Meet the Artist Behind Burberry's Incredible Social Content
nd Why Smaller Advertisers are Flocking to X, Winners at Cannes Lion, Ralph Lauren's Olympic Uniforms, and Chic Nicotine Alternatives
GM everyone hope you’re having a lovely morning. Many of you may have the day off. I am not one of those people because I don’t take any days off.
I just got back from an intense leg day at the gym. I’ve been advised to do more single leg exercises in preparation for my long run around Manhattan.
BTW, The Manhattan Project Run Club continues this Saturday, and I may have some treats for attendees in the works. Go sign up here.
In Today’s Newsletter—
The State of Advertising on X
A Look at Dani Coyle, the Visual Artist Spicing Things Up at Burberry
The Big Winners at Cannes Lions
Quitting the Elf Bar: Nicotine Alternative Brands
A Sexy New Wine Bar in Williamsburg
Ralph Lauren’s Olympic Uniforms
NEWS
Smaller Advertisers are Finding Success on X. Following a mass exodus of large advertisers from the social media platform, smaller brands are investing capital into advertising on X, filling the vacuum left after Elon Musk took control. Larger brands were concerned with changing content moderation policies, and didn’t want their ads appearing next to offensive content. As a result, company revenues sunk to just $1.13 billion. It probably didn’t help when Musk told advertisers to essentially go f*ck themselves and not advertise if they didn’t like the direction of X. But company leaders have announced 65% of advertising has returned in the months since, and The Information is reporting smaller advertisers are ‘bargain hunting’, getting huge impressions and conversions with comparatively smaller ad spend.
Musk also flew to the Cannes Lions festival to make his pitch for bigger brands to return clarifying, "We're going to support free speech rather than agree to be censored for money," I honestly think smaller brands, especially those in tech, should take a second look at X, and consider testing the waters with some ad spend. But fashion and luxury brands should stay away for the time being, your audience isn’t there.
Coca Cola won a top prize at Cannes Lion. Working with Ogilvy and WPP, Coca Cola created a campaign distorting their iconic logo, and prompting consumers to crush and recycle their cans. The campaign went against conventional brand wisdom of maintaining brand integrity by never distorting a logo.
We’ve all seen brand guidelines with a slew of rules for how to appropriately use a logo, and brand designers (me included) have sent an angry email when a drop shadow or alternate colorway was applied to a logo we spent countless hours thoughtfully considering its functional execution. It won the top prize for print and publishing at Cannes, which makes sense because the crowds of advertisers and designers who flock to the coast of France for this every year eat sh*t like this up.
The Elf Bar Isn’t Chic, and Here Are Some Alternatives. I think emily north and Angelina Hazzouri said it well in their ‘Ins and Outs for Summer 2024’ list that vaping is not particularly chic,
I was sitting next to this intern couple (sorry to the intern community, you’ll understand one day), at dinner who was constantly passing their ugly blue elf bar back and forth at the table. The whole thing felt both deeply unchic but also sooo distracting. Grow up and smoke a cigarette. Or zyn if need be. — Emily North
Zyn has emerged as a nicotine alternative, but its easily identifiable can is not very sexy either. But there are more brands than ever popping up and filling the white space at the intersection of nicotine alternative and fashionable accessory. One at the top of my mind is Jones nicotine mint.
I got a couple tins at the Feed Me party the other night and I like them so far. While they are not as potent as a Zyn, they do have a nice minty flavor. The issue I have is that the lozenge itself is hard and doesn’t fit very well in your gums at first, and I have an urge to chew on them which they advise you not to do. I’m curious on your guys’ nicotine habits:
My favorite new wine bar in Williamsburg was highlighted in Dezeen. With Others recently opened on Bedford Ave. and I stumbled in a few weeks ago when Sauced (across the street) was packed due to a Pierce Abernathy guest chef appearance. Upon asking the hostess if there was outdoor seating in the back, she said (no joke) “We want our customers to create their own experience” to which I replied, “Okay I’ll be creating my own experience in the backyard” (Only in Williamsburg, baby) Let me just say, this wine bar is absolutely beautiful, and the design community thinks so too.
The bar was designed by Studio Ahead, a San Francisco-based art and design collective founded by Homan Rajai and Elena Dendiberia. You need to get check it out. The walnut booths, shelving, and overall decor is 10/10.
Ralph Lauren unveiled the Team USA’s Olympic Ceremony Uniforms. Navy blazer, striped oxford, and faded jeans. Perfectly done from the GOAT of American fashion design.
MEET THE ARTIST MAKING VIRAL CONTENT FOR BURBERRY AND BALENCIAGA
Dani Coyle runs Interxexy Studio, a creative content consultancy working with some of the biggest brands in fashion to create eye catching social content. She also is the global creative lead at Burberry.
If you follow either Burberry or Balenciaga, you’ve seen her work.
Her visuals are unique, fun, and most importantly: shareable.
When crafting content for social, brands need to stay innovative to remain at the forefront of the cultural discourse. Posting lookbook photos simply isn’t going to cut it, when the primary metric for success creating content so good people want to repost it and share it with friends.
Coyle thinks outside the box, creating brand aligned content at a rapid clip, and finding novel ways to present her clients brands in unique circumstances that really only work in the context of social media.
She recently spoke with Its Nice That on her methodology:
“My team and I make work that is consumed on social media – but everything is consumed on social media in 2024. Everything needs to be made with social in mind, and brands and agencies that don’t recognise this will fall behind.” — Dani Coyle
What makes her content work so well is that allures viewers, stopping their scroll, and is not created in a vacuum. She looks to larger social media trends to inform her creative strategy, but lenses the final work in a way that feels at home within her clients brand. Take for example her viral Burberry toast video, which takes inspiration from food videos on short form, but contextualizes the format to work on Burberry’s social feeds.
I love how none of her work feels like an ad, and that’s on purpose:
“It boils down to making something that is at once commercial and unexpected. I want the viewer to get to the end of the video and not even realise they watched an ad.” — Dani Coyle
If you’re working in content creation, design, art direction, etc. take Coyle’s work as inspiration to find novel ways to market on social with conceptual, innovative, shareable content that followers find entertaining, fun, and whimsical.
Okay gotta go! Have a wonderful day and thank you so much for reading Who Do You Know? Hats are dropping soon. I am currently working on an editorial campaign so if you’re a model, stylist, photographer, etc. and want to collaborate send me an email: jake@jb.studio
Also if you know someone who would love this newsletter… share it with them!
i will go anywhere pierce abernathy goes
we are nicotine-fluencers @angelina