Social media trends move pretty fast…If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss them. Or something like that.
While it can be hard to remember what went viral even last week, we felt it was important to look back at all the brand moments that caught our attention and flooded our timelines this year. Let’s review.
Tucker’s Achilles high heel: Yes, we’re talking about the sexy M&M’s debacle, which happened at the start of 2023. Did bemoaning a cartoon candy’s loss of high heels lead to Tucker Carlson’s untidy exit from Fox News? We can’t be sure, but we know the green M&M remains comfy in her sneakers to this day.
Tarte, indeed: The response was anything but sweet when makeup brand Tarte took a group of influencers on a brand trip to Dubai in January.
“Deinfluencing” enters the repertoire: The term and movement to think critically about consumption in light of a bombardment of influencer ads and recommendations popped up in the early months of this year, and it’s still being discussed today.
Super social Bowl: Some brands, like State Farm, opted out of TV ads at this year’s Super Bowl and went all in on social. With 2024’s game on the horizon, we’re watching to see if advertising on the second screen continues to encroach on the first.
The hearing that made us stop scrolling for a minute: Remember when TikTok looked like it might be banned in the US after CEO Shou Zi Chew testified in front of Congress in March? Suddenly, creators were rethinking their posting strategies. And while Montana also tried to ban TikTok within the state, a recent pause on that ban from going into effect makes it seem like the clock app could be here to stay…for now.
Bud Light values, we hardly knew ye: This one’s for the marketing textbooks. After working with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney on a limited-edition can, Bud Light faced some right-wing backlash in April. In response, the brand put the executives behind the campaign on leave and seemingly backpedaled on its more progressive social stances. Suddenly people didn’t know whether buying a Bud Light signaled support for its initial campaign or its decision to walk it back—and the beer brand’s subsequent sales have suffered.
Bye-bye, birdie: NPR was one of a handful of companies to make a full exit from Twitter. (It didn’t change its name to X until July). Not long after NPR left, the platform removed the one thing delineating most verified accounts from the masses, aka the blue checkmark, making it a perk for paying subscribers only. But some notable users, like LeBron James, got to keep theirs even without paying, as part of a complimentary subscription from Elon Musk himself.
Three cheers for quiet luxury: Sofia Richie Grainge’s wedding was a big social moment for the “wealth whispers” girlies and set her on course to become one of TikTok’s breakthrough creators of the year.
The picket (time)line: When the WGA strike began in May, social media solidarity was evident as people posted and shared signs from the picket line. Perhaps the most viral moment from the Hollywood strikes, however, came later in the summer, when the Union Solidarity Coalition held an auction for things like Lena Dunham painting a mural in a lucky person’s home, to help support crew members affected by the strikes.
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Barbenheimer forever: Perhaps the biggest cultural moment of the summer, at least in movies, was the simultaneous release of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, which prompted double features. Whether it was its star-studded soundtrack or its seemingly endless amount of collabs, Barbie, in particular, was everywhere.
Scandoval: Ariana Madix seems to have come out on top of the Vanderpump Rules cheating scandal that broke over the summer, at least in terms of brand dollars and sponsorships.
HBD, Grimace: McDonald’s had a memorable summer after reintroducing its iconic purple character, Grimace. Not only did people seem to literally—and figuratively—eat up his “birthday meal,” it also spurred a trend where people posted videos pretending to die after drinking a Grimace Shake, for some reason. Engagement’s engagement, we guess.
Threads enters the scene: In July, Meta released an alternative to Twitter/X called Threads, and saw a huge amount of downloads…at first. Six months later, there still seems to be no clear post-Twitter winner in terms of text-based social platforms, but maybe Musk telling advertisers to “go fuck [themselves]” will change that.
FOOH me once: Videos of Maybelline OOH activations on public transit turned out to be digitally rendered, spurring a discussion about the future of fake out-of-home campaigns and the nature of reality itself.
Girl dinner: Brands like Popeyes made changes to their product offerings to capitalize on the trend about women’s collective love of little snacks.
Blanket statement: An image of Selena Gomez wearing a Laguna Beach Textile Company blanket became a meme in August, the brand sprung into action.
Traylor effect: News of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship went public this fall, causing fans and brands to go wild. From Hidden Valley posting about her choice to eat chicken strips with a condiment that appeared to be ranch dressing to State Farm seating Jake next to Kelce’s mom at a game, the opportunities to capitalize were rampant. More recently, brands jumped on a trend resurfacing Kelce’s old tweets.
Goodwill always wins: When a woman posted a video of the aftermath of a car fire and showed her Stanley tumbler still intact, the brand offered to buy her a new car and scored major brownie points from the general public.
No smoke: Snoop isn’t “giving up smoke,” as his late-November Instagram post might have led some to believe. What turned out to be an ad for Solo Stove had us wondering: What makes an effective fake announcement?
Spotify wants everyone to move to Burlington, VT: We still don’t know why. But we’ll see you there, maybe.
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