Analog is back

For years, marketing has learned how to interrupt effectively. It’s become faster, more accurate, more measurable, more obsessed with optimization. The machine worked. Clicks rose, journeys shortened, and digital won in convenience.

Efficiency is not synonymous with connection, and reach is not synonymous with relevance. And something was lost along the way: brands present everywhere, but memorable almost nowhere.

Analog is back. Not as nostalgia and much less as a rejection of technology. Analog has returned as a response to a market that has accelerated the relationship between brands and people too much. He returned because, in an environment saturated with stimuli, presence started to be worth more than exposure.

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Disconnecting became a desire

Brazil entered 2025 with 183 million internet users, 144 million active identities on social networks and an average of 3h32 per day dedicated to social platforms, one of the highest in the world. At the same time, the desire to rebalance this relationship is growing: data from Vivo’s consumer insights hub shows that 30% of Brazilians already declare their goal of reducing excess use of technology, internet and social networks, almost double the figure recorded in 2023; between 25 and 34 years old, this rate rises to 36%.

It is in this context that “digital detox” gained scale and, according to a survey by TimeLens, videos about digital detox on YouTube have more than 5 billion views (5.039.932.150). This drive for disconnection is also growing across platforms, with thousands of posts using the hashtags #AnalogLife e #AnalogBag. This ecosystem drives repertoires such as #dumbphone e #bringbackflipphones.

Analog-on

Don’t just turn it off. It is necessary to reconnect — with something. With a hobby. With a routine. With a date. With someone. This is why the idea of ​​analog-on is not just a refusal. It’s choice.

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Eventbrite captured this turn well when mapping the emergence of Fourth Spaces: meetings and spaces that transform interests born online into real-world connection. Among young people aged 18 to 35, 95% show interest in exploring their digital interests through in-person experiences, and 73% intend to participate in live events in the next six months.

Based on the platform, between 2023 and 2024, food events grew 35%, board games advanced 8x, crochet rose 44% and running soared 130%.

The Global Wellness Institute has named “Analog Wellness” as the #1 trend of 2025 and describes this movement as a quest to not only digital detoxbut through pre-digital, tactile and sensorial experiences that return presence to everyday life. In a world that has accelerated too much, the new luxury is choosing.

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Branding offline

Bain shows that, since 2022, searches linked to brands have fallen by more than 40% of cases, follower growth has plummeted by 90% and engagement rates have dropped by 40%. In the same report, the consultancy points out that older consumers are prioritizing meaningful experiences over goods, while formats linked to hospitality and fine dining remain more resilient.

This is why brands are moving from performance to permanence. On February 5, 2026, Lacoste opened the first permanent Café Lacoste in Paris and defined the space as “a new expression of its art de vivre”, at the intersection of style, sport and hospitality. A place where the brand can be experienced, not just seen.

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The experience was also designed to go beyond the meal. Under the direction of chef Thierry Paludetto, from the Giraudi Group, the menu includes specialty coffees, creative lattes, seasonal dishes and a signature drink, L’Eau de Croco. The café also doubles as a concept store, with a selection of food, French porcelain with the Lacoste signature and its own textile collection.

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Ralph Lauren understood this early, opening its first cafe in New York in 2014 and expanding the concept globally. A Louis Vuitton presents LV The Place Bangkok as a cultural destination with an immersive exhibition, store, café and restaurant to immerse the public in the maison’s universe.

But, if branded coffee isn’t exactly new, what explains Café Lacoste’s success on the internet? It’s not enough to open a cafe. In offline branding, the brand stops being just a message and becomes a destination. When the brand understands that smell, rhythm, service, environment and hospitality also communicate. And perhaps they communicate better, because they don’t interrupt: they welcome.

Live offline, move online

People want more real experiences and, at the same time, they want to share those experiences. They want to live offline and move online. It seems like a contradiction, but there is a new division of roles.

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Offline is once again the main experience. Online continues as a layer of discovery, conversation, recommendation and repercussion. Meta has been signaling this change: messaging has already become the most popular way to share photos and videos on Instagram, and people repost Reels more than 4.5 billion times a day on the company’s platforms.

What this reveals is an important shift: less content designed to “look good in the feed” and more content designed to circulate in Stories, DMs, groups and private recommendations.

For some brands, this will mean turning the brand into a destination. For others, creating more tactile objects, services and rituals. For others, design recurring face-to-face communities. For many, it will mean reviewing the logic of digital: less content that tries to compensate for the absence of real experience, more content that is born from an experience that already has density in itself.

What circulates well today is not always what was most produced. It’s what was most experienced.

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