Hi 👋 I’m Florian Schleicher. This is the FutureStrategies newsletter. Thank you so much for reading and supporting this publication 💚
UPDATE: From today this newsletter goes paid.
The first 1/3 will stay free, always.
More on the why and how at the break below.
Can you feel it?
There is change in the air.
Summer is very slowly coming to an end. Projects get picked up and accelerated again. And in four months 2026 will be over 😱
But there is also something else shifting: I have observed three changes in customer behaviour that could be a fit for your brand(s).
So here is your guide to lift your marketing strategy to the next level with the newest signals and some examples for the trends:
🧘 THE ROMANCE OF UNMAXXING
🤌 SPEND TO FEEL
🛍️ THE IRL FLEX
And at the end let’s look at 3 recommendations for your next quarter…
Business updates:
I am wrapping up my summer break and have availability starting in October.
If you like my work and want to explore more:
You work in an agency: You can buy my expertise for your client projects: If you have a project coming up with the need for marketing strategy thinking and implementation, let’s talk.
You work for a brand: I can help you with your marketing strategy to figure out the why, how, what. I also am a workshop host and you can book me for your next team gathering. Get in touch.
TREND 1 🧘 THE ROMANCE OF UNMAXXING
What I observe:
You have probably heard of “maxxing”.
Looksmaxxing, proteinmaxxing, sleepmaxxing, people have turned their whole lives into a system they optimize and then post about it (with AI).
After maxxing your productivity, sleep and the body this movement reached the face, and the face got measured, ranked and scored like everything before it.
Now this is turning around.
Maxxing is becoming uncool.
The Global Wellness Summit named the over-optimization backlash the defining trend of 2026, the point where people are tired and maxxed out on maxxing. And brands are beginning to notice: The wrinkled shirt stays in the shot, the unmade bed stays, and preference for AI-made creator content fell to 26% from 60% two years earlier.
Why it does matter:
Let’s be honest - it is just fucking exhausting to optimize ourselves all the time.
And that perfection is just not real.
Scientists showed people rate a poem as higher in quality and value the more effort they believe went into it. So the thesis is an optimized self becomes a front with nothing behind it, the shop with the lit window and the empty floor.
Imperfections (yes, cringe again here) are being embraced because they mean you tried. It is human authorship, and authorship is the thing the machine cannot counterfeit. Imperfection becomes the scarce thing and scarce things carry value.
“It’s a rebelliousness against the performance and hustle culture.”
Carl-Emil Jensen, Global Director of Brand & Creative at Too Good To Go
The AI boom/bubble only speeds this up: when a flawless post could have been generated in seconds, polish stops proving effort and starts proving its absence.
What could happen next:
First move, brands productise imperfection. Messiness gets written into the brief, typos become a deliverable, the rough cut becomes the aspiration.
But manufactured error is still manufacture. The moment messiness becomes a deliverable it is the same front with nothing behind it, and it loses the way polish lost: once the mess reads as a brief it stops proving a person was there and starts proving one was paid to fake it. Productised imperfection is maxxing pointed at a scruffier target.
So the premium does not settle on the mess. It settles on what cannot be staged. Dove committed to never using AI to depict real women and turned the refusal itself into the campaign. That refusal manufactures nothing. That’s unmaxxing.
It’s exactly the same with Polaroid when they run an anti-AI campaign, or stamps for books written by people:
Influencers land on the same side. They win by being silly for real:
“I noticed my social media probably doing the worst in terms of numbers when I was taking it far too seriously. When I was just having fun and being silly, that’s when I saw my content doing better.”
Jack Corbett, 25, a TikTok creator
What survives is the specific, checkable trace that a named person was actually there and actually made the thing. Made-by-Human is the new premium label.
The premium perception moves off the maxxed version and onto the realness behind it. The version that keeps the effort visible and the surface un-optimized becomes the one people pay for, and the maxxed version could become the discount tier.
I am already excited for guides on how to unmaxx our lives!
TREND 2 🤌 SPEND TO FEEL
UPDATE: Starting today, this newsletter goes paid.
Why? Researching and writing one of these deep dives takes me about 8 hours. I always intended my newsletter to provide a service and I believe that service is worth something. Maybe you do too 😊
What? The first third of every monthly deep dive stays free for everyone, so you always get the opening and the first insights. A subscription opens all full deep dives, my recommendations at the end, and my complete archive.
How much? €10 per month or €100 per year.
Your choice: If these deep dives have inspired you or brought you some newfound clarity, I hope you keep reading the full piece. Whatever you decide, the door stays open and I’m glad you’re here.
