LSN : Daily Signals : Mother Ventures bets on the economic power of motherhood

CeraVe turns NBA fandom into scalp-care storytelling

CeraVe, US

US – Skincare brand CeraVe is continuing its push into entertainment-led beauty marketing with a new social media-first campaign starring retired National Basketball Association (NBA) player Carmelo Anthony. Created by Ogilvy as part of CeraVe’s wider partnership with the NBA, the Head Coach campaign promotes the brand’s anti-dandruff products by tapping into the online mythology surrounding Anthony’s Hoodie Melo era.

The campaign playfully suggests the basketball star wore hoodies to hide dandruff, using fan speculation and internet lore as the foundation for social media content. Similar to Doritos’ recent The Triangle Theory campaign, the activation is an example of how brands are increasingly building marketing around existing online narratives and cultural in-jokes rather than traditional advertising formats.

CeraVe’s campaign also reflects a wider trend of beauty brands entering the sports world, with fandom as vehicle to engage new audiences – a topic we began tracking in Four Beauty Brands Harnessing the Power of Sports Fandom in 2025.

Strategic opportunity

As fandom becomes a powerful entry point into culture, brands should move beyond sponsorship into participatory storytelling – using memes, community lore and creator ecosystems to build relevance within niche but highly engaged audiences

Mother Ventures bets on the economic power of motherhood

US – Mother Ventures has closed a £7.5m ($10m, €8.6m) debut fund dedicated entirely to companies serving mothers, reflecting growing investor recognition of the mum economy as a major consumer force. The firm says mothers account for 85% of US household spending, representing more than £1.8 trillion ($2.4 trillion, €2.1 trillion) in annual purchasing power across 85m Americans.

Founded by entrepreneur Allison Stern, the fund has already invested (£3m ($4m, €3.4m) across 13 companies, all focused on mothers as the end user. More than 90% of founders are parents building products from lived experience, spanning sectors including fertility, children’s technology, paediatric care and women’s mental health. Portfolio companies include Coral Care, Tin Can, Sunfish and FamilyWell.

The new fund signals a wider shift in how motherhood is being understood by investors and brands – not just as a life stage, but as a powerful consumer lens shaping spending across healthcare, finance, wellness, technology and household decision-making. Learn more about the next generation of parents in our Gen Z Parents report.

Nike (M)ove Like a Mother, US

Strategic opportunity

Recognise mothers as high-influence decision hubs shaping household spending, behaviour and long-term category growth, and use this lens to design from lived experience, embedding products and services into the realities of care-giving, time pressure and emotional labour

Stat: YouTube Shorts finds an unlikely home on the TV screen

YouTube TV, US

Global – YouTube says viewers now watch more than 2bn hours of Shorts on TVs every month, signalling how short-form content is increasingly moving beyond the smartphone and into the living room.

‘The living room is YouTube’s fastest-growing screen,’ said Kurt Wilms, senior director of product management for YouTube on TV. ‘We’ve found that audiences increasingly want to watch their favourite content on the biggest screen at home, whether it’s long-form content, a podcast or a short.’

Podcast viewing is also growing on television devices. According to YouTube, audiences watched more than 700m hours of podcasts monthly on living room devices in 2025, up from 400m in 2024. Meanwhile, Netflix has invested heavily in exclusive video podcast deals as platforms race to redefine lean-back entertainment.

The shift signals a new era for streaming, where platforms are evolving beyond passive viewing into hybrid entertainment ecosystems spanning short-form video, podcasts, gaming and interactive media, as unpacked in Streaming’s Next Frontier.

Keep an eye out for our upcoming macrotrend report, The Future of Discovery, exploring how soundscapes and video formats are key opportunities for brands to win in this new era of search.

Strategic opportunity

Design for viewing mindsets, not formats. As short-form migrates into lean-back environments, brands should move beyond platform-first thinking to build content around emotional states, attention patterns and co-viewing behaviours across different moments of discovery