Gen Z girls Consumer Insights Gen Z’s Brand Loyalty Problem: Spoiler, They Don’t Have Any Executive Summary Gen Z doesn’t care about your legacy, your logo, or your loyalty program. The signal: the most brand-savvy generation in history is also the least loyal. The deeper truth? They’ve grown up in a world of infinite choice, algorithmic influence, and collapsing attention spans — and they By Tobias Dahlberg • 2 min read
u1492637478_Two_creative_consultants_a_man_and_woman_shot_edito_3f8b3257-b5d9-4ddd-9f74-8fed0d9f0f20 Agency Growth The Imagination Economy: Creativity as Capital Why the Future Belongs to Those Who Can Conceive What Machines Can’t In Brief In an age when AI can do almost anything, the only thing that matters is what hasn’t been imagined yet. The industrial economy was built on muscle. The knowledge economy was built on memory. By Tobias Dahlberg • 4 min read
automation robots Disciplines The Automation Economy: When Software Becomes the Workforce How Algorithms Are Reorganizing Labor, Leadership, and Leverage In Brief The robots didn’t come for our jobs — they came for our job descriptions. Automation has crossed a threshold: it no longer replaces individual tasks; it restructures entire systems. Software now manages sales pipelines, runs marketing campaigns, negotiates supplier contracts, By Tobias Dahlberg • 4 min read
u1492637478_a_group_of_Gen_Z_consumers_hanging_out_in_the_lat_ddf9f06b-49b9-485e-8bc3-1bf14ace4a3f_2 Disciplines The Belonging Economy: How Community Replaced Consumerism How Connection and Community Became The New Currency of the 2020s In Brief In an era of infinite choice and collapsing trust, people are no longer buying products — they’re buying places to belong. The institutions that once gave life meaning — church, nation, workplace, even family — have lost their gravitational By Tobias Dahlberg • 5 min read
motion blue Branding From Logo to System: The End of Static Brand Design The logo used to be the crown jewel of branding. Today it’s the least important piece in the kit. The signal: leading brands are shifting from static marks to living, breathing design systems. The deeper truth? Distinctiveness now lives in motion, behavior, and adaptability. The shift is away from By Tobias Dahlberg • 2 min read
interns agency Agency Growth AI’s Effect on Junior Roles — Why Your “Cheap Labor” Model Just Died Executive Summary For years, agencies and marketing teams ran on a simple equation: hire young, bill high, burn fast. Juniors filled the decks, wrote the copy, built the reports — cheap labor feeding expensive machines. That model just hit a wall. AI now does 80% of what junior staff were hired By Tobias Dahlberg • 2 min read
trojan horse Branding The Trojan Horse Strategy: Sell the Cheap Thing, Profit on the Expensive One In Brief Some of today’s most profitable brands make their money not where you think — but one layer deeper. They deploy the Trojan Horse Strategy: selling a cheap, irresistible entry product to gain access — then monetizing the ecosystem that follows. From Nespresso pods to Peloton subscriptions, Apple accessories to By Tobias Dahlberg • 3 min read
coffee plantation authenticity Branding Authenticity as Brand Currency: When Truth Becomes the New Luxury In Brief Flawless is out. Transparent is in. After a decade of filtered perfection and corporate performance, consumers now prize raw honesty over polished illusion. From unretouched campaigns and “behind-the-brand” founders to open sourcing sustainability data, authenticity has become the new credibility currency — a signal of integrity in a culture By Tobias Dahlberg • 3 min read
u1492637478_Gen_X_shoppers_in_a_retail_store_in_Londong._Shot_0015c0f1-eaef-4c67-a31d-7b1d9efebb78_3 (1) Disciplines Circular Commerce: The New Retail Growth Loop In Brief: The future of retail isn’t just about selling more — it’s about selling again. Circular commerce is moving from virtue signal to viable system: resale, rental, repair, and recommerce are now baked into the mainstream. Regulatory pressure in Europe, investor scrutiny on sustainability, and consumer guilt over By Tobias Dahlberg • 3 min read
carrefour store Disciplines The Retail Ad Empire: How Stores Became the New Media Giants In Brief: The most powerful advertising platforms in 2025 aren’t Google or Meta — they’re supermarkets, marketplaces, and e-commerce apps. Retailers are turning their transaction data into gold, building retail media networks (RMNs) that sell ad space across websites, apps, in-store screens, and delivery boxes. The result: a new By Tobias Dahlberg • 3 min read
agency people Agency Growth The Next Big Agency Is Not An Agency There’s a quiet revolution happening in the world of marketing, branding, and creative services. You can feel it in client conversations. You can see it in the org charts of lean startups and Fortune 500s alike. And if you’re paying attention, you can see what’s coming: And By Tobias Dahlberg • 2 min read
spiritual branding Branding The Rise Of Spiritual Branding Walk into an Erewhon, and you’ll feel it: Not just a store — a shrine. Buy a pair of OnRunning shoes and read the tag: Not just a product — a practice. Scroll through your average DTC wellness brand: It’s not just “clean” or “natural” — it’s transcendence in a By Tobias Dahlberg • 2 min read
