Turning a print institution into a digital youth movement

Dazed & Confused was a legendary print magazine in an industry where legendary print magazines were dying. The brand had three decades of cultural capital and a distribution model in structural decline.

Under our strategic direction, Dazed became a digital-first youth media company without losing what made it relevant – the meeting of underground trends and mainstream pop culture. That meant inventing new formats rather than porting old ones: the Dazed 100, a talent index that became an industry fixture and expanded to America and MENA, enabling the publisher to secure global brand partnerships with Apple, Nike, Converse and Calvin Klein.

Dazed didn't survive the print collapse. It came out of it bigger. Monthly readership grew to 3 million. The brand amassed over 4 million social media followers, and we created the brand's most enduring and commercially profitable IP format, which has rolled out to four global markets.