Compared to milk, plant-based cheese has been a tough sell for consumers, especially on the taste front. But change might be in the offing, as the vegan substitutes are now good enough to win prizes. Whatever the cheese equivalent of Starbucks adding a new milk to its menu is, it might happen soon.
Scroll down to read about boymoms, iced tea, and Peaky Blinders.
Stats to power your week
🏫 Higher education has long been an aspiration for young people (and their parents) to reach, but this may be changing. The number of UK teens who say going to university is important has dropped 12% in the last year. GWI Kids
🧊 Espresso might be the beverage/anthem of the summer, but iced tea is trending under the radar. Since 2021, there’s been a 28% increase in the number of iced tea drinkers, and a 71% increase in the number of Lipton drinkers specifically. GWI Core & GWI Core Plus (UK)
📽️ After Cillian Murphy’s blinding performance in Oppenheimer, Netflix has given the go ahead for a film adaptation of the TV series Peaky Blinders. It should be right up the street of the actor’s fanbase – consumers who thought Cillian Murphy would win Best Actor at the Oscars have standout interests in business, gambling, and politics, much like Tommy Shelby’s Birmingham empire. GWI Core/GWI Zeitgeist
🏎️ Last weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix featured a first: a trophy designed by artificial intelligence. Such innovation is transforming fashion as well as sports. As more clothes and shoes are designed by generative AI, we asked consumers: Would you buy apparel designed this way? 35% would, but 20% wouldn’t (the rest are unsure). GWI Zeitgeist
💰There’s a well-known saying that if you’re not paying for a product, you are the product. Well, PayPal announced it’s planning an ad business using data on its millions of shoppers. It can be a tricky balancing act between commercial opportunity and consumer sensitivity, especially as PayPal users are 25% more likely to worry about how companies use their personal data online. GWI Core
What’s on our radar
More moves from retailers in the fight against shoplifting, as Dollar General cuts back on self-checkouts and TJX Companies begin equipping store staff with bodycams.
Short films made with OpenAI’s Sora will debut at the Tribeca film festival this weekend, and on the other side of the world, the Bucheon film festival is hosting a competition for AI filmmakers. Plus, a new video-generating tool from China is giving users a chance to test the tech themselves.
Asana has introduced AI teammates to help tackle complex workflows, while US Bank’s latest campaign was tested using AI avatars – audience models that represented its six core targets.
As well as the PayPal example we mentioned above, Costco and United Airlines are also unveiling their own media networks.
The United States truly arrived on the cricketing scene last week with a shock win over Pakistan in the T20 World Cup. Many are wondering if this is the moment the sport takes off in the US, but a word of caution – a similar shock result in 2015 didn’t necessarily lead to rugby becoming more popular in Japan in the long run.
After the 2022 release of Richard Reeves’ book Of Boys And Men, more writers are putting a spotlight on young men and how they’re raised. A recent volume from Ruth Whippman continues this trend of a more sympathetic view – timely given how much the growth of hard-right parties is being driven by the demographic.
Chart of the week
Around ten years ago, computers became better than humans at recognizing and sorting images – a breakthrough made possible by deep learning, a type of artificial intelligence that helps computers recognize patterns in data. This laid the foundation for the advancements we see today, where various studies indicate that models like ChatGPT are as good as, if not better, than humans in a number of areas.
But what’s striking is that consumers don’t really buy it, at least not yet. We’re more willing to accept AI’s superiority when it comes to crunching data, but for high-stakes decisions and empathizing, we give homo sapiens the lead. This is despite research showing that, for example, ChatGPT has better bedside manner than doctors, and it can be more creative than most humans.
This could be a key insight for future adoption of AI. Success might not hinge solely on the tech, but also how much consumers believe and trust in its capabilities.
Local lowdown
The mountainous obstacles to home ownership in Switzerland
Famously embodied by Toblerone chocolate bars, Switzerland is one of the most mountainous countries in the world. Such terrain gives some advantages – great views, pristine water, skiing – but it also makes it harder to build houses. Combine that with other factors, and the net result is Swiss consumers are the most likely to rent the home they live in.
It’s not just the terrain – when you have spectacular scenery, development permits can be hard to come by. Economic incentives also dissuade people from buying. Owner-occupants in Switzerland pay tax on “imputed rent”, which means even if they’re not renting out their property, they still pay tax as if they were. And compared to other countries, the law is relatively kind to property tenants.
The Swiss Alps are a useful reminder that while we in the marketing world are often focused on the latest trends, some behaviors are deeply rooted in environmental factors. The slow collision of two tectonic plates millions of years ago plays a part in deciding whether someone gets their own set of keys in Zurich.
