Who knew noodles could start international drama? First Denmark recalled packets of Korean ramen for being too spicy, then Albanian football fans taunted their Italian counterparts by snapping spaghetti in front of them. How farfalle will this trend go? It all seems fusilli to us. Let’s leave the pasta behind.
Scroll down to read about Amazon Prime, microplastics, and bleakness.
Stats to power your week
📦 What really matters when shopping online these days? Partly because of Amazon Prime, quick fulfillment is increasingly in demand – since 2020 there’s been a 27% increase in the number saying next-day delivery is important, and a 57% increase in the number saying that about same-day delivery. GWI USA
🛜 While we’re on the topic of shopping, it’s worth pointing out the power of preferences – the why behind how people buy. In a recent study we asked consumers whether they preferred to shop online or offline across different categories. Alcohol has the biggest offline preference, while most people prefer travel shopping online. Great news for sommeliers, less so for travel agents. GWI Zeitgeist
🔬 Ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley low enough… to be free of microplastics. They’re at the bottom of the sea, the top of Mount Everest, and very probably in your body. 44% of consumers are very or extremely concerned with the risks they pose to health, a level of worry up there with how we felt about Covid-19 in December 2020 (45%). Life in plastic? Not so fantastic. GWI Zeitgeist (UK)
🎧 Historically, it’s been hard for listeners to discover new podcasts. It’s a crowded market, and many creators don’t have the budget to advertise. But whether through better platform curation and/or algorithms, that seems to be changing. Listen up: the number who say it’s easy to find podcasts they enjoy has grown by 16% since 2020. GWI Core
🗂️ Have you ever gone through your wallet to find a bunch of forgotten, half-completed loyalty cards? You’re not alone – some loyalty programs are used more than others. Whereas 84% of consumers who collect points for groceries redeem them, only half do likewise for fitness/gym services. GWI Zeitgeist
What’s on our radar
It’s been a good week for celebrity brands expanding into different categories, with Rihanna launching Fenty Hair, Gwyneth Paltrow unveiling her lifestyle brand Goop’s first mascara, and Jake Paul introducing a new skincare line.
It’s also been an interesting week for TikTok moving into new areas, as the company has quietly introduced new image search capabilities, and announced a new video series giving behind-the-scenes insight from music artists into their latest albums. Meanwhile, Substack is making overtures to TikTok creators.
We’ve talked in recent weeks about the retail opportunities associated with the rollout of electric vehicles, and a good example has come through recently. Sainsbury’s is now the first supermarket in the UK to integrate car charging points with its retail loyalty scheme.
A recent study has discovered that having an ambient smell of culinary herbs encourages shoppers to buy more fresh and nutritious items. With a London venue pumping in the smell of fresh grass to accompany viewing of Euros games, we’ll soon find out what difference that particular fragrance makes.
As anyone who’s sense-checked a message written in the heat of the moment with ChatGPT will know, AI can be very useful at separating information from emotion. So SoftBank is employing the tech to ease customer service procedures, while Publicis is going for a more tongue-in-cheek approach, using AI to strip away some of the hype surrounding the tech itself.
As we often say, the emergence of AI-generated images doesn’t just mean that fake pictures get mistaken for reality, but that reality also gets mistaken for AI. This was apparent last week, as a prizewinning entry in an AI-generated category was revealed as a real photo. Meanwhile, some artists are moving to a specifically “anti-AI” social platform.
Chart of the week
Whether through stress, boredom, or just making it through the week, more of us increased our alcohol consumption in the early stages of Covid lockdowns. In Q2 2020, the number of Brits who regularly drink alcohol was at the highest levels we’d ever recorded. But this behavior hasn’t lasted – if anything, it’s reversed. Right now, the number of regular alcohol drinkers in the UK is the lowest it’s ever been.
There are economic reasons tied to this. Inflation has had a big impact on the price of alcohol, with the £7 pint an increasingly common (and cry-worthy) sight in London. But economic trends often come in lockstep with cultural ones. Gen Z are at the vanguard of a more “sober curious” mindset, where the emphasis is on clean living.
Brewers have been quick to spot this new market. Non-alcoholic beer is on the rise, thanks to some new and innovative production techniques. As one expert has put it, low-booze alternatives used to taste “like punishment”; now consumers have a better and broader selection. Cheers to that.
Local lowdown
The most pessimistic country in the world
The day this email lands in your inbox, Hungary will play Germany in the Euros. But Hungarian fans might not expect much from the game, as they are empirically the most pessimistic people in the world. Of all 53 markets in our research, they’re the most likely to think that in the next 6 months their country’s economy, their personal finances, and their job prospects will worsen. Yikes.
Pessimism is deeply woven into Hungarian culture. Two of its foremost cultural exports, the author László Krasznahorkai and his close collaborator Béla Tarr, are known for their nihilistic works. A popular saying roughly translates to “Hungarians celebrate while crying”. Its national anthem, which features the line “Pity, O Lord, the Hungarians”, is probably the saddest you’ll hear at this year’s Olympics.
It’s a helpful reminder that perception often trumps reality in economic matters. Even if GDP and unemployment are better than their neighbors, Hungarians will probably feel worse. The first democratically elected Prime Minister put this down to “a peasant mentality, which will never predict a good harvest”. Brands have done their bit to cheer up the population – in 2020, a telecoms company rebroadcast one of the country’s proudest sporting moments, when they became the first country to beat England in a football game on their own patch.
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