06 | When Brands Talk Community

and when we actually feel like one.

March 01, 2024

It wasn’t until the next day that I noticed the small line of painted words on the wall next to where I found a too-close-to-believe parking spot for the boat near the apartment. That was the day I went to pick up trash off of the boat cover (it had spilled, mysteriously, from the quay). And as I did that, a neighbor living right there came out and informed me that it was her spot (the painted words made it so). We got a bit tense about it.

There are no reserved spots for boats in Amsterdam. But the city’s government, admitting that people do it anyway, says on their web site to “just work it out with them.” “Just work it out” is what this country is built on, after all. How else does livable land get carved out of the sea without some neighborly solidarity and collaboration [read: dyke-building]. My previous job was about finding scale in every idea. My life in Amsterdam is about finding community in every interaction.

We talk a lot about community in our work. Mostly we mean digital comments and likes (”engagement”, a silly word). And we host pop-ups or events, where we seek to bring those likers and commenters — wary, blinking — into the bright glow of our brand. And yet neither encapsulates it wholly.

IRL struggles to replicate the ease and wide, gamboling reach of digital in connecting like-minded people. Digital fails to replicate, well, I guess an actual connection. Not that some aren’t trying. Witness the dating app Hinge, which last year made a big to-do about donating $1m to community groups in a couple of cities in an effort to foster human connection, and just this week released a smart-phone shaped paper “Phonebook” full of conversation starters (oh my).

A paper tiger in the battle against social isolation.

Maybe they thought that would separate them from other dating apps in the global fight against loneliness. And where Hinge and co. are failing (and turning off their frustrated customers), new ones are stepping into the void: Portuguese-born Timeleft forgoes the swiping to algorithmically match six strangers and book them a spot to meet for dinner every Wednesday in cities across Europe. Digital as a conduit to actual community around a dinner table (they also provide conversation starters).

Today at Apple sought to transform the stores into places where people gathered and learned and connected. Throughout the program, we’d see creative efforts surfaced on our participants’ socials — iPad drawings, iPhone photography — which they’d hashtag #todayatapple. Those were nice, but the moments that felt closest to the ideal were sessions that involved local artists, who brought in their own followers and fans. I once took one with the excellently named podcaster Avery Trufelman organized by our wonderful head of programming Alana Corbett in San Francisco’s Union Square store. Scores turned out for it (thanks to digital). By the end, we perfect strangers had all donned headphones and were interviewing and laughing with each other on GarageBand (thanks, IRL).

Pay-to-play social platforms, and a global pandemic that further curbed our already alarming preference to stay home make for stiff headwinds. TikTok has rallied folks around recipes, books, and Duolingo’s weird, needy owl. But is there any community in those ephemeral touchpoints?

When a brand does it right, its attempts to build connection aren’t limited to reposts in which customers tout their products and values, but in elevating those of their customers as well. Some nice examples below.

Ah, and as for the neighbor. We quickly mellowed our tone and exchanged WhatsApp numbers. Her boat was in the shop. When it was done, she texted me and I moved mine — and took someone else’s parking spot.

👇🏼 some nice examples

Paynter’s Newsletter by Paynter 🧵 Launched several years ago by a trim, stylish husband-and-wife team in London, the small clothing brand’s business model is quite puzzling at first. They produce (with a few, more recent exceptions) only one, limited-run product: a painter’s jacket (or chore coat, or overshirt, or whatever your word is for them). That product, available in men’s and women’s sizes, gets produced 4 times a year and sells for around 200 some-odd euros. Your only chance at donning one requires subscribing to their newsletter and, when the announcement comes, hustling to order it. They only produce as many as are ordered in a week. They are currently on Batch 16 and, yes, sold out. I gave up on trying to get one. The pace throws me off. And yet, and yet … the way they sustain interest in their brand and create community throughout the year is impressive. If you subscribe, you’re quickly educated on the slow and sustainable business model powering Paynter in a tone of voice both humble and charming. They occasionally use their newsletter to celebrate the work of the people who buy the coats or subscribe. We’ve seen this in social, but using e-mail enables a direct, more intimate way to connect with their creative, enterprising community and a chance for new members to get on the Paynter web site, poking around at their Stories and positioning themselves for a shot at the next batch.

Conversations Amongst Us by New Balance 👟 Joe Freshgoods (government name Joe Robinson) started out making clothes for himself in Chicago, and that grew into a making clothes for others, namely the city’s talented and nascent hip hop scene (Chief Keef, Chance, the Rapper). That turned into shoe collabs with Adidas, Vans, and others before he finally arrived at New Balance, where he found something beyond simply a collaboration-for-profit opportunity. Appointed a creative director at the company, the Conversations Amongst Us campaign he originated includes product, but also a speaker and YouTube series that he pitched them. In “Shared Spaces: An Open and Honest Community Gathering” he hosts conversations with black New Balance athletes and employees around topics of access, representation, and perseverance. For him, it’s an opportunity to amplify Black voices within the company and — through the digital content — elevate the themes that occupy Black professionals to the brand’s wider audience. More than a soapbox, it’s intended to feel organic and actionable — with an emphasis on exchanging resources and information. Don’t head there for Freshgoods’ rambling style, which sometimes leads to conversational dead-ends. Rather, look for those moments where his anecdotes prompt illuminating ones in his interview subjects, and another layer, or piece of advice, is revealed.

❄️ Flotsam & Jetsam 🚢
Random links from this week’s haul

🎧 A legend in the graphic design game and if you’re less schooled in that area (like me), this interview with Neville Brody is a great primer. His hard-earned perspective also shines: finding similarity in the engineering-dominated paradigm faced by designers at the end of the 19th century and today.

📺 Here’s another great Home episode (Apple TV+) and one fitting to this week’s theme: Artist Theaster Gates transforming abandoned buildings and homes in his Chicago’s south side, elevating Black history and culture in the process.

Hey, what is this?
BRAND NEW STORY highlights smart strategies and good stories told by brands and humans. It’s penned by me, Andreas Tzortzis (or, simply, Dre) and draws on insights from my career at Red Bull, Apple, and in my own brand consultancy Hella. Every week or so I write on a theme and curate links of brands doing it well, along with just great stories from the worlds of culture, tech, and, um ... humanity. Sign up here.

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