One Year of the Case

Good morning everyone. This week I looked at Substack and realized that I have been writing my letter for one year.

The Case is a newsletter about bold brands and how they’re built. Part of this publication focuses on deeply researched breakdowns of bold brands by a brand strategist. The other part provides readers with access to the thoughts of the people leading brands.

Basically, The Case is the newsletter I wish I had earlier in my career. I value expertise, experience, and an insider perspective from people in the trenches doing the work and I aim to bring that to you. I know this is valuable based on this newsletter’s growth and the feedback I’ve received from people. Year one was really just an experiment, and I’ve learned a lot - so if you read no further, thank you for being here! Next week we’ll be back to regular programming.

Today, I’m going to write about what it has been like to write The Case over the past year, and what you can expect to see over the coming year. 

I started writing on Substack last November. I’d wrapped up a role that started as a brand leadership role but through a series of M&A had become more about compliance than creative (not my bag!). I started writing this newsletter for a few reasons:

• To stay sharp as a strategist

• To build my reps as an operator (I like shipping things!)

• To connect with people who are as obsessed with brands as I am

Boy has it delivered. I’ve gone deep on a ton of brands, met lovely, smart people and had really robust, fun and exciting conversations about brands, leadership and growth.

The format of this newsletter has been emergent. I experimented with a few different formats when I first started writing The Case, but when I wrote my first brand deep dive I felt like I’d hit on something that I would look forward to writing, and reading. I also interview brand leaders, and summarize brand research that I think is helpful for building the case for brand in an organization using what I learned client side building a brand at Future Super. 

Writing has been a part of every job I’ve had since university. Newspapers, magazines, a Groupon knockoff, community management. Fun fact: every single job I’ve had since 2012 has been the direct or indirect result of writing on social media platforms: Twitter, Medium, Substack, LinkedIn.

I’ve written this letter in a number of places, including: 

• ✈️ Planes

• 🚃 Trains

• ☕️ Cafes

• 🛋️ My couch

Platform wise, I flirted with publishing on Beehiiv and Substack this year, and the jury is still out for me on which I prefer. I’m a Substack reader, so I lean that way, but Beehiiv is arguably much better for marketing tools. Seems like Substack is for writers, but Beehiiv is for growth.

One of the biggest questions I get about this newsletter is how long it takes me to write. The truth is, it takes a lot of time. Currently, I’m running at a small loss by the time I factor in the cost of my newsletter platform. I will be experimenting with ways to change this in 2025. I may move back to Substack full time. I’d like to get the right kind of sponsors on board. I may introduce a paid tier of this newsletter. We’ll see. If you have strong feelings about this, my DMs are open.

When I began working for myself as a freelancer last year, I quickly realized that as an independent strategist, case studies are expensive to access, or require a meeting just to access pricing. That locks people in independent agencies, freelancers, or students and people trying to break into branding. I don’t think that’s right. I’m going to be thinking about how to keep this as accessible as possible - especially for people starting out in their careers. 

The Case’s new brand

This letter got a little facelift a few months back.

I worked with Haylee Jordan of Supercult on the brand and visual identity for The Case. She was the one who put the idea in my head to drop ‘for brand’ from The Case for Brand and I really love it. The system she put together helps put the spotlight on the brands I’m breaking down, plus sprinkles some collage vibes into the mix.

I’m so stoked with where the identity has landed, and how it classes up my little corner of Substack and the digital world. 

The Case’s growth

• I sent 47 newsletters over the past year

• I bought and tried a lot of products and got into Starface

• The Case is read in 32 states and 47 countries, according to Substack

• Satisfy, Starface, and Spring Energy were the most popular letters I published

My biggest takeaways: writing is the most effective tool for clarifying your thoughts, people want deeply researched brand case studies, and there is so much clear space to build brands and reach audiences in creative ways.

The Case’s future

In The Case’s second year, the weekly newsletter will continue. 

You can also expect continued experimentation on The Case. It’s in my nature to make a very detailed plan for what I’ll do in 2025, but the truth is, I have some hypotheses I’d like to test and I’d like to follow the energy that emerges from those tests.

There are some things I’m manifesting specifically. I’m dying to interview Richard Christiansen of Flamingo Estate, the guys at Ash Hotels, brand marketers who’ve worked with a choreographer, choreographers who’ve worked with brands, people who have strong views on brand marketing planning, experts in political messaging and people are are deft at leading change in organizations. Who are your brand crushes? Who’s the best brand marketer you’ve ever worked with? Who’s led a massive turnaround and rallied people around a brand’s change in direction? If this jazzes you or you know someone I should speak to, slide into my DMs!

Thank you to my readers, subscribers, interviewees and the people who’ve spent time with me over the past year on the journey that is The Case. You know who you are: it means the world to me that you’ve supported me to ship this thing on a regular basis. I’m excited to continue writing in 2025. ✨

The Case is a weekly newsletter about bold brands read by people who believe brands should live in the real world, connect with people emotionally, stand for something, and deliver business results.

Whether your challenge is convincing clients to be brave, finding inspo while you’re in the trenches brand side or building the business case for brand at a board level, you’ll find it at The Case.