BrewDog’s new management has identified female drinkers as key to its plans. That got us thinking: which beer brands have actually won over women? One that hasn’t is John Smith’s, whose drinkers are just 17% female. Could “Jane Smith’s” be the solution?
Scroll down to read about metaverses, MrBeast, and Mad Men.
Stats to power your week
🖼️So, Meta is shutting the metaverse, at least in virtual reality form. Why didn’t more people adopt it? We could fill a whole newsletter on that, but when we looked into it back in March 2022, the biggest barrier was plain old lack of interest. GWI Zeitgeist
📽️One stat stands out from our recent research into online creators: two-thirds of Gen Z consumers worldwide have heard of MrBeast. But that does mean one-third haven’t - a reminder that even the biggest channel on YouTube still has significant headroom for growth. GWI Zeitgeist
😱Hachette’s decision to withdraw a horror novel over suspected AI involvement raises an obvious question: does anyone actually want AI-generated books? Our research from last year suggests some do. A quarter of UK consumers say they’d be interested - which, for context, makes Brits more interested in trying them than they are in trying Veganuary. GWI Zeitgeist
🎞️Elsewhere in AI milestones, the late Val Kilmer is set to be brought back through generative AI to play Father Fintan in the long-delayed indie film As Deep As The Grave - not something people are generally comfortable with. 26% of US consumers say they’d be comfortable watching a TV show or film that used AI to continue a deceased person’s role, compared to 45% who wouldn't. GWI Zeitgeist
Meet the audience: Whisky drinkers
Without GWI data
With GWI data
Ahead of its final run of episodes, AMC published statistics showing that 369 drinks had been poured in the various offices of the show “Mad Men”, which gives you an average of more than 4 drinks poured per episode (this isn’t even counting the bars).
Many of these were whiskies, or whisky cocktails, and “Mad Men” has helped cement the image of the whisky drinker as an older, stoic, very masculine man in the mold of Don Draper or Roger Sterling.
But when you dig into the data, rather than fitting the usual stereotype of tweed-attired elder statesmen, they came across as settled adults with routines, responsibilities, and a clear home life (not very Mad Men of them). There’s a noticeable mix of classic and contemporary cues here: sports and masculinity are part of the picture, but so are digital subscriptions, social activity, and a broader, less purist relationship to alcohol.
Chart of the week
It has Jokers, but it’s no joke. In 2022, former footballer Gerard Piqué launched the Kings League: a seven-a-side football competition that bends the usual rules with tie-break penalties, unlimited substitutions, and “secret weapons” such as the aforementioned Joker card.
It’s one of several disruptor formats reshaping traditional sport, alongside Baller League and the Ultimate Tennis Showdown, and is probably the most popular of the group. It may not dominate the chart at first glance, but its reach is significant - among young people in Spain, it’s on a par with Formula 1.
An important part of the story is that Spain offered especially fertile ground for it. Futsal already has a strong following there, so audiences were primed for a faster, smaller-sided version of football.
More from GWI
Next week we’ll have some of the first insights coming out of Australia showing how teen social media habits have changed in the wake of the country’s social media ban for under-16s - go here to see more details of the research it comes from.
And if you want to learn more about under-16s in the meantime, have a read of our report on Gen Alpha from last year.
