July TRENDspotting Report.

By BarkleyOKRP FUEL

Welcome to the July edition of the BarkleyOKRP trends report, our monthly snapshot of what inspires, informs and occupies the modern consumer’s attention so brands can better connect with their audiences.

While summer often slows down, trending content seems to have kicked into high gear this year.

With movie releases that are sure to be in the cultural zeitgeist for years (Deadpool x Wolverine), being taken behind the scenes at the Olympics by the athletes themselves for the first time ever (we’ll dive deep into that next month after the games wrap up), and the two macro trends we cover below – July has been packed with culture-defining moments. 

So, without further ado, let’s explore… 

MACRO TRENDS 

Here are two trends we observed over the past month that are part of a bigger cultural story. 

The Kamalanominom

• WHAT HAPPENED: Primed by the year of the girl, the anniversary of the summer of Barbie, and enhanced by Pop Girl Summer, we don’t think there could have been a better time to launch Kamala Harris’ campaign. Removing all political leanings and viewing this strictly from a Trend and Culture POV started with the internet becoming obsessed with her “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” speech after she announced her candidacy. This then led to remix after remix of her quote with the pop girlies songs (Charli XCX, Chappell Roan, and Kesha mainly) as well as Charli XCX calling Kamala Brat – the highest of compliments during #BratSummer. Kamala’s campaign solidified their footing in Pop Girl Summer by making QUEEN Bey the soundtrack to her first campaign ad.  
• IMPLICATION: Everything that’s happened since last year (including the massive rise of the Swifties) has set Kamala’s campaign team up to run the most energetic, trend-forward, and genuinely speaking the language of the largest voting bloc in the US (Millennials and GenZ) campaign we’ve probably ever seen. Candidates will likely have to take note in the future, based on the early success of this campaign, on how to lean into culture authentically to reach this hard-to-reach demographic. 

Boy Nostalgia Hit an All-Time High

• WHAT HAPPENED: ICYMI – EA Sport released their first college football game since 2014 (and since NIL rules went into effect). And the boys had a field day. This release was so big that even CBS Sports and college football teams made content around it. And yes, many video games have come out to similar fan-fare from big creators, but we can’t remember anything specific that has generated THIS much content around it – 24k posts with 269M views in the first 7 days of launch on #NCAA alone! The content varied greatly with girlfriend POVs, boyfriend POVs, nostalgia content, and streamer POVs. This stands out because it seems that most of the nostalgia trends and releases that have hit in the past few years – movies, music, fashion, culture – tend to spark that nostalgic feeling in either the gen pop or lean a bit more feminine (Barbie, NSYNC reunion, etc.). This is one piece of nostalgia that goes directly to those who, 11 years ago, huddled around the Xbox 360 with their best bros playing their college football dreams out on the screen. 
• IMPLICATION: If we think about the real-time moments we often activate against or trending conversations we join as brands, they are often based on a general/universal experience or lean towards what the average millennial/Genz female sees on their FYP. If this millennial male is your target audience, there appears to be a BIG opportunity and white space to hit on more male-based nostalgia and trends. With this release – and the near constant “we got XYZ before GTA 6” comments on popular videos – the boys are also clamoring for their own unique nostalgic feelings. Tune into their Pop Girl / Barbie summer version could be a real win. 

Things to Watch Out for in August 

While we can’t see into the future (yet), here are some things that we think are highly likely to become topics of conversation and/or generators of the next big meme in August! 

• #BamaRush Season 3 is on the horizon, and the girls are already getting ready to take over everyone’s FYP. 
• While we could have written about it this time, the BTS content from the Olympics has been top-tier, and we expect that to continue throughout the end of the games in August (including the obsession with the viral chocolate muffins, thanks to Henrik Christians). The US Open also pops up in August, which always has some good storylines (and celebrity spotting), and NFL Pre-Season and College Football Season kicks off.
• In entertainment, we’ve got new music from Sabrina Carpenter and A$AP Rocky to look forward to, Emily returning to Paris for another season, Only Murders in the Building comes back, and the highly anticipated Book-Tok to Big Screen, It Ends With Us.

That sums up the highlights for last month. If you want more, download our appendix to see what we’ve been tracking per platform over the month. We’ll return after the last Friday of the month to discuss everything that happened that month. And, as we always ask internally, let us know if we missed anything! We’d love to hear what trends you’re seeing pop up on your FYPs!

The BarkleyOKRP TRENDspotting report is a must-read for the modern consumer (and the brands hopping to attract + retain the modern consumer). Follow along each month as our in-house trend experts, FUEL, highlight the who, what + why this matters.

For a thorough evaluation to help your brand build its biggest future, contact our Chief Growth Officer, Jason Parks, at jparks@barkleyokrp.com.