When the ceremony isn't enough

17.9 million people watched the Oscars on Sunday. That sounds like a lot until you note it was 9% fewer than the year before, in a year with no real controversies and no shocking upsets. The kind of night the Academy probably thought it wanted.

There is something worth sitting with there. A clean show, a stable broadcast deal with ABC and Hulu through 2028, and the audience still shrank. Conventional wisdom says controversy drives ratings. Will Smith. Political speeches. Memorable moments that become Monday morning conversation. The 2025 ceremony had its share of those and drew nearly 20 million. This year, relative calm, and nearly two million people quietly stayed home.

Meanwhile, the Academy has already made its bet on what comes next. Starting in 2029, the ceremony moves to YouTube. Not cable. Not a broadcast network with 70 years of Sunday night habit behind it. A platform built on infinite scroll and algorithmic discovery, where the audience decides what matters and no institution gets deference just for showing up.

I have spent years thinking about what happens when formats outlive the cultures that created them. The Oscars is not just a TV show. It is a credentialing ceremony for an industry that still believes its own judgments carry weight. But credentialing only works when the audience agrees to show up and recognize the credential.

The move to YouTube is not simply a distribution decision. It is a renegotiation of authority. The Academy is asking YouTube's audience to care about the Academy's verdicts. Whether that audience accepts the trade is genuinely unclear.

When a legacy institution moves to a new platform to reach its audience, is it adapting, or quietly conceding that the audience has already decided it doesn't matter?

-Marc

+ Brigadoon is a small annual gathering built around real conversation: no PowerPoint slides, no panels, no name tags, and no clear ROI. The only requirement is genuine curiosity.

Last Call

Restaurants are losing the bar tab — and nobody saw it coming.

Alcohol has been the financial backbone of the American dining industry for decades. A $14 glass of wine costs the restaurant roughly $3. The margin on a cocktail makes the margin on a steak look modest. For most full-service restaurants, the bar subsidizes the kitchen. Always has.

Not anymore.

Americans are drinking less. Not dramatically, not all at once — but measurably, consistently, and across demographics. The shift isn't driven by a single cause. It's a combination of GLP-1 medications blunting appetite and cravings, a generation of younger consumers who never developed the drinking habits of their predecessors, and a broader cultural recalibration around wellness that is showing up in behavior, not just in surveys.

The bottom line is, well, the bottom line. Restaurants that built their economics around alcohol as a margin engine are now staring at a structural gap that a better cocktail menu won't close.

Here's what I keep thinking about: this isn't a restaurant story. It's a story about a business model built on a behavioral assumption that quietly stopped being true. Every industry has a version of this. A revenue stream that feels permanent until it doesn't. A customer behavior that felt locked in until it shifted. The assumptions that get buried deepest are the ones that have never been wrong before.

What behavioral assumption is your business model quietly built on — and when did you last actually test it?

-Marc

Brigadoon is small gatherings. Radical curiosity. No PowerPoint slides. An unknown ROI. The kind of conversations you'll still be turning over in your head six months later. If that sounds like your kind of room, you're probably the kind of person we're looking for.

Monday Evening at Sundance: One of One

Since 2013, I've made Monday evening at the Brigadoon gathering in Utah a tradition: screening a thought-provoking documentary in Sundance Mountain Resort's historic screening room—the original home of the Sundance Film Festival.

Past films have included Caucus, A Faster Horse, and James Beard: America's First Foodie. Each sparked hours of conversation that extended well beyond the screening itself.

I seek out documentaries that focus on commitment, excellence, and uniqueness in an increasingly homogenized world.

This year's documentary screening will be One of One.

One of One offers unprecedented access to Naito Auto Engineering, one of Japan's best-kept automotive secrets.

Founded in post-WWII Tokyo, this three-generation family business has earned global renown for restoring high-value classic cars with artistry and precision. Masao Naito transformed his father's local mechanic shop into a first-class operation coveted by top collectors worldwide. But after 40 years of iron-fisted leadership, his retirement looms, revealing cracks in the family foundation. Do the younger Naitos have what it takes to keep the family together and carry the business forward?

Filmmaker Ben Bertucci captures fly-on-the-wall footage of this notoriously secretive business, including never-before-seen artisanal restoration techniques passed down from founder Shinichi Naito, a self-taught "genius" who worked on Japanese bomber planes during WWII.

Watch the trailer here.

See you in Utah.

-Marc

Announcing the speakers for Brigadoon @ Sundance Mountain Resort 2026

I am excited to share the five formal speakers joining us at Sundance Mountain Resort this February. 

True to Brigadoon's spirit, these aren't your typical conference speakers—they're practitioners who've built things, broken things, regulated things, and reimagined how we approach everything from cybersecurity to civic leadership.

The speakers

Rick Doten brings 27 years of navigating the intersection of cybersecurity, risk, and human behavior. As VP of Information Security at Centene Corporation and CISO of Carolina Complete Health, Rick doesn't just manage cyber threats—he's pioneered how organizations think about the human side of security. He was the lead author on CIS Critical Security Controls v8. He spent time at Verizon, Gartner, and Lockheed Martin before landing in healthcare, where the stakes of getting security wrong are measured in lives, not just dollars.

Dr. Leigh George is a marketing strategist who believes most advertising either annoys or bores people to death. As CEO of Freedom and a sought-after speaker, Leigh challenges companies to "Don't raise your voice. Improve your argument." She's spoken at Digital Summit conferences nationwide and at South by Southwest, and she works with organizations ready to move beyond transactional marketing into genuine human connection.

Christian Hunt founded Human Risk after realizing that most compliance programs treat humans like robots. With experience as Managing Director and Head of Behavioral Science at UBS and as former COO of the UK's Prudential Regulation Authority, Christian brings a rare perspective from both sides of the regulatory fence. His book "Humanizing Rules" and his Human Risk podcast explore what he calls "getting people to do what you want without pissing them off."

Matt Pinnell serves as Oklahoma's 17th Lieutenant Governor, where he's focused on workforce development, economic growth, and making people reconsider Oklahoma as a flyover state. Before politics, Matt served as Director of State Parties for the Republican National Committee and ran his own small business. As Chairman of the Oklahoma Tourism Commission, he's led a statewide rebrand that's challenged both internal bureaucracy and external perceptions.

Rachel Shank leads Georgetown Main Street in Washington, DC, supporting the small businesses that form the backbone of one of America's most iconic neighborhoods. She's navigated pandemic recovery, government shutdowns, and the challenge of maintaining local business vitality amid chain domination. With a Master of Public Administration from George Washington University, Rachel works at the ground level of economic development—where policy meets the sidewalk.

Why these voices matter

At Brigadoon, I deliberately mix people who wouldn't usually share a stage—or a chairlift. A cybersecurity executive and a behavioral scientist. A state lieutenant governor and a marketing strategist who challenges conventional wisdom. A local economic development leader championing small businesses and hospitality

This is by design. The most valuable conversations happen when you step outside your expertise zone and engage with people solving entirely different problems. The cardiologist learns from the tech founder. The urban planner challenges the VC's assumptions. The civic leader hears from the automation entrepreneur.

Brigadoon gatherings are not designed to give you the answers. Brigadoon gatherings are here to provide you with better questions on the topics and issues shaping commerce and culture.

-Marc