The Nike Lesson, the Citi Merger, and the Chaos That Follows Success

In the mid-1990s, I was a young designer at Nike, just as the company was barreling toward $10 billion in revenue. We were building brand guidelines while chasing category growth—cross-training, basketball, running, tech, lifestyle. It was thrilling, until it wasn’t. Somewhere between the dozens of sub-labels and the explosion of marketing channels, we hit a wall: too many messages, too much inconsistency, and a brand system struggling to keep up with its own ambition.

That same tension—growth without clarity—was something I’d first seen years earlier, working on the merger between CitiGroup and Travelers at Lippincott in New York. The world’s largest portfolio consolidation at the time, it taught me the weight of brand decisions when billions are on the line. Which names stay? Which identities are absorbed or retired? What brand promise threads it all together?

Now, decades later, I see these same questions play out across midsize companies and nonprofits every week. The stakes are different—but the cost of confusion is just as high.

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Most companies don’t start with complexity. But over time—through new products, acquisitions, reorgs, side hustles, partnerships, or enthusiastic marketing teams—they accumulate layers. What begins as a tight brand turns into a Frankenstein system: logos living on outdated templates, campaigns with competing voices, and sub-brands that no one internally can quite explain.

Enter brand architecture.

At its simplest, brand architecture is the decision-making framework that defines how your offerings relate to each other—and to your audience. Done well, it’s an invisible system that creates clarity, cuts costs, and builds equity. Done poorly, it’s the reason your marketing budget keeps growing while your market share stays flat.

As shown in Watson’s Brand Architecture guide (page 2), the most common structures include:

• Branded House (e.g., Google): A single master brand with clearly linked sub-offerings like Google Chrome or Google Maps.
• Sub-Brands (e.g., Apple or Virgin): Each product has its own identity, but it still ladders up to the parent.
• House of Brands (e.g., P&G): Independent brands that stand alone—consumers may never know they’re connected.
• Endorsed Brands (e.g., Coca-Cola): Each brand has autonomy, but borrows equity from the parent name or design system

What Happens When Giving Feels Like a Game? A Watson Holiday Experiment With Lasting Impact

It started over cocoa and couch cushions. One December, we were dreaming up a holiday event, and my kids casually asked, “Can people earn points for giving money?” And just like that, the seed of an idea took root.

At Watson, we’ve built platforms and campaigns for some of the most recognizable names in nonprofit and civic life. But this time, we weren’t doing it for a client—we were doing it for ourselves. We built a custom fundraising experience from scratch, invited our community to test it out, and ended up with more than just donations. We sparked a new model for digital generosity. And we took that model straight into our work with clients like the Oregon Zoo and the Oregon Cultural Trust, where it’s still delivering results today.

This wasn’t about proving we could build a donation engine. It was about proving we could build joy.

Portland, OR. May 13, 2025 — Watson Creative is proud to announce the addition of Mike Terry as our new Director of Accounts and Growth.

As the founder and CEO of Core Digital Consulting, Mike built a career on helping agencies forge relationships with some of the world’s most recognized brands—GE, Intel, Samsung, 7-Eleven, and many others. with this sentence As Vice President at Anvil Media, Mike managed digital and account teams while adding new accounts - including GE, 7-Eleven, GoodBelly, Portland State University and NW Natural.

Mike hit the ground running, already making an impact across several client engagements, including MODA Health and a growing list of accounts. He brings a thoughtful counterbalance to Matt Watson’s leadership approach, co-driving business strategy while overseeing the agency’s entire accounts team and key aspects of operations. Whether it’s setting the tone for client relationships or partnering on major pitches, Mike has quickly become a cornerstone of our growth vision.

This appointment comes on the heels of a milestone year for Watson—our 10-year anniversary in 2023, a company-wide rebrand, and the rollout of our new website. Each of these moments underscores our commitment to continual evolution: in our work, our people, and how we show up for our clients.

“Mike brings the rare combination of executive-level experience, client-savvy leadership, and an innate sense of what makes agencies thrive. He’s already elevating our team and our thinking,” said Matt Watson, Founder and CEO of Watson Creative.

The entire Watson team is energized by Mike’s presence and leadership. His role will be central as we scale both our creative impact and client relationships in 2025 and beyond.

The Best Work Comes From Tension, Not Repetition

When I was at Nike, I worked on one brand for eleven years. On paper, it was a dream gig. But if I’m being honest, Nike probably got my best work in those first two years. After that, the creative spark dulled. Not because I stopped caring—but because I got too comfortable. Familiarity bred tunnel vision. The questions stopped being interesting. The fear of failure faded. And that, for any creative, is the beginning of the end.

That experience taught me something I carry into every client relationship: comfort kills creativity. I believe the best work happens when you’re just uncomfortable enough to care deeply, ask harder questions, and rethink what’s possible. When you’re outside your industry. When you’re just a little scared you might get it wrong.

There’s science to back this up. According to a study published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, people who experience moderate levels of stress perform better on creative problem-solving tasks than those under no pressure at all. Tension fuels curiosity. It activates the brain. It makes us reach. And the reach is where the magic happens.

Creatives are not artists chasing perfection. We’re translators, synthesizers, interpreters. And when we’re dropped into a world we don’t know—a new industry, a new audience, a new set of norms—we have to listen harder, think faster, and hold onto our beginner's mind. That’s when the most original ideas surface.

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One of my favorite metaphors is parallax—a shift in perspective that happens when you change your point of view. In astronomy, it helps measure the distance between stars. In branding, it helps you find the white space between competitors. It’s how you see your client the way no one else does.

When we talk about cross-pollination at Watson, we’re really talking about parallax. Our team is made up of people with backgrounds in architecture, music, health, education, finance, and sport. We’ve built campaigns for hospitals, city governments, SaaS startups, shoe brands, and nonprofit boards. And the gift of that diversity is this: we never default to the obvious. We see from multiple angles.

Clients are often deep inside their own vertical. That’s not a bad thing—it’s how expertise is built. But it comes with blind spots. They know how everyone else in their industry does it. What they don’t always see is how the audience has shifted, or how a completely different sector solved a similar problem.

Parallax thinking helps bridge that gap. We might bring a storytelling model from consumer products into a healthcare campaign. Or a user experience approach from education into B2B tech. These ideas don’t always come from a brief. They come from lived experience, from past failures, from working on something totally unrelated and making the leap. This is the advantage of creative cross-training.

When Small Budgets Spark Big Thinking

Not everyone has a Nike budget. In fact, I can tell you firsthand—sometimes, even Nike doesn't have a Nike budget. And I spent a decade in that world, watching what happened when constraints collided with ambition. That's where creativity lives. Not in the endless pitch decks or elaborate photoshoots—but in the tension between where you are and where you want to go.

The real sport, for me, is design. But not just design in the abstract. I'm talking about the kind of authorship you get with small to mid-sized businesses. The ability to shape a brand from the ground up. To invent something that didn't exist yesterday—and push it into the world tomorrow.

Big brands tend to optimize. SMBs tend to leap. They trust faster, move bolder, and make risk a requirement. And while their budgets might not stretch to Super Bowl ads or custom research studies, their ambition more than makes up for it.

At Watson, we pride ourselves on meeting clients exactly where they are—and pushing them further than they imagined possible. The brands you’ve never heard of? Those are often the ones doing the most interesting work. They’re the ones trying to shift perception, disrupt categories, and build something real in a sea of sameness.

We’ve helped launch tequila brands with a single bottle and a dream (Dos Caras). Built trust for memory care centers before the first room was furnished (Anthem). Crafted a winery’s identity before a single grape was crushed (Amaterra). And in every case, it wasn’t the budget that made the work—it was the clarity, conviction, and willingness to go all in.

I Didn’t Believe It Until I Saw It

There’s a moment that sticks with me. San Diego. A high school kid laced up a pair of Nike Free 5.0s, took two steps, and grinned.

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” he said.

That line wasn’t in the brief. It wasn’t in the data. It wasn’t from some award-winning agency presentation or a brand strategist’s playbook. But it changed everything.

That phrase became the spark for the final visual we created—an all-red butterfly, abstract and surreal, centered around movement and emotion. At the time, red was Nike’s worst-performing colorway for that product. The design was wildly irrational. We even broke form by changing the tagline. And yet, that single piece of creative drove a 97% click-through rate and 41% purchase conversion—a number that still makes marketers pause mid-sip.

It took a decade in this business and one very humbling experiment with Nike to fully grasp the power of irrational, research-backed creative. That moment made it clear: the difference between good and great isn’t logic—it’s what you feel in your bones before you put pen to paper.

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The rational mind loves a best-selling color. A bullet-point list of features. A lifestyle photo that hits the demographics. These are the comforts of the marketing world: safe bets backed by historical data.

And for a while in the Nike Butterfly project, that’s where we stayed. On Day 1 of the experiment, we showcased the shoe in its best-selling colorway. The result? A 3% click rate. On Day 2, we added more product features and showed the shoe curled up—a visual people loved. Clicks bumped to 7%, purchases to 5% .

But it wasn’t until Day 5, when we abandoned logic altogether and introduced the bold, red butterfly design—paired with the off-script tagline “Super Natural Move”—that things exploded: 41% conversion and 97% click-through .

That’s the power of irrational, research-informed creativity. It’s not about ignoring data. It’s about going beyond it.

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The Role of Ethnographic Research in Unleashing Irrational Ideas

Before we made the butterfly, we hit the road. From the Coast Guard base in Miami to Olympic athletes in Colorado Springs, CIA operatives in D.C., and students in San Diego, we talked, listened, and watched .

We didn’t walk into those spaces with creative ideas already formed. We walked in with curiosity. That’s what changed everything.

At the Air Force Academy Chapel—a structure filled with color, emotion, and light—we remembered why creativity matters. And in San Diego, when that student tried on the shoe and quoted Muhammad Ali, it connected a decade of design instincts with something pure and powerful: emotion.

That insight didn’t come from a focus group or a spreadsheet. It came from being there, listening fully, and leaving the rational behind.

From B2C to B2B: Why This Matters More Than Ever

So what can B2B brands learn from a Nike sneaker experiment?

Everything.

Too often, B2B companies box themselves into the rational. White papers. Case studies. Feature-heavy slide decks. Meanwhile, their buyers—who are also humans—are moved by story, beauty, surprise, and confidence.

We’ve applied the same irrational-yet-researched creative strategy for clients like ESCO, launching the Nexsys product with a surreal mix of 3D animation and emotional messaging. The mining industry isn’t exactly known for its softness. But the response? Engagement up, sales conversations accelerated .

In financial services, we’ve helped rebrand firms like Percipio Group and Hunter Fans not by focusing solely on spreadsheets and resumes—but by elevating what really makes them different: their people, their mission, their character. Trust isn’t built on rationality alone. It’s built on resonance.

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These Ideas at Work

I’ve worked in sports marketing my entire career—from branding Lance Armstrong to campaigns with Marion Jones, the 2004 Olympics, Oregon State University, pro teams, and a long roster of product launches. I’ve stood in war rooms and stadium tunnels, helped rewrite legacy brands, and chased bold ideas from Texas to Tokyo. But nothing really prepared me for this.

Because rarely do you get the chance to help build not just a brand, but a whole new sports team—on a global stage, in one of the most tribal, traditional, and tightly guarded sports in America: NASCAR.

When Justin Marks called us, he didn’t want a legacy logo. He didn’t want his name on the car. He didn’t even want to talk about what made him great. Instead, he said something you don’t hear from most founders, let alone a former professional driver:

“This shouldn’t be about me.”

It should be bigger. More relevant. More human. A platform for something new.

And that’s where Trackhouse began.

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He wanted to build a brand that was inclusive, irreverent, and ready to break rules—not just in design, but in how the world even thinks about racing teams.

The working brief was refreshingly bold:

• This isn’t a team with a sponsor.
• This is a brand that creates sponsors.
• This isn’t just for fans of racing.
• This is for people who haven’t even considered NASCAR yet.

The risk? We could alienate purists. The opportunity? We could build something NASCAR hadn’t seen in decades: a lifestyle brand born from the racetrack, not just bound to it.

Naming the Movement: Why It’s Called Trackhouse

Most people expected Justin to name the team after himself. That’s the legacy move. “Marks Racing” or “JM Motorsports.” But that was never going to fly. Instead, we pushed toward something that could grow, expand, and include. The name had to feel architectural. Gritty, but universal. Something that could live on a hat, on a hoodie, on a headline.

Trackhouse was born from that tension—a name that grounded the team in place but left room for people.

Not just a racing team. A house for the culture of the track. Where musicians, artists, athletes, and fans could show up and see themselves. We designed the name to travel—to stages, to podcasts, to press. And it worked.

I was maybe eight, maybe younger. It was Greeley, Colorado, sometime in the 1980s, and the whole family was out on the grass. There was a low stage in the distance, an amphitheater on the University of Northern Colorado campus. And from it came the sounds of something that felt bigger than all of us—John Williams’ greatest hits: Jaws, Indiana Jones, Star Wars. We kids played tag between the blankets and snacks, occasionally crashing into one another, completely oblivious to the fact that we were getting our first taste of classical music.

And here’s the thing—I didn’t even realize it was classical music. I just thought it was epic. Thrilling. Bigger than cartoons or comic books. That night cracked something open in me, the same way it does when you first hear Bach and realize you’ve been hearing echoes of him your whole life—in everything from Metallica to Led Zeppelin.

That’s the thing about symphonic music. It doesn’t sit in a corner waiting to be admired. It charges toward you if you let it. Over the decades, I’ve drifted in and out of playlists that swing from Nirvana to Debussy, from Eminem to Glenn Gould. I never saw it as contradictory. In fact, that’s the point. Great work—real work—has rhythm and guts. And when Watson was brought in to help the Oregon Symphony connect with a new generation of listeners, that memory from Greeley came rushing back: kids running wild while horns swelled in the distance.

The Oregon Symphony is no small operation. It’s the oldest orchestra west of the Mississippi and the largest arts organization in the state. Their legacy spans over a century. They’ve performed in concert halls, community centers, and stadiums, always with the intent to move people. But like orchestras across the country, they’ve faced a sobering question: How do we grow an audience that reflects the next generation—without becoming something we’re not?

When they brought us in, it wasn’t about slick packaging or a viral moment. It was about staying true to the Symphony’s mission while making it accessible, resonant, and—most importantly—human. We weren’t there to “fix” anything. We were there to connect dots between tradition and curiosity. Between Mahler and motivation. Between music and meaning.

Our campaign was called My Source. And it wasn’t built around the Symphony. It was built around people.

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What Happens When You Make the Audience the Protagonist

We started with influencers—not the buzzword kind, but real humans with built-in followings and authentic stories. People whose lives were already touched by classical music, even if they didn’t lead with that fact.

Dennis Dixon, a former NFL quarterback turned fitness entrepreneur, talked about listening to Mahler to get his head in the game. Katie Poppe, founder of Blue Star Donuts, saw parallels between Debussy’s dismissal of convention and the risk of launching something bold in a crowded food scene. And Glenda Goldwater, a gallery owner with a history in arts patronage, reminded us that relevance has nothing to do with age .

These weren’t profiles in performance—they were reflections of what the Symphony could mean outside the concert hall. Each became the face of our omni-channel campaign, appearing across digital, print, and out-of-home placements. We wrapped MAX trains in Portland, ran full-window takeovers at downtown Target, and designed a toolkit the Symphony could scale for years to come.

No sheet music. No grandiose monologues. Just honest reasons people keep coming back to the classics—and why new audiences might start.

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One Month. One Shasta Trailer. One Industry on the Edge of Breakthrough.

Before I ever stepped into a tasting room, I rode a BMX bike through the backroads of the mid-Willamette Valley. My friends and I would cross the ferry—no helmets, no plan—and ride all the way to Newberg, hopping fences to sneak a few grapes off the vines. They weren’t the best grapes, definitely not table grapes, but we didn’t care. We’d sit in the dirt, grape juice on our hands, feeling like we’d discovered something important. I guess, in a way, we had.

Fast forward a few decades to the summer of 2020—mid-pandemic, pre-wildfires—and I found myself back in those same regions. This time, I was towing a 1961 Shasta trailer, with my wife and kids in tow, on a mission to help rebrand Oregon wine. We spent a full month on the road: 24 days, 21 wineries, 1,240 miles, and one lonely fish caught somewhere along the way.

It was the height of global uncertainty, and yet somehow, this project offered us a kind of clarity. A chance to breathe. A reason to listen. And a moment to fall even deeper in love with this place. This wasn’t just a work trip. It was a rare opportunity to witness what makes Oregon wine truly Oregon—something you can’t understand from behind a desk. We played, we tasted, we interviewed, and we wandered. And those family memories? They’re stitched into every decision we made on the creative.

The Oregon Wine Board engaged us to solve a familiar but uniquely regional challenge: how do you build a cohesive brand system for an industry that spans volcanic soils, coastal rains, high plateaus, and desert heat?

At the time, the Willamette Valley had long been the crown jewel—famous for Pinot Noir and recognized globally. But our client wanted more than a spotlight on one region. They wanted an identity strong enough to carry all of Oregon’s AVAs. That meant helping lesser-known areas find their voice while protecting the soul of the overall brand. It also meant navigating passionate opinions from growers, makers, and stakeholders with very different needs.

We started with research. Thirty virtual workshops. Fifty-six interviews. Dozens of surveys. Nine wine regions. Then we hit the road. From the Gorge to the Rogue, we listened—not just to what people said, but how they said it. We mapped personality traits. We documented tone and texture. We studied the behavior and motivations of visitors and vintners alike.

That research didn’t just inform strategy. It earned trust.

How Watson Helped Transform a Measurement Tool into a Movement

The Higg Index is one of the most widely adopted sustainability measurement platforms in the apparel, footwear, and textile industries. Originally developed by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), it offers a suite of tools that help brands, manufacturers, and retailers track their environmental and social impact. From carbon emissions and water usage to labor practices and chemical management, the Higg Index enables transparency, drives accountability, and sets a global standard for sustainability in fashion and beyond.

Its reach is massive. Top global brands including Nike, Adidas, Patagonia, H&M, Target, REI, and Levi Strauss all use the Higg Index to guide decision-making and assess performance across complex supply chains. More than just a dashboard, Higg has become the de facto language of impact measurement in fashion.

For all its influence, the Higg Index was facing a challenge. It had outgrown its role as a technical assessment tool. Its ambitions were larger: to help businesses everywhere shift from sustainability as a checkbox to sustainability as a core strategy. But its brand hadn’t kept up.

This was a challenge I knew well—because I’d lived it firsthand. I spent years inside Nike, working with the ACG division and collaborating across the industry—including with competitors like Adidas and Under Armour—to establish shared sustainability standards. Back then, there was no playbook. We were building the language of environmental accountability from the ground up. Years later, after launching Watson, Nike came back into the fold—this time as a client—on a range of sustainability initiatives. So when the team behind Higg reached out, the conversation felt familiar. And deeply personal.

Watson was brought in to reposition the Higg Index for its next chapter—not just as a utility, but as a catalyst. The goal was to help Higg evolve from a backend analytics tool into a leadership brand. We needed to translate data into insight, and insight into influence.

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Membership & Loyalty Strategy: A Watson Case Study

I grew up in Colorado, not far from the UNC campus in Greeley where my dad taught. I still remember the buzz when John Elway showed up for his first spring training there. My dad and I would head up to watch—early mornings, cold bleachers, big energy. It wasn’t just about football. It was about being part of something. A community. A moment. That feeling stuck with me.

Years later, it’s been a full-circle kind of experience—bringing those same principles of connection and loyalty into the work we do at Watson. From stadiums to theaters, ski resorts to subscription brands, we’ve helped teams and organizations translate data into belonging. Because these days, it’s not enough to just track behavior. You’ve got to understand people—and respond in ways that feel personal, relevant, and real.

The same strategies we honed working with sports franchises—driving attendance, deepening loyalty, building scalable engagement platforms—have translated directly into our work with the arts, education, and nonprofit sectors. With organizations like the Oregon Symphony, Portland Center Stage, Protec17 Union, and university systems across the country, we’ve applied what we learned in high-energy, high-stakes sports environments to foster quieter but equally powerful forms of connection. Whether it’s boosting season ticket renewals or helping a theater stay top of mind during a long off-season, the fundamentals are the same: understand the audience, make every interaction meaningful, and build systems that invite people back.

That’s the core of our membership and loyalty strategy. It’s not just software or a dashboard. It’s a living system—part creative, part analytical—that helps organizations engage, retain, and grow. With a 97% retention rate and an average 35% lift in engagement, we’ve seen firsthand how the right tools, insights, and UX design can turn passive users into active advocates.

Most organizations are sitting on a mountain of data but can’t see the path forward. Our job is to shape that data into direction. To transform metrics into movement. And to help our partners build systems that learn, adapt, and scale alongside them. Whether you’re a major league team or a regional nonprofit, membership is about more than access. It’s about identity—and building something people actually want to be part of.‍‍

Watson’s success hinges on eight integrated features, each reinforcing the next. It’s not a stack of tools—it’s a system of engagement:

Campaign Intelligence: The strategy doesn’t simply crunch data; it crafts stories from it. Whether you're managing a major league fanbase or a nonprofit membership drive, the approach tailors each outreach to land with precision. Chris O’Donnell at the Broncos put it best: “Watson turns data into our playbook.”

Live KPI Dashboards: More than just performance snapshots, these dashboards act as your day-to-day command center. For the 49ers, real-time insight meant real-time pivoting—and game-changing results.

Scalability & Versatility: Watson’s framework doesn’t care how big you are—it cares how bold you want to be. Whether you’re running a ski resort in Sweden or a global automotive brand, the strategy adapts and scales.

Retention Reimagined: Personalization isn’t just about making members feel seen—it’s about keeping them coming back. From Point Defiance Zoo to regional theaters, Watson’s system has lowered churn rates across industries.

Human-Centered UX: For users, good design means less friction. For brands, it means higher engagement. Watson bridges both, creating platforms that feel as intuitive as they are compelling.

Operational Streamlining: From CRM integrations to automated workflows, Watson’s system lightens the load so teams can focus on strategy, not spreadsheets. It’s operational clarity without compromise.

Security by Design: The system is fortified with layers of encryption, multifactor authentication, and industry-compliant protocols. It's not just secure—it’s trusted.

Modularity with Meaning: This isn’t plug-and-play. It’s plug-and-thrive. Organizations select only what they need, creating a customized solution that fits like a tailored suit.

These aren’t just features—they’re force multipliers. When combined, they don’t just function. They harmonize.

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Over the past decade, the cannabis industry has evolved from a stigmatized fringe market into a legitimate and fast-growing business sector. Nowhere is that transformation more evident—or more instructive—than in Oregon and California. These two West Coast pioneers have shaped the national conversation, offering contrasting lessons in cannabis branding, regulation, and marketing strategy. In this piece, I explore how businesses in each state have adapted, examining policy shifts, brand case studies, and the cultural forces that continue to redefine the industry. I’ve had the rare opportunity to witness—and contribute to—this shift firsthand.

‍California: A Pioneering Path with Complex Challenges

In 2012, California was already a front-runner in the world of medical cannabis. The state had legalized medical marijuana through Proposition 215 in 1996. However, the landscape was far from straightforward. Local municipalities held significant power in shaping regulations, resulting in a patchwork of rules that varied from one city to another.

As we moved closer to 2015, California took a significant step towards comprehensive regulation with the Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MCRSA). This package of bills aimed to bring order to the chaotic cannabis landscape by introducing state-level licensing and regulation for medical cannabis businesses. Yet, the transition was far from seamless. Many cannabis businesses, which had previously operated in a legal gray area, now had to navigate a complex web of new regulations.

The challenges continued in 2016 when California voters passed Proposition 64, legalizing recreational cannabis use through the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA). This landmark legislation paved the way for further industry expansion and regulation but also introduced complexities related to taxation, licensing, and enforcement.

One of the significant lessons learned in California was the importance of striking a balance between state-level regulation and local autonomy. The state had to find ways to harmonize policies across diverse municipalities while addressing the concerns of local governments and communities. Additionally, the transition from a loosely regulated medical cannabis industry to a highly regulated recreational one revealed the need for robust compliance measures and clear communication to help businesses adapt.

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Oregon: A Uniform Approach with Early Adaptation

Voters approved Measure 91 in 2014, legalizing recreational cannabis for adults aged 21 and older. This made Oregon one of the first states to legalize recreational use through a voter initiative. Unlike California's gradual transition, Oregon adopted a more uniform, state-centric approach to cannabis regulation from the outset.

In 2015, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) began accepting applications for recreational cannabis licenses, marking a swift response to the legalization mandate. The OLCC was tasked with implementing and enforcing regulations covering everything from cultivation to retail sales. This proactive approach laid the foundation for a more streamlined and cohesive regulatory framework compared to California's patchwork of local regulations.

Oregon's early adoption of a regulatory framework allowed the state to address challenges such as product quality, safety, and taxation more effectively. By imposing strict standards from the outset, Oregon aimed to create a safer and more predictable environment for both consumers and businesses.

A valuable lesson from Oregon's experience is the importance of clarity and consistency in regulations. By establishing a clear regulatory framework early on, Oregon minimized confusion and uncertainty within the industry. The state's approach underscored the significance of proactive planning and swift implementation when transitioning from a prohibitionist past to a regulated future.

We didn’t set out to just rebrand the Autism Society of America. We set out to build a smarter nonprofit.

ASA came to us with a big vision and an even bigger challenge: how do you create a cohesive, modern fundraising and engagement system for a national organization with 80+ autonomous chapters, all running on different tools, timelines, and technical abilities?

The answer—at least the one we arrived at together—was Salesforce. Not just as a CRM, but as the central nervous system for everything: donations, email outreach, advocacy, event registration, chapter collaboration, and real-time reporting. It had to work for the national team, the grassroots volunteers, and every stakeholder in between.

This wasn’t plug-and-play. It was design-thinking at the systems level.

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Nonprofits often adopt Salesforce thinking it’s just a donor database or email tool. But when built with the right architecture and strategy, it can become a fundraising engine, a grassroots accelerator, and a truth-telling dashboard.

We started with a discovery workshop that brought everyone to the table: ASA, Salesforce, Liberty Mutual (a key partner), and Watson. From there, we ran audits across ASA’s 80+ chapters and conducted competitive research, pulling insights from nonprofits like Autism Speaks, The Nature Conservancy, and Boys & Girls Clubs of America. We also studied unconventional playbooks—like the Bernie Sanders campaign’s grassroots donation model—to rethink how chapters could organize around regional giving.

We mapped every user journey. We worked through privacy and compliance. We debated one-way vs. two-way syncs between the website and Salesforce. We met chapters where they were—some had entire digital teams, others were powered by one part-time volunteer. The only way forward was to build something modular, scalable, and accessible.

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Solving the Data Dilemma: Clean, Connect, Act

The biggest hurdle for most nonprofits? Dirty data. ASA was no exception. Fragmented donor records, duplicated entries, multiple chapter databases—these issues aren’t just annoying; they cost real dollars in missed fundraising opportunities and inefficiencies.

Together, we created a national data architecture that enabled clean, consistent, and centralized reporting. We implemented best practices for chapter-level integration, set up dashboards for visibility and control, and helped ASA embrace Salesforce as not just a tool, but a culture shift.

With this foundation, every campaign could be smarter. Every program could be evaluated in real time. Every dollar could go further.

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The Results: A Nonprofit That Thinks (and Acts) Like a Modern Brand

The numbers speak for themselves:

• +42% increase in constituent engagement across web, email, and social platforms.
• +38% increase in online donations, powered by segmented campaigns and personalized communications.
• +32% boost in program allocation efficiency, directing resources to where they matter most.
• +28% increase in donor retention, thanks to improved transparency and financial reporting.
• +48% rise in legislative advocacy, driven by integrated constituent outreach tools.
• +22% gain in chapter program effectiveness, through shared systems and strategy.
• −36% reduction in operational costs, by streamlining tools and improving automation.
• +43% increase in total mission impact, measured by improved reach and outcomes across ASA’s core audiences.

In plain terms: ASA can now raise more money, make better decisions, run leaner, and respond faster.

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What Nonprofits Can Learn From the Autism Society’s Rebrand

1. Invite the Community In

Rebrands done to a community will fail. Rebrands done with a community create movements. The Autism Society invited stakeholders in early—and never shut the door.

2. Create Emotional Infrastructure

A nonprofit brand needs more than logic and service lists. It needs emotional infrastructure—language, visuals, and interactions that meet people where they are.

3. Design for Real Life, Not Just Best Practices

ADA compliance isn’t enough. Design for real-world scenarios, like sensory barriers, first-time diagnosis moments, and people searching for hope at 2 a.m.

A Human Ending: This Is What Connection Looks Like

Rebranding the Autism Society wasn’t about replacing an identity. It was about revealing one that was already there—waiting to be seen, heard, and shared.

The real brand isn’t a logo or a font. It’s the self-advocate on Capitol Hill. The exhausted parent finding community. The child who, for the first time, sees themselves in a photo.

This is what nonprofit branding can do when you start with people.

With gratitude,

Watson

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Why National Nonprofit Brands Must Evolve with the People They Serve

For nearly six decades, the Autism Society of America has been a lifeline—connecting individuals and families with the resources they need through education, advocacy, and support. But even legacy institutions must evolve.

Facing a rapidly expanding population of Autistic individuals—and the shifting cultural narratives around diagnosis, language, and identity—the Autism Society recognized it was time to reimagine its brand. Not just visually. Strategically. Inclusively. Authentically.

The organization’s leadership wasn’t interested in surface-level change. They envisioned a bold, future-forward brand—built with the community, not just for it. One that could reflect the spectrum of lived experiences, affirm dignity across identities, and unify a national network of 75 affiliates under one cohesive voice.

What they needed was more than a new logo or tagline. They needed a rebrand that could carry the emotional weight, political nuance, and operational demands of leading the Autism movement forward.

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Why National Nonprofit Branding Demands More Than a Mission Statement

For Watson, the challenge was clear: build a brand strategy rooted in connection—but also in clarity.

The Autism Society’s previous identity didn’t reflect the sheer diversity of its community or the evolving language around Autism. There was no consistent definition or messaging framework across affiliates. No shared rallying cry that felt both grounded and actionable.

To get it right, the rebrand would have to:

• Define the organization’s unique role within the broader Autism landscape, balancing clinical, cultural, and personal perspectives.
• Unite a national network under one brand story while honoring local autonomy.
• Design for accessibility—not just compliance, but emotional safety and sensory inclusivity.

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‍Inclusive Discovery Across the Spectrum

We began with research. Not just surveys and white papers, but conversations. More than 150 stakeholders engaged over the course of a year: Autistic self-advocates, parents, caregivers, affiliate directors, researchers, board members, and community partners.

The process was intentionally slow. Respectful. Immersive.

We facilitated interviews, workshops, and roundtables with:

• Adults and children on the Autism spectrum
• Parents and siblings across life stages
• Clinical experts and researchers
• Affiliate leaders nationwide
• The Autism Society’s executive team and strategic planning committee

Our team held daily alignment meetings, ensuring the pace of decision-making was steady—and feedback loops stayed human.

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Uncovering the Strategic Insight: Disconnection

In our audit, one insight rose above the rest: disconnection.

Disconnection from resources. From one another. From a sense of shared narrative.

That became our North Star. Connection wasn’t just a messaging theme. It was the strategic lever.

It became clear that the new brand had to offer:

• A working definition of Autism that could evolve over time
• Messaging that could hold nuance across identities and opinions
• A shared language for storytelling across local and national chapters

“Because of our commitment to inclusion and the recognition of the innumerable experiences within the Autism community, our brand had to express our core values and the connections that tie our diverse community together.”

Kristyn Roth – CMO, Autism Society of America

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Rebranding for People with Disabilities Requires Emotional Precision

Designing With Sensory Sensitivity at the Core

From color palettes to web UX, our creative strategy prioritized accessibility—not just ADA compliance, but sensory inclusion.

Every design element was tested with Autistic individuals and caregivers. Fonts, contrast, motion, and navigation patterns were adjusted based on feedback. We adopted WCAG standards as a floor, not a ceiling.

We anchored the creative system around a visual thread—literally. Fluid lines and soft shapes signified the interconnectedness of people across the spectrum. The toolkit now includes:

• Inclusive color and typography systems
• Flexible design templates for affiliate use
• Photography that reflects real faces and stories—not stock abstractions

“To create connection, empowering everyone in the Autism community with the education and resources they need to live fully with dignity, equality, and recognition.”

Matt Watson – CEO, Watson

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Elevating Brand Photography With Representation and Trust

One of the most moving aspects of the project was the photo shoot.

Participants stepped outside their comfort zones. Some allowed their parents to touch them for the first time. The emotion in the room was palpable—captured in a brand library that now reflects the strength, variety, and authenticity of the Autism community.

The visuals weren’t curated. They were lived.

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Strategic Outcomes: A Rebrand with Tangible Results

“We are hearing tremendously favorable comments about the new logo, the look of the website, the identification with The Connection is You tagline, the images, and so much more. The messaging is resonating with the greater community.” Christopher Banks – President and CEO, Autism Society of America

“Our new brand is part of the critical foundation of the Autism Society’s forward-looking Strategic Plan. It clearly supports the path forward for the Autism Society and improved connection to the communities we serve.” Brian Roth – Board Member, Autism Society of America

“Our affiliates finally have branding they’re proud of—and were so eager to implement.”Kristyn Roth – CMO, Autism Society of America

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What Nonprofits Can Learn From the Autism Society’s Rebrand

1. Invite the Community In

Rebrands done to a community will fail. Rebrands done with a community create movements. The Autism Society invited stakeholders in early—and never shut the door.

2. Create Emotional Infrastructure

A nonprofit brand needs more than logic and service lists. It needs emotional infrastructure—language, visuals, and interactions that meet people where they are.

3. Design for Real Life, Not Just Best Practices

ADA compliance isn’t enough. Design for real-world scenarios, like sensory barriers, first-time diagnosis moments, and people searching for hope at 2 a.m.

A Human Ending: This Is What Connection Looks Like

Rebranding the Autism Society wasn’t about replacing an identity. It was about revealing one that was already there—waiting to be seen, heard, and shared. The real brand isn’t a logo or a font. It’s the self-advocate on Capitol Hill. The exhausted parent finding community. The child who, for the first time, sees themselves in a photo. This is what nonprofit branding can do when you start with people.

Color as a Forecast, Not a Finish

In the early 2000s, I sat on Nike’s Global Color Committee, a multidisciplinary team responsible for forecasting color stories two to three years into the future. It wasn’t just about seasonal palettes or trend decks—it was a calculated blend of science, culture, intuition, and psychology. At Nike, color wasn’t cosmetic. It was strategic. We were crafting emotional responses before the product even launched.

We tested color with consumers across regions, cross-referenced macrotrend forecasts, and considered the emotional cadence of entire product lines. One of the most impactful experiences came when I invited Richard Lytle to campus—a student of Josef Albers, arguably the most influential color theorist of the 20th century. Richard spoke to a packed auditorium of over 600 Nike designers and led color workshops that challenged how we see, feel, and think.

His message was clear: color is not absolute. It shifts based on context, environment, and even mindset. That foundational principle has guided my work ever since, from global consumer goods to branding for hospitals, nonprofits, and financial institutions.

This article is part science, part story—a dive into how color continues to shape identity, foster emotional connection, and create brands that people trust.

Color works faster than language. Before your brain deciphers a word or recognizes a logo, it responds to hue, contrast, and saturation. According to research published in the journal Management Decision, color accounts for 62% to 90% of first impressions. That makes it one of the most powerful tools in branding—and one of the most overlooked.

We associate red with urgency, passion, and risk—which is why it’s so prevalent in fast food and clearance campaigns. Blue builds trust and conveys calm, making it a staple in finance and tech. Green has strong ties to sustainability, health, and renewal. These associations are partly cultural but also physiological.

Chromotherapy, or healing through color, dates back to ancient Egypt, China, and India. Practitioners believed that specific colors influenced the body’s energy systems. In modern applications, blue light is used to treat neonatal jaundice, and warmer tones are often integrated into educational environments to promote focus and alertness.

A particularly compelling study by Henner Ertel found that schoolchildren exposed to classrooms painted in yellow, orange, light green, and sky blue showed a 12-point increase in IQ scores. The same study observed improved behavior and social cohesion. Even blind students experienced benefits, suggesting that our bodies respond to light and color energy beyond visual perception.

What does this mean for branding? Color is not just visual. It’s biological. It can stimulate or calm, focus or distract, attract or repel.

And when used strategically, it can turn a passive audience into active believers.

Letting Go of the Clubhouse Model

So why are so many organizations still clinging to the old models?

Because they’re familiar. Because they promise control. And because, on paper, they’re easy to measure.

But the reality? The clubhouse model — with its passwords, levels, and secret handshakes — no longer inspires. At best, it bores. At worst, it alienates.

Today, transparency beats exclusivity. Shared rituals beat rigid rules. We’re moving from “how do we retain them?” to “how do we invite them to help shape us?”

Watson’s work with the Portland Center Stage reflects this evolution. Rather than framing season tickets as a transaction — sit in this seat, on this date, for this show — the brand began emphasizing cultural belonging. The result? A sense that showing up wasn’t about consumption; it was about contribution to the civic and artistic life of the city.

The same is true in the union world. ProTec17, a Watson partner, rebranded its core offering away from dues-based language to focus on voice, dignity, and shared impact. When members feel like part of a cause, not just an org chart, participation skyrockets

The clubhouse can feel safe. But a bonfire — open, warm, participatory — builds momentum.

Designing Systems People Want to Be Part Of

This new loyalty doesn’t just happen. It’s designed.

Designing for a movement requires a different set of tools — and a different mindset. It’s not about locking people in. It’s about inviting them in. And that invitation must be clear, compelling, and culturally relevant.

The strongest modern systems embrace open-source storytelling. Patagonia publishes its audits. Nike publishes its sustainability dashboards. These aren’t press releases — they’re cultural artifacts that build trust.

They create spaces, not stages. Discords, Slacks, live chats, pop-ups — not gated events, but porous ones where the brand is a moderator, not a monarch.

They reward impact, not spend. Digital badges, community shoutouts, or opportunities to lead and teach — these build more durable engagement than any point multiplier.

They celebrate the audience. Let your biggest believers speak for you. Think customer testimonials, fan art, grassroots organizing, or ambassador programs that actually empower.

Watson has seen this in action across sectors. With the San Francisco 49ers, loyalty shifted from subscriptions to storytelling. Fans weren’t just buying access — they were participating in a legacy. With Kaiser Permanente, the internal brand moved away from service language and into wellness as a collective journey. Health became a shared cause, not a transactional service.

These aren’t abstract ideals. They’re designable systems. And they’re what audiences are asking for — often with their wallets and always with their hearts.

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Are You a Brand — Or a Movement?

We’ll leave you with this provocation: Would someone tattoo your logo?

That’s not a vanity question. It’s a relevance check.

Because the brands that are thriving — across B2B, B2C, and mission-led sectors — aren’t just selling. They’re stirring something. They’re showing people who they could be. They’re creating space for stories, identities, and actions to gather around a shared fire.

If you’re still using points, perks, and gated newsletters to measure belonging, it may be time to ask tougher questions.

Where are we gatekeeping when we could be inviting?

Are we rewarding spend — or celebrating meaning?

Is our audience a database — or a community of builders?

Membership still matters. But it only works if it’s built on movement — on shared purpose, cultural participation, and emotional relevance.

So here’s your challenge. Go beyond the card. Ditch the tiers. Build the table.

Design your brand not for acquisition — but for shared action.

Let people not just follow, but shape the story.

And if you’re ready to reimagine your identity as a living movement — not a static message — explore Watson’s macrotrend hub on cultural strategy. Ask yourself the only question that really matters:

Are we a brand, or are we a movement?

→ https://watsoncreative.com/trendwatching-fuels-innovation/

From Loyalty Programs to Shared Purpose

Not long ago, “membership” was a magic word. It carried prestige, exclusivity, and access — whether you were swiping your platinum card, flashing your gym tag, or proudly opening a glossy welcome packet. Brands built empires on these structures, trading perks for allegiance and positioning customers as insiders in a game of access and accumulation.

But times change — and so do people. Today’s audiences aren’t looking to join something. They want to build something.

This shift is tectonic. What used to be about status is now about significance. We are watching loyalty decouple from benefits and reattach itself to belief. The idea of “memberships” as transactional is giving way to movements that are participatory, porous, and deeply personal. Brands across every sector — from nonprofits and unions to outdoor gear companies and beauty platforms — are moving beyond the punch card. They’re designing ecosystems of shared purpose, where the currency isn’t points, but participation.

This isn’t a nice-to-have strategy for the hip and hopeful. It’s an operational imperative for any brand that wants to matter in the next decade. Because audiences, especially Gen Z and Millennials, are increasingly resistant to being labeled, marketed to, or neatly bucketed into tiers. They are craving a sense of authorship. They want to shape culture, not subscribe to it.

At the heart of this shift is a powerful psychological truth: intrinsic motivation beats extrinsic perks every time.

People don’t stick around because of points. They stick around because it means something to them. Whether it’s the satisfaction of making a difference, the joy of expressing identity, or the sense of belonging to a like-minded community, the emotional ROI is everything.

The science backs this up. Research in motivation theory shows that autonomy, mastery, and purpose drive deeper engagement than any leaderboard or tiered reward system ever could. If the old model was “earn your perks,” the new model is “earn your place through purpose.”

We see this in action with brands like REI, which has shifted from touting member discounts to championing environmental equity and outdoor access. Their annual “Opt Outside” campaign isn’t just a marketing move — it’s a cultural stance that unites people under shared values.

In the nonprofit world, too, the frame is changing. Organizations like the Autism Society of America, working with Watson, have moved away from institutional gatekeeping and toward decentralized community voice. It’s no longer about joining a top-down entity. It’s about being part of a larger tapestry of stories, lived experiences, and advocacy.

These are not customers. They’re co-creators. And that’s a bond no punch card can match.

Culture Shift: How Consumers Became Stakeholders

We’re no longer in a world where consumers are passive recipients. They’re co-creators, watchdogs, investors, and critics. One tweet, one TikTok, one thread on Reddit—that’s all it takes to unravel months of brand strategy. But the inverse is also true: community involvement can accelerate trust and loyalty when care is genuine.

Brands like Ben & Jerry’s understand this intuitively. Their outspoken advocacy on social justice issues hasn’t alienated consumers; it’s galvanized them. That’s because their actions match their messaging. They invest in the communities they champion. The container of the product is just the beginning of the story.

Watson’s partnership with the City of Redmond and Leave No Trace illustrates how brands and municipalities alike are waking up to the role of care in public trust. Faced with the dual need to grow tourism revenue while preserving fragile ecosystems, Watson developed a care-first communication strategy. The brand voice was intentionally calm, educational, and rooted in stewardship. Rather than scaring off visitors, it invited them into a shared responsibility.

Care isn’t performative. When practiced sincerely, it becomes a relational asset. Stakeholders—not just consumers—begin to see themselves as part of the brand’s success.

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Crossing the Chasm: From Cool to Care at Scale

There’s a perception that care is only possible for small brands, nonprofits, or idealistic start-ups. That once you scale, you have to compromise. But that assumption is rapidly crumbling.

Large-scale brands are finding ways to operationalize care without sacrificing impact. Nike’s Sustainability division, for example, has made significant moves in regenerative design, circular production, and social justice partnerships. These aren’t isolated campaigns. They’re integrated into Nike’s performance ethos.

Watson’s work supporting Nike’s sustainability storytelling reflects this complexity. The brand needed to connect elite athletes with environmental realities. The result was a blend of bold design, clear metrics, and stories rooted in place—from recycled footwear to community clean-up efforts. The care wasn’t just in the message. It was in the methods.

Scaling care means rethinking systems. It means product design that starts with inclusion, digital tools that prioritize accessibility, and feedback loops that actually go somewhere. It’s the difference between performative allyship and systemic change.

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Think Bigger: Care as a Business Strategy, Not a Campaign

Care is not a limited-time offer. It’s not a seasonal sentiment or a social media moment. It’s a long-game operating strategy. The kind that builds resilience, not just relevance.

In today’s market, reputation is reputation capital. Consumers reward brands that take responsibility seriously. Employees stay longer at companies that practice what they preach.

Investors are starting to evaluate environmental and social governance (ESG) metrics with as much scrutiny as financial performance.

Watson has seen this play out across industries. From higher education to agriculture, construction to credit unions, the clients who center care in their brand—not just in their tone, but in their team structures and partnerships—are the ones weathering disruption best. They're not constantly pivoting to stay "on trend" because they’re anchored in principles, not PR.

Care builds infrastructure. It builds teams who trust each other. It builds customer relationships that extend beyond transactions. It builds communities who advocate on your behalf.

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Conclusion: Care Builds What Cool Can’t

Cool will always have its place. There’s nothing wrong with good taste, sharp design, or cultural currency. But cool is transient. It demands constant reinvention. Care, by contrast, is cumulative. It grows. It compounds.

The brands that lead with care don’t just win favor—they earn loyalty. They don’t just talk values—they operationalize them. And they don’t just scale profits—they scale trust.

So ask yourself: Where are you chasing cool at the cost of meaning? What would change if care became your organizing principle? How would your work evolve if you prioritized people and planet over posturing?

To explore more on how macrotrends shape innovation, visit Watson’s main article on trendwatching:
https://watsoncreative.com/trendwatching-fuels-innovation

A New Center of Gravity

For decades, the cultural currency of brands was built on being cool. Cool meant exclusivity. Distance. Immaculate aesthetics wrapped in aloof detachment. Brands talked at people, not with them. They guarded their processes, elevated unattainable ideals, and rewarded customers with status by proximity. If you could afford it, wear it, drive it, or post it, you were in. If not, you watched from the margins.

But cool has a shelf life.

In our post-aspirational era, where authenticity is scrutinized and impact is measured beyond profit, cool isn’t enough. In fact, it can feel hollow. We are witnessing a rebalancing of brand power, a cultural shift from admiration to alignment. People want to see themselves in the brands they support—not just through surface-level style, but in how those brands think, act, and show up.

Enter care: the new apex of influence. Where cool once signaled superiority, care now signals substance. Trust. Accountability. Human intelligence over artificial gloss. This isn’t a soft pivot; it’s a structural one. And it’s happening across sectors—from fashion to health care, tech to tourism. Care is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s the cost of entry.

In the past, brand success was tethered to the FAB model: Features, Advantages, Benefits. Sell the sizzle, not the steak. Push product. Promote desire. That model built empires, yes—but often at the expense of connection, inclusion, and context.

Today, we’re in an era of stewardship. Stewardship asks not just what your brand does, but what it stands for. Not just how it performs, but how it behaves. Patagonia’s 2022 announcement that the company was "donating Earth to Earth" wasn’t a marketing campaign. It was a redefinition of ownership, one that made shareholders out of ecosystems. REI’s "Opt Outside" initiative, which closed stores on Black Friday, wasn’t a protest against capitalism—it was a call for better capitalism, one that respects people’s time, mental health, and natural spaces.

Closer to home, Watson’s rebrand of the Autism Society of America exemplifies this shift. Rather than imposing a top-down identity system, the team centered design around empathy, accessibility, and trauma-informed storytelling. The new brand emerged from conversations with over 150 stakeholders—individuals and families across the spectrum of autism experiences. It wasn’t just inclusive. It was co-authored. That care-first process is what gave the brand its strength.

Design Thinking in the Age of AI

If AI is the engine, Design Thinking remains the map. The methodology—empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test—has never been more relevant. What’s changed is the fidelity and velocity at which we can cycle through those stages.

Take empathy. AI now allows us to model user journeys, build behavioral personas, or map real-time feedback across segments at an extraordinary scale. Ideation? AI tools like Midjourney, Firefly, and ChatGPT can flood the room with stimulus in seconds, offering provocations that might have taken weeks to uncover. And in the prototype phase, we can visualize outcomes and simulate reactions before a single dollar hits production.

But here’s the catch: tools don’t equal insight. Data doesn’t equal empathy. Great creative teams don’t shortcut the process—they use these tools to go deeper, faster. Design Thinking in the AI era asks us not to abandon imagination, but to ground it with logic and amplify it through speed.

Used well, AI doesn’t make Design Thinking obsolete. It makes it superhuman.

Creativity Is Still a Human Contact Sport

There’s a reason Midjourney images sometimes feel vacant. They’re dazzling, but not lived in. There’s a reason AI-generated scripts still struggle with subtext. And why an AI DJ can nail your music genre but not your mood.

Creativity is more than composition. It’s context. It’s culture. It’s emotion. It requires tension, contradiction, and a willingness to break rules. These are human behaviors. Learned through life, not training data.

So yes—bring the models into the room. Let them offer ideas. But let the team choose. Let the brand voice be informed by empathy, not just outputs. At Watson, we’ve seen firsthand how AI can empower a designer to explore faster, a strategist to discover patterns, a writer to test tonal variations. But we’ve also seen how easy it is to let the tool become the boss.

The future of creativity won’t be decided by who uses AI. It’ll be decided by how. By whether you train your team to collaborate with machines or compete with them. By whether you encourage curiosity over fear. And by whether you treat AI as a starting point—or a shortcut.

In the end, creativity is still a contact sport. The real breakthroughs happen when people meet ideas—and shape them with intention.

A Call to (Re)Consider

We’re not in a man-vs-machine showdown. We’re in a collaboration renaissance. The most compelling work ahead will come from studios and teams that know how to wield AI without losing their voice. From organizations that balance algorithmic insight with human instinct. And from leaders who recognize that creativity doesn’t need to slow down to be soulful—it just needs to stay grounded in purpose.

So the question becomes: how are you building that future?

Are you giving your team the tools and training to co-create with intelligence? Are you making room for intuition amid automation? Are you treating AI as a creative amplifier—not just an efficiency tool?

The work still needs a soul. But it doesn’t have to be slow.

→ Explore more ideas at Watson’s Macrotrends hub and rethink how emerging tools can unlock deeper brand expression, faster. Let AI augment your creativity—not define it.

History Repeats Differently: When Tools Expand, Not Erase

Every generation faces its technological reckoning. The Gutenberg Press was feared as the death knell of scribes; it instead unlocked mass literacy and democratized thought. Photography was once considered a brute mechanical process, incapable of “true” artistry—until it reshaped the visual canon and freed painting to explore abstraction. And yes, designers once mourned the shift from X-Acto blades and amber spray adhesive to QuarkXPress. Then came InDesign. Then came Figma.

Creatives have always stood at the edge of innovation, eyeing each new tool with equal parts skepticism and curiosity. But if history tells us anything, it’s that tools don’t replace us. They push us. They stretch our sense of what’s possible. They hand us a faster, messier, weirder medium—and then step back as we make it beautiful.

Artificial intelligence is no different. It doesn’t come to replace human creativity. It comes to sharpen it, to accelerate our pace of iteration, to flood our sketchbooks with new perspectives. But what it can’t do is feel. It can’t find the irony in a turn of phrase, or the goosebumps in a color choice. It can’t synthesize instinct with insight, or understand why a well-timed silence can say more than a clever line of copy.

It can give us options. But we still choose the voice.

Walk into a studio today and you’ll see a new kind of pairing: the designer and the dataset, the writer and the model, the strategist and the AI prompt. The workspace has changed, not just in layout but in relationship. AI is the assistant who never tires, the intern who can concept 100 versions before lunch (with varying levels of taste). It is not infallible. It is not intuitive. But it is wildly generative—especially when guided by the hands of a human who knows what to keep and what to throw away.

At Watson, we’ve embraced AI as a tool within the process—not the process itself. We use it to explore alternate brand directions, pressure-test naming strategies, and spark early design drafts. We’ve watched it accelerate workflows and unstick the team during conceptual ruts. But we’ve also learned where to put the brakes. Human storytelling still carries the soul. Editorial decisions still shape the arc. Cultural fluency, irony, tone, and timing? Those remain resolutely human domains.

AI might suggest five campaign directions. But your audience only remembers the one that made them feel something. That’s still our job.

The Design Philosophy of Deconstruction

To go quiet is not to do less—it is to do with greater care. That’s where the principle of deconstruction in design becomes foundational.

In architecture, deconstruction invites designers to challenge assumptions and strip away unnecessary layers. In branding, it means dismantling the extraneous to make what’s essential unmistakably clear. It’s the act of removing everything that doesn’t serve the idea, until only the message—and its intent—remains.

Deconstructive branding doesn’t sacrifice depth; it refines it. And when applied intentionally, it results in a brand experience that feels like a deep breath in a crowded room.

Think of Apple’s product pages post-Jobs: generous whitespace, frictionless scroll, only what you need—and nothing you don’t. Or Lemonade’s onboarding experience, which turns complex insurance processes into a sequence of quietly animated, beautifully spaced, emotionally intuitive steps. These brands aren’t just simplifying for elegance. They’re simplifying for trust.

Across Industries: The Rise of Silent Leaders

Quiet branding isn’t limited to DTC startups or minimalist skincare lines. It’s happening across industries:

        ●  Fintech: Stripe’s product UI is almost invisible. No flash, no noise—just clarity and trust.

             The brand itself becomes an infrastructure: solid, intuitive, and quietly powerful.  

         ●  Healthcare: Tools like Tia and One Medical are trading sterile, clinical branding for soft, earth-toned environments.

              Their apps feel more like wellness journals than medical platforms.  

         ●  Luxury Tech: Companies like Bang & Olufsen and Nothing design product experiences that feel like spatial art.

              Their restraint speaks volumes. In a cluttered category, silence becomes luxury.  

         ●  Education and Wellness: The Calm app is the archetype.

             Every design choice—from typography to animation speed—is tuned for tranquility.

             It doesn’t just deliver peace of mind. It is peace of mind.

Even the physical realm is shifting. Consider Everlane’s packaging: uncoated kraft paper, simple folds, lowercase copy. It doesn’t shout “premium.” It doesn’t have to. The message is embedded in the restraint.

In all of these cases, we’re seeing brands turn away from the “add more” mentality and toward “design as quiet leadership.”

The Strategic Edge of Subtraction

The question isn’t whether a brand can be quiet. The question is whether it has the clarity to be.

In business, silence is often feared. Many equate volume with vitality, and visibility with value. But the brands leading the quiet movement are demonstrating the opposite: it is possible to grow influence by shrinking your footprint.

In fact, trust is increasingly linked to design ethics—how a brand chooses to show up in moments of decision-making. In a study by Edelman, 81% of consumers said that brand trust is a deal-breaker or deciding factor in purchase. And that trust is not built through gimmicks—it’s built through coherence, clarity, and credibility.

Quiet branding creates space for all three.

It gives room for your message to land. For your values to be seen. For your customer to feel something other than fatigue.

But restraint requires bravery. It takes nerve to simplify. To edit. To trust that your audience is smart enough to interpret. And to recognize that the most powerful branding moment may be the one you don’t create—so the customer can create their own.

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Where to Start? Try Removing.

For brand leaders grappling with crowded markets, shrinking attention spans, and rising digital scrutiny, the first step might not be to design something new—but to take something away.

Ask yourself:

          ●  What are we saying that doesn’t need to be said?

          ●  Are we optimizing for depth—or just dopamine?

          ●  What does our brand feel like at its core—without the noise?

          ●  Could our next big move be a smaller footprint?

The brands that lead the next decade won’t be the ones that shout the loudest. They’ll be the ones that speak clearly, act responsibly, and trust that silence, too, is a strategy.

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Want more perspective?

Visit Watson’s Macrotrends Hub to explore how themes like quiet branding, digital sobriety, and deconstruction are shaping the future of design, business, and trust. Reflect on what your brand might gain by subtracting—and how the world might benefit from your silence.

Silence Speaks: The Power of Understated Branding

We’ve hit peak volume.

From the jarring autoplay videos that punctuate our daily scroll to the chaotic packaging screaming from supermarket shelves, modern life is an overwhelming blur of sensory noise. Brands, in their desperation to keep up, have followed suit—amping up the color, the motion, the messaging. But in an age of overstimulation, a new brand behavior is emerging, and it’s strikingly simple: silence.

Quiet branding isn’t about retreating. It’s about recalibrating. It’s the shift from grabbing attention to earning it, from performative to purposeful. And as the cultural pendulum swings toward sustainability, clarity, and authenticity, this strategic restraint is no longer a niche design aesthetic—it’s a new brand imperative.

This is not minimalism for minimalism’s sake. This is about resonance through reduction. And for brands willing to trade the spotlight for clarity, the rewards are increasingly tangible.

Rewind to the branding of the 1980s and 90s: it was pure adrenaline. Pepsi’s explosive campaigns. MTV’s hyper-glitch graphics. Toy companies that practically yelled at children. Even into the 2000s, the “challenger brand” archetype embraced bold, busy, quirky, and loud—differentiation at any cost.

But attention is no longer something you fight for with volume alone. We are now deep in what Harvard Business Review calls the “attention economy”—where attention is limited, fragile, and expensive to hold. According to data from Microsoft, the average human attention span has decreased to 8 seconds, and Nielsen research shows that consumers are exposed to upward of 10,000 brand messages a day.

Louder isn’t working. It’s just adding to the blur.

Enter Quiet Branding: a strategic shift built on the principles of Cognitive Load Theory. The human brain can only process so much information before fatigue sets in. Cluttered layouts, excessive stimuli, and constant calls-to-action can overwhelm, leading not to action—but to aversion. In contrast, designs that embrace whitespace, restrained typography, and intentional pacing reduce cognitive friction, enabling deeper engagement and higher recall.

Quiet branding doesn’t just feel better. It performs better. Brands that simplify tend to be more memorable, more trusted, and more emotionally resonant. The secret? They invite interpretation instead of prescribing meaning.

Designing for Hybridity, Not Homogeny

There was a time when design was optimized for sameness. Global brands sought scalability through uniformity. A single logo, one color palette, universal messaging. Homogeny was efficient, safe, and marketable. But it was also emotionally flat.

Today, consumers—especially younger ones—are rejecting that model. Gen Z and Gen Alpha were raised in a polycultural, post-genre, platform-fluid world. They don’t need brands to simplify culture for them. They crave brands that reflect the reality they know: one where cultural references overlap, collide, and coexist.

Designing for hybridity means moving beyond comfort zones. It’s not about blending cultures into a sanitized aesthetic. It’s about letting each cultural element retain its edge, its story, its context. This shows up in fashion lines that mix Ghanaian wax prints with London streetwear. In beauty brands that name products in Tagalog, Arabic, and Yoruba. In tech startups whose UI reflects input from Nairobi, São Paulo, and Jakarta—not just Silicon Valley.

And it’s not just about aesthetics. It’s about process. Brands embracing third culture design often co-create with community members, not just consultants. They involve elders, youth, artists, and linguists. They make space for friction—because friction, in this context, is a sign of respect. It shows that you’re not trying to smooth over difference, but to honor it.

At its core, third culture branding is about relinquishing control. It asks brands to listen more than they speak. To design with, not for. To accept that they might get it wrong—and to stay in conversation anyway.

What Brands Can Learn from the Global In-Between

Third culture branding isn’t a trend—it’s a mirror. It reflects a world in motion, where identities are forged at intersections, and belonging is less about borders and more about resonance.

To succeed in this space, brands need to let go of the idea that complexity is a liability. It’s not. It’s a design challenge. It’s a strategic advantage. And it’s a reflection of how the world actually works.

The future belongs to brands that can navigate contradiction with grace. That can design systems that are both universal and specific. That can speak multiple cultural dialects—not fluently, but fluently enough to show care. That know when to lead and when to follow.

So ask yourself:

         ●  Where are we flattening culture into commodity?

         ●  How might we stop “marketing to” and start “building with”?

          ●  Are we designing for comfort—or for truth?

Because the audience is ready. The question is whether the brand is.

If your brand wants to stay relevant in a polycultural, emotionally intelligent marketplace, third culture branding is not optional. It’s a critical lens for design, storytelling, and strategy. It asks you to honor complexity over reduction. To reflect real lives, not idealized ones. To trade universal appeal for specific connection.

Visit Watson's Macrotrends Hub to explore how layered, forward-thinking design can inspire your next evolution. Because the future isn’t one culture. It’s all of them, lived and layered, together.

Belonging Everywhere and Nowhere: The Rise of Third Culture Identity

Imagine a kid flipping between K-pop and Kendrick, texting in three languages, and calling two continents home. Their sense of belonging isn’t rooted in a flag or a fixed address. It lives in moments, in music, in food, in the fluid way they move through the world. This is the lived experience of a Third Culture individual—people raised across cultural contexts, whose identities are complex, layered, and often hard to categorize.

The term "Third Culture Kid" (TCK) was coined in the 1950s by sociologist Ruth Hill Useem, originally to describe children of diplomats and missionaries raised abroad. But in today’s globalized society, the term has expanded. Now, it reflects a broader population shaped by immigration, intermarriage, transnational work, and diasporic realities. These are the children of globalization—individuals whose identities don’t align neatly with a single culture, but are instead a hybrid of inherited traditions and lived experience.

This in-betweenness is not a flaw. It’s a cultural asset. Studies in psychology show that people with third culture backgrounds often exhibit high empathy, creativity, and cognitive flexibility. But it also comes with emotional weight: a sense of rootlessness, a dual longing to belong and to be understood. For brands, this presents both a challenge and a call to evolve. It requires abandoning the assumption that identity is singular, and embracing the reality that for many, it never has been.

In a time where audiences are increasingly diverse, globally mobile, and culturally fluid, brands that still treat identity as a fixed demographic checkbox risk irrelevance. Third Culture Branding isn't about exoticism or multicultural garnish. It's about telling stories that reflect the real, complex, and often contradictory lives of people who are shaping culture from the inside out.

For decades, global branding followed a narrow script. There were two dominant templates: the minimalist modernist aesthetic designed for universality, and the tokenistic heritage aesthetic designed to check the “inclusive” box. The former favored Helvetica and grayscale restraint; the latter relied on surface-level cultural cues—a national flag here, a folk pattern there—that often felt more symbolic than sincere.

But something has shifted. A new brand language is emerging, born from the lived experience of the third culture generation. It’s eclectic, contradictory, and intentionally textured. It doesn’t smooth over cultural complexity—it celebrates it. Think bold typography that weaves calligraphy with contemporary fonts. Packaging that evokes diaspora kitchens—jars of turmeric next to soy sauce, a molcajete beside a rice cooker. Soundtracks that move from Nigerian Afrobeats to Korean trap without skipping a beat.

This isn’t just a design trend; it’s a narrative shift. Brands are beginning to understand that representation isn’t about perfection or polish—it’s about presence. Telling stories that reflect mixed realities means embracing contradiction: the formality of an ancestral ritual set against the informality of a TikTok video. It means resisting the urge to simplify and leaning into the discomfort of complexity.

Language is evolving too. Copywriting that once aimed for generic clarity now embraces rhythm, play, and code-switching. Brands like Diaspora Co., Third Culture Bakery, and Daily Paper use language that feels lived-in, multilingual, and intentionally specific. Their messaging isn’t trying to explain itself to the mainstream. It’s speaking directly to communities who already understand—and inviting others to listen more deeply.

Your Supply Chain Is Your Story Now

In the past, the supply chain lived behind the curtain. Manufacturing, sourcing, labor conditions—these were details too dry or too damning to share. Now, they are the story. The most compelling brand narratives don’t start at the point of sale; they begin in the field, the factory, the freight truck. As consumers gain fluency in sustainability, social justice, and circular design, your back-of-house becomes front-page news.

Brands like Patagonia understood this early. Their Footprint Chronicles were groundbreaking not because they were glamorous, but because they were honest. They gave audiences the right to know. Today, that expectation has scaled. Transparency isn’t a niche virtue. It’s table stakes.

Our work with Integrus Architecture brought this thinking into the built environment. Every design choice was grounded in green standards and DEI principles—and more importantly, those standards were made visible. The firm didn’t just say it was committed to equity and sustainability. It showed it, in the process, in the materials, in the way projects were documented and communicated.

This is transparency as a form of storytelling. It brings process and progress into the light, and in doing so, invites others to do the same. It turns complexity into clarity and gives stakeholders something real to connect with.

Fearless Clarity: How Vulnerability Builds Trust

There is a powerful tension in radical transparency: it requires brands to lead with what they would once have buried. To expose the messy, the unresolved, the imperfect. But vulnerability is not the opposite of leadership. It's the future of it.

Audiences today are drawn to what feels real. They trust what sounds human. A founder sharing a candid voice memo about a failed launch connects more than a press release could. A warehouse worker’s TikTok shows more of your culture than your careers page ever will. This isn’t about stunts or oversharing. It’s about honest participation in the conversation.

The backlash to performative transparency—greenwashing, purpose-washing, and the like—has sharpened consumer senses. It’s no longer enough to appear open. You have to be structurally open. That means transparency isn't confined to the marketing department. It shows up in HR, in logistics, in pricing, in policies.

And yes, it’s uncomfortable. That’s kind of the point. Trust is no longer something brands demand; it’s something they demonstrate. Pixel by pixel. Decision by decision. Clarity is now a form of courage.

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More Than a Label: What You Choose to Show (or Hide)

Certification alone won't save you. A carbon label or B Corp badge is valuable, but insufficient. Radical transparency isn't about logos. It's about choices. What do you decide to show, explain, or invite others to understand?

Headwaters Law didn't win client trust because they had an award. They won it because they opened up the structure of how law works. They didn’t just promise accessibility. They architected it. In design, marketing, and storytelling, these choices compound. Every decision to make something more understandable, more traceable, more ownable—these are the new brand assets.

We’re also seeing a shift in how brands engage in certification storytelling. Gone are the days of framing a plaque in the office. Now, it’s about guiding audiences through what the label means, what it took to get there, and what still needs work. Transparency isn’t a single moment. It’s a narrative arc.

There’s also a deeper provocation here: What are you still hiding, even unintentionally? Is your pricing model needlessly complex? Are your team members represented in your public voice? Does your ESG reporting live in an unread PDF when it could be a dashboard? The question isn’t whether to be transparent. It’s whether your systems support transparency as a norm.

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Trust Is Now a Design Decision

Radical transparency is not a gimmick. It’s a framework for how modern brands operate, design, and communicate. It is as much about internal culture as external messaging. It forces systems to align. It invites accountability into every touchpoint. It makes space for evolution, for end-of-life planning, for the kind of clarity that becomes contagious.

If trust is what you seek, transparency is what you design for. And not just at launch, but across the lifecycle.

So ask yourself: What are you afraid to show? Where are you still hiding behind polish? What part of your business could become part of your story?

This isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being honest. And in a world of noise and performance, honesty cuts through.

Want to see how transparency can shape your next product, platform, or purpose? Explore Watson’s Macrotrends huband imagine how your brand might grow by showing more—from beginning to end.

Behind the Curtain: Transparency Becomes the Trend

There was a time when secrecy was power. Brands cloaked themselves in mystery, cultivating allure through tightly managed messages and polished surfaces. We were sold the dream, not the process. And for a while, that worked. But as the tools of scrutiny sharpened—smartphones, search engines, social media—the gaps in the story became impossible to ignore.

Today, brands can't afford to hide. The world has moved beyond curated illusion into an era of open-source identity. Transparency isn't just about truth-telling anymore. It's about system-showing. Every step of your process—from how you source materials to how you treat your team—is up for inspection. Not because someone hacked your Dropbox, but because your customers are asking for it.

We're not just living in the information age. We're living in the interpretation age. People don't want to just see your mission statement. They want the receipts. They want evidence. Transparency has become a competitive advantage, a tool for building loyalty, and perhaps most important, a design principle. At Watson, we've seen firsthand how brands that embrace this clarity become not only more trusted, but more magnetic.

To say you care about people and planet is expected. To prove it—systematically, visually, and consistently—is exceptional. The shift from promise to proof marks the fundamental difference between performative and transformative brand behavior. Brands like Worldly (formerly the Higg Index) have set the tone, moving sustainability out of the margins and into the main interface. Through interactive tools and clean visual data, they empower fashion brands to communicate impact without greenwashing. Transparency here isn't an afterthought. It's the UX.

In Watson's work with Nike Sustainability, we helped pivot the brand from talking about sustainability to integrating it into every product story—connecting carbon data with design decisions and performance outcomes. No need for a manifesto when your environmental impact is visible at the product level.

Even law firms are getting in on the act. Headwaters Law built their entire client experience on radical openness. From flat-fee structures to behind-the-scenes explanations of case processes, they replaced the intimidating opacity of traditional legal services with plainspoken clarity. This kind of vulnerability doesn't undermine authority; it redefines it.

Transparency, when treated as a design opportunity, invites the audience into your process. It doesn't require brands to be perfect. It requires them to be clear. Show your work. Show your systems. And just as crucial: show what you're still working on.

Gender, Generation, and the Rise of Flexible Storytelling

Much of this macrotrend finds its cultural roots in the rejection of binary thinking. Gender nonconformity. Neurodivergence. Multiracial and multicultural identities. These realities are not exceptions. They are the expanding norm. And brands that cling to singular personas or rigid segmentations risk alienating the very audiences they're trying to connect with.

Consider how generational marketing used to operate: Boomers want tradition, Millennials want meaning, Gen Z wants chaos (or vibes?). But generational buckets miss the nuance. Today's consumers align more with values and affinities than with age alone. They're looking for brands that see the full picture: the queer gamer who also gardens. The engineer with a sneakerhead alter ego. The CFO who paints miniatures on Twitch.

Storytelling, too, has evolved. It’s less about repeating a single, polished narrative and more about creating space for micro-narratives, co-authorship, and evolving perspectives. Brands like Nike Sustainability and the Oregon Health Authority have learned to shift tone based on audience—scientific and data-rich for internal teams, emotive and story-led for the public. Flexibility isn't a compromise. It's fluency.

How to Stay Consistent Without Staying the Same

Herein lies the creative challenge: how do you create a brand that can adapt, stretch, and evolve—without becoming a mess? The answer lies in thinking like a system, not a sculpture. Start with a strong central axis: values, mission, tone, and core visual DNA. Then build modular elements that can adapt without breaking form.

Let’s go practical. Instead of a single tone of voice, define a tonal range. Instead of one approved photo style, offer a matrix that flexes across lighting, subject matter, and expression. Instead of freezing personas in a research doc, build dynamic journey maps that reflect shifts by season, life stage, or even mood. Consistency isn't about sameness. It's about coherence.

Even mission statements are becoming less monolithic. The strongest organizations now revisit purpose annually, co-authoring it with staff and stakeholders. It doesn’t signal uncertainty. It signals integrity. To reflect, to adjust, to reaffirm—this is what it means to be relevant today.

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Branding for a World in Motion

So what does it look like to build a brand for a world in motion? It means designing for evolution. It means replacing the fear of change with a framework that invites it. It means realizing that clarity and complexity are not opposites—they are allies.

At Watson, we often say that brands should feel less like a product and more like a relationship. And relationships change. They deepen, they surprise, they grow. Your brand, like your audience, is always becoming. Make space for that.

The future of branding isn’t a fixed grid. It’s a choreography. And the best systems don’t lock in a pose. They move.

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Call to Engagement

Are your brand systems built for evolution or stuck in place? Are you serving a community as it actually exists, or as it once was defined? The most compelling brands of the next decade will not be the most polished—they’ll be the most responsive. And the most human.

To explore more macrotrends shaping design, culture, and commerce, visit the Watson Macrotrends hub and ask yourself: how could your brand become more adaptive—without losing authenticity?

Who Are You, Today? Identity as a Moving Target

In a world of shifting pronouns, career pivots, side hustles, avatar aesthetics, and cultural remixing, one thing is certain: identity is no longer fixed. Today, the question "Who are you?" often comes with a silent caveat—right now. Because who we are is increasingly contextual, evolving with the hour, platform, mood, or medium. Gender, profession, culture, even personality traits—these once-stable coordinates of self have loosened their grip.

Psychology caught onto this early. Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development described identity as something formed through continuous, life-stage-driven negotiation. But what Erikson didn’t predict was the acceleration and decentralization brought on by the digital era. We now operate through usernames, bios, Discord handles, TikTok niches, and job titles that change faster than wardrobe trends. It’s not unusual to go from analyst to ceramicist to content strategist in the same week.

This fluidity isn’t a phase. It’s a feature. And it calls for a corresponding shift in how we design brand systems. Because if the people we serve are living, evolving, and intersecting in real time—shouldn’t the brands they interact with reflect that?

The style guide had a good run. Like a rulebook carved in Helvetica, it told us where to place the logo, what size the subhead should be, and exactly which Pantone red said "us." But in today’s environment, where brands appear on everything from watches to warehouse walls to web3 wallets, a single-page spec sheet simply can’t keep up.

Enter the brand system. Not a document, but a living, evolving toolkit. It adapts. It grows. It flexes across use cases, audiences, and cultural moments without losing its essence. Think alternate logos designed for dark mode. Voice guidelines that stretch from playful on Instagram to precise in a clinical setting. Typography that morphs in motion. Design tokens that shift hue for accessibility. A good system doesn’t abandon rules—it redefines them as parameters for intelligent flexibility.

At Watson, we’ve seen this in action across sectors. For the Autism Society of America, a historically rigid identity system gave way to one that could stretch across a spectrum—visually, verbally, and emotionally—to honor the diversity of lived experiences within the autism community. The brand became modular, layered, and adaptive. Not inconsistent. Just human.

The Rise of Founder-as-Influencer

In the past, CEOs appeared at shareholder meetings, maybe penned a bylined article, and left the rest to the marketing team. But today, leadership isn’t just a behind-the-scenes role—it’s a front-facing asset.

In fact, founder- and executive-led content generates outsized returns. LinkedIn reports a 400% increase in engagement on founder-led posts compared to standard company updates. The reason is simple: people trust people. They follow stories, not slogans. And they want to hear directly from the people steering the ship.

This is especially true in high-growth, creator-savvy companies. Shopify has become a masterclass in founder visibility. CEO Tobi Lütke shares thoughts on company strategy, tech philosophy, and personal reflections with a tone that feels closer to a journal entry than a press release. Canva co-founder Melanie Perkins uses her platform to highlight community wins, user creativity, and her own leadership journey.

And of course, there’s MrBeast—the YouTube megastar who turned his personal brand into a consumer goods empire. His snack line, Feastables, isn’t just successful because of its quality (though that helps). It’s successful because it rides on a bedrock of audience trust, built from years of transparent, personal storytelling. That kind of direct connection is the new brand moat.

The implication is clear: modern leadership needs to be visible, vocal, and vulnerable. Not every founder needs to be a TikTok star, but they do need a point of view, a human voice, and a willingness to engage directly. The era of the anonymous executive is ending.

Campaigns Are Dead. Long Live the Feed.

If the old marketing model was built around the campaign, the new one is built around the feed. And while campaigns are carefully constructed, feeds are messy, in-progress, and always-on.

That shift has profound implications. It requires new muscles: agility, voice consistency, and cultural fluency. It also changes what success looks like. Instead of optimizing for a single moment of impact, brands must now optimize for presence, interaction, and iteration.

Barstool Sports exemplifies this. Their brand isn’t built on quarterly campaigns—it’s built on constant output from personalities who are fully embedded in the culture they speak to. Every podcast, tweet, and TikTok contributes to a real-time brand narrative. It’s chaotic, unfiltered, and often controversial. But it’s also incredibly sticky.

This doesn’t mean traditional marketing is obsolete. There’s still a place for thoughtful storytelling and well-designed assets. But it does mean those elements must live within a broader content ecosystem that includes scrappy, fast, and frequent posts across platforms. You don’t win the feed by waiting.

In the creator economy, content isn’t a campaign asset—it’s a heartbeat. And that heartbeat needs to be consistent if you want your audience to stay connected.

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Rethinking the Brand Org Chart for the Creator Era

All of this begs the question: if your company wants to act more like a creator, what needs to change on the inside?

The short answer: a lot.

For one, internal teams need new roles and new rhythms. Brands should be hiring creator-minded talent in-house—not just outsourcing to agencies or influencers. Think content strategists who can think in series, social media leads who understand trends in real time, and leadership who see communication as part of the job, not a delegated task.

Approval processes also need to evolve. In a feed-driven world, speed often trumps perfection. If every Instagram caption requires a six-person review chain, your brand will be too slow to matter. The companies who are thriving are the ones who have built systems to empower real-time publishing—within a clear, flexible brand framework.

This also means rethinking voice. Rather than enforcing a single, static tone, brands need to embrace a constellation of voices: founders, employees, creators, and customers. The brand becomes a host, not a narrator.

And finally, this shift requires a cultural reset. It asks brands to stop treating content as risk and start treating it as relationship. To view imperfection not as a liability, but as a sign of honesty. To trust that people connect more with transparency than polish.

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The Bottom Line: What If Your Brand Acted Like a Person?

The creator economy isn’t a trend. It’s a mirror. And what it reflects is a new expectation: that brands be accessible, consistent, and human. It’s not enough to sponsor the conversation. You have to join it.

This doesn’t mean every brand needs a TikTok mascot or a podcast. But it does mean every brand needs to rethink how it communicates, who it empowers, and what kind of presence it wants to have.

Because in the creator era, attention isn’t given to the most polished. It’s given to the most present. And trust doesn’t come from authority. It comes from familiarity.

So, what would shift if your brand thought more like a person than a platform? What stories would you tell if you weren’t afraid to be informal? What could change if you built content like a show—serialized, intimate, imperfect—rather than a slideshow?

It’s time to stop managing the message and start being the message.

Explore more macrotrend insights at Watson's trend hub — and imagine what your brand could become if you embraced the creator within.

The Creator Economy Goes Corporate

Why brands are ditching polish for personality — and what it means for your business

Not long ago, content strategy inside most organizations followed a familiar formula: a quarterly campaign, a handful of polished posts scheduled weeks in advance, and maybe a behind-the-scenes video if things got daring. These outputs often passed through layers of approvals, creative reviews, and legal scrutiny before ever meeting a consumer. What emerged was pristine and professional—but often completely lifeless. The corporate voice spoke in PowerPoint and stock imagery.

Today, that formula is not just outdated; it’s out of touch. The rise of the creator economy has permanently altered how people consume content, build trust, and form brand relationships. Audiences have grown accustomed to daily, direct, and often scrappy communication from individual creators who feel more like friends than advertisers. In response, the smartest companies are beginning to shift: not just hiring influencers, but behaving like them.

This isn’t about adding a TikTok strategy to your social media plan. It’s about a structural evolution in how brands show up. The lines between creator and company are dissolving. And what’s emerging is a new kind of brand behavior—fast, personal, and human.

Once upon a time, professional production was the gold standard. Brands spent months crafting campaigns that would premiere with cinematic fanfare. But attention is no longer earned by polish. It’s earned by presence.

In the creator economy, presence means showing up consistently, in the places where your audience lives, with content that feels native to those spaces. That often means lo-fi, phone-shot, hastily captioned content that lives in Instagram Stories, TikTok feeds, and Substack newsletters—not just glossy ad units or TV spots.

The appeal of this kind of content isn’t accidental. In a digital landscape saturated with hyper-designed visuals, what cuts through is authenticity. Lo-fi content feels real. It suggests that someone—a real person—is behind the message. And that trust is powerful.

Look at Duolingo’s TikTok account: chaotic, unfiltered, and wildly effective. The green owl mascot is now a cultural fixture, precisely because it doesn’t sound like a brand voice. The account riffs on trending audio, responds to user comments, and doesn’t shy away from being ridiculous. This is the antithesis of traditional brand communication, and yet it’s amassed over 4.7 million followers.

Then there’s Hopper, the travel app that’s bypassed travel industry tropes altogether. Instead of showcasing luxury resorts or sweeping drone footage, they lean into TikTok’s native tone: real people giving real advice with humor and honesty. These formats win not because they’re cheaper, but because they’re closer to how consumers themselves communicate.

The lesson? You don’t need a studio to make an impact. You need self-awareness, speed, and a willingness to embrace the imperfect.

The Psychology of Ritual and the Business of Meaning

To understand the power of ritual, you have to look at what it does—not just for brands, but for brains.

Behavioral science tells us that rituals, even small ones, help us feel in control. They reduce uncertainty. They imbue everyday acts with a sense of intention and identity. Lighting a candle isn’t just sensory—it’s symbolic. Drinking from a favorite mug isn’t just comfort—it’s continuity.

Marketers have long chased “stickiness”—habits, hooks, and heuristics that keep people coming back. But there’s a difference between habit and ritual. A habit is subconscious. A ritual is conscious. One you do by default. The other you do by desire.

Smart brands are tuning into this distinction. They’re using design thinking not to nudge behavior blindly but to create pathways for meaning. Kin Euphorics, for instance, offers drinks infused with adaptogens and nootropics—but it’s their ritual-first storytelling that sets them apart. Their language is slow, sensory, and full of intentional cues: “light a candle, pour slowly, sip mindfully.”They aren’t selling a beverage. They’re selling a mindset.

Similarly, the Calm app’s partnership with American Express didn’t just add content—it added cadence. Free meditations for travelers, embedded in luxury perks, signal that stillness isn’t an interruption to success; it’s part of it.

The brands succeeding here aren’t louder. They’re more aligned. They recognize that meaning is a competitive advantage—and that emotional resonance is the new ROI.

What’s Your Brand’s Role in Someone’s Rhythm?

Every brand wants to matter. But the brands that truly stick are the ones that step into the rhythm of someone’s day and offer a moment of alignment. A breath. A beat. A reminder of who they are, or who they’re becoming.

Allbirds gets this. Their shoes are not positioned as the most extreme performance gear—but as the thing you reach for when you want to feel calm, grounded, and light. Nike’s yoga collection leans in too: soft fabrics, muted tones, and a story that frames motion not as exertion but as expression.

These are not just products—they’re signals. And the signal they send is: This brand sees me.

In a marketplace driven by speed and scale, the opportunity is surprisingly small: be part of someone’s hour. Their morning. Their pause between meetings. Their reentry after chaos.

So here’s the challenge—no matter your industry. Whether you’re designing a beverage or a financial tool, footwear or a healthcare experience:

       ● Where does your brand live in someone’s day?

       ● What moment do you help them reclaim?

       ● What rhythm do you restore?

       ● What feeling do you repeat?

If your product disappeared tomorrow, what ritual would it interrupt?

These are not marketing questions. They’re meaning questions. And answering them could be the difference between being noticed… and being needed.

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Reframe with Us

Ritual isn’t just a cultural curiosity—it’s a business imperative. As customer expectations evolve from passive use to purposeful engagement, the brands that thrive will be those who design notjust for consumption, but for continuity.

At Watson, we study these shifts not just to name them—but to help brands act on them. If you’re ready to rethink where your offering fits into the lives of your customers, we invite you to exploreour macrotrend hub. There’s never been a better time to design for rhythm, not just reach.

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From Occasion to Identity: Why Products Must Earn Their Place in Ritual

There was a time when products lived inside boundaries. Wine was for dinner parties. Sneakers were for running. Mindfulness was for monks or self-help retreats. Brands flourished by owning the occasion—positioning themselves as the perfect choice for that moment, that time, that use.

But something has shifted.

What we’re witnessing now isn’t just a change in consumption patterns—it’s a transformation in how people anchor their identities through action. A soft drink isn’t just for quenching thirst; it’s a stand-in for self-care. A pair of shoes doesn’t just get you from point A to B; it signals how you move through the world—literally and metaphorically. Products that once waited politely for their moment are now expected to flow seamlessly through a customer’s daily rhythm. They must earn a place in people’s lives by offering more than utility: they must offer resonance.

It’s no longer enough to ask, When will they use this? The better question is, Who will they become when they use this?

Consider Waves by Les Lunes: a sparkling canned wine wrapped in serene, artful packaging designed not for clinking glasses in candlelight but for quiet moments under trees, post-hike picnics, and sun-drenched stoops. It’s a product crafted not for celebration, but for integration. The drink becomes part of a ritual—gentle, repeatable, grounding.

In a market of endless choices, ritual offers a kind of gravity. It pulls products closer to the self. It invites repetition. And repetition, as any brand strategist knows, is the birthplace of loyalty.

Ritual is rarely loud. It’s the cup of tea you make before your first email. The ten-minute ride with a meditation playlist. The “transition shoe” that signals the shift from errands to rest. Ritual lives in those invisible seams of the day, which means design—product, packaging, messaging—has to become attuned to the micro-moments where intention thrives.

Look at Athletic Brewing Co., a non-alcoholic beer brand that didn’t just remove the alcohol—it reframed the entire use case. With the tagline “Fit for all times,” they positioned their drink not as a compromise, but as a companion to goal-setting, movement, and self-respect. It fits into the life of someone who sees wellness not as an event, but as a practice.

Likewise, HOKA—once the darling of ultrarunners—has entered the mainstream not through trend-chasing but through transformation. They offer more than cushioning; they offer restoration.Their shoes are comfort rituals for tired bodies and anxious minds. In a way, they’ve reframed performance footwear as a tool for recovery—equally valid in a marathon or a Monday walk.

This shift is critical. As brands move from occasional use to lifestyle integration, the stakes rise. To be ritual-worthy, a product must be intuitive, purposeful, and aligned. It must carry the emotional weight of a habit. The best brands aren’t asking consumers to change who they are—they’re helping them become who they want to be.

The Economics of Depth: Loyalty Over Reach

It’s tempting to equate niche with small. But that’s a mistake. Niche doesn’t mean narrow in impact — it means sharp in focus.

And sharpness pays dividends.

Micro-influencers (those with fewer than 50,000 followers) now deliver 60% higher engagement than their macro counterparts, according to Influencer Marketing Hub. Why? Because they speak from within, not above. Their followers see them not as brand billboards, but as trusted peers. When these influencers recommend a product, it’s not an ad — it’s a referral. That’s loyalty, and it’s earned.

In the business world, loyalty doesn’t just feel good — it shows up in hard numbers. Returning customers spend 67% more than new ones. High-trust users are more likely to advocate, forgive mistakes, and co-create the future of the brand. And where there’s trust, there’s defensibility. When your brand means something to someone, it becomes harder to imitate —and easier to sustain.

Strava understood this. Rather than try to be the next Fitbit or Garmin Connect, it went deep with serious cyclists and runners — the kind who wake up at 4 a.m., live by segments, and obsess over split times. The platform gave them what they craved: social proof, performance tracking, and a shared sense of effort. Today, it’s grown into a multi-sport ecosystem with millions of users — not in spite of its niche roots, but because of them.

When you design for the right few, the many will follow.

From Specific to Scalable: How Niche Drives Growth

There’s a persistent myth in business that niche means limited. That if you don’t build for the mass market, you’re capping your upside. But the evidence suggests otherwise: specificity scales — when done right.

Notion and Figma didn’t try to be “productivity tools for everyone.” They started with highly specific, highly demanding user groups: designers, developers, writers. By focusing on collaborative needs, elegant UX, and community-centered features, they won the hearts of early adopters — who then brought them into their teams, companies, and circles.

Substack wasn’t trying to replace every CMS or newsletter service. It built for long form thinkers, culture writers, and audience-funded creators. It baked sovereignty and intimacy into the product — and became synonymous with a new model for writing and independent journalism.

This is how niche becomes mass: by building deep relevance, not wide generalization. When the first 1,000 fans care deeply — really deeply — they don’t just buy. They amplify. They critique. They help evolve the product. They tell others who care about the same thing. It’s the same principle that powered Glossier, Vivo barefoot, and HOKA’s early rise: start small, go deep, and let passion compound.

Or as Kevin Kelly famously put it: you only need 1,000 true fans.

Why Going Narrow Wins in a Noisy Market

Once upon a time, scale was everything. To succeed, a brand had to conquer the middle — casting the widest net, pleasing the most people, and minimizing any potential friction or offense. Market research praised “broad appeal,” and success was measured in GRPs, mall shelf space, and Super Bowl ads. Vanilla was the safest bet.

That model hasn’t just aged. It’s expired.

Today, brands that aim for everyone risk resonating with no one. In a world where digital platforms have flattened distribution and democratized access, the playing field has shifted from mass production to mass personalization. The most magnetic brands aren’t built for the middle — they’re built for someone very specific.

Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail theory predicted this shift years ago: in the digital age, niche products — those way down the tail of the demand curve — can outperform blockbusters when discovery becomes frictionless. Amazon’s data confirms it: more than half of book sales come from titles outside the top 100,000. In other words, the riches are in the niches.

This reorientation of value — from mass to micro — has redefined what growth looks like. It’s no longer just about reaching more eyeballs. It’s about being meaningful to the right ones.

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Trend-chasing has become a game of diminishing returns. By the time your team has spotted a mass-market trend, it’s already cresting — and countless others are scrambling to follow it. The result is a glut of sameness: brands sounding eerily alike, visual identities blurring together, and “authenticity” reduced to a mood board.

Niche brands, on the other hand, don’t wait for permission to be relevant. They start with fluency: a deep, often lived-in understanding of a community’s language, rituals, frustrations, and dreams. This isn’t about jumping on the bandwagon —it’s about building the damn wagon.

Take Tracksmith. The running brand didn’t try to out-Nike Nike. Instead, it carved out a lane rooted in East Coast grit, long-distance storytelling, and collegiate heritage. From their cross-country photography to their nostalgic typography, everything signals: this is for serious runners who see the sport as a craft. And runners responded — not in droves at first, but in commitment. Over time, that niche loyalty became the foundation for sustainable growth.

The same pattern holds in wellness. Oura Ring didn’t start by marketing to soccer moms or wellness-curious beginners. It served the quantified-self crowd: biohackers, endurance athletes, and sleep optimization nerds. By deeply serving that small, demanding group, it gained credibility — and then, reach.

Brands fluent in their niche don’t just stand out. They belong.

Thought Leadership Isn’t Optional — It’s Your Reputation

Let’s talk about thought leadership — a term that often gets reduced to industry jargon, but in this context means something simpler: showing your thinking.

In the era of voice-first branding, thought leadership becomes your most effective proof of expertise. It’s how firms demonstrate not just that they can solve problems, but that they understand the ones clients actually care about. It’s how you signal that you’re paying attention — to the market, to cultural shifts, to the pain points that clients don’t always articulate in RFPs.

According to a 2023 study by Demand Metric and Parse.ly, content marketing generates three times more leads per dollar than traditional advertising, and thought leadership ranks as the top-performing content type for B2B buying journeys. Why? Because it’s not sales-y. It’s not aspirational fluff. It’s generous. And generosity, especially with ideas, is magnetic.

When Watson worked with Percipio Group, a consultancy in the process of repositioning, the strategy wasn’t just a new logo or tagline. It was a POV. We leaned into case-study storytelling, showcasing how consultants approached real problems, sharing frameworks, and writing in the first person. The tone was modern. The effect? Clients didn’t just see what Percipio did — they understood how they thought. And that’s the gap most brands still fail to close.

The truth is, your logo can’t answer client questions. Your people can. But only if you let them speak.

How to Build a Brand with Brains and Heart

So how do you put this into practice without turning every employee into a full-time influencer?

Start small. Start honest.

Update your bios. Go beyond the résumé and invite your team to share what they care about, what they’re learning, what they believe. Invest in short-form content — not just newsletters, but podcast clips, LinkedIn posts, even simple explainers. Choose platforms where your people are already comfortable. Don’t over-produce — over-connect.

Highlight your subject matter experts, not just your brand manager. A great CMO today is a curator of voices, not just a defender of brand guidelines. Build a platform where the personality of your firm can breathe — where your insights sound like they came from a human, not a committee.

Take a cue from Headwaters Law, one of Watson’s boldest legal clients. They positioned their brand around purpose, not polish. Their website doesn’t lean on courtroom clichés — it opens with values, video, and visible leadership. It feels different because it is different. It’s not about being flashy. It’s about being clear. Clarity builds trust.

As your audience becomes more educated, more skeptical, and more digitally native, they’ll look for firms that speak like real people. If you hide behind the old cues of legacy — marble office photos, Latin mottos, or that evergreen ‘About Us’ paragraph that says nothing — you risk fading into the noise.

The Challenge: From Legacy Cues to Lived Communication

This trend doesn’t mean you have to abandon your logo. But it does mean your logo is no longer the lead singer. It’s the backing vocalist. The harmony. The amplifier for something more compelling — your voice.

Ask yourself this. Who in your firm is actually the brand? Do your clients know what you believe — or just what you bill? Is your logo more recognizable than your people?

If you don’t have good answers yet, that’s not a failure — it’s an opportunity. Because the firms that adapt to this shift now will build deeper relationships, better client retention, and more cultural relevance.

This isn’t a call to become trendy. It’s a call to become transparent. It’s not about being performative. It’s about being present. Your brand doesn’t need to shout louder — it needs to speak more clearly.

The future of trust is voice-first.

And that future starts with someone at your firm saying, “Here’s what I see. Here’s what I believe. Here’s how we help.”

Want to build a smarter, more human brand? Explore Watson’s macrotrend hub at https://watsoncreative.com/trendwatching-fuels-innovation/ for more insights on how to translate trends into action. Because your next big brand move might not be a redesign. It might be letting the right people talk.

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Say Something Real: Authority Is Personal Now

It used to be that credibility could be engineered. Pick a tasteful serif font. Commission a seal-like logo. Add Latin if you were feeling bold. Your brand would whisper trust us through a slick aesthetic and a certain corporate gravitas. This was especially true for professional service firms — law offices with columned logos, consultancies with abstract pyramids, banks that relied on austere blue. Your brand didn’t speak; it appeared.

But today, authority has shifted from appearance to articulation. The voice now carries more weight than the vessel. Trust is increasingly built through communication — not through a color palette or a polished reception area, but through clarity, tone, and transparency. Clients no longer want a brand to suggest intelligence. They want to hear it. They want to know not just what you do, but what you think.

This shift is seismic, particularly in fields like finance, law, healthcare, and consulting — industries that have long relied on institutional branding to convey competence. According to the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer, 68% of people trust “a company technical expert” over a CEO or generic brand spokesperson. That means we’re entering an era where the voice of the specialist outpaces the signature of the firm. Clients are more likely to build rapport with the associate writing a blog post than with the silent logo in the corner of their invoice.

In other words, you can’t outsource trust anymore. You have to earn it — in public, in your own words.

A decade ago, the most valuable brand asset for a professional services firm was its logo. It sat at the center of every business card, proposal cover, and holiday card. Today, the most valuable asset might be a podcast mic, a Zoom ring light, or a Medium account with real thought behind it. Because a growing number of clients — especially millennial and Gen Z buyers — trust insights over iconography.

This is voice-first branding: the idea that credibility now travels fastest through personal clarity, not corporate symbols.

Look at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), the venture capital firm that evolved into a content powerhouse with its publication Future, podcast series, and public writing from nearly every partner. They’ve become as much a media company as an investment firm — because they understand that voice scales faster than logos. Or consider Bain & Company, once known for formal case studies, now producing human-first podcast episodes featuring consultants sharing how they navigate uncertainty, not just frameworks.

Voice-first branding doesn’t mean design doesn’t matter. It means design has to serve a voice, not stand in for one. The typography and layout are still important — they just need to support expression, not suppress it.

At Watson, we’ve seen this play out firsthand. When rebranding Building Champions, a management coaching firm, we didn’t lead with a monogram. We led with people. The new identity centered on visible consultants, thoughtful bios, and a language system that prioritized accessibility over abstraction. It didn’t feel less professional. It felt more human — and it worked.

If you didn’t already know, Clutch is a B2B ratings and review agency and is the leader in connecting global service providers with corporate buyers from around the world. The ratings and reviews platform publishes the most extensive and referenced client reviews in the B2B services market. The selection methodology for being named a Clutch Leader takes into account a number of factors, including the types of services the company offers, its array of advanced technologies, its awards, and its brand reputation. Clutch also factors in the number, quality, and recency of companies’ client reviews.

With that in mind, we’re honored to be the recipient of this award. More importantly, the whole Watson Creative team would like to express our gratitude to our wonderful clients for their unwavering support.

Thanks to you, we currently have a total rating of five out of five stars across seven reviews on Clutch!

Take a look at some of the kind words you’ve given us:

“I’m really impressed with the quality of people there overall.”

“Their spirit to do it right and their passion for branding stood out.

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We might be busy, but never busy to connect. Get in touch with us to get started on your brand transformation.

Good marketing entails strategic branding tailored to your brand’s core message and identity. Branding is paramount to marketing as it highlights your organization’s character, allowing customers to perceive your brand as personable. However, branding strategies can sometimes feel repetitive and saturated, which is why Watson Creative is at your service in crafting a unique digital strategy to stand apart.

Since 2013, Watson Creative has been paving the way to branding excellence for many clients. Our specialization in design and digital storytelling creates opportunities for discovery along the way as we work toward your vision. We help you help others and do what matters.

In light of our dedication to supporting our partners in achieving brand individuality, we’ve been named as a leading 2021 B2B provider in Oregon by Clutch.

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At Watson, we call it a research-based creative approach. That’s not code for boring. It’s how we turn chaos into clarity. Before a single logo is sketched or tagline tossed around, we dig deep. We listen harder than we talk. We treat a brand not as a veneer, but as a reflection of culture, values, and behavior.

Whether you’re naming your company for the first time or reintroducing yourself to the world, here’s how we help teams uncover who they are and where they’re headed:

Step 1: Competitor Audit

Before you define yourself, know what you’re up against.

We start by mapping the landscape—visually, verbally, and strategically. Who else is talking to your audience? How do they look, sound, and behave? This isn’t about copying or outshouting. It’s about identifying the white space: the place your brand can own, because no one else is standing there.

Step 2: Consumer 360

Brands don’t live in decks—they live in people’s minds.

That’s why we go beyond demographics and chase down real human insights. What does your audience value? Fear? Aspire to? What cultural codes are they picking up on that your brand could help translate—or challenge? We’ll often interview, survey, and analyze behavior patterns across multiple touchpoints. Data is a tool, not a trophy.

Step 3: Brand DNA

This is where the soul work happens.

We distill everything down to a foundational core: voice, values, visuals, and vibe. It’s not just mission and vision (though those help)—it’s the gut check. If your brand were a person, how would they speak? What would they never say? How do they show up in hard moments, not just highlight reels?

Step 4: Marketing Plan

Now we turn strategy into traction.

Once we know who you are, we build a system to bring it to life. Campaigns, content, social, site, merch, internal onboarding—it’s all fair game. The key is consistency without stagnation: a brand that’s recognizable, but never repetitive. We’re big believers in frameworks over formulas.

So Why Bother with All This?

Because the stakes are higher than ever. Consumers are savvier. Talent is choosier. A pretty logo isn’t enough anymore. The brands that win are the ones that feel lived-in and well loved—by employees and audiences alike.

Branding, at its best, is a system of meaning. Every touchpoint is a trust exercise. Every detail—from your tone of voice to the color of your buttons—can build or erode that trust.

If you’re reading this and wondering whether your current brand reflects your future goals, it might be time for a reset. Or at least a conversation. Watson has helped everyone from scrappy nonprofits to Fortune 100s find their footing—and we don’t mind getting our hands dirty along the way.

We won’t give you a paint-by-numbers kit. But we will hand you the map, the compass, and a few solid snacks for the trail.

Let’s build something real.

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When I was a kid, I had a bad habit of building tree forts without blueprints. I’d grab some scrap wood, climb too high, nail something to something else, and hope gravity had my back. It usually didn’t. Lesson learned: even the wildest dreams need a plan.

That lesson stuck with me—because building a brand isn’t all that different.

Sure, there’s intuition, inspiration, and those flashes of brilliance that hit you in the shower. But great brands—the ones that outlast platforms, trends, and leadership changes—are never accidents. They’re built with purpose. And more often than not, with a system.

Gaining perspective on what’s important.

I really resonate with rethinking what we want out of life and what means the most, as I think we all get caught up in our careers, and for me, creating a business. You can see the volatility of that all being stripped away and what are you left with? What are you left with, really? You’re left with your health. You’re left with your family. You’re left with the lives that you’re able to touch. So part of the idea of remembering who you are is also a kind of mission statement. It’s about your life and asking what are we going to leave behind?

What we’ve been kind of coaching our clients on is that this is a big timeout for you as a person and for you as a brand. You can’t control marketing— you can’t control the market at all. In fact, from a marketing perspective, digital buys are down 70%. People are just risk averse about spending at this point. But the one thing that you can focus on is your brand and who you are. What we’ve been trying to coach people on is to lead with being empathetic and to find a way of inspiring hope within the community that’s out there.

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Matt Watson joins Frankie Boyer on Biz Talk Radio to discuss the marketing landscape and the importance of brand identity in a post-COVID-19 world.

Remember who you are. That’s been the rallying maxim at Watson Creative since the shelter-in-place order was issued and the studio went remote. When navigating the unprecedented landscape every studio and business finds themselves in now, it’s never been more important to focus on your brand’s identity, the reasons why you do what you do, and on the people who are there with you.

Following a guest appearance by NFL legend Brett Favre, Watson Creative CEO and founder, Matt Watson, joins Biz Talk Radio host Frankie Boyer to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on clients in the Portland area and how brands can remember who they are and strategically position themselves for innovation and success on the other side. Below are some highlights of the interview. Check out the video above to hear the complete show.

^‍Remembering who you are.

“Remember who you are. Wake up and you are here in the place of no place. A place where parks and schools are closed. Where beaches and forests and mountains are closed. Where restaurants, bars, shops you love, support and champion are closed. A place where cities of people are sick and dying. A place where nobody knows what happens next or when things that have taken everything away will end. And yet, it is here in this place that you remember— the work and the working hard. You remember the failing and striving. You remember the lives that shaped you. The stories that made you. The ideas that inspired you. The sweat, tears that bled from you. You remember the love and the reasons and the whys. You remember who you are.”

That was written by our lead writer and Associate Creative Director, Ian Miller. Angi Arrington, another one of our creative directors, designed the page. This story isn’t just about Watson Creative, it’s about being in the front lines and working with the executives of all the businesses that we serve and seeing the dismantling of small business, medium size, mid size, and in some cases, large global businesses.

I think as I look at some businesses getting annihilated, they’re down to 10% of the staff that they had before. I know of one agency in town that went from about 80 people to six and I think of the institutional knowledge, the culture, the direction of who they were a few weeks ago and who they are today. I just pray that they and everyone else comes out of this not just stronger, but with a really vivid vision of who they were and where they wanted to go.

The Golden Age of Social Media Advertising Is Over.

So what’s next? Privacy-first strategies, AI-smart content, and SEO that doesn’t feel like SEO.

You’ve seen it: you’re browsing hiking boots and suddenly every website feels like it’s moonlighting as a REI affiliate. That eerie feeling? That’s third-party tracking. And in 2025, it’s on its way out.

What’s replacing it? Smarter content. Ethical AI. SEO that actually puts people first. And a hard pivot from surveillance marketing to strategy that earns attention—not just auctions for it.

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About the Author

‍Matt Watson is the Creative Director and Founder of Watson Creative in Portland, Oregon. Matt earned his stripes working for Lippincott, a global leader in brand design based in NYC, before moving back to Oregon. There, he spent over ten years at Nike as a designer in several key business categories. The last position he occupied was senior member of Nike’s creative team, where he helped evolve NIKEiD.

Matt’s work and writings have been featured in over 50 publications, seven documentary films, as well as at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

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About Hugo & Marie

Hugo & Marie is a multi-disciplinary creative studio and artist representation firm based in New York City.
Founded in 2008, the company has been built around a distinct visual language that interweaves the values of its founders and artists with the character of its commercial clients.

Hugo & Marie has collaborated with brands including Yves Saint Laurent, Nike, Apple, Stella McCartney, Hermès and Rihanna.

Within just a few short months, shifting our studio to Figma improved our workflows, strengthened collaboration, and frankly, made the work better.

It almost didn’t happen.

Like any business owner who's lived through the hype cycles of emerging software, I tend to be skeptical. I’ve seen agencies sink by overhauling their toolkits overnight. But when the conversation around Figma kept showing up in internal critiques, portfolio reviews, and even client meetings, it reminded me of something Nike drilled into us during my decade there: "Evolve immediately." That maxim didn’t just apply to product design—it was a mindset. It still is.

At Nike, when we moved from hand sketches to digital 3D renderings and rapid prototyping, it changed everything. Time to market improved. Communication between teams got sharper. Samples were more accurate, and storytelling got stronger. Resistance was natural. But once we embraced it, design matured.

The same thing is happening now with Figma.

The Figma Difference

Let’s cut through the marketing noise: Figma isn’t just a design tool. It’s a platform for shared thinking. And in our experience, it's quietly reshaping how strategy, UX, UI, and dev teams work together.

The benefits hit early:

• Live collaboration eliminated versioning confusion. We finally left the "v12_final_FINAL_really.psd" era behind.
• Interactive prototyping became a default, not a milestone.
• Design systems got centralized and governed across clients.
• Stakeholder buy-in arrived faster, thanks to clickable prototypes, not PDFs in an inbox.

More than anything, Figma helped us collapse the silos. When developers can inspect the work live, marketers can annotate content in real time, and strategists can link decisions directly to UX paths—you get momentum. And momentum, in our world, is everything.

Agency, Optimized

We talk a lot internally about building a “better-run studio.” That’s not code for efficiency at the expense of craft—it’s about building the kind of agency we’d actually want to work at.

One that balances structure with freedom. That obsesses over the creative product without martyring people to deadlines. That embraces tools that save time, but never at the expense of thoughtfulness.

Every new system we adopt, every tool we test, every workflow we tweak—it’s all in service of a simple idea: Do great work, and make it sustainable.

Adobe’s interest in that journey—in how we work, not just what we make—felt aligned. It made the collaboration easy, and the outcomes useful.

Looking Forward

This moment with Adobe was one reflection of who we are. A team constantly evolving. A studio that believes good ideas can come from anywhere. A partner who values real impact over noise.

We’re not building brands for the sake of it. We’re building meaning. Connection. Momentum. And sometimes, that means being vulnerable enough to open our doors and let someone study your process.

So thank you, Adobe—for showing up, for asking real questions, and for making the kind of creative partnership that feels less like a feature and more like a dialogue.

The work continues. And so does the learning.

It started with a studio visit. Adobe reached out, curious about how we work, how we think—and how their tools fit (or didn’t) into our creative flow. They weren’t there to sell. They were there to listen.

That resonated.

Because at Watson, we’re always asking the same thing of ourselves: What’s working? What’s in the way? How do we sharpen our thinking, simplify our systems, and support better outcomes—for our clients, our team, and frankly, our own sanity?

That first conversation turned into a deeper collaboration. Adobe asked to film our process, speak with our team, and use our feedback to inform their product roadmap. We gave them the unfiltered truth: what speeds us up, what slows us down, what inspires momentum—and what makes us want to chuck our laptops into the Willamette.

The resulting video captured something bigger than just our workflows. It reflected the values we care about most: collaboration, curiosity, and the ongoing pursuit of better.

Why Watson?

We’re not just a creative studio—we’re a studio that studies itself. Not in a navel-gazing way, but in the way any serious craftsman studies their tools, their patterns, their grip.

Our model is research-based, strategy-led, and experience-informed. Whether we’re launching a consumer brand, repositioning a nonprofit, or reshaping a government agency’s voice—we start by listening. To clients. To audiences. To the market. And yes, to the tools that power our work.

Adobe saw that—and rather than prescribe, they partnered. They asked smart questions. They made space for honesty. And they left with more than a highlight reel—they left with insights that might just make life better for other creative teams, too.

Design Thinking, Applied

To us, design thinking isn’t a workshop. It’s a worldview. It shows up in how we name things, how we write briefs, how we build presentations, how we run our meetings. It’s embedded in our culture.

• Empathy before ego.
• Systems before surfaces.
• Purpose before polish.
  

That’s not to say we don’t care about aesthetics—of course we do. But the form is only as good as the thinking behind it. Adobe’s willingness to engage with us on that level—on the thinking—is why the partnership felt like more than just a creative case study.

Brand Strategy

Jon and Tom first contacted Watson Creative in 2015 when they were preparing to open KingPins Portland. Watson conducted an assortment of strategy workshops, field research, and interviews to understand KingPins’ long-term goals for their brand. From there, Watson was able to develop a voice and creative direction that supported their vision and would help drive them toward their goals.

Watson had the opportunity to hand-illustrate a KingPins logo that would appeal to their wide variety of bowlers, from casual families to competitive leagues. The graphic style incorporated a nostalgic and clean look for an updated take on a longstanding pastime. Its historic aesthetic was a nod to vintage Americana and simpler times.

KingPins wanted their community to know that they were more than just a bowling center, and that they offered other forms of entertainment all under one roof. In addition to bowling, the KingPins’ arcade and TapHouse Bar & Grill were attractions that needed to be highlighted. The Eat·Roll·Play campaign was established to accomplish this goal and allowed the Watson team to expand upon each category over a variety of channels. The campaign also announced the grand opening of KingPins Beaverton and the extensive features of the new facility.

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Eat·Roll·Play: KingPins

Since opening in 1963, Sunset Lanes Bowling Center in Beaverton, Oregon was known for being a vibrant hub of the community. Tom Burke and Jon Tang have been a part of the bowling industry since they started working at Sunset Lanes when they were 16 years old. Little did they know that they would one day be proprietors of the same beloved establishment. For 19 years, they operated Sunset Lanes and eventually opened an additional facility in SE Portland, KingPins Family Entertainment Center.

When Tom and Jon learned that Sunset Lanes would be torn down for new construction in 2015, they knew they needed to do something. Rather than shut down the bowling center altogether, they reinvented Sunset Lanes into KingPins Beaverton – a new facility with modern amenities.

Jon and Tom knew KingPins Beaverton would be a big change for the community and wondered how to best share the news. The two turned to Watson Creative for guidance on how to effectively launch the facility, maximizing excitement for its modern amenities while continuing to communicate its importance to the community.

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Once the logo and branding were established, Watson was able to implement the brand across print, digital, and environmental design. Every customer touchpoint mattered, from print and digital properties to interior design. Watson ensured that guests’ experience at KingPins would be engaging and each interaction in their environment would be cohesive with the brand. Watson’s branding strategy was integral to a cohesive customer journey at KingPins.

In preparation of the grand opening of KingPins Beaverton, Watson designed and built a new website to elevate the brand and expand on Eat·Roll·Play. Our digital marketing development team worked behind the scenes to help retain the longstanding Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that had been established from the Sunset Lanes website. They applied several strategies to ensure KingPins ranked high in search engines, including:

• Redirecting Sunset Lanes URLs to KingPins’ website
• Implementing strategic meta descriptions, titles, subheadings, and image file names/tags
• Creating new codebase
• Local citations campaign
• Auditing existing content

Watson updated all of KingPins’ social media platforms with Eat·Roll·Play campaign graphics, and used social media posts to tease out the amenities of KingPins Beaverton. Posts to the Sunset Lanes community ensured the new facility would be under the same management and would remain a cornerstone of the community. Watson crafted emails and social media content counting down the grand opening, keeping KingPins Beaverton top-of-mind to subscribers. Emails and social media posts linked to the campaign webpage where viewers could see historical photos of Sunset Lanes, read about the new amenities of KingPins Beaverton, and see progress on the new facility. Keeping this page regularly updated gave the KingPins audience new content and helped increase awareness and excitement over the grand opening of KingPins Beaverton.

In an era where audiences are increasingly alert to the gaps between what brands say and what they do, our Design Week Portland event, "All Mouth, No Trousers," struck a chord. Hosted at Watson’s Portland studio, we convened a panel of strategists, creatives, and cultural leaders to discuss the critical need for honesty in branding, politics, design, and social impact work. And the title? A cheeky nod to the British phrase describing people or organizations that talk a big game but never show up when it counts.

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Communication is the currency of every brand. But communication without credibility is just noise. Our panel explored how design isn’t just about aesthetics—it’s about creating alignment between words, visuals, and actions. Empathy, trust, and transparency aren’t just nice-to-haves—they’re competitive advantages.

In an era of performative wokeness, greenwashing, and political spin, audiences are savvier and more skeptical than ever. According to the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer, 63% of consumers say they will buy or advocate for brands based on shared values—but only 37% believe brands actually live up to those values.

What the Experts Said

Ryan Lewis (Bonfire Marketing) opened the conversation with a challenge: "We’re no longer marketing to demographics. We’re marketing to belief systems." That shift means brands must navigate nuance, be willing to show their humanity, and invite consumers into the story.

Ian McMillan (Nike) spoke about the balance between innovation and authenticity: "Nike innovates from a place of purpose. When we say we support athletes, that includes athletes of all backgrounds, all abilities, all identities. That message only matters if our actions reflect it."

Jefferson D. Smith (XRAY.FM) reminded the crowd that media isn’t neutral: "As communicators, we have a responsibility to amplify truth. To build equity into the systems of distribution—who gets to speak, and who gets heard."

Meghan Pruitt (level+) and Neha Neelwarne (Skidata) discussed how empathy leads to smarter systems. Meghan emphasized that "in a digital-first world, it’s easy to lose sight of the human being behind the screen. The best design is inclusive, not exclusive."

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For our 2018 Design Week Portland open house event “All Mouth, No Trousers,” WATSON set out to explore what drives consumer motivation. Our panel of experts weighed in on this topic from the perspective of several different industries, creating a lively discussion on how we launch consumers on a path from low commitment activity into long-term brand champions.

Special thanks to Jos and Tree of WOOD & SMITH Photography for running the photo booth.

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Now

Mashup culture might be the best example we have today of mixing it up artistically. Music is a legitimate representation of cultures and regions across the world, and each stems from their own adoration/mastery of their country’s instruments and techniques. Similar to an eclectic mix of genres within an iTunes library, the walls that once separated musical genres have been torn down.

Albums by grunge-masters Nirvana are happily sitting alongside Michael Jackson’s greatest hits in the average listener’s electronic libraries, and music from once-irrelevant areas of music have gained national attention through online-sharing. Jay-Z can now rap over something as classic as The Beatles White Album (by way of artists like DJ Dangermouse) and be critically lauded.

Originating in DJ culture and flourishing outwardly via file-sharing and music blogs, the mashup has become a staple in music and speaks to a higher level of cultural infiltration.

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“…today’s consumer is as willing to bring their own unique history and perspective into their fashion and product purchases…”

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The avid music listener, who represents one of today’s most cherished markets, embraces the idea of enjoying artists from all over the map musically and geographically, alluding to the fun in the search for, merging of, and listening experience of sonically-unique tunes.

This same experience is evident in almost every market. From clothing and furnishings to recreation, food, and entertainment, today’s consumer is as willing to bring their own unique history and perspective into their fashion and product purchases as they are willing to be influenced by multiple cultures, movements and artistic genres.

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Product Diversification

The market is a kaleidoscope–much like our society–and the array of backgrounds, influences, and varied geographical roots can make navigation a daunting task. Things aren’t going to change, either, and as much as variety is appreciated, consumers can feel bogged down by the limitless choices and mistake the beauty of the kaleidoscope for chaos and confusion.

The good news is that the Mix It Up mentality mirrors a hugely popular Macrotrend that benefits from rich cultural experiences and the unification of diverse histories. This Macrotrend has grown organically from the inevitable mixing of backgrounds and customs from populations around the world as our individual communities glean from one another and branch out to form a web of creativity that is our current global market.

Mix It Up, the product diversification Macrotrend, is essential to keeping customers interested in what you have to offer. Subscribing to one theme or aesthetic is a quick way to lose vigor in your brand, especially while the rest of the market is experiencing a trend in user-generated content that pulls inspiration from a multitude of backgrounds and histories.

Involving a mix of of cultures and styles in your brand allows you to cast a bigger net that will reel in a more diverse consumer base. Mixing it up requires a more wide-ranging input, but will absolutely result in an equally varied–and larger–customer following.

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Once upon a time, consumers wanted nothing more than to have exactly what everyone else had. Phrases like “cookie cutter,” “carbon copy” and “keeping up with the Joneses” reflect the mentality of just a few decades ago, when having the same products, clothing, home, and lifestyle as all of the other families on the block was the benchmark for social achievement.

Standing out and being different was a risk that few members of mainstream society were willing to take. But now, more than ever, consumers seek a broader palette of options and a brand that is capable of combining varying aesthetics into one heterogeneous yet accessible product or service.

The American consumer no longer has a common face and name–and hasn’t for some time. Marketing to the same uniracial, monocultural consumer doesn’t account for the millions of consumers you’d be missing out on, who are searching for a real and honest fusion of art and experience. Consumers want products that reflect who they really are, and no one is easy to label anymore. Now is the time to differentiate or die.

People everywhere cherish stories. In creative design, we love brand storytelling. As a society, we have a collective appreciation for stories and the meanings they carry. A story offers explanation, history, and a basis for connection. Meaningful stories make up our everyday experiences in multiple forms: shared spectacles, virtual journeys, family and cultural history, nostalgia and memory.

Storytelling is a way for individuals to relate their own experiences to the experiences of those around them, making it a practice that encourages trust and builds recognition. As human beings, we have an innate desire to identify common threads between ourselves and others. By adopting traits of narrative storytelling, a brand can use these threads to sew a rich web of appeal and insight that connects consumers to a product or service.

Narrative, or brand storytelling, has become a popular trend in branding as it allows us to develop and share a product’s story–where it’s going, and where it’s been– thus offering the consumer a reason to build a deeper bond with the product’s brand.

Narrative-guided marketing creates enthusiasm and desire in its audience as it offers stories in fragments, much like a blockbuster movie would, creating intrigue and emotional connections that foster brand loyalty. However, it’s important to see narrative as not just a story that adds intrigue to a product, but as a portal for learning, imagining, escaping, sharing, and connecting.

Bringing the art of narrative into advertising has been a storied practice of its own; logos, ads, and branding tell stories designed to draw consumers to a product and keep them interested in a brand’s past and future. Narrative imagery creates a language and style that motivates consumer attachment, but it’s what people do with this inspiration that offers the most compelling insights into not only the product but also the consumer.

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It used to be easy to illustrate a brand’s story to consumers:

• In the 1900’s marketers pragmatically explained a product’s features; the focus was on “What it is.”
• By 1925 marketing was all about communicating how the product benefits the consumer; consumers chose a product based on “What it does.”
• In the 1950’s consumers were hooked through stories about experiences; the market became dominated by a focus on “What you feel.”
• By the late 1990’s the new trend was micromarketing and focusing on who consumers identified with – athletes, celebrities, cultural “tribes” – ultimately, the motivation to chose a particular product became rooted in the idea of “Who you are.”

While formulas and trends can sometimes be helpful to study, they can also be a crutch. Not only have consumers today evolved into even more discerning and skeptical buyers than their ancestors were, but the broad strokes of formulaic marketing stories allow for missed opportunities to authentically tell your own story–in your own way–and without a rigid “call to action.”

Case-in-point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9HfdSp2E2A

The Challenge

Rather than allowing products and ideas of the past to collect dust, the Remastered Macrotrend encourages us to revive and recreate classic concepts by bringing them up-to-date for today’;s consumer demands.

“By adopting the mindset of the Remastered Macrotrend we are able to use the advantage time gives us to allow for cherished and well-loved products to become new again…”

This Macrotrend asks us to enhance the original to make it new, fresh, more exciting, and more in touch with today’s consumers. By Remastering, we keep the layers of meaning and nostalgia classic products already own, and add new opportunities for connection and inspiration, often creating a catalyst for the rebirth of an old, out-of-date trend.

Time moves at a pace that we are constantly struggling to keep up with. By adopting the mindset of the Remastered Macrotrend we are able to use the advantage time gives us to allow for cherished and well-loved products to become new again, as revived, re-imagined items today’s consumers will want to make their own.

Contemporary culture is full of instances of remastering a past aesthetic to embrace the demands of today. Think of this Macrotrend as layering new incarnations of old themes on top of already existing, timeless aesthetics. For example, the original Volkswagon Beetle was conceptualized by Adolf Hitler in the early 1930’s as “the people’s car.”

Inspite of its originator, the Beetle, did in fact become the people’s car not only in Germany, but worldwide. The modern reinvention of the VW Beetle made its debut in 1994, proving to be just as popular as its predecessor, and now boasts the tagline “Still the car that started it all.”

Another example of remastering an old classic for modern-day appeal is found in the 2010 film Tron: Legacy, which is an updated, digitally modernized sequel to the 1982 Sci-Fi classic. Tron: Legacy uses many of the precepts of the original Tron film but is enhanced with cutting-edge technologies such as 3D filming, digital sculpting, and modern audio and visual effects, to make this version’s rendition of humans physically entering cyberspace even more believable.

There is a bold line between the Remastered Macrotrend and the Vintage Macrotrend; Vintage involves taking things directly from the past and leaving them intact, while placing them anachronistically in the present setting, while Remastering nods at an item’s predecessor while redesigning it into something current.

Rather than reawakening an item from a decades-long slumber, Remastering requires innovation: pulling up from the roots a life that began in the past and replanting it in contemporary culture where it can grow into an entirely new species, therefore allowing a classic design to morph into something with cutting-edge market appeal. The most important trait of the Remastered Macrotrend is taking the old and recreating it into something fresh and current.

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The concepts and planning behind films like Tron and vehicles like the Volkswagen Beetle are perfect examples of very original thought and design. Before they initially came onto the scene, virtually no one had done anything similar.

These concepts were brand new, and because of the lack of open source sharing that we have today, they couldn’t have been adaptations of previous models. These classic concepts are part of what make up the fabric of our human identity. They provide context, and a deep, multi-faceted meaning to our past and our present.

Rather than moving on from the old and leaving these cherished items in the past, we’ve embraced the idea of layering new meaning onto old concepts by re-envisioning and reinterpreting them through our contemporary lens. Our current culture has a complex artistic, scientific, and creative history, which gives today’s innovators and designers a lot to draw on as we evolve creations of the past into updated, more usable products for today’s consumer.

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Then

My parents’ and grandparents’ generations knew that quality items were worth working hard for. Rather than buying something cheap and easy to obtain, only to throw it out in a few years in search of a newer model, they saved their money to get the best—then they held onto it.

Paired with this mentality is the visible style change that occurs from decade to decade, housed within a vintage typewriter or coffee table, like time capsules from the living rooms of our great-grandparents. The vintage trend cycles through each decade as styles are repeated and reintegrated in a fresh new way.

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The vintage trend has gone beyond the return of feathered hair and aviator sunglasses and is appearing now in more than just fashion and furniture. Portland is a great example of the way that shops and retailers are returning to the business concepts from the 1920’s and 30’s.

Barber shops, ice cream parlors, and fashion boutiques are reviving the business model that caters to the individual needs of the customer and focuses on small-scale, quality services rather than a vast array of non-personalized options. Business owners style the environment of their shops to match the aesthetic of the era they attempt to emulate by thematically designing their surroundings with nods to the past such as wood floors, antique furniture, and era-specific music, thereby enveloping the customer in the warmth and slower-paced personalized attention of an era they may not have even experienced the first time around.

The most time-tested example of vintage mentality is found virtually everywhere in the fashion world; from elite runway models to the hipster slinging coffee at your corner cafe: retro rules. Vintage items, such as retro shoes and accessories and tee-shirts promoting classic films, sell for dozens of times more on ebay today than what they sold for when they were brand new.

Likewise, popular looks from decades ago resurface in the clothing created by cutting-edge designers today, and although the actual look seen on the runway may not be comprised of vintage items, the aesthetic is retro, and sometimes each piece worn by a runway model is a throwback to it’s own decade. Fashion proves to us on a daily basis that trends are cyclical, and what was hip once will inevitably rotate back into style and take center stage once more, either in it’s original form, or in an updated version of the original.

The same methodology that allows a fashion trend from decades ago to resurface today in new designs applies to an almost limitless array of products. While someone may not actually want to buy a toaster that was made in 1953, they may be very eager to buy one that looks like it was made sixty years ago, but operates like it was made yesterday. Fashioning products that look vintage– and last for many, many years like grandma’s trusted frying pan did– yet are made with today’s technology, is one way the methodology of the Vintage Macrotrend can enhance a product and appeal to a wider array of consumers.

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Many years ago, long before the emergence of the vintage trend, my parents met working at a JC Penny store. It was an era where department stores were the only option for pre-internet shoppers who placed fashion and quality over frugality. For my mother, an item purchased at a JC Penny store was the best gift a person could receive, and to this day, I receive a horrendous sweater for Christmas every year and my mom’s response to my dislike is, “But it’s brand name!” As if the label emblazoned on the sweater’s breast should trump my personal style preferences.

For my mom, who had to make my childhood clothing by hand, the brand name on the sweater is more important than the desire for items that are uncommon and unique despite their less-than-polished appearance. Conversely, I seek out the rare finds on the shelves of trendy Portland boutiques, looking for that one item that is singularly unique and that tells the story of an aesthetic from an era long-gone.

I bring these items home, proud of my expertise in spotting the perfect retro accoutrements, and my wife eyes them with disgust. I am reminded of my mother as I try to negotiate the importance of this old-fashioned necessity, when I smile and say, “It’s vintage!”

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Stores like Target and IKEA have brought design to the masses and have put consumers in charge when it comes to the personal aesthetic they want to create, and how to go about attaining it. Quality design is no longer out of reach, and as the average consumer has more access to product customization and personal styling, she will inevitably develop stronger opinions about what and how businesses provide these kinds of interactive models.

Despite the reality of trends and the ability for a product or brand to inspire a huge consumer following, almost every person considers himself an individual with very personal, customized needs and desires. Each of us carries with us the need to be recognized as one-of-a-kind, and our authentic individuality is not only something we each hone ourselves, but is something we expect our personal style and purchasing decisions to reflect for us.

The need for product customization is a Macrotrend that encompasses literally every product on the market. From dishwashers to cars to cardigan sweaters, today’s buyers wants products that meet their very specific lifestyle requirements while making a statement about who they are as individuals: what their personal aesthetics are, what their values are, and what kind of image they wants others to associate with them. Because we want—and can get—products that meet our individual prerequisites while outwardly narrating a detailed description of our lifestyle choices, it is more important now than ever to listen to what buyers are saying in order to offer a customized product that not only meets their needs, but allows for the kind of personalization that differentiates them from the rest of the pack.

The Challenge

Delivering a customizable and practical experience that accommodates each buyer’s personal needs and wishes is a tough order. The most important aspect of the Product Customization Macrotrend is creating a platform for feedback and interaction, and constantly listening to—and catering to—the buyer.

The result of customization is the ability to stay a step ahead of buyer trends due to your location at the pulse-point of consumer feedback. Listening to your customers—and altering your product as their needs change—allows for a natural growth process that is based on integration of customer preferences and product evolution.

Rather that waiting for another trend to sweep the market, then scrambling to change your approach, the ongoing conversation you’ve created with your customers enables a relationship that lets you know what your customers want, perhaps even before they do.

While working for NIKEiD, I had the chance to experience a revolutionary business model that offers consumers the chance to customize the products they purchased in a very intimate and engaging way. NIKEiD is a product customization service that is about more than just veneering the shoe with color, materials, and graphics; it actually allows athletes to tailor the shoe’s performance benefits, such as the midsole technology and outsole tooling, to meet their own personal needs and wants.

This portion of the Nike Portfolio was impervious to the economic decline as it continued to grow roughly 20% each year and always maintained a premium price point, proving that regardless of the overall financial decline, consumers retained the desire to engage with–and oftentimes create–both their shopping experience and the purchases that resulted from it. On average, consumers would spend 9 minutes per visit on the NikeiD site engaged with the brand, a trend that eventually crossed over to the Brick & Mortar retail experience.

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Although the technology that allowed manufacturers to begin mass-producing products seemed like an extremely positive breakthrough at the time, it led to a massive decline in product customization. In the 1950’s and 60’s companies began to adopt a one-size-fits-all mindset that eventually blanketed the market, with little consideration for the consumer and their personal preference. Over the course of a few decades, consumers lost the incentive to ask for customized products and a snowball effect was created: by the 1980’s mass-produced items with no individualistic appeal saturated the retail market and the value of a personalized purchasing experience became virtually unknown to consumers.

THE CHALLENGE

The ideal product is one that offers cutting-edge performance and pushes attributes to the max, all while feeling intuitive and second nature. These are the items we can’t live without. If we look to the natural world as a problem solver, new solutions and increased efficiency can greatly enhance all factions of the market, from interior design to energy to automobiles to the fibers of our clothing.

Design with Nature

Growing up in both Colorado and Oregon has had a profound influence on my design. I often turn towards nature for inspiration and I often create design with nature in mind. Whether drawing from the color combinations, textures, or the form/function, I believe nature has always influenced my creativity and problem solving.

We’ve evolved as a species enough to understand that nature is as constant and unchangeable as it is intuitive, and rather than trying to control nature, we can benefit more by learning from it, and modeling after it.

Nature Tech is a Macrotrend that relies on the natural world for inspiration and practical design solutions, opting for simple, organic experiences over the too-technical and often convoluted processes of man-made designs that ignore or contradict the solutions available in nature. We look to what has always been here—what was here before us, and will be here after us—to instruct and inform our modern concepts of design and function.

Throughout the 20th Century, contemporary design has distanced itself from mankind’s roots. As if in perpetual desire to be seen as specifically separate and unrelated to the natural world, designs like the towering steel-framed skyscrapers of New York City led us away from the intuitive building methods and function of homes, work spaces, and modes of transportation that used the elements of nature already in motion to our benefit.

Designers like Frank Lloyd Wright and the influence of the “Prairie School” style of architecture asked consumers to notice the ways the natural world offered solutions when man worked in harmony with it. Despite the efforts of such designers, the struggle to move forward technologically has encouraged consumers to look for less natural and more mechanical ways of doing almost everything.

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An abundance of original, unusual, yet high-quality goods allows consumers to pursue unique, alternative lifestyle identification while fashionably eluding the mainstream market—and frequently staying one step ahead of it. This new crafting movement encourages people to make things themselves, or buy one-of-a-kind, artisan products, rather than purchasing a replica of what thousands of other people already own. Today’s DIY appeal is about more than thrift and sustainability as it also embodies a community-wide reaction to the identity loss that results from marketing to a broad and largely undefined consumer group.

The current DIY renaissance embodies a deep respect for the history of innovation and therefore receives high approval from today’s critical minded, self-made citizens. Internationally, people have returned to self-sufficiency in order to adopt a lifestyle of frugality, concentrate on the detail of good craftsmanship, customize their interests, and feel less dependent on larger corporations and standardized aesthetics.

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THE CHALLENGE

The DIY culturescape houses an evolving, widespread demographic with distinct (and nearly activist) perspectives and goals; one of the main appeals of crafting is the pleasure derived simply from the lack of corporate control over our consumer activities—and the ability to exit the consumer model by meeting material needs without paying market prices. While the idea that consumers desire to consume less and create more may seem daunting, it’s actually an ideal window through which to invite the customer into your brand by asking them to care about where your products come from and how they are made, while showing your customers that you care about their values and their pocketbooks.

My mother often sewed my clothes herself, cut my hair, and canned food from our garden, all to save our family money. I may not have always had the coolest outfits as a kid, but the love and effort my mother put into my clothes was evident not only in their uniqueness, but in their authenticity and durability.

Culturally, we are experiencing a return to the traditional ways of doing many of the tasks we’ve mindlessly let huge corporations take on for us. Today, many consumers are finding ways to create their own authentic lifestyle—a move that requires creativity, attention to detail, and a Do-It-Yourself mentality.

The modern consumer lives each day as their own, individual DIY experience; we live in an era where the consumer is empowered and encouraged to design their own products—their own life—which offers each individual consumer the opportunity to engage in brand construction. In the Pacific Northwest, we pride ourselves on the curiosity and individuality that motivates us to brew our own beer, build our own stone ovens, re-purpose human and wilderness castoffs into functional and creative art, and even design and construct personalized objects—ranging from bicycles to tiny houses—out of recycled materials.

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For many of us, the appeal of the DIY lifestyle is not just about frugality or political radicalism: it’s about a deeper connection with authentic craftsmanship and the heart of the artisan poured out into his unique, irreplaceable design. People are realizing more and more that the imperfection of a handmade object offers a warmer, more familiar embrace than the cold veneer of a factory-made product ever could.

This quest for individuality is a Macrotrend embodied by many cultures, including those right around the corner from you. Take a walk in your neighborhood; look around you. From re-purposing and recycling to appreciating the extraordinary nature of a handmade product, DIY is everywhere as each member of our global community crafts their own identity and experience. The plastic bottle castoffs of first-world citizens are recreated into usable and visually stunning rooftops, jewelry, and even rafts in countries like Fiji, Guatemala, and Brazil, proving that re-purposing has become a truly evolutionary process.

DIY crosses more borders and inhabits more spaces than your average Macrotrend by covering a versatile profile of skill sets varying from home improvement, crafting, community-based art, thrifting, and more. Centered on the re-usability of old materials, while rewarding the DIYer with the experience of the pursuit and capture of these materials, this Macrotrend champions creative thought and pushes traditional boundaries through new methods of technology, recycling, irony, and innovation. A DIYer knows that it is the details that make an item beautiful and unique, and seeks the best example of craft in whatever they create or purchase.

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Sport Culture – A Macrotrend

Sport Culture is a Macrotrend whose mentality is realized on a large scale, and whose influence is made evident on a smaller scale in many of the aesthetic choices we make as consumers. Sport Culture extends beyond athletics; it has seeped into the cracks of our identity and has spread its influence from the city streets to the feet on Hollywood’s red carpet.

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So much of what we wear today is influenced by Sport Culture. Consider the fact that both uniforms and street apparel are patterned after the sports industry’s breathable, flexible fabrics and form-fitting aesthetic. Casual is the new norm, but it’s not all about jeans and t-shirts anymore.

A combination of yoga, track, and outdoor sports apparel creates an amalgamation of athletic looks that says “fresh,” “fit,” and “casual” while maintaining a sharp, pulled-together exterior. Comfort doesn’t mean sloppy or old anymore, it means competitive, performance-driven, and ready for anything. And this trend doesn’t just stop with fashion: cars are continually made to look sleeker and faster, even if they aren’t. It’s the testosterone-inspired physique of vehicles like the new Toyota Prius that makes their drivers feel safe and edgy at the same time.

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THE CHALLENGE

Sport Culture is here to stay. Athletic teams and events gain more fans every year and continue to rake in huge amounts of money for communities and cities. They also provide a rallying point for community building and offer fans a sense of belonging. From collegiate to pro, team-based to individual, there’s a high probability you’ll encounter a sport of some kind wherever you go in the world.

And the cultural influence of sports is not only limited to the field and court; Sport Culture informs the fashion on the streets and its aesthetic has become the fabric of the Millennials. Embracing this culture simply requires awareness, focus, and the desire for a competitive edge. So, channel your inner track star and get ready to lead the pack because this Macrotrend is only going to continue to take first place again, and again.

I can’t remember a time when the sport culture wasn’t part of the very fiber that makes me who I am. One of my earliest memories is of my father sitting me down to watch the Denver Broncos’ spring training at University of Northern Colorado.

While he was inside teaching, I watched Number 7’s rookie year unfold before my eyes. It was influential moments like this that inspired me to become an athlete. In college, I had a part-time job working for the recreational sports department as a designer. It was an amazing experience to watch people’s lives being transformed by a combination of team sports, wellness, and personal fitness; I witnessed Freshmen enter the program unhealthy, then leave feeling confident and strong, having made the mind-body connection that would propel them toward physical, mental, and emotional success.

It isn’t any wonder that I continued to follow in this vein throughout my career at Nike. Having experienced the backbone of an athletic culture throughout my childhood and well into adult life, I now see sports as an important piece of the DNA that makes up our communal identity and offers us the drive and motivation to be better, stronger versions of ourselves.

Regardless of athletic interest or affiliation, people everywhere possess the same inherent drive for self-improvement and achievement that athletes thrive on. For athletes, the sense of competition—with oneself or with one’s rivals—fuels the quest for advantage and perfection.

For many of us, our desire for personal excellence mirrors the kind of drive embodied by devoted athletes of every sport. What’s more, staying focused on goals and attuned to one’s personal intentions is a kind of individual training plan that keeps us on our toes—even in the off-season. As a culture, we are constantly striving to be at the top of our game, a mentality that is easily observed in all kinds of sports. The way that an athletic mindset influences so much of what we do in the business, design, and marketing spheres—and beyond—is a cross-pollination of practices that we like to refer to as Sport Culture.

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Today, the top-selling music players are the ones that can handle multiple types of media, and can adapt to various other systems (think car stereo and home surround sound), yet can fit easily in the palm of your hand. Products characterized by Complex Simplicity have clear and intuitive design, even when what lies beneath is technically advanced.

Modern simplicity requires a timeless appearance that moves beyond borders of eras and cultures, with remarkable functionality embedded within superior design. Products don’t just look clean and simple–they actually make life easier and more enjoyable.

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THE CHALLENGE

Make style and product choice easy. Preserve your brand’s reliability for consumers by taking a minimalist approach. Embrace revision and removal of unnecessary elements by whittling away to a focused and simple design. Emulate the most trusted brands of your own lifetime rather than “the next big thing” that is destined to be a flash in the pan. Quality craftsmanship doesn’t need to hide behind bells and whistles, rather, it’s dependability is present in it’s simple aesthetic appeal.

The complex simplicity Macrotrend serves as a roadmark pointing in the direction of balanced aesthetics, attitude, and functionality, but it’s the brand’s prerogative whether or not to follow the course charted by industry leaders, or to chose a path that others have proven may not result in lifelong consumer loyalty.

“You know you have reached perfection of design not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away.”
– ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY, FRENCH ARISTOCRAT/WRITER/POET/PIONEERING AVIATOR

How to Brand with Complex Simplicity

Complex Simplicity is a Macrotrend that is evident all across the market, perhaps most notably in the Apple iPhone where simplicity design is in the forefront. It’s a product whose functions are so simple that children as young as one-year-old are capable of figuring out—and successfully using—the iPhone’s most basic features. It’s designed to be so accessible and user friendly that a toddler can observe his parents’ scrolling through pictures or opening and closing an app, and perform the same function on his own moments later.

Yet behind the simple, neat design of it’s sleek exterior, the iPhone houses one of the most complex brains of any other piece of technology most users own. It’s an intricate computer capable of phenomenal tasks embodied within one of the most basic necessities of today: a telephone.

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What’s most significant about the complex simplicity of the iPhone is that its users are well aware of the intricate brain and interior maze of technology required for the iPhone to do all of the things it does, but that’s not really why they love it. They love the iPhone because its complexity is so beautifully complemented by the ease and efficiency of the user experience.

In other words, they know the complexity is inside, but they only have to interact with the sleek, symmetrical, one-touch features of the machine in order to summon all of that intricate technology into action. The experience of using an iPhone allows one to engage in and interact with a complex technology while maintaining the same calm and balance that the iPhone’s harmonious design emulates.

Think about the products and brands that have stood the test of time: Mercedes Benz, Rolex, Ray-Ban, Converse, Coca-Cola, and Kitchen-Aid, to name a few. These brands’ products have evolved into smarter versions of the same classic example they’ve always been selling. These brands mastered the idea of complex simplicity long ago, and have never strayed; they continue to offer their classic designs on the outside while the capacity of their product becomes more advanced and revolutionary as consumer demands change.

In a world where consumers have become increasingly disoriented by the chaos of advertising, these brands retain customer loyalty because their products continue to offer a simple, streamlined aesthetic and interactive experiences in the midst of a constant barrage of technological advances that ask consumers to repeatedly change the way they interact with technology.

Over the past few decades, design has become increasingly convoluted and overly-complex. In the 80’s and 90’s, complexity was marketed as a desirable feature in almost every product. This trend resulted in too many buttons on the TV controller, unnecessary functions that were hardly used, and failed attempts at advanced technologies that weren’t ready for public use. Consider the boombox of the 80’s and 90’s, that boasted dozens of knobs, dials and buttons, antennas, tape decks, multi-disc C.D. players, inputs, outputs, even handles, wheels and cases.

Majority of societal change has rested on public demand and it’s clear the market is serious about their sustainable intentions and behavior. A high interest in detailed information about products or services, paired with legitimate product labeling, has shaped the responsible shopper to encourage society (and its industries) to continue down the green path.

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YOUR CHALLENGE

So here we are, in a time when finding alternatives and making them function is considered cool and trendy. The auto industry’s recognition of fuel efficiency and environmental change is a definite step in the right direction, but an overall makeover of all industries seems necessary if we really want to make a positive impact. Guidelines for sustainability have been set, and it’d be helpful to your brand to understand them:

1. Reduce the amount of materials required for production and use recycled post-consumer waste.
2. Keep your end-product biodegradable; or in digital form instead of print
3. Embrace the green route, and show it throughout your products and marketing efforts.

The biggest polluters (auto and aerosol) have been forced into a corner where they’re demanded to provide alternatives and solutions to the sources of pollution they cause.

“The public expects car manufacturers to step up and present technology in order to respond to [global warming] concerns”-NISSAN CEO CARLOS GHOSN

For everyone else, it’s about being a part of the frontline through innovation and accessibility to guide your brand’s transition into new markets of activists, responsible consumers, and eco-smart parents.

It shouldn’t be hard to convince you that your brand should keep an eye on this macro trend. Not only are you helping protect the environment, but you’re bringing a forward-thinking mindset that customers appreciate.

Bring thrill to sustainability and make a real difference in the world while you’re at it. Green fuels innovation, and by making your product or service more sustainable you’re only doing better for your brand and the world around you. Fix your focus on how your brand can make a difference and lead with it.

Doing our best to lessen the destructive human influence on Earth is the least we can do to give a bright future for the generations to come. The public is becoming more and more receptive to it. What was once looked at as a niche market, going green with green design has (fortunately) become mainstream and affordable. The challenges set before us are problems that can be solved by engineers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and everyday consumers.

Some consumers are still skeptical if the green color scheme on a product means they’re actually green, or if they’re using the green macro trend for solely personal gain. Green is universal -from small towns to big cities- so it’s hard to discern who’s authentic with their green-claims to ensure the customer’s money isn’t going to a lost cause that actually isn’t environmentally friendly.

But recently, investing in green technologies has been proven to drive cost out of a business (and revenue into it) while also holding market-power capable of winning over doubters…so it makes sense why so many companies are turning to green integration. In the food and drinks industry, only five green brand products were launched in 2002.

Fast forward to 2007, and that number’s increased to 328. There’s been a huge spike in greenwashing over the last decade and a lot of that is owed to the public’s awareness of sustainable development and a commitment to a more responsible lifestyle. Terrachoice Environmental Marketing issued a report noting a 79% increase in the corporate greenwashing between 2007 and 2009, so you can imagine this strategy only continues to grow now.

Majority of societal change has rested on public demand and it’s clear the market is serious about their sustainable intentions and behavior. A high interest in detailed information about products or services, paired with legitimate product labeling, has shaped the responsible shopper to encourage society (and its industries) to continue down the green path.

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About Watson Creative
Watson Creative is a design-led business consultancy firm based in Portland, Oregon. Founded by Matt Watson, a design expert with 11 years experience with Nike, Watson Creative offers a wide range of business-led design services, including brand management and strategy, web design, VIP and athlete branding, and business strategy.
www.watsoncreative.com

About The Oregonian
The Oregonian is a major daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. West Coast, and is the largest newspaper in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest by circulation. In 2001, The Oregonian received the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, and writers for the newspaper have received four other Pulitzer Prizes over the years.
www.oregonlive.com

It’s been more than a decade since The Oregonian profiled Watson—and the story still holds up. Not just as a business milestone, but as a reminder of what sparked all this in the first place.

The Oregonian’s Allan Brettman told the story of how Matt Watson left a promising run at Nike—designing shoes, building campaigns, and soaking in the culture—to start something of his own. The piece traced Watson Creative’s rise from a scrappy two-person setup to a million-dollar agency in under two years, with early wins in professional sports, digital loyalty programs, and creative strategy.

A lot has changed since then. Offices opened. Services expanded. Tools evolved. But one thing hasn’t: the belief that design is a system of meaning, not decoration. That good brands are built from the inside out. And that the most compelling work starts with curiosity—not ego.

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You can read the article online on Oregon LIVE: www.oregonlive.com

Leaving Nike. Starting Watson.

Matt’s decision to leave Nike wasn’t some cinematic leap. It was quieter. More human. A moment defined not by ambition, but by family. His father was battling cancer. His wife was pregnant. He wanted more flexibility to show up where it mattered most.

So he left. He taught design and marketing at night. Pitched clients during the day. Worked with whomever would take a chance—nonprofits, small businesses, early-stage tech, and, thanks to a longtime friend, a few pro teams.

One of those connections led to the Kansas City Chiefs. What started as a web refresh quickly turned into a loyalty platform—a way to help fans show up earlier, stay longer, and be part of something bigger than the game itself. That first project caught the attention of other teams: the 49ers, Broncos, Sounders, Timbers, Bruins. Each with their own identity, culture, and community to build.

More Than Sports

The sports work grew. But so did everything else. The article hinted at it—Matt’s desire to bring Nike-level thinking to other industries: healthcare, higher education, civic engagement, arts, architecture, tech. Not for the glamour. For the impact.

“I love working with teams, but I’ve always been more interested in people than players,” Matt says today. “The psychology of loyalty, trust, belonging—that translates everywhere.”

Over the years, Watson evolved from an agency that “makes things look good” into one that helps organizations make meaning, move people, and manage growth. Brand strategy. Research. Design. Content. Experience. And underneath it all, a studio culture designed to support great work without burning people out in the process.

About Watson Creative
Watson Creative is a design-led business consultancy firm based in Portland, Oregon. Founded by Matt Watson, a design expert with 11 years experience with Nike, Watson Creative offers a wide range of business-led design services, including brand management and strategy, rebranding services, web design, VIP and athlete branding, and business strategy.
www.watsoncreative.com

About InFocus Corporation
InFocus Corporation is a privately-owned company based in Tigard, Oregon. Founded in 1986, InFocus Corporation develops, manufactures, and distributes DLP and LCD projectors, as well as collaborative technology solutions. InFocus Corporation is one of the 50 largest companies based in the state of Oregon.
www.infocus.com

In a world now saturated with screens, AI assistants, and always-on connectivity, the most enduring brands are those who evolve with purpose. InFocus, once a household name in projectors, has done just that—transforming itself into a powerhouse of modern collaboration technology.

Founded in 1986, the Oregon-based company built its reputation through the 1990s on cutting-edge projection systems used everywhere from boardrooms to classrooms. But as that category matured and commoditized, InFocus didn’t wait for irrelevance to creep in. Instead, they leaned into innovation—pivoting toward enterprise-ready tools for modern teamwork. Their breakout product, Mondopad, reimagined the touchscreen not as a novelty, but as a fully integrated collaboration hub—pairing HD display, video conferencing, annotation tools, and live document sharing in a single elegant interface.

And this wasn’t just a hardware upgrade. It was a signal to the market that InFocus wasn’t clinging to the past—it was building the infrastructure for the future of work.

Branding the Reboot

To communicate that evolution, InFocus partnered with Watson Creative on a multi-year repositioning initiative. From visual strategy to digital presence, content creation to motion work, Watson’s charge was clear: take a complex, product-heavy company and make it human.

“The tech world too often hides behind buzzwords or flat, formulaic marketing,” said Matt Watson, Founder and Creative Director at Watson. “InFocus had already done the hard work—innovating their product lineup. What they needed was a brand system and story that matched that boldness.”

Watson Creative developed a refreshed identity that reflected InFocus’s role as a collaborative catalyst, not just a screen provider. Campaigns and videos focused on people, not pixels—highlighting real-world applications and stories from the front lines of innovation.

Listening Before Leading

“We’re not the kind of agency that comes in with a whiteboard full of answers,” added Watson. “We started by listening. Loren Shaw and the InFocus team knew exactly where they wanted to go. Our job was to help sharpen and amplify that vision with the right creative tools.”

That mutual respect shaped every step of the engagement. The collaboration wasn’t about chasing trends—it was about future-proofing a legacy.

“We know who we are—and who we’re becoming,” said Loren Shaw, former Marketing Director at InFocus. “What made working with Matt and his team different was their ability to translate that internal conviction into a story our customers could believe in, rally around, and share.”

Early Momentum, Enduring Impact

The partnership came at a critical moment—just as AI, edge computing, and hybrid work models began to reshape how teams operate. Watson’s rebrand helped reposition InFocus as a solution provider, not just a product manufacturer. The work laid the foundation for better sales enablement, more intuitive UX/UI systems, and improved product storytelling—across both digital and physical channels.

As of 2025, InFocus continues to push forward in collaborative tech, integrating intelligent software, more seamless connectivity, and industry-specific solutions for education, government, and enterprise.

“InFocus was my first client after leaving Nike,” said Watson. “They’ll always hold a special place for me. It’s been an honor to watch them reimagine who they are—and to help shape that next chapter together.”

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From Rock Bottom to the Big Leagues

The profile didn’t sugarcoat the early years. There were moments when Watson Creative was operating on fumes—living off savings, teaching night classes, running on coffee and conviction. There were only two clients in the early days: a projector company and a home remodeling firm. No website. No marketing. Just referrals, handshakes, and the promise of better work.

And somehow, that was enough. One client led to another. One handshake led to a stadium.

A connection with the Kansas City Chiefs turned into a loyalty platform for NFL fans. That led to the 49ers, Broncos, Sounders, Bruins, and others. The studio began helping teams—and their fans—connect more deeply through digital experiences, game-day rewards, and content that actually meant something.

“That’s where I think our studio is different. What we offer isn’t just beautiful design—it hits the bottom line.” – Matt Watson

Beyond Sports

Yes, we’ve built platforms for major league teams. But 70% of our work lives outside the sports world. From building community platforms for hospitals and public agencies, to helping global nonprofits reimagine their identities, to redesigning education and healthcare campaigns—we’ve stayed industry-agnostic for a reason.

We’re drawn to clients with purpose. Brands that want to grow and do good. Projects that challenge us to learn something new and leave things better than we found them.

It’s part of what keeps the team sharp. As Matt said in the George Fox Journal, “Right now I’m working on a laundry company, a soda brand, and a hospital system. It’s weird stuff. But it’s so fun.”

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About Watson Creative Watson Creative is a design-led business consultancy firm based in Portland, Oregon. Founded by Matt Watson, a design expert with 11 years experience with Nike, Watson Creative offers a wide range of business-led design services, including brand management and strategy, rebranding services, web design, VIP and athlete branding, and business strategy.
www.watsoncreative.com

About George Fox University George Fox University (GFU) is a Christian college of liberal arts, sciences, and professional studies located in Newberg, Oregon. The private school has more than 3,500 students, combined between its main campus in Newberg and its centers in Portland, Salem and Redmond. Graduate studies include psychology, business, education, counseling, physical therapy and seminary.www.GeorgeFox.edu

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Every creative studio has an origin story. Ours starts with a Gatorade bucket, a stack of rubber bands, and a dog wandering through a photo shoot.

That moment—equal parts chaos and collaboration—was captured in a feature article by George Fox Journal in 2014. Written by Jeremy Lloyd and titled Business by Design, the profile dove into the journey of Matt Watson: a George Fox MBA grad, former Nike creative, and founder of what was then a scrappy start-up agency.

A lot has changed since then. But the DNA remains the same.

CLICK: George Fox University Magazine // BUSINESS BY DESIGN

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Matt’s path to founding Watson wasn’t a straight shot from corporate to creative independence. It was a leap made in the middle of a storm: leaving Nike just as his father was diagnosed with cancer and his first child was on the way. He had a vision for a different kind of creative studio—one that would blend high-caliber design with grounded business thinking—but no guarantee it would work.

What he did have was a background that married art and commerce: a BFA from Oregon State, a decade designing at Nike, and an MBA from George Fox University that sharpened his thinking around ethics, leadership, and enterprise strategy. He credits much of the studio’s backbone to his time at GFU.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without the lessons I learned at George Fox. Ethics. Composure. Belief. Those things don’t just live in textbooks. They show up in the way we treat clients, how we run meetings, how we weather hard seasons.” – Matt Watson

A Studio Built on Design Thinking

The George Fox article called it “business by design,” and that phrase still captures what we do best. It’s not just about making things look good. It’s about using design to solve real business problems. That means:

• Thinking like strategists
• Working like designers
• Delivering like operators

We believe great design isn’t aesthetic frosting. It’s infrastructure. It’s how you earn trust, build loyalty, and stand out in markets where attention spans are short and skepticism is high.

About Watson Creative
Watson Creative is a design-led business consultancy firm based in Portland, Oregon. Founded by Matt Watson, a design expert with 11 years experience with Nike, Watson Creative offers a wide range of business-led design services, including brand management and strategy, rebranding services, web design, VIP and athlete branding, and business strategy.
www.watsoncreative.com

About Portland Team Fitness
Portland Team Fitness is a personal training studio specializing in TEAM classes, where people come together in a group setting and reap the benefits of working with a personal trainer at a fraction of the cost. It promotes fitness and a healthy lifestyle through the 4 Ps of Team Fitness: Posture, Power, Performance, and Play.
www.portlandteamfitness.com

Local personal training studio Portland Team Fitness got more than they hoped for when they partnered with design-led business consultancy firm Watson Creative to help communicate their unique brand of personal fitness.

Watson Creative’s work with Portland Team Fitness included extensive efforts to tell the story of the dynamic Portland fitness studio, including choosing new colors for the studio that best complemented the high-energy brand sought by Portland Team Fitness’ owner and founder, Alayne Rowan.

“Alayne is far from the normal trainer,” said Matt Watson, co-founder and creative director of Watson Creative. “She has vision, relentless ambition and a very infectious, colorful personality that inspires her clients. I suppose that’s why we designed her studio’s identity around explosive patterns and bold, fun colors.”

“Watson Creative has brought a simple, clean, versatile visual representation to an incredibly complex idea,” said Alayne Rowan. “Their work has allowed me to think beyond the borders of the city of Portland, and it has made me realize that I truly offer something unique in the fitness industry, and that it is a brand. They have set Portland Team Fitness up for greater success and visually have made it stand out.”

As part of their work, Watson Creative also created a brand video for Portland Team Fitness, which elicited an unexpected reaction from Alayne.

“When we unveiled the first cut of her brand video, Alayne was shockingly silent, and then in tears… of joy!” explained Watson. “A small business owner’s brand is like their baby. It takes tremendous trust on their behalf to allow anyone else to shape its aesthetic, mission, and personal. It’s a privilege we don’t take lightly. We’re extremely proud of the work we’ve done for Portland Team Fitness.”

Watch the Portland Team Fitness brand video: vimeo.com

About Watson Creative
Watson Creative is a design-led business consultancy firm based in Portland, Oregon. Founded by Matt Watson, a design expert with 11 years experience with Nike, Watson Creative offers a wide range of business-led design services, including brand management and strategy, rebranding services, web design, VIP and athlete branding, and business strategy.
www.watsoncreative.com

About Anthem Memory Care
Anthem Memory Care is a team of experienced individuals who have successfully developed and leased more than 60 new senior communities, operated over 1,500 beds dedicated to memory care, and more than 12,000 senior units in total. With initial communities in Chico, California and Littleton, Colorado, Anthem is committed to creating a portfolio of communities dedicated to providing the highest quality healthcare and housing for those with cognitive impairment.
anthemmemorycare.com

When Anthem Memory Care set out to refresh their brand and expand their marketing reach, they weren’t interested in gimmicks or over-polished messaging. They were looking for connection. Humanity. Honesty. Something that reflected the deep empathy at the heart of their work with individuals living with dementia.

They found it in a partnership with Watson.

Anthem, a national leader in dementia care, brought on Watson Creative to help reimagine their marketing from the inside out. What began as a branding conversation evolved into a full-scale transformation—across physical spaces, communications, and digital touchpoints. The result was a brand that not only resonated with prospective residents and families, but also drew in caregivers and professionals who aligned with Anthem’s mission.

Designing for Dignity

From the outset, Watson took a holistic approach—recognizing that for families navigating memory loss, every interaction matters. We redesigned printed materials and signage for clarity and warmth, transformed lobby and public space environments to reflect a sense of welcome, and created digital tools to support both staff and residents’ loved ones.

But perhaps the most powerful asset of the campaign was one Anthem was initially uncertain about: a brand film. The idea of putting residents and staff on camera felt risky at first. But with care, trust, and collaboration, we created a short video that honored the people behind the brand—without ever feeling exploitative or saccharine.

“The product they produced was, in our estimation, quite a work of art,” said McCoy. “It so happened that in an employment interview for a pivotal position, I had the screen up and decided to play the video. At the end, I turned back to the applicant, who had tears in her eyes. She remarked that from watching the video, she could tell that Anthem Memory Care was a company that she wanted to be a part of.”

Stories That Stick

At Watson, we believe stories are systems—ways to transfer culture, emotion, and purpose. In the healthcare space, that means telling the truth with compassion. It means centering the people behind the statistics. And it means designing every brand element—visuals, copy, experience—as a reflection of the values you live by, not just what you say in a mission statement.

“I really felt Anthem Memory Care was doing something special,” said Matt Watson, Founder and Creative Director. “It was a privilege to be part of it. Our time with Anthem demonstrated that technology, meaningful stories, and lightweight communication systems can allow a small, dedicated staff to share and keep families connected—regardless of distance.”

Design That Heals

This work reinforced a simple but powerful truth: branding, when done well, can build trust, spark emotion, and support better care. Anthem’s story is proof that even in highly regulated, emotionally complex sectors like memory care, there’s room—and need—for warmth, clarity, and creative bravery.

To this day, the Anthem project remains a touchstone for our healthcare work. A reminder that good design isn’t about decoration—it’s about dignity. And that sometimes, the most impactful thing you can do isn’t to say more. It’s to show up, listen deeply, and tell the story that’s already there.

Let’s build brands that matter.

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Skip the smoke and mirrors: the two most valuable tools in your business toolkit are your brand and your identity. They’re not interchangeable, but they are inseparable—like a great headline and the copy that follows.

Your brand is the impression you leave behind. Your identity is what makes that impression stick. We think of identity as the scaffolding behind trust. It’s not just your logo or color palette—it’s your tone of voice, your digital handshake, your out-of-office message. It’s how someone recognizes you mid-scroll, or feels like they already know you when they walk into the room.

Good identity work doesn’t shout. It builds consistency. It helps your audience feel something—and then recognize that feeling across every interaction.

And when that happens? You’re not just seen. You’re remembered.

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The market today isn’t just noisy—it’s constantly refreshing. Scroll long enough and everything starts to blur. According to Nielsen, people see as many as 10,000 brand messages a day. Most of it? Gone before it hits.

What actually breaks through? Clarity. Consistency. A point of view worth paying attention to.

With AI rewriting how we connect, Gen Z reshaping what people value, and digital expectations rising faster than most brands can keep up, brand identity isn’t a luxury. It’s the starting line.

Whether you’re a fintech company trying to earn trust or a legacy institution trying to keep it, identity-led branding is the frame that keeps your story in focus.

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Start With the Hard Stuff: The Truth

You can’t polish your way to authenticity. You have to do the digging.

That means facing some hard questions:

• What do we actually believe in?
• Who are we here for?
• Why would anyone choose us—and stay?

At Watson, that’s always where we start. Not for the sake of introspection, but for the sake of strategy. Take Community First Bank. They didn’t come to us for a new look—they came for alignment. The public image didn’t match the experience. What they offered was real, human, local—and their brand needed to rise to that.

So we rolled up our sleeves. We hosted workshops, talked to team members and longtime customers, studied the competitive set. The truth was there—we just helped them see it clearly. Their new identity didn’t reinvent the bank. It revealed it.

That’s our job. Not reinvention. Revelation.

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Let’s be blunt: in today’s financial landscape, if your brand isn’t doing the heavy lifting, you’re just another line item on a comparison chart. The era of sterile lobbies, uninspired logos, and vanilla messaging is over. From Portland to Peoria, consumers—especially Millennials and Gen Z—are demanding more: more connection, more clarity, more meaning. And guess what? They're not afraid to walk if they don't feel it.

At Watson, we’ve worked with the big players and the neighborhood upstarts—Umpqua Bank, Community First, Consolidated Community Credit Union, Lewis & Clark Bank. They all have one thing in common: they’ve refused to become commodities. Instead, they’ve chosen to compete on values, story, design, and purpose.

Your story isn’t just what you tell people—it’s what people believe about you based on what they see, hear, and feel. Are you the hometown hero or the digital disruptor? Are you built on relationships, innovation, or trust? We help uncover and sharpen that identity. With Umpqua Bank, it wasn’t about banking. It was about community. Their ‘bank next door’ ethos wasn’t invented—it was unearthed. And then amplified.

We start by identifying your DNA—your mission, your values, your internal culture. Brand strategy isn't about invention; it’s about articulation. Find what’s true, then get loud about it.

Step Two: Build the Toolbox

You wouldn’t frame a house with a salad fork. Likewise, you can’t build a brand without the right tools: messaging frameworks, design systems, content libraries, campaign platforms. At Watson, we equip marketing teams with plug-and-play assets that flex across every channel.

Community First was a perfect example. They came to us with heart, passion, and a mission to serve underserved communities—but lacked the visual and verbal systems to scale that story. Together, we developed a vibrant, bilingual brand experience that connected deeply with both urban and rural audiences.

Step Three: Rally Your Tribe

Brands don’t live on paper. They live in people. Your internal team and loyal customers are your loudest (and most authentic) advocates—if you give them something worth sharing.

With Lewis & Clark Bank, we focused on creating brand narratives that staff could embody and clients could repeat. The result? A tribe that doesn’t just bank—they believe.

Train your team. Engage your audience. And most importantly, create the kind of brand that gives people something to care about—and talk about.

Building Trust: The Foundation of Nursing Home Marketing

While relationships and trust matter in all industries, it is of critical importance in the elderly care industry. Families looking for a retirement home for a loved one may have price considerations in mind, but first and foremost they want a caretaker who will look after one of their own like family.

But building trust is more than just saying “trust us.” Trust needs to be woven into the very fabric of your brand: when potential customers listen to your brand’s stories, they imagine your brand as reliable, as a source of delight for your residents and their family. Trust has the power to elevate your brand beyond a mere cost consideration, and can become the most important characteristic of your brand identity.

To create a strong brand identity built around trust, you have to infuse every aspect of your business with this identity, then communicate it through every story you tell. This ranges from the design of your logo and the name of your company, to the handshake of an elderly care specialist, the communication tools you put at the disposal of your residents, or the design of your website. Simply put, trust has to power every single aspect of your business.

With trust firmly implanted at the heart of your brand, potential residents and their families will look to you as much more than a service provider. They’ll follow the lead of your lead and enter into an enduring relationship with you as caretaker for a loved one. In other words, they’ll trust you as family.

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Nursing Home Marketing in the Digital Age

As the baby boomer population enters retirement age, it is up to the millennials to help them find a home in their elder years. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that by 2050, 86.7 million Americans will be 65 years old or older, and their sons and daughters are now media-savvy and more informed than ever.

This is why the elderly care industry, often perceived by the public as resilient to change, is nothing of the sort. Today’s nursing homes are the epicenter of a digital revolution connecting residents, families and caretakers. Residents can use a variety of adapted online tools to stay in touch with loved ones, access on-demand entertainment, and even complete degrees online. Technology allows our seniors a rich, full life. And in a rapidly-evolving digital world, even elderly care centers have to keep up the pace.

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But how exactly do you go about marketing nursing homes in the digital age? That’s where WATSON CREATIVE comes in.

Ready to be heard? Give us a call!

Everything changes at the speed of light in our world of social networks and sophisticated marketing campaigns. Gone are the days of elderly care centers whose only required advertising was a street address; tomorrow’s memory care residents are already choosing their next care facility on iPads and smartphones. Innovative marketing, engaging website design, and brand strategy are leading this industry in exciting new directions.

It’s time for nursing homes and elderly care providers to learn a new language if they are going to be heard. Are you ready?

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Nursing Home Marketing Ideas – Innovation is Key to Success

Marketing matters. Even in the often understated world of senior housing and care, smart marketing plays a critical role in helping communities connect with the right people—and keep them. As baby boomers age and expectations shift, the senior living industry has become increasingly competitive. Many providers are racing to fill beds and scale operations. That’s one path. But there’s a better one: lead with brand, not just bed count.

At Watson, we’ve built meaningful brands across industries—from memory care to major league sports—and we’ve seen firsthand how much stronger outcomes are when marketing is grounded in identity, not just ad spend. Too many elder care providers pour resources into tracking phone calls or chasing SEO without ever asking the bigger question: why should someone choose you? The truth is, creative and thoughtful branding delivers better returns—dollar for dollar—than transactional marketing ever will. The more your brand reflects care, dignity, and connection, the more trust you build with families making one of life’s hardest decisions.

It’s not just about getting noticed. It’s about mattering.

The Power of Good Retirement Home Marketing

The race to commodification is a natural industry reaction to a market that’s growing saturated with offerings that compete on price. While some emerge strong from these commodity races, these situations create a relentless focus on the bottom line, and it’s easy to think marketing and communications don’t matter anymore.

But market saturation is precisely the time when senior housing companies should focus on building a strong, vibrant brand: it’s not only the best solution in the short term, but it will ensure your brand’s thriving success for years, if not decades to come.

Retirement home marketing founded on innovative ideas and backed by a focused communication plan have the power to not only elevate your elderly care business, but also transform the bond between senior caregivers, the elderly and their family. By building a strong brand identity founded on trust and care, and then communicating these brand values in a clear and consistent manner, you can turn elderly care into much more than a race to commodify a sector that should be about so much more than price points.

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When one of the most iconic franchises in the NFL taps you to help reshape how fans engage on game day, you say yes. Then you get to work.

Watson is proud to have been selected by the San Francisco 49ers to design and build their Fan Loyalty Portal—a fully integrated digital experience that connects real-world behavior with digital rewards, all within the context of one of the most tech-savvy fanbases in the league.

Set to launch at Levi’s® Stadium, the platform was built to do more than keep pace with the demands of a modern sports audience. It was built to raise the bar.

VIEW ARTICLE ON: AdWeek

At the core of the 49ers’ ask was a simple challenge: how do we create meaningful, repeatable interactions with 68,500 people—simultaneously—on game day?

This wasn’t theoretical. Levi’s Stadium is wired with one of the most advanced high-capacity Wi-Fi systems in professional sports. Fans come expecting mobile access, live stats, digital tickets, and immediate rewards. Watson’s job was to bring all of that together in a frictionless, engaging, and branded ecosystem.

The fan portal would allow users to:

• Enter the stadium using their phone
• Earn rewards for showing up early, visiting concession stands, or engaging on social media
• Redeem points for exclusive team content and once-in-a-lifetime experiences (think autographed gear, player meet-and-greets, or pregame field access)

And if everyone hit “redeem” at once? No problem. The system—designed in partnership with SKIDATA, a global leader in secure access solutions—was engineered to withstand the scale.

“If 68,000 fans all hit their redeem button at the same time, this system will manage it,” Watson noted. “That’s where strategy meets infrastructure. No smoke and mirrors—just strong thinking and solid tech.”

Why the 49ers Chose Watson

This wasn’t a cold call. The 49ers came to us after seeing what we’d built for other leading franchises: the Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Union, Seattle Sounders, and Portland Timbers, to name a few. Our relationship with SKIDATA, led by longtime collaborator David Sjolin, helped solidify the opportunity—but it was the work that won the room.

Watson’s approach wasn’t about flashy overlays or one-size-fits-all platforms. It was about customizing the experience to fit each team’s culture, voice, and operational reality. The 49ers saw that—and trusted us to help future-proof their fan engagement.

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The Role of Trends in Shaping Markets

There’s never been a more exciting time to be in the business of trendwatching. An overflow of insights, spottings, reports, and live feeds streaming through the global arena, all provide access to a variety of potent strategies. There is more to trendspotting than simply following what’s trending on Twitter or getting shared on Facebook; mixed elements that touch on the technological realm, as well as cultural movements, form a gravitational pull that can draw in a massive, international audience.

As human beings, consumers don’t change that much over time. They like being comfortable and content. Their deep needs and desires mostly remain the same, but can always be catered to in new ways, especially with the technological capabilities of today. Anything from changes in societal norms and values, to a breakthrough in tech, to a rise in prosperity can cause a shift in trends.

The most successful innovations often satisfy existing, dormant needs in new, attractive, and intuitive ways. Apple has done this fantastically well with their release of the iPod back in 2001, which satisfied the need for fast, mobile, and convenient access to music.

This innovation spawned tons of copycat MP3 players, which in turn paved the way for the digital music market, which has become the focus of today’s music industry. Apple once again repeated the act when they released the iPhone, and people recognized the need for an Internet-capable mobile phone with camera capabilities.

Today, smartphones populate the multi million dollar mobile phone market, and the apps they run have become a vast market of their own. Both of these Apple products addressed the needs of consumers in simple and functional ways, which explains their vast success. They are two striking examples of how purveying to emerging consumer needs can radically influence the market, and even transform it altogether.

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Essential Advice on Trendwatching

Tracking consumer trends is one of the ways you can gather inspiration and help invent new profitable goods, services, and experiences for, and with, your customers. The creativity that drives some trends makes them worthy of widespread exposure, and your business could be the vessel that a trend takes to spread high and wide. There are, however, a few pitfalls of which to be weary.

First, be wary of information overload. The Internet is a powerful trendspotting tool, but you need to sift through its massive collection of information if you are going to find a few gold nuggets.

Second, pay attention to whom the trend resonates with. One critical mistake that trendspotters and brands repeat over and over is to assume that a given consumer trend will resonate with all consumers. In reality, not all trends have universal appeal, and not everyone will welcome a given trend with open arms.

Third, be aware that every trend has a corresponding “anti-trend.” Spotting these is another type of trendspotting altogether. Just be aware that anything new and little-known will always have some amount of negativity associated with it. As a trend gains traction in the marketplace, this negativity diminishes, but so does the trend’s potential for innovation.

Fourth, don’t assume that you can spot a trend by deducing it from the fashion world. The fashion world is incredibly diverse and exciting, and can pioneer entire business models; but ultimately, it is only one part of the world of consumer trends. It does not define consumer trends, and criticism within the fashion world itself is often disconnected from the mainstream’s own preferences.

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Practical Trendspotting

Some of the resources available to spot trends in products and consumer thinking are:

• Websites, blogs, magazines, and books
• News, newsletters, and newspapers
• Web alerts
• TV, movies, and radio
• Trade shows, fairs, and seminars
• Clients, colleagues, friends, and competitors
• Street life
• Travel
• Consultants, researchers, experts, and universities

Every firm or company needs a “trend group,” even if that group is made of only one person. Trendspotting is more of a state of mind than a formal occupation. Start a weekly or monthly trendspotting session with a few people who are interested in new findings and upcoming trends. Dissect these trends and their driving motivations, and discuss their relevance. Perspective is crucial; by brainstorming and digging for parallels between trends, you can get a lot out of trendspotting.

Introduce real-world examples of how other firms are already cashing in on a given trends, and point out what respected brands are doing. Don’t forget to include your competition! Use visuals to back up your analysis, and demonstrate why these are trends worthy of consideration, whether you like them or not.

Lastly, share the trend experience. Don’t make this a one-man show: contribute to the collective wisdom. Spread the latest news or viral hits, and help get everyone on the same page. The more people are aware of a trend, the more momentum it will gain until it becomes a juggernaut in the cultural landscape.

Trendspotting can be highly rewarding, but the proof is in the pudding. This is not to say that you need to drop everything you’re doing and dedicate twelve hours a day to hunting down the latest “thing.” The bottom line is, you simply need to do more of it. With a little luck, the proper resources, and an open mind, you can turn a trend into a golden opportunity for innovation.

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Macrotrends

Individual trends usually fall within broad categories, or macrotrends, that have a wider reach as they adapt to the various markets and cultures of the world. For instance, the trend towards elegant and simple UI in smartphones, which brought us the iPhone and the touchscreen, is part of a broader macrotrend of simplicity, which has been influencing business and design for decades.

Around the globe, trends constantly wax and wane, bringing hype and buzz in their wake until they get re-absorbed into the collective consciousness. By trendwatching, you can spot these trends in the advertising around us, in the media entertaining us, and in our social lives.

Relevance, nostalgia, and aesthetics all contribute to the creation of a trend, but one variable that cannot be accounted for is newness, or innovation. Since the virtue of an innovative trend is in its total originality, it cannot easily be forecasted. But it’s possible to infer these innovations by spotting the ebb and flow of trends, and their relationships to cultures, societies, and market segments. This way, we can capitalize on the “next big thing” early, and use trendwatching to mine for true inspiration.

The main product of trendwatching that should interest you is profitable innovation. A trend is an indicator of something that is bigger than us, channeled through an existing and stable consumer need, desire, or want. Trend-driven innovation makes you feel in the “now,” in the know, and is a huge benefactor to any business. Thanks to technological globalization, thousands of professionals and amateurs are posting their findings in innovation and creativity online for everyone to see. These valuable resources are endless; you just need to know where and what to look for.

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The main product of trendwatching that should interest you is profitable innovation. A trend is an indicator of something that is bigger than us, channeled through an existing and stable consumer need, desire, or want.

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By observing and understanding what’s popular and in full swing in the global consciousness, you can gather insight from the major and the minor, the mainstream and the fringe, the cusp and the bubble. By trendwatching through a neutral and removed point of view, you can watch the rise and fall of trends and capitalize on what is noteworthy. But first, you must ask yourself if the trend has potential; the only way to know is to run it through a company checklist. Ask questions such as:

• Does this trend influence the company’s vision?
• Does this tend lend itself to new business concepts?
• Does this trend provide our brand with new branding tools?
• Does this trend provide you the tools to communicate with those already part of the trend, and show them you understand what excites them?

All this boils down to whether or not you are “in the loop”; if you’re not, then you have some work ahead of you.

Real Results, Real Revenue

The numbers don’t lie. Here’s what our clients have seen:

• Denver Broncos: $1M in ticket spend increase from just 10% of season ticket holders
• Seattle Sounders: 89% increase in F&B sales linked to early attendance incentives
• Vancouver Whitecaps: 98% season ticket renewal rate among fans who redeemed two rewards
• Detroit Pistons: 17% YOY growth in season ticket renewals

The Psychology Behind It

We design with intrinsic motivation in mind. People don’t just want stuff—they want recognition, exclusivity, and experiences that reflect their identity. NASA gets this. That’s why some of their most effective rewards are behind-the-scenes tours and access to launches. It’s not about scale—it’s about resonance.

Your brand can do the same.

Engagement That Feeds Itself

As the system gains traction, your marketing evolves:

• PR: Grows organically through shareable, brag-worthy moments
• Experiential: Becomes a magnet for deeper engagement
• Advertising: Becomes more targeted and, frankly, less necessary

You’re no longer chasing your audience. They’re bringing others with them.

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Why Loyalty Still Matters

In a world obsessed with fast growth and flashier campaigns, loyalty can sound old-fashioned. But here’s the truth: loyalty is still one of the most strategic, measurable, and undervalued assets in business today.

At Watson, we believe building community isn't a feel-good bonus—it's a business imperative. Organizations that prioritize sustained engagement over short-term wins don’t just keep up—they lead. They create networks of support, turn casual users into committed advocates, and design systems that feed both connection and conversion.

Designing for Commitment

The challenge isn't just getting attention—it's keeping it. Most brands cast too wide a net and forget that sustainable growth lives in the depth, not just the width, of your customer base.

That’s where loyalty systems come in. Not just point programs or punch cards, but experience-driven, data-informed ecosystems that reward behaviors, not just transactions. It’s about designing interactions that move someone from curious to committed—not with gimmicks, but with genuine value.

The Loyalty & Rewards System (LRS) we built with SKIDATA does just that. It’s a 360-degree platform designed to engage audiences across every touchpoint: online, on-site, and in the wild.

More Than Software

Anyone can build a portal. What sets us apart is how we build it—with your brand, audience, and behavioral psychology in mind. It’s not just about showing up. It’s about showing up with the right offer, at the right time, in the right voice.

We design loyalty systems that:

• Reward behaviors aligned with your business goals
• Incentivize early arrivals, higher spend, and repeated engagement
• Create custom experiences and gamified interactions
• Use real-time data and proximity triggers to engage users at the point of decision
• Seamlessly connect with existing CRMs, apps, and ticketing systems

What Makes It Work?

Experiential rewards. Tiered access. Instant gratification. The system is designed to give users something meaningful from their very first interaction. And once they’re in? The program grows with them, offering deeper perks, better content, and real influence.

That kind of value keeps people coming back—not out of obligation, but out of genuine interest.

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As part of our ongoing Speaker Series, Watson had the honor of hosting Andrea Marks—a celebrated design educator, documentarian, and visual historian who has spent the better part of two decades exploring the intersection of art, culture, and political dissent.

Marks is best known for her film Freedom on the Fence, a 40-minute documentary that chronicles the Polish School of Posters, a movement that emerged during the 20th century under Communist rule in Poland. What started as an academic exchange grant from Oregon State University turned into a global journey through archives, studios, and conversations with artists who quite literally made design under pressure.

In the postwar decades between the 1950s and 1980s, the streets of Warsaw and Kraków weren’t flooded with ads. Instead, they became impromptu galleries of illustrated thought—posters for theater, ballet, and film, designed not with marketing budgets but with wit, subversion, and layers of symbolism.

When the government controlled the press, the poster became an indirect voice of the people. Art was tolerated—but only to a point. The genius of the Polish School lay in its ambiguity: layered visuals, coded meanings, visual metaphors. The result was a new kind of communication, one that evaded censorship while sparking conversation.

“Freedom on the Fence reminds us that these weren’t just posters—they were paper-thin acts of rebellion,” said Marks.

A Studio Recentered

During her visit to Watson, Marks didn’t just show the film. She brought the work itself. Dozens of original posters from different political eras lined the studio—raw, expressive, arresting. From the surrealism of Wiktor Sadowski’s My Fair Lady to the absurdist brushwork of Henryk Tomaszewski, each piece invited reflection on what design is truly capable of: not just decoration, but direction.

In an age where most design is tasked with conversion, it was a breath of fresh air to be reminded that design can also be about conversation.

“There was something grounding about it,” said Matt Watson. “The kind of clarity that sneaks up on you. It reminded us that what we make can still matter—even when we’re not measuring it in likes or lift.”

Lessons for the Present

Marks’ visit landed at a time when many of us in the creative space are questioning the function and ethics of our work. When every brand wants a movement and every campaign wants a cause, her deep dive into authentic, context-driven design was more than educational—it was necessary.

What do we stand for?

What are we willing to say through design?

And what does it mean to do meaningful work under constraint?

These are the questions Andrea Marks has been asking for over 20 years. And we’re better off for being invited into the conversation.

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In July, we had the pleasure of welcoming a longtime friend, creative force, and kindred spirit—Aaron Draplin—to the Watson studio as part of our ongoing Speaker Series.

If you’re in design and you haven’t heard of Draplin, we’d be surprised. But in case you’ve been living off the grid (which, to be fair, Aaron might actually admire), here’s the short version: he’s the founder of Draplin Design Co., co-creator of Field Notes, author of Pretty Much Everything, and a national treasure in Carhartt.

His client list includes Nike, Esquire, Apple, Red Wing, the Obama Administration, and Ford, among others. But what sets Draplin apart isn’t just the work—it’s the thinking behind the work. The intention. The rigor. The relentless defense of clarity over trend-chasing. That’s what brought him to Watson. And that’s what resonated most with our team.

https://www.draplin.com/

This wasn’t a celebrity drop-in. It was a creative exchange.

Matt Watson and Aaron Draplin have long operated in overlapping circles—each forged in the Pacific Northwest, each shaped by an appreciation for craft, grit, and design that actually means something. There’s real respect between them, not just for each other’s portfolio, but for the philosophy behind it.

The afternoon unfolded more like a studio jam session than a keynote. Aaron rolled in with his iconic orange DDC road case (yes, it’s real), a box of books, and a head full of unfiltered design stories—equal parts insight and irreverence. He walked us through his process, his toolbox, his career trajectory—and maybe most importantly, his values.

We had the pleasure of welcoming Kristin Van Buskirk—former Nike Design Director, color strategist, and founder of Portland’s celebrated design shop Woonwinkel—to the Watson Creative Speaker Series. And while the topic of the day was color, the conversation ran much deeper: into systems thinking, global storytelling, and the unexpected poetry of palette.

Kristin’s session was more than a talk—it was a creative reunion.

She and Matt go way back. Years ago, they worked side by side at Nike, helping shape global design direction for one of the most influential brands in the world. It was a time of fast-paced innovation and cultural listening, where the stakes were high and the color decisions had ripple effects across continents. Their work wasn’t just about picking shades—it was about articulating mood, geography, emotion, and brand ethos in every hue.

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Kristin walked the Watson team through her journey—from building seasonal color strategies at Nike to curating the vibrant, design-forward product line at Woonwinkel. She broke down how color communicates without needing to explain itself, how certain palettes evoke trust, others provoke action, and how cultural context can shift perception overnight.

“Color is language. But it’s also timing. Geography. Material. Market. What works in Shanghai might feel completely off in Berlin,” Kristin explained. “At Nike, we had to think in seasons, in regions, and in emotion—simultaneously.”

From Corporate Systems to Personal Expression

These days, Kristin applies that same level of rigor to her boutique retail brand, Woonwinkel, which she founded as both a creative outlet and a platform for celebrating design that’s joyful, meaningful, and intentional. She shared how color informs everything from product selection to interior design—using palette not just as an accent, but as a strategic driver.

Woonwinkel isn’t just stocked—it’s curated. Every object plays a role in the broader color story. And that’s not by accident.

“We’re not driven by trend cycles—we’re driven by what a space or a product can make someone feel,” she said. “Color does that. Quietly. Powerfully.”

A Creative Culture Moment

For the team at Watson, Kristin’s visit wasn’t just informative—it was grounding. A reminder that while design trends come and go, good design thinking is durable. Color isn’t just a final layer. It’s part of the architecture. And when used well, it tells stories faster than words ever could.

It was also a rare moment of reflection—for Matt, for Kristin, and for those of us lucky enough to witness two creative minds reconnect in the place where strategy and craft collide.

“Kristin’s always had a designer’s eye, but more importantly, she’s always had a creative soul,” said Matt. “Hosting her felt less like a lecture and more like coming home.”

See Kristin’s Work

If you’re local, swing by Woonwinkel in downtown Portland. If not, treat yourself to a scroll through beautifully curated color at www.woonwinkelhome.com

Kristin, you’re welcome back anytime.

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As part of Portland Design Week, Watson was proud to host a conversation that cut through the noise—Chasing Rabbits, a panel about the tension between creative curiosity and creative discipline. In a world that valorizes multitasking and rewards constant output, we took a step back to ask: what happens when chasing ideas becomes chasing our tails?

The panel brought together four remarkable voices from across design, culture, and storytelling:

• Howard York – A creative director and educator with five decades of experience in New York, San Francisco, and LA
• Muneera Spence – Yale-trained designer, systems thinker, and international design educator
• Cynthia Fuhrman – Chief Operating Officer of Portland Center Stage and longtime theater executive
• Jacob Wilkinson – Design Director at Nike with deep experience in brand and product storytelling

Moderated by Matt Watson, the evening was both expansive and unflinchingly honest. We talked about ambition, distraction, perfectionism, impostor syndrome—and how the myth of the “creative genius” is often fueled by burnout masked as inspiration.

We chose the title intentionally. Anyone who’s ever tried to build a brand, ship a campaign, or write something worth reading knows the sensation: one idea leads to another, which leads to another, until you’re 42 tabs deep and unsure where you started. Some of that is healthy. Most of it is noise.

The panel explored how to know the difference.

In design and communication, the work doesn’t begin with visuals. It begins with discernment—knowing which thread to pull, and which rabbit hole to let go.

Key Themes from the Night

• The Myth of Multitasking – Creativity requires focus, and our attention is a finite resource. The panelists shared how distraction impacts not just productivity, but depth of thinking.
• Process vs. Obsession – There’s a fine line between following your instincts and spiraling. Good design systems provide structure—but too much structure can kill momentum.
• The Role of Theater in Design – Cynthia Fuhrman offered an unexpected bridge: how storytelling and live performance mirror the design process—high stakes, finite time, infinite potential.
• Education & Unlearning – Muneera Spence challenged the room to consider how we’re teaching the next generation of creatives: are we building thinkers or software operators?
• The Long Game – Howard York brought generational perspective. Trends fade. Substance lasts. And that takes patience.

A Full House, A Full Conversation

The studio was packed. The conversation was real. And while the evening didn’t offer tidy answers, it offered something better: a shared recognition that chasing ideas can be exhilarating—but chasing clarity is what actually moves the work forward.

In a creative economy defined by speed and saturation, we need more moments like this. Spaces to pause, reflect, and recalibrate. To remember that good design isn’t about chasing every rabbit—it’s about knowing which ones to follow all the way through.

Want to revisit the talk? Check out the event video here: Chasing Rabbits on Vimeo

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Building Brand Trust

Building trust is about more than claiming to be trustworthy. As a matter of fact, claiming to be trustworthy without a credible, sincere narrative to back it up can even diminish customer trust in your brand. The banking industry spends millions on advertising, yet a recent Harris poll reveals that only 13% of Americans hold a “great deal of trust” for national banks.

Advertising can only take you so far. Words like “trust” and “integrity” have been hammered so much in messaging that their impact has been exhausted to the point of commodification. In other words, you have to establish trust without ever saying “trust us.”

So, how do you demonstrate the trustworthiness of your brand?

“People don’t buy What you sell.
They buy Why you sell it.”

As Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why puts it: “People don’t buy What you sell. They buy Why you sell it.” Companies that succeed in the future are going to have an authentic brand message. And if you want your messaging to be authentic, it needs to rest on a foundation of trust, woven into your institution’s very identity.

This means building trust requires much more than brand messaging: trust has to become a business proposition, built into the core of your business. From the way you attract your customers to how you engage them and finally capture their long-term business, trust has to be part of the nature of the business you conduct with them.

As Gary Vaynerchuck puts it: “Market to where their customers are and in the year we live in.” From your radio advertising campaign to your online presence, from the space design of your lobby and all the way to your loan officer’s handshake, trust must become a consistent business proposition that drives all the facets of your brand.

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Other Success Stories

Umpqua Bank is not the only financial institution that has garnered success by building trust in its brand through a solid brand identity. Here are five banks that have enjoyed success as well:

• Lewis & Clark Bank communicated its identity and built trust in its business through client stories and a design that reflects its regional significance an origin story. As a result of these branding efforts, Lewis & Clark Bank’s website was featured in a number of prestigious publications including Forbes, The Financial Brand and ABA Bank Marketing and Sales.

• Frost Bank innovated by engaging its customers through pictures. It allowed its customers to take photos and post them directly on its home page, thus helping build brand trust through putting a face to its customer base.

• First Republic may be corporate at first glance, but its messaging is ultra-clear: they are high-end, care about wealth management, and spare little energy on anything else. By building a strong identity focused on this niche, First Republic is ensuring a clearer message.

• Hawaii National Bank reached its customers in the ultra-competitive Hawaiian banking space through communicating clearly their spirit and mission. It also tells good brand stories that convey its Hawaiian values and roots.

• Citizen Bank of Edmond took to social media to promote itself with help from its awesome CEO, Jill Castilla. Castilla is very active online and a vocal supporter of community banking. As a result, CBE is building trust in its brand through consistency of messaging, and through a unique, fun personality that communicates its values.

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Trust Is the Game

Whether you’re a national bank or a brand-new credit union, your unique business opportunity rests on crafting an original brand identity, then building trust in that identity throughout all aspects of your interactions with customers and the community.

There is a place for low rates in banking, and there will always be a segment of the customer base that will go for these no matter what. But with the advent of millennial banking, banks such as Umpqua and Lewis & Clark have demonstrated that there is a space for smaller financial institutions to reach customers through than commodity pricing.

Their messaging might be different, but the technique is the same: forge a strong brand identity, then establish trust in your brand across each and every interaction with your customers and your community.

Lead with a brand identity built on trust and the customers will come. This is the strategy that WATSON CREATIVE promotes with all its business designs, and the approach is paying off for the banking industry.

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Want to Learn More? Give Us a Call!

Building trust with your brand identity is very important for business success. Long-term customers are loyal to brands they trust, especially in the financial world of personal banking.  How your brand is perceived in the minds of consumers will dictate their trust in your product.

Contact Watson Creative today to speak with an experienced brand strategist. Our Portland office can be reached at 800-280-3057. You can also send us a message at any time to design@watsoncreative.com.

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Trust is the cornerstone of relationship banking. Without trust the entire banking industry, from national banks to credit unions, would be a mere commodity market competing on prices and rates alone. But building trust with customers requires much more than making the claim one is trustworthy: from advertisement to the handshake of your financial advisor, trust must be weaved into the very identity of your brand.

According to a recent Accenture study, baby boomers have begun transferring their life savings to their heirs, initiating a massive $30-trillion-dollars wealth transfer to the millennial generation. This is forcing financial institutions to update their banking technology offerings to accommodate the lifestyle of this new generation. But along with the influx of new technologies comes the need to reevaluate the very concept of relationship banking, and with it the very approach to building trust in business.

This is what led WATSON CREATIVE to enter the fray. Matt Watson, creative director and co-founder, worked with Citigroup for two years, during which time Citibank/Travelers became the largest corporate merger in the world. Matt also worked on TransUnion Branding, Household, and First Union. In recent years, WATSON CREATIVE has created award-winning work for Lewis & Clark Bank, and is now collaborating with Consolidated Community Credit Union and First State Bank.

Building customer trust rests on four pillars: competence, consistency, benefit and vision. All four must be strong for the foundation of trust to endure.

Competence means demonstrating efficiency at providing products and services and resolving unforeseen situations. A huge component of competence relies on customer service, from financial advisors to customer support. A professional service is a fundamental aspect of competence: it is not only what you do, but how you do it.

Consistency can mean either consistency over time or over distance. For a bank or credit union, that means establishing consistent business practices across all branches and online. Consistency also means establishing a tradition of trust between customers and the financial institution.

Benefit means the benefit to the customer. Benefits can be monetary (e.g. low rates), but other aspects such as convenience and hassle-free transactions can also be a factor. Since low rates are usually the easiest to demonstrate, financial institutions that can’t establish trust in other ways often rely on low rates at the expense of other trust drivers.

Vision can be understood as extending consistency into the future. It means the financial institution will be ready to weather tomorrow’s changes and challenges from both the perspectives of business and technology. This is a critical point for the millennial generation.

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The Upside of the Downturn

Marketing represents a massive revenue potential for a brand, and it’s undoubtedly important to reassess efficiency and effectiveness in times of trouble. But this reassessment is also a perfect opportunity to revisit and enhance brand strategy. Doing nothing is not an option; this is the time to survey the competitive landscape, and gain separation from the pack. Don’t guesstimate; research with precision which of your customers generate profits for the brand, and cut only where and when the effect on the consumer base will be minimal

Evaluating categorical changes is not only beneficial to the brand, but also to your customers, because it means you will attempt to fulfill their needs by providing some of the most innovative and up-to-date products and services. The field of technology has been busted wide open, and the time is now to forecast technological advances and use them to redefine the market.

The impact of a recession can be fatal to a brand, but seeking new and creative ways to maintain your consumer base while striving to expand it is a time-tested way to make up for lost ground and gain a headstart over the competition. Tightening the brand’s budget and uncovering inefficiencies is a conventional way of handling the economic dip, but through the Internet and various channels of communications, you can forge a strong identity and leap ahead of the competition.

The opportunities presented by a recession are masked by brand dilution, old marketing mentalities, and dormant innovation. By sifting through the scraps of failed brands and outdated methods, you can cultivate a solid structure of creative content and effective communication. The first and obvious priority is to review and analyze your brand; but next, you must follow up with a clear understanding of what drives demand, then incorporate this into the changing brand experience. This, ultimately, will lead to successful brand evolution and economic stability.

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Beyond Recession

Economic downturn can be a scary, stressful time, but history has proven time and again that it is also a moment of great opportunity. Out of the Great Depression came a number of powerful brands that rode out the economic downturn, and surfed the wave of economic recovery that followed. The crisis exposed a number of unoccupied niches in the marketplace, and those who positioned their brand with the business savvy and strategic thinking where the first to reap the rewards of an economic upswing.

There is every reason to believe that the economic recovery that will follow the current recession will not be any different. Acting in support of your brand and identity, even in times of economic duress, is not only a strategy for survival in the short term: it’s also a sound business strategy for when the economy recovers at last.

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The lingering effects of 2008’s international economic collapse can still be felt nearly everywhere. Many cities are still recovering, while many individuals continue to get hit by hardships: student loan debt keeps rising, unemployment rates muddle around the same percentage, fiscal cliffs are on the horizon, and the worrisome indicators of another downturn remain in the country’s peripheral vision. Now more than ever, it’s crucial to have the foresight to recognize signs of another economic slowdown and brace for impact, cross our fingers, and prepare so we can emerge from the rubble fitter than ever.

The cogs of the marketing machine (advertising, product & web design, identity, packaging, brand strategies, and, above all, a promise of consistency) are essential to any operation, but new technologies and a survey of the competitive landscape can provide a safety net when pitfalls become ubiquitous. Perhaps most important of all, innovation is the true example of a competitive advantage; and while it’s scary to take risks on unique approaches and ideas, it remains a necessity in today’s economic climate.

At the turn of the 20th century, features (“what it is”) were the selling point of a product/service. This slowly shifted to an emphasis on the product’s benefits (“what it does”) around the 1920s, then towards the experience itself (“what you feel”) in the 50s. Now, in the 2000s, the selling point arguably relies on identification: “who you are.” It’s about why a given product separates the consumer from all others, and this is where the impact of innovation is felt the most.

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When the economy is slow and the people are reeling and cutting costs at every juncture, consumers tend to revert to the brands they trust. The reliability of your brand is likely to be the most significant aspect in the customer’s eye, followed by the delight and rewarding feeling they experience when buying into your brand and its perks. These two characteristics are what form the basis of trust in a brand’s customer, and this will always be the most valuable attribute of a company. This is especially true during a recession.

A brand with no substitutes attracts a devout, trustworthy consumer base. This is an incomparable advantage, and a necessity to stay afloat in troubled economic waters. Studying these murky waters can provide invaluable insight for survival; if you can learn from this experience, perform some self-analysis, and study your most loyal customers to understand how to cater to them, you will turn your band bulletproof.

Locally, for instance, we have worked with some notable brands who relied on a similar business strategy to establish themselves through the trust that they built. Burgerville is a prime example of a brand we collaborated with that started small, and made their way to a strong regional influence. They focus on sustainability and locally organic grub, which adds to their trust factor and quickly gained them a stable customer base throughout the Northwest region. By placing an emphasis on eco-friendly, healthy fast food, they’ve crafted a regional favorite that meshes with Northwest values and mindsets.

Oddball.com is another examplar of efficiency in hard times. They scaled back their retail strategy and gradually shifted to an online-driven sales model. This worked out exceptionally well for this shoe business focusing on big feet, and has made them a top shop for men looking for fashionable footwear. This has also been the case for Keen, who had a similar success with their footwear. They have become a stellar example of successful niche marketing, and have developed a cult-like following in Oregon.

Other Portland businesses have become synonymous with the Rose City due to their reliability and history. Powell’s Books, for instance, is a bookstore that became wildly popular simply because they stayed alive in the dying days of the publishing industry by offering local vibes and a wide range of publications to both locals and tourists. Voodoo Doughtnuts is another example; they have grown into a must-see tourist stop, based on their reliable offerings of over-the-top doughnuts.

All these businesses had one point in common in their business strategy: trust. This clearly paid off in a lasting and durable manner regardless of the recession.

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“Then the “FCC” rained down on “GOOGLE” and “FACEBOOK” brimstone and fire, and they overthrew those companies, and all of the (Silicon) Valley.” – Genesis 19:24

Have you ever felt like someone was watching you on the internet? Like, “Wasn’t I looking at boots online a week ago and now ads for every boot company in the world is suddenly on each webpage I visit?” Have you nodded in approval to headlines like, “Google proposes tighter standards around data collected for digital ads” or, “It’s an arms race: Publishers prepare for an anti-tracking-dominant future”.

For digital marketers, this is worrisome. No, alarming.

If tighter regulations around data privacy is where we’re headed, could this be the end of digital marketing as we know it? Is the golden age of social media advertising over? Well, maybe. But before we get into what’s happening with digital marketing and the state of social media, let’s see how we got here first.

To keep a long and complicated story short, we got here because of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the 2016 presidential election. Not sure what happened? In 2015, the Trump campaign hired Cambridge Analytica to develop targeting personas for their advertising. With the help of a research associate at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge Analytica developed a Facebook quiz to collect user profile data. They then exposed a loophole in Facebook’s API that allowed them to collect data from the Facebook friends of the quiz takers, exposing over 87 million users’ data. Facebook prohibited the selling of data collected with this method, but Cambridge Analytica sold the data anyway.

So what does all that have to do with advertising? Well, that huge dataset allowed the Trump campaign to spend significantly less on advertising than their opponent, while targeting the most susceptible groups to their ads. Second, it exposed some glaring problems with social media advertising and data privacy.

At Google’s I/O Conference they announced their plans for data privacy.

• Improve the classification of cookies
• Give clarity and visibility to cookie settings
• Block device fingerprinting

Beyond that they announced a new initiative called “Privacy Sandbox” to find a solution that both protects user privacy and also helps content remain freely accessible on the web. But they say it’s going to be a long process and not something that happens overnight. So until they solve the problem of data privacy and tracking for advertisers, what will we see in the market?

A shift away from direct-response, retargeting, and cross-site advertising and a rise in contextual advertising and content marketing is what’s on the horizon if these changes to tracking keep going at this pace. From an advertiser perspective this is all well and good if you are prepared and know where you are getting your data. But if not, it might be time to invest in some good copywriters and brush up on your content marketing skills.

From a consumer perspective, this is great news if you are worried about your data being private but this still only affects 3rd party tracking of your data. Facebook for example still has all the data from your profile and user activity on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. And Google has all your data from pretty much anywhere you go on the web if you are using chrome.

Short of going off the grid, there are some precautions you can take to limit the amount of tracking you are victim to (Cookie Tracking) but the fact is if you are on the internet, you are being tracked.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.