how to use trends without losing your brand voice

Howdy, friend. What a week. Happy (almost) July. I cannot believe I just wrote that.
New Yorkers, if you’re heading to Fancy Food this weekend, holler at me. I’ll be boppin’ around some happy hours and pretending my stomach is a bottomless pit that can handle the weird variety of samples.

In between gearing up for the month ahead and working to migrate this newsletter to Substack (hehe), I’ve been catching up on Love Island like everyone else. Nic and Olandria??? Uhm yes.

Anyway, that “I’m a Mom/ Mami?” meme from the show? Cute at first. Now recycled by every brand imaginable, each shoving their product into the trend and hoping it lands or just getting it up to say they did it. Are there some winners? Absolutely, but many of ones being posted aren’t making any sense.

So, this week, a hot new topic has entered the villa:
→ Why trends used to be scroll-stoppers, but now feel like content clutter
→ How brands are chasing memes for quick engagement instead of crafting anything original
→ Who’s actually to blame (the social team? the client? the algorithm?)
→ And why you don’t need to jump on every trend to stay relevant

If you’ve been watching your feed slowly morph into one big engagement grab, you’re not imagining it.

Let’s unpack why it’s happening and how to do better.

If there’s one thing you take away from today’s newsletter, it’s this: originality is everything when you’re building a brand, but so is knowing what’s already out there. The fastest-growing brands don’t guess. They study what’s working, find the gaps, and move fast.

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How Brands Lose Themselves Chasing Trends

Let’s be clear: trends aren’t bad. I love a good trend when I see one. They’re one of the best tools we have for cultural relevance, visibility, and stopping the scroll when used with intention to a degree.

But that’s not what we’re seeing right now. What once helped brands stand out is now causing them to all blur together. Instead of asking “How do we make this ours?” too many teams are asking “How fast can we jump on this before it dies?”

With the new season of Love Island out and memes coming to the forefront, this one clip from the show has turned into one too many takes. As you can see, I got served 4+ iterations of the meme within 2 scrolls on my feed.

You see the same audio, the same caption format, the same format with a new product awkwardly wedged in. This new Love Island meme is starting to not make me wonder how a brand will respond, but shows me who knew to say “this will get overdone. let’s sit out.”

It’s content that exists just to say: “We did the thing too.”

But here's the thing: If someone could swap out your product and the post still works, is the concept that strong? This is how brands can start to lose themselves. They start to chase what’s easy and causes the high instead of trying to own their lane.

Shelby Jacobs, friend of the newsletter and Social Strategy Director at TBWA/Chiat/Day NY, said it best:

“It’s very clear that brands are desperate for quick wins as the space gets tougher to stand out, and to do so will rely on the easiest trend formula. What actually works is making something interesting with a point of view that isn’t just a carbon copy of someone else.

If the logo and product in your content can be swapped out for another brand (competitor or literally anyone else), is the content really that strong?”

That’s the real test:
Can only you make that post? Or could it come from anyone?

Lately, too much content feels like the latter.

And it’s not always the social team’s fault. In a world where it’s easier to consume too much, sometimes it’s easier to just copy and paste and test it for yourself.

Usually, It’s often:

• A client who wants to chase the viral sound they saw on their FYP and wonder why the team did not execute

• A leadership team who doesn’t use the platform, but wants to be culturally relevant

• Feeling pressure from the algorithm rewarding sameness, so teams feel pressure to follow instead of lead

What gets lost in all of it?
Your brand’s voice. Your originality. Your actual point of view.

Ask This Question Before You Jump On Any Trend

“Does this even make sense for us?”

And if the answer is yes, the next question should be: “How do we make this something only we could post?”

That’s the piece that keeps getting skipped.

I’ve written before about how McDonald’s handles this well and how they think about jumping on trends after hearing their team chat at Social Media Week. You can read that here.

By the way, if you want to have participation in something online it doesn’t mean copying. It means showing up with something to add.

If You’re Going To Use a Trend, Here’s What to Remember:

Use trends to stay relevant, buuuuuut don’t forget to be creative.

The best brands know how to do both.
They take what’s culturally hot and filter it through their own POV.
They remix it instead of recycling it.

This is balance we need more of:

• Cultural relevance plus creative originality

• Speed plus self-awareness

• Format plus brand filter

So:

• Be early, or be different : If you’re not first, bring the best twist.

• Don’t just follow format, follow brand fit. If the trend doesn’t align with your brand’s voice or product, skip it.

• Originality > virality. Especially if you’re trying to build long-term brand identity. Social media is a long-game. Sure, you might go viral, but the expectation to do that often by CEOs and founders who barely understand the platforms is beyond me. A viral post can’t save a crappy product. Remember that.

• Test this question:“Could someone else post this exact thing and have it still work?” If yes, start over.

It’s time for Ahead of the Trend. A quick, snappy ode to the fun things I’m seeing online across creators, social, and brands. Sometimes, it’s a trend. Sometimes, it’s just a tip I want to share about marketing. Sometimes, it’s about snacks. TL;DR: just cool things I’m loving right now or things you should know.

In no particular order, let’s dive in:

• Eating: Trace’s Oats, a quick, no-brainer breakfast that actually tastes good. I have always been one of those people obsessed with oatmeal. Creator, Trace, grew his following to millions solely through healthy recipes made with oats. Naturally, he launched an overnight oats brand and it’s delish with added protein (plant-based!) in some great flavors. Rip, pour, throw them in the fridge, and fuel up. I love a creator to product pipeline that actually makes sense.
  

• Drinking: This is simply your reminder to drop the CPG bev and drink some god dang water.
  

• Brand of the Week: I am loving the rollout and teasing of Cherry Los Angeles’ upcoming launch that my friend, Alex, worked on and seeing the BTS to it being posted has been so cool.
  

• Influencer of the Week: Tommy Donahue is one of the most wholesome people I have ever come across. He’s 21 and simply posts “What I Do After Work To Make Sure I Don’t Hate My Life” videos. A good reminder for all of us to get outside and touch grass. Being that he works in New York City, if I was a restarant or experience of some sort, I’d be trying to invite him in where I can.
  

• News You Should Know About:

  • If you’re wanting in on the tea within CPG, the founder of the very interesting Better Brands that was known for their take on low-carb, high-protein bagels, has gone missing after taking many loans, not paying them, and completely leaving customers and investors in confusion. Andrea from Snaxshot covered it here. I’ll be waiting for the Netflix documentary.

  • Amazon just brought back one of the best deals: Amazon Prime for Young Adults. I am interested to see how this will affect sales during Prime Days for brands and if they’ll have a younger demo shopping if they are able to get in on the perks in time.

  • Platforms are continuing to gamify where they can. TikTok is looking to increase retention on livestreams with fan clubs via Social Media Today. BTW if you’re a brand who does TikTok livestreams to promote your shop or just for getting along with your community successfully, I would love to chat.

  • Instagram’s CapCut competitor, Edits, is continuing to ship updates like “Keyframes”, which will allow you to edit more granularly.

  • If you missed it the other week, Instagram might roll out a Repost feature. Why is every platform turning into one another and having an identity crisis? Help.

THAT’S A WRAP

Alright, alright, alright. That’s it for this week.

As always, thank you for taking a few minutes from your day and spending it with me.

If you know anyone who you think would enjoy this newsletter, it would mean so much if you could send them this link or forward this this edition: https://kendalldickieson.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Want to catch up on past editions of No Filter? Read them all for free right here.

See you next week. If there’s any burning questions that you want to ask that you want to see a deep dive on, you know where to find me.

Peace, love, and KPIs,

-KD

This edition of No Filter is brought to you by Particl