Edition 92.

Fragrance drops, gold-medal flexes, consumer predictions, and the rising cost of attention (Meta just reported).

Here are 5 brand bytes to inform and inspire you this week:

1. Packaging play: going for the gold.

I did a dangerous thing and wrote this while hungry.

So guess who’ll be in line on Friday when Chipotle brings back the gold 🥇

The burrito chain is reviving its iconic gold foil wrapping to mark the 2026 Winter Olympics.

“Team Chipotle” (a select roster of Team USA athletes who partner with the brand) is fueling up on its “high-protein, real-ingredient” menu.

Starting Friday, gold foil burritos roll out across U.S. locations, timed with the start of the Winter Games in Italy.

The move builds on Chipotle’s athlete-led digital menus, and continues a familiar Olympic play seen from Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.

Nostalgia, sport-pride, and performance-driven branding, wrapped in gold.

A win for brand engagement.

2. Turning makeup favorites into fragrance.

After my Chipotle double-protein run, I’ll be headed to H&M.

Here’s why.

H&M is expanding into fragrance.

They’re teaming up with e.l.f. Cosmetics to drop a limited-edition perfume collection that checks off several “firsts:”

• ✅ H&M’s first beauty-to-beauty collaboration
• ✅ e.l.f.’s first fragrance launch, and
• ✅ Their first global fashion partnership.

Rather than invent new scent stories, the collection pulls directly from e.l.f.’s cult favorite products (the Halo Glow Liquid Filter, Camo Concealer, and Power Grip Primer).

They’ve turned product equity into wearable, scented moods.

Plus, created accessories like gripping socks, bag charms, and mini bags to extend the collab beyond scent, and into full lifestyle mode.

I’m not sure yet whether these fragrances will land on my fragrance favorites list, but I’ll be in-store, sniffing.

3. The other side of your ad spend.

While brand operators runs ads, track ROAS (return on ad spend) and CTRs (click-through rates), and quietly side-eye their bills from Meta, the platform behind that spend is a public company.

Which means the numbers are public too.

The economics behind the algorithm are available to us all.

So, fun fact about me: I often listen in to earnings calls from the Mag 7 (short for the “Magnificent Seven”).

These are the handful of massive tech companies shaping markets, media, and marketing economics.

Think Meta, Google, etc.

On Meta’s earnings call this past Wednesday, they shared that the average price per ad is up 6% year over year.

The speaker said this proudly.

As a brand owner, I winced in my chair.

Ouch.

With the cost of doing business rising on all fronts (raw goods, shipping costs, etc.), plus Meta-confirmed higher ad prices, it was a lot to hear (and mentally calculate).

But what’s most interesting about these earnings calls is the dual storyline.

👉 Shareholders hear growth.

👉 Brand owners feel pressure.

It’s the reality of business operations, big or small.

So while you’re heads-down brand building, I recommend trying this:

Tune in to an earnings call of a platform you’re using for business.

Using YouTube?

Google’s earnings calls are worth a listen, for example.

You’ll get insight into not just how those platforms plan for growth and how they make their money, but the juicy part: the tools and systems they plan to double down on, and what that means for business operators building on these platforms.

Earnings calls aren’t just for investors.

They’re for the people running businesses on these platforms, too.

5 key takeaways from Meta’s latest earnings call (from a brand owner POV):

• Ads are more expensive: Meta confirmed the average price per ad is up 6% YoY (year-over-year). A shareholder win.
• More ads, everywhere: Ad impressions are up 18% YoY, meaning more inventory across Meta’s apps.
• Meta’s getting bigger: Ad revenue hit $58.1B in Q4, up 24% YoY.
• Our ad spend fuels the business: Ads drove 97% of their quarterly revenue (which was $59.9B, if you’re keeping track).
• AI is their value play: Meta credits AI-driven improvements for stronger performance and higher pricing power.

(Source)

4. One creator-entrepreneur’s genius play.

Part blind item, an early observation.

Here’s what I’m seeing... 🕵️

Instead of enforcing silence through NDAs (like most celebrity projects require), one media entrepreneur appears to empower, or at least allow, his creative and content team to share their behind-the-scenes work, stories, and personal experiences.

They’re on Substack.

His team’s individual storytelling reinforces his own brand as a decisive, high-profile, visionary leader.

It creates a quiet network effect where the personal brands of his team amplify the perception and reach of the core brand.

The signal is trust, confidence, and strong leadership.

Brilliant (or perhaps, accidental) personal brand move?

5. What’s next (Gary Vee predicts).

Okay, now this person I’ll name (because I’m not secretly studying them and their team 🤭)...

I came across Gary Vee’s 2026 consumer trend predictions, and one prediction in particular made my day:

“The Unplugging of Gen Alpha.”

Gary says the pendulum is swinging.

Younger generations are realizing the phone is powerful, but not the point of living.

They (perhaps, us all) are entering an era of intentional unplugging.

Reading it felt like a quiet told-you-so.

Because Spoken Flames has said this from day one:

“The moment you light a Spoken Flames candle, unplug from the world and tune in to yourself.”

Maybe I was early, not wrong.

3 other key takeaways from Gary Vee’s prediction piece:

• The “individual empire:” People are building empires, not just audiences (I covered on this last week, as well). Ownership, equity, and product extensions matter more.
• Alternative sports are rising. Media unlocks new fandoms and formats. Think wiffle ball, padel, 3-on-3 basketball.
• The rise of “curiosity content.” Learning to ride a bike? Post it. Spitting out sunflower seeds? Post it. Gary says “your random thing becomes the documentation of your journey, which then becomes your monetizable framework of content.”

More brand bytes next Sunday at 5!