ON_Discourse Group Chat: The End of Breakout Brands

​The last truly new giant CPG brand was created by a YouTuber. Every other "breakout" was founded before 2020.

The question we are interested in exploring as part of this conversation is, if the window for new consumer brands is closing, what does that mean for anyone betting on media as a driver of new IP?

​Recently, Barry Diller renamed IAC to People Incorporated and bet the company on INVERSION -- converting media IP into owned products. Media analyst, Andrew Rosen's recent essay argues media does not have a track record that's supports this ambition. Agency executive and brand marketer, Matt Alldian built a 383-brand research pipeline that revealed that post-2020, the cupboard is bare.

​The breakout brands that defined the last cycle (poppi, Olipop, Liquid Death) were all founded 2015-2019 by insurgent operators, not media companies. With AI likely to accelerate the idea of product disposability, the question isn't just whether People Inc can execute, it's whether there is a market for what they want to build.

​ON_Discourse Group Chats are closed-door, high-signal discourse driven conversations with AI leaders, business executives, builders and operators.