Interact: Q1 Recap

The birds are chirping, it’s getting hot in Austin, and Q1 is in the books. When I look back at what we’ve done to kick off the year, the biggest theme that comes to mind is knowing when the playbook works and when to throw it out.

We see this time and time again as the crux of success for both the brands we work with and the work we deliver. It’s about meeting brands in the moment they are looking to engage and finding ways to bring that to life.

A recent partnership that sparked this is a new brand that we are building alongside a serial entrepreneur launching nationally with end caps at a retailer this summer. This founder is a creative himself, his brain and his ideas move fast - and we needed to as well. This meant stripping out the process, leaning into live daily working sessions, and keeping the project fluid at moments and disciplined at others.

But this wasn’t just an isolated event. It lead to overarching shifts in how we deliver our work in new, fast paced environments including: building our first luxury women’s brand, a space that’s always inspired me so it’s exciting to be working on this one, partnering on the brand development of a sport specific nicotine pouch brand, refreshing a telehealth platform for a multi-generational group of consumers, and developing a new consumer facing brand for a PE backed home services roll up. I grew up in the building materials industry, so it’s surreal to bring our expertise to home services.

If we look at the overall macro trends in CPG, there’s nearly a deal a week from an acquisition standpoint, and a lot of money is being put to work to fuel the next wave of brands. We’ve been seeing the results clearly as a boom of brands are looking to evolve, meet their consumers in new ways, and capitalize on growth, fast. Some need to refresh their identity, some need to transition into retail, others need to identify and engage with their consumer, but they all have one shared ambition along the way: move fluidly.

And our team is remaining fluid too. We welcomed 4 new people across strategy, creative, and account, while maintaining the ideals of keeping our team lean and flexing up and down to meet the needs of our clients. Yes, we’re growing but the focus maintains - building malleable systems designed to scale with the best team, not the largest one. Spring has me feeling energized. We’re welcoming change, and I’m excited about what Q2 will bring across new categories, ways of working, and partnerships with existing and new clients.

Lastly, we are expanding our New York office so I’ll continue to be in the city on a monthly basis and would love to connect for a beverage if you're in the area, HMU!