Are movies boring now? 🎥
Plus, our thoughts on the corporate siren trend & Pinterest’s innovative tool.
Welcome back, Scanner!
When was the last time you sat through a really good movie without checking your phone? Can you easily find people with your body type online when looking for fashion inspo? Are you old enough to remember when corporate chic was the look at the club? This week’s signals touch on those questions (and more). So go forth, digest our analysis and drop your thoughts in the comments below.
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Here we go.
📅 CURRENT
Pull Out Your Peplum: Corporate Chic Is Cool Again
What’s changing?
Millennials and Gen X-ers: get ready to pull out your best “day to night” fits – office fashion is back in style. Recently, a fashion trend has been emerging called the “office siren.” The aesthetic is all about workwear, black coffee, cute heels and romanticizing your daily work routine. Additionally, we’ve seen discussions on social media around people wanting influencers with “real jobs” that they can relate to. A recent survey conducted by Whop found that Gen Z respondents would rather earn $200,000 working for a company than $100,000 working for themselves. Gen Z respondents were the only ones to select the 9-5 job over self-employment. Are these signals pointing to a resurgence of glamorizing corporate life?
Why does it matter?
If you were in the club during the early 2000s, you know that corporate chic was the vibe. From button-up tops to a randomly extensive collection of blazers, millennials dressed like they were always attending a board meeting. Then, the economy (kind of) recovered and people started dressing like 20-year-olds again. So, why are we seeing this re-emergence of the workwear aesthetic? Could it indicate hard economic times (we’re all feeling it) and lack of disposable income to buy multiple outfits? Is it a way for people to cope with the uncertain job market and return-to-work era? Or, could it indicate boredom with the unavailable lifestyles certain influencers promote?
What could happen next?
How could this signal affect digital marketing? Will we see more influencers take on “regular” jobs as part of their content strategy? We’ve already seen a wave of unions popping up over the past few years; can we expect to see more in the marketing and content spaces? It’s not that people aren’t working hard (regardless of having a 9-5 or a side hustle), but so many of us just can’t rely on one income anymore. Could more people taking on 9-5 jobs actually help increase sales as incomes stabilize?
Scan-o-meter: 📅 📅 📅 / 5
🎯 SPECIFIC
Pinterest’s New Body Type Ranges Deliver Personalized Results
What’s changing?
Pinterest recently launched a new tool that allows users to search for images of people with certain body types. The new feature, “body range types,” will enable users to self-select what body types are featured in their searches for women’s fashion and wedding inspo. The feature is intended to inspire more inclusion on the platform and will be rolling out to more search types later this year, including men’s fashion. The tool uses Pinterest’s patent-pending “body type technology,” which uses shape, size and form to pick out body types from over 3.5 billion images on the platform. With nearly a half billion people using Pinterest to search, save and shop monthly, this new feature offers massive brand opportunities.
Why does it matter?
We’ve discussed the massive return issue that clothing brands have been facing in a previous issue. Would seeing clothing on a body type more similar to yours make online shopping more reliable? This is an opportunity for clothing and wedding brands to find gaps in their portrayal of different body types. However, it could also create an echo chamber with brands that only want to sell to one kind of person or for users who won’t see people who look different from themselves. Time will tell how the feature rolls out.
What could happen next?
What could happen next if this accelerates in popularity? Will Pinterest look for more UGC creators with different body types to fill up search results? Will brands hire a more diverse range of models? Will digital audiences expect an even more personalized online experience? Let us know your predictions in the comments below.
Scan-o-meter: 🎯🎯🎯🎯
/ 5
😲 SURPRISING
Showrunners Ask Movies to Consider the Second Screen
What’s changing?
It’s a common belief that attention spans have gotten shorter due to social media and increased distraction. While many studies on this aren’t conclusive, marketers and entertainers have been pivoting back and forth between long and short content for years. Now, movie-makers are being called out by streaming platform showrunners for not creating content that suits the “second screen.” In short, movie-makers are being told that most viewers are watching movies while also on their devices and, as a result, aren’t paying attention to what’s on screen.
Why does it matter?
Whether you love it or hate it, streaming platforms have a point. Most of us are guilty of watching the “big screen” while we scroll the “little screen” and some even sprinkle in the “medium screen.” Does this indicate that content needs to evolve or that the movies themselves need to shift? And what implications could this have for brands creating content that requires a level of focus to digest?
What could happen next?
If movies decide to cater to the “second screen” what would that look like? Would movie scripts include more plot repetitions? Would plots simplify? Or do movies become shorter? Could streaming platforms incorporate a live chat function so folks on their phones can multitask as they watch (or something like YouTube’s new multiview feature)? Does your phone buzz at key moments? Or is attention not the problem? Have movies become so repetitive and boring that audiences don’t feel the need to pay attention? Do movies need to become more artistic and shocking to encourage focus (we all know it’s been one reboot after another for the last decade)? As for other content types, are you making it easier or harder for audiences to pay attention?
Scan-o-meter: 😲😲😲😲
/ 5
🔍 TREND REPORT IRL
Updates from our Trend Forecast
We loved sharing our first Trend Report with you back in January. As the year goes on, we’ll continue investigating signals that further the conversation around our forecast. Here’s what we’re watching this week:
People want (guaranteed) value: Skinimalism is the new trend in skincare.
People want less stress, more rest: Harlequin romance novels are getting a rebrand.
🤔
BEFORE YOU GO
To help keep these signals top-of-mind, we share 1 question to ask yourself (or your team) in each edition. Your question to mull on this week is:
See you next time 👋
Seems like a slippery slope. If you want to watch a movie, watch the movie. If you want to watch tiktoks with background noise, do that. Creators shouldn’t have to cater to and appease the phone cling. Movies can be experienced however the viewer sees fit, that’s the point. They’ll keep making indie movies and studio movies and hallmark movies, because there’s an audience for everything. But if you miss something in a movie because you were distracted, put your phone down and rewind it, don’t blame the filmmaker for not making it simple or repetitive enough. Dont adjust the medium, adjust the behavior. (no shame in scrolling while watching a movie, probably an indication that the movie isn’t made for you, which is fine, but that doesn’t make it a boring movie) most people make art for themselves, not the audience