Your ATTN Please || Tuesday, 30 September

The Eras tour tee you wear twice a week.

The Marriott pen you pull out to sign your name. The Starbucks mug you use every morning. In a time where our eyeballs are being constantly bombarded with digital ads, branded merch whispers quietly. And a cute, fun, or actually useful piece of merch easily becomes part of our routine (reinforcing brand affinity without us even realising!). Branded merch is a pretty smart way to get in front of your customers every single day—as long as you create something they actually want.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

FREE EVENT in Auckland tomorrow night👇

You don’t level up in your career by accident. You do it by investing in yourself—getting 1% better every day.

Whether you’re chasing a promotion, eyeing a career change, or wanting to start your own thing, this session is designed to give you the clarity and confidence to take that next step.

Come join us at The Attention Seeker HQ to hear from our founder, Stanley Henry, on how to build a personal brand that opens doors. Plus, you’ll connect with other ambitious professionals who are just as driven as you.

1 Oct | 5:30-7:30pm | Grey Lynn, Auckland

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?

Meta lets users opt out of ads, Kai Cenat reaches 1M subs & Gen Z divides luxury brands

Meta launches ad-free subscriptions for Facebook & IG users in the UK.

Tired of being served an IG ad for eyelash extensions just hours after telling your mum you need some? Well, if you live in the UK, you can now opt out of ads on Facebook and IG (as long as you're happy to pay £3-4/month for the privilege). Meta has come up with this subscription model as a solution to accusations (and lawsuits) claiming its platforms breach privacy laws. Users have long complained about "hyper-targeted" advertising that they feel invades their privacy. In fact, back in March, Facebook user Tanya O’Carroll sued Meta for using her data for "direct profiling." She won her case, and clearly Meta decided they needed to cover their behinds (yes, that’s a legal term).

This new subscription model isn't the first of its kind, though. Meta introduced ad-free subscriptions in Europe back in 2023. However, earlier this year, the EU fined the tech giant €200m over this "consent or pay" model, saying it's illegal. Welp, we'll see whether UK users (and regulators) react to this so-called solution more favourably.

Kai Cenat becomes first-ever Twitch streamer to hit 1 million subs.

Ok, I don't care if you don't care about Twitch streamers. 23-year-old Kai Cenat is more than a streamer at this point. He's a cultural icon. Not only was he the first Twitch streamer to reach 500,000 subscribers, but over the weekend, he was the first to gain 1,000,000. As one of the most popular live-streamers in the world, Cenat has had huge names like Nicki Minaj, GloRilla, Snoop Dogg, Lizzo, SZA, and Serena Williams on his stream. Not only that, but we can thank him (or not) for popularising several bits of slang, such as "rizz" and "gyatt" (I did say cultural icon, did I not?). After reaching his 1,000,000 subscriber milestone live on camera, Cenat took to X, saying:

“STARTING 2025 I WAS A LITTLE LOST AND DIDN’T KNOW HOW IT WAS GONNA GO BUT FAST FORWARD AND NOW IM HERE 1,000,000 SUBS THANK YOU GOD❤️GOAL IS OFFICIALLY COMPLETE.”

Gen Z is about to dominate the luxury market (but they’re not shopping like their parents did).

Back in the day (ok, pre-Covid), Gen Z made up just 4% of global luxury spending. By 2030? That number will hit 25%. But brands banking on that growth are learning the hard way that they can't coast by on a legacy name alone. This new generation of shoppers is #blessed with the gift of endless choice. And they have no problem mixing and matching thrifted finds with spendier items.

Legacy labels like Coach, Ralph Lauren, and Miu Miu are appealing to younger shoppers by offering affordable entry points (think bag charms) and by using Gen Z-friendly influencers. Other brands aren’t faring as well, with Gucci seeing the sharpest decline in popularity in the past year amongst Gen Z. Looks like the luxury brands who are willing to adapt will win with the younger generation. And the brands that cling too hard to tradition? Good luck to them.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

DEEP DIVE

What brands can learn from the good ol' hotel pen

Forgive me but, my little “bring back the zine” rant has triggered a series of thought that I just have to expand on, if you’ll indulge me, my beloveds (like you have a choice.)

If the humble zine is the coolest forgotten tool in a marketer’s arsenal, then the equally humble hotel pen deserves its own case study.

Growing up I feel like, no matter what office, or home, or home office you were in, there was always a hotel branded pen floating around. It was just an ever-present part of reality. But those days are gone. We’re no longer children and hotel pens seem to have disappeared with roly-poly bugs and white dog poop.

But they’re kind of a genius little piece of marketing (the pens, not the poop), given I’m still talking about them, despite not seeing one in 20 odd years.

The reason? Hotel pens weren’t designed as marketing. They were designed as a utility.

A little freebie for guests who might want to jot something down. But then they started leaving the building. People pocketed them, carried them into their offices, left them at cafés, lent them to friends.

The pen wasn’t an ad, but it became one. A circulating artifact, soft-selling a brand’s existence far beyond the walls of a Marriott or Hilton.

We’re in a renaissance of the hotel pen moment. Only I use the pen as a mere example. Because it’s also mugs, lighters, matchbooks, totes, coasters, napkins, and water bottles. Everyday objects are re-emerging as one of the most genuine and effective ways to put brands in people’s hands… literally.

Call it merch. Call it swag, if you must. But here’s the better definition: merch as media.

The logic is simple. When an object enters someone’s daily life, it becomes a miniature billboard. A mug used every morning is a long-tail campaign. A tote bag slung over a shoulder turns its owner into a walking poster. A lighter passed around at a party circulates a brand hand-to-hand without anyone even noticing.

Unlike a digital ad, merch doesn’t vanish when you scroll past. It lingers. And unlike a glossy brochure, it doesn’t scream “look at me.” It just sits there, doing its job, until one day you realise the brand has quietly woven itself into your routine. Got emmm.

What’s changed now is that brands are rethinking the quality and design of these objects.

No more flimsy pens or throwaway lanyards. The new wave of branded objects are designed to last. They’re thoughtful, aesthetic, and collectible.

They’re things you actually want to use, not things you guiltily shove in a drawer alongside expired loyalty cards and those receipts you said you were going to file, never to see the light of day again.

This shift sits within a bigger movement: ambient marketing.

Instead of loud campaigns designed to dominate your attention, ambient marketing is all about subtle, atmospheric influence.

Spotify curating in-store soundtracks. Brands experimenting with signature scents that linger in memory. Packaging that doubles as shelf-worthy décor. These aren’t aggressive messages, but instead gentle nudges, never demanding attention and quietly becoming part of the background hum of life.

Merch fits neatly into this ethos. A branded object doesn’t flash up in your feed or bombard your inbox. It hangs out in your periphery, useful and unassuming, until it starts to feel familiar.

Familiarity is what builds trust. And trust is what builds brands.

The other big driver of the merch renaissance is scarcity.

In a digital-saturated world, physical things feel intimate and rare. We can screenshot a meme a thousand times, but a screen-printed T-shirt only exists in a hundred copies. A risograph-printed booklet might run just fifty. A ceramic mug made in collaboration with a local artist is one-of-a-kind by design.

That’s the magic of Analogue Exclusivity.  People don’t just want the object; they want the experience of owning something not everyone has. Limited-run merch becomes social currency. It’s not just functional—it’s flex-worthy. And that exclusivity deepens the emotional connection between brand and audience.

Of course, not all merch counts as media.

The difference between an object that lingers and an object that goes straight to landfill is thoughtfulness. Bad merch is cheap plastic freebies with a logo slapped on. Good merch is something that's genuinely useful, beautiful, or fun to keep around.

So before running off and creating some new merch, ask:

• Does this object fit our brand ethos? (A coffee mug makes sense for a roastery. A branded ruler, maybe less so.)

• Will people actually integrate it into their daily rituals?

• Does it have cultural or aesthetic value beyond the logo?

If the answer to those questions is no, it’s not merch-as-media. It’s literally just waste.

We’ve always seen brands treat merch as a core part of their storytelling.

Streetwear labels like Supreme and Stüssy have long blurred the line between merch and media, turning everyday items into cultural artifacts. Indie coffee roasters send out branded mugs and matchbooks as love letters to their communities. Even tech companies are experimenting with physical objects: notebooks, pins, patches, to cement belonging among superfans.

The common thread? These items aren’t throwaway shite. They’re extensions of the brand’s voice, designed to circulate quietly and build cultural resonance over time.

The most powerful thing about merch-as-media is its subtlety.

We live in an era of marketing overload. Feeds are crowded. Ads scream louder and louder for shrinking slices of attention. And yet, a pen still sits quietly in a pocket. A mug still gets lifted every morning. A tote still hangs on a hook by the door.

These are whisper campaigns. They don’t demand. They don’t interrupt. They wait for you to notice them. And by the time you do, they’re already part of your life.

The hotel pen knew this decades ago.

Now, as brands search desperately for ways to escape the internet and connect with people in the real world, it might be time to remember what that pen taught us: sometimes the smallest objects make the biggest impression.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

TREND PLUG

I'm ugly and I'm proud!

Admit it - for one reason or another, you've felt ugly and/or out of place at some point in your life. If it's out of your control then there's no use fighting it - so why not embrace it?

It's a mindset that inspired a scene from a 25-year-old episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, and has now inspired a new TikTok trend. In a pivotal moment from the season 2 episode "Something Smells", SpongeBob embraces his perceived ugliness (a problem actually caused by his rancid breath), stands on the roof of his house with his best friend Patrick and chants:

"I'm ugly and I'm proud!"

Many TikTokers are using the audio to boast how "ugly" they are (i.e. embracing a "natural" look free of lip filler, eyelash extensions etc.). But it's also being used for sharing situations where they simply looked or felt out of place. From wearing the work uniform you hate to having a sleep-in at the cost of looking unkempt, we've all been some shape of ugly before and left with no choice but to OWN IT!

How you can jump on this trend:

Grab this sound, put the camera on yourself and lip-sync with SpongeBob's shouts (these get progressively louder, so be sure to show it in your expressions!).

Then, add on-screen text describing a time when you looked "wrong" or out of place, but were nonetheless proud of your appearance.

A few ideas to get you started:

• Wearing your client's merch for their activation, but it doesn't match your wardrobe

• When you come into work without makeup for the first time in months and everyone looks at you funny

• Returning to the office after an outdoor shoot, and everyone looks nice while you're sweaty and have scraggly hair

- Devin Pike, Copywriter

FOR THE GROUP CHAT

😲WTF: True strength at Oktoberfest
✨Daily inspo: Create your masterpiece
😊Soooo satisfying: Breaking glass and lotsa colours
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Simply tastyyy garlic noodles

Not going viral yet?

We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.

WHAT DO YA THINK?

PSST…PASS IT ON