Platform news

Here’s to another month of WNOS – our monthly report where we update you on the latest news, trends and tips in Social & Digital – helping to keep you constantly in the know. We’ve made a few changes to our tried-and-true recipe, and we hope you love our update as much as we do.

August Highlights

No products please, we’re Gen Z

So much for being generation maximalism – Gen Z have started a new TikTok trend where they show off exactly how little they have in the ‘Underconsumption Core’ trend. In an era of loud labels, neon colours, Shein hauls, and a new It-bag every week, what has brought about this sudden ascetic lifestyle choice for Generation Z?

When we think about Gen Z trends, we often think about performative maximalism, with people showing off their bedrooms, dinner parties, and outfits themed to trends like ‘coastal granddaughter’, ‘rockstar girlfriend’, or ‘cottagecore’. Comments are full of clamouring comments like, “Where did you get that leather jacket?”, or “OMG I need that mug for my room.” So why has this sudden turn to consuming and using less with #underconsumptioncore taken off?

A third of Gen Z have admitted to having a shopping addiction, and in the midst of the current hyper-maximalist trend-wave it’s easy to see why. When artists like Taylor Swift drop multiple variants of their albums, or K-pop fans spend USD $824 a year to see their idols, or the rising cost of living, Gen Z are promoting new ways to save money and stay trendy. It does look like a clean-living backlash against Y2K Charli xcx Brat trends.

But what can brands do if the young generation don’t want to buy anything new? Instead of panicking about Gen Z embracing minimalism, brands ought to provide this new, mindful generation more opportunities to stay true to their values. Look at how Coach is promoting cyclical fashion, encouraging repairs instead of rebuys, or the rise of secondhand market disruptors like Vinted, Vinteriors, or Depop. Your brand needs to become a gateway for Gen Z to express their values authentically, and then earn their loyalty.

Utopian social media

Aperol has been the drink of the summer for years, shooting to popularity thanks to its recognisable, Instagrammable design, not to mention tastiness. But why has the brand has renewed its partnership with the US Open, despite being quintessentially Italian – and what can brands learn from what is, in our opinion, a fantastic move?

With so many people cutting down on drinking, it’s clear that alcohol brands need to think outside of the box when it comes to fostering brand loyalty. Spirit sales have been down 2.7 percent from April 2023 to March 2024, and it’s only predicted to fall even further. The rise of mocktails from J2O, and healthy sodas like Poppi, has meant that there aren’t many alcohol brands that are still top of mind for younger consumers.

Enter Aperol, which has aligned itself to the trendiest sport of the moment. Tennis has been at the centre of the fashion and trend world for the last year, organically propelling items like crew socks, Lacoste shirts, and, of course, tennis skirts to popularity. What Aperol has done is seen the effect tennis has on fashion, and jumped into the fray. But it’s managed to do so authentically, leveraging its Italian heritage and summery vibes to seamlessly integrate into the world of tennis.

Brands need to learn from Aperol, as they’ve demonstrated exactly how to align themselves with trendy moments without coming across as inauthentic. In a hyper-social, trend-jumping world, brands need to be able to build sustainable hype with relatable moments in order to curry favour with new consumers.

Brand inspiration

July Highlights

Hoo is the Duolingo owl?

Everyone knows (and fears) the Duolingo owl. But is Duo bigger than Pikachu? Duolingo have stated that they want to make their mascot bigger than the Pokemon icon. We think they’ll be able to do it – thanks to how they’ve controlled their social media presence.

Duolingo has launched a new pop up store in New York, selling merchandise of their lovable – and terrible – mascot, the owl Duo. One stand out piece of merchandise has been their USD $70 Crocs, emblazoned with their iconic owl. But why has the figurehead of a language learning app become so renown that it has its own merchandise and collaborations with big name brands?

Duolingo is consistent in the way that Duo and Duolingo show up online, giving the brand a personality beyond just being the app icon. From tongue in cheek April Fool’s Day jokes, to threatening comments left on TikToks, Duolingo has spent the last few years establishing themselves as the brand that truly understands the new landscape of social media, and their audience. So, while other apps like Instagram and Facebook have users, Duolingo has fans.

Brands need to understand that they have to show up consistently, and with an understanding for their demographic. Consumers don’t want brands to just sell them things – they want to feel understood, and more importantly, they want to be able to interact with them. Open up your brand to conversation, to humour, and to ridicule.

Keeping Up

with the trends in August

Brat

We think the apple’s rotten right to the core… It’s been impossible to escape Charli xcs’s album ‘brat’ this summer, whether it’s the dances, the songs, or the iconic shade of lime green. Even Kamala Harris has endorsed it!

Deadpool & Wolverine

We featured the film in our last edition, but the hype is still going strong. Now that we’ve had time to digest, though, the biggest talking point of this film wasn’t dancing, or Wolverine’s abs, or Blake Lively’s cameo, but instead the credit sequence. The credits compiled bloopers of every old Marvel film, all the way back to the early X-Men films and Blade. Millennials were leaving the cinema in tears.

Cucumber salad

Iceland is facing a cucumber shortage, all thanks to TikTok. One influencer has suddenly kicked off a fanatical devotion to cucumber salads, shaken in a plastic quart contained. Well, at least we’re all going to be incredibly hydrated this summer.

It Ends With Us

The new Colleen Hoover film is facing controversy thanks to its press tour, its costume choices, and its deviations from the book. Now, we’re not going to go into all of that – wait for next month’s What’s New On Social! – but what we can say is this: it’s amazing that BookTok has managed to propel Hoover into stratospheric levels of fame. What else will they do?