A Picture’s Worth a Ton of Tiki Bars
This week on Mindshare's Culture Vulture Live, Gabriella Kaplan talks about a trend called ME-DIA.
Today, for millennials and generation Z, pins, posts, and retweets are acting as the ultimate form of identification on social media. In fact, 90% of Generation Z admits to purchasing a gift based on social media influence. This is forcing brands to be more aware of their aesthetic than ever before.
For example, Taylor Swift - queen of the perfectly curated Instagram feed - posted a photo of herself in a swan-shaped pool raft in 2015. Two years later, Amazon reported a 200% year-over-year increase in orders of pool rafts in fun shapes - like pizza, unicorns, and palm trees. Gone are the days of pictures of pristine pools, now social feeds are full of images of silly shaped rafts floating in the water. And in a moment of ultimate Instagram inception, one of the stickers you can add to images on the popular platform is – you guessed it – a unicorn raft.
ME-DIA is also evident in new trends we're seeing around the restaurant scene. Today's culinary ventures are being driven by visual concepts more than ever before, thanks to social media. Restaurants have always wanted their spaces to be attractive, but in recent years, accent features like bold wallpaper or unique floor tiles have surged in popularity. And many places are adjusting their lighting to best highlight the plating work of chefs. Social media can even dictate which sorts of bars and restaurants are being built. For example, the number of tiki bars in New York City has doubled in the past year – not that we're complaining. And London restaurant Dirty Bones started handing out photo shoot kits so diners can get the perfect food porn shot.
We don't think this ME-DIA trend is going away any time soon, so brands must continue to keep visual platforms top of mind. Marketers can create campaigns that encourage their audiences to express themselves online. And they can do it while making sure customers consider their favorite brands a part of their identity.
Thank you for watching Culture Vulture Live. For more information on the latest in adaptive marketing, visit MindshareInTheLoop.com.
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