Our inspiration trip to Seoul continues to resonate in a way that confirms we made the right choice in organizing it. On one hand, there are the many questions we’ve received about our journey and the insights we gained, on the other, there are the numerous moments of synchronicity I’ve experienced over the past few weeks. Without wanting to sound too esoteric I truly believe in the messages our collective consciousness sends us. ✨

A few examples: I recently did an interview with De Tijd. They asked if I was materialistic. I confirmed I was, and mentioned a Helinox chair I once bought for 200 euros that I always keep in my car. I take good care of it and have very fond memories of using it. Literally at the moment I’m reading that interview in Seoul, I walk past a beautiful building: “Helinox Creative Space.” I’m stunned and look it up. Helinox is a Korean brand. I had no idea. What a coincidence. Or not.

One evening in Seoul, we go to a bar, and after it closes, we move on to a place that will only let us in if we commit to rounds of tequila shots. Bizarre, but okay. The owner, a guy with incredible swag, starts talking to me. We connect, we both love cycling and watches, and we exchange Instagram handles. We see we have one mutual follower: Vague Watches. He tells me he wants to collaborate with the Japanese manufacturer to make a watch for his business. I say, “Me too!” What a coincidence. Or not.

A week later, I run into an old colleague and friend from my time at Studio Brussel: Nadiem Shah. A fellow West-Vlaming and a truly warm soul. We get to talking about synchronicity. Nadiem reads this newsletter. He asked how things were going with my daughter’s illness. “What was the name again?” I say: Sickle cell. He knows it because he had just helped his daughter study for her exam that day, and sickle cell was one of the questions. I tell him, “That’s impossible.” What a coincidence. Or not. He then mentions he had just dropped off his daughter, Lila. I say, “Lila?” and show him the tattoo on my chest of the name Lila, our child who was never born. What a coincidence. Or not.

What is synchronicity? Our collective consciousness? I believe that because of it, we at Hurae attract exactly the connections and insights that fuel our innovative power. The trip to Seoul acts as a catalyst, proving that our gut feeling and creative choices align seamlessly with a larger, meaningful pattern. For an agency that thrives on storytelling and human connection, this “coincidence” is the ultimate proof that our brand and mission are exactly where they need to be.

Must reads 👀

We read up a lot on trends and we are always happy to share that knowledge with you. By giving some examples you can understand how our brain works:

• Junior Bankers Are Teaching Their Elders How to Use AI 👀

  Knowing your way around the transformative technology is the new finance flex.

• Walking makes you more creative 🚶🏾‍♂️

  There’s a famous study where they put people in a chair and they put people on a treadmill, and they do the “alternative uses for an object test.” Basically, you give somebody something mundane like a brick and ask: How many different uses can you have for the brick? The people who were walking on a treadmill generated like three times as many ideas as the people sitting in a chair.
  The Hurae way: It’s amazing how easily we all stay stuck behind our desks. And it’s equally amazing how people consider you an outlier if you go for a run, a bike ride, or a walk in the middle of the day. For us, it’s natural, and it’s what allows us to keep coming up with bold ideas. So please, just go for a walk this afternoon!

• How Gen Z Dates

  Breadcrumbing. Ghosting. Situationships. Red flags. Green flags. Shrekking. Benching. There’s no shortage of lingo to describe how Gen Z dates. It can be *confusing*, to say the least.

• This publisher enlists ‘bookfluencers’ to choose its titles. Is it working? 📚

  Bindery Books, a startup founded by publishing veterans, uses social media book influencers as acquiring editors to champion underrepresented authors and build engaged reader communities. While not yet profitable, the startup has placed several titles on bestseller lists and is viewed as a potential model for industry innovation. The Hurae way: The recipe for success remains very simple: follow the trends, create your own version of them, and apply that to your product. A great example of this is the Fake Out of Home (FOOH) campaigns we created for Ion & Heylen Vastgoed & Geberit.

• The New Ways High Schools Are Teaching Teens About Money

  At one Connecticut school, students get real-world experience with money; at a California school, they learn the power of compounding.
  The Hurae way: Always interesting to see how financial education works around the globe. And a great honor to work on so many projects for Febelfin including our recently awarded boardgames “Hacker Hotline.”

• Diary of a 13-Year-Old Skin-Care CEO
  Beauty routines are starting younger than ever. Yes Day’s Coco Granderson knows what girls are looking for. Further reading: Makeup Has a Trendy New Customer With Money to Spend: 6-Year-Olds. A slew of companies are serving the younger siblings of Sephora teens with lip glosses, face masks and mineral blush. The Hurae way: You could wonder how healthy it is for children to be preoccupied with makeup at that age. But you could just as easily see it as an opportunity. An opportunity to teach children how to handle it in a healthy way, and to celebrate the fact that loving your body is being instilled in them the right way.

• No Views, No Hikes, Just Zzzs: Welcome to the Sleepcation 💤

  Tired of being tired, travelers are booking REM-fueled trips; ‘The best sleep of my life!’ The Hurae way: For the hospitality industry, the sleepcationer is a dream demographic. A guest in bed isn’t wearing down the lobby or requiring a concierge. Instead, they’re bringing in extra money with the charcoal bedtime lattes they’re ordering from room service and the upgrades for AI-powered beds that analyze sleep quality and hotel-offered sleep doctors.

• The New Era of Youtube

  Where audiences once followed channels, they now belong to communities. They binge legacy IP, deep-dive into niches, and discover identity through culture. Superfans don’t just consume, they program themselves, signaling to YouTube’s systems what they want more of. The Hurae Way: message to every media company in Belgium: Wake up. Traditional viewership is sliding off a cliff, but that’s not a crisis—it’s an invitation to stop fishing for “viewers” and start building a clubhouse they actually want to belong to. To the advertisers: why keep paying for a 30-second interruption when you can invest in a community? Stop buying “spots” and start buying relevance, because if you’re not part of the culture, you’re just noise and everyone’s getting really good at hitting “skip.”

• ‘Jestermaxxing’ is taking over the internet — and someone’s making money

  Words like “frame mogging” and “jestermaxxing” are suddenly everywhere. They come from the niche online world of looksmaxxing. The spread of these over-the-top phrases is being pushed by “clippers,” who can make money this way.

• A Y2K Bedroom in 2026? The “Nestalgic” Trend Taking Over GenZennial Decor

  It’s particularly popular among millennials and Gen Z. “In just a few years, it’s gone from one or two creators, to my Instagram feed to now being flooded with people who have rooms full of dolls and other toys…

• What does it mean to make something? 🙇🏽

  Making things is a pleasure, it is holy, it is something we do instinctively — like breathing — and it is something we can’t stop. The creative impulse is one of the things that makes us human, I think. It’s important to say that, even if it does feel, as they say, a little cringe. It is good to make things. The Hurae Way: Getting tactile isn’t just fun; it’s where the best insights hide. I’m proud that at Hurae, we’re all makers. It gives us a gut-level understanding of the work we do. Think of the origami routes for Knokke-Heist, the custom board game for Febelfin, or the massive sets we built for Smile Safari. When you start thinking in 3D, your whole world gets bigger.

• A Blow to the Phone-Free Classroom

  In some schools, Yondr, a pouch marketed to keep kids off devices, has proved no match for actual children.

• Gen Z has perfected the glorious art of boredom as entertainment

  Streaming isn’t depressing at all. It might be the most hopeful thing I’ve seen in years

• I was interviewed by De Tijd 👀
  “Our creative director, Vincent Schroeven, passed down a seemingly crazy habit to our eight-person team: lying down on your back wherever you are, with your arms and legs spread wide, looking upward. People find it strange until they experience for themselves how nice it is.

• I was interviewed by Het Nieuwsblad
  ”The latest online trend is, above all, pure wholesome energy. Companies everywhere are flooding our feeds with throwback childhood photos of their teams.”

Hurae: Serious business, surreal results ✨

We’re not the biggest agency, but we aim to be the most interesting. For brands willing who don’t want to follow the book, but write it.

Trusted by Knokke-Heist, Accountable, Croky, AVA, Febelfin, Geberit, Ancienne Belgique, Molecule, Okay, Heylen Vastgoed and many many more.

Ceci n’est past un agency

• Email us at info@hurae.com

• Follow me on Instagram

• Follow me on LinkedIn

Thanks for reading Hurae’s substack, a weekly email about creativity, innovation, marketing & youth culture with almost 4000 subscribers