We’re halfway now. If you’ve stuck with us this far, you already know: these aren’t your typical holiday reads. They’re dispatches from the frontlines of marketing. Sun-drenched provocations designed to sneak into your thoughts between swims.
Here’s 4/8. A postcard from a wandering brand anthropologist…
The protagonist is nomadic. And so is the tone. Imagine fragmented field notes from a marketer trying to pin down a consumer who no longer believes in borders, brands, or bank holidays.
Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash
Postcard #1
Lisbon. Café. Iced Americano.
She’s Australian. Works for a Toronto startup. Taxes in Estonia. Has a German boyfriend she met in Oaxaca. She’s vegan before noon, carnivore on weekends, and buys skincare by TikTok recommendation only.
She just unsubscribed from your loyalty programme. “Too clingy,” she said.
This is the new consumer. She moves fast. She doesn’t care where your store is.
She is the store.
Postcard #2
Chiang Mai. Coworking space.
He’s running three drop-shipping brands from a single screen. All DTC. All A/B tested into oblivion. All logo-first, purpose-optional.
He says he doesn’t trust big brands.
I asked what toothpaste he uses.
He didn’t know.
His agent bought it.
Not his assistant. His AI.
Apparently it optimises for pH balance and “vibe congruence.”
Your shelf presence is now judged by a synthetic friend with no mouth.
Postcard #3
London. Rain.
A legacy CMO is talking about “digital first.”
Bless her.
Her customer is booking flights on Skyscanner while standing in line for lunch in Bali.
Her customer lives in a bubble of calendar apps, biometric wearables, and sliding VPN locations.
Her customer doesn’t see her brand’s content.
Her customer sees content that mentions her brand.
Through someone else.
On a platform she doesn’t control.
On a browser she’s never heard of.
At 2am local time — wherever “local” even is anymore.
Postcard #4
Berlin. Club bathroom.
A kid told me he’d never “owned” a product in his life.
Everything’s rented, borrowed, pooled, or streamed.
I asked him about brand loyalty.
He laughed.
Loyalty?
He said the only loyalty he feels is to convenience.
Then he vaped something called “mango noir” and walked out.
Postcard #5
Nowhere, really.
There’s a kind of grief in marketing now.
We used to map the customer journey.
Now it’s quantum.
Non-linear. Contextual. Ephemeral.
They disappear. They reappear.
They buy something and never return, not because they’re unhappy, but because they don’t believe in “returning.”
Everything is a one-time interaction. A blip. A flash.
And yet.
These people still crave connection.
They still respond to meaning.
They still love a story.
But they’re not coming to you for it.
You have to find them, out here, in the wild.
Which means:
Your brand can’t just live somewhere.
It has to travel.
Light. Adaptive. Curious.
Just like them.
To be continued…
Put your phone down. Stare up into the blue sky and think about how your brand might exist in a world where your customers aren't where you think they are. Or just order a drink. You can always have a chat with The Liberty Guild when you get back. We can help your brand narrative end well…
