Four brand and marketing insights from our team, delivered every month.
“Cerulean Blue” Was Always a Marketing Thesis
And that scene still has a hold on me almost two decades later.
Like millions of others, I recently went to the cinema to watch The Devil Wears Prada 2: a sequel released into a world now dominated by influencers, algorithms, AI-generated content and “quiet luxury”. I loved it entirely: glossy, light, but surprisingly sharp in the way it reflected how fashion, media and marketing have evolved. Yet walking out of the cinema, I found myself thinking less about the sequel and more about the original film’s infamous Cerulean Blue monologue.
‘This….stuff’
If you’re unfamiliar, Miranda Priestly explains how Andy’s “ordinary” blue sweater was never really her independent choice at all. The colour had filtered down from luxury runways, through designers, editors, retailers and manufacturers before eventually landing in her wardrobe.
That scene dismantles the myth that consumers make completely independent decisions. It reveals how culture shapes our tastes long before we consciously act on those tastes.
And that’s why the speech still resonates today, with me and countless others. Because the platforms have changed, but the psychology hasn’t. People rarely buy products: they buy identity, aspiration and belonging.
Watch the Cerulean Blue monologue on YouTube →
// Bronagh Spence, Content Manager
When Brands Had Edges
There was a moment, somewhere in the late eighties and early nineties, when brands genuinely had something to say. Not a positioning statement. A point of view. Nike, Levi’s, Vans, Sub Pop — they understood their world and spoke to it directly. The people they weren’t for made them more valuable to the people they were.
Then came platforms, and the logic of scale took over everything it touched. Reach became the metric that ate all the others. Broaden the appeal. Smooth the edges. Don’t alienate. The cumulative effect was a slow, industry-wide loss of nerve — until most of what gets made now is technically correct and spiritually inert.
Algorithms didn’t just change how people find brands. They changed what brands believed they were allowed to be.
That matters more now than it has in years. AI is commoditising execution fast. Copy, imagery, campaigns — the cost of production is collapsing. Which means the work alone can’t be the differentiator. The point of view is. The willingness to stand for something and accept the people it’s not for.
The brands that lasted didn’t get there by being for everyone. They got there by being completely, unapologetically for someone.
Read Rene’s full argument and Perth backstory →
// Rene LeMerle, General Manager – Creative Division
Nikki Wants You to Text Her Back
A campaign for the new horror film Obsession landed in my feed last week, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it.
Focus Features posted billboards across LA and New York featuring increasingly unhinged messages from the film’s antagonist, Nikki. Each one carried a real phone number. Text it and Nikki herself replied, transforming a traditional billboard into an interactive storytelling experience.
A glance became a conversation, and a conversation is much harder to walk away from than a static billboard.
It quickly became viral – people screenshotted their conversations, posted reactions and shared the experience across TikTok, X and Instagram. The character became part of their feeds – quoted, replied to, treated as someone real. Obsession, reportedly produced for under $1 million, has earned more than $75 million worldwide.
What stood out to me was how the team created a simple billboard that people genuinely wanted to respond to, then let the audience carry the conversation everywhere else. As someone who works in digital marketing, it’s a great reminder that the most effective campaigns aren’t always the biggest or most expensive. The idea was designed to be shared, and that did more than any media budget could have bought.
See the full campaign breakdown on Famous Campaigns →
// Anastasia Sipsas, Digital Account Executive
Why Harry Potter Makes More Sense as a TV Series
Harry Potter was a generation growing up in real time. The early films felt warm and almost storybook-like, then gradually became darker and more emotionally complicated as the audience got older too. Few franchises have evolved alongside their fans in quite the same way.
Which is why the HBO reboot feels less like a replacement and more like a reset. And honestly, Harry Potter probably makes more sense as a TV series anyway. More room for smaller characters, side plots and details the films never had time for.
But what’s really interesting is what this says about attention online. The original movies created huge moments of cultural conversation. A streaming series creates something different: constant discovery. Weekly episodes mean recurring searches, fan theories, reaction content, TikToks, Reddit threads and ongoing discussion between releases instead of every few years.
That’s incredibly valuable in today’s media landscape. Because the brands winning online now are the ones people continuously return to, search for and participate in.
One generation had midnight premieres. Another will have weekly episode drops.
Dig deeper into the case for the TV Series on Medium →
// Kelvin Sim, SEO Strategist
Bonfire is an award-winning performance marketing agency based in Subiaco, Western Australia.