👗 John Lewis Bets on Curation: Can the Department Store Go Cool Again?

John Lewis is rewriting its fashion playbook. In partnership with the British Fashion Council (BFC), the retailer is adding over 100 new names - from heritage heavyweights like Vivienne Westwood and John Smedley to cult labels such as Snow Peak and Nigel Cabourn. There’s even talk of a 25-piece capsule with Mulberry.

But this isn’t a numbers game. As director of fashion Rachel Morgans put it, the aim is to create a “carefully curated range” that feels distinct, relevant and customer-first. In a sector where multibrand retailers have often leaned on volume and discounting, John Lewis is making a clear pivot: less mass-market sprawl, more intentional curation.

📊 Supporting Stats

UK multibrand retail has struggled: department store closures rose 83% between 2016–2021 (Local Data Company).
Meanwhile, curated multibrand platforms are thriving - MatchesFashion reported £430m in revenue before its 2023 sale, while Ssense doubled its valuation to $4.1bn in 2021 (Financial Times, Forbes).
57% of UK consumers now say they value “curation and edit” over sheer product choice in retail (WGSN Future Consumer Report 2024).

🧠 Decision: Did It Work?
Strategically, this looks like the right move. John Lewis has struggled with brand perception - reliable but rarely aspirational. By aligning with the BFC, the retailer borrows cultural capital and gains credibility with both established fashion players and younger consumers looking for discovery.

Where it could falter is execution: a curated edit only works if the product storytelling is sharp, the digital experience feels premium, and the brands are given space to shine. If it turns into a bloated roster tucked into generic shopfloors, the impact will be lost.

📌 Key Takeouts

What happened: John Lewis announced 100+ new brands in fashion via a partnership with the BFC, focusing on curation over expansion.
What worked: Strong cultural alignment with British fashion; high-profile names like Westwood and Mulberry create buzz; mix of established and emerging labels adds credibility.
Risks: Without clear storytelling and visual identity, “curation” could look like clutter. Execution will decide whether this is reinvention or repackaging.
Signals: Retail is moving from department-store sprawl to edited, narrative-driven multibrand environments. The consumer appetite is for depth, not breadth.
For marketers: Collaborations with cultural institutions (like BFC) are a shortcut to credibility, but only if backed by distinct consumer experience.

🔮 What We Can Expect Next
If John Lewis nails this, expect to see more department store chains lean into “curation as strategy,” borrowing from the playbooks of Dover Street Market and Liberty. Capsule collections and exclusive drops will become the retail weapon of choice to cut through. But the risk of “premium fatigue” looms: if every retailer claims curation without real editing power, consumers will tune out.

John Lewis’ gamble is simple but bold: can a legacy department store become a destination for discovery again? The answer will depend on whether this move feels like fashion-led reinvention - or just another round of rebranding.

👠 From Oxford Street to Trafalgar Square: Topshop’s High-Profile Comeback

When Topshop staged a catwalk in Trafalgar Square to debut its AW25 collection, it wasn’t just a fashion show - it was a cultural reset. With Cara Delevingne and Adwoa Aboah in the front row, the event signalled that the once-iconic high street brand is serious about reclaiming relevance.

📖 The Legacy
Founded in 1964, Topshop evolved into the UK’s ultimate tastemaker. By the 2000s, its Oxford Street flagship wasn’t just a shop - it was a pilgrimage site for anyone chasing fashion and culture. From Kate Moss’s 2007 sell-out collection to its sponsorship of emerging British designers through NEWGEN, Topshop blurred the line between the high street and high fashion. Beyoncé’s Ivy Park debut and Rihanna’s Fenty PUMA pop-ups only reinforced its global clout.

📉 The Decline
But the 2010s saw the brand falter. Competitors like Zara, ASOS and Boohoo mastered speed and scale, while Topshop’s parent company Arcadia collapsed in 2021. The closure of the Oxford Street store felt like the end of an era - and a gap in London’s fashion energy.

🔥 The Comeback Play
The Trafalgar Square show flips the script. Rather than reopening a flagship, Topshop turned the city itself into a stage. The AW25 collection leaned on classic tailoring and oversized leather bombers - timeless but relevant, wearable yet aspirational. And with Delevingne and Aboah front and centre, the message was clear: Topshop still knows how to set a scene.

📊 Supporting Stats

UK fashion retail sales are forecast to grow 4.5% in 2025 (WARC), with renewed demand for experiential retail.
72% of Gen Z shoppers say they prefer brands that “create experiences, not just transactions” (Statista, 2024).
London Fashion Week’s earned media value hit £330m in 2024 (Launchmetrics), proof that cultural spectacle still drives ROI.

🧠 Decision: Did It Work?
Yes. By reclaiming a piece of London’s cultural real estate, Topshop showed confidence and ambition. The choice of venue and ambassadors made the show resonate beyond fashion insiders, reminding people of the brand’s past power.

The challenge? Spectacle is only step one. Without consistent retail strategy — physical presence, exclusive drops, experiential stores — it risks being a one-off headline rather than a true renaissance.

📌 Key Takeouts

Topshop staged a high-profile comeback via a Trafalgar Square catwalk show.
The event tapped heritage (tailoring, bombers) while leveraging cultural icons (Delevingne, Aboah).
It revived memories of Topshop’s Oxford Street heyday — but reimagined for an experience-driven generation.
The risk lies in follow-through: hype needs to be backed by consistent retail strategy.

🔮 What We Can Expect Next
Expect other heritage high street names to experiment with spectacle and cultural activations, turning cities into their flagships. If Topshop can pair this bold return with smart retail execution, it could recapture its position as the UK’s most influential high street brand. But if it leans too hard on nostalgia without innovation, the revival risks burning fast.

⚽️ Women’s Euros: Loss on Paper, Win in Strategy

When UEFA revealed that the Women’s Euro posted a €35m financial loss, headlines quickly framed it as a flop. But for anyone looking beyond the balance sheet, the reality was the opposite: this was a landmark investment that accelerated women’s football commercially, culturally and structurally. For brand strategists, the tournament offers a blueprint for how short-term loss can be engineered into long-term value.

📊 Financial Outcome

Reported loss: Around €35m - not profit.
Record revenue: Total tournament revenue doubled to €128m, fuelled by:
- Media rights jumping from €37m → €72m
- Sponsorship revenue from €15m → €41m
Why the loss? UEFA deliberately over-invested in infrastructure, security, broadcast quality, and prize money.

🏗 Reasons for Increased Costs

Infrastructure & security: Significant spend on ensuring stadiums, facilities and fan safety matched the scale of demand.
Enhanced TV coverage: Production quality was raised to men’s tournament standards, creating higher costs but also delivering the visibility women’s football needed.
Prize money uplift: More than doubled to over €50m, making the competition more credible and competitive.

🧠 Decision: Did It Work?

Yes. The Women’s Euro was not a financial failure but a strategic play. UEFA understood that women’s football could only grow if it invested at scale, creating a platform that broadcasters, sponsors and fans could believe in.

🌍 Positive Impacts and Investment Value

Record-breaking attendance: Over 657,000 fans attended - a seismic shift in visibility and legitimacy.
Economic benefits: Host cities saw huge economic uplift, from tourism to hospitality revenue.
Sponsorship traction: With commercial partners reporting high ROI, women’s football is becoming a viable marketing vehicle, not just a CSR play.
Cultural momentum: The Euros shifted perceptions - women’s football isn’t a side-stage product, it’s a main event.

📌 Key Takeouts

The tournament lost money deliberately to create long-term growth foundations.
Revenue doubled: proof that demand is there.
Prize money and production values elevated the competition’s credibility.
Attendance and broadcast reach proved women’s football has commercial weight.
The event acted as a nationwide economic driver, not just a sporting spectacle.

🔮 What We Can Expect Next

UEFA’s approach signals a new era: women’s tournaments will be treated as investment properties, not cost centres. Expect:

More aggressive bidding for broadcast rights as networks wake up to women’s football’s reach.
Sponsorship inflation: partners no longer entering at discount rates.
Cultural tipping point: with audiences increasingly treating women’s tournaments as equivalent cultural events to men’s, brands that still undervalue the space will be caught lagging.

In brand terms, the Women’s Euro wasn’t a “loss” - it was brand-building spend. Just like Nike or Apple in their early days, UEFA paid upfront for long-term equity. The payoff is already visible: women’s football is no longer a side project; it’s a commercial platform in its own right.

⚽️ Controlled Access: Arsenal Women Redefine Fan Meet-and-Greets

Arsenal Women are switching up the matchday ritual. This season, instead of players doing post-match laps of autographs and selfies, the club is trialling structured meet-and-greets via ballot. The initiative, open to season-ticket holders and bundle buyers, reflects both the skyrocketing demand around the Women’s Super League and the logistical reality of hosting all domestic games at the Emirates Stadium.

📊 Supporting Stats

Arsenal Women averaged 52,029 fans per WSL home game in 23/24, smashing attendance records and dwarfing typical men’s Premier League gate figures for clubs like Bournemouth and Luton (Statista, 2024).
Across the league, WSL attendances rose 186% year-on-year last season (FA report, 2024).
Chelsea, who already scrapped post-match signings in 23/24, cited crowd control and player welfare as key drivers - echoing Arsenal’s rationale.

🧠 Decision: Will It Work?
Yes - strategically, this is a smart move. The women’s game is in rapid transition: what worked when crowds were 3,000 strong simply doesn’t scale to 50,000. Controlled meet-and-greets protect players from burnout while still giving fans intimacy and access, keeping engagement purposeful rather than chaotic. The ballot system creates scarcity - adding perceived value - while rewarding core fans (season ticket and bundle buyers).

The risk? Accessibility. Casual fans who only attend the occasional match may feel shut out. There’s also the danger of meet-and-greets feeling too corporate if the spontaneity is lost. But if executed with warmth and fairness, this model balances growth with connection.

📌 Key Takeouts

What happened: Arsenal Women introduced ballot-based meet-and-greets to replace post-match signings.
Why it matters: WSL attendances have exploded, making old models of fan interaction unmanageable.
What works: Structured access protects player welfare, ensures safety, and adds exclusivity for loyal fans.
What won’t: Risk of alienating more casual supporters or losing the organic magic of spontaneous moments.
Signal for the future: As the women’s game professionalises, clubs are adopting fan engagement models closer to men’s elite football - but with added emphasis on community and controlled intimacy.

🔮 What We Can Expect Next
Expect more WSL clubs to adopt structured fan access models - ballots, paid experiences, members-only events - as crowds scale up. What began as organic post-match traditions will evolve into curated touchpoints. The challenge will be ensuring these don’t feel transactional. The women’s game still trades on authenticity; losing that would be a cultural own goal.

📚 Gen Z Puts Down the Phone, Picks Up the Paperback: Waterstones’ Bet on BookTok Pays Off

Forget doomscrolling: Gen Z is binge-reading. Waterstones just posted a 5% revenue rise, powered by a surge in young adults turning to books as an antidote to screens. Fiction sales jumped 12.2% in the UK last year (Publishers Association), with romance, “romantasy” and fantasy leading the charge. The cultural driver? TikTok’s BookTok phenomenon and IRL book clubs reshaping how reading travels through social circles. For a retailer long considered a relic of the high street, this youth-fuelled revival has become a strategic lifeline.

📊 Supporting Stats

UK fiction sales +12.2% in 2024, despite overall print market falling 1% (Publishers Association).
Digital book sales +17% (Waterstones).
Waterstones: 320+ stores, expanding by 10 new locations annually, including inside John Lewis and Next.
Sister brand Barnes & Noble planning 60 new US stores a year (Guardian).
Healthcare squeeze context: Waterstones still growing footfall by making stores destinations (cafés, curated staff picks).

🧠 Decision: Did It Work?
Yes - commercially, culturally and strategically. Waterstones has managed what many legacy retailers couldn’t: turning a youth-led social trend into sustained in-store sales. By leaning into BookTok without commodifying it, the chain feels authentic to young readers, not opportunistic. The move into concessions at John Lewis and Next also puts Waterstones in high-footfall, lifestyle-led locations that align with how Gen Z shops.

📌 Key Takeouts

What happened: BookTok and a screen-fatigued Gen Z sparked a 12% jump in fiction sales, fuelling Waterstones’ 5% revenue growth.
What worked: Leveraging a digital trend but keeping discovery physical - cafés, curated recs, midnight launches.
What didn’t: Children’s (-2.8%) and non-fiction sales remain weak, showing limits to the boom.
Signal: Young consumers are seeking analogue escapes that double as identity markers (collecting books as lifestyle).
For marketers: Authenticity in bridging digital hype with physical experience is key - don’t just chase the trend, build spaces where culture can live.

🔮 What We Can Expect Next
The risk is over-reliance on the BookTok effect - social media trends move fast, and “romantasy” won’t dominate forever. But the bigger story is clear: young audiences want cultural habits that feel slower, tactile and community-driven. Expect more retailers across fashion, music and entertainment to create hybrid spaces where online trends spill into real-world rituals. For Waterstones (and Barnes & Noble in the US), this isn’t just a moment - it’s a model for how analogue brands can thrive in a digital-first culture.

🔥 Sideline Shake-Up: Male Cheerleaders, Masculinity, and the NFL’s Image Play

When the Minnesota Vikings unveiled their 35-member cheer squad this month, the internet didn’t just react to the choreography. The real flashpoint? Two men, Blaize Shiek and Louie Conn, stepping onto the sidelines in uniform. For some fans, this was progress. For others, a provocation. The outrage - ranging from boycotts to slurs - wasn’t really about cheerleading. It was about masculinity, visibility, and who gets to belong in the most hyper-masculine of American arenas: the NFL.

📊 Supporting Stats

The NFL’s cheerleading squads aren’t as female-exclusive as many assume: as of the 2025 season, at least 11 teams include male cheerleaders (NFL).
This shift began in 2018 when the LA Rams introduced Quinton Peron and Napoleon Jinnies - who went on to perform at Super Bowl LIII in 2019.
Sport remains one of America’s most rigidly gender-coded spaces. A 2024 Pew survey found 62% of U.S. adults believe “men and women express masculinity and femininity in ways that should remain distinct”, highlighting why even small shifts in presentation ignite debate.

🧠 Decision: Did It Work?
Yes - culturally and strategically. The Vikings are leaning into the evolving identity of fandom. Cheerleaders don’t exist for players; they exist for fans. And fans are no longer a homogenous group of men who demand a singular idea of femininity on the sidelines. Male cheerleaders reflect the reality of today’s audiences: diverse, inclusive, and unwilling to accept rigid gender norms. For a league long criticised for conservatism, this is not just optics - it’s cultural maintenance.

📌 Key Takeouts

What happened: The Vikings debuted a squad featuring two male cheerleaders, sparking online backlash and support.
What worked: The move reinforced inclusivity, aligned with shifting audience expectations, and positioned the Vikings as a progressive franchise.
What didn’t land: The polarised reaction exposed how fragile perceptions of masculinity remain in football culture.
Signal: Fans increasingly expect sport to mirror cultural diversity, not police it. Resistance to that inclusion is less about cheerleading and more about control over masculinity’s image.
Brand lens: For the NFL, moments like this are essential to bridging generational gaps and staying culturally relevant.

🔮 What We Can Expect Next
More teams will follow. Once the Rams set precedent in 2018, adoption spread steadily. As Gen Z fans - whose gender attitudes skew significantly more fluid—become core NFL consumers, visibility on the sidelines will only widen. But the pushback will remain. Expect right-wing punditry and social backlash to double down on sport as a “last bastion” of traditional masculinity. The tension between inclusivity and nostalgia will shape not just cheer squads, but NFL marketing, player narratives, and even brand partnerships moving forward.

👉 For brand strategists, the lesson is clear: representation isn’t optional. It’s a reflection of who sits in the stadiums and streams on Sundays. Ignore that, and you’re not protecting tradition - you’re forfeiting relevance.

📞 Back to Basics: Why Tin Can’s Screen-Free Phone for Kids is Selling Out

In an era where kids are more likely to FaceTime than phone a friend, a Seattle startup is betting big on retro simplicity. Tin Can, a Wi-Fi-connected landline designed specifically for children, strips back the noise of digital childhood - no screens, no TikTok, no texts. Just voice, like the old days. And parents are here for it.

📊 Supporting Stats

The average age for a child’s first smartphone is now just 9 years old (Common Sense Media, 2023).
68% of parents worry about the effects of screen time on their children (Pew Research, 2024).
Retro-tech is back: vinyl sales rose 11% in 2023 (RIAA), showing nostalgia can fuel serious commercial growth.

🧠 Decision: Could It Work?
Yes - Tin Can has nailed the cultural pulse. Where most “kids’ tech” feels like training wheels for the smartphone, Tin Can flips the logic: it’s not about introducing screens gradually, but about protecting real connection. By packaging safety, nostalgia, and simplicity in one device, Tin Can makes itself not just a gadget, but a parenting philosophy. The fact it’s already backordered until December proves the demand.

📌 Key Takeouts

What happened: Tin Can launched a Wi-Fi-connected, screen-free landline for kids.
What worked: Nostalgia-driven branding and parental peace of mind, wrapped in a product kids actually want to use.
What didn’t: Limited rollout - with backorders stacking up, there’s risk of losing momentum if demand outpaces supply.
Signals: Parents are ready to reframe “connection” away from screens. Tech for kids is moving toward safety-first, not “mini-iPhones.”
For marketers: Designing tech that removes features can sometimes be more powerful than adding them.

🔮 What We Can Expect Next
Tin Can could spark a new wave of “anti-smart” tech for kids, from stripped-back wearables to non-digital play experiences. If the Party Line Plan succeeds, expect competitors (and maybe even telcos) to spin up their own kid-safe phone alternatives. The cultural mood is shifting: connection is still king, but how we deliver it - especially for kids - is up for reinvention.

On The Record Linkedin Newsletter 18th August

🎶 High Stakes, Loud Payoffs: Reading & Leeds’ Legacy of Booking Bold

From Jazz Marquee to Generational Pulse Check

Reading Festival began in the ’60s as a jazz and blues gathering. Leeds joined in 1999. Since then, the twin events have grown into more than a bank-holiday blowout - they’re a cultural barometer, tracking and influencing the tastes of each new generation.

What sets Reading & Leeds apart is their appetite for risk. This is a festival brand that rewrites its own rulebook: genre swerves, surprise stage upgrades, and headliner choices that can split opinion but shift culture. Survival has never meant playing safe - it’s meant booking bold and delivering it with world-class spectacle.

Risk as a Brand Strategy

While many legacy festivals cling to their comfort zones, Reading & Leeds thrive on calculated disruption:

1992 - Public Enemy on the main stage, shattering the rock-only mould.
2000 - Eminem at peak controversy, a full-tilt rap takeover.
2019 - Billie Eilish upgraded mid-season to main stage, cementing Gen Z’s place at the centre of the crowd.

These weren’t just names on a poster - they were line-up disruptors, acts that redefined who the festival was for.

Top 5 Culturally Defining Performances

Nirvana (1992) - Kurt Cobain’s wheelchair entrance; a farewell steeped in irony and myth, marking the peak of grunge’s cultural dominance.
The Stone Roses (1996) - Final gig before hiatus; Britpop’s emotional curtain call.
Public Enemy (1992) - Politically urgent, genre-busting, proof the festival could hold more than guitars.
Beastie Boys (1998) - Hip-hop cemented as a Reading mainstay, even amid purist resistance.
Kendrick Lamar (2015) - A lyricist at the top of his game on a historically rock stage, signalling a new order.

Generational Pivot Bookings - The Evolution of Relevance

These are the moves that didn’t just fill a slot, but reset the festival’s centre of gravity:

Post Malone (2018) - Streaming-era stardom meets rock-festival main stage.
Stormzy (2021) - Grime royalty, a headline built on UK cultural pride.
Megan Thee Stallion (2022) - US rap dominance breaking through the rock wall.
Sam Fender (2023) - New-gen British guitar hero with arena-level draw.
Chappell Roan (2025) - TikTok-powered queer pop in full festival bloom.

Production as a Cultural Statement

In recent years, Reading & Leeds have matched big-risk bookings with world-class stagecraft:

Massive LED walls, immersive lighting rigs, stadium-grade sound.
Site redesigns for better flow, safer crowd dynamics, and bigger spectacle.
Dual main stages, killing dead air between headliners.

The result? The experience is as much the draw as the acts themselves.

Survival by Adaptation

When COVID halted live music, Reading & Leeds came back swinging in 2021 with genre-fluid headliners and a wider audience focus. They’ve also rebounded from past crises - from late ’80s pop-booking misfires to Leeds’ licensing battles - each time emerging more relevant.

Why It Matters Ahead of 2025

Next weekend’s line-up - Travis Scott, Hozier, Bring Me The Horizon, Chappell Roan - proves Reading & Leeds are still balancing nostalgia, cultural statements, and calculated risk. They’re not following trends; they’re engineering the crossroads where mainstream and youth culture meet.

The Playbook Reading & Leeds Wrote

Be fearless in booking – Back the future stars early and visibly.
Invest in experience – Treat production as brand equity.
Stay culturally porous – Let the line-up reflect where youth are going, not just where they’ve been.
Leverage risk as relevance – Every wildcard headliner is a chance to make a statement.

Final Take:
Reading & Leeds isn’t just a festival - it’s the UK’s most consistent cultural risk-taker. Its legacy is built on knowing when to gamble, when to swerve, and how to turn those calls into music history. Next weekend will be another test - and another chance for the bank-holiday risk machine to pay off big.

⚽️ Netflix Enters the Women’s World Cup Arena - But What’s the Play Here?

Netflix has locked in exclusive Canadian broadcast rights for the 2027 and 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cups - its first move into live football and a clear signal that the streamer is stepping deeper into the sports broadcast game. Historically, the tournament has been shown on free-to-air TV to maximise reach, but Netflix is betting that subscription streaming can still deliver - and monetise - a mass sporting moment.

This isn’t an isolated experiment: Netflix has already tested its live-sport muscle with NFL Christmas Day games, high-profile boxing events like Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano, and a weekly WWE Raw slot. Now, it’s eyeing women’s football - a sport whose cultural and commercial rise makes it one of the most bankable bets in sport.

📊 Supporting Stats

The 2023 Women’s World Cup drew over 2 billion views across TV, streaming, and social, with nearly 2 million stadium attendees (FIFA).
Netflix’s Taylor–Serrano fight card pulled 74 million live viewers worldwide (Netflix).
Women’s football is one of the fastest-growing sports properties, with FIFA projecting $3.5B in commercial revenue for the next cycle (WARC).

🧠 Decision: Did It Work?
Strategically, yes - with caveats.
Netflix is buying into a sport with momentum and a fanbase increasingly willing to follow the game across platforms. For brand marketers, this is a clear play for cultural relevance: live women’s football has community heat, global appeal, and a growing sponsorship ecosystem.

However, exclusivity behind a paywall risks shrinking the top-of-funnel audience. Free-to-air has been critical in building women’s football visibility, and Netflix will need aggressive content marketing, shoulder programming, and cross-platform amplification to offset potential reach loss. If the goal is not just subs, but shaping cultural moments, execution will be everything.

📌 Key Takeouts

What happened: Netflix secured exclusive Canadian rights to the 2027 (Brazil) and 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cups.
Why it matters: First live football play for Netflix, signalling bigger sports ambitions.
What worked: Aligning with the fastest-growing women’s sport globally, building on previous live sports success.
Signal for brands: Sports rights are no longer locked to traditional broadcasters; cultural sponsorship opportunities are shifting to streamers.

🔮 What We Can Expect Next
If Netflix pulls off strong production, behind-the-scenes storytelling, and interactive fan engagement, this could reset how fans expect to watch major tournaments. Expect more streamers to bid for premium women’s sports rights - and potentially bundle them with docuseries, merch collabs, and influencer-driven fan content.

The risk? Over-fragmentation of sports rights could lead to audience fatigue if fans are forced to chase multiple subscriptions. But for now, the Women’s World Cup just became Netflix’s biggest live-stage moment yet.

💊 No Pain, Big Gain: Why Healthcare Brands Are Betting on Women’s Sports

Tylenol’s latest NWSL play is less about aspirin and more about audience alignment. Partnering with Wakefield Research, the brand surveyed 2,000 U.S. sports fans on the physical discomforts of attending live events - and found pain to be as common as goal celebrations. With 88% of respondents reporting some form of discomfort at games, the overlap between pain relief products and live sport is obvious. But in choosing the NWSL as its stage, Tylenol is tapping into one of sport’s fastest-growing - and most brand-friendly - audiences.

📊 Supporting Stats

$30M+ - Healthcare led all categories in NWSL sponsorship spend in the past year (SponsorUnited).
88% of fans experience pain or discomfort at games; 57% have skipped attending over physical concerns.
Baby boomers (74%) and Gen Xers (61%) are the most likely to use OTC pain relief post-game.
Women make 80% of healthcare decisions in the U.S., yet only 33% of pharma marketing portrays them accurately - with accurate portrayal delivering a 10x sales boost.

🧠 Decision: Did It Work?
Yes - strategically and culturally.
Tylenol is aligning product relevance (pain relief) with contextual need (live match discomfort) in a league that over-indexes on an audience with decision-making power in healthcare spend. It’s a double win: solving a genuine fan problem while reinforcing brand salience in a space where competitors like Icy Hot and Hologic have already proven the model. Crucially, the NWSL also delivers a more inclusive brand halo - a point of difference in an industry still lagging in authentic female representation.

📌 Key Takeouts

What happened: Tylenol paired a fan pain-point survey with its NWSL partnership to reinforce relevance and audience fit.
What worked: Data-led insight matched with a high-growth league and a high-influence audience segment (women as healthcare decision-makers).
Signals: Women’s sports are now seen as high-value sponsorship properties for healthcare brands, offering both cultural credibility and conversion potential.
For marketers: The opportunity isn’t just “be in women’s sport” - it’s to match product problem-solving with the lived realities of fans.

🔮 What We Can Expect Next
If this trend continues, healthcare brands will flood women’s sport to the point where simply having a logo on a jersey won’t be enough. Expect more experiential activations at stadiums (hydration stations, recovery lounges) and athlete-led health education campaigns that deepen relevance. But with more brands crowding in, the next big win will come from those who can tell a distinctive, culturally resonant health story - not just treat the symptoms.

🎾 Game, Set, Icon: Venus Williams Joins Barbie’s Inspiring Women Line

Barbie is honouring tennis legend Venus Williams with a new collectible doll as part of its Inspiring Women series. Beyond her phenomenal record - including seven Grand Slam singles titles - this doll commemorates her groundbreaking advocacy for equal prize money in tennis, especially her 2007 Wimbledon victory, which marked the first time a woman earned the same prize as a man at a major tournament.

The doll mirrors Williams' iconic look from that Wimbledon win: an all-white tennis outfit paired with a green gem necklace, wristband, racket, and tennis ball. Mattel collaborated directly with Williams to ensure the design reflected her style and story authentically.

Priced at around $38, it becomes available via Mattel Shop and select major retailers starting 15 August 2025, with Barbie Club 59 members granted early access.

This isn't Venus' first Barbie tribute. In May 2024, Mattel released a “Role Model” doll in her likeness as one of nine pioneering female athletes, launching ahead of Barbie’s 65th anniversary and the Paris Olympics.

Does It Work?

Yes - strategically and culturally, this move lands.

Authenticity as currency: By collaborating closely with Williams, Mattel ensures the doll reflects more than her appearance - it encapsulates her legacy and values. That lends the product emotional weight and credibility.
Cultural resonance over novelty: Venus is not just a champion - she’s a trailblazer who reshaped tennis and gender dynamics. Celebrating her in this way amplifies the message that dolls can represent ambition, resilience, and social impact.
Brand evolution: Barbie has faced scrutiny for unrealistic ideals. Honouring women like Venus - plus others in the earlier 2024 drop - signals genuine progress in diversifying who gets to be a hero in Barbie’s world.

Key Take-Outs

Moment: Venus Williams joins Barbie’s Inspiring Women series with a doll based on her historic 2007 Wimbledon look.
What worked: Authentic design, rooted in a defining moment that married sport and advocacy; narrative that resonates beyond aesthetics.
What’s fresh: Elevating pay equity as the core story, not just her athletic success - adds real cultural depth.
What signals: Brands can be aspirational and socially attuned - empowerment sells when done with sincerity over spectacle.

What’s Next?

Expect more:

Further evolution of Barbie: Additional figures may spotlight women known for impactful stories - not just fame. Venus joins the ranks of Maya Angelou, Kristi Yamaguchi, Anita Dongre, and others in the Inspiring Women series.
Emotional resonance over novelty: Dolls that embody cultural moments (like equal pay, barrier-breaking) will likely continue - fans want depth.

In essence, Venus Williams’ Barbie isn’t just a doll - it’s a platform. It reminds us that culture wants substance, not just sparkle.

🌹🏉 Barbie Meets the Red Roses: A Game-Changing Match for Girls Everywhere

This summer marks more than just tournament fever for England’s Red Roses - it’s the moment when the iconic Barbie brand steps onto the pitch as their first-ever UK sports partner. This collaboration isn’t about plastic dolls and pink accessories; it’s about empowering girls through sport, amplifying confidence, and laying a foundation of inspiration using rugby’s role models.

Barbie’s alignment with elite athletes like Zoe Aldcroft, Sarah Bern, and Sadia Kabeya offers a fresh cultural narrative: sporty, bold, community-driven - and deeply aligned with contemporary female ambition.

Supporting Stats

First UK sports team partnership for Barbie - a bold leap from traditional toy marketing into authentic brand purpose
Initial rollout includes t-shirts, hoodies, and replica balls, not dolls - demonstrating substance over stereotype
Tied to the Barbie Dream Gap Project and RFU’s growth goals, with support for 400+ Girls’ Activity Days nationwide - highlighting scale and commitment.

Decision: Did It Work?

Absolutely.

Culturally, this is a savvy and timely reframing of the Barbie brand - moving from toy to champion for girls’ empowerment. The Red Roses exemplify physical strength, leadership, and visibility in women’s sport; pairing them with Barbie is a culturally coherent and progressive move.

Commercially, the partnership offers access to new audiences - girls and families looking for aspirational rather than aspirifice role models. Launching with practical merchandise over dolls signifies serious inclusivity, not caricature.

Creatively, this venture feels genuine - not a scattergun brand drop, but a storytelling collaboration rooted in shared values: confidence, community, and sport.

Key Takeouts

What happened? Barbie partnered with England Rugby’s Red Roses - its first UK sports team tie-up - to launch purposeful merchandise and drive Girls’ Activity Days supporting RFU’s growth initiatives.
What worked? Authentic alignment with athletic icons; merchandise that matters; and programming that builds community on and off-field.
What might miss? Without follow-through in content and activation, the buzz could fade. The lack of dolls isn’t a problem - but future moves must ensure the collaboration extends beyond merch.
What does it signal? Brands can - and should - move beyond tokenism. Empowerment partnerships with real-world relevance are increasingly expected.
Marketers’ takeaway: Bold brand moves are not about scale alone - they require cultural insight, credible activation, and sustained programming that reflects brand values, not just logo swaps.

What We Can Expect Next

This feels like a starting line, not a finish. Other lifestyle or female-forward brands may watch this and replicate - not in generic terms, but with their own sport or purpose-driven angles.

But the challenge is sustaining momentum. Girls’ Activity Days are a powerful touchpoint - but they need follow-up: storytelling content, visibility for participants, and clear links between sport and brand beyond summertime chatter.

Risks? Oversaturation is unlikely here - this is fresh, relevant, and rooted in real cultural interest. But tokenism, or a pull-out post-World Cup, could dim the goodwill quickly.

🎙️ Podcasts Are the New Prime-Time - and Celebs Know It

The celebrity press tour has quietly been rewritten. Forget late-night sofas and glossy magazine Q&As - the hottest seat in PR right now is across from a podcast mic. And not just any mic: the video-first podcast set, optimised for YouTube algorithms, TikTok snippets, and full visual storytelling.

Taylor Swift’s debut on New Heights - the sports-meets-pop-culture podcast co-hosted by her boyfriend, NFL star Travis Kelce - wasn’t just an album announcement. It was a multi-platform event engineered for reach: dominating Instagram Reels, breaking Spotify records, and shifting NFL audience demographics in real time.

📊 Supporting Stats

Instagram Reels domination: Swift’s teaser for New Heights became the most-reposted Reel in the U.S. since the feature launched last week, with 170M+ views - her most-viewed Reel ever.
Spotify surge: The episode ranked among Spotify’s top-performing podcasts of the past year, with 3000% more new listeners, a 2500% overall stream increase, and a 618% spike in female listeners compared to the show’s average.
NFL halo effect: Since Swift began attending games, she’s generated nearly $1B in brand value for the NFL, driving a 24% viewership increase among women aged 18–24 and a 30% growth in Kansas City Chiefs fandom.
Eras Tour economics: Swifties spend an average of $1.3K per concert - on par with the average Super Bowl spend — illustrating the sheer spending power that a fanbase can carry across industries.

🧠 Decision: Did It Work?
From a brand perspective, the New Heights play is a blueprint for how video-first podcasts can act as cultural and commercial accelerants.

For the podcast: Record-breaking streams, a broadened audience, and an algorithmic windfall across YouTube, Spotify, and Instagram.
For Swift: Narrative control, brand synergy with the NFL, and fan-driven amplification that no paid media could match.
For the NFL: Expanded demographic reach, boosted merch and ticket sales, and cultural relevance beyond the sports pages.

📌 Key Takeouts

What happened: Celebrity announcements are moving to video-first podcasts, using multi-platform amplification to dominate cultural conversation.
What worked: Cross-platform coordination (Reels + YouTube + Spotify), audience intimacy, and fanbase mobilisation.
What didn’t: Reliance on personality-driven fanbases means the format’s success can be highly dependent on the right guest.
Signals for the industry: Cult-fave guests - whether pop stars, athletes, or internet icons - can bring their audience with them, reshaping audience profiles overnight.

🔮 What We Can Expect Next
Expect more brands and rights holders to pair up with celebrity talent for podcast appearances - not just for PR hits, but for measurable commercial impact. The next evolution will be shows that design for virality, building in multiple content moments per recording to fuel weeks of platform-native clips. In the fight for cultural attention, the podcast set is now the new prime-time stage.

🕵️‍♂️ Roblox Under the Spotlight: Chris Hansen and the Child Safety Reckoning

Roblox is one of the most successful gaming platforms on the planet - 80 million daily active users, nearly half of them pre-teens, and a market cap that’s outpaced many legacy publishers. But beneath the pastel avatars and creative sandboxes, a growing chorus of watchdogs says the platform has a darker problem: predators exploiting young players.

Now, rumours are circulating that Chris Hansen - the investigative journalist behind To Catch a Predator - is planning a documentary targeting Roblox’s child safety failures. While unconfirmed, multiple reports suggest Hansen has reached out to Schlep, a YouTuber whose predator-exposure videos on Roblox led to multiple arrests before he was banned from the platform. If true, Roblox Corp may be heading into its most high-profile reputational test yet.

For brand strategists, this isn’t just a scandal - it’s a case study in the tension between user growth, platform safety, and public trust.