We are at the halfway mark. The sun is out in Portland, which means I have approximately three months of seasonal goodwill before the rain returns and I become a creature of pure indoor commentary again. Let me use this brightness to reflect on which brands had the best first half of the year and what we can learn from them.
Winner: Duolingo
I wrote about them earlier this year and they have only gotten better since. Their response to the TikTok ban fears was to immediately start building on other platforms while maintaining their chaotic energy. They did not panic. They diversified with the same voice. That is organizational clarity in action.
Winner: Kendrick Lamar
Yes, I am counting a rapper as a brand, because he is. Kendrick released music that dominated cultural conversation for weeks without a traditional marketing campaign, tour announcement, or album rollout. He won by being undeniable. Sometimes the best brand strategy is just being so good that the work speaks for itself.
Winner: Liquid Death
They sold a fart in a jar as a limited edition product. They partnered with Martha Stewart for a campaign. They continue to prove that an utterly absurd brand voice backed by genuine distribution strategy and operational excellence is a viable model for CPG. The comedy is the strategy. The strategy is the comedy.
Winner: The WNBA
Caitlin Clark's arrival plus the broader cultural momentum around women's sports created a moment the WNBA was actually positioned to capitalize on this time. Smart scheduling decisions. Better broadcast deals. Social media savvy. They were ready when the moment came, which is the most underrated form of brand strategy: preparation.
Loser: Google
AI Overviews telling people to put glue on pizza and eat rocks was not the product launch they imagined. The fundamental tension between "AI is the future of search" and "AI confidently tells you things that will poison you" remains unresolved. Trust is hard to build and easy to meme away.
Loser: OpenAI
The Scarlett Johansson situation. The board drama. The increasing perception that they move fast and break norms. For a company whose product requires enormous public trust, they keep generating headlines that erode it.
Loser: Every brand that over-indexed on AI messaging
Loser: Every brand that over-indexed on AI messaging
Consumer surveys consistently show that "powered by AI" is not the selling point brands think it is. In many categories, it actively reduces trust. The brands cramming AI language into every product description and campaign brief are solving a positioning problem that exists in boardrooms but not in the market.
The pattern:
The winners share a trait: clarity of identity so strong that they can navigate chaotic cultural moments without losing coherence. The losers share a trait: they let external narratives (about AI, about technology, about what is cool) override their internal truth.
Second half of 2024 is going to be wild. An Olympics. An election. Whatever AI thing happens next. The brands that know who they are will navigate it. The ones still figuring it out are going to have a rough autumn.
See you on the other side. I will be the one at karaoke, refusing to sing anything released after 2005, judging brand campaigns on my phone between songs.