If we haven’t met yet, I’m Chris and welcome to the first issue of Snackable Signals!

I’ve spent my career in marketing, mostly building brands, teams, and systems that actually have to work in the real world. Not just on slides. Not just in theory. The kind of work where constraints, tradeoffs, and people matter as much as strategy.

Snackable Signals is where I collect the things that catch my attention as I go. Patterns I notice. Ideas that feel useful. Signals worth pausing on before the noise moves on. Some issues will lean more toward marketing. Others will touch productivity, leadership, or how work actually feels right now.

Each issue is intentionally short. Something you can read in a few minutes and walk away with one idea that sticks.

If a topic resonates and you’d like a deeper dive, just reply and let me know. I read every response.

No hype. No trends for the sake of trends. Just thoughtful signals, shared simply.

Let’s get into Issue #01!

But Gen Z’s relationship with it feels fundamentally different.

For Millennials, nostalgia often meant revisiting memories they actually lived through. For Gen Z, it’s less about personal memory and more about emotional grounding.

This generation grew up in an environment defined by constant change. Economic uncertainty, cultural shifts, and digital overload shaped how stability feels. What registers as nostalgic is often borrowed from eras they didn’t experience firsthand, discovered through digital culture and shared moments online. The familiarity comes not from memory, but from repeated exposure and emotional association.

That difference matters for marketers. When brands rely on surface-level throwbacks, the result can feel hollow. A familiar font or retro logo on its own doesn’t create connection. What resonates more deeply is reassurance. Familiar cues that help people feel calm, safe, or understood in the present moment.

When nostalgia is treated as emotional texture instead of trend recycling, connection feels more natural, and less like it’s trying too hard.

The stat: About 50% of Gen Z¹ report feeling nostalgic for types of media from past decades, even ones they did not personally experience.

Why this matter: This reinforces that Gen Z nostalgia isn’t rooted in memory. It’s rooted in emotional familiarity. What feels comforting doesn’t have to be lived. It just has to feel recognizable and steady.

What to do: Before using nostalgic cues, ask whether the choice offers emotional reassurance or if it’s simply a reference with no deeper meaning.

Familiarity has a quiet power. It lowers friction, softens uncertainty, and gives people something steady to hold onto when everything else feels in motion.

In moments like this, optimism can feel abstract. It asks people to believe in something that hasn’t arrived yet. Familiarity, on the other hand, is immediate. It’s something you can recognize and settle into right away.

That’s why it shows up so strongly right now. Not just in culture, but in how people work, make decisions, and choose where to place their attention. Familiar routines, trusted brands, recognizable formats. They create a sense of stability when the bigger picture feels unclear.

For marketers and leaders, this is a useful signal. Sometimes the work isn’t about pushing forward faster or louder. It’s about noticing what already feels grounding and making space for it. Comfort doesn’t mean complacency. It often means people finally feel safe enough to engage.

One framework that shaped how I approached early in my career came from a LinkedIn post by Mita Mandawker. Her advice centers on clarity, fundamentals, and showing up with intention rather than trying to impress.

If her thinking resonates, her newsletter Marketers Help Marketers is a thoughtful resource for marketers who value craft, learning, and steady growth.

To mark 7-Eleven’s 60 years of coffee on the go, the brand didn’t just look backward. It looked sideways into culture. The team partnered with Green Day, who were also marking a milestone, to create the Punk Bunny Anniversary Blend. The coffee was available for a limited time at 7-Eleven, Speedway, and Stripes locations nationwide, but the campaign didn’t stop at the shelf.

The collaboration leaned into shared nostalgia without feeling stuck in the past. Punk rock, coffee culture, and live experiences came together through a tour-style rollout that mirrored how bands promote albums. Tattoo activations, city stops, merchandise, and social-first storytelling turned a convenience-store coffee into a cultural moment. The packaging and visuals pulled from 90s punk and grunge cues, but the execution felt current, experiential, and playful in a way Gen Z recognizes.

The results showed why this approach worked. During the promotion, store trips involving coffee purchases were 1.5 times higher, and 56 percent of Punk Bunny coffee purchases came from new customers. Familiarity opened the door, but relevance kept people engaged. You can watch the video here.

Sometimes people aren’t looking for the next big thing. They’re looking for something that feels familiar enough to trust. That’s the real signal worth paying attention to.

Stay Hungry,