Jonathan Hoffsuemmer, Marketing behaviorist, and Author of the book Message Market Fit, says: “Remember the steam rising from your parent's coffee? Or the way the morning aroma would drift upstairs and wake you? That's an early category memory.
For 2025, brands can tap into something deeper than features and benefits. They can connect to the primal, emotional experiences that shape how their customers relate to products.
The influencer campaign idea is deceptively simple. People share their earliest memories with products.
For a coffee brand, it’s not about the perfect roast, it’s about finishing the last cold sip from dad's mug. The sound of the grinder on Sunday mornings. Maybe even that first coffee-flavored candy that made you feel grown up.
Influencers share these authentic moments: visiting their childhood kitchen, recreating morning rituals, interviewing parents about coffee traditions. They focus on the emotional triggers, the aroma that meant safety, the sounds that meant home, the rituals that meant family.
This campaign idea works because it taps into something universal. Every culture has these moments. Every person has these memories. And when brands tap into them, they're not selling products, they're connecting to the primal and emotional bonds that were formed long before buying decisions were made.
It's less about what the product does and more about the early memories it connects to. This framework works for any category where people have early memories.”