Welcome back to another week of brand strategy from the HYPER team. This week on the internet Clayton talked about taste in fits, while Oren broke down design gems in NYC.

In this edition of HYPER we get into

• good ideas for real life brand events

• the new world of image licensing (with some of our favorite artists)

• the amazing world of niche internet tools being developed at unprecedented speed, with pics for tasteful design, retail outreach, meme generation and more

Let’s begin.

Brand Event Ideas

In last week’s newsletter we looked at the athletic club as social club transition, and at the core of that letter is this omnipresent idea that people simply want to do more things in the real world. Brand’s roles in this don’t have to be so stereotypical, and we believe that those events are as much about connecting people for future relationships than they are about some great meetup. Here’s a few of our favorite ideas to consider

1. Customer Swap Events: Organize gatherings where customers can bring their old items to trade with each other. This creates a community atmosphere, promotes sustainability, and gives customers a chance to interact in a unique setting with your brand as the facilitator.

2. Product Customization Sessions: Bring in local artists for customization events. Whether it's luggage, clothing, or accessories, allow customers to personalize products with professional help. This offers an exclusive experience and creates one-of-a-kind items.

3. B2B Workshops with Tangible Outcomes: For B2B brands, consider hosting workshops where attendees leave with a concrete deliverable. For example, a landing page audit workshop where participants receive a personalized report on improving their conversion rates. This adds immediate value and positions your brand as an industry expert.

4. Office Meet-and-Greets for Product Launches: Instead of a standard email announcement for new products, invite existing customers to an exclusive office event. Let them be the first to experience new offerings, combining elements of a focus group with customer appreciation.

Oren recaps these in videos with an overview on event logistics here.

The new standard in photo licensing

If you take your art direction seriously and are tired of using bleak stock images... you gotta check out stills.com.

It's a design-oriented photo licensing platform for brand and agency teams that want unique, highly curated images that will elevate any project.


They've solved a lot of great pain points for creative teams who license imagery like: 

1. Intuitive search tools: Their search tools are next level. Just type in exactly what you're looking for and you’ll find hundreds of relevant images.

2. You can also search by image color, camera angle, and even lighting and framing.

3. Unwatermarked downloads: PRO accounts can download unwatermarked images so you can pitch projects and mockup ideas to your clients,

4. Team access: Collaborative Boards and multiple team seats for team workflow
. They also have preferred licensing rates, discounts on licenses, and so much more. 

But perhaps our favorite, is their wide selection of Artists from around the world, who provide truly standout imagery.  A few of our favorites:

Asel Rembekova

& Walsh

Aly Kula

Jake Wagner

Stills is the perfect bridge between stock photo sites and full custom imagery for teams that need access to consistent, campaign-worthy imagery on demand.



If you don't want to settle for imagery in your designs, start licensing with Stills today at stills.com!

_{This section presented in partnership with Stills.}

The Tools & Taste boom

There is a reckoning happening in software and services. Over the past few months, there have been shockingly powerful breakthroughs in the speed and cost of code, so much so that entire apps can be replaced in a carefully planned sprint, with the use of supplementary tools like Replit and Cursor (linked below).

This means more non-technical founders than ever are leveraging small teams to launch Saas, high powered devs are able to unleash extremely complicated and scaled work in a way that gives them more power than ever, while brands and services orgs can develop internal tools tailored to their needs.

https://replit.com/
https://www.cursor.com/

What does this mean? We believe most overpriced SaaS are going to get dramatically eaten away, similar to how retail stores inc ore industries have been chipped down by online. They don’t go away completely, but they will need to dramatically rethink how they price, as competitors are going to be launching at rock bottom.

I also predict creators, Substackers, anyone with a subscription model will be developing SaaS to include for free to retain and better monetize their users.

The other core differentiator is taste, every service we are used to, every app we’ve downloaded, there will be a version more aligned to those that need to creatively stand out. We show examples of that below in everything from design services to image generation Saas, and you should believe we will see the Tasting™ of everything coming shortly

We are going to be in a wild zone for those that charge money for software on the internet.

Tasteful asset support

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the new Valuable creative and some of the more standout designs and ads we’ve been running. I work on all of this with the agency Darkroom - who have a new offering that is essentially tasteful design and video editing support that I’ve used on all the static assets (and lots of the video) you’ll find on IG so far.

Learn more

Brand retail outreach

Pietra has released a new Retail Connect tool to assist brands with retail outreach. There is a database of storefronts, contact info via email and IG, and tools to help pick products, templates for pitches and more (and it’s free to try). If you’re looking at branching out into retail and want a framework to get started, check it out:
https://www.pietrastudio.com/platform/retail-connect

Visual electric takes the image generation core of apps like Midjourney, but structures the actual use and interface in a way that actually makes sense for design professionals.
https://visualelectric.com/

Free helpdesk for brands

The commslayer team isn’t parsing words at all with their new help desk app. The cost of service apps is outlandish, and they’re making an excellent alternative for no cost. Check it out here: https://www.commslayer.com/

A SaaS for LinkedIn Content

Friend of HYPER and noted B2B social strategist Tommy Clark launched a specific AI writing tool to help cut writers block and structure more effective posts on LinkedIn.
https://bluecast.ai/

A meme SaaS

Noted memelord Jason Levin has released design software specifically to make memes. Preloaded graphics and formats, only the tools you need, they’ve niched down design software to exactly the toolkit for the most potent propaganda format on the internet. $6.90 a month obv.

https://memelord.tech/

Hyper Reports

Check out our market reports. We spend many hours researching markets, categories, and brands & products within the consumer space so you don’t have to.

• How to Source Blanks 101 — HERE — a guide to finding and producing your own merch

• Reports on Running, Golf, and Tennis — HERE — a guide to each sport, the market opportunities, and how to launch your own brand

Inquiries? Shoot us a note here: [email protected]

We’d love to chat!

Oren & Clayton ❤️ you