What happens when everyone becomes a brand for fifteen seconds? And what happens after brands become nothing more than ambient frequencies in our endless scroll? Today, we’re running back the highest-rated talk from VISIONS: LA.

Emily Segal (K-HOLE, Nemesis) presents groundbreaking research on the post-peak vibe era, exploring what comes next when brands can no longer hide behind mood boards and atmospheric storytelling. From “strawberry girl summer” to “rodent boyfriend energy,” we've reached the absurdist endpoint of vibe-driven commerce…but what emerges from the wreckage of algorithmic sentiment monitoring?

• Post-Peak Vibe Reality: We've moved beyond brands as storytellers to brands as frequency emitters, where TikTok and Spotify algorithms understand our emotional states better than therapists, creating a landscape of "slop"—low-grade AI material that looks the part but doesn't feel authentic.
• The Algorithmic Gaze: Vibes aren't just cultural phenomena—they're how we see the world through machine learning's eyes. When we catch a vibe, we're processing information like an auto-encoding algorithm, making certain perceptual elements more obvious while obscuring others.
• Heritage as Just Another Vibe: Even attempts to escape contemporary vibe culture through "authentic" heritage branding ultimately become vibes themselves. There's no outside to the constant vibe machine, and stealth wealth still leaves traces of exposure.
• Three Paths Beyond Vibes: The future belongs to brands that are either impossibly dense with human labor (too substantial to reduce to vibes), exceptionally simple (pure speculative energy), or deliberately incoherent (escaping algorithmic detection entirely, like dazzle camouflage for brands).

Join the visionaries forming tomorrow’s culture through commerce at VISIONS Summit: NYC. Step into the future for 50% OFF with discount code AFTERVIBES.

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• Emily Siegel's Substack: nemesisglobal.substack.com
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In this kickoff episode of Decoded, Phillip Jackson sits down with Pini Yakuel to explore the concept of "positionless marketing" — a radical rethinking of how marketing teams operate in an AI-powered world. Drawing inspiration from the evolution of positionless basketball, Pini argues that marketing, like sports, is evolving toward roles defined by agility and capability, not titles or silos. The conversation weaves through leadership, startup culture, and how Optimove is enabling marketers to work faster, smarter, and more autonomously.

1. Positionless marketing is a mindset — It's about autonomy, adaptability, and eliminating bottlenecks, not just rearranging the org chart.
2. Modern teams thrive when roles are fluid — Inspired by positionless basketball, today’s marketers succeed through cross-functionality and creative flexibility, not rigid specialization.
3. Gen AI is the new creative exoskeleton — Like an Iron Man suit, AI tools enhance marketers’ abilities, enabling faster, smarter, and more creative execution.
4. Speed is the native language of startups — Startups operate positionlessly by necessity, while legacy orgs must dismantle silos and empower self-service to keep up.
5. Positionless isn’t chaos—it’s craftsmanship — The best managers focus less on blocking and tackling, and more on elevating outcomes by distributing capability and unlocking human potential at scale.

• [00:12:25] “Let’s look at the Renaissance man... the celebration of the wide gamut of human talent — that’s what this could be.” – Pini
• [00:24:53] “It’s not that departments will disappear. It’s that the type of work they do will start to change.” – Pini
• [00:26:23] “Almost every person in our exec team started their job at Optimove by writing SQL.” – Pini
• [00:30:12] “A team should be small enough to be fed by two pizzas — and fully autonomous.” – Pini (on the Bezos principle)
• [00:34:07] “You’re already positionless — that’s why you get to focus on what actually matters: the work.” – Pini, on Phillip’s agile team setup

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Massive acquisitions—from Skechers to Touchland to Foot Locker—aren’t just headline fodder; they reflect deeper shifts in how value is defined in commerce today. Phillip and Brian explore what this means for brand identity, consumer behavior, and retail strategy, while diving into everything from Ghost Nutrition’s licensing fallout to how Ozempic might reshape fashion trends. It’s all a signal: the future of commerce is being redrawn across culture, tech, and even your closet.

• The recent wave of M&A is less about scale, and more about strategic repositioning.
• Ghost Nutrition’s licensing phase-out may challenge the brand’s original cultural cachet.
• City Furniture proves sustainability investments can directly boost profitability.
• Weight-loss trends like Ozempic are subtly altering fashion preferences and product demand.
• Context—not trend—is becoming the driving force in personal style and shopping decisions.
• [00:01:41] Phillip: "Everything is an ad unit. That’s the new wild future we have for you."
• [00:05:15] Brian: "Skechers was also acquired this month... $9.4 billion."
• [00:27:04] Phillip: "If you want your Ghost Nutrition stuff, you better stock up."
• [00:47:00] Brian: "Context is taking dominance again ... That’s our next move in fashion."

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Wooden nickels, gilded sovereigns, and a juke-joint cash drawer. We peel back the layers of Ryan Coogler’s SINNERS to show how currency turns into control—and why plantation scrip still echoes in today’s loyalty points. Get the full breakdown and bonus notes with Future Commerce Plus.

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Live from Los Angeles, Phillip and Brian explore bizarre and brilliant intersections of commerce and culture of late, from commerce themes in Sinners to pope merch to DIY luxury. In an episode that’s part futurist insight, part sacred absurdity, they connect the dots between retail psychology, meme theology, and trade policy. PLUS: Phillip and Brian head to The Whalies with Triple Whale. Coming up on the show, catch their live interview from The Whalies with Bryan Cano of True Classic!

• The Commerce of Catholicism – Pope transitions now drive digital engagement, pilgrimage surges, and resale markets. Welcome to the Vatican's Shopify moment.
• Tariffs as Theater – The recent 90-day tariff reprieve reveals how uncertainty fuels deal-making and could permanently reshape global economic alliances.
• Contentification of the Sacred – From Conclave to meme lore, the papacy is now part of the entertainment-industrial complex, raising questions about the role of narrative and brand in modern faith.
• DIY is the New Luxury – Phillip’s journey from $300 Instagram pants to $6 Goodwill masterpieces signals a cultural shift: recession-core meets personal branding.
• Slop is Dead (Maybe) – Brian drops a bold claim: participatory lo-fi media has peaked. What’s next? Meaningful myth, meta-modern storytelling, and high-context digital ritual.
• [00:06:27] “Once you hit the limit with your product, you start to look at category expansion. You have to ask the ‘why’ questions.” – Brian
• [00:52:45] “The way we relate to culture is through the commerce experience of it—when an American lens is applied.” – Phillip

• The Senses: I Vatican’t Believe These Prices
• Insiders: Language Games

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Phillip and Brian bring hot takes on eBay’s Met Gala presence, the latest tariff turmoil, and the future of autonomous driving. PLUS: Dissecting Warren Buffet’s retirement and new research on Gen Z vs. Millennial communication trends.

• Trends that feel like youth trends are actually just internet trends. Their effects are now felt across generations, not siloed age groups.
• There has been a shift from modernism to postmodernism, and in turn, sincerity to ironic insincerity.
• Boy Meets World: 25 years after its series finale airs, we reflect on its sitcom era as a marker of TV’s transition from modernism and sincerity to postmodernism and ironic insincerity.
• Kendra Scott taps into Gen Alpha.
• eBay returns to Brian’s radar and then sponsors the 2025 Met Gala. Coincidence?
• “Understanding the society in which you live, and the cultural moment taking place, is taken for granted a lot.” – Phillip
• “The Y2K bug was actually just the end of sincerity.” – Brian
• “We’ve leaned so far into cheap goods for so long, there might be a memetic cycle happening now where we lean back into goods that are durable.” – Brian
• “Autonomous driving is extraordinarily disruptive—just like AI is for information, AVs are for how we live, plan cities, and think about ownership.” – Phillip

• The Guardian: Gen Z Is Turning to Voice Notes
• Dirt.fyi: The State of A24
• Titan Caskets: Grave Conversations
• Waymo Partners with Toyota

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Brian dials in from B2B Chicago, Phillip gets existential, and Alicia Esposito returns to the show and makes her debut as the newest member of the Future Commerce team. This week, we unpack music festivals’ escalating cost of participation, Coachella as a retail laboratory, and how looming global trade challenges overconsumption. PLUS: The auto industry experiences a rare analog awakening.

• 70% of B2B purchasers are Gen Z or Millennials.
• Tariffs are a real threat – Brands are bracing for supply chain disruption, with some using tariff warnings as marketing FOMO triggers.
• Future Commerce analyzes the overpriced festival craze on Insiders #190 and Insiders #191.
• The draw to Coachella? It’s not music, or $30 Dave’s Hot Chicken sandwiches. It’s vibes.
• The Slate Truck represents a broader cultural trend toward digital detox and reverse skeuomorphism, bringing real-world, tactile experiences back into the digital age.
• [00:04:07] “Digitalization came for B2C and we didn’t say anything. And now it’s here for B2B.” – Brian Lange
• [00:15:17] “The reckoning has been coming for a long time. Overconsumption isn’t just a consumer issue—it’s a systemic one. If the climate crisis didn’t spark change, what will?” – Phillip Jackson
• [00:16:57] “At what point will the cost of participation outweigh the value of participation to the point where it's like, well, what am I even doing this for?” – Alicia Esposito

• Insiders #191: City of Coachella: Population: In Debt
• Insiders #190: Is Coachella Buzz Brands’ Supply Chain Friend or Foe?
• Politico: How Gen Z Became the Most Gullible Generation

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