👀 Anthro Issue #001 | 🍸 Bar Culture, Drinks Disruptors, Video and Social Commerce

Your weekly newsletter on brands, campaigns, culture and insights.

Jul 26, 2020

Welcome to Anthro, a weekly community newsletter featuring must read content about the best and most exciting movements by brands, with a heavy focus on culture and actionable insights. I’m trying to make this one of the most valuable emails you receive each week. If you’ve enjoyed this first issue, please like it above ❤ and leave me a comment 💬

Good morning friends,

Thank you for joining me in this Anthro Community and reading Issue #1 of the Newsletter. I’m so excited to have you here! ✨

My aim is to bring you the most valuable professional insights, industry analysis, trends, culture, dos and don’ts that will help you stay on top of your brand & campaign game. Whether you’re the founder of a company, at a start-up, in an agency or in-house- this is the place for your dose of industry news.

Every Sunday I’ll ping you with an interview with a badass industry pro, some deep analysis, and a curated pick of the must read happenings that you need to know.

Here’s what you’ll learn today:

Culture, community and cocktails from the World’s Best Bar team. Interview with Lyaness’ Veronica Di Pietrantonio
Investing in your brand purpose has a long term pay off. The lowdown on Oatly - from relaunching, to winning a $200 million investment and $2B valuation in Anthro Industry Analysis
The low-and-no-alcohol category. New aperitif brand Ghia is doing it well in Anthro Industry Analysis
Video first and social commerce are growing. TikTok and Chinese Super Apps are inspiring the future of how we consume content and products. Is there a new content-centric business model here?
The Facebook advertising boycott continues. Where will brands reallocate their budgets? Owned content? Google?

What can we learn from the World’s Best Bar Team about community and cocktails?

I interview Veronica Di Pietrantonio, the friendly face of Lyaness cocktail bar on London’s Southbank. Having previously won the title of World’s Best Bar, she tells us about the brand culture, being a woman in a male dominated industry, and her go-to cocktail recipe you can try at home. 👀 Read the full interview with Lyaness’ Veronica Di Pietrantonio

Veronica’s French 75:
30 ml Gin
15 ml of fresh lemon juice
15 ml of sugar syrup
Top up with champagne

How investing in your brand purpose pays off

Analysis of cult alt milk brand Oatly shows us how standing for something and knowing your audience is more valuable than ever. By relaunching and focusing on the environment, and getting to know their “stealth health” consumer, they are taking the global dairy free market by storm and this is just the beginning. 👀 Read the Anthro Industry Analysis on Oatly

Kevin Lee @kevinleeme

1/ Oatly doesn't think like the rest. They've been around for 20 years as a Swedish company fighting for attention. Last week, the oat milk company raised $200mm at a $2bn valuation. This is a lesson on creativity and how @oatly turns disadvantages into massive opportunities.

Alcohol is so passé. Why there’s everything to play for in the low-and-no alcohol space

Glossier alumna 💄 Melanie Masarin shows us how a brand can have “all of the spirit” and “none of the booze”. There’s a huge opportunity to stand out in a small but growing niche, and Masarin’s aperitif inspired Ghia 🍹 is leading the way. 👀 Read the Anthro Industry Analysis on Ghia

Video and Social Commerce

What can we learn from China about social commerce? And how does this impact our current social media strategies? 👀 Read this Medium article by Jess Li from Soma Capital

Personalisation and recommendations are the future of social, and video is the medium. Covid has accelerated video 🎥 People are becoming video native. Video first is sticking around - for social as well as e-commerce. It gives us more information, it’s relatable and it gives your audience confidence. Ultimately, video is more human. The likes of Super Apps (e.g. WeChat) and TikTok are driving these changes. 👀 Listen to Connie Chan, GP Andreesson Horowitz, on the Business Casual podcast or read the key takeaways here

The relationship between content/product discovery 🔍 and social media is set to strenghten, and TikTok’s algorithm is a potential enabler in Western markets. Chinese users see shoppable video functionality in their version of the app. Zyper founder Amber Atherton calls out the nuisance of constant ads on Instagram and Facebook. She cites TikTok as the alternative. Are we seeing the rise of an alternative content-centric business model?

Current: Monetisation of adverts/paid content 💰
Future: Monetisation of discovery and ⬆ social recommendations 💸

Amber Atherton 🌟 @AmberAtherton

In 2015 I was over Facebook. Each session = no value & negativity. I delete my account. Today I have the same feeling about Instagram. I am over being a part of a shopping network / how impossible it now is to see content from my friends. Time to delete..and go...full tiktok?

Facebook Advertising Boycott

The recent Facebook advertising boycott is about brands standing up to the social giant’s decisions not to address hate speech 🚫 Brands will use this time to experiment on other platforms. If these are successful, is there any reason for them to return to Facebook in future? 👂 Listen to Amber Atherton, Zyper CEO at 13 minutes in on Bloomberg Businesssweek Podcast

If brands continue to boycott the social media giant, where will these funds be reallocated? Google ads? Investing in better content? More owned video content? Publishers and PR? 👀 Read John McCarthy’s article on The Drum

Patagonia @patagonia

Patagonia is proud to join the Stop Hate for Profit campaign. We will pull all ads on Facebook and Instagram, effective immediately, through at least the end of July, pending meaningful action from the social media giant.

❔ Should you have any questions, simply reply to this email.

I want to hear from you! Have these insights been interesting and useful? What other content would be helpful for you to receive? Would you like to be interviewed for the interview series? Ping me! 😉

Have a great day and see you next week on Anthro!

Sanya 😊

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