Welcome to Market Stall
Plus some recommendations from this week.
Hi, welcome! This is Market Stall, a newsletter dedicated to looking at what is new in the world of marketing and brand.
Firstly, as we are all new here, I thought best to introduce myself - I’m Ellyce and I’ve been working in brand and marketing for a decade, working specifically in the luxury, fashion & beauty spheres. I’m currently leading the marketing team at multi-brand retailer in Australia, having previously worked in-house at brands and in agencies in Australia, plus a six-year stint in the UK where I spent majority of my time in the international brand team with fashion retailer Matches. Beyond the working day, I’m fascinated by why we buy what we buy and the stories behind some of the best brands in the world.
So, in a world inundated with millennials launching Substacks, what’s new about this one?
There’s a lot of commentary and sources that look at what’s happening in marketing - new campaigns, new trends in the industry, the coming of AI and how it will render everyone from art directors to copywriters redundant. But unless you have endless monthly subscriptions, loads of scroll time, or an ability to wade through an overactive slack channel of “FYI - saw this and thought it would be relevant for you” - it can be exhausting to filter through the noise. What is truly new (not much), what is cutting through (apart from Taylor Swift and Stanley cups), and what do we all think about it?
That’s where the name of Market Stall came from. A presentation of the juiciest, most delicious produce - selected by me for you - to consume as you please. Whilst a lot of this will centre around fashion, beauty, retail and lifestyle (write what you know, after all), I’ll also explore other areas of marketing/advertising that are out in the public sphere.
Sure, marketing is not without its social hang ups. It’s constantly changing, capitalises on the culture of busy-ness, preys on our increased connection to social media and all the negative mental health impacts that it causes. It fuels consumerism, which in turn fuels the destruction of the planet etc etc.
But as we hear more and more, two things can be true at once. Marketing can also be a force for cultural change, bring human connection and levity, amplify creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation. So maybe this is something we will explore more in the weeks ahead? Where’s the balance in all of this and what’s the way forward?
My hope is that this newsletter will turn into more of a conversation - so feel free to disagree, shout out the campaigns that you love or share the things that you are baffled got through several decks and sign offs to make it out into the world.
Chat soon,
Ellyce
Recommendations from this week.
As a taste of things to come, I’ve compiled a list of things I’ve found interesting relating to the worlds of brand and marketing this week. Happy reading/listening!
How Our Legacy Became The Biggest Little Fashion Brand in the World, via British GQ. A very well written and cleverly executed (by OL’s PR team) to go behind the scenes of the brand.
Skye Gyngell on The Modern House’s Homing In podcast - Podcasts as marketing extensions are no new or rare activity these days, but Homing In does it exceptionally well. The Modern House, in and of itself, is a fascinating brand in terms of their marketing strategy, transcending being a real estate agency to create a full blown lifestyle platform. This episode with Skye is extra special, for its subtle exploration on experiential brand in Skye’s hospitality ventures.
SOTA’s How Brands Use Entertainment To Create Blockbuster Moments. One part of edition+partner’s 12-part thesis on Brand Universes, this one goes deep on the crossover between brands and entertainment. Not just the “brand as entertainment” concept, but the acquisition of entertainment media by brands.