There’s a new genre emerging this summer but it’s less about music — and more about how people are feeling. It’s called Yacht House, a mash up of Yacht Rock wtih Deep House and some DJs think it could be the genre that defines the summer.

At first, it’s just fun — nostalgic Steely Dan layered over warm house beat – but the more I listened, the more it started to feel like a signal, a reflection of the times we’re in from the culture we create.

When times are good, culture often leans darker and more confrontational. Think about The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and Succession.

By contrast, when times feel heavy or exhausting, we look for the opposite. We gravitate towards the comfort, polish and escapism that can be found in Ted Lasso, Emily in Paris or even The White Lotus.

Enter Yacht Rock. Again.

Yacht Rock first emerged in the late ’70s as smooth, meticulously produced music and acted as a kind of escape from and reaction to the political and social turbulence. It was polished, melodic and easy to sit with. Its no surprise that over the past decade, Yacht Rock has seen a steady revival, through playlists, radio stations and documentaries and has been described as a form of reassuring escapism.

And so, seeing it remixed and reinterpreted suggests that we are looking for that 70s feeling again. We’re collectively craving a buffer from the noise, a moment of calm and a sense that things are, however briefly, under our control.

Yacht House takes that Yacht Rock DNA and updates it with airy synths, warm bass-lines and smooth, flowing production. Across YouTube and streaming platforms, there’s been an explosion of mixes framed around “luxury yacht house,” “mediterranean sunset vibes” and “relaxing smooth deep house”. Its a new generation offering the same promise of smooth, relaxing, luxury escape in a world where all of those things can feel very out of reach.

And of course, this isn’t really about music. It’s about what people need right now. In a world that feels increasingly chaotic, it’s about audiences gravitating toward experiences that feel composed, calm, intentional and more importantly, under control. If calm is becoming a premium, the implication is that there is an opportunity for marketers to create work that feels smooth in its pacing, confident in its execution and polished in its finish. Work where everything flows and nothing feels frantic.

“Yacht House” might not become a formal genre. It may not become the sound of the summer but as a cultural and emotional signal, it’s as clear as day that people are looking for moments where everything just feels… smooth.

I’m not sure about your house, but in mine it’s hard to escape the massive Netflix hit, K-Pop: Demon Hunters. It’s dominating the music charts, the box office, the streaming data and now even my algorithm is showing me dads who have let themselves succumb to the cultural wave. While I also love a good singalong, this had me thinking about trends, not fads. For years now I’ve been, as a man of Southeast Asian origin, intrigued by the amount of Asian culture that has been imported to the Western world.

When I was growing up in the UK, the only Asian culture we had access to was poorly dubbed kung-fu movies, the Monkey King comics my dad brought back from Chinatown and the odd Chinese takeaway. Anime was something you could only see in the very early hours on obscure TV stations and sushi was an oddity that blew your sinuses out.

Now things are very different. Instagram feeds are flooded with Harajuku-inspired streetwear, boba shops have lines down the block and minimal Japandi interiors are showing up in every home décor feed.

Between food, fashion and fandom, Asian culture is no longer something ‘niche.’ It’s the cultural pulse. It’s mainstream. And it’s here to stay.

How did this happen? Well, it didn’t happen all at once, it happened in waves.

The Culinary Wave: Instant Cultural Currency

Ramen, sushi, Korean fried chicken and boba are now experiences people seek out and share online. South Korean restaurant openings in the U.S. increased 10% in the past year – from an already high base.

Food is the first handshake people have with culture.

The Musical Wave: K-Pop as a Global Engine

Gangnam Style has 5.7bn views on YouTube. BTS has sold over 30 million albums worldwide and BLACKPINK’s collaborations with global pop stars pull tens of millions of views in hours (IFPI, 2023). K-pop fandom isn’t passive—fans are creating memes, content and communities that influence everything from TikTok trends to fashion lines.

“BTS isn’t just music—they’re a cultural force that transcends language.” – Billboard

The Star Power Wave: Hollywood Stories That Stick

Crazy Rich Asians earned $238 million worldwide, proving that authentic representation sells (Box Office Mojo, 2018) and while there were criticisms that the movie didn’t represent all Asians everywhere all at once, it was incredible for me to see another devastatingly handsome Malaysian-Englishman up on the big screen…and then in (alleged) consideration for James Bond.

The Fashion & Decoration Wave: Silent Trendsetters

The minimalism of Muji was once the only window into Japanese design. Now Harajuku streetwear shapes global fashion weeks and Japandi interiors—minimal, warm and soulful—have gone viral on Pinterest. Japanese design itself has started to be remixed and reinterpreted:

“Japandi is minimalism with cozy elements[…] Space and Soul.” – LuxeSpace

This Isn’t a Fad

Asian cultural influence in the West is systemic, measurable and reshaping behaviors across multiple industries:

• Tourism and Currency Shifts: Japan welcomed 31 million visitors in 2019 and with the yen recently weakening against the dollar, travel has become even more accessible. Japanese cities, cuisine and design are attainable for millions of North Americans.
• Streaming Superpowers: Netflix, Disney+ and Crunchyroll have made K-pop, anime and Korean dramas global phenomena almost overnight. Series like Squid Game hit 142 million households in its first month and K-Pop: Demon Hunters shows how Western audiences eagerly embrace content rooted in non-Western narratives. Media isn’t just exported—it’s lived, memed and remixed.
• Lifestyle Integration: Harajuku streetwear, Japandi interiors, ramen shops and boba cafes are no longer curiosities. They’re woven into daily life, social identity and everyday aesthetics. This generation of Western audiences expects things that feel culturally fluent and authentic.
• Cultural Influence Across Categories: This wave isn’t limited to music or film. It’s shaping food habits, fashion choices, home décor, social media trends and even corporate branding. It’s a multi-industry tidal wave and brands that treat it as a fad risk being left behind.
• Wellness as Cultural Currency: Asian-inspired wellness is increasingly sought after as Western audiences are borrowing from a lifestyle they associate with longevity, balance and elevated quality of life. Whether its matcha or Korean skincare through to meditation rituals or Japandi minimalism daily habits are being adopted that signal health, mindfulness and sophistication.

“This isn’t a trend you can slap a logo on. It’s reshaping how people eat, dress, consume media and live their lives.”

So What? The Bottom Line

From Netflix’s K-Pop: Demon Hunters to sushi shops, streetwear and home décor, Asian culture is having a huge impact on shaping Western lifestyles, and shows no sign of abating.

When I was working with a major esports sponsor, the feedback we heard from the community was that they wanted more non-endemic brands to participate as if they were endemic. That’s stuck with me because its clear that no community wants to feel exploited. If marketers want to participate, they have to do the work and earn that right. It’s not about borrowing a style, it’s about embracing the culture and being curious about where the trend comes from, why it spreads and how to spot the next one.

Now What: Insights for Marketers

1. Fans Are More Powerful Than Influencers: K-pop fans aren’t passive—they create memes, remix content and drive virality. Campaigns that tap fan energy outperform traditional influencer campaigns. But you can still surround and engage fans through their influences.
2. Food Is a Cultural Trojan Horse: A pop-up ramen shop or limited-edition boba flavor isn’t just a product, it’s an entry point to wider cultural enlightenment and done right can spark social media virality.
3. Its all vibes: Street fashion and Japandi interiors show that people buy into aesthetics and values, not just objects. The right vibes win time, emotion and ultimately money.
4. Remix, Don’t Copy: Surface-level borrowing feels hollow. Trends like Japandi have succeeded because they blend, remix and respect the original cultural contexts.
5. The World Is Flatter, Smaller and Faster: Cultures used to take generations to make an impact globally. Now a subculture on a street in Japan can influence fashion on the catwalks and, thanks to fast fashion, in malls almost immediately.

You may be too late to be early on this one, but you can be early on the next one. Be curious. Treat culture as a canvas, not a costume. That’s how you’ll earn attention and loyalty that others miss.

When I started in digital advertising we had time to crack a new idea for each campaign and then some real budget to produce the creative – I remember in the interview process my potential boss told me that they had recently used the raven from a video game in a Halloween ad for an alcohol beverage client. Creative reviews were so exciting – how could we hack the system, disrupt users and generally do some cool shit to put our clients top of mind? One time, our creative director made all the clients cry in a creative presentation through a combination of a mood board, tone video and a kick ass idea…which would eventually manifest as a series of standard 40k banners.

Nowadays, it feels like everything is an adapt of an adapt but needed in 20,000 versions and dimensions. There’s less time for the idea because the idea is increasingly taking second string to the form and format that it needs to be expressed in, based on best practices from the media platforms selling you the space and the audience.

There is an insatiable machine which demands a constant flow of new assets, which means effort and craft can be put into them which in turn means there’s less chance of the industry making durable advertising which can deliver value to our clients for years on end.

Rather, we create a huge width of stuff to feed the machine. Everything is the start of something and the continuation of nothing. Some of the best brands which used to put out the most amazing advertising are now putting out stuff that wouldn’t have seen the light of day 30+ years ago. There’s more sizzle but less steak.

We know that the half-life of “content” has shrunk year over year to something approaching hours rather than months, let alone years. Even though we know this, we’re still focusing on the increasingly short term, immediate needs of “just say something” to fill a media space (that does not “need” filling) rather than thinking about what idea will endure and what executions will reverberate through our audience’s collective consciousness.

John Long over on Twitter has a fantastic thread comparing classic ads to their more modern counterparts and the difference is…stark.

I remember at school putting ads on my walls because they were so interesting but I can’t imagine my son being so moved by something these days that he would put it on his wall.

To be honest, I don’t know what the solution is here. Media consumption is only going one way: up. More and more companies, from your favourite streamers to your grocery store and even your bank, are introducing advertising into their offerings so the machine’s appetite for stuff will not diminish.

At DDB we preached a 70:30 split of resources towards long term brand building vs short term sales activation but even that feels optimistic these days. When Tribal Canada was in its heyday, we realised that 90% of everything would be tactical but for the 10% that would be strategic and creative, we’d really have to push ourselves to blow the doors off those opportunities.

And maybe these days, that is enough. Do the absolute best you can do with the 90% but then make the 10% opportunities 10x better than they have any right to.

[apropos of nothing, I genuinely thought the saying was “never mind the quality, feel the weight” until I googled it. #TIL]

7 years later, the Attention Economy is alive and kicking. Marketers have long known that (thanks to Binet and Field) that share of voice was one of the best leading indicator of share of market.

Spend more money than the competition or be talked about more than the competition and chance are you’re about to become the market leader. But, marketers have also been traditionally slow to see how they could take advantage of this, vs driving message repetition.

Over the weekend, I saw one of the best examples of a company leveraging this attention economy.

It’s a 99yr old French-Belgium kitchen ware company – Le Creuset – and its “factory to table” sale which is being unboxed like crazy on TikTok.

I’ve seen skillets, mugs, ramekins, dutch ovens, casserole dishes, roasters and plenty more. Thanks to me watching these videos and thanks to The Algorithm’s reaction to me watching these videos, its gotten to the point where every other video I see is a Le Creuset Mystery Box Unboxing video, and I love it!

For $99 you get a giant box with a random amount of random Le Creuset products – you don’t know what you’re getting, what the colour is or how many. What you do know is that you’ll get outstanding value – a dutch oven retails for more than $500 so get one of those and you’re already seeing a 10x return but the ad claims each box has a value of $350 or more…still a 350% ROI. If my portfolio was doing that I would be writing a very different type of blog post.

The benefit of all this to the company is enormous as well. For Le Creuset, the company gets rid of discontinued stock (colours and SKUs), returned items and slow sellers while getting a huge amount of attention and driving FOMO. On TikTok, there are hundreds videos showing people unboxing their mystery boxes which have generated tens of millions of views… And because its on TikTok, these are generally going to be fairly targeted views shown by The Algorithm to those interested in food and cooking.

As a premium brand in what is, let’s face it, a commodity category  – a cast iron skillet is $30 on Amazon vs $250 for Le Creuset – deep price discounts erodes the premium you can charge over time so this different take on a sale event makes a lot of sense.

A great deal and a great deal of entertainment.

As the Romans knew: bread and circuses to captivate the masses.

WHAT:

Do you need coffee to start your day? How about a “stick to your ribs” meal to comfort you on a cold evening? Or maybe a glass of red wine to soothe the nerves over dinner? We’ve long known how food can impact our moods (and vice versa) and that we seek out certain things at certain times to have specific effects on our bodies. For instance, intermittent fasting has been a trend since 2019 with the promise to decrease overall appetite by slowing the body’s metabolism down.

SO WHAT:

As our understanding of our bodies, internal chemistries and advances in nutritional science expand, the ways foods are developed and consumed and how they affect our moods is also changing. The US edibles market is exploding with 20% CAGR from 2020 to 2021 and as provinces legalize psychedelics, we can be even more deliberate with the relationship between what we consume and how we feel.

NOW WHAT:

We recently wrote about the rise of snacking occasions and the decline of traditional meals – having a part of the overall snacking portfolio which targets not just occasions to be consumed, but emotions to elicit, would be the natural intersection of both these ideas. We’re not saying everything should be infused with THC, CBD or psilocybin, but using omega-3 fatty acids or selenium to fire your synapses in the mid-afternoon lull is an interesting and intriguing possibility.

Consumers are increasingly aware of, and interested in, achieving a particular end state – CPG brands who move past the occasion, and focus on the resulting mood or emotion, will find it easier to become into a habitual purchase and reap the rewards of this trend.

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WHAT:

Whether it’s because there’s more WFH, the increased pace of the modern world or simply the changing consumer tastes, snacking is at an all-time high and shows no signs of abating. The category’s growth continues to accelerate and 57% of consumers report replacing meals with snacks…and maybe the same 57% saying they snack at least twice a day, with some super snackers snacking more than four times a day.

SO WHAT: When is a snack, not a snack?

As the category expands, the edges become more interesting – is a bowl of cereal with milk before bed a snack? How about a handful of almonds, a candy bar, a bag of chips or a sandwich? And, as the category expands, the number of snacking occasions are also expanding: the traditional 4pm tea and biscuits may evolve into a 3pm smoothie and protein brownie. Breakfast may be nothing more than a couple pieces of fruit, a hunk of cheese and a cup of coffee. Or, like Hobbits, we may be looking at a first, second and even third lunch scenario.

NOW WHAT:

The more consumers snack, the more variety of things they will consider as a snack and the more distinct snacking occasions or needs will emerge. This presents a massive opportunity for CPG brands to rethink their offerings. A variety of higher-calorie, better for you snacks can now be better positioned as meal-replacements while other products may become smaller but far more decadent.

As new snacks are developed, they can become more focused on satisfying specific cravings around the main tastes – more salty, more bitter, more sour or more umami – while using more unusual, more distinct flavour profiles and ingredients. Whatever the craving, there is or will soon be a snack to satisfy it – so the question we’re asking is will it be from you or your competitors?

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I wrote this a few weeks back – to get it when it comes out, as well as all the great insights from my team mates, sign up at the bottom of the Venturepark home page.

When I found out there was a Google Sheets template to extract and then manipulate my Peloton data, I jumped in, learned to use pivot tables (better late than never) and created my own custom metric to see how I was progressing.

And I did see a pretty steep progression. At the start I was crushing PBs (personal bests) for fun. Every ride was a PB as I really pushed myself and thanks to a low base – less footy, less running and more running after kids!

Being the competitive guy I am, I wanted to see that line keep going up and to the right. But as I kept posting PB after PB, each ride was, naturally, harder. The opportunity to keep progressing got harder and harder and harder.

It got to the point where each ride really took it out of me. I didn’t get a lot of chances to jump on as work got busier so I wanted to make the best of each opportunity

As Jules says in Pulp FIction, “… I’m tryin’, Ringo. I’m tryin’ real hard”

Just be 1% better every time. It seems really easy! I’m sure you’ve heard a podcast or a TV show or a motivational speaker or a TikToker exhort you to try 1% harder, be 1% better.

To get back to the Peloton. When your total output is in the 200s, 1% better is just 2kjs. When you in the last 300s, that becomes nearer to 4kjs and when it feel like you’re almost killing yourself to just equal your PB, let alone beat it, that 4kjs seems like it may as well be 100kj. Because of this, the bike started to look like a torture device rather than a fitness device.

Rather than think of 1% every time (which is, frankly innumerate considering how compounding works), a better model is to think like a marathoner.

For years, and thanks to an old boss, when I was building social and digital strategies for clients such as AT&T, McDonald’s Canada, Quaker Global, Canadian Tire and Manulife, I had a slide in my deck called “a marathon not a sprint”. It looked something like this:

It showed how a marathoner trains in order to peak at 26.2miles. The secret is incremental improvements and then scheduled recovery. You push yourself past your peak and then you retrench to secure your gains (gainz?).

Each week you push yourself further and then take it easier.

You don’t go our and blast 26.2miles each and every time unless you are a maniac…which some runners are.

As you can see from my Peloton data, the line is still going up and to the right but there are some dips in there. It’s ok to see some dips; it’s healthy to see the dips and embrace them for what they are: an essential part of sustained improvement.

WHAT:

Gen Z is the second fastest growing generation in Canada, growing 6.4% between 2016 and 2021 (millennials are growing the fastest at 8.6%). With this growth comes increased spending power so therefore it is increasingly important to understand Gen Z as consumers. Gen Z-ers are currently between the ages of 10 and 25 – some are still in primary school while others have already graduated with a master’s degree.

While some of the groups are already influential consumers with real money to spend, this group will become essential for brands within the next 5 to 10 years as they’ll have massive buying power and disposable incomes.

SO WHAT:

As marketers strive for growth over everything in this pre-recession environment, we counsel them to look to new markets, new innovations and, in this case, new people. What do we know (so far) about Gen Z? Well, one of their primary values is their desire for uniqueness, which means they’re more likely than any other generation to reject designer and big-name labels in favour of small, niche businesses. More than any other generation, they also care deeply about their social and environmental impact. And their shopping habits reflect this.

NOW WHAT:

Brands cannot rely solely on their reputation to attract Gen-Z consumers. They must evolve their strategies to target this unique audience. Gen Z is also more likely than any other generation to boycott and protest a company if they don’t support its practices. Transparency, authenticity and responsibility are key traits that Gen Z seek out and hold brands accountable towards. It’s crucial to know your consumers inside out. Having a thorough understanding of this generation that will dominate spending power in the next ten years will give you a leg up in reaching this unique group.

It will also be vital to separate out what is truly unique to this generation and what are tried and true life-stage triggers – will moving out from their parents’ homes still lead to changing consumption patterns? Will being turned down for a car loan still lead to switching banks? How will parenthood effect Gen Z – will Gen Z even want children?

Obviously job number one is to write a compelling strategy as a springboard to come up with amazing ideas but, as I was going through the submissions, I made a few notes that may help someone else as they slave away at 10pm at night trying to write an award winning submission.

1. Grab my attention – Dave Trott is right. In all of this stuff it’s about Impact -> Communication -> Persuasion. Having impact right from the off, in either a video or written submission is so important to telling the story you want, especially against a back drop of all the other cases being looked at at the same time
2. Follow the format – there were some great cases which really made me work to find things like the problem, the insight and even the results. Most importantly, tell me what the problem you’re trying to solve is and show me how you solved the problem – not just the creative but the insight (especially for the strategy awards)
3. In this creatively-led industry, it is very hard to communicate what your “strategy” is or was in a tangible or even comparative way. Was there really a strategy or was it a great creative idea that’s been backfilled or an immediate opportunity that was spotted and brilliantly executed? 
4. Always include results…and show me how the business results mapped back from the problem to solve. If you don’t have business results it may be too early to submit. Don’t worry about timing – as I mentioned I went through a lot of cases and don’t remember seeing any of them in real life (I think this says more about the media support that many Canadian brands have to give than anything else) so it doesn’t matter if you got it in for this year or the next year
5. If you’re going to include a BHAG to solve with your campaign, I definitely want to know that you solved it or you’re well on your way to solving it!
6. Out of all the campaigns I saw, for the most part, the ones that really stood out were the Not-for-profit (NFP) ones – mainly because the business problems and results were clearer…and I’m usually more adverse to using NFP cases in pitches so this was a surprise for me!
7. Judges have written, presented and sat through so many of these case videos that we can smell BS. Talk to us in plain English as if we’re your colleagues (we are) down the pub and you’ll get a much more receptive audience
8. I love a good hack – but I saw a Spotify hack, a billboard hack and an Audible hack. Sometimes there’s too much of a good thing. The same with clothing drops – which seemed to be very popular – and to be brutally honest, I don’t really care if a clothing hack sold out if it didn’t move the needle on the actual product or brand
9. COVID loomed large as you can imagine but the picture painted in the case studies about how brands have helped celebrate the end of the restrictions is in stark contrast to the role I, as a consumer, felt they played – we always have an outsized opinion of how brands can “help” in real life and there’s a credibility gap that came across in some of the cases
10. I have always liked the one page image cases – quite often they were more useful and illuminating than the videos
11. Watch what you name your files – calling something a Cannes submission sets a level of expectation that you have to meet!

Just a final note to say a huge congratulations to everyone who was able to produce something they were proud enough of, to enter into the awards in the first place. There were some amazing cases and very worthy winners who will understandably get the plaudits.

WHAT:

There are no shortage of technical indicators that a recession is coming. From the inverted yield curve to the Federal Reserve’s probability model, financial wonks can dive into the minutiae to their hearts content but for those of us more focused on consumer behaviour than spreadsheets, there are other indicators to look at including…men’s underwear sales.

SO WHAT:

Leading up to and within recessionary periods, consumers are forced to make stricter choices on how to spend their resources. Not only are big purchases such as TVs, appliances and cars pushed off down the road (not cancelled, just postponed) but, in what’s known as the lipstick effect, people famously spend their money on small indulgences and affordable luxuries. In this case, as the name indicates, sales for men’s underwear have declined in each of the last two recessions – in the 2009 financial crisis and at the start of the 2020 pandemic (although that may be due to the working from home phenomenom).

NOW WHAT:

When consumer behaviour is your currency, there are no shortage of cues to look for. In previous economic cycles, men’s neckties (remember them?) would become more muted in recessions, there would be more recruitment advertisements for the armed services as young people are less confident about their job prospects and incidents of petnapping would increase. Keep an eye on what consumers are doing in their everyday lives, not just as relates to your brand and industry, to predict their future behaviour.

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I wrote this a few weeks back – to get it when it comes out, as well as all the great insights from my team mates, sign up at the bottom of the Venturepark home page..