American families are about to kick off another school year, but with less gear and gadgets than they may have had in the past. A shaky economy and increased prices due to tariffs have millions of parents trimming non-essentials, doubling down on deals, and shopping earlier to find them (and even using AI to sort through the noise!).

Last week, Campaign US covered how brands stole the spotlight at the four-day festival, including Inspira's very own immersive experience with So Delicious Dairy Free! 

Chicago was hot. So Delicious was colder. For four days at Lollapalooza, the plant-based brand took over a corner of Grant Park with ‘The Pint of No Return,’ a multi-sensory experience designed to shift long-held perceptions about dairy-free and offer overheated festivalgoers a place to cool off.

The line between social media apps and search engine platforms keeps getting blurrier. As of July 2025, Instagram now officially allows Google and other search engines (if people still use those…shoutout Bing?) to index public posts from professional accounts. This includes Reels, captions, and posts, making them searchable outside the app. Technically this has been happening for years, but now that its officially official, it means content will be pushed even more.

Experiential marketing is no longer just about moments; it’s about movements. In 2025, the brands that lead will be those that prioritize building real, lasting relationships with their audiences. Inspira's Creative Director Treasure Neal explores strategies for how brands can build connections through culture to connect with diverse audiences.

Viral moments are easy to chase and even easier to forget. They generate short-term attention but rarely deliver long-term value. In today’s fast-scroll environment, where brand impressions are as fleeting as a thumb swipe, live brand experiences offer a rare opportunity to connect deeply, memorably and meaningfully.

We get it—as marketers, we’re all busy. But building better consumer relationships shouldn’t feel like another task on your to-do list. That’s why we took our proprietary Relationship Report, packed with juicy insights about what today’s consumers really want from brands, and turned it into a bite-sized, 20-minute podcast.

At Inspira, we think about brand relationships the same way we think about human ones—through the lens of emotional connection and strength over time. To measure that, we use a composite brand equity score that reflects how the target audience feels about a brand. We call it the Relationship Score.