This industry op-ed is by Steve Pearce, managing director at LOVE.
Trend forecasting season is upon us, and with it, we get a glimpse of what will be big in the next year or so. Whether it’s emerging styles, innovative new materials, or broader industry shifts, trend reports are a useful starting point for us creatives – particularly at the beginning of new projects. It’s how we look for new streams of innovation, where we go for visual inspiration, and preempt what’s going to resonate with the audiences we’re trying to win over.
But they can be flawed, too. Everyone uses them – which can lead to homogeneity – and they often look backward. How many times have we heard that ‘co-creation’ and ‘slow living’ are going to be big? To what extent can we actually feed these themes into a brand’s creative process to create something fresh and unique?
At the core of everything we do is truly understanding our audiences. We need to know who they are, what they’re into, what they want. We need to be so attuned with the zeitgeist that we know what they need before perhaps even they do. Looking at trend reports can be helpful indicators, as is the industry’s go-to consumer analysis and competitor research. But beyond that, we need to be looking at culture – at the smaller pockets of activity that are driving larger cultural shifts and turning these insights into creative opportunities that cut through.
Reading the Zeitgeist
A good (and often overlooked) place to start is digging into online communities and forum threads like Reddit and Tattle to gather authentic, real-time insights into consumers’ pain points, desires, and expectations. By looking for recurring themes in discussions and paying attention to what products, features, or topics generate the most buzz, brands can anticipate what will resonate most with their audience.
It’s something that Lucky Charms did well. After spotting how deep rooted the cereal’s ‘marbits’ (marshmallow pieces) appreciation was among fans, LOVE worked with Lucky Charms to create limited-edition marbit-only packs. The response to these was wild – revealing the kind of hype usually reserved for fashion and streetwear drops. The Instagram post announcing the launch became the brand’s most-liked post ever (with no spend attached) and was reposted by many fans, including celebrities like Cardi B.
My point is you need to go where the people are. If you want to appeal to the Chinese consumer, read a trend report that gives you an overview of the most current themes. However, to be more successful, you must embed yourself in these communities, using popular platforms like Weibo and WeChat to get a richer understanding of the culture. What music are they listening to? What TV do they watch? What’s their sense of humor like? Which subcultures are emerging?
Some brands are going one step further, even building these online communities themselves. Take LEGO, which has created a crowdsourcing platform called ‘LEGO Ideas,’ allowing anyone to submit potential ideas for new sets. If an idea receives over 10,000 votes, the LEGO board reviews it; if the idea is accepted, the creator receives 1% of the product’s revenue and a credit in the instructions. This direct engagement with its audience means that LEGO always knows what it wants and can make sure to deliver it.
Creating New Aesthetics from Deeper Insights
These types of insights can also act as signposts for new visual directions. Vacation sunscreen is a great example of this. Noticing a growing wave of nostalgia for simpler times and a romanticizing of the past amidst the turbulence of the last few years, Vacation set out to make sunscreen fun again. The entire brand looks like a time capsule from 80s Miami, tapping into the kitsch of retro ads like those for Club Med, tied together with over-the-top ridiculousness that brings humor back to the category. It sticks because there’s a wider awareness there – the brand recognizes its role in the world and, therefore, isn’t selling itself as ‘truly life-changing’ or ‘an absolute must-have.’ Instead, the brand is saying that we know people are in need of some fun, and we’re here to bring that.
This summer, Charli XCX’s ‘Brat’ brought a similar cultural awareness. The brat aesthetic didn’t just fall out of the coconut tree. It plays into the desire for messiness, chaos, and non-conformity that’s taking over various corners of the internet. It’s a response to the millennial minimalism and perfectly curated online personas that dominated the 2010s, which many have grown tired of – especially as AI now poses the biggest threat to authenticity. Brat’s identity — its acid green and blurry typeface, mixed with its noughties excess and rave culture — took off because it was in tune with the current mood. This was only amplified when Charli started posting various memes and dances that turned brat into a viral phenomenon. She knows her fans, and she knows what they want. How? Because she spends time with them where they are.
So, while trend reports can offer a helpful starting point, real creative impact comes from getting closer to your audience by understanding their world and what really matters to them. Creative impact is about going beyond the predictable and tapping into the undercurrents of culture that trend reports often miss, using what you find to create experiences for people that actually connect. In doing this, we can help brands stand above the noise, create more meaningful relationships with audiences, and build lasting impressions.
Steve Pearce is the managing director at LOVE, a culture-first brand design and experience agency. A believer in big ideas, Steve champions brands brave enough to be disruptive, helping the likes of Jaguar, Land Rover, LVMH, and Nike achieve commercial success.
Header image: LOVE rediscovered Andy Warhol’s inclusive take on beauty to create a striking new concept for SK-II. All images courtesy of LOVE.