As we collectively process the Olympics (and the gap in our lives without it), we can offer one final insight to help make sense of it all: despite the now-famous sponsorship of Giorgia Villa by the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium, gymnasts are actually no more likely to buy cheese than the average Italian. At least, not yet.
Scroll down to read about Austrian cookies, a Valentine’s Day surprise, and a potential new audience for sneakers.
Stats to power your week
📜 You know that feeling of scrolling through YouTube or Netflix and not quite settling on what you want to watch? Well, it turns out that scrolling is actually the method people most prefer to discover new video content – even more than word-of-mouth recommendations or personalized suggestions. Perhaps the thrill is in the hunt after all? GWI Zeitgeist
🎽 Don’t know about you, but it sure seems like you can’t move these days without bumping into a running club, a running date, or quarter-life crisis marathon entry. And sure enough, there seems to be some kind of running boom going on, with a 27% increase in the number of recreational runners year-on-year. At the crest of the trend are price-conscious consumers, tech enthusiasts, and creatives. GWI Sports (UK)
👟 When you get a running boom, you get more consumers who need to buy shoes more often. But they’re not the only ones – there’s an intriguing trend of sneaker buying among 65+ year olds. The number of them who buy trainers has grown 58% since the last quarter, with a 21% rise in those buying Skechers gear specifically. GWI Core (UK)
🎨 For a few years, we’ve been checking in with consumers to see whether they think AI tools can produce “real” art. And we’re a bit flummoxed by the findings. Despite the advent and growth of multiple image, video, and music generators, the number of consumers who’d call this ‘true’ art is lower than ever. Just 31% in the UK, and 38% in the US say so. GWI Zeitgeist
💐 Our latest data set, GWI Moments, is the gift that keeps on giving (pun semi-intended). The stats on Valentine’s Day are full of surprises – last week we revealed that appetite for branded content on February 14th was relatively low, while this week we can reveal that men in relationships are more likely to say the day is important to them than women in relationships are. GWI Moments
What’s on our radar
M&S has become the first UK high street store to offer womens’ underwear designed with stoma bag wearers in mind. This year has seen growing cultural visibility around the medical accessory and associated disabilities, thanks to influencers and TV personalities.
CDC data suggests that the mental health of young women has turned a corner and is actually improving.
Demand for electric vehicles seems to be slowing, though there is more activity in the secondhand market – Germany is a useful case study, as sales have slumped since the government scrapped consumer subsidies. Elsewhere in auto, Americans can’t shake their love of gas-powered trucks, and small cars are big right now.
Energy drinks is a growth market we’ve had our eye on for the past few years, and sure enough upmarket grocery chain Erewhon is now stocking its first-ever beverage in the category.
How do you find what you want on a platform with millions of options? More companies are reckoning that AI search could be the answer, with new features available for ThredUp, Audible, and (potentially) Reddit.
Some intriguing boardroom maneuvers at the main AI firms as one of OpenAI’s cofounders departs to join rival Anthropic, while Google has re-hired the founders of Character.AI, a startup that allows users to talk to different AI personas.
Chart of the week
So the Olympics are over, and the long wait begins until the next Games in Los Angeles. When 2028 rolls around the addition of cricket, lacrosse, and squash means that more sports will be contested than ever before. But it still begs the question…what are the most popular sports that are not in the Summer Olympic program?
Some, like motor sports, would present some challenging infrastructure issues. And some would argue whether chess and fishing, for example, could be considered “real” sports or not. But then again, inclusion in the Olympics is often what helps legitimize something (as it has for beach volleyball and snowboarding, among others).
Besides, many of us would probably change our minds if our country was successful in a new discipline. We might be skeptical about bass fishing or blitz chess…right up until the moment we win that gold medal.
Local lowdown
No cookies please, we’re Austrian
Austrians might enjoy the raspberry jam and ground almonds of Linzer cookies, but when it comes to digital cookies, they’re not so sweet. Compared to all other markets in our research, they’re the most likely to decline cookies when they go online.
The roots of this go quite deep. During the Cold War, Germany was divided into two different states, East and West. East Germany had a notorious system of mass surveillance on its citizens, and this has left a lasting impact on the broader German-speaking world. It’s this background of government spying that has been cited as a motivation by Max Schrems, an Austrian activist who founded the privacy-focused nonprofit NOYB (“none of your business”).
While much of Europe follows common regulations, Austria has always stood out as a pioneer in enforcing data protection law. Not only was it the first country to pass one in the 1970s, in 2022 it also deemed Google Analytics to be illegal for not being GDPR compliant. Suffice to say, doing business in Austria means respecting people’s desire for privacy.
