CMO Digest
Men's Nipples and the Future of Communities
This article first appeared on LinkedIn here.
Over the past few months, I’ve been on stage in three very different rooms: the FS Marketing Leaders’ ThinkTank at IBM in Toronto, the EMEA FS Marketing Leaders’ Summit at Reuters in London, and the PRovoke Media conference. And each event pointed to the same truth about where marketing is heading. A truth that, unexpectedly, was brought home most powerfully by a case study about men’s nipples.
Please stick with me!
What Chime Taught Us About Speaking Human
In Toronto, Charlie Grinnell - CEO of RightMetric, the Canadian marketing intelligence firm - walked us through the story of Chime, the US‑based challenger bank that has become a cultural force among gig workers and younger consumers.
For anyone outside North America, Chime isn’t a traditional bank. It’s a mobile‑first financial platform that built its reputation by speaking the language of the people it serves: delivery drivers, freelancers, creators, and anyone living the unpredictable rhythm of modern work. Their social content is:
relatable (“When your DoorDash shift pays out early…”)
self‑aware (“Banks be like: we noticed you’re poor, here’s a fee.”)
culturally fluent (memes, humour, creator‑led storytelling)
rooted in lived experience (the financial reality of gig work)
Charlie’s point was simple but devastatingly accurate: Legacy FS brands still communicate as if their audience is sitting politely in a branch in a suit. Modern audiences are on social media, in group chats, and in fan‑driven subcultures - and they expect brands to speak their language.
Community Isn’t Built Through Volume - It’s Built Through Relevance
A few weeks later, at our EMEA FS Marketing Leaders’ Summit, I moderated a panel on Building Communities with an excellent panel including Deutsche Bank, London Stock Exchange Group and Cvent. What struck me was how aligned the conversation was with what I’d heard in Toronto. The panelists weren’t talking about content calendars or channel strategies. They were talking about resonance.
The consensus was clear: communities don’t form around content volume. They form around relevance. Not more posts or more noise, but sharper focus, smaller circles, and deeper meaning. The brands making real progress aren’t the ones producing the most content. They’re the ones producing content that feels like it was made for someone, not everyone.
It was another signal pointing in the same direction: audiences respond to brands that understand them, not brands that overwhelm them.
The Men’s Nipples Moment
And then came PRovoke EMEA, where the idea crystallised in the most unexpected way. I was invited to speak on a panel hosted by FINN Partners and including the PRCA and Palladium Hotel Group about the importance of research - and I did - but the session that stayed with me was something entirely outside of financial services. It was the story of how Vaseline discovered that one of its biggest, most passionate user groups was men running marathons and talking about their nipples.
The room laughed. Of course it did. "Men’s nipples" is inherently funny. But then they showed us the sore and bleeding photos of runners’ chests. And suddenly it wasn’t funny - it was real.
Runners have been using Vaseline for decades. It was a community hack hiding in plain sight. A lived truth that everyone in the running community knew, but no brand had ever acknowledged.
What made the case study extraordinary was the posture Vaseline took. They didn’t invent the insight - they surfaced it. They didn’t hijack the conversation - they joined it. They didn’t create ambassadors - they elevated the ones who already existed. Like Mark, who has run every London Marathon since the beginning and has used Vaseline for 41 years. As the Vaseline team put it, “He was already the perfect brand ambassador - we just hadn’t met him yet.”
As Nathalia Amadeu, Vaseline’s Global Brand Director said: “It’s not about owning the message - it’s earning the right to be part of the community.”. And further helpful hacks emerged. This quote lands the point perfectly: “We brought value to the exchange - and that’s the future of marketing: to build it together.”
This wasn’t a campaign. It was a cultural collaboration. And it revealed something essential about how brands earn relevance today.
The Thread That Connects
When you step back, the same pattern runs through all three events. Chime showed what it looks like when a brand speaks in the cultural language of its audience. Our FS community panel showed that relevance is created through resonance, not reach. And Vaseline showed what happens when a brand doesn’t just observe a community but steps inside it.
Modern audiences reward brands that behave like participants, not broadcasters. They respond to brands that listen, that understand their lived experience, and that show up with something meaningful to contribute. Relevance today isn’t proclaimed. It’s earned.
The Future Belongs to Brands That Build With Their Audience
All of this points to a fundamental shift in how brands build relevance. The future isn’t about perfect messaging or omnichannel presence. It’s about earning the right to be part of the communities you want to serve.
That requires listening before speaking. Showing up where your audience already is. Treating lived experience as a strategic asset. And recognising that the most powerful ideas often come from the people you serve, not the people in your boardroom.
Chime builds with its audience by speaking their language. FS leaders build with their communities by focusing on resonance over reach. Vaseline elevated a truth the community already owned.
The lesson is clear: the brands that will thrive are the ones that don’t try to control the conversation but instead contribute to it in ways that feel meaningful, human, and real.
These conversations are only increasing in importance. And with all this in mind, please feel free to join my ‘open’ Team meeting on 25 June to share your thoughts and perspectives: FMI Live – Global Marketing Leaders’ Briefing
See you out there!