Sielu Studio presents Issue 2026/27 8 shifts · 30+ sources Sielu teams across Amsterdam · Los Angeles · London · Melbourne

‘The Real Thing’ A signal report 2026/27

The brief, in short

What’s actually shifting in luxury, premium, hospitality and culture.

And what we’d do about it on Monday.

We dove into absolutely everything, from every perspective. Then we pulled out the best of the best, in an easy to read, engaging report for you.

Shifts

30+

Sources

Deep dives

1,950

CMOs heard

The data covers eight disciplines

01Brand and creative strategy

02Creative production

03Paid media

04Comms and PR

05Performance

06Market insight

07Consumer behaviour

081,950 CMOs

Get the report

Issue 2026/27

Four quick fields and it lands in your inbox.

Name Work email Company Country

What’s on your plate for 2027? Pick any

A brand world that holds up everywhere Ideas that outlast one campaign Content that does more than fill the feed Getting talked about, not just seen Media that actually performs Making sure the work feels like us

I agree to the terms and conditions and the privacy policy.

Eight shifts inside. Here’s the trailer. The other four are in the report. We’re not spoiling the ending.

Taste is the most valuable thing a brand can buy right now.

That’s our read across all eight shifts. Everyone has the same tools. The brands pulling ahead work with partners who get the brand, and can shape every expression of it.

02 Status moved to the table Where you eat now says more than what you wear.

07 One idea, endless expressions The brands people remember run one idea for years.

05 Clarity gets found AI and search quote whoever is easiest to describe.

08 Fewer buyers, higher standards Luxury lost 70 million buyers. The rest expect more.

01 · The findingsFour of many. The rest is in the report.

Status moved. Gen Z kept drinking. The buyers got fewer and pickier.

StatusThe signal

6×

A battered suitcase covered in stickers signals more status than a limited streetwear drop.

Highsnobiety, Status Economy 03

DrinksThe signal

66→73%

of Gen Z adults drank in the last six months, up year on year. They didn’t quit. They got picky about what’s in the glass.

IWSR · 2026

MarketThe signal

330m

luxury buyers in 2025, down from 400 million in 2022. Fewer people, higher standards.

Bain-Altagamma, 2026

TasteThe signal

65%

of young tastemakers say what they drink is part of their personal brand.

Highsnobiety × GWI, 2026

Margin note

Emily Logan
Founder, Sielu Studio

“Every number in here confirmed something we’d already felt in the room. People can tell when a brand means it.”

None of it is about doing more. It’s about caring more about the right things, and having people around you who notice them too. If any of this sounds like a conversation your brand is already having, we’d love to have it with you.
Pull up a chair→

02 · The methodSeven angles, one point of view

Read from every side of the table.

Most reports look at one discipline. Brands don’t get to.

AStrategy, read next to production. BMedia, read next to consumer behaviour. CThe market, read next to what 1,950 CMOs say about their own work.

One idea, run for years. That’s where we start.

Creative and brand strategy

What makes an idea distinctive, and how long it keeps paying back.

The team in the pitch is the team on set.

Creative production

Senior, lean teams versus the hand-off chain, and what each one costs.

We plan the roll-out before we shoot a frame.

Communications and media

Feeds, people and rooms, and where attention actually goes now.

Remembered beats reached. We measure both.

Performance

What resonance looks like when you measure it properly.

Fewer buyers. We help you win the right ones.

Market insight

Buyer counts, category growth and where luxury spend is moving.

Taste can’t be faked. We know where it lives.

Consumer behaviour

Status, taste and what young tastemakers actually buy, and why.

1,950 CMOs agree with us. Politely.

Peer insight

What 1,950 CMOs say about their own work, budgets and partners.

The sources

The world’s most trusted research. All of it, in one place.

Dentsu Creative · Highsnobiety × GWI · Bain-Altagamma · Bain × Comité Colbert · WARC × ANA · Reuters Institute · IWSR · IAB · Nielsen · Business of Fashion · Circana · Ipsos · Gartner · Harris Poll · Axios · LBB · Clutch

03 · Who it’s forLuxury · drinks · hospitality · beauty · fragrance · fashion · travel · motorsport

If next year’s plan lands on your desk, read this first.

The Sielu Supper Club, London · A dinner for founders and creative leads

For the CMO

The board deck

The numbers that make brand read as margin, not mood.

For the brand director

The brief

What to ask for, what to cut, and how to judge the work.

For the founder

The gut check

Proof that your instincts on taste were right, with sources.

For the comms lead

The roll-out

Where attention actually is now: feeds, people and rooms.

04 · A note from the founderAmsterdam, October 2026

Why we wrote it down.

Emily Logan · Founder and Executive Creative Director

More about Emily→ Meet the team→

Every brief we got this year asked the same question in a different outfit: what’s actually changing, and what do we do about it?

So we wrote it down. A year of shoots, dinners and planning meetings, tested against more data than anyone should read for fun. Some of what we suspected held up. Some of it surprised us. All of it changed how we brief.

Read it, steal from it, argue with it. Then tell us what we missed.

Emily Logan

Founder and Creative Director, Sielu Studio

05 · The studioAMS · LA · LDN · MEL

We don’t just make the work. We make it make sense.

House ruleEvery detail is the brand.

The team you meetis the team that makes it

A boutique, multi-disciplinary creative agency founded by Emily Logan. The senior people in the pitch stay on the work, from the first idea to the final cut. Fewer hand-offs, nothing lost in translation, and no surprise faces on the shoot day.

Work with us →

01 Executive creative directionCampaign concepts, brand worlds and art direction, led personally by our founder: 12+ years across LVMH, Kering, Chanel, Prada, F1, Vogue and GQ.

02 Brand and creative strategyPositioning, platform ideas, audience and cultural insight, and the brand codebook every partner works from. Board-level thinking, written to be used on set.

03 Communications, PR and social strategyIntegrated comms planning, press and PR, social strategy, editorial calendars, and creator and talent partnerships. Run by senior strategists, not account managers.

04 Creative productionEnd-to-end, from treatment, casting and location to shoot, post and versioning. Senior producers and heads of department on every job, with no junior layer in between.

05 DesignIdentity, packaging, print, retail and event design, zines and brand objects. From the brand world down to the last matchbook.

06 Paid media strategy, buying and campaign managementChannel planning, buying and optimisation, briefed alongside the creative from day one so the work is built for where it runs.