Accidental Insights Issue #4
"You could start charging for this" – Anonymous CSO and reader.
Hi, and welcome to the fourth edition of Accidental Insights. Today the sentiment is slightly darker than usual – the dark mode shift is real.
I also added a new section called Insights Evolved. Most insights and observations in this newsletter are under constant development, and I usually find a lot of builds on stuff I wrote about earlier. This section will cover those evolutions and turn the insights into evolving sagas. If you want others to keep up, please share Accidental Insights with your colleagues and friends.
Hope you enjoy!
INSIGHT DOWNLOAD
The most interesting things I’ve read, seen, thought about, or debated the last two weeks. High and low.
→ Young people, old sports. Gen Z is taking over old money sports like tennis and golf. Last year had the highest number of tennis players ever in the US. When I was in Tokyo last summer, I visited multiple super conceptual golf stores. Recently, Adidas Originals dropped a golf collection fronted by no other than Ludvig Åberg, and Jordan Brand just brought back their golf line. Spence is a new, conceptual Tennis brand with awesome creative direction, and the new Miu Miu x New Balance colab is fronted by tennis star Coco Gauff.
→ Dating out of date? The Independent has a piece on how more women prefer living solo over dating someone, and Dazed writes about Gen Z opting out of dating. It might be because romantacy has raised the bar for standards. Vice wrote that Gen Z kind of wants to keep dating but not call it dating, but instead call it “explorationships”. It was also reported a while ago that people opt out of dating apps and instead slide into the DM’s on Strava or Letterboxd because they want authenticity and common interests. Maybe this is why dating app stocks are suffering.
→ Women’s sports go big. According to Deloitte, women’s sports organizations will have a global revenue of $2,35 billion this year – a +25% increase. Primarily driven by commercial revenue (merch, sponsorships). Football and basketball are the key drivers. That is probably why Coach just became the first ever bag of WNBA, and according to the Swedish Football Association, they’ve had the highest demand for tickets ever (for a female cup) before this year’s European championship. The World Championship 2023 broke global sales records. Brands: watch out and jump on the bandwagon before it’s too late.
→ Creative ineffectiveness? Marketing Week highlights that 35% of CMOs believe their organisations have problems writing briefs. The Better Briefs project demonstrated earlier that agencies are frustrated with client briefs and has now launched a new report – Better Ideas – that digs into what is holding creative work back. Everyone agrees that creativity is essential, but both agencies and clients lack feedback training. Approval processes are not optimal, and the briefs are rarely used when providing feedback on ideas. The new IPA president, Karen Martin, has an agenda focused on creativity and highlights how inefficiencies in processes, poor feedback, and weak briefs undermine creativity. We have spent a lot of time focusing on effectiveness, and successfully implemented Sveriges Annonsörers Effectiveness Principles (which are great), but now might be the time to start to spark a discussion on how to improve the single thing that seems to truly drive effectiveness: good creative. Maybe this guide can be the starting point.
→Bad relationship to money. Money dysmorphia is the notion that by seeing people living lavishly on social media, and spending money they don’t have, people feel and look successful. At least according to the New York Times. In an article in 2024, this phenomenon was called boom boom spending – impulsive, emotional purchases. According to a 2024 study, almost a third of Americans and 43% of American Gen Z reported money dysmorphia. I haven’t seen any take on whether this is true for Swedes. But, in one of the countries with the most billionaires per capita, where Bianca Ingrosso is the most talked about celebrity, it’s a qualified guess that this might also translate to your local Stockholm neighborhood. Just watching the housing market and our Instagram-fueled collective renovation psychosis gives a hint. But also some facts such as that young women’s median debts doubled between 2011 and 2021, 50% don’t have above 10K SEK on their savings account, and more people are ending up at Kronofogden because of food delivery apps.
→ Fashionable dining reversed. I wrote a couple of weeks ago about fashion brands and restaurants. But there is also a reverse trend. Elle writes about the rise of hotel merchandise and how hotels collaborate with lifestyle brands such as Sporty and Rich (a recession-proof way to flex your hotel habits). NYT has a great piece on restaurant merch but also on the development of restaurants, from only serving good food to focusing on branding, vibe, and service, and imo providing a “holistic brand experience”. Elle Decor claims that the phenomenon is called ”Zizmorcore” – attaching a specific identity to a specific place, expressed through clothing and accessories
→ Brand architecture of brand architects. Eidra seems to restructure their brand architecture and go for a “few but bigger” strategy. Cupole and Curamando are merging into Eidra Consulting (a nod to NoA consulting?) Mission Anew (formerly Futerra) is rebranding to plain and simple Eidra. A while ago, Animal and Blck joined forces to become Kurppa Hosk Communication, plus Oslo agencies Heyday and Neue joined the Kurppa Hosk umbrella. I guess we will see more consolidation among the bigger PE-owned groups that want to create synergies.
→ The return of conspicuous consumption. Rich people no longer want to look poor (goodbye The Sum of Small Things), they want to look rich, shifting their preference from New Yorker tote bags to furs and classic tailoring. Airmail has a piece on #RichTok queen Becca Bloom that broke the internet last week. Even Balenciaga wants to look lavish in their latest campaign. Watching Girls of Stockholm on Amazon Prime, where Lovisa Worge brags about vintage 20k Chanel flipflops, only confirms this is also a Stockholm phenomenon, and probably the next episode in the dark mode shift.
→ Boy problems. I’m a frequent listener of Pivot, for a while they have retunred to the topic of the negative situation for young men today. They have resorted to the manosphere, gotten hooked on weird ideals, and sometimes bizarre stuff such as looksmaxxing. Dazed wrote a great piece about the situation for young men today and their struggles in their dating world as well as their emotional disconnect and misogynistic role models, which has led young women to distance themselves from them. However, people seem to have an urge for change. The UK Centre For Social Justice launched the report Lost Boys. Adolescence became the talk of every town and highlighted the problems that young men face. Scott Galloway has announced his new book “Notes on Being A Man”. I think the key takeaway here is not necessarily that young men have a problem, but that the discourse will change, and we will see more focus on young boys in the public debate in the coming months.
INSIGHTS EVOLVED
Here I keep building on already published insights with new observations and micro trends.
→ Gen anti fem: Dazed reports on female radicalisation and girls absorbing mysogynic content.
→ The end in trend: Valentino’s new campaign is all about everyday moments. i-D has a feature called Four Anti-Trend Solutions For Modern Life.
→ Oil Money Gang: Someone mailed me and reminded me of Radici selling their olive oil at beauty store YouTime alongside brands such as Susanne Kaufmann. (Don’t know about any valuation though.) Copenhagen-based Psyche Olive Oil (run by former book publisher Theophilos Constantinou) is making pop-cultural moves. Citizens of Soil just received an investment of £ 18 M.
→ Sports ❤️🔥 Fashion: Zendaya starrs in On Running’s latest campaign made by Nadia Lee Cohen. Adidas and KITH just dropped a set of suits. Salomon is doing a running colab with Margiela.
→ Fashionable Dining: KA YO is moving from NK and opening an outdoor cafe with SnowPeak + a kitchen with gels, smoothies, and rehydration bars.
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 exhibition on K-Wave Culture looks amazing.
📰 How To Spend It has a great piece on Japanese conbinis.
📊 This study on wine labels with animals is awesome.
📺 The Hives talked to IsaacLikes about their Sthlm recs.
📰 Gen Z prefers lower case – are they changing writing forever?
📰 The no-code movement has made investors look for business people rather than developers as founders.
📊 IKEA just launched their new Life At Home report.
BEYOND INSIGHTS
💼 Nord DDB is looking for a Senior Strategist. Great chance to join Sthlm’s best strategy dept imho.
🏢 The A House location in Sickla is looking really cool.
💼 Kurppa Hosk Communications is looking for a prompt designer. 👀
📖 Woodstockholm is releasing a book – probably a masterclass in conceptual thinking.
💼 Are you an account manager? Might be a good time to join Bold.
That’s all – see you in two weeks!
/J.