Ladies and gents, the album we’ve all been waiting for is out, and it’s even longer than we anticipated. No, not Taylor Swift’s latest LP, but Red Lobster’s 30-song, AI-generated magnum opus about its irresistible cheddar bay biscuits. Don’t text until we get through the whole thing.
Scroll down to read about chief tractor offers, churning dating preferences, and children in basketball.
Stats to power your week
🗣️ Airchat is the latest audio-first social media app to get a buzz with its long waitlist of signups. You might remember Clubhouse, which got attention during Covid lockdowns, before falling in favor in recent years. But some interesting audiences are still logging on, including Indigenous Australians (8% use it at least monthly), business analysts (7%), and interior designers (7%). GWI Core
🏀 Helped by the generational talent of Caitlin Clark, women’s basketball is having a moment. Its rising popularity is reflected in our Kids data, where basketball has moved up to the top sport played or watched by girls in the US. GWI Kids
✅ Do the brands you read, wear, or watch reveal who you’re going to vote for? Not necessarily (well, we can think of one), but they may show what values you align with. In a recent survey, we identified Bumble, Crunchyroll, and Arsenal FC as some of the brands with the most self-declared progressive audiences, while the most conservative included Suzuki, Telegram Messenger, and Fox News. GWI Zeitgeist
🤖 This time last year, the rapper Drake posted an Instagram story saying that an AI-generated cover of him was the “last straw.” 12 months on, and Drizzy is using the technology to add 2Pac to his latest diss track. While it may seem like fun and games, more consumers are turned off by the idea of using AI in this kind of postmortem way (38%) than are interested in it (35%). GWI Zeitgeist
🎵 Our music tastes say a lot about us, not just what we like, but also the culture and identity we connect with. For example, metal is the genre that leans most to a male audience, while K-Pop is the equivalent for women. If you think they’re worlds apart, the Korean band Dreamcatcher has managed to somehow fuse the two. GWI Core
What’s on our radar
In addition to the Drake example above, there’s been another batch of generative AI uses catching attention: a viral mockup of a possible James Bond film, Netflix shows, A24 posters, and Finnish coffee blends.
AI is being introduced into Google and Microsoft’s search products, but there’s also interesting developments among some of the smaller search engines. Brave, Perplexity, and Kagi are all names that are trying out new approaches in the space.
AI in healthcare is also moving rapidly, as a new study shows that GPT-4 is as good as regular physicians in many areas, and even better in psychiatry. Elsewhere, a new vaccine could help stamp out meningitis, while early trials are showing promise for a potential universal shot.
Along with their release of Llama 3, Meta is adding an AI image generator in WhatsApp. GIFs are about to get a whole lot cooler.
Anyone hoping to add Chief Tractor Officer to their resume? Following in the steps of several ad agencies, John Deere is looking to get down with Gen Z on TikTok by hiring a content creator for the brand.
Middle and high school students in Paraguay can now learn Korean at schools as a second foreign language, marking a new milestone for South Korea’s soft power.
Now that The New York Times’ gaming platform is gaining major traction, other publications are taking a swing at entertainment.The Economist is following suit with a new Dateline game that’s breaking through on social media.
Chart of the week
Coachella 2024 ended its two-weekend festival on Sunday and despite worries the annual event’s popularity may not recover after the pandemic, our data says otherwise.
In 2018 and 2019, a steady 23% of US consumers were grabbing concert tickets. Then, with the sudden onset of Covid in 2020, concert halls echoed with silence as figures plummeted to 17%. By 2021, the number dipped to 13%, painting a stark picture for the future of live music.
By 2022, things started to look up with 18% of consumers purchasing tickets. Now in 2023, we're almost touching the pre-pandemic peak at 21%. Concerts might be more expensive in a post-Covid world, but they’re no less popular.
Local lowdown
Matching in Mumbai
Apps have revolutionized how dating works in a very short period of time. While the internet has very quickly become the most common place American couples meet each other, there are parts of the world where the move to online dating is even more culturally transformative.
India leads all other countries in our research when it comes to paying for dating apps, with the biggest numbers in cities like Mumbai and Delhi. The land known for arranged marriages and epic love stories like Shah Jahan and Mumtaz is now swiping right into the digital age of romance.
As with many things, rapid adoption during Covid lockdowns is part of the reason, alongside more slow-burning cultural trends. With Bumble reporting that women in India are much more likely to make the first move on the app than women in the rest of the world, technology is unlocking new cultural norms in the country across the board.
