Your ATTN Please | Thursday, 28 August

August 28, 2025

“OMG girly! You so need an armpit detox mask/butt facial/waist trainer!”

For the last five years, brands have been telling women that the only reason their lives are incomplete is because they’re missing this newly invented [insert beauty/health product here]. But it seems we’re moving on. Because brands like Perelel and Julie are starting to meet real gaps in the market with products that actually improve wellbeing. Yes, they’re still here to make money. But it seems these brands are community first, product second—and consumers are here for it.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

Stop competing on price. Start building a brand people pay more for.

If customers only choose you because you’re cheaper, you’re stuck in a race to the bottom.

The only way out? Your personal brand. It’s what makes people recognise you, trust you, and buy from you, even if you charge more than your competitors.

A strong personal brand is exactly how our founder Stanley Henry built a 7-figure business.

In this workshop, he’ll show you:

✅ How to stand out in a crowded market
✅ The strategies behind a 7-figure personal brand
✅ How to attract customers who only want to work with you

This session is not about theory! You will walk away with all the tools you need to start building your personal brand right away.

Wednesday, 3 Sept | 8:30 – 10:00am NZT | $59

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?

Altman cautions AI hype, T. Swift’s engagement is “breaking news” & The Robot “Olympics” are a thing

What’s all this talk about the AI bubble bursting?

Fears are emerging around an imminent stock market crash. When the bullish headlines about how amazing AI is start to dwindle, will we go from dip to dive?

This happened in 2000 with the “dotcom bubble” – when a period of intense speculation and overvaluation of internet-based companies (obviously a new phenomenon back then) saw a surge of venture capital. This then tanked when investors realised many companies lacked sustainable business models and were totally unprofitable. And this caused a market panic through massive sell-offs, driving values down further. Last week, Sam Altman, admitted he believes AI could be in the same bubble.

“When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth,” Altman told a small group of reporters. “Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My opinion is yes. Is AI the most important thing to happen in a very long time? My opinion is also yes.” What goes up, must come down. As above, so below. 

Best wishes to the happy cultural phenomenon! Taylor and Travis are engaged.

I’m only writing about this because I feel there is a freaking GUN TO MY HEAD and all of pop culture’s consumers will PULL THE TRIGGER if I don’t. The announcement via Instagram on Tuesday was indeed so pressing and important that it warranted BREAKING NEWS alerts – from real outlets – like the Washington Post and ESPN. It even earned a live cutaway from a presidential cabinet meeting by Fox News… and the reporter then asked Trump to comment…Y’all have lost your damn minds.

More than 500 robots from 16 countries compete in sports like soccer, running and boxing at the first World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing.

I don’t need to tell you what my thoughts are here. Something something dystopia, something something, run away to the forest, something something wtf is going on here and is this just combat training in disguise. If you, too, would like to have an existential crisis and feel the same sense of dread, watch the videos here!

Hey, do you like YAP?

If so, why not share it with a friend? The more we grow this thing, the more resources we can put into making it awesome for you. Even if every subscriber invites just 1 person to YAP, we’ll meet our growth goal for 2025. So, you in?

DEEP DIVE

How brands like Perelel are putting "community first, product second" into practice

Perimenopause is shaping up to be wellness’ next “it” topic.

And Perelel, an OB/GYN-founded vitamin company, has already claimed front row seats.

The internet loves to collectively decide what you must suddenly care about. And in 2025, it’s perimenopause’s moment. A few years ago it was egg freezing. This year the fixation has been protein and creatine. And now, the algorithm wants you swapping war stories about hot flashes.

I first heard of the brand after they acquired Erica Chidi’s Loom last year, just months after closing a $6 million Series A led by Unilever Ventures. It seems “natural” products are so 2024, and the industry is steadily inching toward medicalised beauty.

However, the bigger trend is brands like Perelel and Julie moving into the gaps public healthcare keeps leaving wide open (as it does so well.)

Perelel’s latest move? A perimenopause-focused campaign and community that says the quiet part out loud: women are tired of piecing this stage of life together on their own. When asked about the campaign, Perelel’s co-founder and Chief Brand Officer Alex Taylor said:

“We need to start having more substantive conversations about the unique and complex demands of perimenopause. So we created a space dedicated to just that, offering… community for women who have been putting the puzzle pieces together on their own until now. Perelel aims to be by women’s sides through all stages of life. It was time to pay special attention to perimenopause, which has gone underdiscussed and under-researched for too long.”

And this got me thinking—this is such a clear example of a brand working with consumers' actual needs instead of exploiting them.

And that feels like a shift worth paying attention to. Because for decades, wellness (and beauty before it) thrived on manufacturing insecurities. Dry shampoo for your eyebrows, detox teas for your liver, endless serums for pores you can’t even see. The playbook was 1) invent a “problem,” then 2) sell the solution.

But what brands like Perelel are doing flips that on its head. They’re stepping into real gaps left by public health systems, and building products, communities, and campaigns around them. I like to call this care capitalism. And, for now, it may be a little imperfect, maybe even messy, but it is undeniably powerful.

Perelel’s campaign is a good example of how community first, product second works in practice.

The vitamins are the product, sure, but the point is actually the community and the conversation. The same goes for Julie, the emergency contraception brand that leads with education and access rather than a pretty pill pack.

This is a big shift from the old DTC playbook where products came first, lifestyle second. Now, the lifestyle is the selling point. It's all about a sense of being held, informed and connected.

Credibility is the new currency.

Wellness is also growing up. Gone are the days of moon dust and “good vibes only” (thank the lord.) Today’s consumers don’t really want rituals, not when it comes to actual health issues, for crying out loud.

They want receipts: clinical trials, advisory boards, OB/GYN-founded brands. Medical legitimacy is the new brand currency, especially in categories like perimenopause where the mainstream medical system has been notoriously dismissive. Perelel’s bet is that trust and authority matter just as much as packaging… maybe even more.

And finally, there’s advocacy.

Hell fkn yeah.

These brands go beyond “selling.” They’re normalising conversations and pushing taboos into the mainstream. It’s not “purpose-washing” in the shallow, 2015 sense. It’s actually advocacy as strategy, making change part of the product.

Of course, the cynic in me wants to instantly shout that this is just capitalism doing what capitalism does best: monetising the gaps left behind by broken systems.

And that’s not entirely wrong. But it’s also true that millions of women are left without resources, without language, and without care. If brands can step in, and do it responsibly, I’m not saying no.

It just means that the future of women’s wellness must move away from the never-ending invention of new needs and toward addressing the ones that have been ignored for far too long (endometriosis and PCOS, I’m looking at you directly.)

The real question is whether brands can keep walking that line between serving and exploiting.

Because the balance is fragile, and the stakes are high. The real glow up in wellness isn’t another freaking supplement for me to choke down with my 20 others. It’s finally giving women the care they should have had all along…

Perimenopause may be trending. But for once, it feels less like a fad and more like long-overdue recognition. I’ll drink (my apple cider vinegar ginger turmeric tonic) to that.

TREND PLUG

WHAT THE F*CK AM I F*CKING DOING HERE?!

Sorry mom about the swear words but Charli XCX's run NEEDS to be studied.

This trending sound is result of her cameo in the comedy-drama series Overcompensating. In a fit of rage, Charli snaps and shouts "WHAT THE F*CK AM I F*CKING DOING HERE?!" and frankly, that was more than enough for TikTok to take it and turn it into the unofficial rage anthem of the month.

How you can jump on this trend:

To the sound, rage say the line "what the f*ck am I doing f*cking doing here?!" and add your onscreen text as to why we're in this raging mood.

A few ideas to get you started:

  • Me writing 47 hashtags for a post that gets 3 likes

  • Explaining to my mum that I get paid to make memes

  • When I buy a $3,000 camera to film myself making coffee

- abdel khalil, brand & marketing executive

FOR THE GROUP CHAT

😲WTF: Streamer Took Things Way Too Far!
❤How wholesome: “i wuv you”
😊Soooo satisfying: never let them know your next move!
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: sweet potato bowls

ASK THE EDITOR

I've just bought a small business and am wanting to rebrand and really make it my own. What advice do you have? -Chris

Hey Chris,

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, Editor ♡

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

PSST…PASS IT ON

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