Together with
A star is born. Today is a good day, Future Party people. Not only is it Friday, but the highly-anticipated comedy-thriller Cocaine Bear is finally in theaters. While the first reactions to the film are still rolling in, many fans are already calling it one of the best (and craziest) movies of the year so far. If the positive reviews continue, don’t be surprised if Cocaine Bear becomes a bonafide franchise. The internet is already planning its sequel.
In other news… Brands test livestream shopping, Starbucks takes to Twitch, and millennials reimagine the midlife crisis.
Top Trends
YouTube → “ICU” - Coco Jones
Twitter → #BBCAN11
Google → Sons of the Forest
Reddit → Lewis Capaldi
TikTok → “The Freshmen” - The Verve Pipe
Spotify → “Here With Me” - d4vd
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BUSINESS
Starbucks brews some Twitch ad campaigns // Illustration by Kate Walker
Starbucks takes their coffee to Twitch
The Future. In its first Twitch marketing effort, Starbucks has employed the freestyle rapper and influencer Harry Mack to recommend their coffee to his viewers via improvised rap verses. If it works, this kind of partnership could give creators a new option to avoid burnout — and give Twitch a lot more attention from major brands.
A light, nutty roastThe partnership centers around content foreign to Starbucks but perfect for Twitch.
The main event was the “reverse roast,” an hour-long livestream in which Mack suggested viewers try various Starbucks coffee flavors based on personality descriptors they typed in the Twitch chat.
Mack also went to the coffee aisle of a grocery store and recommended Starbucks products to strangers through freestyle rap, then uploaded recordings of these interactions to Instagram and TikTok.
Mack built his following from live-streamed freestyle Twitch raps based on viewer-generated prompts, so the ad campaign’s format plays to his strengths.
Mack’s reverse roast stream peaked at 537 concurrent views and has over 3,200 views.
Twitch’s brewTwitch attracts over 31 million daily users, 70% of whom belong to Gen Z. Capturing this demographic would be a big win for Starbucks, and it really could happen. Though primarily a gaming platform, Twitch has diversified recently, with its music category attracting 9 million followers.
Twitch has potential. The question is whether this partnership has the magic beans.
BUSINESS
What's in store for livestream shopping? // Illustration by Kate Walker
Livestream shopping: advertising’s new frontier
The Future. Livestream shopping — where influencers advertise products in real-time on social media — has been taking off. The new means of advertising benefits from strong global engagement with streaming platforms and offers unique perks for brands. If widespread adoption continues, it just might usher in a new era of personalized marketing.
Feeding demandThe new marketing tactic has several advantages over other ad channels.
Livestream shopping is especially useful for customers looking to purchase products that require tutorials, such as makeup, or items whose value depends on appearances, like fashion and food.
It also appeals to coveted Gen Z shoppers — 47% of US and UK consumers who made livestream purchases last year belonged to Gen Z.
Finally, certain kinds of offers work particularly well in livestream shopping, like exclusive or limited-time offers. Firms that used either reported conversion rates near 30% — 10x those of typical e-commerce methods.
The struggle is realThe popularity of livestream shopping is growing fast, with the 2022 market reaching nearly half a trillion dollars in China alone. The 2022 US market was a much smaller $20 billion, but that number is expected to more than triple in the next three years.
The only catches are that live-streamed content is a.) hard to moderate and b.) subject to authenticity concerns. Brands can make real profits, but only if their influencers are just real enough.
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CULTURE
Unsplash
The midlife crisis looks different for millennials
The Future. As millions of millennials turn 40 this year, many will likely go through some form of a midlife crisis. However, they could respond to it differently than previous generations by splurging on experiences and averting divorce.
Not buying a Porsche 911The newest generation to reach middle age has less money and different lifestyle preferences (including fewer marriages and children) than their parents.
The average 40-year-old millennial earned $49,000 in 2021, compared with the inflation-adjusted $43,000 Gen Xers earned at the same age. But the rising cost of living has made them less well off.
Millennials account for 7% of the US total wealth, compared with the 22% boomers held at similar ages.
Only 44% were married in 2019, compared with 61% of Gen Xers and 53% of boomers who were married at similar ages. The lower marriage rate is one reason millennials have fewer children than prior generations.
72% of millennials prefer to spend on experiences rather than material things.
Buying the trip of a lifetime insteadWithout childcare obligations holding them back, millennials could afford the experiences they love when they hit middle age — and enjoy the freedom to move wherever they want. Avocado toast included.
Future Forecast
For those of you who like to stay a step ahead, here are a few things we’re excited about right now:
Skimmin the news. Need an accessible way to ease into the news? Catch up on the day’s top stories with the Daily Skimm newsletter. Sign up now.
Healthy apps. Want to be your best you? There’s an app for that. Noom uses the latest behavioral science to empower people to take control of their health. And while it’s well known to help people reach their goal weights, the app is also working to help people manage stress, anxiety, hypertension, and even diabetes.
Donna Summer. We Love to Love the Queen of Disco. And the new documentary, Love to Love You, Donna Summer, is a beautiful, nuanced portrait of what it means to be a complex Black woman, artist, mother, and icon. Donna Summer’s music and persona has had a hugely lasting yet often under appreciated impact on the course of pop music. We were lucky enough to see the premiere at The Berlin Film Festival this week. It will be out on HBO this spring.
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
The four-day workweek gains steam
Dozens of UK companies recently participated in the world’s largest trial of the four-day workweek — and liked it so much that a majority decided to keep the arrangement. Employees reported improved sleep, stress levels, and mental health during the six-month trial. Companies’ revenue “stayed broadly the same” but increased 35% on average compared to a similar period from previous years. When asked how much money they’d need from their next employer to return to a five-day week, a third of employees said a 26 to 50% increase, while 8% said they’d want 50% higher pay. It’s time for an update, people.
Read More → wapo
Meet Ernie Bot
Baidu recently shared details about its hotly anticipated AI tool Ernie Bot, which is viewed as the search giant’s counterpart to ChatGPT. “In addition to providing better search service and answers, we will offer a new interactive and chat experience, as well as provide uniquely generated content that will greatly enrich the content ecosystem and supply, becoming a new traffic entry point,” said CEO Robin Li in a letter to Baidu staff this week. Regardless of Ernie Bot’s performance, it may still face censorship like any generative AI product operating in China.
Read More → techcrunch
IG returns to what it does best
For the past few years, Instagram has been rebranding itself as a video platform to compete with TikTok, but now it’s making a U-turn. Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, admitted that the company had over-focused on video in 2022 and has since balanced its algorithm so that users see the same numbers of photos and videos. But now, Reels on brand social accounts are performing worse (generating 20% fewer views in some cases), while photo performance has improved. The move has social strategists putting in extra work to get their content seen and to justify video production costs. Not every platform has to be TikTok.
Read More → adweek
AI ushers in a make-or-break era
According to Ark Invest futurist Brett Winton, companies that don’t adopt AI soon may fall behind (and even risk bankruptcy) when competing with those that do. “The fact that corporate budgets are probably under stress right now allows them to evaluate: ‘Hey, how can we do more with the same number of employees? How can we better service our customers or better execute on sales without adding to our cost-line?’” he says. “AI provides that solution.” While Winton believes most AI tools are already good enough to use, he predicts they’ll evolve even more rapidly as costs decrease. We’re waiting for the moment when we can download ChatGPT to our phones...
Read More → insider
YouTube Music jumps on the podcast bandwagon
The platform will soon bring audio and video-first podcasts to its American users, “making podcasts more discoverable and accessible.” While YouTube Music reportedly isn’t interested in signing exclusive deals with podcasters, it does want to meld the experience of listening to podcasts on audio and video. So, if a user is watching a podcast on video, they will soon be able to switch to audio in the middle of an episode to listen on the go. Convenient.
Read More → techcrunch
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Today's email was brought to you by Luke Perrotta and Kait Cunniff.Editing by Nick Comney. Publishing by Sara Kitnick.