Industry trends, insights, and updates from ASTER.
Coca-Cola's AI ad was scorched as "soulless." Jacquemus's 79-year-old grandmother shook the luxury world. AI companies dominated Super Bowl ad slots. In 2026, advertising has become a grand experiment over what it means to be human.
8 min read
Good advertising is remembered. But the most powerful advertising becomes an "incident." From Duolingo, LVMH, and Sounds Right — three cases that disrupted the global marketing scene in 2025 — we decode the conditions under which advertising moves culture.
1 min read
Great brands don’t sell products. They don’t sell answers. What they offer are questions. Beyond the eight principles lies the ultimate branding weapon: designing questions that shake people’s thinking to its core.
6 min read
Logos can be changed. Colors can be changed. But the words a brand uses rewrite the very thinking of its audience. In an age where AI can generate any text, we explore the destructive power of a single word chosen by a human.
5 min read
Buzz fades overnight. Trends rotate every season. But truly strong brands have time on their side. In 2026, when short-term optimization dominates, we explore the methodology of deliberately designing brands with a 100-year perspective.
6 min read
Consistency, coherence, perfect brand guidelines. The more you pursue them, the more "correct" your brand becomes — and the more it dies. In 2026, when AI mass-produces perfect answers, what attracts people is a living brand unafraid of contradiction.
6 min read
People don’t move for specs. Only brands that embed rituals into daily life become beyond comparison. With contour, white space, stance, and complicity as weapons, what a brand must design last is the "repeated moment."
6 min read
Not fans. Not followers. What a brand truly needs are accomplices — people who share the same vision and are willing to bet together. With contour, white space, and stance in hand, the next question is: who do you run with?
5 min read