Welcome to the New Brand Universe. Please Take Your Seats.
People crave relationships. To feel seen by family, lovers, musicians, and artists. And yes, by brands.
You look down at the Rolex watch your grandfather gave you. You can smell his cologne when you close your eyes. The faded, over-laundered tie-dye Hanes tee from summer camp. The Eames chair you don’t sit on. They’re more than objects—they’re bonds, tethered to something beyond the material world.
I’ve been thinking a lot about why I love building brand experiences—why it matters and what separates the mundane from the extraordinary. My yoga teacher rants about consumerism and its distortion of self-worth, but I see it differently. It’s not the thing that’s toxic, it’s our failure to connect to it in ways that matter.
We’re not just making ads anymore. We’re crafting worlds. We’re building experiences that are as alive as a Doechii song or the magnetic, hypnotic gaze of Al Pacino’s Godfather performance. A digital ecosystem where stories aren’t just told—they’re felt. When you get it right, people don’t just buy your product—they want to live in your world wanderlusting across social, digital platforms, and live events. Whether you're promoting Alvin Ailey at The Whitney or selling Nutter Butters, if you make it experiential, dimensional, and transportive, people will hang out and also buy the thing.
Doechii and her cover art for Alligator Bites Never Heal
Here’s the problem: We’ve lost the courage to be extraordinary. Nostalgia becomes a trend, so everyone follows. The word “demure” blows up on TikTok, and suddenly, it’s everyone’s mantra. We’ve plunged into a crisis of originality, where the obsession with safe, predictable outcomes has smothered the true magic—the raw, reckless art of taking risks. Playing it safe is no longer an option; it’s the death sentence for innovation. We’re trapped, as Alex Murrel calls it, in the Age of Average—and it’s time to rip through the monotony, to summon the audacity to create something that cannot be ignored. That is truly your own.
Building a world for a brand is new. We're usually focused on crafting a single moment, but to create something lasting, we need to think like a director. Every brand as network will soon need a Chief Entertainment Officer—someone who builds entire universes, not just isolated experiences. This all hit me while watching the FX series Severance, directed by Ben Stiller. An actor I’ve known, but here, he creates a symmetrical, absurd world entirely from scratch. It is more than a mashup of influences like Spike Jonze, Wes Anderson, Jaques Tati, and 4chan Backrooms. It’s a universe born from his own vision. Don’t get me started on the mesmerizing opening credits designed by Oliver Latta, also known as Extraweg. Stiller built a careful universe with new language and behavior, something that pulls from many but is undeniably his own. And that’s what we should be striving for—something new, not just a rehash of what's been done before. That’s why I didn’t hate the Jaguar rebrand. It was true to Sir William Lyons’ words to “Copy Nothing.”
Still from FX’s Severance directed by Ben Stiller
But then, there’s the client. The looming deadlines. The Q1 earnings, like an ominous shadow. The pressure to win. The hunger for results. The PR stunt and new shiny campaign each quarter. We all know that whisper: “We need results. Now.” The temptation to chase the quick win. But the truth is: the long game isn’t some far-off dream. It’s the only game. The quick win? Sure, it’s always there. But it doesn’t carry the same weight.
We live in both worlds now. The quick win, nestled inside the long-term strategy. We can do both. It’s worth repeating. We can do both. That’s what we’re here for.
David Lynch nailed it: “The idea is not to live in the world of the mind, but to live in the world of experience.” Once upon a time in the early aughts, every brand had to be a tech company. Now every brand must now be an entertainment company. That’s where the magic is—raw, unfiltered moments that make people feel something deep. Those are the moments we chase. We can do that. Brands can do that.
It’s easy to play it safe. But let’s not. Let’s push. Let’s making meaningful noise. When you make magic in that pitch room, you know it. You feel it. And you know it will impact culture. It begins with normalizing the feeling of doing something you’ve never done the moment before you do it. Moving to Paris. Jumping off the sea cliffs in Naples. Falling in love.
This is what I’m here for.
Watchable Brands thrives in this space. Watchable brands don’t follow trends. They break them. They lead. They show the world the brilliance it’s been waiting for. This industry needs a shock. Let’s give it to them.
For more on what makes a brand watchable, check out:
Let’s create something binge-worthy.
