1. How one overlooked community inspired a skincare breakthrough.

Vaseline has been on fire this year with breakthrough campaigns (yes, "Vaseline Verified" deservedly swept the awards), but I want to spotlight something completely unexpected: a product that started as an agency idea and somehow convinced a massive CPG brand to actually build it. Introducing Vaseline's first skincare line specifically designed for the transgender community - a group whose unique skin challenges during hormone therapy had been completely overlooked by the beauty industry.

Here's what makes this brilliant beyond the obvious social impact: Vaseline identified a genuine blind spot where their "healthy skin is a right" philosophy could create real value, not just marketing fluff. Hormone treatments dramatically affect skin texture and sensitivity, and no major brand had bothered addressing it. The result isn't just functional skincare. It's validation and inclusion that accelerates community integration into mainstream spaces.

For marketers, the formula is surprisingly replicable: map your core audience, find the overlooked niches within it, identify their specific unmet needs, then actually solve them with real products instead of just posting rainbow logos in June.

2. How to monetize soccer memes in real-time.

Beer and soccer go together like peanut butter and jelly, and countless brands have tried to capitalize on this connection through flashy campaigns and celebrity endorsements. But Brahma Beer in Brazil found a way to turn viral entertainment into actual revenue by tapping into something that was already happening organically: the "funny dubbing" trend where creators mute sports broadcasts and add their own hilarious commentary over player conversations.

The brand partnered with content creators to dub real soccer matches, inserting different Brahma-related phrases into the players' "conversations" that doubled as instant coupon codes for beer purchases. So while you're laughing at what appears to be Messi discussing weekend brewery plans, you're also getting a discount code to buy Brahma right then and there.

The formula here is deceptively simple: map your audience, dig deep into where they spend time and what they're obsessed with, then find creative ways to insert your brand into those spaces naturally and actionably.

3. How to monetize your partner's midnight symphony.

Here's a formula that's been quietly crushing it for years: tie your discount directly to the problem your product solves. The hotter it gets, the cheaper the cold drinks. The faster you run, the bigger the discount on running shoes. The louder your partner snores… well, that's where Calm Mattress comes in with their brilliantly simple campaign that measures snoring decibels and converts them into mattress discounts.

The insight is interesting: couples dealing with disruptive snoring often end up sleeping in separate rooms, so why not make sure they're at least comfortable while doing it? Can you game the system by making exaggerated snoring sounds for a bigger discount? Absolutely. Does anyone care? Not really, because the campaign works on multiple levels - it's memorable, shareable, and directly connects the brand's solution to a real relationship problem.

The formula is endlessly adaptable: find the measurable aspect of the problem your product solves, then make that measurement your pricing mechanism. Simple, effective, and surprisingly fun to execute.

Bonus curious thing: how this newsletter accidentally became a business strategy.

This issue marks the one-year anniversary of Three Curious Things: 52 weeks, 156 ideas, and 12 brilliant guest curators who've made this little inbox experiment way more fun than I ever imagined.

What started as a simple way to share what inspires me turned into something unexpectedly powerful: a genuine connection machine that's been great for both creativity and business. I wrote up the full story and gave proper credit to all the amazing people who've contributed over on LinkedIn if you want the behind-the-scenes details. Here's to many more Friday curiosities ahead!