📦 - 2024 Life Forecast

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‍Wednesday, January 3, 2024

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Good morning, and shout out to anyone in early-stage resolution regret. 😅      

On average, it takes about 66 days (roughly 2 months) to establish a new habit. So, hang in there and resist the urge to throw in the towel too soon. Set your goals now, and soon enough, you'll be proudly shouting 'new year, new me' without a hint of irony. 💪✨

Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC:

• Pinterest’s 2024 search trend predictions + creative ways to use them in your marketing roadmap
• How Costco handled their employees unionizing with pure class
• Start your year strong and set your brand up for Q1 success with these tips to get you ahead
• And…Grace Clarke shows us how to make our resolutions reality with her awesome, free 2024 life planning template. (keep scrolling for this treasure).

You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Arcpunk Comics, Just Speechie, and Lucky Scooters 👋

‍📰 NEWS

• Ad spending is expected to accelerate in 2024 thanks to generative AI.
• H&M decides to pivot and focus on selling more high-end items as they struggle to compete with other fast fashion retailers like Shein.
• The battle of the AI chatbots continues as Baidu’s Ernie Bot reaches 100 million users in 4 months.
• Investment firm Fidelity decreases X’s valuation by 71.5% due to low ad sales.

‍TREND FORECASTING

📍 3 Pinterest trend predictions to watch

Here’s a mindblowing stat for you:

80% of Pinterest Predictions have been accurate for the past 4 years. 🤯

That means 8 out of 10 Pinterest trends turned out to be a very big deal.

Here’s some trends they predicted for 2023 that definitely dominated our feeds:

• Sci-fi fits — Aka that metallic you saw EVERYWHERE
• Crown care (taking care of your scalp) — We see you silicone hair massagers and rosemary oil
• Micro-makeover — Be honest, did you debate cutting your hair short in 2023?

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📈 Why is trend forecasting important?

Analyzing trends allows your brand to stay ahead of the curve, anticipate customer demand for certain products, and understand what key topics, cultural moments, and visual aesthetics resonate the best with your target audience.

Pinterest makes use of the huge sets of data they’ve gathered through user searches to set annual predictions.

So while there’s some interest this year, these topics are set to explode in 2024. 🚀

Here are 3 Pinterest Trend Predictions to watch out for and easy ways to include them in your 2024 marketing strategy.

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1️⃣ Jazz Revival 🎷

There’s a renewed interest in jazz music as Gen Z turns to lo-fi tunes for relaxing background music. 🎵

How to incorporate this trend in your 2024 marketing strategy:

• Add jazzy audio clips into your short-form video ads and name check popular contemporary jazz artists like Laufey in your social captions to show you’re in the know.
• Compile a Spotify jazz-inspired playlist and share with your customer base on social media as a fun form of community engagement.

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2️⃣ Bow stacking 🎀

This viral coquette trend is taking over social media feeds thanks to fashion designers like Simone Rocha and Sandy Liang who are using bows to celebrate girlhood.

How to incorporate this trend in your 2024 marketing strategy:

• Show off your product and make it ‘coquette’. Any brand can take advantage of this trend and Restyla is already offering humorous takes on this viral trend with their hair styling tool. So add it to your social media inspo calendar!
• This is also a great trend to leverage if you offer any gift wrapping options for customers. Offer to ‘coquettify’ online order for a price and take advantage of bow fever.

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3️⃣ Give a scrap 🍴

Gen Z is passionate about food sustainability and actively looking for ways to reduce food waste.

Pinterest searches for ‘discard recipes’ are up as users search for ways to make use of what’s been left forgotten in the back of the fridge.

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How to incorporate this trend in your 2024 marketing strategy:

• If you are a CPG brand, focus on your sustainability value proposition and how your product or packaging can be used in alternative ways to give it a ‘second life’. Share these tips on your marketing channels and encourage customers to give it a try. (This can also result in some great UGC content for your brand!)
• Food subscription brands can offer additional instructions on how users can use their ingredient scraps (e.g mushroom stems, lemon peels) to reduce food waste.

Looking at what’s trending is a great way to plan for your future marketing campaigns. Add these Pinterest trends into your marketing mix to form a closer connection with your target audience and drive engagement.

Click here to see all the 2024 Pinterest Predicts trends.

‍THREE Q1 TIPS

⭐ Get creative to keep January shoppers engaged

Now that it’s officially a new year, it’s time to turn our attention to Q1.

Here’s how our Pilothouse experts suggest getting off to a racing start.

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Success Tip #1: Ask yourself what Q1 angles are relevant to your niche

Here are some ideas to get you started based on your industry:

If you’re in the fashion and jewelry space, show how your products can help customers improve their personal style and elevate their look.

For health and wellness brands, lean into those NYE resolutions with UGC content and motivational messaging.

David's Tea does an excellent job of leaning into this customer sentiment by aligning their product offerings with Dry January in their email campaigns.

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Success Tip #2: Keep shoppers engaged with a lucky mystery bag promotion

Fukubukuro is a Japanese New Year tradition in which retailers sell lucky mystery bags to customers as a way to wish them good luck and good fortune for the start of the year.

Skincare brand Tatcha holds a yearly Fukubukuro event as a way to engage with customers. And as a result buyers feel compelled to document their unboxing experience on social media to generate more brand buzz.

For ecommerce brands this is a great opportunity to clear out last year’s inventory or dead stock.

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Success Tip #3: Plan ahead for upcoming holidays like Valentine’s Day

Capitalize on customer intent in mid-January and launch V Day campaigns early to build awareness.

Keep the offer simple and consider recycling your BFCM offer if it performed well.

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❗When it’s closer to Feb 14th, add some urgency messaging in your creatives like ‘Get in time for the big day!’ to capture last-minute sales.

Thinking ahead will give you a leg up on your competitors. Hope these marketing tips get you into a planning mood!

‍🌐 IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE

Have you seen this letter from Costco management circulating after Costco employees in Virginia chose to unionize?

It’s an incredibly refreshing take that shares the sentiment that the well being of employees has been, and will continue to be, central to Costco’s mission.

The way they approached this situation was with pure class (and very refreshing).

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‍🧰 THE TOOLKIT

📅 We saw Grace Clarke’s free 2024 life plan template on X and had to share. Fill this online planner out to have the best year ever.

📧 In case you haven’t heard, there’s massive changes coming to Gmail in February of this year. Check out this thread by Jimmy Kim for the full breakdown.

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Have you heard our latest podcasts?

• 💵 Tiny Founder Andrew Wilkinson Hero’s Journey From Barista to Empire Builder
• 😎 AKNF 364: The Secret to 5x Scale on Meta Ads
• 💪 Creating a $4 Million Dollar Modern Creatine Gummy Brand with Dan McCormick
• 😆 AKNF 362: Is CPC for Clowns? Meta Ads BFCM Recap
• 🤯 Shocking the Gatekeepers – Auto Aftermarket goes DTC with Sean Reyes from Shock Surplus.
• 🤫 AKNF 360: The Power of the Double Tap + The Secret Tool For Instant Email Scale (And How to Use it Safely)
• 👏 Breaking Barriers in Menstrual Health with Nadia Ladak CEO of Marlow

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Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Frances Du. Edited by Eric Dyck.

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