In this issue of Sunday Strategy, we look at five stories to think about next week, including: AI & Designing Experiences for Robots, How Social Could Fix Social Media, Dynamic Movies, a Shift Towards All Agencies Being Media Agencies and the Looming War for Content Creators.

In addition, we have ads from: IKEA Sweden, BWH Hotels, Australian Lamb and Texas Pete.

// Five Stories of the Week:

1.) Designing Experiences for Robots 🤖

OpenAI launched ‘Operator’ this week, adding a prominent entry to the growing list of CUAs (‘Computer-Using Agences’), alongside Google’s ‘Project Mariner’, Anthropic’s ‘Computer Use’ and others. While ‘Operator’ is still only available to ‘Pro’ subscribers, attached to a $200 / month cost, the move highlights how AI interaction is poised to change how brands create websites and interfaces. 

As pointed out on LinkedIn, agents already have preferences on where they go for data (through either partnership or design), with ‘Operator’ shown to go to and buy from the top result on Bing, while Claude prefers 1-800-Flowers and Yahoo Finance. While much has been said about SEO and AI, this shows a further consideration for brands, as website design and availability will create an ‘artificial preference’ for certain offerings over others – passing this on to the users they serve. 

Read More Here.

2.) Do We Need More “Social” To Fix “Media”?

Social Media isn’t in a great place at the moment. As platforms deal with changing content policies, moderation removals, bans and the actions of their owners – it’s easy to wonder if we even need it? However, in an example of the positive power of the ‘social’ side of social media – Reddit users have moved to ban X links from specific subreddits, nominally for reasons from the technical to the societal, showing how people can still control elements of the social experience.

This is a unique example. Reddit’s structure gives greater power to users to curate parts of the site vs a Meta or X. Its subreddits foster distinct community guidelines and interest communities that others don’t and maybe that’s the point. We’ve lost the sense of social connection from the sites that claimed to empower it. As we grapple with what role social media can take in our lives, maybe we should be demanding more ability to curate or control, not just create, what we see on them?

Read More Here.

3.) A Documentary that Changes Every Time You Watch It

A new documentary on musician ‘Brian Eno’, unsurprisingly titled ‘Eno’, is unique in the way that it changes itself every time it’s viewed. Drawing from over 500 hours of footage, the film uses generative software to lay out a new story with 70% of the film changing each time.

While this may seem like an unnatural evolution of film, which usually creates familiarity on repeat viewing, it taps into the potential for adaptive storytelling. Great storytelling has historically before being recorded, changed with its audience. While ‘Eno’ doesn’t adapt intentionally, it shows the potential of a future where a skeleton of a story changes detail or elements based on the interests or desires of those watching it. What it loses in familiarity it gains in novelty – but leaves questions for what the shared experience coming for dynamic content will be?

Read More Here.

4.) Can Every Agency be a Media Agency? 

While much has been said about 2025 being a year of consolidation amongst behemoths, indie and smaller agencies are showing it may be the year everyone got into media. With 2024’s launch of Mother’s media offering ‘Media by Mother’ and the recent news that Mischief has been quietly building a media department, media looks like a growth area. With advances in automation across buying and planning, greater access to inventory and consumer shifts towards digital channels – is it possible that every agency can be a media agency? 

Media has historically had a scale barrier which kept smaller challengers from competing with larger holding groups. However, as buying becomes more commoditized, the thinking behind a media plan is more important. While automation will promise clients greater efficiencies, thinking – especially from creative agencies – looks to deliver effectiveness through strategy, creative thinking and a promise of greater trust. Whereas media created value as a specialism before, its integration into a holistic creative idea, delivered with a focus on outcomes over media nuances could be one of the guiding ideas of 2025.

Read More Here.

5.) The Looming War for Creators. 

While TikTok’s US resurrection outpaced even biblical examples, one legacy of the TikTok ban’s initial chapter may be a war for creators. Meta has offered select creators between $10k to $50k a month in bonuses to post content on Instagram first over other platforms such as TikTok. While Substack has announced the Substack Creator Accelerator fund, earmarking $20m to help creators move onto the platform. Similar to how Food delivery apps fight over restaurants and exclusives, are we seeing a world where networks have moved to straight cash incentives over new product innovation as a way to sway creators?

Read More Here.

// Ads You Might Have Missed:

1.) ‘Better Late Than Never’ – IKEA: 

IKEA Sweden may have just announced a points system to reward customers, but even it knows that it might be a bit late with the idea. Its new campaign ‘Better Late Than Never’ doesn’t just acknowledge that it was a bit slow to consider a loyalty program, it wraps it in a creative idea that’s 10 years behind the times. Featuring ads doing 2014’s ‘Harlem Shake’ and ‘Mannequin Challenge’, the brand blends confidence and self-awareness. It acknowledges without apologizing for taking this long to introduce a commonly offered program – all with a dose of existential dread that these memes are a decade old. 

2.) ‘The Hotel Theft Reward’ – BWH Hotels: 

When faced with the unique quirks of an Airbnb or boutique stays, traditional hotels can often seem a little too traditional. While many bank on the sense that you know what you’re getting, Swedish hotel chain BWH has leaned into vanishing inventory to create a sense of quirkiness. Its campaign, ‘The Hotel Theft Reward’ nominally offers free stays for the return of unique items that have vanished from its hotels over the years – including a mannequin and a suit of armor. While it’s unlikely these and other items are returned, the story weaved around their disappearance gives a vehicle to talk about being different, while maintaining some semblance of difference. 

3.) ‘The Comments Section” – Australian Lamb: 

For 20 years Meat and Livestock Australia have released an annual ad highlighting how nothing brings the country together like a love of lamb. For this year’s entry, the brand has focused on one of the most divisive places anywhere – an internet comments section. Literally making the ‘comment section’ a set of bleachers filled with real commenters, the ad moves them around different topics – commenting on everything from dogs to flat earth. With a constant refrain expected from viewers (in how this ad will land togetherness), its payoff – that nothing can unite dissenting commenters like lamb works well (and creates some positive comments in the ad’s own comment section online). 

4.) ‘The Tale of Texas Pete’ – Texas Pete: 

100 year old US hot sauce brand ‘Texas Pete’ has launched a new campaign leaning into their eponymous red cowboy mascot. ‘The Tale of Texas Pete’ draws heavily upon western visuals, including a faceless red cowboy that’s less creepy than the description entails, and music – to seemingly create differentiation around the brand through the mascot. In a sauce market facing increased competition and craft brands, Texas Pete’s attempt to make it (and its mascot)  distinctly western feels interesting, if a little bit reminiscent of the Kool-aid man (you can only have so many red characters jumping through walls).  

// Sunday Snippets

// Marketing & Advertising //

// Hat brand ‘Lids’ and haircut brand ‘Sport Clips’ have partnered to make a see through baseball cap, ending the tension between showing off a haircut and wearing a hat [Collabs]

// McDonald’s is shifting its beverage brand McCosmos towards smaller format locations [Retail]

// Welchs launches a zero dollar bodega in NYC to celebrate their new zero sugar product [Ads]

// US retailer Walgreens is suing to get out of using ‘digital fridge doors’ [Retail]

// Porsche partners with Backdrop Home to celebrate its 75th anniversary with a limited edition paint collection [Collabs]

// Instacart teases its Super Bowl commercial featuring the Old Spice Man, the Pillsbury Doughboy and others [Ads]

// Footwear brand Hey Dude and Furby have announced a collaboration with a Kaiju Furby [Collabs]

// How ‘Predictive Processing’ shapes brand perception [Psychology]

// Technology & Media //

// Instagram announces CapCut clonepetitor ‘Edits’

// Most Americans use AI in everyday products without realizing it [Technology]

// TikTok’s US outage caused TikTok shop sales to spike [Media]

// Meta begins rolling out ads in Threads to a select group of advertisers [Media]

// Straight off of a successful earnings call, Netflix announces a price increase for US users [Media]

// Neko Health, a health startup founded by Spotify’s creators, raises $260m [Health]

// Did Democrats drive Silicon Valley into the arms of Trump? [Technology]

// As TikTok has yet to return to the US app store post ban, iPhones with it loaded are being sold on eBay [Media]

// Google shifts to serve men and women’s football results equally

// Life & Culture //

// Research agency Early Studies has released its ‘inauguration’ data drop, looking at individualism and success in America [Culture]

// A new Gallup study shows a record-low 44% of Americans are ‘very satisfied’ with their personal life

// Why calling loved ones by their name is weird [Psychology]

// US Home sales in 2024 fell to their lowest point in 30 years [Economy]

// New research claims younger workers say showing up 10 minutes late to work is ‘on-time’ [Work]

// Norway’s football clubs vote to do away with VAR [Sports]

// As Chemnitz starts its year as a ‘European Capital of Culture’, lets stop to acknowledge their basketball team’s mascot is ‘Karl Marx’. No word on how equal ball distribution is vs. other teams. [Sports]

// Thai company Vingrun debuts a carbon plated running sandal with a 2:18 marathon win. No comment from the delicate skin between the big toe and other toes post race. [Sports]

// Is Gen Z going grey faster? [Culture]

// Until Next Sunday

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