We spend so much time thinking about the Next Big Thing, we perhaps overlook how enduring some Old Big Things are. In the UK, the Mayor of Greater Manchester was shocked to find out a local rail company still communicates via fax machine – but our data shows 1 in 5 workers globally continue to use them at work. Who knew?
Scroll down to read about pea milk, Alexa’s 10th birthday, and a true era of singledom in Korea.
Stats to power your week
📈 Reddit recently turned its first quarterly profit as a public company, and its growing importance in its home country comes through in our data. 1 in 10 Americans now use Reddit to find information on products and brands, the number growing 26% year-on-year and more than doubling since the end of 2020. GWI USA
🔊 Speaking of tech companies, this month marks 10 years of Amazon’s Alexa. Among consumers planning to buy a smart speaker, 44% say an Amazon product would be their top choice, beating out every other brand. GWI Consumer Tech
👩🦱 The next wave in hair trends might be… erm, waves. We’ve seen a 19% rise in 16-24 year old women describing their hair as wavy since 2021, and a jump in the number who own electric hair styling products too. For anyone wanting a heat-free method to achieve perfect waves, there’s always rigatoni. GWI Core Plus & GWI Consumer Tech (Europe)
🏄 Recently, we highlighted a rise in the number of vacationers using social media to research holidays, but which holiday-makers lean on it most? Turns out it’s those planning active getaways and spa trips/retreats, with city breaks and beach trips featuring lower down the list. GWI Travel
⚡ 100 years of buying cars with combustion engines gave us a distinguished roster of big legacy brands. Then EVs came along, with a host of battery power specialists coming in to disrupt the market. But how do consumers feel about these new entrants? 1 in 4 current EV owners actually trust new brands over established ones. GWI Zeitgeist
What’s on our radar
GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, currently used to fight diabetes and obesity, are now being considered as a means of treating cardiovascular and kidney disease, Alzheimer’s, and addiction. And after long-term shortages, they’re back in stock.
ASOS has teamed up with a rental platform to create a subscription-based fashion rental service. And two of the market’s major players – Nuuly and Rent the Runway – both recently reported growth.
Starbucks will no longer charge extra for plant-based milk in the US and Canada, while further afield in coffeeland, it looks like pea and kid-friendly plant milks will be next on the menu.
Robert Zemeckis’ latest film, which uses generative AI extensively to de-age its lead actors, serves as an interesting test case for the technology. Reports indicate it offers huge cost and time savings (a sentiment also coming from the Tokyo International Film Festival), but early reviews are mixed on how good it really looks.
Meanwhile UMG has signed another partnership with an AI music company, and fast-fashion chain Mango has unveiled another AI-generated campaign.
Chart of the week
It’s not uncommon to hear people talk about their “single era”, a time when people live for themselves and don’t put a focus on relationships (just ask Jennifer Lopez). But this is quite a recent development, and isn’t the case everywhere in the world. In Korean, the traditional word for “single”, “mihon”, literally translates to “not yet married” – implying a marriage will happen at some point. But in recent years, a new word – “bihon” – has emerged, which means “single by choice”.
Language itself has changed to reflect a massive social trend, with a big fall in Korean 35-44 year olds tying the knot over time. Within a few years, singledom might actually overtake marriage among the demographic, which helps explain why South Korea has the lowest fertility rate on the planet.
“Demography is destiny” as they say, and so this trend is one of the most meaningful ones for local marketers. It’s often referred to by the term “honjok”, which describes performing activities alone and prioritizing individual needs. Which in practice means more food products designed for one-person portions, and miniaturized electrical goods.
Local lowdown
The Vietnamese gold standard
With digital assets and currencies stealing the spotlight over the last few years, it’s easy to forget about traditional investments like gold, which shines especially bright in some places.
Globally, Vietnamese consumers are most likely to say they’ve invested in gold, and the yellow metal operates as a backup currency here. During periods of hyperinflation and foreign occupation, many people lost faith in state-issued money. As they feared becoming refugees following the Vietnam War, they turned to gold, which held its value outside the country.
And gold doesn’t just have material value in Vietnam, it has spiritual properties too. Being associated with prosperity, it’s traditional both to buy gold on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, and to give gold to new brides.
