The Algorithm Doesn't Care About Your Followers
+ Nike and adidas battle for the World Cup, the 1st professional live sporting event captured on iphone, CapCut just folded itself into Gemini, and much more.
What's good, people! Hope the long weekend is treating you right. Unfortunately, it’s raining all weekend in NYC, but the long weekend is appreciated!
With the World Cup quickly approaching, Nike and Adidas have already put their cards on the table, unveiling robust marketing efforts to own the biggest cultural sports moment of the year. This week, I also came across the clearest example I've seen of how much the algorithm has changed: a mom posted an invite to her son's graduation and racked up 12.6 million views with a simple post. It’s fascinating - I’ll get into it. Plus, I’ll share creator and brand content that caught my eye this week and will help with your next creative brainstorm.
Let’s get it!
FAVORITE CONTENT OF THE WEEK
There's a creator who goes by Sidequesttre running a recurring bit called "Catch the Train." A bunch of strangers gather at a train platform, throw on silly costumes, and race to catch the train. The whole thing is filmed on his Meta glasses. It’s funny as hell. The videos consistently deliver millions of views.
Setting the entertainment aside, what I appreciate most is the community case study it represents. He's built a community around a silly idea, which is exactly the kind of thing the internet is supposed to be good for. In a feed that can be toxic these days, watching real people gather in real life to do something silly and fun is a bright spot on the internet.
BRANDS, COLLABORATIONS, AND CULTURE
Nike and adidas Are Fighting the World Cup on Two Different Battlegrounds
The FIFA World Cup kicks off June 11, and the two giants are already going at it. adidas came out swinging with “Backyard Legends,” a five-minute cinematic film with a 90s street-football feel starring Timothée Chalamet alongside Messi, Bad Bunny, and more, then backed it with “Home of Soccer,” an experiential platform running watch parties, live music, a 3v3 tournament, and daily product drops across New York, LA, Toronto, Atlanta, and Houston.
Nike went the other way and dropped a run of deliberately low-fi Polaroids on May 21, teasing a rolling 12-week the cast includes Ronaldo, Haaland, LeBron James, Kardashian, Serena Williams, Travis Scott, Young Miko, and more. According to the Swoosh, get ready for “unexpected collabs and cultural expressions.” I’m excited for all of this.
Both are going hard all summer to win the World Cup marketing crown. With the Home of Soccer play, it appears adidas wants to own where you physically gather to watch the games, and Nike wants to own your feed for twelve straight weeks with amazing collaborations. I have no horse in race, I just know consumers are in for a treat. Let the games begin.CapCut x Google Gemini — CapCut announced a partnership with Gemini on May 21 that lets people edit images and videos right inside the Gemini app, with no jumping between tools. Creatives have been running these two apps side by side in their process for a while now, so closing the gap between idea and edit is a smart, natural move. For brand teams building out AI-assisted content workflows, this shortens the pipeline in a meaningful way, and I'll be testing it the second it goes live.
Apple Shot an Entire MLS Broadcast on an iPhone. Apple TV aired the LA Galaxy vs. Houston Dynamo match captured entirely on iPhone 17 Pro, the first time a major professional live sporting event has been broadcast start to finish on iPhone.