Receiving an “you guys are everywhere” text is a top five feeling for any marketer.

The work that held my attention in May was built around relentlessness. One sharp story, told in a million different ways. A five fingered shoe brand says “stay close to the ground”. A quick payments app insists “going out should be easy”. A kids' accessories brand comes back with a vengeance cheering “getting dressed should feel like dress up”. A reality star’s team said “she’s That Girl” after she was publicly wronged.

The throughline: the work that gets noticed isn't the work that showed up once. It's the work that refused to leave.

Five strategies. Here's what caught our eye.

Want more monthly inspo? Subscribe.

Want to learn how my team uses Air to save our asses every month? Book a demo.

It all started with an Instagram ad. Not how most great brand stories start, but stay with me.

The ad was good enough to get me to click through to the feed, and the feed was so good I shared it with my group chat. It felt arty, singular, and confident. I felt like I had discovered something before every girl in the Lower East Side. A brand that had stayed niche!

It only took two weeks for me to see a pair IRL. First, at the Park Slope YMCA (this one wasn’t shocking) then, at 34th St Penn Station (this one was). A week later, I opened TikTok and was inundated with TikTok shop ads for DUPES of the statement shoes I thought were only on MY radar.

The funnel finale happened on Tuesday when the brand launched their MUCH anticipated VI B style and sold it out within 8 hours. Ballet flats had their moment. Tabi shoes had theirs. FiveFingers are the natural next step for a generation that keeps reaching for the silhouette that feels most like a foot. The community excitement for the brand is real, earned, and almost entirely organic. Vibram didn't manufacture this moment. They had the product ready when it arrived because they’re true to this. They never abandoned their niche and it’s paying off.

I couldn't escape the product or the brand's subtle promise that wearing them would ground me. My pair arrive next week.

Now that’s what I call a hard working brand ecosystem →

Venmo wanted to announce the expansion of its Stash rewards program. Their answer was to invite real-life best friends Rachel Sennott and Jordan Firstman into the writers room. What they built together was "Between Friends," a three-part short film series shot on 35mm by Drew Daniels, the cinematographer behind Anora. It's a comedy about the social texture of spending money with people you love, which is to say it's about friendship, which is to say it's extremely watchable.

The campaign is running in clips across social, OOH, OTT, podcasts, and gaming. Each one from a different section of the 35mm project, but they all tell the same story. Every moment you see trains the habit to Venmo your friends through these parasocial friendship moments we’re injected into with Rachel and Jordan. Most fintech brands reach for modern and frictionless and clean. Venmo made something that looks like it was found in someone's childhood bedroom. That's no accident! That's a creative bet on warmth winning over efficiency, and it's working.

Watch them bicker about who’s paying for the ride home from the bar →

Claire's knows that you’re nostalgic for dolphin earrings from their rack.

But for their first big campaign back, they’re going all in on Gen Alpha’s most consistent fascination: "A Girl SMR at Claire's", a sensory-first campaign built around slimes, squishies, scent accessories, and tactile collectibles. Gen Alpha is the first social-native generation, fluent in ASMR before they can drive. Claire's isn't trying to remind anyone of what they were. They're introducing themselves to someone new.

Through an open casting call on their TikTok, they’ve rallied real girls to star in the campaign and be ongoing ambassadors for the brand. If you’re 11 scrolling TikTok on your iPad right now, I don’t think you can escape them. Their summer campaign shoot BTS felt like I was at AcquiredStyle’s bachelorette party sponsored by Swan Beauty.

Meet Claire’s’ newest ambassadors →

The brands that moved on Ciara Miller weren't doing her a favor. They were paying attention.

ICYMI: A scandal sparked by her co-stars and.. ex-friends.. lead to Miller having a very public season on Summer House. The internet took her side, loudly and immediately. What followed wasn't just sympathy. It was a window. And several brands were ready when it opened.

Sephora took 8 days to get to her. She was interviewing stars on every red carpet premiere that same week. Nuuly got in on it. She was on the cover of Glamour within weeks. Plus, longer game work seemed to be happening on a truncated production schedule, like an appearance in an Old Navy commercial starring Paris Hilton, a commercial scripted for her by Google Gemini around the drama, a DSW edit, and a Sonic commercial. Peacock just announced she'll co-host Love Island USA: Aftersun starting June 2nd. She's also booked for Dancing with the Stars in the fall. You see, relentless.

The lesson isn't "find people going through hard things and put them in ads." The lesson is narrower and more useful: cultural moments have a window. The brands in this story spotted Ciara's moment early, moved fast, and made the partnership feel like a natural extension of the story rather than an opportunistic one. DSW wasn't the fifth shoe brand to slide into her DMs. They were there when it counted. That's the whole strategy.

Scroll through her IG to count the collabs →

Boy Throb formed six months ago. They have 2.1 million followers, a fan base called the Throb Mob, and a fourth member, Darshan, who performed at their May 12th debut via Zoom from India while his O-1B visa application moves through the US immigration system. That visa fight is now, by the band's own account, core to who they are.

Air presented their debut concert at the Bowery Ballroom and named it Throbchella. Tickets sold out in 90 seconds. 550 people showed up to sing along.

This was how we launched Skills: not with a press release or a landing page refresh. With a sold-out concert in New York for a viral boy band. The tenet behind Skills is that creative work is fundamentally collaborative and human. We figured the launch should be, too.

See how Skills played a part →

Want more inspo and creative ephemera? There's more campaigns we watched in our monthly moodboard.

Conviction scales differently than spend does. The brands in this issue didn't have bigger budgets. They had stronger conviction about what their idea was. Vibram didn't chase a trend. Claire's didn't need to do what wasn’t obvious. Venmo told you what you already know about their product.

Relentless doesn't mean loud. It means committed.

See you next month,

Lou

Content + Campaign Manager, Air

Millions of scroll-stopping creative ideas live on Air—where inspiration meets organization. Want space to breath?

Get some Air