Then you step outside to get some early morning light. Next, it’s onto your supplements. Creatine, vitamin D, and omega-3s. Greens powder’s next, then you pull up your meditation app so you can ground yourself before your daily cold plunge ritual. Gone are the days where “being healthy” was about being skinny and looking young. Now, longevity is the name of the game. And that involves optimising every facet of your life. It’s an industry that’s grown nearly 20X in the last 5 years, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

And it’s clear you haven’t just lost them. You’ve lost the deal.

Well, that doesn't have to be you anymore. Because in this 90-minute session taught by Nathan James, Executive Creative Director at The Attention Seeker, you’ll learn the real art of selling subjective ideas (from someone who’s worked with some of the world’s biggest brands).

If you want to know how to:

✅ Keep the room hooked from your first sentence to the final slide
✅ Nail the 3-nod method that gets instant buy-in, every time
✅ Use their objections to strengthen your pitch

...this workshop is for you.

Forget “we’ll think about it.” You’ll leave this session knowing how to make every client say, “please take my money.”

Thursday, 4 Dec | 8:30 - 10am NZT | $49

A new study by the American Psychology Association just confirmed what we already knew, deep down. That is, that "heavy consumption" of short-form video content is linked with "significantly" reduced mental health. This study, which included over 98,000 participants, found that people who heavily consumed content like TikToks and Reels had "diminished cognitive functions." This included their ability to control their impulses, think critically, and focus on tasks.

The study also links heavy SFV consumption with increased issues with anxiety, sleep, social isolation and self-esteem. Essentially, short-form video content conditions the brain's reward-seeking receptors to seek instant gratification (and that oh-so-addictive dopamine hit). And this brain re-wiring is not doing us any favours. I think we already know all this. But now, there's even more research to back it up.

It's obviously the brand is not backing down, despite the backlash surrounding the infamous Sydney Sweeney campaign. And it's understandable, given the brand saw "unprecedented" numbers of customers flocking to buy AE demin over the last three months. So now, American Eagle has extended this campaign into the holiday season, encouraging shoppers to "Give Great Jeans" (so creative, I know).

And they've brought in the one and only Martha Stewart to do so. The rationale, according to CMO Craig Brommers, is that Stewart is widely recognised and loved across generations. The brand is already "Gen Z’s No. 1 retailer who sells jeans," according to Brommers. And they're hoping to extend that to older shoppers, too. Not sure they're ever going to top the attention they got from that Sydney campaign though lol.

Pretty much everyone's feeling strapped for cash this year as we head into the holidays. Deloitte's annual retail survey found 57% of consumers expect the economy to get worse over the next 6 months. That's the worst outlook they've seen since they started tracking consumer sentiment almost 30 years ago. Ouch. Deloitte also found that shoppers are looking to cut back on extras so they can still afford to spend on the most important holiday traditions.

Sooo what does that mean for us? It means that the most important thing we can convey in our holiday campaigns is value for money. That, and sales and discounts are going to be more important than ever. 73% of customers said they will wait to buy something until it goes on sale. And 71% said they have responded to personalised discount codes. Clearly, messaging around the real value of your product and what it will add to your customers' holiday season is going to be everything this year.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

A marketing invention that convinced women their face was a problem to solve. It fuelled a billion-dollar pipeline of fillers, threads, Botox, lasers and whatever treatment promised to erase a single freaking pore and at least fifteen years off your life (aesthetically speaking).

It created Instagram Face, mass hysteria, and an entire generation of twenty-three-year-olds pre-gaming their birthdays with “preventative injectables.”

But culture has a way of rejecting the monster it creates.

Highly edited, over-filled, hyper-sculpted beauty is now trending low on the status ladder. It has the same energy as last season’s micro-trend: once aspirational, now embarrassing. This is the era of the great dissolving. People are reversing filler like they’re returning bad purchases.

Celebrities are posting their “back to basics” faces with a sincerity that borders on comedic. And the Botox industry is having a small existential crisis. Sales are stalling enough that Bloomberg is writing about a 2.7-billion-dollar empire trying to stay relevant.

When an aesthetic becomes low status, it dies fast. And a new one rises in its place.

Ageing well has become aspirational. Not “never age.” Not “fight age.” But “age like someone who journals their sleep scores and eats fermented vegetables on a daily basis.” Longevity is luxury. The kind of luxury that signals not wealth exactly, but discipline, foresight and access to cutting-edge wellness tech, of course.

This isn’t about being young. This is about being functional. And that’s a much bigger cultural shift.

You can feel that money in the air.

You can see it in fashion, where brands are no longer pretending only fresh, poreless faces can sell clothes. Loewe and Burberry have cast women in their seventies and eighties, like Dame Maggie Smith. And the images feel more powerful than anything a twenty-year-old could deliver.

These faces carry narrative weight. They feel like a future people want.

Oura’s “give us the finger” campaign features people in their fifties giving relaxed, confident middle-finger poses. It sends a message that longevity is no longer a niche for Silicon Valley or wellness extremists. It is entering the mainstream aesthetic consciousness. Long life is cool again.

The shift is simple.

You are no longer maintaining your body. You are optimising it. You are future-proofing it. You are becoming the peak version of yourself for as long as possible.

And because of that, brands are treating longevity like the next gold rush.

But, dear friends, the land is already crowded, and the rules are already forming:

Consumers are tired of empty claims, fake science and products that overpromise and underdeliver. One bogus study or gimmick and they will leave you on read. Longevity requires credibility. It requires receipts. It requires brands to stop speaking in vague promises and start proving real benefit.

Longevity may sound new. But the space is filling quickly with supplements, wearables, diagnostics, sleep tech, gut tech, stress tech, glucose tech and every niche protocol rebranded as life extension. You are either a health company or a longevity company now. The categories have all collapsed into one.

Longevity is emotional. It sells a future self who still feels strong, still feels relevant, still shows up. When a brand sells longevity, they are selling a story about who you could become. They are selling a promise of more time. They are selling a main-character arc. That kind of storytelling converts because it speaks directly to mortality. It whispers to the part of us terrified of fading away into nothingness.

That is both the opportunity and the chaos. You can approach it through biohacking or strength training. Through supplements or sleep. Through diagnostics or mindfulness. Even gyms and studios have begun layering longevity messaging into their class descriptions. Because they know the future of fitness is not about looking good for summer. It's about being strong at seventy.

A refusal to keep pretending youth is the only desirable state. It is a shift from hiding age to honouring it. From freezing our faces to learning what our cells need to thrive. From fearing time to genuinely preparing for it.

If the last decade taught us to chase youth at any cost, the next decade is teaching us a new lesson. Not how to avoid ageing, but how to age well. How to age visibly. How to age with intention.

And that looks like progress to me, baby.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

The audio is from "Silver Springs" (2004 Remaster) by Fleetwood Mac, a song from their Rumours era known for its emotional intensity. It’s nostalgic, dreamy, and full of that slow-build drama that makes everything feel meaningful, which is exactly why people are using it to turn everyday moments into something that feels destined.

Creators are using the audio with on-screen text that starts with “In your 20s there will be…” and ends with a piece of advice that feels like destiny. Because all choices feel like they were meant to be when phrased this way.

My favourite examples include:

Film a calm, simple clip and add the audio. Write “In your 20s there will be…” followed by the moment you want to highlight. Finish it with “It is very important that you…” and insert what the right choice or action was in that situation.

A few ideas to get you started:

-Paris Foskin, Intern

😂Yap’s funniest home videos Cat battalion strikes again
✨Daily inspo Claymation on Tyler the Creator
🎧Soooo tingly Who doesn’t love a soap asmr
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight Quick & easy high protein tuna sammy

Hey Andreas,

I know it's tempting to pick apart everything about this brand you've just bought. But before you burn it all down and start again, I'd ask why you want to rebrand. If you just think it would be cool to have a new logo and colours, there's nothing wrong with that. But I'd be careful about pouring too many resources into that right now.

Instead, I'd focus on a strategy for building the brand beyond its visual elements. Because while a lot of people think "branding" is your logo and colour scheme, it's actually the entire experience of your brand. Your values, messaging, and how you show up on your website, socials, etc. are way more important than your logo. So sure, get a new one if you want. But spend the majority of your efforts on the aspects of branding that will actually make a difference.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

p.s. You also may want to check out Thinking about rebranding in 2025? Read this first.