Make Company Swag Great Again
Insights on marketing, business, branding, products, design, founders, and culture.
Good evening everyone. It’s a late night letter tonight on this stormy NYC evening. I just walked in and my Burberry trench is f*cking dripping water.
Today’s letter has a bit of everything: new CPG products, insights on the next viral TikTok account, and much more!
Let’s get into today’s news—
News
Company swag is getting an upgrade. We have all most likely received some company branded swag from an employer or client, and what happens to 99% of that? Either the garbage or the in the closet behind the Gosha, Alexander Wang, and Yeezy clothes we can’t wear anymore. But I saw Perplexity, the AI company, is launching a new merch line that actually looks pretty good!
I like how the dad hat has a caption on it, not just the company logo. I am noticing more tech companies adopt serif fonts (Apple Garamond) for their branding. Maybe to come across as friendlier and cerebral? Examples below.
Notion, my favorite note taking and organization app, also has these creative director-core chore jackets for their new company swag. While its arguable if these are ‘cool’ or if I would wear them (I only wear hats from restaurants I like) they are at least not lazy.
I tried the Graza potato chips so you don’t have to. I strolled into the recently upgraded Butterfield Market on Lexington last night (its much bigger but feels vacuous) and saw they had the new Graza potato chips. I was fascinated by the brand’s first foray into packaged food. I personally use the EVOO, and these chips are ‘slow-fried’ in it. Well sorry to say… they are really bad. Skip! I would love to see the brand collab with a bakery or coffee shop for an Graza infused olive oil cake.
Matty Matheson’s new CPG brand looks really good. The famed chef, restauranteur, and producer of ‘The Bear’ is launching an expansive food line with retro inspired packaging. The brand was designed by Wedge, who took inspiration from the first boxed Kraft mac and cheese.
I really appreciate the clean lines, simplified color palette, and the usage of ‘company’ in the brand name. Very well done and stands out amidst a sea of brands using cartoons and bright, fun colors on their packages (see above). Side note: I ate at Matty’s restaurant Prime Seafood Palace last time I was in Toronto and it was stunningly beautiful and delicious. I need to hit the 6 again soon!
The next major TikTok account has arrived. Adam Faze’s new media company, Gymnasium, just launched its first TikTok show: Boy Room. The show documents some of the gnarliest bedrooms in NYC, showing just how gross DJs, skaters, and creative directors can be in their own abode. The show is pretty funny and has hit 20k+ followers in just a day. It has a formulaic approach, which is they key to finding format success on short form platforms like TikTok. You want to find a format that works and replicate that over and over again.
@boy.roomJerome, 32, Chinatown, NY Welcome to Boy Room, the show where we investigate boys rooms. On today’s episode, Rachel Coster travels down to Chinatown where she visits handsome lad Jerome which is also filled with bike parts and a closet that looks like the Eye of Sauron. #apartmenttour #nyc #messy #boys #boyroom #comedy #funny #hoarders #newyork
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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserFor example, Boy Room has the same premise, intro, and style in every video, just switching up the subject per each video. You want audiences to resonate, then doom scroll through the rest of your videos because its easy to watch and expected. Think back to why we love formulaic shows like Fear Factor or Bar Rescue, because its the same thing every time with new characters, challenges, and disgusting bars. I am very stoked to see what other projects Faze’s Gymnasium comes up with soon. He is cultivating a lot of talent and smart IP under the Gymnasium brand, which looks to create viral shows on TikTok.
NBC Sports is hiring Alex Cooper for the Olympics. The host of Call Her Daddy is going to host the live parties and events for this year’s Olympic games. Smart choice! The clips they are going to get out of this will be sure to generate a ton of impressions, just as Vogue was smart to hire Emma Chamberlain to do red carpet interviews at the Met Gala.
- is dropping some major social media gems in her Q1 ‘24 report. The social media strategist just released an extensive look at the trends, topics, and content major brands are finding success with on social media. If you work in content this is a must read. There are some unique tidbits in here like how Duolingo is going super hard on carousel posts on TikTok.
Goodnight!
Who Do You Know? is a daily newsletter covering marketing, business, branding, products, design, founders, and culture.
Its written by Jake Bell, a content marketing and brand strategist in NYC.
To get in touch visit www.jb.studio or email jake@jb.studio
Thanks for the Link in Bio shout!