Bagel Mania 🥯, the differentiation vs. distinctiveness debate 👔 and the return of religion ⛪️. Accidental Insights #7 is fresh off the press.
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Welcome to this week’s newsletter. Tomorrow is bank holiday in Sweden, and many of you might work half days. That’s why you are receiving this around lunch instead. This time, I will write about everything from bagels to the battle between distinct and differentiated.
As always, Accidental Insights is about battling gatekeeping so don’t forget to share this newsletter.
There’s some official Strategic Accidents “The Fun In Funnel” merch available. Hit me up when you see me around and you might get one.
INSIGHT DOWNLOAD
The most interesting things I’ve read, seen, thought about, or debated the last two weeks. High and low.
→Bagel Mania. Stockholm's bagel scene has, by all standards, at best been completely underwhelming. Therefore, I always drool over bagels when I cross the pond. But a while ago, something happened. Dåndimpen came out with a strong bagel offering, and then Caferiör and even Urban Deli added classic salmon bagels to their menus. Food Instagrammers hype up Cafe Frankfurt at Kungsholmen (I haven’t been there yet, but on the other hand, why should I go to Kungsholmen?) and now the bagel cafe Village Bagels is soon to be opened somewhere in Stockholm. They claim to offer of “Authentic & traditionally handmade New York–style bagels.” Copenhagen is also pushing a strong bagel game – New York’s Apollo Bagels made a 72-hour popup at Restaurant Apollo. Yummy.
→Differentiate distinctively or die? Prof. dr. Koen Pauwnels is climbing the Academic Marketing Influencer Ranking Board (32K LI followers compared to Ritson’s 217 K and Sharp’s 99K). He also might have solved the different vs. distinct debate. What’s his conclusion? In short: if you are a young/small brand, focus on meaningful differentiation. Are you an established/larger brand, focus on being distinct. He’s referencing both his own research and Kantar.
→ Stop the slop. Slop started out as a definition of AI content destroying social feeds. But it has evolved to include everything from AI content to fast casual food chains to fast fashion like Shein. Now, people are battling Slop as a movement against the mass-produced for the human-made. Ana Andjelic has collected a bunch of great articles on Slop. David W. Marx is comparing AI-slop content to polyester.
→ A softer health wave. FT Weekend has an extensive article on longevity as a significant movement within health – according to McKinsey, 60% believe that healthy ageing is a top priority, and health hotels are opening up. Vogue Business writes that sleep is becoming a growing territory for beauty brands, ranging from night creams to edibles. But even sleep spray for your pillow (sic!) and gyms like Equinox offer sleep coaching and blackout rooms. SvD writes about the rise of slow running and how influencer Clara Henry became obsessed with it.
→ Race girls. Women’s increased interest in F1 has been talked about a lot lately, as well as how DTS increased the share of female F1 fans from 7% to 40%. Teen Vogue spotlights the K-popification of F1 (this year's Miami GP, Lisa became the first K-pop idol to wave the checkered flag). The Instagram account Paddock Project provides “F1 insights, explained by women. McLaren development driver Bianca Bustamante is now a certified influencer. This week, Netflix launched the F1: The Academy – a DTS-style documentary series on F1’s attempt to push young female drivers.
→ IYKYK who’s behind. In March, NYT profiled Shintaro Yamamoto, the mind behind CDG’s wildest shoes. Nina Christen’s getting buzz too – she’s made shoes for Loewe, Bottega, and The Row. Feed Me spotlighted Alexis Page, Glossier’s OG product dev lead. Are brands shifting from hyping founders to spotlighting the behind-the-scenes heroes niche fans obsess over? Maybe a stretch, but Jony Ive – once Apple’s IYKYK icon – is now fronting OpenAI’s next move.
→ Brand in the AI age. Scott Galloway recently argued that “branding is dead” due to search making it possible to look up anything, without relying on brands. AI might be changing that. Since consumers move from regular search to AI chatbots to get their recommendations on anything from diapers to vacations. So, who is winning among AI chatbots? The strongest brands. Hence, brand building becomes incredibly important, but it also means brand managers must add one more target audience – LLMs. Looking forward to briefs with “Desired ChatGPT Response” in them. If you missed it, I wrote about a similar article related to PR in my last newsletter.
→ Alt-right fatigue? Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration and the Republican Party, and is cutting back on his political spending. Some people even believe he is changing the Twitter algorithm. Kanye West claims he is done with antisemitism. Two microscopic observations that might be early indicators that the trend-sensitive alt-righters are starting to migrate somewhere else.
→ Return of religion. At a dinner a couple of months ago, the hostess (a super smart agency strategist) claimed, “The return of religion is the most obvious and weak observation ever”. Still, searching for the new Pope is the pop cultural moment of the year thus far (jacking up revenue for the Vatican and streams for The Conclave). Young people in Sweden are becoming increasingly Christian (I even saw two girls say a prayer before having tacos in a restaurant in Vasastan). There’s been a lot of talk about London’s new hipster church, and adult baptism is rising in France. In Connecticut, someone is resurrecting an old Catholic Theme Park.
→ Social media habits of social media professionals. Link In Bio’s report on the attitudes of social media managers is here. Instagram is the most prioritized social platform; surprisingly, LinkedIn is the second most prioritized. 65% are moving their brands away from Twitter, and 32% have trouble cracking TikTok, making TikTok the most difficult social channel to crack. If they only had to choose one channel, the majority would choose Instagram.
→ Offline mode. W Magazine writes about a new generation of Gen Z artists, such as 2hollis, HorsegiirL, and Magdalena Bay, and how they want to build an offline following rather than an online following (live shows are up 4%, primarily because of Gen Z). Eugene Healey argues that we are in a “social media recession” since public social media has become an unpleasant space, and that brands need to learn how to “shut up” to be able to show up in closed networks.
→ Male loneliness vs. OnlyFans. The male loneliness epidemic has been talked about for a while now. Only 26% of American men have more than six close friends. The Atlantic gives a historic point of view on how male friendship lost its deep emotional dimension due to the homophobia of the Victorian era. Simultaneously, a Vice article digs into where those deep emotional bonds are expressed instead. It seems to be OnlyFans since 78% of messages from top spenders to content creators revolve around personal topics like pets, work stress, and daily life, rather than sexual content. Gen Z might be changing this – the latest trend among Gen Z men is to call each other and say “good night”. Cute!
INSPIRATIONAL INSIGHTS
Interesting campaigns, products, and experiences to be inspired by.
→ Roblox sells real products. Roblox is extending its retail from not just selling digital stuff (from brands such as Gucci and Burberry) to also selling physical goods through a partnership with Shopify.
→ Loewe Tomato Hot Air Balloon. Someone made a meme about a tomato looking like a Loewe Bag. Loewe made a bag that looked like the tomato. Now Loewe made a hot air balloon looking like the bag looking like the Tomato.
→EOS - Getting Real. An inspiring case study of an Effie Winner by Mischief on how to build a brand in 2022 (spoiler: many planners will replicate this for their “how to build a brand in 2030” pitch presentations).
BEYOND INSIGHTS
Stuff that’s relevant for anyone in marketing. Hence, exciting job openings, new third places to freelance work, or random gossip.
💼 Steamery is looking for an eCommerce and Marketplace Intern.
💍 Vogue Business breaks down why Cartier launched their last collection in Stockholm. They display the latest collection at Nacka-Strandsmässan, but it seems to be invite-only.
💼 Jung is seeking a Junior PR Advisor, an Art Director, and a Project Manager.
💼 ALLY is recruiting a brand strategist/planner/brand manager. Destination unknown.
💼 Fjällräven is looking for a Global Head of Brand Comms. Might be fun even though gorpcore was declared dead last year.
💼 Kustom is on the hunt for a brand designer.
🤑 Brookfields is probably making the biggest foreign investment in Sweden ever with an AI centre in Strängnäs (sic!) – an hour’s drive from Stockholm. Silicon Valhalla is real ⚔️.
💼 If you want to share office space with me – A House is hiring a Team Lead Event Project Manager.
Is the amount of interesting gigs here an indicator to that we are seeing the beginning of the end of the recession?