Project: Culture Update

Task: I created a culture update to give the strategy department a better understanding of current industry trends and opportunities, focusing on post-COVID experiential activations, brand mascot resurgence, and user-generated content strategies to inform future campaign development.

Takeaways:

• Experiential marketing produces impressive results with 91% of consumers more likely to buy from a brand after participating in an activation, and 40% reporting increased brand loyalty

• Brand mascots can boost company profits by up to 41%, with mascot-based campaigns performing 37% better than those without, yet only 4% of ads currently use them

• Gen Z responds particularly well to mascots that embrace absurdist or surrealist humor, exemplified by McDonald's Grimace campaign that generated 2.9 billion TikTok views

• User-generated content (UGC) significantly outperforms traditional advertising, with UGC videos performing 10x better and UGC ads showing a 400% higher click-through rate

• Brand partnerships are highly effective, with 71% of consumers reporting they enjoy when brands collaborate

• Successful case studies include Pringles x The Caviar Co. (inspired by a TikTok trend with 10 billion views) and Dano's Seasoning (achieved 3,072% revenue growth through UGC)

  Skills Used: Cultural trend analysis, market research, social media strategy, consumer behavior analysis, demographic targeting, brand partnership evaluation, campaign analysis, competitive intelligence, data analysis, brand positioning