Trendy tennis 🎾, Condé Nostalgia 🍸 and A/B Testing isn’t working 👩‍🔬. Accidental Insights #10 is now in your inbox.

A short break in your vacation to take in the latest marketing insights.

Jul 17, 2025

Hello

I’m writing this from my vacation which makes this a slightly shorter newsletter. But at least a newsletter. That is coming out. On time. That is at least something.

As an independent consultant, you never get to be the employee of the week. I came quite close since the lovely people at A House (I spend my days at their Katarinahuset location) featured me as a community member on their webpage and socials. Have a read here (in Swedish).

This week I am curious about how Cindy Rose will work out as the new global CEO of WPP. The holdibg company is suffering and her background is enterprise tech sales. Either she brings new thinking to the game, or she won’t understand how to sell creativity. I hope for the former.

If you enjoy this newsletter, please share it with anyone you think needs sharper insights.

INSIGHT DOWNLOAD

The most interesting things I’ve read, seen, thought about, or debated the last two weeks. High and low.

✏️ Anime goes mainstream. As if Ghiblicore wasn’t enough, according to a global study by Dentsu now 48% of Netflix users watch anime (32% for Disney+ and 29% for Amazon Prime). The study claims 31% of global consumers have at least one anime show they watch weekly. For reference ≈30% of Swedes watched the Melodifestivalen finale, ≈25% watched The Eurovision finale and ≈20% tune in to ”På Spåret”. Those are usually referred to as the few bonfires that still exist on Swedish television. If you are experiencing a FOMO due to lagging behind, Dazed has an article on how to start watching anime. I think this highlights how a lot of culture move from being niche into mainstream slightly unnoticed. Hence it stresses the importance of being bold enough to bet on stuff that might feel a little bit too niche for your brand. Otherwise you might be too late to the party.

🔧 The simpler work life. I’ve seen a lot of X (fka Twitter) threads on how to make money from manual labour like plumbing (I sense most of them are scammy clickbaites). But, Business Insider has written about the ”Hot New MBA Hustle” about MBA grads switching corporate jobs for the blue collar work. Tyler Brûlé argues that a manual job is a great way to AI proof your career. Time for a new career, maybe?

📺 YT is the new TV. Vanity Fair wrote about the economics of YouTube and how YT is stealing market share from TV companies without necessarily winning Emmys. Bloomberg has a similar article on how Youtubers are making longer formats to compete directly with traditional streaming services. Youtube tends to claim they are the only true broad reach ad media, and they might be right.

📸 Influencers shifting shapes. Is the influencer dead or at least shapeshifting? Saga Cavallin argues in her Bon newsletter that the popstar has regained its power and replaced the influencer. Vogue Business argues that community leaders (such as run club and ceramics class leaders) are replacing influencers. Practices change but principles stay. People still follow the people whom they aspire to be, but whom they follow might be changing. Maybe towards substituting surface for substance. Some brands are taking it further and cut out the middleman. Instead of paying influencers to promote their brands they hire people with influencer-like skills to make their content.

🎾 Trendy tennis. Wimbledon ended a few days ago but something that doesn't seem to end is fashion brands doing tennis oriented activations. Some of the brands venturing into tennis are Refy, La Roche Posay, Lululemon, Jellycat, Burberry, H&M Move, Louis Vuitton, JVN Hair, Garnier, Zara, adidas, and Kith. If you need content for your next trend deck on brands and tennis there are two great compilations here: @gradgirlmarketing and Tim Nash of ShopDropDaily. Also luxury brands are sponsoring the tennis royalty. Jannik Sinner is a Gucci Ambassador, and Carlos Alcaraz (who’s on the cover of Fantastic Man) inked a deal with Louis Vuitton, Coco Gauff fronted the latest Miu Miu X New Balance campaign. Beyond luxury and fashion brands, London also sees a surge in Tennis on a new generation of social clubs. Maybe there is potential to rebuild all covid era padel courts into tennis courts now?

🗞️ Newspaper game strong. Lots of fashion brands (Hermès, Jaquemus, Gucci) have opened newspaper kiosks lately. This highlights something I’ve written about before – that in a world of digitalization tactile objects such as print are getting a revival. On the subject of ”the return of print media” Love Magazine is making a comeback and Bon wrote a nice piece on the quite narrow subject ”new Swedish print magazines about soccer”.

🍸 Condé Nostalgia. Anna Wintour’s departure from the Vogue EIC chair has been all over the news. But there is more to Condé Nast this summer due to the huge amount of content around their golden years are getting published. I just finished former Vanity Fair EIC Graydon Carter’s autobiography ”When The Going Was Good” (and I’ve seen many of you posting the cover on Instagram as well). Recently a podcast about the life at Condé Nast (each episode is 13 minutes) launched. This week the book ”Empire of the Elite” coveribg how Condé Nast shaped American and global culture finally came out. When print has transitioned from cheap content to premium book-like experiences we start to romanticise the last great era of print. To see if you would have fitted in during the golden years do this test.

🤝 Etiquette crisis? Emily Sundberg visited Odd Lots and one thing she stressed was that since Covid we are having an etiquette crisis. Roughly two months ago she shared, due to a NY Mag article, a reader survey on the biggest social faux pas. Spoilers include things such as bailing last-minute and sending email intros without checking with both people first. It might be a solution on the way because Gen Z employees in San Francisco are getting etiquette coaches.

🎤 Girl Power Pop. Hype Mind wrote a post called ”Welcome to the feminomenom” stating that we are living in the era of the female pop superstar (Taylor! Dua! Charli! Bey! Sabrina!). The fact that all of them are doing stadium tours right now is making them even more dominant. Between 2020 and 2024 female artists’ presence in the streaming top 100 soared by 130% (compared to 32% among male artists). Jan Gradvall highlighted in his Addison Rae review (can’t find the link) a while ago that the norm used to be ”female pop star who was backed by mysterious male producer”. The Addison Rae album on the other note was only produced by women. That’s probably why this summer is Addison Rae summer.

❤️ Eternal life for everyone? The eternal life movement (headed by guys like Peter Thiel) has been around for a while and is getting major traction in the mainstream. Bryan Johnson (of Netflix fame) recently visited Stockholm. How To Spend It has an article where a 52 year old vaping and drinking editor tries to reverse his age (sic!) and Dagens Nyheter just wrote an article about Vendela who wants to live for 200 years.

👩‍🔬 A/B testing isn’t working? A new study in Journal of Marketing looked into how A/B testing is (not) working. So what’s the problem? Meta and Google use ”divergent delivery” – hence, the audiences for the A ad and B ad aren’t the same. This means that the winning creative didn’t win on effectiveness merits but on the fact that it was served to consumers more prone to click or buy. Byron Sharp is very happy about this research on LinkedIn.

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.

📰 NYC art schools see surge in Gen Z attendance.

📰 Effectiveness isn’t making us effective.

📰 In 2030 45% of U.S. women will be single

📰 There is a diabetes Barbie and Lila Moss has her own version of it.

📰 This campaign/performance by Gentle Monster’s sister brand Tambourine is amazing

📰 There’s a competition in South Korea where the goal is to not move.

📰 In New York laundromats are turning into coffee shops and bars where people can socialize while waiting for their laundry

📱Nike is now on Substack.