Brand therapy for the culturally fluent and creatively fatigued.
Welcome back to The Hotline; your favourite corner of the internet for strategic advice, brutal honesty, and the occasional existential sigh (or maybe that’s just us).
We dig into the questions that haunt founders, fuel marketers, and frustrate creatives; served straight up, no jargon.
You bring the crisis. We’ll bring the context. Drop your next one here.
Q: One of my competitors copied my brand identity. Almost to the point of funny. Do I call them out and seek legal advice or do I say f*ck it, and just focus on levelling up? — (Mateo C., Gold Coast — Health & Wellness)
Dear Mateo,
Copycats are the tax you pay for being great.
When someone mimics your look, voice, or vibe, your ego screams for confrontation. But here’s the truth: shouting “we did it first” just makes you look defensive. The brands that last don’t waste time policing imitation, they evolve faster than it can keep up.
If someone copied your surface, they can’t copy your soul. Keep creating. Keep iterating. Use it as a mirror: what part of your brand felt easy enough to replicate? Sharpen that. Deepen your distinctiveness until the resemblance feels evermore laughable.
Every minute you spend resenting is a minute you’re not reinventing.
The antidote to imitation isn’t outrage. It’s originality — again.
Love, P.O.
Q: Deep in the branding process right now and finding it hard to land on our personality with clarity. Can you be premium and playful, or do I have to pick a lane? — (Camille T., NYC — Fragrance)
Hi Camille,
If you read our recent piece on Gentle Monster, you already know the answer: premium and playful aren’t opposites, they’re the new power couple.
Luxury used to be about restraint. Now it’s about how well you can make theatre out of taste. These brands understand that elegance without emotion is forgettable, and fun without finesse feels cheap. The magic happens when you choreograph both… when precision meets personality, and restraint dances with surprise.
To us, premium doesn’t mean sterile, it means intentional. You can be irreverent, bold, or even a little unhinged, as long as your touchpoints are designed with precision. Think of it like Gentle Monster’s stores; high art and high weirdness in equal measure. The spectacle doesn’t dilute the luxury; it creates it. Because sophistication today isn’t about quiet exclusivity, it’s about control of chaos.
The trick is balance: polish in the structure, personality in the delivery. Look at brands like Miu Miu, Jacquemus, and Maison Kitsuné — they know that luxury isn’t just about price point; it’s about world-building. The product is premium, but the experience? Delightfully alive.
The dance isn’t without danger. Make no mistake, this is a tightrope, not a two-step. Blending premium with playful takes precision – the danger isn’t in being funny, it’s in being careless.
Wit without taste reads gimmicky. But when every detail is deliberate; when your type, timing, and tone are choreographed with care, playfulness becomes your secret handshake. It signals confidence. It tells your audience, we’re in on the joke, but we also built the stage it’s told on.
Because the future of “premium” is no longer polished silence, it’s emotional precision. The kind that leaves people smiling and impressed.
People remember brands that make them feel something and look like they know what they’re doing. That’s brand chemistry executed cleverly.
Love, P.O.
Q: How do I make my brand feel human without oversharing like an influencer? — (Noah J., Sydney — Interior Studio)
Dear Noah,
There’s a big difference between being human and being hyper-visible.
There’s no denying the internet turned vulnerability into a strategy, but somewhere between “relatable” and “performative,” we well and truly lost the plot. Many founder-led brands have forgotten that true connection isn’t built on emotional oversharing; it’s built on emotional intelligence.
Here’s our rule of thumb for where you’re at: If it doesn’t serve your audience, it’s self-indulgent. If it helps them understand your mission or see themselves in your story, it’s brand gold.
This means share your why, not your wounds. Your perspective, not your private life. The best founders and brands tell stories that reveal values, not vulnerabilities. They turn lessons into language the audience can use, not feelings the audience has to manage.
Think of authenticity as a lens, not a spotlight. It’s not about how much you show; it’s about what your audience sees in themselves when you show it.
Ask yourself with every story: does this serve clarity, or does it serve my ego? One builds brand affinity. The other just builds noise.
Your brand doesn’t need to talk to camera every time you have a thought. You’re not a lifestyle channel, you’re a company. Trust isn’t built through airtime, it’s built through alignment. Humanity isn’t born from hypervisibility; it’s born from honesty.
Love, P.O
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