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Welcome to The Brief by Kuro House, your daily dose of sharp marketing insights and the stories shaping our industry. Today, we’re diving into some of the most compelling moves in brand leadership, creative strategy, and the ever-evolving world of cultural collaborations. Let’s get right to the stories you need to know.

First up, Starbucks is making a bold move to strengthen its cultural cachet by hiring Neiv Toledano as its first-ever senior marketing manager of fashion and beauty. This comes as part of a larger effort to re-energize the Starbucks brand through high-profile collaborations. Toledano joins from E.l.f. Cosmetics, where she worked on buzzworthy partnerships with brands like Stanley and Liquid Death. Her new role sits within Starbucks’ Brand Activation team, overseen by Candice Beck, a recent hire herself who previously led social and influencer strategy at Chipotle and Yahoo’s Creative Lab. This signals a clear shift: Starbucks wants to go deeper into culture, not just with coffee, but by intersecting with fashion, beauty, music, and sports. Recent collaborations include a custom couture gown inspired by the Starbucks logo at New York Fashion Week, partnerships with designers like Diane von Furstenberg and Brandon Blackwood, and even a limited-edition merch line with Farm Rio across Latin America. Starbucks is also the official coffee partner of the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games and has hosted Taylor Swift listening parties. The strategy is clear—engage the young, culturally influential demographic, especially young women who set the trends. As Eunice Shin of Elume Group notes, carrying a Starbucks cup is already a form of social signaling, and these collaborations amplify that effect. The big question: will this approach help Starbucks regain its cultural relevance and turn around flat sales? If the frenzy over their Roller Rabbit collab is any indicator, they’re on the right track. That story comes from Digiday.

Shifting gears to the world of creative leadership, Swiss running shoe brand On has made a headline-grabbing hire: Thiago Cruz, the former chief creative officer at Grey New York, has joined as global head of brand and creative. According to Adweek, Cruz now leads On’s internal creative studio, managing a team of art directors, graphic designers, and copywriters to develop the brand’s marketing campaigns. Cruz is based in Switzerland, aligning with On’s headquarters, and his move comes right after Grey’s U.S. offices were reorganized under Ogilvy Group as part of a wider WPP shakeup. Cruz brings deep experience from both sides of the Atlantic, and his appointment is seen as a signal that On is ready to further challenge legacy brands like Nike and Puma. On’s recent marketing has already made waves, especially with its multiyear partnership with Zendaya, which has included everything from product development to creative campaigns—like Zendaya’s much-talked-about April “launch into space.” All this has paid off: On posted record net sales and profit in Q3 2025, with sales up nearly 25% year-over-year. Gabriel Schmitt, global CCO of Grey, called Cruz “one of the most talented creative leaders in the industry” and expressed excitement for both On and Cruz’s next chapter. With this kind of creative firepower, expect On to keep pushing boundaries in both sport and lifestyle marketing.

Let’s talk about commerce media, where consolidation is the name of the game. According to Adweek, commerce media ad spend in the U.S. has reached nearly $59 billion this year, and while growth is expected to slow, it’s still projected to make up a fifth of all U.S. digital ad spend by 2029. As the market matures and retail media networks face the reality of a crowded landscape, experts predict a wave of consolidation by 2026. What does this mean? As growth flattens and revenue expectations become more realistic, we’ll likely see mergers, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships as players vie for scale and efficiency. The article hints that this could reshape the competitive landscape, forcing both established and emerging networks to rethink their strategies. For marketers, this means more streamlined options but potentially less diversity in platforms. It’s a space to watch closely as the next wave of dealmaking heats up.

That’s all for today’s Brief. From Starbucks’ culture-first strategy and On’s creative reinvention, to the big shifts coming in commerce media, these stories show how brands are evolving to meet both the moment and the future. Thanks for tuning in—stay sharp, and we’ll see you tomorrow with more marketing moves that matter.