Future Commerce

Nikita Walia and Elliot Vredenburg of U.N.N.A.M.E.D. Studios took to the VISIONS stage at MoMA last year to enlighten a room of retail executives and brand marketers about the realities of worldbuilding. Their theory: a brand’s final form is decided by the public—and the strategist's job is to navigate that story, not control it. And they use Mercator, Buckminster Fuller, Guy Debord, free public Wi-Fi, and an acne sticker to back up their claims.
Mapping Meaning Isn’t About Being Right
Key takeaways:
Branding isn't worldbuilding because worldbuilding just imposes another set of rules
A three-hundred-page brand book is obsolete the day it ships, and rebrands every five to ten years are theater for stakeholders
The public decides a brand's final form, not the guidelines deck
Regenerative brands are always rebranding
[00:00:25] "Counter to what you've heard today, branding is not, in fact, worldbuilding." — Nikita Walia
[00:04:34] "This is sameness being sold to us as a form of consistency." — Nikita Walia
[00:15:45] "It's not about being right. It's about being useful, and useful in motion." — Elliot Vredenburg
[00:17:09] "A regenerative brand doesn't need to rebrand every five to ten years because it's always rebranding." — Elliot Vredenburg
In-Show Mentions:
The Mercator projection (1569) and Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Map
Superstudio, The Continuous Monument
Guy Debord and psychogeography
LinkNYC
Burberry, Daniel Lee, Demna's Balenciaga, Pierpaolo Piccioli
Starface
Associated Links:
Read Alicia Esposito's companion essay, The New Meaning of Brand Building: Cartographies of Meaning
Watch the original session at VISIONS Summit: Cartographies of Meaning
Hear Dami Lee's VISIONS session, The Stories Behind Our Spaces
Listen to Building Culturally Intelligent Brands with Dr. Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel
Revisit The Anti-Blands, Existential Brands, and the New Dadaism
Read Surface Culture: When Brands Mistake Wallpaper for Authenticity
Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce
Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!



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Can anyone tell the staged from the real anymore? On today’s After Dark: We’re growing increasingly certain that everything is fake now. Amazon drones delivering your package to the deep end of your backyard pool? Curiosity bait. A bunch of Kindergarten moms actually keeping up in a group thread? A Suno commercial. That behind-the-scenes footage? AI-generated – but you watched it, didn’t you? PLUS: The minds of Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim have converged to craft what’s anticipated to be one of the most compelling documentaries we’ve ever seen.
This episode is exclusive to Future Commerce Plus members. Subscribe to listen at www.futurecommerce.com/plus.


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The next big advertising opportunity is here. The audio systems in Dollar General’s 21,000 stores connect shoppers with advertisers and drive loyalty. Austin Leonard, VP and GM of Dollar General Media Network (DGMN), sits down with Phillip and Alicia to explain why the retailer has doubled down on audio and the role that non-endemic advertisers play in his long-term vision.

“The Cocktail Party Effect”

Key takeaways:

In-store audio is getting programmatic optimization so DG’s sponsors can serve ads at the best time of day and in the best-suited markets.

Non-endemic only works in-store if it clears the near-endemic bar: shopper relevance.

Dollar General’s 21,000 stores across suburban, urban, and rural markets are often the only stores in town, making its ad inventory a community utility.

The Yellow Glasses Project pairs brand partners with the DG Literacy Foundation via iHeartRadio.

[00:18:10] Phillip: "This is the power that I think audio has that nothing else has; it can catch your attention even when you're focused on something else."

[00:32:40] Austin Leonard: "I call that the last mile of eCommerce for the last mile of America."

[00:36:15] Austin Leonard: "The next era of retail media is really about accountability and also telling our story for our unique audiences."

In-Show Mentions:

Find Austin Leonard on LinkedIn

More about DG Media Network

Yellow Glasses Project

iHeartMedia, DG Literacy Foundation partnership featuring Bobby Bones

Listen to Future Commerce’s episode with Collin Colburn of IAB

Associated Links:

More retail media coverage on Future Commerce retail media hub

Read: Insiders 237: “Vertical Dramas” and the New Era of Commerce Media

Listen: LIVE from Shoptalk Spring: Retail Media Confessions, Hype Cycles, and the Creator Reckoning

Read: Ad Infinitum: Retail Media is The Final Boss

VISIONS Summit at MoMA, New York City: Join us on November 3

Watch: Future Commerce on YouTube

Join Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print

Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world

Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Phillip sits solo to unpack conflicting economic signals: Shopify's monster quarter against a Census report showing eCommerce eating share while retail overall slows. What does this mean for brick-and-mortar? Although stores still make up most retail sales, their mission and value have shifted. The good has become secondary to the experience of acquiring it. Plus, he breaks down why the monoculture returned in a summer of shared events, and what's on the FC docket through November 3rd.

The Monoculture Isn’t Dead, It’s On Substack

Key takeaways:

Commerce is growing (online sales grew at nearly twice retail’s pace in 2025), but it’s growing by disappearing into everything else.

The product itself is secondary to the experience of purchasing it.

The monoculture isn't dead; it’s been revived by sport, tours, and global events.

"There is a monoculture now of people writing about the summer of the monoculture on their Substack."

"You're not just communicating your vision anymore to the human capital within your business; you now have to communicate vision to machines and put it into machine language. Because increasingly, we are automating more and more of our vision, and it's going on autopilot."

In-Show Mentions:

See our Celebrity Brands Hub before the Signal Report launches

Spotify Summer Trends Report

Get your early bird ticket for VISIONS Summit: NYC

Associated Links:

Check out Future Commerce on YouTube

Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print

Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world

Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Phillip and Alicia open the back-to-school season with a modern dichotomy: NRF data shows shoppers playing chicken, while Shopify posts a quarter where agentic traffic tripled. PLUS: After a summer abroad in London, Phillip reflects on behaviors unique to U.S. shoppers.

Get ‘Em While They’re Young

Key takeaways:

Retailers are manufacturing visible human effort as a hedge against frictionless AI commerce.

Play is a form of consumption. Browsing kids are already converting.

Back-to-school splits into two camps: early movers and deal holdouts.

Shopify's agentic traffic tripled as answer engines are becoming a back-to-school search surface.

U.S. share of wallet favors experience, forcing a fusion of retail and hospitality.

[00:17:11] Alicia: "When you create these spaces that are conducive to young people, you're kind of creating this magnet moment that ultimately motivates them to shop."

[00:28:18] Phillip: "What’s really wild about the mini brands thing is…we all complain about shrinkflation, then also buy the mini of something, which is a premiumization of a per-unit cost…We are irrational by nature, and brands would do well to play at both ends of the spectrum."

[00:40:17] Alicia: "[Søstrene Grene] almost feels like it's more high-touch because it's kind of imperfect."

Associated Links:

Check out Future Commerce on YouTube

Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print

Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world

Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.