February 24, 2025 • 56 mins
Welcome back! We have a lot to cover this week. Between Love Is Blind drama, NikeSKIMS, and new signals around emotional-impact marketing, this is a jam packed episode. We also share a quick Super Bowl recap, thoughts around Mitzi’s first season diving deep into the NFL, the death of Duolingo’s beloved owl, and the end of personal style. Let’s get into it.
More from us:
- Mitzi Payne @mmmitzi
- Mike Payne @mmmiiike
Timestamps:
- 02:00 – Hockey fights are on the rise lately. Does it create more camaraderie?
- 03:45 – The Drake and Kendrick beef continues. Are we over it or ready to lean into our hater side?
- 05:30 – Love Is Blind drama.
- 08:20 – We missed our Super Bowl recap, so here are some key moments we wanted to talk (and complain) about.
- 15:00 – Thoughts around the Super Bowl ads. Did they actually perform well this year?
- 18:00 – Mitzi’s recap of her first big NFL year and her favorite team.
- 27:00 – Thing 1: Duolingo’s owl is dead? What’s going on with this campaign?
- 33:30 – Thing 2: NikeSKIMS; what’s going on here? And why don’t we love it yet?
- 46:00 – Thing 3: Have algorithms completely cooked our personal style? Addressing a larger conversation around what influences us.
Show notes:
- The SCAN 👀 CLUB 2025 Trend Report: https://scanclub.substack.com/p/what-digital-audiences-want-in-2025
Big Things with Mitzi (@mmmitzi) and Mike (@mmmiiike).
For more from Arcade, follow us on Instagram and TikTok @helloarcade. https://www.arcadearcade.ca/
Production by Morgan Berna, editing by Oliver Banyard.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We ready?
Okay, super variety Ready.
Yeah, all right, are you ready?
Let's do this.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
It's been a minute.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to Big Things .
I'm Mitzi.
This is Mike.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And this is our show where we talk about the big
things we're watching inmarketing, social media, pop
culture and sports.
We also talk through thesignals that we're seeing that
could inform the future ofdigital marketing.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Here's a quick summary of what we're going to
talk about today.
We're talking about theDuolingo owl, how it died.
Nike Skims announces a springlaunch and the death of
microtrends and life after brainrot.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, this is going to be a good one.
It was hard to pick what totalk about.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah because there's a lot going on.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
A lot going on, a lot going on.
I think the thing I'm mostexcited about right now is the
canada versus usa championshipgame.
That or like gold medal gamethat's happening tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
We're recording this on a wednesday yeah, but we
watched the game and I actuallywatch.
I actually drafted a linkedinpost about this, but I'm not
sure if I'm gonna post itbecause hit publish?
yeah, I, maybe I should well,because it was the first time I
watched a hockey game in like solong.
I like sat and watched it andwe all know what happened in
that game.
Like the first 10 seconds therewas two fights back to back and
(01:17):
that was so shocking to mebecause I haven't seen that.
But it was also like strangely,I think, like what I needed and
I don't condone fighting at all, especially like physical
fights, but I've given the stateof the world and like the
political tension between Canadaand the US, it was like.
It was like good for us.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Why was it good for us?
I think it created like amonoculture moment, like
everyone's kind of like A bit ofan outlet for some of the
tension.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah, maybe, but also I feel like so much of what
brings people together cansometimes be conflict and, like
sports is so good at doing that,like bringing the home team
together, and I feel like thatkind of happened this weekend.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, and I think the two major things that people
made a big deal about was thefights, for sure, but also the
booing of the US national anthem, which and I think people kind
of from what I saw, people werekind of lumping the two things
together as, like, these areboth like not the way that our
country should presentthemselves, and I think I agree
(02:21):
about the anthem Like I don'treally think that that is
necessary, but I feel like, inhockey, fighting even though,
yeah, we don't condone physicalviolence in the streets, you
know but fighting has alwaysbeen part of hockey and there's
also a bit of a you can'tgeneralize this but oftentimes,
and I think even in the fightsthat happen at the beginning of
(02:43):
this game, there's a level ofcamaraderie and like a level of
understanding between theplayers, like we don't actually
hate each other in real life,but we're we're putting on for
our country it's part of theshow and even some of these guys
play together in the NHL, sothey're they have to go home
after this and like, get back tobusiness.
You know, know.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Just a friendly fist fight.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, well, not necessarily friendly, but it's
not as deep as I think somepeople are making it online.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Right.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
So I don't know, I hope there's that kind of like
physical element again in thisnext game.
It's not going to show it orpresent itself in the same way,
but I agree, I think it's aninteresting way to just kind of
release some of the tension andexpress some of that rivalry
that's existed before thispolitical kind of discourse
(03:30):
around the trade war.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, exactly these guys have.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I mean, you go back to the last time they played in
the gold medal game in 2010 andthere was fights in that game
and it was very high intensity.
So it's always been like that.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
It'll always be like, yeah, it's a hockey tradition
it is um we also speaking ofrivalries.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I feel like the drake and kendrick saga just
continues.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I think most of us are over it, yeah no, it's not
done.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Kendrick lamar made it like the focal point of his
halftime show, so I think.
And then obviously, drake hasput out new music and there's a
lot of discourse around bots umin, like I wanted to say,
inflaming or amplifyingstreaming numbers on platforms
like apple and spotify, which isinteresting, because some
(04:18):
people are saying how drake'salbum um outstreamed kendrick's
on Apple, but then on Spotifythe numbers are way different.
So it's interesting to kind ofsee some of that discourse.
All that to say, I'm prettyexhausted with the comparisons
and the back and forth.
Just another way that it's beenlike that people have found to
(04:39):
be polarized towards each other.
We don't need more versions ofthat.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
It's funny because I feel like some people are like
um, we had a meeting on oursocial team today and there's an
idea that we were tossingaround, that someone was tossing
around.
It was like you know, kendricktold us that we all need to like
hate a little bit more, so likehere's what I hate, but I feel
like I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
It's like hate is a strong word for what we're
trying to say and he's kind ofshown like how you need to come
for your enemies, yeah, and likeand I think they Not Like Us.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
like is not only about Drake, like it's a lot
about Drake, but it's also likethe way people have like held on
to it.
It's like them, meaning thoseother people are not like me you
know, so it's like I think it'sless about Drake than it was
initially.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
That would be great, that would be refreshing.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah, and we also have.
Love is Blind drama.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I'm so shook that you put this in the notes, Like
what do you have to say about?
Love is Blind.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Well, it's just because like-.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
You mean the drama between us?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
No, no, no, no.
Like we only started watchingthis season me kind of
begrudgingly, although I've saidbefore and I'll say it again
that I don't mind the episodeswhen they're in the pods.
I think that's superinteresting.
But all hell breaks loose assoon as they leave the pods and
like meet each other and like,start to meet their friends and
family and also start to see the, the person from the pods and
like meet each other and likestart to meet their friends and
family and also start to see the, the person from the pods that
(06:07):
they rejected.
That is way hotter than theperson that they picked and all
those dynamics.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I'm here for all of it but I've also.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Now that we start watching it, I'm starting to see
stuff pop up on social around,like, specifically, that one
couple, the girl who loves TacoBell.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
And the short king.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, the guy like he saw her beforehand or whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Which is a huge violation of, like the
experiment.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah, but to me it's just giving producer plant Like
this is.
They're just trying to find away to make it interesting again
.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah, yeah, we just started.
Love is Blind, like you said.
Said begrudgingly, but I'mexcited, I love that show less
begrudgingly for me.
White lotus is back yeah, I'mexcited about that, the first
episode of white lotus it's I'mjust stressed the entire time
just because of the music yeah,but they changed their music,
did you see that?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I did, but it still is the same like music strategy
yeah, and the same likecharacter development strategy.
Yeah, just the music.
It's almost like it's nottechno, but it's like techno in
the way that it is alwaysbuilding.
So you feel like you're alwaysat the brink of something like
crazy happening or someonegetting killed or someone doing
something.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And you're suspicious over someone.
Like you know something happensand like it could be anyone.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, but really it's just a monitor lizard on the on
the sidewalk okay, yeah, thatlike Thailand looks beautiful,
but those all those animals andthose monkeys.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Like there's no way I could go to a wellness retreat
where there's monkeys in thetrees next to me, like I would
never be able to just chill.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I think it'd be kind of sweet, like it's just like a
completely different experience.
It feels like you're in a story, a storybook.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah, that sounds really monkeys.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Those types of monkeys are just kind of like
squirrels to us.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
They just are in the trees, kind of sussing you out.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Maybe they might throw a nut at you, or something
like that.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
No, they might come for your hair Like monkeys.
I feel like would or somethinglike that.
No, they might come for yourhair Like monkeys.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I feel like would like attack you, certain breeds
probably, but I don't.
It seems like the ones in thisshow, in this context, are
pretty harmless.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
No, I saw the monkeys and I was like I'd never go on
a wellness retreat like that,I'll have to go by myself.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Drew, you want to go to Thailand?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Sweet, okay, the other big thing like we haven't
had a chance to talk about onthis show was Super Bowl, which
I was super disappointed onbecause we had a great episode
planned and then life happenedOur kids' daycare got closed,
shut down unexpectedly.
So anyways, we couldn't do likea recap, a proper recap of
Super Bowl, but we did want tomention it.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I was kind of relieved actually.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Why.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I was just trying to think of how we were going to
talk about all these likelackluster commercials, like it
was just a miss of a year for me, like nuts to bolts or soup to
bolts, however you say it soupto nuts, I think that's the term
, but I think, just like fromthe game itself, it was so
boring it was two teams withlike polarizing, like agitating
(09:09):
fan bases and both teams kind ofhave this like villain sort of
aura around them and their story.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
I don't have any villain aura over the Eagles.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I must be in another algorithm.
Because you can't see pastJason Kelsey, who's like the
friendly giant.
No, no, no.
Not, sorry, not, I don't seevillain energy from the eagles I
know oh yeah, but I think theyhave that like both from like
their coach, nick sirianni, andjalen hurts.
He's always like mean muggingeverybody and giving attitude to
the media, um, and then alsotheir fan base is like they're
(09:44):
always in the news and on and inclips on social media like
physically assaulting people orstealing their jerseys or hats,
you know stuff like that.
So, for different reasons, bothteams kind of have that aura
around them and then obviouslysome people were hyped about the
halftime show, but but I thinkfor some it was like, in a way,
(10:05):
fairly niche, just Kendrickbeing a very lyrical, like deep
rapper, and I think also there'slike probably a generation or
two of people that watchfootball games, that have no
clue who he is or why he wasperforming too.
That might have felt like.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
This isn't for me anymore yeah, you know, I don't
think it was for everyone andlike.
I the.
At the beginning I was like, ohokay, like this is no Beyonce
bowl.
But as time has gone by Iappreciate it more.
But it's partly maybe because Iwatched so many deep dives on
all like the symbolism and likeextra meaning behind that whole
(10:45):
performance that I kind of likerespected a bit more, like he
did a lot in that time and thatat face value, as you're sitting
there, like expecting to beentertained, like sure, no one
flew in the air, but it wasn'treally about that.
It was like a broader message.
So I kind of like I thinkthere's nothing wrong with that
Like I feel like I like it morenow than I did when I first
(11:07):
watched it.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
And also the Serena Williams thing.
So when I first watched it,everyone like assumed and so did
I that she was kind of likecrip walking in the performance
as kind of like because she hadlike romantic ties with Drake
and so she's like crip walkingin a Drake diss track.
And at first I was like that'skind of weird.
Like why would a happilymarried, like supreme athlete
(11:31):
waste her time doing that?
But she's talked about now.
It's like she got so much heatand like because she crip walked
after one of her like big theWimbledon.
Wimbledon, like wins and likethat is not like acceptable.
She's also from compton.
Like she has like a like that'slike a big important like
(11:53):
dancing from like her community.
So her doing that at the superbowl stage was kind of like like
a redemption moment for her.
So now it's like I'm kind ofglad we didn't talk about it
right after super bowl because Ididn't like it, but now I
understand it yeah, yeah, Ithink I didn't.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
It didn't personally offend me like the halftime show
.
It just felt like it was thewrong year just because the
Super Bowl itself was boring.
So it was like if it was in thein between two halves of like
incredible football, it wouldhave been like, yeah, this is
hype.
But I just think it was like,because it was less of a
performance and more of like apolitical commentary and then an
(12:30):
extension of the drake beef, itjust felt like another like
kind of sleepy moment in aseries of sleepy moments right.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
So if the game was better, you'd like it better.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah yeah, I think if you put that in any of the last
three super bowls it would havebeen complete.
It would have felt completelydifferent.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I think that's the risk of the super bowl.
It's like you're you're at thelast stage, so you want the
final game to be good.
But there's so many like gamesduring the season that are like
uh, aren't that good of a gameyou know so like that's.
I feel like the risk of thatlast so much tying into the last
game.
So maybe they should haveBeyonce do the Super Bowl
(13:10):
performance every single yearand experiment with a different
artist in the Christmas Day.
Like game.
Maybe, Because now they havetwo performance moments.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Maybe, but I also.
I do understand that, likeDonald Trump, was in attendance.
So it was like an opportunityto have a political narrative in
a performance.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
And it's also he did it for his community.
Like I also kind of have tolike step back and think about
like all the think pieces anddeep dives I've seen on TikTok
are from like like black peoplewho are explaining, like you
know, life in America right now,at this moment in time.
Like he even prefaced his wholeperformance.
You picked the right guy at thewrong time, like he was there
(13:52):
to talk.
Like so I I do have to kind oflike I respect that.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
I respect that I'll stop complaining about the
Superbowl after this, but I I dowant to find data on how the
Superbowl commercials actuallyperformed, because I think, at
face value and I'm not the onlyone saying this like there's
other marketers and like brandpeople out there saying that
they felt like a lot of the mostof the commercials fell flat
(14:20):
this year.
Um, but I want to know how theyactually did from a business
perspective, because this is ahuge investment.
We're talking seven or eightmillion dollars per, I think, 30
seconds.
It might even, yeah, 30 seconds.
So you take the Jeep commercialwith Harrison Ford, for example
.
That was 90 seconds long.
So we're talking about 32million dollars or no.
That was maybe not, maybe 20,I'm not doing math right now $24
(14:46):
million 20-ish million dollars,and that doesn't even include
production costs or the cost ofHarrison.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Ford Exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, and that was one like I like Harrison Ford
and I liked where he was likesaying how he loves to drive a
Jeep, even though his last nameis Ford or whatever, which was
like witty, but still thecommercial like went on way
longer than it needed to like 90seconds yeah, super bowl.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
You know what, though I think that's a movie.
Yeah, totally, they're buyinglike impressions, not
necessarily impact to brand, youknow yeah, but there's still a
brand lift from impressions likewhat.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
However they're measuring it, I want to know how
it measured compared toexpectation to justify that 30
plus million dollar totalinvestment compared to something
like the story we're going totalk about when we actually get
into our stories Duolingo.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah, I thought it was interesting, like Uber Eats
had like three Super Bowlcommercials.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Yeah, and there's a lot of confusing ones, Like
there's even some that you'relike for the longest time.
You're like what is this even acommercial for?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Didn't Canada have a commercial?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
They did.
I didn't even watch it, but Iheard about it.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah.
So one, I'm kind of glad thatwe didn't have to talk about it
until now.
Two, I want to know how some ofthese commercials actually
performed because, like I'vebeen saying for the last five
minutes, soup to nuts.
This Super Bowl was superboring.
I wonder how engaged peoplereally were, how much recall
they have from those adsactually, how long they even
(16:13):
lasted through the game, if theydropped off after halftime all
that kind of stuff, because itjust feels like a flop.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, I feel like I had a different experience than
you and I didn't even watch itlive.
Really, I enjoyed most of whatI saw.
I feel like I wasn't asinvested in the teams.
I was just wanted both teams tohave fun and I was happy to see
Jalen Hurts win, like, and Ifeel like I I've watched so much
football this season so it waslike a nice like ending to that.
(16:42):
But again, like I'm not not adiehard fan of any team, so
anyone winning is great.
Love to see it.
And then the Super Bowlcommercials were kind of like.
I wasn't too stressed by it, soI feel like it was fun.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Consuming it all after?
Yeah, consuming it all after,without any stress.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yeah, Also, I think I wanted to talk about it too,
because for me, just like to putmyself in the center of the
Super Bowl for a second, it waslike the finale of like a big
football year for me.
Like I really paid attentionthis year.
I really like watched a lot ofgames like more than I have
(17:23):
before.
Every year I've been likecreeping into like the NFL space
a bit more and more.
I feel like so much morehappened just for me this year
and it's like all the wag stuff,all the like like celebrity
adjacent stuff.
There's so many more peoplelike tuning into football this
year so I didn't feel like soalone in like my niche.
(17:44):
So the thing I have to figureout now is like who am I going
to root for next year?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
That's fun.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
What an exciting process.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Because at the beginning of the season I was
rooting for the San Francisco49ers and that's because they
have a really stacked group ofwags.
I love them.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Right.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Kristen Juszczyk and Claire Kittle and Olivia Kolpo
Kolpo so.
But now and their season wentlike didn't go well, because so
many injuries?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
They had a lot of injuries.
Yeah, Christian.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
McCaffrey got injured .
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Brennan Ayuk.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
So now, next year's Super Bowl is going to be in San
Francisco, so I do hope thatthey get another shot at it.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
I don't think they are.
They're probably going to tradetheir wide receiver one, debo
Samuel, and Christian's, anotheryear older.
He might have a bit of acomeback season, but it's not
going to be better than any ofhis other seasons.
It's only going to start todecay from here.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Okay, that's okay, because I think I've also.
I'm also intrigued by thedetroit lions because of dan
campbell.
I love him.
He's the coach of the detroitlions.
He's such a wholesome, justsweet older man who seems like
he really cares for his team.
But the problem with rootingfor them is that his whole like
(19:07):
coaching staff has moved on toother teams because they did so
well last year.
So they're kind of a toss uptoo.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yeah, I think.
I think he's going to be OKwithout his offensive and
defensive coordinators.
I think he's built a systemthat can outlast those guys and
he's got people from within thathe can promote into those
positions that already know thesystem Right.
So I feel like maybe you canprobably remove that caveat or
(19:34):
that concern factor from yourdecision making.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Okay, the other team, like I also, when I think about
teams I want to root for, it'slike okay, maybe one year I'll
go to a game and I'm not tryingto go to Detroit, no offense.
So maybe I should pick a teamthat has like a fun city.
So I was thinking about the NewYork Jets.
Now I've had an up and downrelationship with them because I
was like all gung ho after Iwatched Hard Knocks on HBO about
(20:01):
like Aaron Rodgers and thatseason, and then of course we
all know he got injured in thefirst play.
He was out for the whole season, then last season he was
actually playing but likeliterally took the whole team
down with him, like they are amess, they did terrible and he
just is, like has a stinkyattitude, like he seems like
he's not who I thought he was.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Yeah, so anyways, they kicked him out, but they
have.
What's his name, that coachthat they just hired?
Speaker 2 (20:26):
From the Detroit Lions, the defensive coordinator
, Aaron Glenn.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Yes, that handsome older black man, the salt and
pepper beard.
Yeah, yeah, so he's on Shortking.
He's on the New York Jets and Ifeel like if they get a new
quarterback, that'd be great.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, they're not going to get a new quarterback
immediately, so I feel like thelast thing you want to do is
pick a team to start cheeringfor that doesn't have a
quarterback.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
So it's tempting to follow Aaron Glenn from the
Lions over to the Jets, but Ijust feel like the Jets, it's a
world of hurt.
They always find a way to takethe L.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I know that's the other thing, like if I'm going
to pick the New York Jets like Igot to, like choose to suffer
and like I'm, you know that'snot me.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
I like the idea of you picking an interesting city.
I think you should alsoconsider a team that with a
young quarterback that has showspromise, but they haven't yet
performed at that elite level.
So you're not a bandwagonjumper miami no, I don't think
you want to get behind mikemcdaniel why he seems like so
(21:32):
nice.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
I love how he like runs away.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
I saw a stat recently that his record against teams
that against winning teams, liketeams over 500 is three for 14
with Miami so he'll.
They only beat teams that suckyou know I?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
that actually brings it up an important point.
Do I want to pick a team that'sgoing to win, like I'm?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
you want to pick a team that's going to win in the
next three to five years yeah,exactly, so like.
Miami's going in the wrongdirection.
No, but I Tyree Kale's going toretire in the next year or two
if he doesn't ask for a trade.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
So they have.
I also just like what MikeMcDaniels said to his
quarterback Tua when he got hurt.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
He If you need to pick Miami, you can pick Miami.
I'm just giving you fairwarning.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
He got hurt.
So Tua is their quarterback andhe's had like crazy, like
history with concussions.
He was like they've had like somany concussion protocols with
him and he had this game and helike I don't know why, but he
slid with his like helmet firstand into someone and like he was
on the field like laying down.
Everyone was freaking out Likethey knew that like of his
(22:39):
history.
They had like the like themedics out there.
He like stood up and like MikeMciel was like down there
running to go check on hisquarterback.
He got up and he like patted onhis head and they like took him
off field, of course for likeconcussion, like whatever.
And he's like don't worry aboutus, you're the quarterback of
your family, like what a nicething to say to your quarterback
(23:00):
.
And then I was like wow, I'm afan so you're gonna pick, pick
Miami.
It's between Miami or the Jets.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Really.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Or San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
If it's between those three, I would go with San
Francisco.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
They're going to pay Brock Purdy.
They're going to give him a bigcontract.
So, like Mr Irrelevant, that'sa great story, mr Irrelevant to
like a paid franchisequarterback and they still have
the wags you like.
They still have christianmccaffrey.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
They still have brandon iuke.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
They might trade for another wide receiver, although
they did draft a first roundwide receiver last year, ricky
pierce all, who is also a greatstory because he got shot in the
preseason oh, yes, and thencame back mid-season played and
like was good.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Why did he get shot?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Someone was trying to steal his watch and they shot
him.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Crazy.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
That's also crazy how like these NFL like NFL is one
of those like games where theywear so much jewelry, like they
have like a full diamond, likechain going on.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
You got grills and some lifeguards.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
And they're allowed to wear all that jewelry.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
I think between all these, Detroit would probably be
your best pick, but then secondto that would be 49ers.
Okay, my team's Stay away fromMiami and New York.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
My team so far are in order.
San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Miami?
I don't know, it would be funny.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
I have like a good logo.
What about the PittsburghSteelers?
You also like Mike Tomlin.
I do like Mike.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Tomlin yeah, I do like him.
I like Mike Tomlin because hejust like looks like he's like a
tough guy.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
But like he's nice, he's been there for a long time.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yeah, and he's like legit and he's like, yeah,
stands up for his team and hereally did a number in russell
wilson, like he brought him backto life, if you see footage.
So russell wilson is aquarterback, he's married to
sierra and he's also a reallygood man because he like
basically adopted future junior,which is sierra's son, with
future the rapper, and he justlike was at I can't remember
what team, but he was at anotherteam with like a kind of a
(25:07):
jerky coach and he you could seehim like on the sideline just
like so beat down, like havingsuch a hard season.
Everyone was like criticizinghim.
And then he went over to theSteelers and Mike Tomlin like
you see footage of him.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
They're like hugging and like he's just so much like
they've really like yeah,leveled him up and like affirmed
him just so much like they'vereally like, yeah, leveled him
up and like affirmed him, andthat's like the power of good
coaching.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
It's true.
So I want to root for them.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
You need a good coach .
Speaker 1 (25:32):
I do need a good coach.
Anyways, there's a lot offootball talk and I thought we
were done with football for theyear, but that's where I'm at
with my favorite teams.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Since you're undecided, I think I can just
make an executive decision andsay you'll cheer for the Colts.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
No, okay.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Just jump on my bandwagon, baby.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
You know I really admire your loyalty.
That's like one of the things Ilove about you, but it's just
I'm numb.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
You want to have a good time?
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Yeah, I'm here for a good time.
Yeah, well once you pick,you're going to have to be loyal
.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
I won't be Fair.
At least you told us ahead oftime.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah, that's not my brand as an NFL fan.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Fairweather fan.
I'm a fairweather fan, Okay,well then all my criteria
doesn't apply so just pick yourfavorite team right now that you
think will be the most fun nextseason.
Then you can just regroup forthe next season after that.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Yeah, or I can regroup every week, yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
So okay, I pick san francisco.
Okay, stick with the wags seeyou there well, should we get
into our actual three storiesfor today yes, all right think
thing one duolingo owl dies, soding, the duolingo is dead ding
the duolingo isn't that like aphrase, oh like ding dong, the
witch is dead that's the oneyeah ding is not the name of the
(26:52):
owl, duo is the name of the owl, but the owl is dead
nonetheless.
The language learning appshared on social media right
around the super bowl actuallyyes that duo.
the avian in question had passedaway.
They published thisobituary-style letter with a
cutout of an owl talking aboutit.
(27:14):
They also shared thatauthorities were currently
investigating his cause of deathand they were cooperating fully
.
And they also said TBH, heprobably died waiting for you to
do your lesson.
But what do we know?
Since the announcement, they'vehad a little bit more context
to this with the websitebringbackduolingocom, which I
(27:34):
checked it out and it's a bit ofit's like a xp counter from the
app itself, where people aregathering experience points from
doing language lessons what isx?
Experience points, so that's notlike megabytes.
Have you ever used Duolingolike the app?
Speaker 1 (27:50):
No.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Because you're already bilingual.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Thank you for saying that.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
You're already a Duolinguist.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Well, for those of us that have used the app, when
you complete lessons, you getexperience points.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
And you kind of level up as you go.
So they have this like xpcounter on this website that is
counting up worldwide experiencepoints over a period of time.
They need to hit 50 billion forduolingo to come back to life.
It's kind of like the classicchristmas movie.
I think it's the santa clauspeople's like yeah, holiday
(28:25):
spirit.
The holiday spirit meter islike at zero.
Oh, no.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
And as people start caroling, the meter fills up
again.
The best way to spreadChristmas cheers for singing
loud for all to hear.
So Duolingo needs everyone tobring on that cheer.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah, bring them back to life.
Do Dua Lipa a favor and bringback Duo.
Do Dua Lipa a favor and bringback Duo.
So, yeah, they need to hit 50billion experience points as
soon as possible for Duo to comeback.
And they also I thought it wasinteresting they have like a
country ranking board, kind oflike the Olympics, and they've
got like a gold medal and asilver medal and a bronze medal.
(29:00):
I think right now it's the US,someone in China that are in the
lead.
The US someone in China thatare in the lead.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
The US, someone in China?
Speaker 2 (29:09):
I forget who's in second.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
But yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
That's the plot.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
You know, duolingo just does Duolingo things.
They totally beat by like theirown drum, like they're so
outside of the box and I love tosee it like.
This is definitely a marketingstunt.
Yes, it's cheesy, yes, it'slike obvious, but whatever, it's
Duolingo like happy to see it.
I am a fan of what they do.
(29:37):
I feel like it's hard to thinkoutside the box, like it's
really hard to like come up withtheir like owl TikTok and all
that stuff.
Like I love to see them like becreative.
So yeah, yeah I love.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
At first I was kind of skeptical, but when they
introduced this like thislanding page with the experience
points counter, I thought thatwas a great way to actually tie
it back to using the app rightyou know, because you can make
so many viral owl tiktoks frombeing goofy on yeah but like
this actually pushes people andlike unifies people towards a
(30:12):
common goal that is their, likewhole business.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
The thing is like I can't imagine people care enough
to bring him back to life tolike go and use the app.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
But it's not.
It's not a big lift to go doone language lesson.
Yeah, you know, especially ifyou're already trying to learn a
language.
You're getting pushnotifications from the app all
the time, from Duo himself.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Right.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
And you're like, yeah , I do need to like pick up my
Spanish again or whatever, soit's not a big lift to be like
oh Duo might never come back.
I need to tap in and likeactually do this lesson.
This is serious and just to bepart of the moment, like we
talked about monoculture, evenin our trend report we talked
about shared moments.
It's a great play at that trendand bringing people back into
(30:55):
the use case of the app itselfthrough a social first campaign.
And I also thought it wasinteresting back to the Super
Bowl commercials.
But there's been various sociallistening tools that have shown
that this stunt or campaign, ifyou want to call it that has
actually generated moreimpressions than a lot of the
Super Bowl commercialsthemselves.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, and the more you talk about it, like you're
right, like this, if at in threemonths time or whatever, when
Dua comes back to life and theyhave those like usage reports
and they can see that there's anotable lift during his like
death period because people aretrying to bring him back to life
, even if it's like like itdoesn't have to be like 100%
(31:35):
lift or whatever, even if it'slike a small lift, it's like a
great way to use social to driveactivity through an app which
is actually kind of hard to do,like social media marketing,
especially for apps likeDuolingo.
It's like about brand and abrand awareness.
It's not necessarily drivinguser like results.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
A hundred percent and and there's even if it is about
driving people to an app.
I think rarely is there like aunified experience from social
to within the app right so Ithink that's really cool in this
context where, like what you'reseeing and experiencing in the
discourse that's happening onsocial media, you follow that
into the app itself and theexperience is true there too
(32:17):
yeah, yeah, that is really nice.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
We love to see like social, really like leading the
way in that.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Zaria just kill.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Zaria.
Zaria Perez, we got we had thechance to see her speak at a
conference and we did somecontent with her and she is like
so cool.
She's like the brains behindthe Duolingo owl.
She has done things that havereally pushed the boundaries
just for brand social in general.
And one person on LinkedIn Isaw like people talking about
(32:42):
the dual death, and one personon LinkedIn summarized dual owls
impact perfectly.
They said marketing has hit aninflection point where emotional
impact is losing effectivenessand cultural impact is now
paramount to success and I feellike Duolingo really does that.
They lean into like culturesand subcultures.
Like they had a bunch of owlsat like the first tour of of uh,
(33:06):
charlie xcx's sweat tour andlike she shouted them out at the
concert.
Like they Like they're in theculture and I love that they're
sharing the moments with us.
They do a good job.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Yeah, so I chalk that up as a win.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Yeah, into it.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Do you want to take us into thing?
Two Okay.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Thing two Nike and Skims tease a new brand Nike
Skims.
In a collaboration post thisweek, the brands revealed a dual
logo Nike Skims with thecaption post this week, the
brands revealed a dual logo nikeskims with the caption
introducing nike skims a brand,a new brand coming this spring
for the body obsessed, designedto sculpt and engineered to
perform.
(33:43):
So that's all we got.
I mean, two billion dollarbrands are creating a new brand
within the athletic wear space.
I should love this.
This is like right up my alley,you know, but I don't want to
be a hater because it's verypremature, Like we don't even
(34:04):
know what the product is.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
I think in the end you will love it.
But like talk to us, I hope so.
I hope I love it.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
But I don't know if I'm here for it and part of it's
like.
So, part of it's because, likeI love the attention that sports
is getting right now.
I really love the attentionthat women's sports is getting
right now and obviously it'slike an important time in the
culture to like be giving theselike female athletes their dues,
(34:30):
also injecting more money andinvestment into the space
athletes their dues, alsoinjecting more money and
investment into the space.
But I just feel like Nike, tome, represents a brand for
athletes and a brand thatempowers everyone to be an
athlete.
Skims, to me, represents a brandthat really isn't at like
(34:51):
they're inclusive in some ways,but at the end of the day,
they're like creating productsthat help women fit into a mold.
And the thing that, like I, upto date, have really loved Skims
marketing.
I feel like they've done areally good job with their
campaigns, but they had acampaign a few weeks ago and it
was they were launching theirbutt enhancing shorts and it's
(35:13):
basically like shapewear shortswith butt pads in it, and they
did this like video where KimKardashian was like the fairy
butt godmother or whatever Fairybuttmother and I just like
really it rode me the wrong wayBecause up until that point I
felt that Skim did a really goodjob at celebrating different
body types.
And then suddenly there was thisproduct that was trying to like
(35:36):
change your body type andtrying to like promote a
different shape, and I just thatdidn't sit well for me and it
also feels like a little bitlike predatory on like women too
, to make them feel like this isan area of insecurity that you
should fix with this productlike I just didn't like the tone
(35:58):
of it and the product itself.
And then I've seen like Skimsdoes their their kind of like
marketing schedule or cadence islike they'll have the launch
campaign or a teaser campaign,launch video, high quality, like
content, and then they do likeseating with influencers.
So after those like initialcampaign videos, I've been
(36:19):
seeing so much on like TikTokpeople getting the product
trying it on and showing likehow they look after and even
just that experience and likeit's.
I don't like it.
This is not.
This feels like not the kind ofproduct I want to support.
And so then seeing them rightafter that step into this arena
with Nike, it feels like not thekind of product I want to
support, and so then seeing themright after that step into this
arena with Nike, it feels likefor me like athletics, female
(36:43):
athletes that's a space maybethe only space where women are
judged solely on theirperformance, not how they look
and so for, to see them kind ofmarry into a product that might
be for athletes or might not be,I don't know yet.
It just doesn't feel like it's amatch and I just hope that it's
not like contour wear or likeshape wear that makes women feel
(37:06):
like they have to look acertain way in order to perform.
You know, because that's theonly space that, like athletes
have.
Like it's not about your looks,it's about what you can do on
the field, exactly Likeeverywhere else in this world.
It's like about how we look,and I'm not naive enough to
think that like how you look ingeneral as an athlete doesn't
(37:27):
lead you to like more brandendorsements and more this and
that Like it's still, you know,I understand how the world works
, but I just hope that theproduct they end up releasing
isn't something that's likedesigned to make women look a
certain way when they'reperforming.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
I think that's valid.
I hope Skims is listening, butI think you nailed it.
I hope that they're alreadythinking about these things and
I kind of my perception of skimsis that there's like different
iterations or like versions oftheir product or like ecosystems
(38:06):
of their product, because Itotally agree with the butt
enhancer.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
that was weird, um, and they also did that like
nipple bra yeah, and the nipplethe way the nipple bra is
different for me than the buttenhancer.
Yeah, is that the nipple waslike for fun, like show your
nipples, and it's almost likecontrarian, like most bras are
designed to like not show yournipples you know, but it's like
show, it's like free andliberating, and like you don't
(38:31):
have to be like that.
It's like and liberating, andlike you don't have to be like
that.
It's like.
But this was like have a biggerbutt, because bigger butts are
better.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
You know, and I just didn't like that tone so it's
almost like the butt enhancerpiece is like a bit of a
exception to the rest of theirproduct mix, which is
interesting.
So it very well could be a test.
It could even be like a bit ofa like conquestual thing with
like a brand like Lululemon.
Maybe they're trying to see ifthey can take market share.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Yes, well, I saw there's a sports marketer that I
really respect.
He was doing like a deep diveon it and basically he is saying
that, like Nike hasn't beenable to corner that market and
it's the market of, likelululemon and aloe, it's like
the lifestyle athletic wearleggings, rich women doing
(39:20):
pilates, that's the market thatthis could fit for nike because
nike hasn't cornered that rightand I think, to be fair to skims
, like they were, the officialunderwear of the, the women's
team, in the olympics in thesummer olympics in 2021.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
They also have a partnership with the nba and
wnba and usa usa basketballalready, and they do have a
performance line as well, don'tthey?
I think they launched it in2023 so anyways I feel like
they're in.
if we're acknowledging that theyhave different types of product
, kind of mixes, then I'm hopingthat we can give them the
(40:00):
credit that they understand whatbelongs where and that they've
shown too, through some of thosepartnerships, that it can be
less about aesthetics and moreabout the true nature of these
games like yeah performance andoutput yeah, and and it like
from a business perspective itmakes sense like WNBA is
starting to get like all theseother sponsorships too, like
(40:23):
Sephora is one of the leadsponsorships with WNBA.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
That that also rubs me the wrong way because like
makeup and in general like suremake Sephora sells more than
just makeup, but like the beautyindustry in itself, like is,
also makes money off of womenfeeling like they have to look a
certain way.
So like that shouldn'tnecessarily play a role in
(40:45):
sports.
Personally, like that that justmight be like my personal
opinion or whatever, but likesports should be a place where
women can just go and play andthey don't have to wear makeup
or they don't have to feel likethey look a certain way.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
And if you want to, that's fine, but you shouldn't
like I just feel like thepartnership feels wrong, like
off do you think so, though,because, like, I agree to an
extent, but I think there istoday a lot more about sports
than just the in the gamesthemselves, like you even think
(41:21):
about, especially in basketball,like the tunnel, the shots in
the tunnel, of the athleteswalking up and they're kitted
out in like crazy designerclothes, you know, like it's all
a spectacle still yeah and sothere is that element of it,
when still the game itself, whenwhen the, the puck gets dropped
or the tip-off happens likeit's all about performance and
(41:44):
whatever they're wearing needsto support that narrative.
But I think, like makeup, injust the same way as like
clothes and fashion and jewelry,like when you're talking about
the NFL, those do have a part toplay in some of the spectacle
that happens before and afterthe game yeah, sports at the end
of the day.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
At the end of the day is entertainment but, I think,
for women's sports especially,there's a huge drop off in youth
girls like advancing theirsports.
Like there's so many studiesthat show that, like girls
usually quit sport at a certainage.
It's around puberty.
It's when they feel a bit moreinsecure about their bodies,
more like stuff is happening inlife and social circles and
(42:25):
development.
A lot of them are getting theirperiods, which actually stops
them from pursuing sports too,like competitive sports.
So, with knowing that, that'swhy I have an issue with women's
sports specifically justgetting cozy with like makeup
brands and shapewear.
Personally, just because, likethere's steps that sports,
(42:47):
women's sports leagues aremaking that create more
opportunities for girls insports.
The more the WNBA advances, themore it opens up opportunities
for like younger girls leaguesto do more and they get more
resources and training camps andall that.
It helps the sport in general.
With that in mind, knowingthere's so many barriers in
(43:08):
girls sports helps the sport ingeneral.
With that in mind, knowingthere's so many barriers in girl
sports, I just doesn't feellike the partnership I I was
hoping to see you know sephora,yeah, or like, and I I don't
know exactly what the skims nikeproduct's gonna be.
I just I just think of it fromthat lens yeah, yeah, that makes
sense.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
I think I wonder the mechanics of it too.
Like, is it Nike going to skimsbeing like let's do this
together Because?
If so, that makes a lot ofsense Because, to your point,
they have a woman problem intheir audience.
I think, women make up 40percent of Nike's audience right
now shoes, yeah, exactly andoverall too, beyond just that
(43:48):
female market, nike's strugglinglike they've been slipping
across the board for the lastthree to five years I think um,
my, I was talking to my friendasim on instagram about this,
because I posted that we weregoing to talk about this and he
mentioned that nike's down 35over the last two years and 23
over the last five wow becauseof that they've had leadership
(44:09):
changes, like people haveresigned, they've hired new
executive leadership and they'retrying different things.
I think they made some mistakeswith how much they flooded the
market with all sorts ofdifferent sneaker styles and
colors and now there's kind ofthere's way less demand for that
.
Yeah, and they're losing groundto to other sneaker brands like
(44:30):
on running hoka, yeah, brandslike that, solomon so yeah, it's
just like they need to dosomething.
So if nothing else, skims isrelevant.
It has a corner of the, thefemale audience.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
I get it, I want to.
I hope I like it yeah, I hopetoo.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
I hope they show us that they've got a great team
that's done their research andand actually cares about sports.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
Yeah, I have faith in Emigreed.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Okay, do you want to talk about the last big thing
here?
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Yeah, our uh.
The last one is reallyinteresting.
I'm excited to talk about thiswith you and just kind of like
get a little bit more granularinto your thoughts.
But thing three is all abouthow micro trends could be a
signal of low status and whatlife post brain rot could look
like.
So we had an interestingdiscussion in Slack this week
(45:23):
over a TikTok video that wefound by Huge Brandstrat, who's
a brand strategy consultant andlecturer, and basically he was
breaking down how, over the lastfew years and he he wrote a
piece in vogue about this aswell but he was saying how the
last few years, algorithms havecompletely cooked our personal
style from mob wife to quietluxury.
(45:45):
It's just impossible to keep upto the fast-paced nature of the
internet and micro trends,which is true.
We talk about this all the timeinternally and with our clients
, because algorithms are meantto exaggerate the most extreme
of any trait.
So, um, what was happening isthat microtrends and fashion
were going further and furtheraway from what people actually
wore in real life.
(46:05):
One of the quotes that reallystuck out to me from the video
was when he said it's notfashion, it's cosplay.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Totally.
And then he talked about how,like, who actually looks good in
a bubble skirt?
It's so true, like that waseverywhere and like no one looks
good on it in them.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Yeah, exactly so.
He went on to talk about howwe're heading into what he calls
a post brain rot era, where IRLwill become a status symbol and
dressing according tomicrotrends will feel more like
a low status activity, becauseit shows that you're chronically
online and people are reallytrying to move away from that.
(46:42):
So that's why you're starting tosee people embrace the opposite
side of the pendulum, wherethere's more emphasis on basics
and simple kind of capsulestyles and I would say too, it's
not just limited to fashioneither.
That was like a big kind of partof his case or like examples.
But he mentioned architectureand I would say the same, for
(47:03):
you know, even in our space,like design trends, like graphic
design, or even like contentstyles or the way you edit photo
or video, there's been a lot ofthat that just all kind of
started to look the same becauseit's all connected to a micro
trend on TikTok, for example,but I think we're going to see
more of a kind of disbursementaway from that.
So I think the last kind ofpoint he made was that we're
(47:26):
going to start to see a need forbrands to embrace what he
called the pulse of the Internet, while not appearing to be too
online.
He said there's a differencebetween those brands that
understand how to leverage thepulse of the Internet to make
engaging content that spreadsacross social, and brands that
hover around like vultureswaiting to feast on the carcass
of the latest meme that theInternet throws up.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
That line, though, was such a good one it was so
convicting like seeing thisvideo Also just refreshing.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
So refreshing and validating.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Because I think in our work, especially since we
work in social, it's easy tofall victim into, like micro
trends and to feel like you haveto do every single trending
thing that's happening on TikTok.
But it really validated, kindof like, our approach where
we've been looking a bit moremacro and not just at, like,
what's the like the hot thingright now in this moment?
But really, what like?
(48:15):
What are the digital behaviorsthat like are informing how we
move and operate in the world?
Because there's a lot offactors that contribute to that,
which is why we love ScanClub,we love our newsletter.
If you haven't subscribed, youshould go check it out.
We have a trend report thatoutlines all of this and what's
happening right now in 2025.
But yeah, I thought it wasreally really interesting.
(48:35):
I can definitely.
I feel like for me, I so agreethat being IRL is so luxurious
luxurious like the more you'reoff your phone, the more you're
like exploring.
I've had this like weird desireto be like more literary and it
feels like.
The other day I was like how doI become literary?
(48:59):
Like I don't know, is this justreading?
But I can't just read my likelittle fiction books.
I need to like like read atextbook or something like go
back to some like literaryclassics.
Yeah, and sometimes I'll be likeaware of like what I'm looking
at on like my phone and likeread a textbook or something or
like go back to some likeliterary classics, yeah, and
sometimes I'll be like aware oflike what I'm looking at on like
my phone and TikTok and stuff.
I'm like I can't believe thisgarbage, you know.
So I do feel like that's notjust me that's feeling that,
(49:22):
it's a lot of people that arefeeling that.
And when you see someone who'svery trendy and sometimes I get
embarrassed too because I'm Ilike like pop culture and I like
you know all this stuff that istrending on TikTok and I know a
lot of it and in in my friendgroup I'm usually the I'm the
most online of everyone.
So sometimes it's embarrassingbecause, like, I know so much,
(49:43):
like I can't even I can barelyparticipate in some
conversations Cause I'll like'll, like, I'll just like like
bombard people with too muchinformation and it just like
becomes boring.
So I can completely relate tothis.
It's like a balance of beingable to like go with the waves
of the internet.
I love how you described itlike the pulse of the internet,
(50:03):
without feeling like too onlineyeah, and I think it'll be
interesting because inevitably,as humans, we are influenced.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
So it's like, if we're not being influenced by
the doom scrolling and the microtrends, what are we going to be
influenced by?
yeah could it be a return tolike our early, like late 90s,
early 2000s, like school dayswhere it was like the class
system was like jocks and likenerds and and like the mean
(50:35):
girls and and whatever otherlike groups there were in school
?
Is that?
Is it more around function Likewe all dress kind of nerdy
cause we're all into HarryPotter, or we all dress in like
athletic wear cause we're all onthe football team?
What are the things that we'reall into Harry Potter or we all
dress in like athletic wearbecause we're all on the
football team?
What are the things that we'regoing to kind of cluster around,
if not these trends on TikTok?
(50:56):
So it'll be interesting to seethat.
But back to your point aboutmacro trends and like thinking
bigger.
I totally agree.
That's why I love ScanClub andwhy I think it's really valuable
for brands and creators.
But I also just think ingeneral what it all comes back
to, if you were to reallysimplify it, is for brands and
marketers finding a way to beproactive in our strategies and
(51:19):
in our approach to contentinstead of reactive, because
that's what reacting to trendsis.
It's in the word reacting.
You know, we're just trying tokeep up with how culture is
moving at the speed of social um.
So what does it look like for abrand to be proactive in their
approach to content?
And I think scan club and ourprocess of, like looking for
(51:41):
signals and anticipatingbehavioral shifts is one aspect
of that.
But what other ways can brandsbe proactive it also is so
similar to another thing we talkabout a lot with our clients,
which is like don't obsess toomuch with your competitors.
You know, because that'sanother way to be reactive, like
yeah oh, our competitor didthis, so we need to jump on that
, so we're part of thatdiscourse, or because you're
(52:03):
comparing yourself so muchyou're trying to, you're almost.
Your actions inevitably mirrorthe movements of the other
brands in your space.
Speaker 1 (52:11):
You almost want to like act independently of not
just competitors, but just likethe internet, almost like 100,
that's cool like it's, and it'snot about being ahead of the
trend, like to your point, aboutlike proactive.
It's almost like doingsomething that's different, that
feels like you came up with anindependent thought yeah, and
(52:34):
it's not even necessarilyanticipating a trend no, it
could be, that could be part ofyour proactive approach, but
also requires, like actuallyhaving values and actually
Speaker 2 (52:45):
having a belief system within which your brand
exists and a true, an actualproblem that you're trying to
solve.
Because if you have thosethings, then you can build
content and marketing strategiesand tactics around that, rather
than just like clinging on torelevance just because you were
one of the brands that posted ameme about the grammys I do feel
(53:07):
like it also means like youkind of have to be a little
offline, like for real, not justlike look like you're offline,
but like actually like.
Speaker 1 (53:14):
To me, events come to mind, like events is a great
way to like connect to yourcommunity and capture something
that's not online and it's likefeels really like real and
authentic and like gives backthings like that.
But even in like one of thethings he said in his video and
like gives back things like that.
But even in like one of thethings he said in his video is
(53:35):
like even photography, in likearchitecture and design.
It used to be like blank, likevery like open spaces and like
very like blank spaces, but nowthey're starting to design or be
more intentional about theirart design, about like including
real life stuff like clutterand messes.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
Because you want to show the offline in the online,
kind of like.
So it's almost like you kind ofhave to get out of like out of
your feeds a little bit.
Speaker 2 (54:04):
Yeah, or even I think maybe a more practical way is
just to change the order of yourlike process.
You know, it's not, it mightnot be like completely social
media agnostic, but maybeinstead of like starting on the
channel, like like TikTok, andidentifying trends and then
building your content, like kindof like forcing your brand
(54:26):
through the, the shapes of thosetrends, to create posts.
Speaker 1 (54:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
Maybe instead it's like creating content around the
problem that you're solving orthe realities that your
audiences experience, or yourvalues or whatever it is, but
then still before you publishthat content, using these trends
or the pop culture moments orthe public discourse as a filter
(54:52):
that you apply against thatcontent, and then you modify the
content in smaller ways tostill connect, if that makes
sense yeah so it's just like,instead of starting with the
channel, you're starting withthe idea, and then the channel
influences the final iterationof that piece of content.
Speaker 1 (55:12):
Yeah, and back to ScanClub.
If you want a way to like kindof start those ideas, we've
outlined some five macro trends,digital behavior trends that
we've been following all yearround.
You can check that out atScanClclubsubstackcom.
And, yeah, I think that's agreat place to start.
Speaker 2 (55:33):
Do it.
Speaker 1 (55:35):
Do it up.
Anything else you wanted to add?
Speaker 2 (55:37):
That's all we got.
Thanks for watching.
You can find this on YouTube oranywhere you listen to podcasts
.
Make sure you leave a review.
If you haven't yet Join us onInstagram or TikTok, where we
are part of the chaos, you cansend us a message.
You can tap like.
Haven't yet join us onInstagram or Tik TOK, where we
are part of the the chaos, youcan send us a message.
You can tap like.
You can leave a commentwhatever you want, but other
than that, that's all we gotthis week.
Should I bang the gong?
Speaker 1 (55:58):
You better See you next time.
That was good.
That was the perfect gongvolume.
Speaker 2 (56:06):
Very low volume Good job.
That was fun.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
Yeah, perfect gong volume Very low volume.
Good job, that was fun.
Yeah, good job.
We ready?
Okay, super variety Ready.
Yeah, all right, are you ready?
Let's do this.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
It's been a minute.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to Big Things .
I'm Mitzi.
This is Mike.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And this is our show where we talk about the big
things we're watching inmarketing, social media, pop
culture and sports.
We also talk through thesignals that we're seeing that
could inform the future ofdigital marketing.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Here's a quick summary of what we're going to
talk about today.
We're talking about theDuolingo owl, how it died.
Nike Skims announces a springlaunch and the death of
microtrends and life after brainrot.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, this is going to be a good one.
It was hard to pick what totalk about.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah because there's a lot going on.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
A lot going on, a lot going on.
I think the thing I'm mostexcited about right now is the
canada versus usa championshipgame.
That or like gold medal gamethat's happening tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
We're recording this on a wednesday yeah, but we
watched the game and I actuallywatch.
I actually drafted a linkedinpost about this, but I'm not
sure if I'm gonna post itbecause hit publish?
yeah, I, maybe I should well,because it was the first time I
watched a hockey game in like solong.
I like sat and watched it andwe all know what happened in
that game.
Like the first 10 seconds therewas two fights back to back and
(01:17):
that was so shocking to mebecause I haven't seen that.
But it was also like strangely,I think, like what I needed and
I don't condone fighting at all, especially like physical
fights, but I've given the stateof the world and like the
political tension between Canadaand the US, it was like.
It was like good for us.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Why was it good for us?
I think it created like amonoculture moment, like
everyone's kind of like A bit ofan outlet for some of the
tension.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah, maybe, but also I feel like so much of what
brings people together cansometimes be conflict and, like
sports is so good at doing that,like bringing the home team
together, and I feel like thatkind of happened this weekend.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, and I think the two major things that people
made a big deal about was thefights, for sure, but also the
booing of the US national anthem, which and I think people kind
of from what I saw, people werekind of lumping the two things
together as, like, these areboth like not the way that our
country should presentthemselves, and I think I agree
(02:21):
about the anthem Like I don'treally think that that is
necessary, but I feel like, inhockey, fighting even though,
yeah, we don't condone physicalviolence in the streets, you
know but fighting has alwaysbeen part of hockey and there's
also a bit of a you can'tgeneralize this but oftentimes,
and I think even in the fightsthat happen at the beginning of
(02:43):
this game, there's a level ofcamaraderie and like a level of
understanding between theplayers, like we don't actually
hate each other in real life,but we're we're putting on for
our country it's part of theshow and even some of these guys
play together in the NHL, sothey're they have to go home
after this and like, get back tobusiness.
You know, know.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Just a friendly fist fight.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, well, not necessarily friendly, but it's
not as deep as I think somepeople are making it online.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Right.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
So I don't know, I hope there's that kind of like
physical element again in thisnext game.
It's not going to show it orpresent itself in the same way,
but I agree, I think it's aninteresting way to just kind of
release some of the tension andexpress some of that rivalry
that's existed before thispolitical kind of discourse
(03:30):
around the trade war.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, exactly these guys have.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I mean, you go back to the last time they played in
the gold medal game in 2010 andthere was fights in that game
and it was very high intensity.
So it's always been like that.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
It'll always be like, yeah, it's a hockey tradition
it is um we also speaking ofrivalries.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I feel like the drake and kendrick saga just
continues.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I think most of us are over it, yeah no, it's not
done.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Kendrick lamar made it like the focal point of his
halftime show, so I think.
And then obviously, drake hasput out new music and there's a
lot of discourse around bots umin, like I wanted to say,
inflaming or amplifyingstreaming numbers on platforms
like apple and spotify, which isinteresting, because some
(04:18):
people are saying how drake'salbum um outstreamed kendrick's
on Apple, but then on Spotifythe numbers are way different.
So it's interesting to kind ofsee some of that discourse.
All that to say, I'm prettyexhausted with the comparisons
and the back and forth.
Just another way that it's beenlike that people have found to
(04:39):
be polarized towards each other.
We don't need more versions ofthat.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
It's funny because I feel like some people are like
um, we had a meeting on oursocial team today and there's an
idea that we were tossingaround, that someone was tossing
around.
It was like you know, kendricktold us that we all need to like
hate a little bit more, so likehere's what I hate, but I feel
like I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
It's like hate is a strong word for what we're
trying to say and he's kind ofshown like how you need to come
for your enemies, yeah, and likeand I think they Not Like Us.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
like is not only about Drake, like it's a lot
about Drake, but it's also likethe way people have like held on
to it.
It's like them, meaning thoseother people are not like me you
know, so it's like I think it'sless about Drake than it was
initially.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
That would be great, that would be refreshing.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah, and we also have.
Love is Blind drama.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I'm so shook that you put this in the notes, Like
what do you have to say about?
Love is Blind.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Well, it's just because like-.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
You mean the drama between us?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
No, no, no, no.
Like we only started watchingthis season me kind of
begrudgingly, although I've saidbefore and I'll say it again
that I don't mind the episodeswhen they're in the pods.
I think that's superinteresting.
But all hell breaks loose assoon as they leave the pods and
like meet each other and like,start to meet their friends and
family and also start to see the, the person from the pods and
like meet each other and likestart to meet their friends and
family and also start to see the, the person from the pods that
(06:07):
they rejected.
That is way hotter than theperson that they picked and all
those dynamics.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I'm here for all of it but I've also.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Now that we start watching it, I'm starting to see
stuff pop up on social around,like, specifically, that one
couple, the girl who loves TacoBell.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
And the short king.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, the guy like he saw her beforehand or whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Which is a huge violation of, like the
experiment.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah, but to me it's just giving producer plant Like
this is.
They're just trying to find away to make it interesting again
.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah, yeah, we just started.
Love is Blind, like you said.
Said begrudgingly, but I'mexcited, I love that show less
begrudgingly for me.
White lotus is back yeah, I'mexcited about that, the first
episode of white lotus it's I'mjust stressed the entire time
just because of the music yeah,but they changed their music,
did you see that?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I did, but it still is the same like music strategy
yeah, and the same likecharacter development strategy.
Yeah, just the music.
It's almost like it's nottechno, but it's like techno in
the way that it is alwaysbuilding.
So you feel like you're alwaysat the brink of something like
crazy happening or someonegetting killed or someone doing
something.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And you're suspicious over someone.
Like you know something happensand like it could be anyone.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, but really it's just a monitor lizard on the on
the sidewalk okay, yeah, thatlike Thailand looks beautiful,
but those all those animals andthose monkeys.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Like there's no way I could go to a wellness retreat
where there's monkeys in thetrees next to me, like I would
never be able to just chill.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I think it'd be kind of sweet, like it's just like a
completely different experience.
It feels like you're in a story, a storybook.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah, that sounds really monkeys.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Those types of monkeys are just kind of like
squirrels to us.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
They just are in the trees, kind of sussing you out.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Maybe they might throw a nut at you, or something
like that.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
No, they might come for your hair Like monkeys.
I feel like would or somethinglike that.
No, they might come for yourhair Like monkeys.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I feel like would like attack you, certain breeds
probably, but I don't.
It seems like the ones in thisshow, in this context, are
pretty harmless.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
No, I saw the monkeys and I was like I'd never go on
a wellness retreat like that,I'll have to go by myself.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Drew, you want to go to Thailand?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Sweet, okay, the other big thing like we haven't
had a chance to talk about onthis show was Super Bowl, which
I was super disappointed onbecause we had a great episode
planned and then life happenedOur kids' daycare got closed,
shut down unexpectedly.
So anyways, we couldn't do likea recap, a proper recap of
Super Bowl, but we did want tomention it.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I was kind of relieved actually.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Why.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I was just trying to think of how we were going to
talk about all these likelackluster commercials, like it
was just a miss of a year for me, like nuts to bolts or soup to
bolts, however you say it soupto nuts, I think that's the term
, but I think, just like fromthe game itself, it was so
boring it was two teams withlike polarizing, like agitating
(09:09):
fan bases and both teams kind ofhave this like villain sort of
aura around them and their story.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
I don't have any villain aura over the Eagles.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I must be in another algorithm.
Because you can't see pastJason Kelsey, who's like the
friendly giant.
No, no, no.
Not, sorry, not, I don't seevillain energy from the eagles I
know oh yeah, but I think theyhave that like both from like
their coach, nick sirianni, andjalen hurts.
He's always like mean muggingeverybody and giving attitude to
the media, um, and then alsotheir fan base is like they're
(09:44):
always in the news and on and inclips on social media like
physically assaulting people orstealing their jerseys or hats,
you know stuff like that.
So, for different reasons, bothteams kind of have that aura
around them and then obviouslysome people were hyped about the
halftime show, but but I thinkfor some it was like, in a way,
(10:05):
fairly niche, just Kendrickbeing a very lyrical, like deep
rapper, and I think also there'slike probably a generation or
two of people that watchfootball games, that have no
clue who he is or why he wasperforming too.
That might have felt like.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
This isn't for me anymore yeah, you know, I don't
think it was for everyone andlike.
I the.
At the beginning I was like, ohokay, like this is no Beyonce
bowl.
But as time has gone by Iappreciate it more.
But it's partly maybe because Iwatched so many deep dives on
all like the symbolism and likeextra meaning behind that whole
(10:45):
performance that I kind of likerespected a bit more, like he
did a lot in that time and thatat face value, as you're sitting
there, like expecting to beentertained, like sure, no one
flew in the air, but it wasn'treally about that.
It was like a broader message.
So I kind of like I thinkthere's nothing wrong with that
Like I feel like I like it morenow than I did when I first
(11:07):
watched it.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
And also the Serena Williams thing.
So when I first watched it,everyone like assumed and so did
I that she was kind of likecrip walking in the performance
as kind of like because she hadlike romantic ties with Drake
and so she's like crip walkingin a Drake diss track.
And at first I was like that'skind of weird.
Like why would a happilymarried, like supreme athlete
(11:31):
waste her time doing that?
But she's talked about now.
It's like she got so much heatand like because she crip walked
after one of her like big theWimbledon.
Wimbledon, like wins and likethat is not like acceptable.
She's also from compton.
Like she has like a like that'slike a big important like
(11:53):
dancing from like her community.
So her doing that at the superbowl stage was kind of like like
a redemption moment for her.
So now it's like I'm kind ofglad we didn't talk about it
right after super bowl because Ididn't like it, but now I
understand it yeah, yeah, Ithink I didn't.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
It didn't personally offend me like the halftime show
.
It just felt like it was thewrong year just because the
Super Bowl itself was boring.
So it was like if it was in thein between two halves of like
incredible football, it wouldhave been like, yeah, this is
hype.
But I just think it was like,because it was less of a
performance and more of like apolitical commentary and then an
(12:30):
extension of the drake beef, itjust felt like another like
kind of sleepy moment in aseries of sleepy moments right.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
So if the game was better, you'd like it better.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah yeah, I think if you put that in any of the last
three super bowls it would havebeen complete.
It would have felt completelydifferent.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I think that's the risk of the super bowl.
It's like you're you're at thelast stage, so you want the
final game to be good.
But there's so many like gamesduring the season that are like
uh, aren't that good of a gameyou know so like that's.
I feel like the risk of thatlast so much tying into the last
game.
So maybe they should haveBeyonce do the Super Bowl
(13:10):
performance every single yearand experiment with a different
artist in the Christmas Day.
Like game.
Maybe, Because now they havetwo performance moments.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Maybe, but I also.
I do understand that, likeDonald Trump, was in attendance.
So it was like an opportunityto have a political narrative in
a performance.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
And it's also he did it for his community.
Like I also kind of have tolike step back and think about
like all the think pieces anddeep dives I've seen on TikTok
are from like like black peoplewho are explaining, like you
know, life in America right now,at this moment in time.
Like he even prefaced his wholeperformance.
You picked the right guy at thewrong time, like he was there
(13:52):
to talk.
Like so I I do have to kind oflike I respect that.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
I respect that I'll stop complaining about the
Superbowl after this, but I I dowant to find data on how the
Superbowl commercials actuallyperformed, because I think, at
face value and I'm not the onlyone saying this like there's
other marketers and like brandpeople out there saying that
they felt like a lot of the mostof the commercials fell flat
(14:20):
this year.
Um, but I want to know how theyactually did from a business
perspective, because this is ahuge investment.
We're talking seven or eightmillion dollars per, I think, 30
seconds.
It might even, yeah, 30 seconds.
So you take the Jeep commercialwith Harrison Ford, for example
.
That was 90 seconds long.
So we're talking about 32million dollars or no.
That was maybe not, maybe 20,I'm not doing math right now $24
(14:46):
million 20-ish million dollars,and that doesn't even include
production costs or the cost ofHarrison.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Ford Exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, and that was one like I like Harrison Ford
and I liked where he was likesaying how he loves to drive a
Jeep, even though his last nameis Ford or whatever, which was
like witty, but still thecommercial like went on way
longer than it needed to like 90seconds yeah, super bowl.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
You know what, though I think that's a movie.
Yeah, totally, they're buyinglike impressions, not
necessarily impact to brand, youknow yeah, but there's still a
brand lift from impressions likewhat.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
However they're measuring it, I want to know how
it measured compared toexpectation to justify that 30
plus million dollar totalinvestment compared to something
like the story we're going totalk about when we actually get
into our stories Duolingo.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah, I thought it was interesting, like Uber Eats
had like three Super Bowlcommercials.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Yeah, and there's a lot of confusing ones, Like
there's even some that you'relike for the longest time.
You're like what is this even acommercial for?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Didn't Canada have a commercial?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
They did.
I didn't even watch it, but Iheard about it.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah.
So one, I'm kind of glad thatwe didn't have to talk about it
until now.
Two, I want to know how some ofthese commercials actually
performed because, like I'vebeen saying for the last five
minutes, soup to nuts.
This Super Bowl was superboring.
I wonder how engaged peoplereally were, how much recall
they have from those adsactually, how long they even
(16:13):
lasted through the game, if theydropped off after halftime all
that kind of stuff, because itjust feels like a flop.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, I feel like I had a different experience than
you and I didn't even watch itlive.
Really, I enjoyed most of whatI saw.
I feel like I wasn't asinvested in the teams.
I was just wanted both teams tohave fun and I was happy to see
Jalen Hurts win, like, and Ifeel like I I've watched so much
football this season so it waslike a nice like ending to that.
(16:42):
But again, like I'm not not adiehard fan of any team, so
anyone winning is great.
Love to see it.
And then the Super Bowlcommercials were kind of like.
I wasn't too stressed by it, soI feel like it was fun.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Consuming it all after?
Yeah, consuming it all after,without any stress.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Yeah, Also, I think I wanted to talk about it too,
because for me, just like to putmyself in the center of the
Super Bowl for a second, it waslike the finale of like a big
football year for me.
Like I really paid attentionthis year.
I really like watched a lot ofgames like more than I have
(17:23):
before.
Every year I've been likecreeping into like the NFL space
a bit more and more.
I feel like so much morehappened just for me this year
and it's like all the wag stuff,all the like like celebrity
adjacent stuff.
There's so many more peoplelike tuning into football this
year so I didn't feel like soalone in like my niche.
(17:44):
So the thing I have to figureout now is like who am I going
to root for next year?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
That's fun.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
What an exciting process.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Because at the beginning of the season I was
rooting for the San Francisco49ers and that's because they
have a really stacked group ofwags.
I love them.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Right.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Kristen Juszczyk and Claire Kittle and Olivia Kolpo
Kolpo so.
But now and their season wentlike didn't go well, because so
many injuries?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
They had a lot of injuries.
Yeah, Christian.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
McCaffrey got injured .
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Brennan Ayuk.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
So now, next year's Super Bowl is going to be in San
Francisco, so I do hope thatthey get another shot at it.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
I don't think they are.
They're probably going to tradetheir wide receiver one, debo
Samuel, and Christian's, anotheryear older.
He might have a bit of acomeback season, but it's not
going to be better than any ofhis other seasons.
It's only going to start todecay from here.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Okay, that's okay, because I think I've also.
I'm also intrigued by thedetroit lions because of dan
campbell.
I love him.
He's the coach of the detroitlions.
He's such a wholesome, justsweet older man who seems like
he really cares for his team.
But the problem with rootingfor them is that his whole like
(19:07):
coaching staff has moved on toother teams because they did so
well last year.
So they're kind of a toss uptoo.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yeah, I think.
I think he's going to be OKwithout his offensive and
defensive coordinators.
I think he's built a systemthat can outlast those guys and
he's got people from within thathe can promote into those
positions that already know thesystem Right.
So I feel like maybe you canprobably remove that caveat or
(19:34):
that concern factor from yourdecision making.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Okay, the other team, like I also, when I think about
teams I want to root for, it'slike okay, maybe one year I'll
go to a game and I'm not tryingto go to Detroit, no offense.
So maybe I should pick a teamthat has like a fun city.
So I was thinking about the NewYork Jets.
Now I've had an up and downrelationship with them because I
was like all gung ho after Iwatched Hard Knocks on HBO about
(20:01):
like Aaron Rodgers and thatseason, and then of course we
all know he got injured in thefirst play.
He was out for the whole season, then last season he was
actually playing but likeliterally took the whole team
down with him, like they are amess, they did terrible and he
just is, like has a stinkyattitude, like he seems like
he's not who I thought he was.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Yeah, so anyways, they kicked him out, but they
have.
What's his name, that coachthat they just hired?
Speaker 2 (20:26):
From the Detroit Lions, the defensive coordinator
, Aaron Glenn.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Yes, that handsome older black man, the salt and
pepper beard.
Yeah, yeah, so he's on Shortking.
He's on the New York Jets and Ifeel like if they get a new
quarterback, that'd be great.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, they're not going to get a new quarterback
immediately, so I feel like thelast thing you want to do is
pick a team to start cheeringfor that doesn't have a
quarterback.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
So it's tempting to follow Aaron Glenn from the
Lions over to the Jets, but Ijust feel like the Jets, it's a
world of hurt.
They always find a way to takethe L.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I know that's the other thing, like if I'm going
to pick the New York Jets like Igot to, like choose to suffer
and like I'm, you know that'snot me.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
I like the idea of you picking an interesting city.
I think you should alsoconsider a team that with a
young quarterback that has showspromise, but they haven't yet
performed at that elite level.
So you're not a bandwagonjumper miami no, I don't think
you want to get behind mikemcdaniel why he seems like so
(21:32):
nice.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
I love how he like runs away.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
I saw a stat recently that his record against teams
that against winning teams, liketeams over 500 is three for 14
with Miami so he'll.
They only beat teams that suckyou know I?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
that actually brings it up an important point.
Do I want to pick a team that'sgoing to win, like I'm?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
you want to pick a team that's going to win in the
next three to five years yeah,exactly, so like.
Miami's going in the wrongdirection.
No, but I Tyree Kale's going toretire in the next year or two
if he doesn't ask for a trade.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
So they have.
I also just like what MikeMcDaniels said to his
quarterback Tua when he got hurt.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
He If you need to pick Miami, you can pick Miami.
I'm just giving you fairwarning.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
He got hurt.
So Tua is their quarterback andhe's had like crazy, like
history with concussions.
He was like they've had like somany concussion protocols with
him and he had this game and helike I don't know why, but he
slid with his like helmet firstand into someone and like he was
on the field like laying down.
Everyone was freaking out Likethey knew that like of his
(22:39):
history.
They had like the like themedics out there.
He like stood up and like MikeMciel was like down there
running to go check on hisquarterback.
He got up and he like patted onhis head and they like took him
off field, of course for likeconcussion, like whatever.
And he's like don't worry aboutus, you're the quarterback of
your family, like what a nicething to say to your quarterback
(23:00):
.
And then I was like wow, I'm afan so you're gonna pick, pick
Miami.
It's between Miami or the Jets.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Really.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Or San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
If it's between those three, I would go with San
Francisco.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
They're going to pay Brock Purdy.
They're going to give him a bigcontract.
So, like Mr Irrelevant, that'sa great story, mr Irrelevant to
like a paid franchisequarterback and they still have
the wags you like.
They still have christianmccaffrey.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
They still have brandon iuke.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
They might trade for another wide receiver, although
they did draft a first roundwide receiver last year, ricky
pierce all, who is also a greatstory because he got shot in the
preseason oh, yes, and thencame back mid-season played and
like was good.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Why did he get shot?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Someone was trying to steal his watch and they shot
him.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Crazy.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
That's also crazy how like these NFL like NFL is one
of those like games where theywear so much jewelry, like they
have like a full diamond, likechain going on.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
You got grills and some lifeguards.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
And they're allowed to wear all that jewelry.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
I think between all these, Detroit would probably be
your best pick, but then secondto that would be 49ers.
Okay, my team's Stay away fromMiami and New York.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
My team so far are in order.
San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Miami?
I don't know, it would be funny.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
I have like a good logo.
What about the PittsburghSteelers?
You also like Mike Tomlin.
I do like Mike.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Tomlin yeah, I do like him.
I like Mike Tomlin because hejust like looks like he's like a
tough guy.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
But like he's nice, he's been there for a long time.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yeah, and he's like legit and he's like, yeah,
stands up for his team and hereally did a number in russell
wilson, like he brought him backto life, if you see footage.
So russell wilson is aquarterback, he's married to
sierra and he's also a reallygood man because he like
basically adopted future junior,which is sierra's son, with
future the rapper, and he justlike was at I can't remember
what team, but he was at anotherteam with like a kind of a
(25:07):
jerky coach and he you could seehim like on the sideline just
like so beat down, like havingsuch a hard season.
Everyone was like criticizinghim.
And then he went over to theSteelers and Mike Tomlin like
you see footage of him.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
They're like hugging and like he's just so much like
they've really like yeah,leveled him up and like affirmed
him just so much like they'vereally like, yeah, leveled him
up and like affirmed him, andthat's like the power of good
coaching.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
It's true.
So I want to root for them.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
You need a good coach .
Speaker 1 (25:32):
I do need a good coach.
Anyways, there's a lot offootball talk and I thought we
were done with football for theyear, but that's where I'm at
with my favorite teams.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Since you're undecided, I think I can just
make an executive decision andsay you'll cheer for the Colts.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
No, okay.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Just jump on my bandwagon, baby.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
You know I really admire your loyalty.
That's like one of the things Ilove about you, but it's just
I'm numb.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
You want to have a good time?
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Yeah, I'm here for a good time.
Yeah, well once you pick,you're going to have to be loyal
.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
I won't be Fair.
At least you told us ahead oftime.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah, that's not my brand as an NFL fan.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Fairweather fan.
I'm a fairweather fan, Okay,well then all my criteria
doesn't apply so just pick yourfavorite team right now that you
think will be the most fun nextseason.
Then you can just regroup forthe next season after that.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Yeah, or I can regroup every week, yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
So okay, I pick san francisco.
Okay, stick with the wags seeyou there well, should we get
into our actual three storiesfor today yes, all right think
thing one duolingo owl dies, soding, the duolingo is dead ding
the duolingo isn't that like aphrase, oh like ding dong, the
witch is dead that's the oneyeah ding is not the name of the
(26:52):
owl, duo is the name of the owl, but the owl is dead
nonetheless.
The language learning appshared on social media right
around the super bowl actuallyyes that duo.
the avian in question had passedaway.
They published thisobituary-style letter with a
cutout of an owl talking aboutit.
(27:14):
They also shared thatauthorities were currently
investigating his cause of deathand they were cooperating fully
.
And they also said TBH, heprobably died waiting for you to
do your lesson.
But what do we know?
Since the announcement, they'vehad a little bit more context
to this with the websitebringbackduolingocom, which I
(27:34):
checked it out and it's a bit ofit's like a xp counter from the
app itself, where people aregathering experience points from
doing language lessons what isx?
Experience points, so that's notlike megabytes.
Have you ever used Duolingolike the app?
Speaker 1 (27:50):
No.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Because you're already bilingual.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Thank you for saying that.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
You're already a Duolinguist.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Well, for those of us that have used the app, when
you complete lessons, you getexperience points.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
And you kind of level up as you go.
So they have this like xpcounter on this website that is
counting up worldwide experiencepoints over a period of time.
They need to hit 50 billion forduolingo to come back to life.
It's kind of like the classicchristmas movie.
I think it's the santa clauspeople's like yeah, holiday
(28:25):
spirit.
The holiday spirit meter islike at zero.
Oh, no.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
And as people start caroling, the meter fills up
again.
The best way to spreadChristmas cheers for singing
loud for all to hear.
So Duolingo needs everyone tobring on that cheer.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah, bring them back to life.
Do Dua Lipa a favor and bringback Duo.
Do Dua Lipa a favor and bringback Duo.
So, yeah, they need to hit 50billion experience points as
soon as possible for Duo to comeback.
And they also I thought it wasinteresting they have like a
country ranking board, kind oflike the Olympics, and they've
got like a gold medal and asilver medal and a bronze medal.
(29:00):
I think right now it's the US,someone in China that are in the
lead.
The US someone in China thatare in the lead.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
The US, someone in China?
Speaker 2 (29:09):
I forget who's in second.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
But yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
That's the plot.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
You know, duolingo just does Duolingo things.
They totally beat by like theirown drum, like they're so
outside of the box and I love tosee it like.
This is definitely a marketingstunt.
Yes, it's cheesy, yes, it'slike obvious, but whatever, it's
Duolingo like happy to see it.
I am a fan of what they do.
(29:37):
I feel like it's hard to thinkoutside the box, like it's
really hard to like come up withtheir like owl TikTok and all
that stuff.
Like I love to see them like becreative.
So yeah, yeah I love.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
At first I was kind of skeptical, but when they
introduced this like thislanding page with the experience
points counter, I thought thatwas a great way to actually tie
it back to using the app rightyou know, because you can make
so many viral owl tiktoks frombeing goofy on yeah but like
this actually pushes people andlike unifies people towards a
(30:12):
common goal that is their, likewhole business.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
The thing is like I can't imagine people care enough
to bring him back to life tolike go and use the app.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
But it's not.
It's not a big lift to go doone language lesson.
Yeah, you know, especially ifyou're already trying to learn a
language.
You're getting pushnotifications from the app all
the time, from Duo himself.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Right.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
And you're like, yeah , I do need to like pick up my
Spanish again or whatever, soit's not a big lift to be like
oh Duo might never come back.
I need to tap in and likeactually do this lesson.
This is serious and just to bepart of the moment, like we
talked about monoculture, evenin our trend report we talked
about shared moments.
It's a great play at that trendand bringing people back into
(30:55):
the use case of the app itselfthrough a social first campaign.
And I also thought it wasinteresting back to the Super
Bowl commercials.
But there's been various sociallistening tools that have shown
that this stunt or campaign, ifyou want to call it that has
actually generated moreimpressions than a lot of the
Super Bowl commercialsthemselves.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, and the more you talk about it, like you're
right, like this, if at in threemonths time or whatever, when
Dua comes back to life and theyhave those like usage reports
and they can see that there's anotable lift during his like
death period because people aretrying to bring him back to life
, even if it's like like itdoesn't have to be like 100%
(31:35):
lift or whatever, even if it'slike a small lift, it's like a
great way to use social to driveactivity through an app which
is actually kind of hard to do,like social media marketing,
especially for apps likeDuolingo.
It's like about brand and abrand awareness.
It's not necessarily drivinguser like results.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
A hundred percent and and there's even if it is about
driving people to an app.
I think rarely is there like aunified experience from social
to within the app right so Ithink that's really cool in this
context where, like what you'reseeing and experiencing in the
discourse that's happening onsocial media, you follow that
into the app itself and theexperience is true there too
(32:17):
yeah, yeah, that is really nice.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
We love to see like social, really like leading the
way in that.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Zaria just kill.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Zaria.
Zaria Perez, we got we had thechance to see her speak at a
conference and we did somecontent with her and she is like
so cool.
She's like the brains behindthe Duolingo owl.
She has done things that havereally pushed the boundaries
just for brand social in general.
And one person on LinkedIn Isaw like people talking about
(32:42):
the dual death, and one personon LinkedIn summarized dual owls
impact perfectly.
They said marketing has hit aninflection point where emotional
impact is losing effectivenessand cultural impact is now
paramount to success and I feellike Duolingo really does that.
They lean into like culturesand subcultures.
Like they had a bunch of owlsat like the first tour of of uh,
(33:06):
charlie xcx's sweat tour andlike she shouted them out at the
concert.
Like they Like they're in theculture and I love that they're
sharing the moments with us.
They do a good job.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Yeah, so I chalk that up as a win.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Yeah, into it.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Do you want to take us into thing?
Two Okay.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Thing two Nike and Skims tease a new brand Nike
Skims.
In a collaboration post thisweek, the brands revealed a dual
logo Nike Skims with thecaption post this week, the
brands revealed a dual logo nikeskims with the caption
introducing nike skims a brand,a new brand coming this spring
for the body obsessed, designedto sculpt and engineered to
perform.
(33:43):
So that's all we got.
I mean, two billion dollarbrands are creating a new brand
within the athletic wear space.
I should love this.
This is like right up my alley,you know, but I don't want to
be a hater because it's verypremature, Like we don't even
(34:04):
know what the product is.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
I think in the end you will love it.
But like talk to us, I hope so.
I hope I love it.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
But I don't know if I'm here for it and part of it's
like.
So, part of it's because, likeI love the attention that sports
is getting right now.
I really love the attentionthat women's sports is getting
right now and obviously it'slike an important time in the
culture to like be giving theselike female athletes their dues,
(34:30):
also injecting more money andinvestment into the space
athletes their dues, alsoinjecting more money and
investment into the space.
But I just feel like Nike, tome, represents a brand for
athletes and a brand thatempowers everyone to be an
athlete.
Skims, to me, represents a brandthat really isn't at like
(34:51):
they're inclusive in some ways,but at the end of the day,
they're like creating productsthat help women fit into a mold.
And the thing that, like I, upto date, have really loved Skims
marketing.
I feel like they've done areally good job with their
campaigns, but they had acampaign a few weeks ago and it
was they were launching theirbutt enhancing shorts and it's
(35:13):
basically like shapewear shortswith butt pads in it, and they
did this like video where KimKardashian was like the fairy
butt godmother or whatever Fairybuttmother and I just like
really it rode me the wrong wayBecause up until that point I
felt that Skim did a really goodjob at celebrating different
body types.
And then suddenly there was thisproduct that was trying to like
(35:36):
change your body type andtrying to like promote a
different shape, and I just thatdidn't sit well for me and it
also feels like a little bitlike predatory on like women too
, to make them feel like this isan area of insecurity that you
should fix with this productlike I just didn't like the tone
(35:58):
of it and the product itself.
And then I've seen like Skimsdoes their their kind of like
marketing schedule or cadence islike they'll have the launch
campaign or a teaser campaign,launch video, high quality, like
content, and then they do likeseating with influencers.
So after those like initialcampaign videos, I've been
(36:19):
seeing so much on like TikTokpeople getting the product
trying it on and showing likehow they look after and even
just that experience and likeit's.
I don't like it.
This is not.
This feels like not the kind ofproduct I want to support.
And so then seeing them rightafter that step into this arena
with Nike, it feels like not thekind of product I want to
support, and so then seeing themright after that step into this
arena with Nike, it feels likefor me like athletics, female
(36:43):
athletes that's a space maybethe only space where women are
judged solely on theirperformance, not how they look
and so for, to see them kind ofmarry into a product that might
be for athletes or might not be,I don't know yet.
It just doesn't feel like it's amatch and I just hope that it's
not like contour wear or likeshape wear that makes women feel
(37:06):
like they have to look acertain way in order to perform.
You know, because that's theonly space that, like athletes
have.
Like it's not about your looks,it's about what you can do on
the field, exactly Likeeverywhere else in this world.
It's like about how we look,and I'm not naive enough to
think that like how you look ingeneral as an athlete doesn't
(37:27):
lead you to like more brandendorsements and more this and
that Like it's still, you know,I understand how the world works
, but I just hope that theproduct they end up releasing
isn't something that's likedesigned to make women look a
certain way when they'reperforming.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
I think that's valid.
I hope Skims is listening, butI think you nailed it.
I hope that they're alreadythinking about these things and
I kind of my perception of skimsis that there's like different
iterations or like versions oftheir product or like ecosystems
(38:06):
of their product, because Itotally agree with the butt
enhancer.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
that was weird, um, and they also did that like
nipple bra yeah, and the nipplethe way the nipple bra is
different for me than the buttenhancer.
Yeah, is that the nipple waslike for fun, like show your
nipples, and it's almost likecontrarian, like most bras are
designed to like not show yournipples you know, but it's like
show, it's like free andliberating, and like you don't
(38:31):
have to be like that.
It's like and liberating, andlike you don't have to be like
that.
It's like.
But this was like have a biggerbutt, because bigger butts are
better.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
You know, and I just didn't like that tone so it's
almost like the butt enhancerpiece is like a bit of a
exception to the rest of theirproduct mix, which is
interesting.
So it very well could be a test.
It could even be like a bit ofa like conquestual thing with
like a brand like Lululemon.
Maybe they're trying to see ifthey can take market share.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Yes, well, I saw there's a sports marketer that I
really respect.
He was doing like a deep diveon it and basically he is saying
that, like Nike hasn't beenable to corner that market and
it's the market of, likelululemon and aloe, it's like
the lifestyle athletic wearleggings, rich women doing
(39:20):
pilates, that's the market thatthis could fit for nike because
nike hasn't cornered that rightand I think, to be fair to skims
, like they were, the officialunderwear of the, the women's
team, in the olympics in thesummer olympics in 2021.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
They also have a partnership with the nba and
wnba and usa usa basketballalready, and they do have a
performance line as well, don'tthey?
I think they launched it in2023 so anyways I feel like
they're in.
if we're acknowledging that theyhave different types of product
, kind of mixes, then I'm hopingthat we can give them the
(40:00):
credit that they understand whatbelongs where and that they've
shown too, through some of thosepartnerships, that it can be
less about aesthetics and moreabout the true nature of these
games like yeah performance andoutput yeah, and and it like
from a business perspective itmakes sense like WNBA is
starting to get like all theseother sponsorships too, like
(40:23):
Sephora is one of the leadsponsorships with WNBA.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
That that also rubs me the wrong way because like
makeup and in general like suremake Sephora sells more than
just makeup, but like the beautyindustry in itself, like is,
also makes money off of womenfeeling like they have to look a
certain way.
So like that shouldn'tnecessarily play a role in
(40:45):
sports.
Personally, like that that justmight be like my personal
opinion or whatever, but likesports should be a place where
women can just go and play andthey don't have to wear makeup
or they don't have to feel likethey look a certain way.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
And if you want to, that's fine, but you shouldn't
like I just feel like thepartnership feels wrong, like
off do you think so, though,because, like, I agree to an
extent, but I think there istoday a lot more about sports
than just the in the gamesthemselves, like you even think
(41:21):
about, especially in basketball,like the tunnel, the shots in
the tunnel, of the athleteswalking up and they're kitted
out in like crazy designerclothes, you know, like it's all
a spectacle still yeah and sothere is that element of it,
when still the game itself, whenwhen the, the puck gets dropped
or the tip-off happens likeit's all about performance and
(41:44):
whatever they're wearing needsto support that narrative.
But I think, like makeup, injust the same way as like
clothes and fashion and jewelry,like when you're talking about
the NFL, those do have a part toplay in some of the spectacle
that happens before and afterthe game yeah, sports at the end
of the day.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
At the end of the day is entertainment but, I think,
for women's sports especially,there's a huge drop off in youth
girls like advancing theirsports.
Like there's so many studiesthat show that, like girls
usually quit sport at a certainage.
It's around puberty.
It's when they feel a bit moreinsecure about their bodies,
more like stuff is happening inlife and social circles and
(42:25):
development.
A lot of them are getting theirperiods, which actually stops
them from pursuing sports too,like competitive sports.
So, with knowing that, that'swhy I have an issue with women's
sports specifically justgetting cozy with like makeup
brands and shapewear.
Personally, just because, likethere's steps that sports,
(42:47):
women's sports leagues aremaking that create more
opportunities for girls insports.
The more the WNBA advances, themore it opens up opportunities
for like younger girls leaguesto do more and they get more
resources and training camps andall that.
It helps the sport in general.
With that in mind, knowingthere's so many barriers in
(43:08):
girls sports helps the sport ingeneral.
With that in mind, knowingthere's so many barriers in girl
sports, I just doesn't feellike the partnership I I was
hoping to see you know sephora,yeah, or like, and I I don't
know exactly what the skims nikeproduct's gonna be.
I just I just think of it fromthat lens yeah, yeah, that makes
sense.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
I think I wonder the mechanics of it too.
Like, is it Nike going to skimsbeing like let's do this
together Because?
If so, that makes a lot ofsense Because, to your point,
they have a woman problem intheir audience.
I think, women make up 40percent of Nike's audience right
now shoes, yeah, exactly andoverall too, beyond just that
(43:48):
female market, nike's strugglinglike they've been slipping
across the board for the lastthree to five years I think um,
my, I was talking to my friendasim on instagram about this,
because I posted that we weregoing to talk about this and he
mentioned that nike's down 35over the last two years and 23
over the last five wow becauseof that they've had leadership
(44:09):
changes, like people haveresigned, they've hired new
executive leadership and they'retrying different things.
I think they made some mistakeswith how much they flooded the
market with all sorts ofdifferent sneaker styles and
colors and now there's kind ofthere's way less demand for that
.
Yeah, and they're losing groundto to other sneaker brands like
(44:30):
on running hoka, yeah, brandslike that, solomon so yeah, it's
just like they need to dosomething.
So if nothing else, skims isrelevant.
It has a corner of the, thefemale audience.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
I get it, I want to.
I hope I like it yeah, I hopetoo.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
I hope they show us that they've got a great team
that's done their research andand actually cares about sports.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
Yeah, I have faith in Emigreed.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Okay, do you want to talk about the last big thing
here?
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Yeah, our uh.
The last one is reallyinteresting.
I'm excited to talk about thiswith you and just kind of like
get a little bit more granularinto your thoughts.
But thing three is all abouthow micro trends could be a
signal of low status and whatlife post brain rot could look
like.
So we had an interestingdiscussion in Slack this week
(45:23):
over a TikTok video that wefound by Huge Brandstrat, who's
a brand strategy consultant andlecturer, and basically he was
breaking down how, over the lastfew years and he he wrote a
piece in vogue about this aswell but he was saying how the
last few years, algorithms havecompletely cooked our personal
style from mob wife to quietluxury.
(45:45):
It's just impossible to keep upto the fast-paced nature of the
internet and micro trends,which is true.
We talk about this all the timeinternally and with our clients
, because algorithms are meantto exaggerate the most extreme
of any trait.
So, um, what was happening isthat microtrends and fashion
were going further and furtheraway from what people actually
wore in real life.
(46:05):
One of the quotes that reallystuck out to me from the video
was when he said it's notfashion, it's cosplay.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Totally.
And then he talked about how,like, who actually looks good in
a bubble skirt?
It's so true, like that waseverywhere and like no one looks
good on it in them.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Yeah, exactly so.
He went on to talk about howwe're heading into what he calls
a post brain rot era, where IRLwill become a status symbol and
dressing according tomicrotrends will feel more like
a low status activity, becauseit shows that you're chronically
online and people are reallytrying to move away from that.
(46:42):
So that's why you're starting tosee people embrace the opposite
side of the pendulum, wherethere's more emphasis on basics
and simple kind of capsulestyles and I would say too, it's
not just limited to fashioneither.
That was like a big kind of partof his case or like examples.
But he mentioned architectureand I would say the same, for
(47:03):
you know, even in our space,like design trends, like graphic
design, or even like contentstyles or the way you edit photo
or video, there's been a lot ofthat that just all kind of
started to look the same becauseit's all connected to a micro
trend on TikTok, for example,but I think we're going to see
more of a kind of disbursementaway from that.
So I think the last kind ofpoint he made was that we're
(47:26):
going to start to see a need forbrands to embrace what he
called the pulse of the Internet, while not appearing to be too
online.
He said there's a differencebetween those brands that
understand how to leverage thepulse of the Internet to make
engaging content that spreadsacross social, and brands that
hover around like vultureswaiting to feast on the carcass
of the latest meme that theInternet throws up.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
That line, though, was such a good one it was so
convicting like seeing thisvideo Also just refreshing.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
So refreshing and validating.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Because I think in our work, especially since we
work in social, it's easy tofall victim into, like micro
trends and to feel like you haveto do every single trending
thing that's happening on TikTok.
But it really validated, kindof like, our approach where
we've been looking a bit moremacro and not just at, like,
what's the like the hot thingright now in this moment?
But really, what like?
(48:15):
What are the digital behaviorsthat like are informing how we
move and operate in the world?
Because there's a lot offactors that contribute to that,
which is why we love ScanClub,we love our newsletter.
If you haven't subscribed, youshould go check it out.
We have a trend report thatoutlines all of this and what's
happening right now in 2025.
But yeah, I thought it wasreally really interesting.
(48:35):
I can definitely.
I feel like for me, I so agreethat being IRL is so luxurious
luxurious like the more you'reoff your phone, the more you're
like exploring.
I've had this like weird desireto be like more literary and it
feels like.
The other day I was like how doI become literary?
(48:59):
Like I don't know, is this justreading?
But I can't just read my likelittle fiction books.
I need to like like read atextbook or something like go
back to some like literaryclassics.
Yeah, and sometimes I'll be likeaware of like what I'm looking
at on like my phone and likeread a textbook or something or
like go back to some likeliterary classics, yeah, and
sometimes I'll be like aware oflike what I'm looking at on like
my phone and TikTok and stuff.
I'm like I can't believe thisgarbage, you know.
So I do feel like that's notjust me that's feeling that,
(49:22):
it's a lot of people that arefeeling that.
And when you see someone who'svery trendy and sometimes I get
embarrassed too because I'm Ilike like pop culture and I like
you know all this stuff that istrending on TikTok and I know a
lot of it and in in my friendgroup I'm usually the I'm the
most online of everyone.
So sometimes it's embarrassingbecause, like, I know so much,
(49:43):
like I can't even I can barelyparticipate in some
conversations Cause I'll like'll, like, I'll just like like
bombard people with too muchinformation and it just like
becomes boring.
So I can completely relate tothis.
It's like a balance of beingable to like go with the waves
of the internet.
I love how you described itlike the pulse of the internet,
(50:03):
without feeling like too onlineyeah, and I think it'll be
interesting because inevitably,as humans, we are influenced.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
So it's like, if we're not being influenced by
the doom scrolling and the microtrends, what are we going to be
influenced by?
yeah could it be a return tolike our early, like late 90s,
early 2000s, like school dayswhere it was like the class
system was like jocks and likenerds and and like the mean
(50:35):
girls and and whatever otherlike groups there were in school
?
Is that?
Is it more around function Likewe all dress kind of nerdy
cause we're all into HarryPotter, or we all dress in like
athletic wear cause we're all onthe football team?
What are the things that we'reall into Harry Potter or we all
dress in like athletic wearbecause we're all on the
football team?
What are the things that we'regoing to kind of cluster around,
if not these trends on TikTok?
(50:56):
So it'll be interesting to seethat.
But back to your point aboutmacro trends and like thinking
bigger.
I totally agree.
That's why I love ScanClub andwhy I think it's really valuable
for brands and creators.
But I also just think ingeneral what it all comes back
to, if you were to reallysimplify it, is for brands and
marketers finding a way to beproactive in our strategies and
(51:19):
in our approach to contentinstead of reactive, because
that's what reacting to trendsis.
It's in the word reacting.
You know, we're just trying tokeep up with how culture is
moving at the speed of social um.
So what does it look like for abrand to be proactive in their
approach to content?
And I think scan club and ourprocess of, like looking for
(51:41):
signals and anticipatingbehavioral shifts is one aspect
of that.
But what other ways can brandsbe proactive it also is so
similar to another thing we talkabout a lot with our clients,
which is like don't obsess toomuch with your competitors.
You know, because that'sanother way to be reactive, like
yeah oh, our competitor didthis, so we need to jump on that
, so we're part of thatdiscourse, or because you're
(52:03):
comparing yourself so muchyou're trying to, you're almost.
Your actions inevitably mirrorthe movements of the other
brands in your space.
Speaker 1 (52:11):
You almost want to like act independently of not
just competitors, but just likethe internet, almost like 100,
that's cool like it's, and it'snot about being ahead of the
trend, like to your point, aboutlike proactive.
It's almost like doingsomething that's different, that
feels like you came up with anindependent thought yeah, and
(52:34):
it's not even necessarilyanticipating a trend no, it
could be, that could be part ofyour proactive approach, but
also requires, like actuallyhaving values and actually
Speaker 2 (52:45):
having a belief system within which your brand
exists and a true, an actualproblem that you're trying to
solve.
Because if you have thosethings, then you can build
content and marketing strategiesand tactics around that, rather
than just like clinging on torelevance just because you were
one of the brands that posted ameme about the grammys I do feel
(53:07):
like it also means like youkind of have to be a little
offline, like for real, not justlike look like you're offline,
but like actually like.
Speaker 1 (53:14):
To me, events come to mind, like events is a great
way to like connect to yourcommunity and capture something
that's not online and it's likefeels really like real and
authentic and like gives backthings like that.
But even in like one of thethings he said in his video and
like gives back things like that.
But even in like one of thethings he said in his video is
(53:35):
like even photography, in likearchitecture and design.
It used to be like blank, likevery like open spaces and like
very like blank spaces, but nowthey're starting to design or be
more intentional about theirart design, about like including
real life stuff like clutterand messes.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
Because you want to show the offline in the online,
kind of like.
So it's almost like you kind ofhave to get out of like out of
your feeds a little bit.
Speaker 2 (54:04):
Yeah, or even I think maybe a more practical way is
just to change the order of yourlike process.
You know, it's not, it mightnot be like completely social
media agnostic, but maybeinstead of like starting on the
channel, like like TikTok, andidentifying trends and then
building your content, like kindof like forcing your brand
(54:26):
through the, the shapes of thosetrends, to create posts.
Speaker 1 (54:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
Maybe instead it's like creating content around the
problem that you're solving orthe realities that your
audiences experience, or yourvalues or whatever it is, but
then still before you publishthat content, using these trends
or the pop culture moments orthe public discourse as a filter
(54:52):
that you apply against thatcontent, and then you modify the
content in smaller ways tostill connect, if that makes
sense yeah so it's just like,instead of starting with the
channel, you're starting withthe idea, and then the channel
influences the final iterationof that piece of content.
Speaker 1 (55:12):
Yeah, and back to ScanClub.
If you want a way to like kindof start those ideas, we've
outlined some five macro trends,digital behavior trends that
we've been following all yearround.
You can check that out atScanClclubsubstackcom.
And, yeah, I think that's agreat place to start.
Speaker 2 (55:33):
Do it.
Speaker 1 (55:35):
Do it up.
Anything else you wanted to add?
Speaker 2 (55:37):
That's all we got.
Thanks for watching.
You can find this on YouTube oranywhere you listen to podcasts
.
Make sure you leave a review.
If you haven't yet Join us onInstagram or TikTok, where we
are part of the chaos, you cansend us a message.
You can tap like.
Haven't yet join us onInstagram or Tik TOK, where we
are part of the the chaos, youcan send us a message.
You can tap like.
You can leave a commentwhatever you want, but other
than that, that's all we gotthis week.
Should I bang the gong?
Speaker 1 (55:58):
You better See you next time.
That was good.
That was the perfect gongvolume.
Speaker 2 (56:06):
Very low volume Good job.
That was fun.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
Yeah, perfect gong volume Very low volume.
Good job, that was fun.
Yeah, good job.
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