In the market for a new pet? Is that trendy dog breed a bit out of your price range? Help might be at hand in the form of pet stones, which are becoming all the rage in South Korea. Any aspiring entrepreneurs would do well to study the original Pet Rock craze.
Scroll down to read about Norwegian runners, little Lionesses, and Poland’s potables.
Stats to power your week
👟 Marathon season is upon us, with the London Marathon taking place this Sunday and Boston already in the tank. Running is becoming a real trend in Norway, where there’s been a 25% year-on-year increase in the number lacing up their trainers. The country’s high-profile Ingebrigtsen brothers, who’ve had their own TV series for the past few years, might have something to do with it. GWI Core
📈 Something is happening to young women in the Anglosphere. Since 2018, there’s been a 53% increase in the number of Gen Z women who report having a mental health condition. For context, that means there are as many who report having one as there are who are interested in rock music (both 36%). GWI Core (UK/US)
🧠 ChatGPT has been with us for almost 18 months now (doesn’t time fly?), so we took stock and asked people where they felt AI tools had improved their skills the most. The biggest perceived gains have come in research (42%), efficiency (31%) and creativity (30%). What consumers would like most help with from future models, though, is problem-solving and data analysis. GWI Zeitgeist
📰 If you’re a brand raising awareness for social causes, are you an altruist or an opportunist? Consumers’ feelings are split – a third think brands do it to make a difference, but 30% think it’s just for the PR. GWI Zeitgeist
🧑🔧 Last week we gave an update on what we can only call “the Barbie index” – the % of young kids who say she’s their favorite toy. But she’s not the only character to see a film-related boost in the last 12 months – the number who like Mario is up 19% year-on-year. GWI Kids (Europe/North America)
What’s on our radar
Klarna has been one of the quickest adopters of AI in a customer service context, and now Best Buy appears to be following suit.
There’s been a wave of moves in response to recent shoplifting spikes: the UK will make assaulting retail workers a specific offense and expand facial recognition systems, while Target is deploying new scanners at its self-checkout machines.
Last week’s On the dot highlighted the growing trend of AI-generated music. The same day, a new best-in-class tool was launched in the form of Udio. Early use cases seem to include generating copyright-free samples, the kind of not-safe-for-work comedy songs we probably shouldn’t link to, and a fair amount of spoken word content.
TikTok owner ByteDance has quietly released a Lite version of the app in France and Spain that rewards users for scrolling, and is testing a new photo-sharing platform.
Brewer Asahi is heavily leaning into the low-alcohol trend, while Athletic Brewing has partnered with country artist Walker Hayes on a signature nonalcoholic beverage.
More research is emerging that large language models are surprisingly good at predicting the future, though weirdly it helps if you ask them to imagine it in story form. Another study has found that while AI makes us feel more heard, we change our minds when we find out it was an AI listening all along.
It’s very easy to assume that as countries get richer, and better connected with each other, their values start to converge. But a new study shows the opposite – in many cases, they’re moving further apart.
Chart of the week
Since we launched GWI Kids in 2021, the England women’s football team (nicknamed the Lionesses) has won the Euros, made the final of the World Cup, and generally enjoyed a period in the spotlight not usually afforded to women’s sport (they even now lend their name to a London train line).
But have they made an impact on the grassroots? Absolutely. This year, for the first time ever, football is now the most widely played sport among 12-15-year-old girls in the UK, beating out netball and swimming (just).
As more leagues and teams have sprung up to cater to the new demand, the near future looks promising for budding Leah Williamsons and Beth Meads.
Local lowdown
The Polish water distrust pipeline
Like many former Iron Curtain countries, Polish consumers tend not to trust their government – according to one source, government trust in Poland in 2020 was about the same as it was in Iraq. This is an attitude that seeps through to consumer behavior, sometimes in surprising ways.
Given a history of state surveillance, it’s not too surprising to discover that Polish consumers are the most likely to worry about the government tracking them online. What’s even more interesting is that Poles lead the world in buying bottled water.
There are other factors at play, including climate and convenience. But as at least one study has shown, some of this stems from a skepticism of tap water, which may in turn flow downstream from that low institutional trust. A 2008 blog post alludes to just how socially unusual drinking tap water in the country is, and where the stigma might come from. We often talk about low trust as a purely social trend, but it pays to observe what sort of markets emerge off the back of it.
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