Super Bowl LX: Cultural Flex, Commercial Miss
Every year, the ListenFirst strategy team puts together a monster report on the Super Bowl, distilling what actually broke through across platforms, moments, and brand plays — not just what aired between downs. Here is a deep dive into the report, with some extra spice on the controversy that dominated the news cycle before and […]
Quick Dip: 2016 Core
2016 Core Is Back: Why A Decade On, Social Media Is Loving 2016 Again The cream rises to the top, as they say. // 2016 Fashion Blog Back to 2016 From chokers and bottle flips to viral throwbacks and unfiltered content, the “2026 is the new 2016” wave reveals a collective longing for simpler internet […]
Fall in the House of Labubu
Labubu: What happens when the fandom cools, and the brand scrambles to keep the wheel turning? This article is a follow-up to our “The Rise of Labubu” deep dive from July 2025. You can read it here. In 2025, Labubu wasn’t just a toy. It was a flex. The bug-eyed gremlin from Pop Mart’s The […]
The Coach Comeback
From outlet brand burnout to TikTok virality and Gen Z obsession, Coach’s resurgence is a case study in how legacy brands can pivot through product design, creator culture, and platform-native strategy. Rolling Stone Coach: The Brand That Fell (Then Flew Again) When my husband and I first started dating, he gave me a Coach purse […]
A Pinterest Holiday Strategy: 2025
Holiday feeds get noisy; Pinterest stays useful. People open it to plan and decide—then buy. Treat it like lower-funnel social search: get your catalog clean, publish decision-aid Pins, and let automation and Promotions do the heavy lifting, with Trend Badges extending shelf life where it fits. The platform’s latest holiday report backs this up with […]
Deep Dive: When Aesthetics Predict Politics
How Social Media Style Trends Have Foreshadowed Presidential Outcomes from 2016 to 2025 & What That Can Tell Us About the Future What if the road to the White House runs through Instagram closets and TikTok living rooms? Over the past decade, U.S. presidential elections have been preceded—and arguably predicted—by distinct shifts in fashion and […]