🔥 Trendjacking, parties, and movements: 4 ways to participate in the monoculture

This week’s #ForYou goes deep on the ROI of relevance—and exactly how to join the conversation everyone’s having.

In this Thursday’s email we’re sharing:

• 🔎 One Small Thing: When’s the last time you brought a truly fresh idea to the conference room? If your brainstorms feel a step behind, you might not have a strategy problem—you might have a relevance gap.

  This week, we break down how to actually keep up with internet culture (besides subscribing to this Substack 😉), and why understanding the “monoculture” is every marketer’s unfair advantage.

In the full edition, available for paying members:

• Everyone talks about “joining the conversation.” Few actually know how. We unpack the exact ways brands break into the monoculture—whether you’re trendjacking on a shoestring budget or building your own cultural moment from scratch.

+ recent exclusives: Medievalcore, mythmaking & the rise of history creators, 💎Enshittification explained: why platforms go from loved to hated, Q4 playbook: September’s trends every brand should be watching

---

---

🔎One small thing: How to keep up with internet culture like a pro

Feeling overwhelmed by how much there is to keep up with online? You’re not alone. But here’s the truth: keeping up isn’t the skill — filtering what matters is. The real advantage lies in knowing which stories, memes, or moments actually break through to the monoculture — the layer of culture everyone shares — and showing up there with intent.

We asked cultural analyst

Megan Collins

how she stays fluent in internet culture without burning out. Her advice is refreshingly practical:e:

1. Immerse thoughtfully. Don’t scroll aimlessly — participate in what’s shaping culture. Watch the movie everyone’s quoting, read the buzzy book, try the viral trend. It’s about engagement, not consumption.

2. Get curious about other corners of the internet. Don’t just follow your own niche — explore what other communities are obsessed with and why.

3. Listen widely. Megan’s favorite pods that cover celebrity, media, and pop culture:

   • Who? Weekly: Hosts Bobby Finger & Lindsey Weber use celebrity culture as a cover to teach you about media literacy and I eat up every second

   • ICYMI podcast: A few times a week, Candace Lim brings on fellow Slate reporters to analyze the latest internet discourse.

   • Shameless: Based in Australia, hosts Zara McDonald, Michelle Andrews, and Annabelle Lee take you through the top 5 pop culture stories of the week and why they’ve captivated the zeitgeist.

For Megan’s final 2 tips, check our her full piece here

---

Defining the Monoculture & why it matters for brands

In the world of cultural analysis, there are certain words we casually use every day that to the rest of the world might sound like jargon. “Monoculture” is one of those words. So this week, we’re tapping

Megan Collins

and

Kaley Mullin

to help us define the monoculture and why it’s important for brands.

Megan and Kaley are launching a cultural relevance consultancy called Cool Shiny Insights [stay tuned for next Thursday’s email where we chat with Kaley about her career journey and launching Cool Shiny Insights]. The dynamic duo are leveraging their expertise combining custom research with actionable insights to help your favorite brands succeed in the ever-changing cultural landscape. So they’re the perfect people to take on the question of:

What is monoculture?

Simply put, the monoculture is the layer of culture that is shared with and accessible to everyone. It’s the stuff that’s so ubiquitous that even those who aren’t consciously tuning into culture are at least familiar and can be expected to hold a conversation about it. It’s the “watercooler” conversation topics that you could rely on your co-workers to know about.

A monocultural celebrity is said to be a “household name.”

On the flip side, if you haven’t heard of something in the monoculture, “you’ve been living under a rock.”

What’s the role of brands in the monoculture?

The short answer: everything. The monoculture is where brand awareness turns into ubiquity — where moments become movements and relevance becomes reputation.

Below the paywall this week:
Our playbook for breaking into the monoculture — from low-lift trendjacks to the big-budget moves that cement cultural dominance. No matter your resources, here’s how to earn your spot in the conversation everyone’s having. ⬇️