Relevance > Resonance.

Why the best brands right now are choosing mad relevance over safe resonance 💥

It used to be that brand campaigns were built like monuments—carefully crafted, perfectly polished, and launched twice a year. Now? The brands winning in 2025 are built for momentum, not marble. They move fast, tap culture in real time, and still manage to deliver with strategy and craft.

Look at SKIMS. Kim Kardashian’s latest “micro thong with a faux-hair patch” drop sent the internet into meltdown—half outrage, half obsession—and sold out within hours. Whether you love it, hate it, or think it’s absurd, you can’t ignore it. That’s the point. SKIMS didn’t wait for permission; they designed for conversation. It’s provocative, polarizing, and perfectly engineered for the feed—a cultural flashpoint that doubles as conversion.

Then there’s Fanta’s haunted factory campaign, which turned Halloween into an experiential playground, American Eagle’s viral Sydney Sweeney ads that brought in 700K+ new customers (did we already forget about this one!?), and Liquid Death’s absurdly brilliant “Murder Your Thirst” universe, which keeps growing through shock humor, merch drops, and perfectly timed social commentary. Different industries. Same playbook.

So what does this mean for brand strategists and creative leaders?
1. Relevance beats perfection. If your campaign launches after the culture moment, it’s already too late. The smartest brands don’t chase trends—they architect them. They show up in the scroll, not above it.
2. Build the machine behind the moment. Relevance without infrastructure is chaos. You need creative calendars, hook-testing systems, asset versioning, and feedback loops that turn one bold idea into a sustainable engine. Lightning won’t strike if there’s no rod.
3. Storytelling with a scoreboard. The best creative isn’t just admired—it converts. SKIMS’ drop wasn’t random; it played on scarcity, curiosity, and humor with a clear CTA (“sold out, join the waitlist”). Great storytelling meets smart funnel logic.

In my own work, I’ve led brand and creative systems for seven- and eight-figure brands—building frameworks that turn cultural insight into hooks, hooks into assets, and assets into scalable performance. I’ve seen firsthand how brand truth and creative velocity can coexist when teams move with discipline and courage. Don't overthink it. Go with your gut and stick to what you're seeing in consumer behavior to help drive decisions.

If your brand wants to move faster, push creative boundaries, and own the conversation instead of chasing it, let’s connect. Because the future belongs to brands that stop waiting for permission and start leading the narrative.