Issue #45: What's in store for Brand Baby in 2025
I can’t wait for our second year!
I wasn’t planning on writing today, but I sat down with a cup of coffee this morning and decided to outline my entire strategy for the upcoming year… and here we are.
It’s been over a year since I launched Brand Baby. I started the publication without a ton of thought or strategy behind it – I was sitting in Gotan in Tribeca one Sunday afternoon in early December and just started writing. I made some graphics on Canva, played around with some settings in Substack, sent the first issue to my dad to gut-check, and launched my publication that very week. Now, over a year later, I’m really proud of the work I’ve created and the community that I’ve built here, and I’m excited about where Brand Baby is going in 2025.
If you’re interested, here’s a little TikTok that I made about my learnings from a year of writing on Substack:
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I started off writing mostly about trends that I was seeing in brand and marketing, unpacking noteworthy campaigns and stunts. Over time, I expanded my content into long-form interviews with leaders in the marketing space, like Emory professor Marina Cooley, Good Girl Snacks founder Leah Marcus, and Kira Klaas of On Brand. I also began to dig into Gen Z and consumer trends, like our relationship to technology, consumerism, and shopping habits – even interviewing my younger sister for pieces about her back-to-school and holiday wishlists.
Here are a few reflections over the course of the year:
As much as I love skimming my favorite Substack publications for quick, snappy news and links to fascinating articles, I want to continue to share long-form written essays in 2025…
Buuuut, long-form written essays are often time-intensive, and I really want to start publishing twice a week instead of once moving forward. So, I’m going to be instituting a repeatable content calendar that includes some more bite-size content, which I’m outlining below…
I plan to continue to write about brand, marketing, and business in 2025. I do intend to continue to sprinkle in some of my writing around consumer trends (and specifically Gen Z trends!), but I like to think/talk/write about marketing, and I work in marketing, so that’s what I’m going to document here.
I’m going to take a page out of
’s book and take one week off from writing per quarter. This might change – maybe I’ll take more time, or maybe less time – but scheduled breaks are good for the soul, so I’m going to try it.
So. Here’s what Brand Baby is going to look like in 2025:
Two (!!) issues per week.
On Sunday mornings, I’ll be writing an issue that I’m calling Brand Bite of the Week, where I’m going to recap and analyze a top brand moment (campaign, stunt, social post, etc.) from the previous week. I’ll tell you what it was, why it worked, and what you can learn from it. Kind of similar to my recent piece about Nuuly’s crisis response, except even shorter and sweeter. I hope you like it.
Every other Thursday morning, I’ll be diving into marketing trends, unpacking recent campaigns to demonstrate what I’m seeing in the space through a piece of long-form written content. This type of piece is similar to my typical content, where I look at marketing trends like print magazines, IRL activations, brand packaging, founder-influencers, and more. I’m excited for more of this in the new year!
On alternate Thursday mornings, I’m going to be interviewing a leader in the brand/marketing/consumer space about their marketing strategy, favorite trends, and more. I’ve had a lot of fun with audio interviews recently, so I’m hoping to include the audio (and maybe video!) for you to tune in on Substack. Who knows, I might even turn this series into a podcast at some point… If you have any recommendations for interviewees or if you’d like to be featured, email me at caroline@readbrandbaby.com
Weekly recaps of my issues on LinkedIn.
I know, I know LinkedIn can be annoying, but I still think that the platform holds a lot of power. Connect with me there.
Occasional social posts on TikTok.
We’ll see if TikTok goes away soon, but until then, I’ve been having fun with short-form content, and I plan to keep posting. Follow me there.
I’ll be sure to update you along the way with any further changes to Brand Baby, but that’s it for now!
I also launched an email address at caroline@readbrandbaby.com, so you’re welcome to shoot me an email there any time with ideas, feedback, questions, etc. And if you work at a brand or an agency and you’re looking to partner with me on content/events/speaking opps/otherwise, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Thank you so much for being here for my first year of Brand Baby! I can’t wait to see what 2025 has in store for us.
love this -- big things ahead!
25 is the year of BB🤩🚀