Happy 2026 from LHC HQ, where we’re in the thick of annual planning (i.e. plotting out innovative merch to drive customer success and ensure immaculate vibes).
ICYMI, 2025 was a banner year for our team. We took the agency to the desert, dropped IRL mixtapes, took the world of OOH advertising by storm (find us on the new-and-improved Williamsburg Bridge), and brought LHCollab to NYC, SF, Chicago, LA, and Austin. See it all here.
Without further ado, on to the #content:
Good Content is King
What, exactly, does that sexy new AI company with the huge round of VC funding do? Something about streamlined dashboards for fractional HR teams, or maybe bespoke agents enabling back-office efficiency?
In tech and beyond, it can take a lot of explaining to make sure your message hits the right audience. Sometimes the best way to do it doesn’t fit neatly into a pitch deck or product demo. Enter: the storyteller.
As Katie Deighton of the Wall Street Journal describes, storytelling is once again all the rage—especially as traditional media distribution breaks down and the new era of AI search makes gaining public trust even more difficult. In the final two months of 2025, LinkedIn job results in the U.S. containing ‘storyteller’ rose to nearly 70,000.
According to friend of LHC Joe Lazer, it’s proof that creative marketers and storytellers are not, in fact, cooked. “You can’t buy attention anymore. You need to earn it,” Joe outlined. “CEOs are waking up to the fact that winning attention and driving the narrative in their industry is the ultimate cheat code.”
Of course, the power of good storytelling for modern organizations is nothing new to us. We’ve been helping everyone from Amazon to the MTA and IBM shape their narratives and evolve their audience for years. And here’s more good news: we can do it for you!
Stolen Valor Department
Geopolitics moves fast; trend cycles move faster. In other words, things are getting weird in the world of merch.
If you haven’t been checking in with the e-com shops of prime defense contractors, we’ll catch you up. In addition to executing drone strikes and developing software for bad government actors, the likes of Lockheed Martin and Palantir are now vying for your closet space with workwear jackets and tote bags. What’s even stranger is that it’s selling out.
This tells us that merch can be pretty powerful, both as a form of explicit advertising and a tool to shape public perception. Or, as Lighthouse Co-Founder Sam Slaughter put it: “Merch is sick. Who doesn’t love merch?”
So fear not, we’re here to fight the good fight. When it comes to unequivocally non-evil merch, we’ve got you covered. Watch this space or stop by our office and grab some of the goods.
Rubbing Shoulders with Royalties
SoundExchange collects and distributes digital performance royalties, helping artists get paid what they deserve. To tell their story with a little flair, we produced a video starring Leslie Odom Jr highlighting the real deal about royalties.
Watch it here and keep your eyes peeled for special LHC cameos.
The Latest and Greatest from LHC
- Lighthouse Creative is a great place to work (and it’s not just us saying it). Read our feature in Ad Age’s Best Places to Work 2026.
- Supply chain intelligence is complicated. RapidRatings makes it easier. Check out the tool we built for them that helps uncover hidden supplier risks to keep businesses one step ahead of disruptions.