Accidental Insights #3
“Short enough to make you want to read and click, but still provides context – and most importantly – interesting POV's.” — Anonymous Head of Strategy and subscriber.
While this newsletter lands in your inbox, many of you will be at Guldägget. Hopefully, this will be a great hangover read. I was on the effectiveness jury this year, which was very rewarding. Being locked up in a conference room with six smart planners debating different cases is probably the best crash course in marketing strategy there is.
Some of the insights in the last newsletter have kept evolving. The NYT has a piece on niche print fashion magazines, and Stil in P1 covers women with ties. So keep reading Accidental Insights to stay ahead.
Many people have sent me stuff they want to cover. I’ve tried to capture everything interesting here, but some might appear in a later issue since this newsletter isn’t just reporting what happens but also trying to contextualize it.
This week's newsletter contains a new download of insights that will help you sound smart in meetings. Don’t forget to forward it to your friends and colleagues. Lots of great strategists, CMOs, agency leaders and even a CFO already subscribes.
Hope you enjoy!
/Johan
INSIGHT DOWNLOAD
The most interesting things I’ve read, seen, thought about, or debated the last two weeks. High and low.
→ High brow lifestyle brands. The luxury fashion world has a long relationship with the art world and has made some amazing stuff lately. Hence, this isn’t a fad but rather a macro trend; there’s a lot of other highbrowy stuff happening in the lifestyle space. Italian scent brand 16-69 just launched an American Psycho scent developed with Bret Easton Ellis. This is the first of a series of Easton Ellis-inspired perfumes. Miu Miu just launched this year’s iteration of their book club (A Woman’s Education), and their new campaign is paintings (done by AI, though). Hermes has launched a series of artist collab content on their socials. In Shanghai, Prada has opened a restaurant together with, and inspired by, Wong Kar Wai.
→ Pioneering purchases. Someone who had interned at Bullish slid into my DM’s and shared their work on “pioneer customers.” After ten years of Les Binet/Peter Field/Byron Sharp-sanctioned broad-reach strategies, we have forgotten that we also need to reach the consumers that influence other consumers. This connects back to what I wrote in the first issue about brands being more about who uses them than what the brand says. A clever media strategist once told me, “Don’t count the reach; reach the ones that count.” And pioneer customers count. Think of all your favorite brands. They started with winning pioneer customers and then crossed the chasm.
→ 2005 redux Stockholm Edition. Hashtag indie sleaze has been the talk of pop culture internet for the last couple of years, and fashion people are gossiping about the return of skinny jeans. From a Stockholm perspective Bon Magazine just announced their comeback (Saga Cavalin is EIC – beware copywriters), and so did Stockholm Fashion Week. Getting all nostalgic about this made me wonder if I’m becoming too old to write this newsletter.
→ Award mania. Two new Swedish ad awards launched this year. At the beginning of April, Filmstaden was crowned the best Cinema ads (apparently, the Cinema industry is suffering, so I understand the need for a PR push). From a grassroots level, Gerillaägget shared their shortlist one day earlier. The competition calendar is already busy, and creatives putting together case films for competitions are as stretched as agencies’ margins. Can we, as an industry, afford to have more award shows?
→ Sports ❤️🔥 fashion continued. Vogue Business writes about sports team stylists and exemplifies it with Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari, which sparked Mercedes to hire its first styling and partnership manager. Acne Studios launched a collab with Kappa (fronted by Tricky!), and A.P.C. and Asics launched a tennis collab.
→ End in trend pt. 2 – the return of regular. Continuing on last newsletter’s post about putting the end in trend I read this Marketingbrew article on brands trading their influencer trips for consumer trips. Culture Codes reports on two trending TikTok-cores: Timeless Core and Recession Core. According to Kantar, the hashtag #deinfluencing has 233M views on TikTok; VML wrote a piece about “humble brands.” Also, it’s reported that Barnes and Noble have pivoted their business back to selling books (apparently, they were selling random stuff like backpacks for a while), and Facebook is bringing back a feed where you get posts from — surprise — your friends. GAP’s Dress Normal campaign was ahead of its time, and it’s no surprise that NYT states that Gen Z is tired of chasing the trend cycle. Will this fuel a shift where brands stop “tapping into cultural tensions” and instead start to figure out their own POV? At least that is what TBWA believes.
→ Authenticity, please. “Dirty kitchens” are trending, and Gen Z is championing undone beauty. Rachel Karten reports that influencer fatigue is in right now. An article in the latest issue of Journal of Advertising Research unveils that Micro-influencers drive brand awareness, attitude, and purchase intention better than big influencers, all because of the authenticity.
→ Fashionable dining 2.0. As a build-on to the earlier mentioned Wong Kar Wai restaurant in Shanghai, Dazed reports that Saint Laurent Paris Sushi restaurant is one of the most hyped dining spots in Paris, and on the other end of the price point spectrum, Uniqlo has launched a coffeeshop. Also, Skims launched in L.A. with a takeover of Mels Drive-In on Sunset Blvd. Stockholm has strong fashion brands and a strong restaurant and coffee shop scene. I wrote about Morjas espresso bar a while ago, and ARKET also has a café. However, I would love to see some more brands try it out. Why not an Our Legacy Bistro or a Stockholm Surfboard Club Café?
→ The unexpectedness of Gen Z media behavior. When you thought you had your Gen Z media plan figured out (98% spend on TikTok) they surprise us again. They are flocking to Tumblr right now (2005 redux!!!) and constitute 50% of the monthly active users and 60% of the signups. They think it’s nostalgic and an escape out of the algorithm. Gen Z has also started to watch TV, not at home but at work (sic!). A little bit more expected information is that Gen Z prefers creator content over premium streaming services, and their favorite TV series right now is a TikTok series called The Group Chat.
→ “Merged business models. Taking two things that naturally don’t belong together and merging them is, for many people, the definition of an idea. This type of “surfs and turfs” is what’s happening in the business model space right now. Simon and Schuster want to be the A24 of Books. “The AirBnb of Fashion” – Pickle – just raised $12M in capital. Ludocene is the “Tinder of Gaming,” and Netflix wants us to stream games like movies. On the more bizarre end, someone invented a Vape that’s also a Tamagochi who dies if you don’t vape.
→ Oil Money Gang. Gina Dirawi has launched an olive oil brand (for skincare, not cooking!), which is now valued at 50MSEK. On the other hand, US-based olive oil disruptors Graza (for cooking, not skincare!) is valued at $240M. Two is a coincidence, and three is a trend, so if someone knows any other olive oil startups with high valuations – drop me a note.
→ Die Neue Deuche Low Price Welle. Stockholm has praised itself for being a gastronomic destination for a while now. At the same time, but more silently, many dive bar chains (Dovas, Lion Bar, International) are making moves and expanding their empires. The latest to expand is Lion Bar's subbrand German Beer Hall, which is now opening both in Gallerian (sic!) and on Hornsgatan. What does this have to do with brand marketing? A lot because it is about price ladders. As an industry, we have been obsessed with helping brands look and feel premium. This alienates loads of consumption occasions. I see the same people having a beer at Lion Bar one day and dining at some fancy spot the other day, so it’s the same customers but different customer needs. I think more brands should explore the low-price segment and maybe launch a subbrand to capture the demand for low-priced products and services.
→ Everything smells. Glossy reports that fragrance sales are still booming, but Gen Z has also started spending on hair perfume and body mists. Also, Aurezzi and Sensual Sport (mentioned in earlier Accidental Insights issues) have launched mouth sprays. Some Gen Z are maybe taking scents too far. I think we all hope this won’t spark a new wave of fragrance-as-an-ad-ideas.
OUTBOUND INSIGHTS
I read, listen to, and watch lots of stuff. Some ladder up to bigger insights, and some are just great reading in their pure form. I’ll share them here.
📊 This marketing budget calculator from Tracksuit is really smart
📰 Link in Bio Social Trend Report
📰 Confessions from the person behind maxad.zip in Bon
📰 Luxury sneakers on the decline
🔈 Nymphet Alumni breaks down grisch culture
📰 Clubbing is good for you, according to neuroscientists
📰 Gaming is only 5% of US media budgets; that needs to change, according to MarketingBrew.
BEYOND INSIGHTS
Stuff that’s relevant for anyone in marketing. Hence, exciting job openings, new third places to freelance work, or random gossip.
💼 +1 is hiring an art director. Super nice gang to work with.
💼 Aarke is looking for a content creator.
🏢 You can now buy the Casino Cosmopol property at Kungsgatan. Which agency or brand moves in?
That’s all for this week, I hope you enjoyed it. See you in two weeks, and don’t forget to share Accidental Insights with your colleagues and friends.