PWINCESSES, MOO DENG & THE RISE OF THE STREET TALK SHOW
Pwincesses, Chat shows and guilty as charged.
What is happening in the world (wild) web this week? Moo Deng has taken over our hearts and minds, Pookie Pwincess is slowly creeping into our lingo and We The People’s resident culture strategist Lena Tuck digs a little deeper into the emerging trends capturing her attention this week.
MAKING THE STREETS OUR TALK SHOW
This has always been an ongoing trend on TikTok (We all know about Hauk Tuah girl) but now “hosts” are sitting people “guests” down, to have a longer chat, not for a one-liner catch-phrase but a full-blown talk show with the public. However the idea of asking strangers for dating/any advice or turning the streets into your own show is a strong format when you have the right hook and messaging and bringing a consistent format into your feed.
There’s an element of relatability and authenticity that comes from street chat with the impromptu nature, these can be faked (e.g. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMhNq1KRX/ which flips the format on its head in a satirical way).
How can brands adopt this?
This works when the answers are good. They have something to say that’s provoking, unique, insightful or funny. So it’s more posing a certain question to a viewer to evoke certain responses, e.g “What advice do you have” “Have you ever done X”
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMhNqkqTc/
Mentioned further down is Industrie who have started “Free makeovers” which is a perfect example of this.
PWINCESS POOKIE
How do I actually explain this one? Well… this phenomenon of male baby-talk has slowly taken over our feeds, it’s been majorly popularised by male creators - deep in the meme lore with the m’lady meme. It’s almost so cringe that you can’t look away? Like an online trainwreck. This creator has made women cringe he has amassed 600k+ followers in the process from doing this bit. So this is a trend you may want to get behind, especially if you’re a brand/creator with a male focus.
I HOPE THEY PLAY HOT TO GO!
(More recently have been seeing Fein all over this too) This trend has been lingering around since the Eras tour but now it has become a whole new genre of content. It started as a funny bit at concerts months ago, as seen here: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMhNqA3c5/ but has taken on many versions of transformations to niche versions across the world.
How can brands use this?
We haven’t seen many brands jump on this trend and there’s a lot of opportunities for brands to use this in their stores or use for product launch events instead of a concert.
E.g “I hope she plays Hot To Go!” “uhh this is the Tim Tam aisle/this is a brand event…”
GUILTY AS CHARGED
A new trend and sound that’s been creeping into our FYPs, showing people’s worst traits and what they’d be “guilty” for, e.g your guilty pleasure, or something unhinged. How can brands use this?
The opportunity for brands could look like applying this to different flavours or SKUs. The trend seems to work well when its honest and relatable, so lean into the weird with this one.
HOW PEOPLE GRAB COFFEE [INSERT YOUR NICHE TOPIC HERE]
This style of content is a consistently relatable, evergreen style of content of “How X does Y” People are fascinated by our habits and weird quirks and people want to see themselves in certain videos which is why skit-style “POV” content consistently does well.
This style is working well for niche perspectives that we all notice, e.g the ways people eat a burger, drink coffee, etc, and tapping into the weird ways people do it.
THEY LEFT THEIR PHONE BEHIND!
A fun trend to jump on if you’re a brand that has in-person stores, e.g cafes, retail stores, bars, or client-facing services: recruiter, make-up artist, etc. A great way to show personality from your staff in a format that’s fun, easy to digest and the weirder and wackier the photos are, the better, a great one for older people in the office if they “hate being on camera” as it’s just simple photos but a trend you can really own.
SO, WHAT’S HAPPENING IN POP CULTURE?
The MOO DENG Supremacy
The only Moo Deng explainer you need
She bites, sleeps, eats, she’s got a youthful, slimy glow and looks cute doing it. Moo Deng the Pygmy hippo has taken the world by STORM. But WHY? Well she is truly one of us. She transcends language barriers and cultures, she is cute, small and relatable, she bites, she eats she hates people, so aren’t we all a little Moo Deng sometimes?
Sephora Thailand has already jumped on it, as has Drumstick. It’s the perfect opportunity to incorporate this icon into your content.
#MomTok Will Never Recover From This
Hulu has come together to bring us the most controversial show of 2024 The Secret Life of Mormon Wives. If you’re not across this at all, it’s similar to the Real Housewives format but Mormons. They don’t drink alcohol or coffee but they do get botox, plastic surgeries and drink 4L of (definitely caffeinated) soda.
I highly recommend it if you’re into reality shows, it’s got everything: swinging, friendship dramas, scandals, but what you need to know is the plethora of sounds and content.
INTERESTING THINGS BRANDS ARE DOING
RYANAIR STITCHING USER CONTENT
Ryanair has always done incredibly well with their TikTok content but their use of stitching everyday users ‘cheating the system’ and calling them out. They’ve always done this in a hilarious way but this new format is directly calling out the TikTok as though you’re a student getting picked out from class and we will never be able to outsmart Ryanair. There’s something that feels so personal with this style as well.
INDUSTRIE’S FREE MAKEOVERS
Unsure if this will be an ongoing series, but based on its success it should be, Clothing brand Industrie has decided to get one of their stylists to find random people on the street and give them a free makeover. This is an excellent way to show off product in an organic, native way that feels attainable to the viewer that’s interesting to watch than a stock-standard video with trending music showing off an outfit.This format adds a backstory, this is an everyday person that their target viewer can see themselves in and immediately your brain sees how a simple outfit has elevated this person’s style (now I want to buy that outfit).
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT NUTTERBUTTER’S SOCIALS
Being weird on TikTok is nothing new but Nutterbutter is an incredible example of taking your most unhinged thoughts and running with it. They’re doing it across both Instagram and TikTok which brands don’t typically do to “maintain the aesthetic” but all power to them - this is your permission to go as rogue as possible.
https://www.instagram.com/nutterbutter/
BRATZ TAPPING INTO CULTURAL MOMENTS
https://www.instagram.com/bratz/
Bratz dolls have cracked the marketing code. As a small business this may be hard to replicate but one thing Bratz has done incredibly well is jumping on iconic pop culture moments. There’s no re-inventing the wheel, they’ve just hired incredible graphic designers to create iconic social imagery. They could be spending millions on dry marketing campaigns but they know their audience well enough to know it won’t stick. So, instead they see stand-out moments from culture and bring it to life with their own spin.
For clothing brands this could look like “recreating iconic movie looks” or “recreating X’s look on a budget”
That’s what’s poppin’ this week. SEE YOU NEXT WEEK, m’lady.
