In Todayās Newsletterā
Flamingo Estateās Thirsty Copy
Luxury Markets Continued Pain
Top 10 AI Startups to Watch + the One with the Best Branding
Layout Design Moodboard Spill
Would You Dump Your Boyfriend for a Chatbot?
NEWS šļø
Flamingo Estateās marketing copy is taking a thirsty turn. Your rich friendās favorite place to buy a tomato scented candle, Flamingo Estate, has taken a noticeably thirsty direction for their copy across web, email, and social, according to Philip Jackson from Future Commerce. Take a look at this graphic he put togetherā
And design genius, Elizabeth Goodspeed, noted a recent email that alluded to increased Ozempic usage with the subject line āLook How Small We Got!ā to promote their new mini-sets. Capturing attention in the email inbox is hard, so I get why they are using more divisive copy in the subject lines. Weāve seen other DTC brands use a similar strategy to get email opens. But could Flamingo Estate turning into a horny brand be a slippery slope that could alienate consumers? Weāll seeā¦
The luxury market is still in a downward spiral. LVMH reported earnings yesterday, showing they had their smallest sales increase since 2009 (excluding 2020)ā just 1% compared to the 2.89% analysts expected. Whether it be economic insecurity or changing tastes, consumers are simply spending less on luxury goods from major brands. And LVMH is by far the least affected of the luxury conglomerates, other companies like Kering are feeling the pain even more. This was supposed to be the roaring ā20s, but rising inflation, high interest rates, and global instability had other plans.
Would You Dump Your Boyfriend for an AI Chatbot? When you think of who is spending hours on end flirting with an AI chatbot, the classic incel bro comes to mind. But Axios reports that, surprisingly, women are also spending more time using romantic AI chatbots. Overall, the this emerging market is growing, Andreseen Horowitz named 8 of these apps on their āTop 100 GenAI Consumer Appsā list, and report that average usage of these companion apps is 10x the usage of normal assistant apps. Founders of companion apps claim their value proposition is to augment human interaction, claiming they āā¦ aims to fill gaps where human interaction might be unavailable, like late-night conversations or role-playing scenarios.ā A record 53% of Gen Z say they often feel lonely, driven partially by the rise of social media, remote work, and a lack of āthird placesā to commune with peers. While some are combatting this by joining run clubs, playing poker, or a (oh god) climbing gym, others are just simply supplementing real human interaction with AI. Slippery slopeā¦ just curiousā
Bloomberg Released their Top 10 AI Startups to Watch. To no oneās surprise, OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI led the list. But I do want to highlight one that is doing an incredible job at branding: Perplexity. While AI could come across as really nerdy, Perplexity has taken a more thoughtful approach to their branding and design. I really appreciate the retro, surrealist aesthetic their design team uses across their social graphicsā
When every AI chatbot feels the same, brand will be a key differentiating factor in which products come out on top, and Perplexity is taking a thoughtful approach to brand marketing that feels human and interesting.
LAYOUT DESIGN MOODBOARD āØ
Use these images (directly from my reference vault) for inspiration on how to arrange your next design project.
An interesting layout can go a long way in getting attention, and thoughtfully arranging nuanced copy and info with imagery and graphics.
Jake Bell is a content marketing, creative strategist, designer, and writer based in NYC. He specializes in brand building, content strategy, creative direction direction, business development, and making things cool.
Want to chat? Email me: jake@jb.studio
Perplexity is crushing. Great take!
Excited to explore perplexity! On the branding point, I exclusively use claude over all other sources because I like the aesthetic š¤