Your ATTN Please || Wednesday, 8 October

The year is 2002. You sit down at the kitchen computer, wait for the awww ee awww of your dial-up internet to do its thing.

And suddenly, you’re transported into another world. Chatting with strangers on MSN messenger, pouring your heart out on MySpace, and playing with your Neopets. Now? The internet lives in your pocket. It’s a place we all inhabit 24/7, like it or not. But we’re still craving those online spaces that feel like an escape. And a few brands have figured out how to recreate that feeling, even in 2025. So, how do you replicate that magical pull that draws people into a place that feels like a world of its own?

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

FREE EVENT in Auckland next Wed👇

You’ve got great ideas. But if you can’t communicate them, what’s the point?

Whether you’re pitching clients, asking for investment, or trying to get your boss to back your pet project, the magic is in knowing how to get your message across clearly. In this session, Nathan James, Creative Director at The Attention Seeker, breaks down what it actually takes to be better at communication.

You’ll learn:

✅How to think sharper
✅How to communicate so people just “get it”
✅How to sell your ideas to your boss, potential clients—anyone

Whether you’re chasing a promotion, eyeing a career change, or wanting to start your own thing, this session is designed to help you think and communicate better.

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

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?

Shein opens stores in France, YT pays $24M in Trump lawsuit & Google names ICE a “vulnerable group”

Shein is opening its first physical stores ???

Due to the notoriously bad quality of their products, I feel like stepping inside one of their BUILDINGS would be a recipe for disaster lol. What surprises me most about this is that the retailer will be opening in FRANCE of all places. This is despite the fact that the country recently cracked down on the fast fashion industry. Especially since France is known for its high fashion status, this is the last place I’d expect to see a Shein store pop up.

The ultra-cheap online retailer, which manufactures most of its clothing in China, will open inside department stores across Dijon, Grenoble, Reims, Limoges, and Angers through a partnership with real estate company Société des Grands Magasins (SGM). It’s crazy times we live in, people. Crazy times.

YouTube bends the knee, settling a $24.5 million dollar Trump lawsuit.

This marks the last of the “big three” tech companies that have paid millions out to the president. Meta paid a cool $25M in January and Elon Musk’s X paid $10M in February, with much of it going directly to Donald Trump himself.

Disney also paid $16M in December to settle Trump’s defamation lawsuit. Did I mention crazy times??? Seems the president is hellbent on seeking revenge against his “enemies” (anyone who suspends his account, has freedom of speech, or does something he doesn’t like that day.)

Google gets rid of app that notifies users of ICE activity in their area, calling ICE a "vulnerable group."

Last week, Apple removed both Red Dot and ICEBlock after direct pressure from the U.S. DoJ, signalling a crackdown in ICE-spotting apps. These apps allow people to report ICE presence or activity, along with details such as location and time. They then notify nearby community members who have opted to receive alerts about ICE activity in their area. Google claims ICEBlock was never available on Google Play, but similar apps were removed for “violations of [their] policies.” 

According to said policies, the platform does not allow apps that “promote violence” against “groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, caste, immigration status, or any other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization.” … yes, you read that right.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

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

The romance of logging on (and what marketers can learn from it)

I recently saw this meme that talked about the concept of the internet as a “place.”

You sat down at the family computer, waited your turn (because your sibling was hogging MSN), and listened to the otherworldly scream of dial-up as you connected. Once you were in, you were in another world. Chatrooms, Neopets, Myspace layouts, anonymous forums. A place with its own culture, rituals, and characters.

For the girls who remember playing myscene – you’d open up the website and it would take you through Madison or Kennedy’s bedroom door, where you’d give the characters a makeover or go through outfit options.

Logging on was once an act of travel. A mini migration. You left your offline world behind and entered a digital one. And importantly, you could also leave.

When you shut the laptop or got kicked off because someone needed the landline, the spell was broken, and you went back to playing in the garden or terrorising your siblings before dinner.

Fast-forward to now: the internet isn’t a destination, it’s an atmosphere. It’s everywhere, all the time. You don’t “go online.” You just are. Constantly and chronically. And the collapse of that geography from “destination” to “atmosphere” has fundamentally changed the way we behave online.

When the internet was a place, it was playful.

You could slip into an avatar, a weird username, an alter ego. In fact, multiple of them. You could be one person in a gaming forum, another on LiveJournal, someone else entirely on MSN. It was a playground for experimentation.

Now, obviously, the internet is permanence. It’s tethered to your actual identity, your job, your bank, your reputation. There’s less space for play, more pressure to curate. Exist there.

That doesn’t mean people stopped experimenting altogether. But the stakes are higher. The old internet had walls. You could climb over and log out. Now that the walls are gone, what you post bleeds into your “real life.”

And that shift matters for marketers.

Because if you still think of the internet as a series of channels to broadcast through, you’re missing the point. It’s not a billboard. It’s a habitat. Babe, we literally live here.

And like any habitat, it has rooms, vibes, and micro-ecosystems. That’s why the nostalgia for old internet design keeps coming back: pixel fonts, lo-fi GIFs, Geocities aesthetics. It’s not just a quirky visual trend. It’s a deep craving for place. People miss digital spaces that feel bounded, intentional, and alive.

The smartest brands are already tuning into this. They don’t randomly post into the atmosphere; they build rooms within it.

• Discord servers where fans gather, not just to consume but to interact.

• Fortnite collabs that function more like worlds than ads.

• Nike’s SNKRS drops and other ritualised, members-only events that feel like entering a secret club.

• Even old-school email newsletters (wink wink) are making a comeback because they create a defined space in the chaos of the feed.

These work because they feel like rooms. Thresholds. Doors you walk through that make the internet feel like a place again (just like myscene.)

Looking ahead, I feel like that’s where the opportunity lies.

As the internet gets even more ambient, woven into our glasses, our earbuds, our cars, our fridges, people will crave boundaries. Doors to walk through. Distinct spaces. Moments that feel like “logging on” again, even if the tech is always-on.

The romance of logging on isn’t gone. It just needs to be reimagined. Brands that figure out how to build that sense of place, not just noise, will be the ones that stick.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

TREND PLUG

“I lied.”

This one's about giving the real truth you've been hiding all along, and saying it with your chest. 

The “I lied” sound started from producer SICC, who posted a clip of his track on TikTok before it dropped on Spotify. Now, creators are using the downtempo part of the track to reveal the things they pretend to hate... but secretly love.

The setup is so simple, the tone has some tongue-in-cheek attitude, and it gives you the space to be self-aware, relatable, or ironic. Whether you’re poking fun at work culture, creative burnout, or everyday workplace habits, it just lands.

How you can jump on the trend:

To the sound, have a video of you smiling or laughing at the screen while the on screen text lists the things you secretly enjoy. From loving attention, loving doing whatever you want,  or thriving off 3 hours of sleep (?!).

A few examples to get you started:

• I lied. I love 9am meetings. I love networking with strangers. I love drafting proposals. I love making silly little TikToks for work. I love my boss.

• I lied. I love when clients ask for “one more revision.” I love last-minute campaigns. I love Monday mornings. I love looking for social media trends.

-Nico Mendoza, Intern

FOR THE GROUP CHAT

😲WTF: Plastic-run Cars?!
❤How wholesome: be the good
😊Soooo satisfying: Mango cutting
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Spiced Chicken with Mango Salsa

ASK THE EDITOR

I run a gymnastics school. What should I be doing to create interesting social media content? -Anna

Hey Anna,

I know it's probably tempting to create content with gymnastics tips, and that is definitely one way to approach your socials. But if you think about it, your audience is primarily parents, not the kids you're teaching. So your focus should be on understanding the emotional needs of those parents and what they want for their kids.

As you know, parents ultimately want to feel like their kids are safe, happy, and having fun. So your content should show how your gym provides all of those things. The key is to get that message across without having to overtly say it. So that might look like telling stories about how your school helps kids with their confidence or the relationships they build within their team. This content will not only be more interesting to parents compared to instructional content, but it will relate to them emotionally.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

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.

PSST…PASS IT ON