Ana Andjelic

If you’ve spent time around the digital marketing industry you’ll know the true believers outnumber the skeptics at least ten to one. Ana Andjelic (AA from here on out) is squarely on the skeptic side. We first met when she was wrapping up her doctoral studies lots of years ago and bonded over the lack of evidence for influencers as anything more than a way to boost reach. Over the last few years she’s taken her expertise to the luxury and fashion world. With all that said, today’s guest spot from Ana is about none of those things! Enjoy. - Noah (NRB)Ana here. In three weeks Europeans will test their loyalties. The Eurovision Song Contest is on. The contest’s name itself is a puzzle, as the participating “Euro” countries include Israel, Turkey, Armenia, and since 2015, Australia. This being a singing contest, it’s also unclear what the “vision” stands for. Regardless, in the 64 years since its inception, Eurovision never fails to attract massive excitement and big audience. It’s considered the most watched live entertainment program in Europe, and it helped launch careers of ABBA, Olivia Newton-John, and Celine Dion, who inexplicably represented Switzerland. This year’s contest is to be held in Tel Aviv, and Madonna is set to perform (representing herself). According to a number of betting sites, Russia is the current favorite, leading with the song whose lyrics suspiciously invoke the symptoms of a potentially politically-motivated poisoning (“though my throat is on fire / I’ll swallow hard, fall apart / break and bleed but you won’t see / acid rain from your fingertips”). Close at its heels is a singer from Netherlands, who opted to roll naked in water in his song’s promo video. Mind you, naked swimming is quite tame for Eurovision. The conquest has seen robots, pyrotechnics, Ivan from Belarus (not Winterfell) howling with actual wolves on stage, and Conchita Wurst. In 2016, Jamala of Ukraine sang “1944,” a song about Stalin’s ethnic cleansing.As is the case with most European regulations, the rules are hard to grasp, but seem to revolve around the following: each participating country (the number this year is 41) submits an original song that is performed on live TV and radio, and then votes for other countries’ songs to choose the winner. There are two semi-finals, and the highest-placed songs compete in the final, along with the “Big Five”- the countries who are the largest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union. The big five are France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the UK, and they automatically qualify for the final. Why is this interesting?The voting is wild, and it charts the socio-political anatomy of Europe. It’s done via text messaging, and since the only restriction is that one can’t vote for their own country, the collusion is as vast as it is predictable. In a rare display of unity, Balkan countries all vote for each other: the most enthusiastic votes being mutually given between Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia, national wars be damned. The number of Serbian and Croatian expats in Australia also may explain its persistent presence in the finals. The Scandinavians and former Soviet Union countries display a similar sense of camaraderie, with Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan all heartily giving the maximum of 12 points to each other. In the seemingly enduring Eastern Block loyalty, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary vote for Russia. The fact that no European country ever votes for Britain may win pro-Brexiters some points.More than a singing contest, Eurovision is a moral fable. It mercifully reveals less about our musical taste, and more about how much we actually like each other. For example, Ireland, free of the heavy overtones that burden its immediate neighbors, regularly emerges as Eurovision’s finalist. Irish are fun, jovial, and easy to be around. They do Riverdance. The point that national borders are not charted geographically, but socially, politically, and psychologically is not new, but is rarely as obvious. It’s one time of the year when Europeans (and, well, Israelis) gather around the idea of Europe that is actually fun and devoid of grinding bureaucratic talks about Brexit and who should take the migrants. In the three days of the contest, we get the enjoy the idea of modern Europe as strong, united, and free of petty scrabbles. Eurovision gives Europeans the insight into the state of the European union, its literal unity, and our loyalty. Now more than ever, it also begets the question of what kind of identity topography would emerge if the US was ever to have a version of the Eurovision of its own. (AA)Chart of the Day:Arts and culture employment in the US:1998 to 2016. From a new report titled Artists and Other Cultural Workers by the National Endowment for the Arts. (NRB)Quick Links:Dan Frommer, who has a new site called New Consumer, wrote an interesting piece wondering what’s going to happen to all these heavily funded direct-to-consumer startups like Casper, Harry’s, and Warby Parker. “The tension on the horizon — especially for the companies that can’t go public — is that the few consumer acquirers that can do a billion-dollar deal have vastly different ideas about how to value a company than tech investors, which are used to winner-take-all markets. And that’s where many heavily funded companies will run into trouble.” (NRB)I have been thinking recently about all the signs pointing to being busy no longer being cool. Regardless (or precisely because) of the 996 model, made popular by Silicon Valley and Jack Ma, constant striving seems to be in danger of being perceived as passé, unbecoming, and even slightly sad. We talk about millennial burnout and poke fun at hustle porn. This article unpacks the forces behind the rise of the anti-striver. (AA)Great tidbit via Reilly Brennan/Trucks VC’s Future of Transportation newsletter: “Fifteen percent of [Uber’s] gross bookings come from rides that start or end at an airport.” (NRB)As I’ve documented in this email, I’m fascinated by the crazy ways tobacco companies are trying to get their customers to switch to vaping before they die. Well, it looks like Phillip Morris has decided to skip the pomp and circumstance and just be explicit about it: “Called Reviti, the wholly owned subsidiary will initially sell life insurance in the U.K. with plans to expand into more markets overseas. Smokers will receive discounts if they stop, quit or switch to a possibly less carcinogenic product, like Philip Morris' vaping devices.” Unbelievable. (NRB)Thanks for reading,Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Ana (AA)

Why is this interesting? - Monday, April 29

Ana Andjelic (AA) is a strategy executive, Doctor of Sociology, and a member of Forbes CMO Next. She’s an old friend of WITI and was one of our first contributors with a very excellent Eurovision Edition. She originally published this piece over at Medium and we liked it so much we asked her if we could run it here. - Noah (PS - One more day to suggest articles to include in our Thanksgiving Edition. We’ve got some great ones so far. Submit here.) (NRB)Ana here. There’s a lot of talk about the future of direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands. Conversations revolve around overblown valuations, lack of profits, hiking customer acquisition costs, and no exits in sight. While noteworthy, these conversations are missing a point.DTC is everywhere.Across the board, industries are rapidly adopting the DTC model of running their business, setting up their supply chains, operations, distribution, and marketing. Nike is the most recent example: their direct-to-consumer business currently at 30%. The company is looking to increase it, hiring a data-savvy new CEO and pulling their products from Amazon.Why is this interesting?Traditional companies are subsuming direct-to-consumer practices, and luckily, they have a playbook to work off. While there are endless tactics you could point to as potentially effective for more traditional brands that are moving in this direction, it seems to me there are three strategic lessons brands that historically sell through retail can take away to help in their transition to a more DTC approach.Less, but better. A number of DTC brands launched with only a handful of product SKUs, and turned it into a competitive advantage. Mattress brand Casper currently offers three types of mattresses, which is in stark contrast with traditional mattress brands that confuse their customers with limitless choice and no clear benefits of any. Instead, Casper grows by “owning sleep,” and offering adjacent product categories, like CBD, lamps, bed frames, and bedding.Obsession with data and customer segmentation. Direct-to-consumer model can only work if companies know who their customers are. Granular customer segmentation allows precision targeting, leads to better retention, and higher-value customer acquisition. Best approach here is to go beyond demographics and psychographics, and build taste profiles, like Netflix and TikTok do. Then, we will know which products appeal to the biggest number of customers, what product combinations drive the greatest retention, and which product entry points work best in terms of cross-selling and customer lifetime value.Strategic use of physical retail. In the past seven years, physical presence of online-first brands rose 1000 percent in the top 300 malls in America. As of October, there were 19 traditional retail bankruptcies in 2019. The challenge is not that physical retail is “dying,” but that the brands that are using it non-strategically are. Strategic use means moving away from thinking about it as a sales and distribution channel, and defining its role in relation to a company’s business and brand goals, and in terms of “jobs to be done” in regards to its audience.A clear aesthetic POV. A combination of Instagram aesthetic and the fact that a lot of DTCs work with the same branding agencies gave rise to a very distinct DTC aesthetic. Although we are well past the saturation point of millennial pink and avocado green, DTC brands that stand out are those like Tracksmith and Aesop, which rooted their brand aesthetic into their brand purpose.Innovative marketing. There’s PR, and then there is smart marketing. The former works around Instagrammable destinations, and the latter around understanding how to recognize and nurture a community. Patagonia successfully did this even before “DTC” was a term; today, it’s Rihanna that leads the way.Even if DTC brands enter a new stage of scrutiny, direct-to-consumer practices are here to stay. In the modern brand landscape, they are quickly becoming the best competitive advantage a company can have. (AA)Map of the Day:Air quality in India. (NRB)Quick Links:Fast Company speaks to the Patagonia founder (CJN) Texas monthly on the Austin psych fest Levitation (CJN) Measles erases immune ‘memory’ for other diseases (NRB)Thanks for reading,Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Ana (AA)PS - Noah here. I’ve started a new company and we are looking for a sr. backend engineer to join the team. If you are one of those or know anyone who is great, please share. Dinner’s on me at a restaurant of your choice if you help us find someone.Why is this interesting? is a daily email from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy (and friends!) about interesting things. If you’ve enjoyed this edition, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you’re reading it for the first time, consider subscribing (it’s free!).

Why is this interesting? - The DTC Edition

Ana Andjelic (AA) is a strategy executive, Doctor of Sociology, and a member of Forbes CMO Next. She’s an old friend of WITI and was one of our first contributors with a very excellent Eurovision Edition and more recently with The DTC Edition. - Noah (NRB)Ana here. 2020 marks the beginning of the new decade, as Scott Galloway likes to remind us at the regular 30-day intervals. Look back at what captured our collective attention over the past ten years, and a narrative emerges. We went from being enamored by the potential, the verve, and the creativity of startups to being alarmed by their unicorn (and minotaur) valuations, borderline insane founders, and often dreadful internal cultures. We went from being excited about sharing economy to grappling with the fallout of its legal, geopolitical, ethical, and human side-effects. Around the middle of the decade, we went through hygge and retromania (remember when every Urban Outfitters store featured a gramophone?) in order to protect ourselves from the world that brought nothing but anxiety and uncertainty. Towards the end of the decade, hygge morphed into our obsession with astrology, self-care, and daily meditation. We went from ownership to usage and all the way back, suggesting it’s best to own fewer better things we keep for a long time. Marie Kondo went from getting rid of our stuff to selling us more stuff. We went from Netflix and chill to Netflix, Disney+, Apple, HBO, etc. … and chill. We went from creating flash websites that no one asked for to in-store Instagram installations that no one asked for, either. We went from being excited about leaving our digital traces everywhere to being paranoid about it. We went from trading our personal data for better brand service to being micro-targeted with political ads. We went from talking about how the internet transforms branding to watching this transformation unfold live in the form of direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands. We then went from thinking of DTCs as a type of company to understanding that DTC is, in fact, a growth strategy for all companies. We got excited by every new spiffy video, Instagram post, and pop-up store that DTCs put forward because they felt fresh and different and innovative … until most of them, in order to scale, started being scooped up by traditional companies that gave them the actual distribution and footprint to make a difference. We went from being excited about influencers to not being excited about them, to being excited again, to realizing that they will most likely be replaced by algorithms and bots. We also went from rather innocently poking friends on Facebook to being asked to join the fake furniture-assembling groups set up by Russian trolls meant to radicalize us into political extremes. We went from not knowing what jade eggs were to knowing maybe too well. We went from Ok Go treadmill videos to a multi-million dollar YouTube creator economy peppered with dick picks, Nazi-wannabes, and jihadists next to the cheery CPG ads. We went from third-party cookies to the California Consumer Protection Act. We are witnessing our entire culture starting to mimic TikTok’s memes and “repeat this” challenges. If there’s one thing that we can aspire to amid all of this, it is to be less wrong than yesterday. Why is this interesting?We went very quickly from being mostly uncritically excited about things to being confused as to how to deal with them. The problem seems to be that we do not think of these innovations systemically, in terms of how the existing social, political, and economic networks can support them and/or how they fit. We isolate them from the laws, regulations, and policies that have been put in place to maximize benefits and minimize the downsides of progress. The gig economy was all the rage until we realized that no one pays our overtime. Benefits of Amazon’s two-day (and soon to be one-day) shipping were welcome until they started clogging our streets and our landfills and killing passers-bys. Worse yet, fast shipping is still welcome—and we still don’t know how to deal with its negative side effects. We seem to be mostly unequipped to think in systems and the externalities they create. We are equally unequipped to plan for the future. At the time when the future was distant, when it unfolded over decades, and when it was an “unknown known,” it didn’t matter as much. We had time to put a long-term strategy in place. When the future is right now and is an “unknown unknown,” the strategy—any strategy—doesn’t work. It’s not just that the game sped up; it’s that the rules of the game keep changing. It’s a different game every time we play it. Consider companies spending all their media budgets on Facebook, just to see algorithms change, repeatedly and unpredictably. Or, consider building your entire supply and production chain in China only to learn that your cost-saving strategy turned into a cash drain overnight. The new reality is that we are finding out what the problem is at the same time that we find a way to solve it. We aren’t used to it, but maybe that’s the challenge for the next 10 years. (AA) Map of the Day:From The Upshot, a map of the median distance to mom: “Yet that picture masks a key fact about the geography of family in the United States: The typical adult lives only 18 miles from his or her mother, according to an Upshot analysis of data from a comprehensive survey of older Americans. Over the last few decades, Americans have become less mobile, and most adults – especially those with less education or lower incomes — do not venture far from their hometowns.” (NRB)Quick Links: Smart read on the future of wellness and hospitality by friend of WITI Harry Jameson (CJN) How to move abroad (CJN) How Airbnb profits from our love of experience (CJN) Thanks for reading,Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Ana (AA)PS - Colin here. Hospitality brand Singita is helping the Grumeti Fund, their conservation partner in Tanzania, to raise $500,000 to support the next translocation of eastern black rhino to the Western Serengeti. This is an immensely important cause as we’ve written about in the Rhino Edition of WITI. Donate here.Why is this interesting? is a daily email from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy (and friends!) about interesting things. If you’ve enjoyed this edition, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you’re reading it for the first time, consider subscribing (it’s free!).

Why is this interesting? - The Anthology Edition

Ana Andjelic (AA) is a friend, strategy executive, three-time WITI contributor (Anthology, DTC, and Eurovision Editions), and author of “The Business of Aspiration." She specialises in building brand-driven modern businesses and runs a weekly newsletter, The Sociology of Business. Ana earned her doctorate in sociology and worked at the world’s top brands and advertising agencies.Ana here. The other week I learned that my Uber driver has been furloughed from her job as one of the thirty cooks employed at Miami Airport. International flights only, she emphasized. Had the culinary achievements of U.S. airlines been more notable, my Uber driver could have still been in her airport kitchen. Asian airlines Garuda, Thai Airways, and AirAsia-owned Santan all now sell their in-flight food directly to customers. Nasi lemak, stir-fried tiger prawns, tandoori lamb chops, and beef rendang can be enjoyed on ground, sometimes in bulk packs. In the luxury version of the idea, Singapore Airlines is selling a selection of first- and business-class meals plus the service of private chefs who reheat, plate, and serve customers in their homes. They call it SIA@Home.For those who miss eating on an actual plane, Singapore Airlines also turned two of its grounded jumbo jets into restaurants. Meal prices ranged from $474 in a suite to $321 in business and $53 in economy, and could also be paid with miles. Both plane-restaurants were sold out within 30 minutes.Other airlines went beyond food. No-destination flights are a new travel genre. Obviously needing to offer something beyond getting from point A to point B, airlines like Quantas created 7-hour flight options with the main promise of having an aerial view of Australian landmarks like Bondi Beach, the Gold Coast and Great Barrier Reef. Once it made its loop, the plane landed where it started from. It was sold out in 10 minutes. Japanese ANA chose “Hawaiian resort experience,” and EVA Air went with a Hello Kitty-themed A330 Dream Jet. There are reports of celebrity appearances, in-flight game shows, and spectacular aerial views.Why is this interesting?People eating airplane food and flying to nowhere is interesting because it isn’t. It is a good media story, but hardly an indicator of any sweeping behavioral change. While most of us miss the rhythms and habits of our pre-pandemic lives, such as flying, this is because we tend to confuse memories  with the real experience that gave rise to those memories. Per Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist and a winner of the Nobel prize in economics, our memories are stories that we tell ourselves that often reflect only a sliver of the reality of our past experiences. How a story will shape up is largely defined by how it concluded. Our ability to board a plane dramatically ended at the moment when flights were canceled en masse and we found ourselves in a lockdown. We experienced fear, uncertainty, and panic. Against this dramatic backdrop, our last flight assumed a carefree, “normal” and joyful place in our memory. It became a happy fabrication infused with meaning that it didn’t have at the time. It also featured things we may now miss—like alone time or an excuse to buy a snack we enjoy—which further cloud those memories.News stories about our “nostalgia” for flying or our newfound passion for airplane food are just that: stories. Closer to the truth is the fact that we all both enjoyed and disliked flying (well, except The Miles Guy) and that, right now, some of us think the idea of eating nasi lemak from a plastic container or having an aerial tour of Australia is a good one. But the broader meaning of this is at once normal and made up by us. “Trauma takes away our gray areas. It divides our timeline into a before and an after,” explained clinical psychologist Dr. Valentina Stoycheva in a July New York Times article about why we reach for nostalgia in times of crisis.From a business perspective, it’s interesting to think about “the after.” Once a traveler finds herself on a Hello Kitty-themed flight or experiences the razzle-dazzle of a quiz show in air, it may be hard to go back to watching movies on planes. Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention, and it will be fascinating to fast-forward to a more normal world to see what has stuck and what hasn’t. I, for one, will be happy to get back on a plane with plenty of work to do and no distractions. (AA)Cover of the Day:A cover of Radiohead’s Idioteque, created by calculators. (CJN)Quick Links: Having Machu Picchu to yourself (CJN) The mad world of niche sports among Ivy League obsessed parents (CJN) The case of the Chinese mystery seeds is resolved (CJN)Next week Variance, my company, is putting on an event where I’ll be talking digital technology and change management. If that’s sounds interesting to you, it’s free to sign up. (NRB) Thanks for reading,Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Ana (AA)—Why is this interesting? is a daily email from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy (and friends!) about interesting things. If you’ve enjoyed this edition, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you’re reading it for the first time, consider subscribing (it’s free!).

Why is this interesting? - The Travel Nostalgia Edition

Ana Andjelic (AA) is a long standing friend of WITI and the rare person who can thread the needle from academia and theory into where the rubber meets the road in culture. She’s a strategy executive, recently named one of the Most Influential CMOs by Forbes, and author of “The Business of Aspiration," out tomorrow on Amazon. Go buy it. She specializes in building brand-driven modern businesses and runs a superb weekly newsletter, The Sociology of Business. -Colin (CJN) Tell us about yourself.I am a strategy executive, author and undercover sociologist. I earned my doctorate degree in sociology but ventured into a professional career, first in advertising agencies and then brand-side. I am also a startup advisor, public speaker and columnist. My area of specialization are fashion, luxury and lifestyle brands. I am obsessed with modern aspirational economy, the changing meaning of luxury and Canal’s street counterfeit scene, which has become incredibly vibrant since this summer. All one needs to know about what’s popular and what’s next is right there. I have recently been told that I have too many ideas, which is probably true. Nothing makes me happier than to make people think. To that end, I run a weekly newsletter, The Sociology of Business and wrote a book, Business of Aspiration. I am from Belgrade, Serbia and have lived in New York City for twenty years, so watch out for sharp edges.Describe your media diet. Best way to describe it would be old school. I read books, print magazines and newspapers. Books can be anything from David Chang’s new memoir “Eat a Peach” to “Tsukiji: The Fish Market at the Center of the World” to an academic book to Japanese Vogue and 032C. I am also no stranger to a good academic paper from sociology, behavioral economics or social psychology. For those who are interested, a couple of months ago I listed my favorite reads in Part I and Part II on my newsletter. Make sure to check it out. I put together a list not just of books but also podcasts and newsletters. Speaking of newsletters, Lean Luxe, Public Announcement, The Rebooting and WITI are opened as soon as they hit my inbox. My favorite cultural analysis sites are SSense (great selection of brands, too), Highsnobiety, Intercept and Vestoj. Print magazines are Cura, System, Worth, Frame, Berlin Quarterly, Courier. I am reading Financial Times Weekend obsessively and The New Yorker and Economist a little less obsessively, but still regularly. When it comes to Twitter and Instagram, I have been very selective from a get go in terms of who and how many people I follow. The ratio is about 10 percent on Instagram and about 20 percent on Twitter (of who I follow vs my followers). It forces me to curate the content I want to see and to be both selective enough and diverse enough in my sources. Podcasts I listen to are: Cautionary Tales, How Long Gone, Unseen Unknown, 99% Invisible. I enjoyed Articles of Interest. What’s the last great book you read?I spoke with Hans Ulrich Obrist the other week for a Highsnobiety piece on curation that I wrote. Immediately afterwards, I went online and bought his book, “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Curating*” and read it on my way to Mexico City. He is a fantastically interesting and passionate cultural omnivore, and his books are the same. Obrist is an incredibly prolific writer, so I recommend starting with his work on curation and working your way up from there.What are you reading now?“Remain in Love: Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Tina” by Chris Frantz.What’s your reading strategy when you pick up a print copy of your favorite publication?Start from the end. Unclear why I do that, but I have been doing it ever since I started reading newspapers and magazines. With Financial Times Weekend, I always start with Janan’s piece. It sets the right tone. With The New Yorker, I start from the cartoons and Anthony Lane’s movie reviews. With fashion magazines, it’s the same, I always start from the interview or whatever it is at the end.Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?Simon Kuper’s articles are by default smart, funny and informative. Atul Gawande’s books are always well-written and easy to read, even when they deal with complex subjects. In fiction, I love Siri Hustvedt and Zadie Smith.What is the best non-famous app you love on your phone? Embarrassingly so, I still use Swarm, but (obviously) not for social reasons. Rather, it’s a great memory tool of where I have been and what I liked and is so easy to pull recommendations when I need to share them with someone. I travel a lot (well, I did until this Spring) and my memory is terrible.Plane or train?Train in Japan and in Europe, planes everywhere else.What is one place everyone should visit? 坂上家 in a maze of back lanes near Osaka station (see, I had to use Swarm/Foursquare City Guide for that). It’s a hole in the wall place with a bustling atmosphere and great food. Beniya Mukayu onsen near Kanazawa is the most zen place I ever experienced. It’s perfect for spiritual rebirth. And Belgrade, obviously, which is good for everything else.Tell us the story of a rabbit hole you fell deep into. Late one Friday evening last Fall, I started reading about the ideas of this nutritionist Gil Jacobs who is in his sixties but looks about thirty. More importantly, Jacobs has this entire philosophy of how what we eat makes us feel and what food is good for us to eat (basically nothing that we eat regularly) and how to cleanse your body and all about alkalinity and acidity in our body. It sounds really boring, but I basically self-radicalized until 2am. Couldn’t stop. I did change a lot of my dietary habits afterwards. (AA)Thanks for reading,Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Ana (AA) —Why  is this interesting? is a daily email from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy  (and friends!) about interesting things. If you’ve enjoyed this edition,  please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you’re reading it for the  first time, consider subscribing (it’s free!).