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.

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
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• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce
• Emily Siegel's Substack: nemesisglobal.substack.com
• Register for Vision Summit NYC with code "aftervibes" for 50% off at FutureCommerce.com/visions

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

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

• Learn more about Optimove’s platforms
• Learn more about Positionless Marketing
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

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."

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!