Nearly twenty years since the release of the first iPhone, most smartphones still follow Apple's template.
Nothing Chief Brand Officer Charlie Smith said, "Consumer technology has become quite boring. Everyone is just replicating Apple's success – that success comes from minimalism, aluminum, and glass. Technology has truly lost a lot of its individuality."
In response, Smith is pursuing what he calls a "retro-futurism" design approach. Many of the smartphones and headphones produced by Nothing feature transparent casings that expose some of the internal components. The company was founded in 2020 by OnePlus and co-founder Carl Pei; after a $200 million Series C financing round in 2025, its valuation reached $1.3 billion.
Smith believes that Dyson is the last "superbrand" in the UK consumer goods industry and hopes that Nothing will become the next one. The former design director of Dyson, Adam Bates, now serves as the design director of Nothing.
However, Smith only joined Nothing in January this year. Prior to that, he was in charge of marketing for the fashion brand Loewe under LVMH for a period of seven years. Now, he faces quite a few challenges. According to Counterpoint Research's data, global smartphone shipments declined by 20% in the third quarter of 2026, marking the weakest third quarter since 2012; the rising cost of memory chips has also pushed up mobile phone prices.
Reject formulaic marketing.
As marketing leaders face increasing pressure to prove their value, brand building has become more challenging. A 2026 CMO survey conducted by Duke University showed that among over 300 marketing executives, 56% indicated that there is a stronger demand to demonstrate the financial impact of marketing efforts. Of these, seven in ten said that as a result, they are focusing more on short-term results and more stringent performance tracking.
Formalized marketing rewards content that can quickly produce measurable results, such as click-through rates and sales, rather than the more gradual process of building a brand. This tends to push marketers towards tactics that have worked in the past, which is why Smith says that many advertisements look similar to each other. Adopting a conservative strategy may also result in higher costs. He says, “If you have a brilliant idea, people will share it spontaneously; but if you rely solely on paid media to promote something that is very predictable, you’ll have to spend more money to achieve the same effect.”
Smith has personally witnessed the costs of such transformation. From 2015 to 2018, while working at the advertising agency R/ GA, he was in charge of Nike's business in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He said that at that time, “Nike did not launch campaigns according to a fixed schedule. Instead, it would respond immediately to cultural events and allow local teams to shape the messaging, rather than broadcasting the same ads globally. For example, Nike's ‘Nothing Beats a Londoner’ campaign in 2018 was filled with references that only people from London would understand.”
Smith says that what can truly penetrate the market is "extreme risk-taking and boldness." He often challenges his team with a question: "What do we expect to happen here, and conversely, what will happen instead?" When Apple scheduled its press conference for the day before Nothing's event, Nothing started doodling on Apple's invitation, and Pei subsequently posted this image online.
Smith acknowledges that such issues are more likely to be raised in a relatively smaller company, as creative risk is inherently part of the culture. It is also helpful to have control over the entire brand, including website and store design, as creativity is less likely to be diluted as it moves across different departments.
Invite customers to join the board of directors
Smith Encourages employees outside of the marketing department to come up with ideas. He said, "Good ideas come from all places; the key is whether the leadership is willing to accept them."
Customer insights are also highly valued. Every year, the fan community of Nothing selects a “Community Board Observer” – a volunteer who attends the company’s quarterly board meetings and presents customers’ opinions on products and launches to the directors. Nothing first screens the candidates, after which the community votes on them through a forum. Previously, these community members have helped design one of the company’s mobile phones.
Lacking the marketing budgets of companies like Apple or Samsung, Nothing invests its funds in smaller, more localized projects targeting core customers. In July, the company launched Club Nothing Fund, providing each of four independent creators or music groups with $10,000 to organize nightlife events.
When planning these collaborations, Smith emphasized the importance of authenticity. He said, "Are you truly adding value to this culture, or are you just taking from it?"
Show the people behind the product
Smith believes that as people's doubts about AI deepen, it becomes more important to show the people behind the product. In March, Nothing held a launch event at the London College of Art Central Saint Martins, where over 300 students met with the company's industrial design team and tried out the product.
During his tenure at Loewe, Smith told the brand story by demonstrating how products were made: he filmed scenes of craftsmen at work and asked content creators to publish unedited, somewhat rough TikTok videos. This approach "went against the rules of luxury," as in the world of luxury, everything must be "perfect and glamorous." He said, "Some of the best content on digital channels is actually the most humanistic and realistic."
Formalized marketing promises certainty. Smith bets that in a market where every phone looks almost the same, the greater risk is actually boredom.
Brief Note:While continuously investing for the future, companies also face increasing pressure to demonstrate the return on each investment. If you wish to learn more about how CMO and CFO collaborate to drive growth, you can sign up for the Creativity Meets Capital breakfast meeting organized by Fortune on Thursday, November 26th, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the LinkedIn office in Farringdon, London.
