21 February 2024

Hi folks,

You’ve heard of hybrid vehicles as one avenue to help the planet, but have you heard of hybrid meat? Scientists say this new “beefy rice” has notes of beef, which is better than none at all we suppose. 

Scroll down to read about spicy books, haute couture horror, and a new benchmark for Apple hype.

Stats to power your week

🤖 2023 was a breakthrough year for AI pictures, but the announcement of OpenAI’s new Sora model might help make 2024 the year of AI video. A reminder of how convincing this tech can be: in May last year, only 3 in 10 who’d seen AI-generated content were confident in recognizing it as such. GWI Zeitgeist 

🎞️ As Oscar season heats up, our research shows that Oppenheimer is the people’s champion at least, with the Christopher Nolan film being the most-tipped choice for Best Picture, and Cillian Murphy the frontrunner for Best Actor. Emma Stone’s work in Poor Things, though, has made her favorite for the Best Actress statue. GWI Zeitgeist 

🤼The number of UK consumers who follow WWE has grown 36% year-on-year, making it one of the fastest-growing sports competitions. Anyone stopped from performing a chokeslam in the school playground might be interested to know that the number of teachers who follow it has almost quadrupled. GWI Core 

🧟 While luxury collaborations in the gaming sphere aren’t new, there’s an untapped opportunity in a surprising genre: horror. Survival and horror gamers are 2x more likely to want a luxury collab and 37% of Resident Evil players in particular have a keen interest in this type of partnership. Anyone want to dress as a nine-foot-tall woman? GWI Luxury

🛬 There’s been a lot of talk about the airline industry and safety this year, following a mid-air blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight. Such stories have a big impact – over a third of consumers say news about safety incidents have an impact on if they choose to fly with an airline or not. GWI Custom

What’s on our radar

As mentioned above, OpenAI’s new text-to-video model looks like a game-changer, with some of the most lifelike artificial video ever seen. Take a look at this imagined art gallery, this transition from Minecraft to motorbiking, or this integration with artificial audio. 

The initial memes inspired by Sora are a reminder of the other side of AI misinformation: it’s not just about claiming that AI imagery is real, but also claiming that real imagery is actually AI-generated. 

There was another big AI drop on the same day, in the form of Google’s new Gemini Pro model. In a nutshell – it could set a new benchmark for how much information AI models can look at, remember, and then answer questions about. 

But even with current tech, an emerging use-case of large language models is being able to talk to books or even whole franchises, as in this example for The Wheel of Time series. Imagine it with Lord of the Rings: you could finally get an answer to why the eagles didn’t just fly the ring to Mount Doom. 

With all that going on, legislation and moderation are desperately trying to keep up. The European Union is poised to pass its AI Act, and tech firms are coming together to clamp down on potentially deceptive content during this busy year for elections.

Valentine’s Day has left some interesting trends to pore through. On the dating front: Some Gen Zers may be feeling uneasy about apps (unless they let you compare credit scores?), while others are ditching online human interaction altogether. On the other hand, they’re keener to date close friends.  

Valentine’s Day 2024 may also go down as the point when sexual wellness entered the mainstream, with UK retailer John Lewis reporting roaring sales of romance aids and announcing the products were “no longer taboo”. Rival Ocado also saw record-breaking interest, while Deliveroo partnered up with Ann Summers, Spotify promoted a host of “spicy” audiobooks, and even Build-A-Bear Workshop got involved. 

A while ago we discussed the potential revival of owning physical DVDs. Now, the question arises: are people drawn to owning DVDs for nostalgia, the satisfaction of possessing tangible media, or perhaps both? And might cassettes enjoy a similar comeback? 

Country music is set for a big 2024, as both Beyoncé and Lana Del Rey have indicated they have country-inspired albums set for release this year.

Chart of the week

With the launch of the Vision Pro this month, we can do something unique – look at how much the launch day hype for Apple’s new headset compares to its last big hardware release, the Apple Watch, in 2015.

The Apple Watch is a big success these days (1 in 5 Americans owns one), but excitement for it in the beginning was relatively subdued. This doesn’t mean the Vision Pro will hit the same market penetration – if nothing else, it’s a lot more expensive – but just in terms of capturing the public imagination, it’s already doing better than most tech releases.

Local lowdown

Hong Kong Hawking

In the bustling streets of Hong Kong, time is money and space is at a premium, so it's no surprise that fast food has become a way of life. 

But since long before the big names came to town, street food, particularly from hawker markets, has been a standard meal for those on the go. Today, over 30% of Hong Kong consumers eat fast food multiple times a week, making it the world-leader in that regard. 

As food writer Adele Wong puts it, waves of migration created an informal economy of street selling, often resourcefully repackaging inferior ingredients into something tantalizing. 

And as Hong Kong has become one of the most densely populated parts of the world, fast food has become vital to the many residents that don’t have kitchens – something made very obvious during the Covid-19 pandemic.

More from GWI

• 16 of the best marketing campaigns to know in 2024 
• ROI with GWI: tracking brand health
• The biggest consumer trends for 2024