What's Next, Now: August 2023
This month, our crystal ball predicts a hot Barbie summer, a crackdown on kids’ social media use, the growing influence of sports betting, and more.
We couldn’t write our August trend report without talking about the biggest trend of the summer — all things pink. With an estimated marketing budget of $150 million (more than the $145 million used to make the movie itself!), the Barbie team went out painting the globe pink. From pink frozen yogurt at Pinkberry to Barbie-branded pink Crocs, pink furniture fit for your Barbie Dreamhouse sold at Joybird, and even a pink Xbox console, Barbie racked up partnerships with every brand willing to add a little pink to their products. And it paid off — the Barbie movie hit more than $1 billion in ticket sales worldwide and became Warner Bros.’ highest grossing movie of all time in the domestic box office.
While the marketing campaign targeted consumers across demographics, women were the driving force behind the movie’s success — and some of the biggest economic and cultural moments of the summer. Women and girls sold out hotels, filled bars and restaurants, and patronized local businesses while following Beyoncé and Taylor Swift’s tours, generating billions for local economies.
Women were also the focus of the sports world this summer, with 3.8 million people tuning into the U.S. Women’s National Team’s (USWNT) World Cup matches, despite some occurring in the dead of night. And that’s not to mention the ubiquity of girl trends taking over the internet right now — girl dinner, hot girl walks, tomato girls, clean girls, and even girl math.
Media has taken to calling this season the summer of the female dollar. But have girls and women actually gained influence this summer, or are brands finally just waking up to the power women have over our economy and popular culture? An oft-cited statistic states 85% of purchases are made or influenced by women. Girls have been powering popular culture for decades — what would The Beatles be without their crowds of young female fans? And girl trends are nothing new, either — 2023’s tomato girl is just a new version of 2019’s VSCO girl and 2014’s Tumblr girl.
But some things are changing — women are making more money. Median weekly earnings for women have climbed 28% over the last five years, and women are expected to control over $30 trillion in financial assets by the end of the decade. Brands that aren’t recognizing the economic and cultural power of women are already playing catch up and will only get further from the finish line.
While nearly every change Elon Musk has implemented since taking over Twitter has been met with backlash and uproar, none have received quite as explosive of a reaction as the rebrand. At the end of July, Musk announced that the iconic blue bird had to go, and that he was renaming the platform X. Marketers, media, and Twitter users (X users?) alike questioned the decision. The Twitter brand held massive brand equity — like Google, its terminology has been incorporated into common vernacular and was even added into the dictionary. But with the rebrand, we’re no longer Tweeting and RTing — the blue Tweet button now just says post.
Not long before, people were complaining about another rebrand they disliked — when the merger between streaming platforms HBO Max and Discovery+ was completed, the app rebranded as just Max. Like Twitter, the HBO name held substantial brand equity and cultural power as it is associated with some of the most popular and highly acclaimed TV shows of the last decade, including “Game of Thrones” and “Succession.” Dropping the HBO off of HBO Max meant the app lost all of the cache and influence of the HBO brand.
Both of these rebrands have something in common — the brands want their platforms to be seen as something more than what they were before. Musk wants X to be a superapp, where people can go not just for social media but for shopping, banking, news, and more. And the Warner Bros. merger follows a growing trend of streaming consolidation, where services are bundled together to offer more programming — and charge more for access.
But even if a rebrand is marking a significant strategy shift, it still makes sense to question why a brand with so much equity wants to do away with the power they’ve fought hard to earn. When going through a rebrand, consider what aspects of your business your customers are most familiar with. The things they’re most connected to may be worth keeping, while other aspects can be refreshed, updated, and improved.
Texas has become the latest state in the U.S. to require parental consent for minors to access social media, following Utah and Louisiana. Beginning Sept. 1, social media platforms will be required to verify the ages of all minors and secure parental consent to register the minor as a user. Not only will the law offer more parental oversight, but it will also require more transparency into the algorithms these platforms are using to protect minors from harmful and sensitive content. The law specifies that social media sites must develop a strategy to maintain a comprehensive record of harmful materials. The list will also need to be monitored by actual people, not just the automated content moderation that is currently in place.
Back in March, Utah became the first state to take legislative action to restrict kids' social media usage, which will take effect on March 1, 2024. They were quickly followed by a similar bill passed in Louisiana. These laws correlate with recent warnings that social media is harmful for children’s mental health, according to the U.S. Surgeon General and the American Psychological Association. With kids and teens spending increasing amounts of time on social media, this is a growing concern.
In addition to states restricting kids’ access to social media, Illinois also became the first state to guarantee compensation for child social media influencers. This new law, which was set into motion by a local 15-year-old, requires parents or guardians to place profits owed to children featured in online videos into a trust fund they can access at 18. This bill is the first of its kind in the U.S. When it goes into effect Jan. 1, 2024, it will add children on social media to Illinois’s existing child labor laws.
If you are a brand working with influencers or even just a business marketing to kids, the landscape is evolving state by state. Regulatory forces have notoriously lagged behind in a slew of industries, including technology, as the landscape changes so quickly. There will be an increase in legislation surrounding content that is marketed to children, making it imperative to have a deep understanding of the shifting landscape for marketing efforts.
Disney is looking to get a piece of the increasingly lucrative sports betting market. In a $1.5 billion deal with PENN Entertainment, Disney subsidiary ESPN will establish ESPN BET, the sports organization’s first sportsbook. Set to launch in November, ESPN BET will operate in the 16 states where PENN holds licenses. As a part of the 10-year deal, PENN is looking to achieve 20% of the sports betting market share. For reference, FanDuel and DraftKings own more than 70% of the market between the two of them. Add Caesars and BetMGM to the pool and 90% of the market is accounted for.
Since becoming federally legalized in 2018, some form of sports betting is now legal in 38 states. The legalization and commercialization of sports betting has been wildly controversial in the U.S., as the country is navigating an escalating national gambling crisis. Nearly 2 million Americans suffer from a severe gambling addiction, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling, which also released a study showing a 30% increase in gambling between 2018 and 2021 after federal legalization.
Although ESPN BET isn’t set to be released until after the 2023-24 NFL season starts, soon-to-be competitor DraftKings is already advertising with a brand new slogan. Despite the controversy, sports betting is still ramping up for a lucrative season. Gambling advertisers invested close to $866 million in 2022, a 40% increase year over year. For brands in the sports marketing space, new reputational concerns could emerge as the landscape and public perception evolves.
The USWNT's opening match in the Women’s World Cup averaged 5.26 million viewers — a 99% increase from the team's opening game in 2019. 1.35 million viewers also tuned into the team’s third game of the tournament, despite a 3 a.m. ET airtime.
Extreme weather events including storms, floods, heat waves, and wildfires are resulting in record-high insurance losses this summer.
Are connected cars the next battlefield for data privacy wars? The State of California thinks so.
While biohacking is not a new term, the market for supplements, practices, and technologies that optimize physical and mental performance is growing. Anti-aging treatments are a particular focus.
Sales slumped for Target last quarter for the first time in four years — in part due to anti-Pride boycotts as well as backlash to Target’s lackluster response.
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