A Defining Moment Mar 24, 2020 ... Discover how we are approaching and uncovering nascent trends around polarization, and how Covid-19 plays a big part in this.The Cassandra team was in the field with our quantitative and qualitative studies in January, uncovering nascent trends about how polarization was impacting all facets of youth culture—interactions with friends and family, the evolution of activism, engagement with businesses and brands. As we were developing our stories and analysis on where activism and brand purpose ...
OK, Boomer! Mar 23, 2020 ... ” isn’t just about the past, but “our apocalyptic future.” The meme goes beyond merely highlighting generational tensions: it identifies youths’ deeply rooted concerns, in turn driven by enormous disruptions in fundamental areas across society, technology, and the financial sector. All brands, regardless of which generational cohort they target, will need to better understand how and where these generational conflicts are most pronounced, as they are only poised to accelerate in the future. “I think ...
Live, Not Buy: Gen Z Activism Mar 22, 2020 ... Gen Zs’ approach to activism is informed by their realistic outlook and self-awareness, which brands need to understand in order to engage in social causes and issues in a way that resonates with this cohort.Conventional wisdom suggests that Gen Z will be the generation to take activism to the next level—that they will be change agents who fix the broken parts of society. Consider Greta Thunberg, TIME’s 2019 Person of the Year, who’s leading the charge against the global climate crisis ...
No Joy in Division Mar 21, 2020 ... their relationship to media, brands, and beyond. GETTING PERSONALPolarization can be highly personal for today’s youth. Indeed, nearly one in five Trendsetters in the U.S. (18%) say that they have stopped interacting with or "defriended" people they know whose political views do not align with their own, and one in 10 UK Trendsetters (12%) say this as well. While this is less than a majority of Trendsetters in the U.S. that report this kind of behavior, they are still twice as likely to “defriend ...
Would You(th) Care For A Cause? Mar 20, 2020 ... Find out if Gen Zs and Gen Ys actually care when brands get involved in social causes or political issues, as well as differences in how each generation perceives such brand initiatives. To socially conscious modern youth, aligning your brand with a cause or social issue is a table stake: the bare minimum effort that companies must put forward to earn a place at the table. Socially conscious young people almost expect brands to stand for something as a baseline requirement. However, we have ...
Alternative Education Mar 19, 2020 ... In an increasingly crowded space of brand purpose, the pivot to being a purveyor of trusted information can be the opportunity for a brand to stand out.As more and more brands lean in to align with causes and showcase their activism, the brand purpose arena has gotten more noisy and cluttered. As we write in Would You(th) Care for a Cause, Brand Purpose, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Cause Related Marketing are all now table stakes, and as such, they cease to be differentiators. Against ...
Category Lens Mar 18, 2020 ... expected to reach a market value of USD 10.3 billion by 2024. In the past six months we have seen brands push forward on these efforts in new and innovative ways, from utilizing wastewater for beer to creating sustainable toilet paper out of bamboo. Yet the FMCG remains particularly vulnerable when it comes to issues related to sustainability. What if your brand was addressing some of today’s biggest environmental issues? TECHNOLOGYThe technology category is viewed by some as a contributing factor to ...
The Impact Of Influence Dec 17, 2019 ... Discover whether influencers actually possess influence or if they’re merely a channel for brands, and learn about the qualities that draw young people to the influencers they admire.Brands have always sought out those with status and mass appeal to market their goods, nabbing celebrities to feature in their TV commercials and dressing actors in their latest designs for red carpet appearances. Brands and organizations—from fashion to magazines to TV networks—held the power in ...
The Hive Mind Dec 16, 2019 ... social technologies of this decade. It’s important for brands to understand what it is, how it’s manifesting, and, most importantly, how to NOT be on the wrong end of it; but rather, how to harness it when possible. In this piece, we examine the modern iteration of these hive minds and how they currently play out in two manifestations, known as “stan culture” and “cancel culture.” Before we explore what these are, it’s important to note that the one uniting factor in both cultures is the force of ...
The New Social Order Dec 15, 2019 ... Trends across the influencer landscape are shifting—especially with the rise of micro-influencers who have more engaged, niche audiences—prompting brands to evaluate their specific goals when tapping into influencer marketing. The influencer economy is nothing new. For the last decade, influencers have been launching themselves into people's social media feeds, promoting a sunny, stylized version of their lives and pushing an astonishing variety of products—from sneakers and ...