Sephora 🤝 kids’ birthday parties?
Plus: Bad Bunny’s Puerto Rico residency sets a new standard and the NFL helps athletes get into content creation.
Welcome back, Scanner!
When you were younger, you may have been lucky enough to attend a birthday party at a movie theatre or arcade. These days, tweens are getting a bit more creative (and brands are happy to tag along). This week, we’re talking about Glossier-themed Bat Mitzvahs, NFL YouTube influencers, and how Bad Bunny is boosting Puerto Rico’s GDP.
If you haven’t yet, be sure to join the over 5,000 marketers who have read our 2025 Trend Report since we launched it two weeks ago. We’ll be making connections to the trends throughout this issue – so do your homework before you dive in!
Ready? Let’s get into it.
📅 CURRENT
Kids Are Celebrating Their Birthdays at Sephora
What’s changing?
When you think of a 15-year-old’s dream birthday party, you might think of sleepovers and movie marathons, but teens and tweens these days are getting a bit more creative (and brands are more than happy to join in). Sephora has become a hot spot for birthday parties, with stores hosting age-appropriate makeup tutorials and even scavenger hunts. But it’s not about just promoting any products; these parties teach tweens what products they can use at their age without damaging their skin. And it’s not only Sephora taking part in the beauty craze; Glossier noted they have plenty of teens looking to host their events at store locations and have even seen Glossier-themed Bat Mitzvahs. Outside of beauty, brands like Vogue are getting playful with their content.
Why does it matter?
Of course, connecting with these audiences at an earlier age is an opportunity to establish brand loyalty. Particularly if the brands take care to meet consumers where they are at with age-appropriate events, creating future opportunities for customers to come back and try something new. But what else could marketers and creators glean from this signal? In our latest Trend Report, we talked about how digital audiences are looking for shared moments, and in-person parties are just one example of how brands can help facilitate and create those opportunities. There is also a tie to the desire audiences have to play, with brands leaning into the younger demo’s love of makeup and skincare at any age.
What could happen next?
What opportunities could this type of experience point to for brands more broadly? Maybe brands could better position themselves as mentors during key life transitions. This signal is a good reminder about responsible marketing and how you’re connecting with younger audiences during formative times. Is your messaging age-appropriate? Finally, we can’t forget how influential peer-to-peer marketing is. Teens and tweens are heavily influenced by their online behavior, but they make a lot of choices based on word of mouth. If their peers come to love something, they (often) will, too.
Scan-o-meter: 📅 📅 📅 📅 / 5
😲 SURPRISING
Bad Bunny’s Residency Celebrates Puerto Rico First
What’s changing?
This summer, Bad Bunny will be in residency at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico, playing a total of 30 shows at the venue. The residency kicks off on July 11th and runs until September 14th. What’s interesting is that 9 of the shows are only for Puerto Rican citizens, and the residency itself is generating a ton of new tourism for the region.
Why does it matter?
Instead of starting with a world tour, this residency not only creates these shared moments in Bad Bunny’s home, but the shows for residents create this feeling of being seen. Many of us know the frustration of a huge artist coming to your city, only for tickets to be sold out lightning-quick by people who can afford to travel to the venue and pay a premium on ticket prices. The structure of this residency allows Bad Bunny to celebrate Puerto Rico first. There is also an authenticity to the event, with Bad Bunny himself explaining that he’s doing it because he wants to stay home and have fun with his people. It’s his love letter to Puerto Rico, and fans are loving it.
What could happen next?
Will more artists take a page from Bad Bunny’s book and find ways to honor their home, both in music or with concerts? And what can we learn from this signal and watch? Could this signal a transition toward more hyper-local advertising? Or finding new and exciting ways to help digital audiences feel seen in content? The internet can feel like a vast, lonely space – but the right content can build connections.
Scan-o-meter: 😲😲😲😲 / 5
🎯 SPECIFIC
The NFL Is Partnering With YouTube to Create New Opportunities for Athletes
What’s changing?
The NFL and YouTube have been longtime partners. In 2023, they launched the “Access Pass Program,” which gave an approved group of content creators permission to use NFL footage in their videos. This allowed creators to monetize videos that used this high-quality footage (while also generating 46.5 million views for the NFL in its first year). Now, the NFL is making some changes to the program. With more NFL players getting into the content creator space, the NFL is now putting together a program called “Access Pass for Legends,” which will give content creators and athletes permission to use official footage.
Why does it matter?
As we know, YouTube is a massive opportunity for content creators. It’s one of the few platforms that leverages Google’s SEO tools to give content creators ample chances to bring in new audiences. The platform also rewards creators in multiple countries with its partnership program, making it a passive income generator in addition to the potential for brand deals. This move by the NFL is one step in helping athletes, who devote a considerable part of their lives to the game, create a sustainable career long after they retire. It amplifies voices, creates a better experience for viewers, and (from a brand perspective) makes the NFL look good.
What could happen next?
It’s interesting to see another path for career transition that legitimizes “creators” as a long-term career. This is just one way that brands can leverage their current and former employees to help amplify their brand. Will more brands hop on this trend? What other highly specialized, high-stress industries could move into the creator space? And what messages will these creators be highlighting?
Scan-o-meter: 🎯🎯/ 5
🔍 TREND REPORT IRL
Updates from our Trend Forecast
We recently launched our second Trend Report! 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 to play: Millennials are experiencing aging differently than previous generations.
People want to be seen: Kendrick Lamar’s partnership with Cash App helps underserved communities attend concerts.
People want realness: The White House is inviting influencers to press briefings.
Want more trend news? Check out What (Digital) Audiences Want In 2025!
🤔 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 👋
Yo - I love scan club, but the unexplored dark side of the Sephora bit is disturbing and outright irresponsible. Sephora is poaching, not playing. Hosting these birthday parties moves product and creates aesthetic addicts earlier and earlier, which just grows their bottom line. It’s so problematic that they’re placing these events under the guise of helping young girls with “age-appropriate” makeup tutorials during “formative times” while positioning itself as a “mentor” during “key life transitions”! What!? Sephora is worth nearly 40 billion dollars and you want to tell me they care about birthday parties? No way. It’s such euphemistic language to evade what’s really happening. Sephora is not Gandalf or Yoda - it doesn’t serve as a guide in the hero’s journey, so it’s not “mentoring”, but brainwashing. By labeling in-store experiences under the convenient label of play and creativity and “shared moments”, you get away with the real motive: to create more customers, primarily girls that don’t need these products in the first place. Skincare “at any age” is problematic! If only young girls knew that the best products for not damaging your skin are no products at all, but we all know no one is going to tell them that because there’s no money in it. So what’s really next for them? Anxiety, dysmorphia and raging insecurity for younger and younger girls with an aesthetic-first gospel in their ears whispered by fat corporations pretending to be fairy godmothers. Sephora is not throwing birthday parties; they’re creating consumers. Call a spade a spade because this is about addiction, not celebration, and telling brands to get on board with this because it’s an “opportunity” is sincerely frightening.