The Subthread (Page 11)

Why Microsoft’s Clippy Comeback Says More About Brand Trust Than Nostalgia

Microsoft’s new Copilot avatar Mico hides a familiar face, and in doing so, reveals why familiarity still builds trust in a world obsessed with innovation.

Brands & Branding Culture

Rich Hewes

Oct 29, 2025 — 4 min read

When Ritual Becomes Design

Gianni Tozzi, FutureBrand’s global chief creative officer, says brand spaces are learning to feel – moving from campaigns to rituals where adaptive tech and sensorial design turn everyday moments into emotional cues.

Brands & Branding Marketing

Gianni Tozzi

Oct 28, 2025 — 4 min read

Emotion First: How Tech Can Build Living Brands

At Future Makers Live, Doddz and Will Thacker showed how technology, used with intention, can deepen brand storytelling, sharpen audience understanding, and turn one‑off campaigns into living, evolving worlds.

Creativity Brands & Branding

Alex Zeevalkink

Oct 28, 2025 — 5 min read

Relevance Is a Two-Way Street

In a memified media world, Weber Shandwick's Tom Beckman says the brands that win stop interrupting and start participating – meeting audiences where they are and offering real, mutual value.

Creativity Culture

Hannah Bowler

Oct 23, 2025 — 4 min read

The Productivity Playbook: Notebook LM

Google’s Notebook LM turns your trusted sources into a private thinking partner. It’s taking the stress away from a real deep dive by surfacing patterns and compressing a week’s reading into usable insight for marketing (or other) teams.

Productivity Playbook Productivity

Rich Hewes

Oct 22, 2025 — 3 min read

Spotting signals with Are.na

Are.na is the ad‑free bookmarking platform creatives swear by – built for collecting signals, organizing research, and going deep without the algorithm. Designer Nu Goteh and fans like Eli Bucksbaum say it’s less a social feed, more a shared library for ideas worth chasing.

Tech Culture

Hannah Bowler

Oct 22, 2025 — 3 min read