischief is so impressive, and it’s also MAGNETIC. Their energy is undeniable and pulls you into their orbit. And that’s what a brand wants for their brand, right? Mischief’s proof is in the pudding. I can’t wait to see what else they have up their sleeves. Thank you so much for your time and insightful perspective, Oliver!!!

Have a buzzy week my friends!

🐝 Michelle

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🐝 Pollen [week of April 27]

Insights, ideas, and inspo to get your brain buzzin and make your brands break through.

• Ladder dropped a new campaign with Hilary Duff last week, “Stronger not Smaller” and it was fire. They are tapping into the cultural shift where women are trading cardio for the weight room. It’s not about being as SKINNY as possible anymore, it’s about being STRONG (read more in my Why everyone is wearing weighted vests article here). She was the perfect celeb partner because she is back in pop culture bigger than ever and is a millennial mom icon (and every mom knows the importance of having strength to pick up your kids, like my 40 pound 3yo 😅 ).

• Last week I talked about the viral TikTok of Jacob glug glug glugging sauvy b at the Courtyard Marriott in Westbury, NY, and in less than a week P.F. Changs invited him to their restaurant for Wine Wednesdays. So simple, so swift, so smart.

• Girl Scouts released a survey revealing that girls are scared to grow up. The older they get, the more scared they are: “41% of girls ages 5 to 7 feel scared about becoming a grown-up, jumping to 62% among ages 8 to 10, and staying high at 60% among ages 11 to 13.” A brand should do something about this.

• , one of my paid subscribers, compiled a website of all of the brand Substacks she has found so far. It’s a very useful resource for doing a competitive analysis or if you need inspo for launching your own.

• Great read from about the Emma Grede pile-on

• The Kentucky Derby is on Saturday and in case you need a champagne bottle hat, here you go

• The NFL draft happened and the most important takeaway is that Fernando Mendoza updated his LinkedIn 😂

• Obsessed with the Starbucks x Devil Wears Prada activation!!! Custom drinks based on the characters and hilarious red carpet activation inviting interns and assistants to the premiere, dressing them up in jackets with coffee cup holders. It is self-aware and plays into the story line so well.

• Dr. Becky Kennedy has been giving us a marketing masterclass on how to reach moms. As a mom of young kids, I saw the announcement of Good Inside Baby on her LinkedIn (she’s a fantastic follow btw), in a Substack collab with Caroline Chambers (recipe author with 500K+ subs), and an event recap with leaders in the mom space.

• A deep dive on the Lena Dunham Substack press tour. Great read for anyone in comms or PR.

• Fun fact I learned at the farm. Did you know for cows to have milk they had to have recently given birth? Makes sense now that I think about it, but had no idea!

• omg if you work for a restaurant brand please work with this guy. he goes to restaurants, eats the food, and then yells their slogan until everyone gets HYPE

• Thank you to everyone who took my survey. If you haven’t, would you mind taking it? It will help me focus on your top priorities. Thanks in advance! 🙏

💼 The rise of the portfolio career

Do you know what a “portfolio career” is? Most people don’t. I’ve noticed this phrase bubbling up in the corners of Substack and LinkedIn and per Google Trends, searches for the phrase increased by 5x only in the last year, peaking in the past few months.

While the phrase is new, it’s reflecting a cultural shift taking place in the way work is being done, giving rise to a powerful new audience (and a powerful new opportunity for you to future-proof your career).

A portfolio career means treating your career like you do investing: diversify your risk by diversifying your portfolio. Meaning, you make money from a variety of revenue streams, instead of putting all of your eggs in the full-time basket.

I found out about this topic through the book, The Startup of You. It is written by LinkedIn’s cofounder, Reid Hoffman, and Ben Casnocha. They make the case that all humans are entrepreneurs and “to flourish as a professional in today’s world, you need to forever be a startup.”

A portfolio career is not just freelancing, because that’s typically just one skill you’re deploying over and over, and it’s also not gig-economy work (e.g. driving Uber), because that is less skill-based and more availability-based. In the book they suggest combining “different skills, experiences, and connections into an overall value proposition that’s rare and valuable.”

This book came at a perfect time while I was in the middle of deciding to go out on my own. For ~13 years I had been in a full-time role, and then I got laid off, which made me reevaluate everything.

Now, I am building a portfolio career (initially on accident, now purposefully), where I make money through LinkedIn + Substack consulting, being a creator, and writing my newsletter. And I have more plans in the works, like launching a digital product and one day getting paid for speaking engagements.

You might be wondering, why does this cultural shift matter to marketers? Below the paywall I break down the below, including expert interviews from portfolio careerists of False Start and of ICYMI.

• 🚦 The signals I’m seeing and what’s contributing to this shift. Substacks are loading, Stan stores are launching, influencers are influencing.

• 👀 Why this is a powerful audience you should pay attention to. They’re your customers and your influencers, all-in-one. A MAJOR unlock for brands

• 💪🏼 Advice for taking charge of your career. Anyone reading this newsletter should 100% be thinking about what your skills are and how you can diversify your income. Reid says, “If you don't find risk, risk will find you."

Today’s newsletter is somewhat non-traditional. It’s part cultural trend analysis, and part advice. Ready to dive in?

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🐝 Pollen [week of April 20]

Insights, ideas, and inspo to get your brain buzzin and make your brands break through.

• I STILL need your help! Would you mind taking my survey, pretty please? I have a few questions to that will help me focus on the top priorities for y’all. Thanks in advance! 🙏

• Is the girl boss making a comeback? I sure hope not. And also, can there be a more nuanced conversation? I grew up with girl bosses as the aspiration and while I was inspired by their success and hustle, being bad leaders and glamorizing burnout was not great and it helped create really unrealistic expectations for working moms. EITHER WAY, will culture ever get to a place where we just call female founders BOSSES???? I sure hope so.

• Speaking of girl boss culture, Emma Grede (founding partner of SKIMS) just released her new book, Start With Yourself. WSJ is calling it “Lean In for the post-girlboss era,” describing her as “the Kardashian whisperer who says three hours with her kids is enough.” This has caused a major uproar, some saying that’s awful and other women coming to her defense. Good for her for being honest and transparent about the tradeoffs she’s willing to make and not being apologetic about it. And also, that’s not what I want for my life. Regardless of how you feel, it’s clear the working mom conversation continues to be fraught.

• Get your turkey calls out, spring turkey hunting season has started. 2M people hunt turkey every spring across 49 U.S. states, and turkey is the second highest hunted animal behind whitetail deer.

• Want to buy a $60k gown for your teenager? The San Antonio debutante ball is happening this week as a part of the city-wide Fiesta celebration. The Order of the Alamo, a secret male organization, selects the Queen and her court for the Coronation to celebrate Texas’ independence. The debs wear GORGEOUS handmade dresses with 18-foot long trains that weight up to 100 pounds.

• I consulted for Nanit last week on a super fun LinkedIn campaign called “Open to work”, where Nanit made the case they had been doing the job of sleep coach for years but not getting any credit for it. So they made a resume to show for it (10B hours of experience, works 24/7/365, never sick!), and many mom influencers (myself included) shared our glowing reviews for this impressive candidate. If anyone needs help activating LinkedIn in creative ways, LMK!

• Pew just released a great report about teens’ experiences across TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. Interestingly, entertainment is the #1 reason why they go to the platforms, not friends. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but entertainment should be a foundational component of your social strategy.

• Lena Dunham just released her new book, Famesick, and ofc everyone has a hot take about the book, but in Substack world everyone is talking about how the Substack rollout was quite impressive (read this thread). Also, just look at these incredible swag boxes!!! is the brains behind the book rollout in case you are need a resource like this.

• While everyone is talking about the latest Zendaya x On video directed by Spike Jonze (which is cool), I’m loving their latest spring video. It feels like Wes Anderson vibes and is a fantastic example of how to put the product in the center of the storytelling without it feeling salesy.

• omg the Courtyard Marriott in Westbury, NY is having a MOMENT due to their heavy pours of sauvy b. This guy has been documenting his work trip all week and it’s absolutely hilarious, racking up 2M views for just one vid. A wine brand needs to sponsor him stat. GLUG GLUG GLUG

  

  @thejacobhigginsLook at this wine pour

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• While all the influencers were at Coachella, this guy went on a brand trip to Colonial Williamsburg. This is the type of brand trip I can get behind!

• Loved this Zara ad for their kids’ Spring line

• The Boston marathon is today! We lived in Boston for four years and this was always such a fun day. It (sometimes) finally feels like spring, and the whole city shuts down to celebrate and watch the marathon. Lots of day drinking, fun work parties, and pure elation seeing people accomplish such incredible feats. There’s also typically a Red Sox game the same day. If Boston is an important market for your brand, you should consider activating here.

• Speaking of running, Patagonia released a seven minute film “Coming to Term” about their Patagonia ambassador and ultra marathon runner, Clare Gallagher, who gets pregnant and is coming to terms with coming to term. I love that they told this story and how they they rolled it out across social. It almost means more to me as a consumer that it wasn’t linked to Mother’s Day? Also, Clare says pregnancy is harder than an ultra (50-100 miles!!! on rugged terrain!!!) so if you’ve had a baby you should feel really good about yourself today.

Have a buzzy week my friends!!!

🐝 Michelle

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🐝 Pollen [week of April 13]

Insights, ideas, and inspo to get your brain buzzin and make your brands break through.

• I need your help! Would you mind taking my survey? I have a few questions to that will help me focus on the top priorities for y’all. Thanks in advance! 🙏

• Mahjong is golf for girls. The new Mahj card got released and moms around the country are ready to roll (the dice)!

• The secret life of mothers who stay up late. I so relate to this besides that I can’t stay up past 8:30 pm lol…for me it’s the morning between the hours of 4-7 am when I normally write The Pollinatr (like what I’m doing right now).

• If you want to read about the wild world of Peptides, this is the article for you.

• is on Substack (hi!). Will be interesting to see how they diversify their content on the platform

• Is Coachella cooked? I am increasingly feeling that the music festival is past its prime. Every year for the past decade I see the same activation just insert new brand—the sponsored celeb houses stocked with said brand, branded inflatables, branded swag, branded pillows, branded robes. Everything DRIPPING in branding. It feels too much and also been done before. The only notable activation that stood out to me this year was Pinterest’s phone-free experience.

• Someone called Coachella the influencer olympics and nothing has been truer 😅

• Tecovas just released a 13 minute film called “Love Letter to Texas” starring Ryan Bingham, Hassie Harrison, and Michael Shannon, narrated by Sissy Spacek, and written / directed by Jeff Nichols. It is. so. SO. good!!! The FEELING you get watching it captures the essence of Texas, and specifically West Texas, perfectly. Tecovas was never once mentioned, but the boots are the star of the storyline. And of course using Ryan and Hassie, two Texans, who also happened to be married (they met during Yellowstone filming), baked the authenticity deep.

• Speaking of Texas, there’s a major outcry against a proposed wall being built through Big Bend national park (literally one of the most beautiful places in the world) with protests happening across the state, uniting both sides of the aisle.

• Clever Iceland air campaign where they are actively looking for BAD photographers to take pictures of their stunning views

• This new Huggies campaign, “The world is your changing table”, has such a fun insight at the root of it. Great work by Mischief!

• Looooveeee this Vogue interview and photoshoot of Anna and Miranda for The Devil Wears Prada 2. Iconic!!!

• Entertain or Die 3.0 was just released by Small World and Tracksuit. It has some fantastic data points about correlation between entertaining brands driving business metrics. Highly recommend combing through this - there are some great stats to help you make the case for using entertainment as a core strategy.

• Fun Masters activation by IBM in Madison Square Park this weekend, bringing everything from a viewing party to a golf simulator to pimento cheese sandwiches on Shake Shack’s menu

• A few random tidbits about The Masters: Berckmans Place is THE insider spot at Augusta. The gnomes are the most coveted merch. The bird noises may or may not be fake. This is where the celebs party.

⛳️ The Barstoolification of Golf

I absolutely love watching The Masters every year. The tradition and history that the tournament has upheld for the past 92 years is unlike any other. The Masters is a branding masterclass really.

The green jacket, the exclusivity, the gorgeous grounds (I would watch just for the Azaleas!), the Southern charm of it all and the fanfare that goes along with it.

They’re also incredibly principled, which adds to the lore. No phones allowed. No running. No backwards hat. NO branding at the event besides The Masters branding (even Coke is called Cola).

But while The Masters is holding tight to an era that once was, the culture of golf has DRASTICALLY changed around it, leading to what some have dubbed the “Barstoolification of Golf.”

Below the paywall I breakdown the cultural shift happening in front of us, along with interviews from the Head of Merchandising at Johnnie-O and an amateur golfer about their thoughts on the matter.

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🐝 Pollen [week of April 6]

Insights, ideas, and inspo to get your brain buzzin and make your brands break through.

• The Gen Z Christian revival continues to be a hot topic. WashPo just penned an article saying that “Gen Z is turning to the Catholic church to find truth, beauty, and romance”. If you want to read more about this topic, I did a deep dive here.

• Granola sent out spoon swag and I’m obsessed bc 1. It’s spiritually related to their brand (you eat granola with a spoon / their tool is like a spoon “a tool that disappears into the doing”) 2. It’s unexpected (Granola is an AI brand, not a food brand), and 3. It’s useful (everyone needs a good spoon at the office!)

• Spotify x LinkedIn threw an “office party” in NYC on Tax Day with DJ John Summit (who was formerly an accountant) to promote his upcoming album, CTRL ESCAPE. Fascinating brand collab that I didn’t see coming and I really liked it. They invited a bunch of LinkedIn influencers like Vin Matano and Morgan Young to the event, which was v smart to get more reach and feel more Linkedin-y.

  

• A fun social format to try this week: Apple just celebrated their 50th anniversary and created a Mac out of cake. In the world of boring corporate birthday posts, I really liked this one.

• OpenAI bought TBPN, “technology’s daily show”, which has everyone shook. I am mostly convinced ChatGPT bought TBPN bc they have a brand problem and are trying to seem cool. But bad news hunny, you CAN’T BUY COOL.

• If you need campaign inspo to get your wheels turning, Air just released their Beautifully Illogical swipe deck (with yours truly included!) and it’s awesome.

• Tortellini the turtle is not only ADORABLE and gets millions of views, but also wears a backpack. If I was a brand who made purses or backpacks, I’d make a mini one for Tortellini

• I like this girls corporate etiquette content and my guess is this type of content will continue to grow with the rise of AI. As Nicholas Thompson highlighted from the Financial Times, “an often overlooked 2017 study by Harvard economist David Deming showed that social skills have, in fact, seen the biggest rewards in the labour market over recent years.”

• “LinkedIn is the second most cited domain across ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode” (Reddit is the first), per Semrush. SO many companies are struggling with a major decline in SEO (and therefore customers) due to the rise of LLMS. Might be worth considering investing in your LinkedIn strategy. (If you need help, I’m your girl). Also, this is another proof point for why there is a new era of influence happening.

  

• Lucille is a new nutrition brand for Silvers, named after the founder’s grandmother. She started it bc “the nutrition options available to her were ultra-processed, clinical, and joyless. The exact opposite of my spunky, full-of-life grandma.” I LOVE the branding - it’s colorful, sprightful, and feels homemade. They share on their site that “Adults 65+ make up nearly 20% of the U.S. population, yet only 1% of food & beverage innovation is focused on seniors”. It’s fascinating to see innovation in this space and my guess is we’ll see more.

  

• Easter is like the Oscar’s red carpet and Met Gala for Southern women 😂

• I STILL NEED TO KNOW if the Kit Kat heist was real or not. This vid makes me think it was definitely a stunt. IMO, you can’t come out with a statement saying it is NOT a prank if it actually is one. That crosses a line.

• Stephennnnnnnnnnnn!!! Millennials rejoice - the Laguna Beach reunion is happening April 10th! Brands, what are you doing for this?!

• The Infatuation announces that Froyo is BACK (the chic kind, not the Pinkberry kind)

Have a buzzy week my friends!!!

🐝 Michelle

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🐝 Pollen [week of March 30]

Insights, ideas, and inspo to get your brain buzzin and make your brands break through.

• I found this Anthropic report incredibly fascinating where they interviewed 81,000 people across the world about what they want from AI.

• Jia Tolentino (of the book Trick Mirror) just wrote a piece in The New Yorker about Robyn. For Millennials who lived in NYC post-college, this is a must read.

• Air continues to raise the bar for B2B marketing. They threw a block party in honor of their full page NYT ad that proclaims “AI could never”

• The Kit Kat heist is the new Louvre heist. 12 TONS of Kit Kats were stolen 😅 I just really want to know where one would hide this massive stash.

• Speaking of Easter, do you love deviled eggs?? Here are 13 recipes to try from Better Homes & Gardens

• I really want to talk to youuuuu….the song in Apple’s new Neo ad is such an earworm. I looked it up and it’s by a North Carolina artist (woop woop) named Daughter of Swords, and if it sounds like Sylvan Esso to you, it’s bc they collabed!

• No one cares so take bigger swings is a fantastic read by

• Social format to try this week: Which tray are you picking? Loved this social post from Starbucks using their drink trays. You could choose anything from your store to recreate this approach - a food tray, a purse, a store bag - and then use different products to create personas.

• A very cool prison ministry called God Behind Bars is making waves

• Make a link bouquet for your fav coworker!!! This is SO fun!

• The next mission to the MOON, Artemis II, is slated to launch this week on April 1!!! Live stream it here.

💌 Five Substack strategies your brand can use

One of the questions that kept coming up over drinks at SXSW was, “Should my brand launch a Substack? And if so, how?”

I am working on a few proposals for brand Substacks so have been deep in competitive analysis mode, sleuthing through the stacks of Substack. I have done a LOT of work on this front so sharing my findings with you today!

But first, why is Substack worth your time?

By the numbers: Substack is growing YoY and is a valuable audience to reach (stats found from this article).

• 47M unique visitors in September 2025, a 65%+ increase YoY

• 20M+ MAUs

• 5M+ paid subscriptions (not subscribers)

• 52 newsletters earn $500K annually, generating $40M in subscription revenue

• Demographics (take these with a grain of salt because I haven’t seen verified anywhere else) are 65% women, age is distributed evenly with a spike in 25-34 readers, 47% with a college degree, and 54% US based/46% global.

Anecdotally: Substack is much more than just a newsletter platform and a way to dimensionalize your brand

• It’s a way to drive deeper trust and connection with your brand because it’s an intimate space people invite you into (their inbox)

• It’s a social media platform as much as a publishing platform. (We’ll talk more about Notes below)

• It’s a powerful community building tool. (We’ll talk more about Chat below)

• It also can be a new revenue stream depending on your goals

There are so many brands that I think could have a blast with Substack that aren’t in the traditional fashion/beauty categories who are already on the platform.

Think Trader Joes sharing their fav finds (and they already have a newsletter so would be easy), Tecovas sharing stories written from the perspective of their boots, or YETI highlighting the craziest stories of their coolers surviving against all odds (e.g. a bear attack or falling down a waterfall, I’m sure it’s happened! They really are indestructible!).

So if you’re at all interested in launching a brand Substack, today I’m breaking down the following below the paywall:

• 📝 How Substack works with a breakdown of Notes, Chat, and Live

• 🤔 Key questions to ask yourself to help you decide if it’s right for your brand

• 🔥 A competitive analysis of my fav brand Substacks and why

• ✋🏼 Five strategies you can consider for your brand

✨ If you are looking for someone to help develop your Substack strategy, reply to this email and we can set up time to chat! ✨

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🐝 Pollen [week of March 23]

Insights, ideas, and inspo to get your brain buzzin and make your brands break through.

• I’m going to start holding office hours (thank you Anu for the inspo). I’d love to hear your thoughts/questions/hot takes about the latest newsletter. See you this Friday at noon ET!

• The Bracketbrain ESPN ad made by BSSP is super funny. They spoofed a pharmaceuticals ad which made me do a double take when it ended up being about march madness, not a prescription medicine. 😂 Also Hookemmmmmmm

• Do you know what a dead letter office is? I was chatting with my mailwoman Crystal the other day and she told me this is where all the mail goes that doesn’t have a return address or can’t be delivered (e.g. someone has passed away). So fascinating. Also the plot of a horror movie?

• Hollywood has a new Gossip Girl and the internet is trying to figure out who the new Dan Humphries is

• Naturemogging. If I were a tourism or travel brand of any type I’d work with this dude, he’s getting 50-100M+ views on his videos

• Welcome to the age of authorship - a great read by

• Why are you scared of being niche? OK COOL’s new report hits on a topic that has been talking about for a while: Hyper-niche expertise and why the coolest person you know right now has a strangely specific hobby

• This playlist based off of Olivia Dean’s “Man I need” is the perfectttt spring soundtrack and I have been playing on repeat the past few weeks.

• The golden glizzy is a $100 wagyu hot dog with caviar and gold flakes that you can find at the Miami Open. If you try it, lmk your thoughts.

• If you’re having a bad day just look at these tiny raincoats on baby chicks 🥹

✨ The new era of influence

As mentioned last week, my SXSW panel was about Building influence in the age of trust. This week I am doing a deep dive on the topic, including some very smart insights from , , and . I’m excited to hear your thoughts on it.

I’m noticing a shift taking place - it might seem small right now but it’s growing. There is a new era of influence unfolding before us; where, how, and the way influence is being built is changing.

1. Where influence is being built is moving from mass scale platforms to smaller, more intimate spaces like Substack, Slack, and Discord.

2. The way influence is being built is not through virality, but through vulnerability.

3. How influence is being built is not through shock, but through substance.

And what is at the root of all influence? Trust.

In the context of today’s chaotic dumpster fire AI ridden “is anything even real anymore” culture, trust is becoming more insular. According to Edelman’s 2026 Trust Barometer report, trust is:

• Decreasing in national government leaders (-16 net change) no surprise lol, major news orgs (-11), foreign business leaders (-6),

• Increasing in my neighbors, family, and friends (+11), My coworkers (+11), and My CEO (+9).

Trust matters deeply because it is directly linked to purchase decisions. According to Tracksuit, the statement, “Is a brand I trust”, consistently ranks as one of the top two qualities driving purchasing intent across 15,000+ brands.

This shift is very important to pay attention to because it is the path forward for how any brand is going to build influence in this new era.

Ok I’m listening, give me some examples…

• From scale to intimacy: Scale used to signal clout but now it often feels hollow, and in some ways UNtrustworthy. I often think to myself, “How did they get that many followers? Are half of them are fake? Did they sell themselves out?” Smaller spaces allow for more intimacy, realness, and ultimately trust.

  • Substack writers like with 150K+ subscribers wield more influence than sites with 50M visitors. David Protein Bars didn’t go to the WSJ to clear the air about their lawsuit, they turned to Emily. Why? Because she had been covering the rise of David before anyone else had heard of them, but most importantly because her readers trust her. Those who have trust have power.

  • , author of Link In Bio, has an incredibly active Discord for her paid subscribers. If you work in social, this is where you want to be. If you want a job in social, this is where you go to find it. It’s the underground version of LinkedIn where people can have real conversations about what’s happening in their industry.

  • Slate, a tool for social media managers, launched a Slack channel called “The Social Social Club” as a resource for social media managers. It is a place for SMMs to share insights and answer each other’s questions first and foremost, and a marketing tactic second.

  • Brands like Urban Outfitters are shifting their influencer strategy from reach to participation, sending customers on brand trips, not influencers. They are actively capping it to anyone who has LESS than 10k followers.

• From virality to vulnerability: Virality isn’t inherently bad, but it can be a flash in the pan moment that people forget about quickly. Per Rachel’s interview with Paige Tapp from BEIS, “Going viral isn’t the most important thing on social media. Reaching the intended audience and connecting to them in a meaningful way is.” I agree with this and would add that vulnerability is a way to meaningful connect with your audience and to create staying power.

  • CEOs are showing up on LinkedIn in radically different ways. It’s not the buttoned up business facade anymore - it’s the COO of Blackrock sharing videos of himself sweating on runs, the CEO of Duolingo sharing about being wrong, and the CEO of Bobbie putting her values on the line.

  • Celebrities like are opening up on Substack about the highs and lows of fame

  • Writers like are leaving larger publications like The Atlantic to go out on their own. He still writes about culture and technology, but now he can write about whatever additional dimension of his life he wants - like his personal reflection on fatherhood.

• From shock to substance: Shock for the sake of it is feeling overdone, tired, and unnecessary. People are craving content with substance and depth (I wrote more about this here).

  • Intellectual influencers are on the rise, people like and are building portfolio careers based off of their intellect through keynote speaking, advising, and being a creator

  • B2B creator marketing is booming, especially on LinkedIn. Creator Match paid out $1M to B2B creators last year. These creators aren’t just telling you about a product, they’re teaching you. My favorite example is how Air engages creators. Air hired Oren John to run in-person masterclasses for marketers because they know marketers want learn how to make great content like Oren. And then oh by the way you can manage your assets with Air (but it’s never JUST about Air).

  • Rachel wrote about how “The best content on the internet right now heroes effort,” like “I analyzed 1000 posts so you don’t have to”. Aka substance.

And to be clear, what I am NOT saying is that influencer marketing is dead, or that YouTubers and TikTokers with millions of followers aren’t influential. But there is a reason why people like Charli XCX who has millions of fans are moving to Substack. It’s not just to diversify revenue streams, it’s much more than that - to develop deeper, closer relationships (vulnerability) with her audience in a space (intimacy) to share a dimension of herself that might not fit elsewhere (substance).

Why is this shift happening?

Part of this is exclusivity, but more importantly it’s depth. Being on the inside is always more desirable than being on the outside. But what being inside the walls of a private community gives you is access to the unfiltered perspectives of people. People aren’t performing in a Slack channel like they are on LinkedIn.

Also, algorithmic incentives. I chatted with , a prolific agency strategist and Substack author, to get his thoughts. He shared, “I think (without turning this into some grand theory of everything) that it’s downstream of enshittification.

Big platforms don’t start out bad, but they shape the content in the wrong direction. They always start as places where people and ideas move freely, but then they scale, and then they optimise their algorithm to maximise eyeballs and in turn revenue from adspend, and ultimately train the creators to produce content that keeps people scrolling, clicking, buying. The feeds will then saturate with things that perform well on the platform rather than things that are good. Algorithmic incentives shape everything that they touch. People start changing up what they say to fit the system, the system decides what gets seen, and at the end stage you aren’t encountering people or ideas anymore, it’s just the outputs of optimisation.”

Algorithmic evasion. Per of , trend strategist extraordinaire, “The algorithm served its purpose in helping us all ‘find our people’ — whether that’s fellow anime afficiandos or fashion history nerds. But over time, we've seen growing resentment towards reliance on these algorithms as the general public has become more aware of their downsides (like prioritizing controversial content for engagement numbers).

People have shown frustration that platforms can change the algorithm on a whim, and they've grown more resentful of the addictive quality of mainstream social media's infinite feeds. In response, individuals are exploring ways to evade the algorithm — they are increasingly drawn to closed community spaces, like Discord, Slack, and Substack (the private chats and comment sections), that offer all the benefits of digital connection yet in a healthier way that minimizes the drawbacks.”

And conversion masked as connection: of the amazing Substack, Silence, Brand! has a bit of a warning: “Power is shifting to smaller digital spaces and is consolidating around people instead of platforms. We’re watching thought leaders, founders, and ‘professional influencers’ move their audiences off broad, algorithmic feeds and into tighter ecosystems like Substack, Slack groups, Discord servers, and newsletters.

On the surface, this looks like community building, when actually the underlying goal is still conversion. Community becomes both the product and the mechanism that drives sales by building authority through perceived proximity in closed groups. That perceived proximity creates an emotional connection and trust, which makes it easier to sell a product.”

So what can a brand do to prepare? Below the paywall I dive into:

• How to build influence in these new spaces like LinkedIn, Substack, and Slack, with examples for each of them

• What to watch out for

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SXSW was a whirlwind - I got in on Friday morning and left Sunday morning.

My cousin picked me up from the airport (thank you Shannon!) and we went straight to brunch.

Next was my panel at Soho House where I had a BLAST chatting about Building influence in the age of trust. and of and Kim Chappell, Chief Brand Officer at Bobbie, are even cooler IRL and I’m excited to do a breakdown of this topic next week. Thank you so much to everyone who came, it was incredibly special to meet so many of you in person finally.

Then I bopped over to the Breaking & Entering Media happy hour and enjoyed some prickly pear margs with Jack, Geno, and Ellie. They are redefining the ad news landscape and it is very impressive.

After that I bounced over to the Creator Match compound where we had s’mores and talked about all things LinkedIn and B2B marketing.

Saturday I had Taco Deli (of course), got to meet some of my best friends’ precious baby, and then I dashed over to Brand Innovators where I saw my long-time family friend Kathryn McKeon, CMO at Vital Farms, share insights about purpose-driven strategies for disruptive brands. One of my favorite anecdotes about how they stay culturally relevant with their audience was when they ran a Super Bowl spot but at 5 AM because that is when their farmers watch TV. So smart.

Then I walked to The Female Quotient lounge, which was by far the best activation out of all of the ones I saw. It was on the water at the Waller Creek Boathouse styled like a saloon. They had a stage for panels, a bar with custom drinks, a hair station powered by Shopify, and a bookshelf area. Great location and vibes.

After FQ, I had lunch with a friend and old colleague who needs help with her LinkedIn content. Then my friend Ellie Duque, President of Deadline, texted me asking if I was in Austin and told me I needed to stop by the Deadline Studio (entertainment pubs set up shop at big events so they can take pics of the actors as a part of their press tour). When I walked in I saw Vince Vaughn and when I walked out Lisa Kudrow was arriving.

I took a cat nap and got ready for The Breadwinners dinner, which was the perfect end to my trip. It was hosted by and Kim Chappell al fresco at a beautiful Austin home. Alexis started The Breadwinners to create a supportive and empowering community that replaces guilt and individual struggle with confidence, community, and agency.

The guest list was stacked with female founders and entrepreneurs - everyone from Allison Ellsworth (Poppi) to Rebecca Minkoff (her fashion label + The Female Founder Collective) to Jeni Britton (Jeni’s ice cream).

All 30 of us went around the table answering this prompt: What did you love about yourself before seven years old -- before anyone else's opinion got in the way? This created space for vulnerability and intimacy; it wasn’t about our resumes, it was about our hearts. And by the end of the night it felt like we had known each other for years.

Alexis is creating something incredibly special and if I were a brand trying to reach influential women, I’d partner with her in a heartbeat.

P.S. If any of my readers mentions The Pollinatr they will get 3 months free of The Breadwinners paid subscription (thank you Alexis!!).

A special thank you to my incredibly sweet husband for holding down the fort with our two boys and my MIL who babysit them on Friday - I could not have done it without yall!!! 💛

🐝 Pollen [week of March 16]

Insights, ideas, and inspo to get your brain buzzin and make your brands break through.

• Substack just launched Substack Recording Studio, “a built-in studio that makes it easier than ever to pre-record and publish a show on Substack.” With updates like this and the launch of Substack TV app, they continue to position themselves as more than just a newsletter platform.

• Two social formats to try out this week:

  • The 212 meme is cracking me up and relevant for any brand that has anything to do with 212 (a hotel room number, a flight, an address, an area code, etc.). Examples here here and here.

  • If your brand is at ALL related to the 90s, pull on some heartstrings with this TikTok trend set to Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls. Reese Witherspoon did it here and the Spice Girls did it here.

If you want to find out about banana bread baddies or the fiber frenzy or the popcorn purse or boneca ambalabu or the Phil your AI gap campaign, it’s below the paywall. 👀

Read more

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🐝 Pollen [week of March 9]

Insights, ideas, and inspo to get your brain buzzin and make your brands break through.

• OBSESSED with Dior’s floral runway show. The curves, the colors, the prints and the products were all inspired by flowers (the lily pad heels are my fav) and was set in a botanical world with models floating down runways on water and lily pads. from Shop Rat reported that “Dior wins the prize for the most elaborate runway set. Designer Jonathan Anderson built his own garden inside the Jardin des Tuileries, and every lily pad was perfectly placed by an attractive man with waders and a walkie-talkie. I can only imagine the budget…”

• NPR’s new campaign by Mischief is simple, powerful, and so smart. They replaced the iconic NPR letters with words like Why, How, and Who “to defend the right to be curious”

• Very clever LinkedIn post by Ramp. They just posted pictures of signs that say “ramp” with the caption “free advertising” 😂

• Urban Outfitters sent real customers on a brand trip with one requirement - a follower count cap of 10k, not a minimum, a CAP! eMarketer reports, “The campaign invites Urban Outfitters’ ‘most engaged customers into a space that was traditionally reserved for high-profile creators,’ said head of brand marketing Cyntia Leo. ‘We’ve long seen the era of the follower dying,’ she said. ‘We’re focused on resonance, not scale.’” More on their approach building an always-on community-first program here.

• Nanit just released their 2026 State of Modern Parenthood Report and one stat that stood out to me was “60% of dads said parenting tech helps share responsibilities”. The information gap closes when moms and dads have access to the same info (in this case your baby’s sleep stats), which helps empower both parents and strengthen their relationship. I wrote about the “marketing dad gap” recently, and Nanit is a great example of a brand that recognizes the importance of dads when it comes to marketing and decision-making

• I shared this on Notes last week and a lot of people agreed: “I’m noticing a shift around the brand collab world - e.g. the Spotify x Liquid Death urn, the LEGO x Crocs shoes, etc…they are feeling overdone, unnecessary, and purposefully engineered. They have no substance. It’s a tired tactic and people want depth, not shock value.” What do you think?

• Is it Pet Smart or Pet’s Mart?! TikTok creator Ben Lapidus has been posting videos like this one (which has 11.7M views and counting) of him and his friends singing a punk rock song about if PetSmart is Pet’s Mart or Pet Smart, culminating in an IRL “rally for truth” at an LA PetSmart yesterday. This is so random and hilarious. Sadly PetSmart’s response has been underwhelming and lacking creativity. They could have turned this into SUCH a fun and massive marketing moment a la TopGolf Logan. For example, what if they played into the conspiracy theory, invited the band to play at an in-store event, or asked customers to decide if they should change their name…instead they are acting bothered (perhaps this was them trying to be ironic and funny but it did not land).

• Chili’s had a major brand W when they noticed this couple got engaged at a Chili’s and so they are offering to pay for Rob and Sarah’s honeymoon!

• Worship breaks out on the streets on Manhattan. I wrote about the Gen Z revival percolating under the surface last year and this is another example that points to it being real.

• Not marketing but I helped throw a baby sprinkle for one of my besties yesterday and made these chocolate coffee cupcakes and highlyyyyy recommend!

• I haven’t seen anyone talk about Apple’s TikTok channel but I randomly got served a vid and I am loving it. It’s creative, artsy, weird and a great example of being “Seussian”. Especially given Apple is traditionally very polished and sometimes lacks personality.

• Hadn’t heard of dreamcore but now very into it.

• Two social formats you can try this week!

  • The Ritz did a “chromatic hunt” where they assigned two employees to find things around the hotel within a different color palette, one gold and one blue. Fun way to show off your space without it feeling forced

  • Le Creuset hired an artist to make a custom tunnel book to celebrate their newest hue. Simple and beautiful and a great way to collab with creative people to make great content.

• Is it the last days of the Southern drawl? I sure hope not. (full article here)

🎨 Whitney Biennial 2026: Why all marketers should go

Today’s newsletter is written by my good friend and NYC-based senior marketing leader marketer, Joel Linkewer. We both went to the University of Texas at Austin and worked at W+K a few years apart and have kept in touch through The Pollinatr. I wrote a Trendsettr profile on Joel a year ago and then we ran into each other at the Air conference in NYC last September! Joel has had an impressive career working both agency-side and brand-side and he’s also a very kind and cool person. He loves the art world and when we were picking the topic he was going to write about, the Whitney Biennial was the obvious choice. I hope you enjoy (and I wish I could go to this exhibit!!!)

If you want to understand people and the period they live in, look at what they make.

Historians have been doing this for millennia, examining artifacts and artworks to gain greater insight into civilizations of the past.

They tell stories around values, power, resources, and deep-seated beliefs that compel them to create. Whether a cave painting or monument, these works serve as multifaceted means of communication.

However, observing art doesn’t just provide a window into the past. Modern and especially contemporary art invites audiences to explore progressive themes and taboo topics that define today and often later become wide stream.

The Whitney Biennial was designed to serve this very purpose. Started in 1973 and now the longest running survey of American art in the country, the exhibit is essentially a cultural pulse-check. The museum explains; “the works [in this year’s exhibit] capture the complexity of the present and propose imaginative, unruly, and unexpected forms of coexistence.”

Even the format itself has been subject to controversy and critical debate. The New York Times has gone as far to say “Hating on the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Biennial has been an art world sport since the early 1970s…”

Nevertheless, I have been a long-time fan of the Biennial, eagerly awaiting every two years and following along for updates from the curators. This past weekend, I excitedly visited the museum for its opening, to see if this year’s show would deliver on its promise.

The exhibition features 56 artists, duos, and collectives, who were selected after over 300 studio visits. The result is a show focused on how artists measure American influence and their relationship to a country with a changing role in the world.

Among the works that stood out:

Miami-based Leo Castañeda’s “Camoflux Biomes;” a participatory video game the artist has been building for a decade. It subverts the violent genres the medium can be known for by inviting audiences to collect resources, engage in mutualism and work with the environment.

For an industry currently grappling with new tech and AI’s ability to deliver compelling work, the use of traditional gaming GCI to support new narratives provides refreshing inspiration.

A more emotional presentation comes from Agosto Machado who creates mixed-media “altars” as shrines to late friends, many of whom were victims of the 80’s AIDS crisis.

Using matchbooks, postcards, makeup compacts, subway tokens, jewelry, and photographs, these works serve as time capsules to an era of NY often swept under the rug.It also stands as a much more engaging portrait of these individuals, describing their complex lives as well as the products and brands they gravitated towards.

While not coming from a self-described researcher, I found it more resonant than most audience profiles I’ve seen delivered in media decks.

Overall, this year’s edition successfully reasserted the Whitney Biennial role as both a poignant snapshot of our complex time and glimpse into the future. It’s an engaging, audience-first show that demonstrates the creative possibilities of new media.

Additionally, with many featured artists identifying as part of underrepresented artists, these views are offered through new or unfiltered lenses often overlooked by broader platforms or publications.

This is why all marketers should supplement their trend report reading with a trip to the Whitney.

Can’t make it out to NYC or other institutions? Here’s a few ways marketers bring the museum to the meeting room:

1. Diversify your “Expert Bench”

   1. Rethink who or where you’re garnering research from and how a less typical informant might be able to offer new insight on a specific subject or audience.

   2. For example, if you’re developing a campaign for Hispanic Heritage month, maybe consult with a culture of Latin American Art. This could also include holding stakeholder interviews with artists.

   3. Take a similar look at talent - as the industry embraces the use of “creators” don’t just limit these opportunities to platform or social specialists (The TikTokers or episodic filmakers…). Consider playing the role of curator and commissioning new works by artists who work across new media and disciplines.

2. Refresh your “Thought-Starter Rolodex”

   1. Too often we reference the same award-winning campaigns in decks and creative briefings. Consider opening the aperture and citing sculptures, films, or exhibitions that have created engaging and impactful audience experiences. If we want to impact broader culture we can’t just focus on our industry’s own work.

3. Conduct a “Creative” Workshop

   1. Whether you wear the title or not, we’re all engaging in creative problem solving. So, it can be valuable to take time and reach out of your comfort zone by practicing artistic skills.

   2. Brand consultant Edward Cotton has been working with agencies through a workshop series that invites them to use cameras and photography as a catalyst to see things in new ways. This is a great resource to take advantage of. Our perspective is perhaps our most valuable asset so why not take the time to get better at looking from different angles?

Have a buzzy week my friends!!!

🐝 Michelle

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🐝 Pollen [week of March 2]

Insights, ideas, and inspo to get your brain buzzin and make your brands break through.

• BIG NEWS!!! I’m hosting a SXSW panel at Soho House about How to Build Influence in the Age of Trust along with and of Good Thinking, and Kim Chappell from Bobbie. It is going to be a blast. If you’re headed to SXSW, RSVP here.

• Pinterest released their parenting report and it is really fascinating. For example, Sensory play ideas (+1070%), Slow motherhood (+310%), and Outdoor learning (+65%) are on the rise. This seems like a signal that parents are pushing back against technology for kids in thoughtful ways and also slowing down to savor parenting vs over-scheduling activities and rushing through life.

• here is a weenie dog on skates bc why not

• Have you had your colors analyzed? This is a new trend on the rise where women are going to experts to learn what color palette (or “season”) is the most flattering for their complexion for makeup, clothes, and hair color.

• wrote an awesome piece about how marketing has moved from campaigns to coverage and why the “big idea” is no longer the goal.

• Want to eat dinner on a river with strangers? Creative pop-up dinners are all the rage and would be a great tactic to consider as IRL experiences are on the rise. Garden & Gun just covered Snap Pea, a Creative Dining experience in Raleigh whose pop-up dinners are incredible. My husband and I have been to a few and they are so much fun. You have to set an alarm to buy tickets and you don’t know the location until the day before. You sit at a big table of strangers who have a shared love of delicious food and it is truly unforgettable.

• The Staples baddie is ruining employees lives (by driving foot traffic to Staples store and making them actually work lol). But honestly it’s a piece of proof that a small creator can drive big impact.

• I’m really enjoying Claude’s content on TikTok. It feels thoughtful, well-crafted, and human. Claude feels like the cool, intellectual cousin vs. the vanilla girlie that is ChatGPT. Also, I’m going to start building things with Claude soon. I have a few ideas rolling around and it is an imperative skill set that everyone should be learning. If you want an accountability buddy to do it with LMK !

• Oh and also Happy Texas Independence Day to all who celebrate!!! 🤣 Love John Steinbeck’s quote about Texas - “I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion.”
  

Trendsettrs: Sophie Miller

Trendsettrs is a Pollinatr column about marketers blazing their own trails who share tactical advice from the front lines that will inspire your work.

Meet Sophie!

Sophie Miller is a leading marketing community expert and content creator who has built a global following of over 750,000 across platforms. As the founder of Pretty Little Marketer (PLM), she specialises in making social media simple while placing community at the heart of marketing strategies. Sophie’s community-focused approach has earned her partnerships with major brands including Adobe, Meta and YouTube, along with speaking engagements for organisations like Semrush, ASOS and L’Oreal.

I started following PLM and Sophie last year on LinkedIn and quickly became very impressed. (Her LinkedIn game is killer!) Not only did she build this community straight out of college, she’s built a community that most marketers would dream of for their brands. Her content is actionable and inspiring, creative and compelling, and maybe most importantly, it’s heartfelt. When I found out she was a Pollinatr subscriber I was quite flattered. We had the loveliest chat and I was thrilled that she agreed to share her insights with us!

Our convo below covers:

• 💓 How to create real community (not just followers)

• 💼 Advice for building a portfolio career

• 📈 Her most underrated growth channel

Michelle: What is a career highlight of yours or something you’re most proud of?

Sophie: Hosting PLM's 5th birthday party last summer. We had over 100 of our long-time supporters, friends, followers, and members all celebrating in one room and it felt so special. I think that was the moment I really felt the weight of what we'd built, seeing all of these people who had been part of this journey together in one place!

Michelle: Tell me about your journey creating Pretty Little Marketer, why did you start it?

Sophie: I started PLM in 2020 while I was at university, just as a place to share what I was learning about social media marketing.. I was freelancing on the side and quietly growing an Instagram page because I wished a resource like it had existed when I started out. It kind of grew itself for a while, and then in 2024 I made the decision to go all-in, stopped taking on client work and fully committed to PLM as the business. It's wild to look back on because I never set out to build a brand, I just wanted to be useful!

Michelle: It is extremely impressive what you’ve built - you have created a thriving community of 750K marketers, make amazing content, and provide actionable resources for marketers. How did you do it??

Sophie: Being consistently good and letting people know you’re worth their time and worth showing up for. I think that sounds simple but it’s actually really hard to sustain, and I genuinely believe it’s the thing that separates accounts that grow from accounts that plateau.

The 750K didn’t happen overnight, it happened because people kept coming back, and they kept coming back because the content kept delivering something useful.

Everything at PLM has always been a shared experience and I think that’s what’s built the community side of it. Our members tell me what they want to see, my Stories dictate what my next post will be, and we discuss and have real conversations in the comments rather than me just broadcasting into the void.

The audience has always shaped the content, which means it stays relevant to the people I’m trying to reach and they feel ownership over it too, which is a totally different energy to just being a follower of something.

The resources piece comes from the same place really. I never wanted to create content that felt vague or inspirational but ultimately useless. I always asked myself whether someone could take what I was sharing and actually do something with it the same day. That commitment to being actionable is something I’ve been really protective of as PLM has grown, because it would be easy to start chasing reach and lose the thing that made people trust you in the first place.

Michelle: “Portfolio careers” is a newish term (where people build a career around multiple income streams vs. a full-time job), but you’ve been doing this for a while. What advice do you have for people going out on their own?

Sophie: Be really clear about what you do and who you do it for, because that clarity is what makes everything else easier. The era of monetising a skill is so exciting and I think we massively overcomplicate it. People spend so long trying to figure out how to package themselves and what to call their offering when actually the most important question is just: what is the one thing I can do really well, and who needs it? Start there and build outwards.

I also think people underestimate how long it takes and overestimate how ready they need to be before they start. I freelanced alongside PLM for years before I made the full leap and that time wasn’t wasted at all, it was building.

Don’t be afraid to try things and fail at them because failing at something fast is so much more valuable than spending months planning something perfect that never gets off the ground!

Michelle: What’s the key to developing a REAL community (not just followers) and what advice do you have for brands looking to build community?

Sophie: I teach two pillars of community: Connection to you, and connection to each other. Most brands put all of their energy into the first one and completely miss the second. You can have an incredibly loyal audience who loves your content but if those people have no reason to talk to each other, no shared space or identity or experience, then what you have is an audience, not a community. The difference matters because an audience leaves when you stop posting and a community doesn’t.

The other thing I’d say is that you need a real connection point, something for people to band together over that isn’t your brand or your product. If the only glue holding your community together is you, it’s fragile. Give people a shared belief, a shared challenge, a shared identity, and they’ll hold it together themselves. That’s when community stops being something you have to constantly maintain and starts being something that has its own momentum!

Michelle: What do you think is overdone in marketing right now and why?

Sophie: Personal branding, can I say that? It’s a concept and practice that has become so dry and I think we’ve completely sucked the life out of it. I’ve been thinking a lot about the evolution from personal branding to creator branding, the idea that individuals, founders, and employees need to start thinking and positioning themselves as creators rather than personal brands.

Michelle: What trend are you personally investing in before others catch on?

Sophie: Private spaces, and I feel like I’ve been banging this drum for a while now. There’s this assumption that growth only counts if it’s happening publicly, if your follower count is going up, if your posts are getting reach, if the numbers are visible. But some of the most valuable things I’ve built have been behind closed doors and I think that’s where the most interesting stuff in the creator and brand space is starting to happen.

The PLM Insiders Club is the best example I have of this. It’s our membership community, a private space, and the quality of conversation and connection in there is so different to anything that happens on a public feed. People show up differently when they feel like they’re somewhere intentional rather than somewhere algorithmically served to them.

Michelle: What’s your take on the current state of the creator marketing space - what’s winning?

Sophie: B2B creator marketing!!!! It has been so underinvested in for so long and it's finally having its moment and I am here for it. The assumption that creator marketing is only relevant for consumer brands has held B2B back for years, but the reality is that B2B buyers are humans who consume content, follow people they trust, and make decisions based on recommendations just like everyone else.

Michelle: How do you think about marketing PLM? Do you plan out campaigns or do you build your brand through your content?

Sophie: Both! We have a really clear funnel and sales process underneath everything, but we also have defined launch periods rather than always-on campaigns, which means we’re not trying to do awareness, nurture, and sell all at the same time. I almost focus on one of those things each month depending on what the business goal is that quarter, and having that structure makes decision-making so much easier because you always know what the content needs to be doing.

Each platform also has a really specific goal and place in the plan. I sell more through our weekly newsletter than anywhere else, whether that’s funnelling people onto the PLM Insider’s Club waitlist (our membership) or warming them up for event ticket purchases, so the job of a lot of my content is actually just to get people onto that newsletter.

Once I was clear on that it changed how I thought about everything else. The content isn’t trying to convert directly, it’s trying to build trust and earn the click.

Michelle: I am obsessedddd with your LinkedIn (both your personal page and company page!). Tell me why you love LinkedIn and why brands should be going all-in on the platform!

Sophie: The thing I find most exciting about LinkedIn right now is that nobody has fully figured it out yet, and that's actually a massive opportunity.

On Instagram and TikTok the playbook is pretty set, everyone knows what works, the formats are established, and if you're coming to it late you're essentially copying what someone else already perfected.

LinkedIn isn't like that. The platform is still evolving, the content formats are still being figured out, and there's room to try new things and be the person who defines what works rather than the person who follows someone else's lead!

Michelle: What’s your most underrated growth channel?

Sophie: Our PLM LinkedIn Challenges (example here). We run challenges for our community on LinkedIn and they consistently drive incredible engagement, visibility, and new followers in a way that feels really organic and fun!

The reason they work is because they sit at the intersection of community and content. Participants are creating their own posts, engaging with each other, and essentially becoming advocates for PLM in the process.

It's community and distribution wrapped into one thing and I think more brands and creators should be experimenting with it because the results have been really significant for us!

Michelle: What’s the quiet anxiety running through early-career marketers right now and how does PLM address this?

Sophie: Loneliness. Marketing can be a really isolating job, especially if you’re a team of one, or you’re early in your career and you don’t know whether what you’re doing is right, or you’re surrounded by people in your company who don’t really understand what you do.

PLM exists to fix that. The Insiders Club in particular is built around connection, not just to the resources and the content but to other people who genuinely get it. Having a community of people at a similar stage who you can ask real questions, share honest wins and losses with, and feel less alone in the day to day of the job is so underrated in professional development. I think we spend a lot of time talking about skills and tactics and not nearly enough time talking about the fact that doing this job well is a lot easier when you don’t feel like you’re doing it by yourself.

Michelle: What exciting things do you have in the works for PLM?! I saw a post about a potential conference, tell us more!

Sophie: Our first ever conference, Scroll Forward, is happening this September in London and I cannot wait - it feels like such a big moment for PLM.

The theme is ‘everybody hates marketing’ - consumers are tuning out, trust is declining, and just posting more isn’t solving it. The whole day is built around one question: what actually works now? It’s going to be the best!

Michelle: What are some hobbies and passions you have outside of work?

Sophie: One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to actually get more hobbies so I am very much working on it! I've been playing my Nintendo Switch a lot which I absolutely love, and I've always been a big reader. I've also just moved to London so I've been spending a lot of time exploring, trying new restaurants and going on walks around different parts of the city, which feels like its own full-time hobby at this point because there is so much to get through.

Michelle: What’s something most people don’t know about you?

Sophie: I’m actually pretty introverted! I think people assume that because I’ve built a big online presence and spend time speaking on stages that I’m naturally outgoing and energised by all of it, but a lot of that is draining and I need a lot of quiet time to recharge. I’m very much a stay-at-home, curl-up-on-the-sofa kind of person at heart and I think if you met me outside of a work context you’d probably be surprised!

Michelle’s final thoughts: Thank you Sophie!!! I hope you found this as practical and actionable as I did. A few things we didn’t cover but that stood out to me:

I really like how she has set up her Insider’s Club. You can’t just join any time - doors open quarterly, which drives to a decision and makes it feel a bit exclusive. Very smart.

I also love how she leverages her personal and company LinkedIn pages to create compound impact. You’ll notice she reposts and comments between the two when it makes sense.

Finally, it took a lot of bravery for her to go out on her own. For anyone considering a portfolio career, Sophie’s non-traditional path should give you a lot of hope and inspiration, I know it did for me!

Have a buzzy week my friends!

🐝 Michelle

The Pollinatr in 2026

The Pollinatr is my passion. Writing it brings me so much joy and I can’t believe that I’m able to do this as a part of my job.

2026 is the year where I’m really able to start investing properly into building The Pollinatr as brand. I want to apply all of the principles from my 15 years in marketing to make it a magnetic brand that pulls people into its orbit, because I know it can (and will) be much more than just a newsletter.

Here’s a glimpse of what The Pollinatr will look like this year for paid subscribers. I’ve included the info about how to join each of these below the paywall.

One important note before we get to the good stuff. I am not focused on growing subscribers at all costs. I am focused on how I can bring my readers the best insights and ideas out there with the aim to make you that much sharper at work and to add a dose of fun to your life each week. I genuinely want to invest in each of you because that is what makes a community strong.

🎨 Culture Club: This is something I do with my friends and I know y’all will LOVE it. Culture Club is like a book club but a million times better. Each month we’ll pick a topic together and activity that goes along with it - anything from a podcast, to a documentary, to a game, you name it - and then we’ll discuss virtually! We might even have some guest stars appear here and there. 👀

Our first topic will be all about portfolio careers and we’ll read The Startup of You together.

🐝 The Hive: Join The Pollinatr Slack channel to find your community of like-minded marketers. This will be your go-to space to share your own pollen, ask questions, kick around ideas, and get inside access to what I write about next.

🤝 Mixrs: My goal is to plan at least one event a quarter bc the power of meeting people IRL is incredible. First up, SXSW, where I’m hosting a panel at Soho House with some killer voices about How to Build Real Influence in the Age of Trust.

📞 Yap sesh: I’d love to meet you and yap about all things marketing, LinkedIn, Substack or anything else on your mind!!!

Below the paywall is how to join each of these so if you’re starting to feel some maj FOMO just upgrade ya plan now! ⬇️

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🐝 Pollen [week of Feb 23]

Insights, ideas, and inspo to get your brain buzzin and make your brands break through.

• Chaissezladiez aka a “social rest club” donned their best chaise lounges at mardi gras. don’t tell me this doesn’t make you want one

• She’s from Texas I can telllll by the wayyy… if you haven’t heard this song you’re living under a rock because it just topped the charts and I am obsessed

• THIS is the energy we all need for 2026. Alysa Liu is my new idol and her story is so cool of quitting figure skating because she was burnt out, but coming back to it on her own terms. Her joy when she skates is palpable and it paid off.

• Couple that energy with the Year of the Horse and you might just be unstoppable. so many good memes

• And speaking of animals, Punch the monkey is famous for getting bullied by other monkeys, so he started carrying around a stuffed animal, which IKEA then sold out of, and now the monkeys are being nice to him again, spawning even more good memes

• Things that feel like an Olympic sport as a Southerner hits TOO close to home especially on the completing baby shower thank you notes front 😅

• Really interesting partnership between Dr. Becky Kennedy and Nike called The Playbook, a limited-edition podcast. She shared on LinkedIn that “This series is about the mental game behind performance - navigating expectation, recovering from mistakes, building confidence, and staying grounded in who you are.”

• Neha Ruch, founder of Mother Untitled and author of The Power Pause, just launched a members community, to “give women a place to make valuable connections with other women in our community who are pausing, shifting or pivoting their careers for family life.” This is sooooo smart. So many of my mom friends are in this season where they have side hustles that I know will take off once their kids are a bit older.

• Yahoo gifted the Staples Baddie and this is real-time marketing done right 👏👏👏

👨‍🍼 The marketing “dad gap”and why brands should care

I wrote about how to market to moms a few weeks ago which got a bunch of buzz. Brands emailing me, DMs filling up, tons of comments on LinkedIn - the quest to reach the affluent mom never ends bc everyone wants to be the “it” brand for mom!

Dads on the other hand? They’re practically invisible. There are very few dad-centered brands, minimal marketing towards dads, and they are quite overlooked in the consumer journey. BUT, dads are often the decision makers when it comes to baby products! So why the disconnect?

After talking to a bunch of dads across the country (thank you!!!), the resounding conclusion is that we’re in the middle of a massive shift of what modern fatherhood looks like: Our dads rarely (or never) changed diapers whereas today’s Millennial dads are shouldering the parenting load in myriad ways. Culture hasn’t caught up yet though, and neither have marketers, which has left a marketing “dad gap”.

As mom marketing gets saturated, the brands who celebrate dads will be the ones that win the next dollar spent.

Below the paywall I dive into:

• 📈 The data around modern fatherhood

• 🎙️ Quotes from Millennial dads about their fatherhood journey. Things like “I’d say the perception is shifting but to people that are even just a little older than us are shocked when they see dads taking kids in public alone”

• 🚧 Signs of a cultural shift on the way. Things like Pints & Ponytails, coed baby showers, and stroller clubs

• ⚡️ A range of ideas to reach dads in new ways

A caveat before we dive in. This conversation is reflecting upper income men in heterosexual relationships. And let’s be clear, this is a very nuanced conversation and the below is certainly not representative of EVERY dad, however it is clear there is a cultural shift underway, and that marketers have a unique opportunity to help address this dad gap.

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🐝 Pollen [week of Feb 16]

Insights, ideas, and inspo to get your brain buzzin and make your brands break through.

• This is a PSA that RODEO SEASON is in session and if you are a marketer you should be paying attention. The Houston rodeo is coming up in March and it’s one of the biggest whitespace opportunities I’ve seen in a while. Here’s the deep dive I did last year about the event and ideas to activate around it. Yeehaw! 🤠

• And here are some other fun cultural moments/holidays/celebrations to put on your radar for March.

• Great read and analysis about the state of AI from

• I’m OBSESSED with Frida’s “Show us what your boobs can do” activation at Mardi Gras. Shoutout to for highlighting this one. I love that they 1. activated at Mardi Gras, a somewhat non-traditional marketing moment to consider 2. that it was so perfectly tied to the theme of celebrating boobs for their original purpose and 3. that it seamlessly highlighted their breastfeeding products. It was edgy and eye-catching but also had depth and was making an important point through its messaging. So good!!!

• Y’all loved my “how to reach moms” newsletter last week, so I’m going to do a follow up of “how to reach dads”! If you’re a dad, please respond to this email with your top fav dad-related apps you use, influencers you follow, products you love, and/or places you hang out at!

• Speaking of dads, A$AP Rocky just unveiled his new luxe strollers and baby carriers at fashion week for his brand AWGE. He shared with Vogue , “I thought it was cool to put men in positions of pushing strollers, baby carriers, and stuff like that. I wanted to put it under a different scope, and show more urban people doing it, swagging it out.” This is AWESOME. I love to see dads being celebrated and reflected as helpful, in-charge dads. IMO this is a signal of a bigger stereotype shift we’re going to see where dads are going to be celebrated as equal parents much more than they have in the past.

  

  @wmagOn the eve of Valentine's Day, @A$AP ROCKY presented his latest @AWGE collection sending luxe baby carriers and a leather-covered stroller down the runway while #Rihanna looked on from the front row. #NYFW

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• Apparently, Hank says we’re all dying in 12 days anyways, and then he deleted his comment but is reposting the onslaught of posts about what Hank knows that we don’t. Maybe the answer will be revealed, but probably not 😅

• My unexpected favorite Super Bowl related post was from Strava, showing the stats from a grass-wearer (is there an official name for this role?!) 🌾 lol

• of built and launched Kiss Me, a dating site for Valentine’s Day, and it already has hundreds of submissions. She goes above and beyond for her readers and is a masterclass example for how to build a real community on Substack. It’s also just very cool that she built this herself!

• Google searches for Lent has been on the rise over the past five years - I wonder if it will spike even higher this year given Gen Z’s newfound interest in religion (read my deep dive about the Gen Z revival here). Are you giving up anything for lent??

  

• Meat sticks are blowing up due to their protein content and convenience, to the tune of $3B in sales last year. This weekend I noticed Trader Joe’s now carries Chomps (my toddler’s and now my fav snack) so I imagine they will only continue to explode. Jalapeno flavor is delish

• The biggest winner of the Olympics so far has been the tiramisu 🤣

Have a buzzy week my friends!!!

🐝 Michelle

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🐝 Pollen [week of Feb 9]

Insights, ideas, and inspo to get your brain buzzin and make your brands break through.

• Nancy Meyers is BACK baby!!! Praise the lord, the drought is finally over! Love that Kieran Culkin is still game to do a Nancy movie even after his Succession fame. (He was the little brother in Father of the Bride!!!)

• @medievalistmatt is my new fav meme acct to follow. Would be fun for entertainment brands with medieval shows or movies coming out to work with him

• Apparently GIFs are the new millennial socks (aka not cool) and I’m offended

• Ski slopes are the new beachside activation. Rhode popped up in Big Sky, Montana with powder blue lounge chairs, smores and hot chocolate, and a snow station that has first access to their peptide lip boost, caffeine reset sculpting cream, and a limited edition headband. I love this for a lot of reasons - 1. That it’s in Big Sky, not Aspen (Aspen feels over done and expected), and 2. that they’re popping up in the winter when your skin needs so much help. Rhode continues to do great activations

• An Alabama student named Hector G has gone viral for accidentally sending a college-wide email to ~42,000 people about his application to an honor society. Good news, he got in, and it has spawned a ton of hilarious spoofs and brands like the 49ers jumping in. Side note - honorable mention goes to Yik Yak which apparently is still a thing. Might be a whitespace opp for brands looking to reach Gen Z?

• I somehow ended up on Bat Mitzvah tok and it’s incredible - Charlotte’s Wonderland and Emma’s New York or Nowhere are next LEVEL. If this is their Bat Mitzvah, what is their wedding going to be like?! Also, whoever executed these events are top notch. I’d hire them if I was a brand.

• Fun use of ASMR Loewe did by mixing unexpected sounds with real life visuals.

• My Super Bowl hot take: Everyone is talking about how the ads weren’t creative and massively underwhelming. While I think some of the spots were interesting and entertaining, my observation is that buying a super bowl is actually a bit lazy. While brands are getting increasingly creative, buying a :30s spot and making an ad to fit in feels very yesteryear. Consumers are used to social stunts, IRL activations, and brands behaving in unexpected ways. Not just 30 seconds of a brand shouting at you.

• omg remember shrinky dinks?! apparently they still exist. must buy now!

• Substack is in their “tumblr era” allowing writers to customize their newsletters visually and readers to customize their view

🤰 How to reach moms aka your mom comms and media plan

I’m majorly in my mom era right now. Everything on my mind is related to our new baby. What bottles to buy, what soap to use, what feeding schedule to follow, what milestones to be on the lookout for. And trying to get as much sleep as possible in between all of that. 😅

The mom landscape has totally shifted as millennial moms have redefined what it means to mom - from how moms are portrayed in media, to how they view their title of mom, to how they think about integrating work and motherhood (read more here for my deep dive on this topic).

If the way momming has changed, then the way marketers reach moms should change too. Today I am channeling my inner comms and media planner brain to bring you a fresh approach to reaching moms - one that you won’t find anywhere else. I talked to my mom friends across the country to get their input.

An idea is only as good as how you execute it, and that comes through an understanding of the consumer journey, the media channels your audience uses, the voices they trust, and the passions they have.

SO if you have a target audience of moms, here’s your new playbook to reach them.

Below the paywall I dive into:

• 🔢 Media partners to consider

• 🤝 Partnerships to explore

• 💬 Influencers to work with

• 🪩 Activations to ideate around

• 🤰Moments that matter to heavy up in

• ✨ Lots of creative ideas and white space opportunities for your brand to stand out

A caveat before we dive in. This chart reflects upper middle class moms. Many moms do not have the luxury of buying a $1,200 bassinet and $400 carrier; some cannot even afford diapers. Each time we’ve had a baby, my husband and I have felt overwhelmed with gratitude to be able to buy what we need for our babies without question. This has moved us to donate to diaper banks, which provides much needed essentials for parents with less resources. If this speaks to you, check out more info about how to support the national diaper bank here.

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