Together with
All you need is self-love. It’s Valentine’s Day, Future Party people. That special day of the year when the world celebrates its inner romantic via cards, candy, and flowers. If you don’t have a special someone to share it with, maybe focus on YOU instead. Treat yo self to a fancy DoorDash, buy some flowers like Miley, or indulge in a much-deserved spa day. However you choose to celebrate, make sure it brings you joy.
Just don’t forget to keep the receipt. Self-love doesn’t always work for returns.
In other news… TikTok gives college interns clout, Gen Z is obsessed with self-care brands, and internet retail kills the smart shopper.
Top Trends
YouTube → Super Bowl Halftime Show
Twitter → Usher
Google → Galentine’s Day
Reddit → John Wick: Chapter 4
TikTok → “Heaven” - Beyoncé
Spotify → “The Look of Love” - Dusty Springfield
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SOCIAL MEDIA
Internships have evolved // Illustration by Kate Walker
Brands hire college kids to be their “chief TikTok officers”
The Future. Forget coffee runs — TikTok content creation could now be the foundation of a college internship. As brands turn to young people to help them build their TikTok presence and generally navigate the app, they’re relying less on traditional marketing agencies to connect with Gen Z. Because most students use TikTok daily and know what resonates on the app, their raw videos (that they often star in themselves) could attract more Gen Z shoppers and ultimately drive more sales.
Paid in cash, college credit, and clicksTikTok is the most frequently used social media platform by 12 to 17-year-olds, where they’re more likely than any other age group to start a viral trend, reports the NYT.
The video recipe phenomenon known as “baked feta pasta” caused the cheese to temporarily sell out at some grocery stores.
An intern’s 11-second promotional video for Claire’s earrings generated 1.5 million views and 20,000 new followers for the brand’s TikTok account.
An intern’s TikTok post about a mall’s new lululemon store elicited 100,000+ views and drew crowds to the opening in Roseville, MN.
Employees of the momentBecause video is hard for brands to grasp, and the direct face nature of TikTok doesn’t fit into most marketing campaigns, hiring young people that get it just makes sense, according to Mae Karwowski, chief executive of the influencer firm Obviously.
Gen Z understands what’s funny and relevant on TikTok, so who better to navigate the platform for brands than them?
BUSINESS
Every day is a self-care day // Illustration by Kate Walker
Gen Zers open their wallets for self-care
The Future. The Zoomer passion for healthy living is reflected in the brands they choose to buy, with high-quality food and self-care products topping Numerator’s list of fast-growing brands in 2022. If companies want to capitalize on Gen Z’s increasing spending power, they may have to appeal to Zoomers’ long-term values like health and sustainability more than their desire for short-term gratification.
Savvy shoppersInsider reveals the products in Gen Zers’ carts.
Fun canned drinks like low-sugar and prebiotic soda from Olipop and cocktails mixed with fruit juice and spirits from BuzzBallz.
Corn flour for tortillas and other Latin American dishes from Maseca.
Better-for-you personal care products like deodorant made without aluminum, talc, or phthalates from Native, bath salts and sugar scrubs from Tree Hut, and mouthwashes and lozenges from TheraBreath.
Feminine care products like organic cotton pads and urinary-tract support supplements from The Honey Pot (a brand that’s open about its materials sourcing).
Affordable skincare products like cleanser and toner from French drugstore brand La Roche-Posay and acne-controlling medications from PanOxyl and Hero Cosmetics.
TikTok tastemakersSome of these brands have been around for a while but have enjoyed a boost in popularity from (you guessed it) TikTok. Maseca's corn flour originated in 1940s Mexico, while TheraBreath was founded in the early 1990s, and they're still going strong.
While the packaging, messaging, and distribution of products might change over generations, the reason for their popularity stays the same. Young people will always open their wallets for products that make them smell, look, and feel good.
TOGETHER WITH REMOFIRST
Spread the love, globally
This Valentine's Day, make the first move and hire that rockstar candidate from Portugal even though your company is registered in the US.
Remofirst is here to be your wingman.
Traditionally, you’d have to spend tens of thousands of dollars, and almost as many hours, on legal set-up. But now, hiring that international rockstar isn’t just possible — it’s easy!
Remofirst is THE all-in-one platform to employ remote employees anywhere in the world and onboard them with just one click. They also handle everything from managing payroll, taxes, and compliance to even helping businesses come up with competitive compensation and insurance plans.
To show our ♥️ to you, we scored TFP readers 2 months free. So, take the leap and start growing your borderless team today!
BUSINESS
Are we on the brink of a buy-local renaissance? // Unsplash
The online retail problem
The Future. In the last decade, Amazon and other megaretailers have championed the affordable abundance movement: get practically anything delivered to you anywhere for cheap. But in pursuit of this, internet retail has significantly sacrificed quality control, and consumers can only take so much. As online retail gets harder and harder to stomach, we may be on the brink of a buy-local renaissance.
Savvy no moreOnline shopping is getting harder and harder to navigate.
Internet retail is getting overrun by third-party sellers, noisy ads, and sketchy sponsored products that push relevant well-reviewed options far down the page.
This type of decentralized, every-brand-for-themselves e-commerce has been popularized by Amazon and is now getting aped by competitors like Walmart and Target.
Today, it’s nearly impossible to be an informed, much less savvy consumer — what Amanda Mull from The Atlantic is declaring “The Death of the Smart Shopper.”
Buyer beware“Understanding what it is you’re buying, where it came from, and what you can expect of it is a fool’s errand,” writes Mull.
Many of us have had this experience — buying something online from a seemingly reputable site and receiving something off-brand or clearly secondhand.
Then there’s yet another, more insidious layer. It’s near impossible for consumers to properly understand a product’s supply chain in order to avoid, for example, buying things made through forced labor. Yikes.
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Behind the Rihanna Bowl
Unless you’re living under a rock (no shame, rocks can be nice), you’ll know that @badgalriri rocked the Super Bowl halftime show this past Sunday. But what you might not know is how much technical work went into the show. Aaron Siebert, project lead from TAIT (a creative and engineering live entertainment company), said that it was “the most technically advanced Super Bowl halftime show that’s ever been done” due to how much tech was needed to move Rihanna’s floating platforms. Seems like a whole lot of work, work, work, work, work.
Read More → insider
Gen Z will talk mental health and sex, but not finances
Members of Gen Z are known for pioneering the movement of destigmatization — happy to chat about taboo topics like mental health, their sex life, and even salary transparency. But when it comes to their finances, mum’s the word. A survey from Fintech company Intuit, surveying over 4,000 Americans, found that only 25% of Gen Zers are comfortable talking about their salary and savings. They’re also more likely than other generations to lie about how much money they make or owe to save face. Does that count as a white lie?
Read More → fortune
Opera builds in ChatGPT
Opera, a multi-platform web browser, is jumping into the generative AI space with a splash. The company is adding a ChatGPT-powered tool to its sidebar called “shorten.” The tool can generate brief summaries of webpages and articles and is part of Opera’s broader plan to integrate AI into its browser. The announcement comes just days after Google launched Bard and Microsoft announced AI-powered Bing and Edge. Let the browser wars begin.
Read More → theverge
adidas and its terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week
It hasn’t been the easiest year for adidas, with its messy split from Ye (which some say could cost €1.2 billion in full-year sales and €500 million in operating profit). And this past week, its shares fell by more than 12%, wiping out around €3 billion in market value after it announced early financial guidance for 2023. What’s worse, analysts say its issues run deeper than Yeezy. Hope next week’s a little better, adidas.
Read More → bloomberg
Zoomers don’t actually want to zoom
Olivia Rodrigo’s driver's license may soon be a relic of the past. Data trends show that Gen Z is increasingly ditching cars and driver’s licenses. In fact, the percentage of 17-year-olds who had driver’s licenses in 2020 has fallen by nearly 50% since 1997. The culprit? Anxiety, finances, and environmental concerns. Car insurance costs have skyrocketed, Gen Zers are reportedly more afraid of driving, and Zoomers are also more climate-conscious than any of their predecessors. Au revoir, automobiles?
Read More → washingtonpost
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Today's email was brought to you by Kait Cunniff and Melody Song.Editing by Nick Comney. Publishing by Sara Kitnick.