Waiting in lines has become a pastime—or at least content fodder—for Gen Z. From brand pop-ups to viral food spots to product drops, young consumers are lining up, sometimes for hours, to be a part of something. TikTok is full of videos and even line-focused accounts where creators ask people in lines what they’re waiting for or post POVs from the queue. Is this because they’re lacking third places? Maybe…and some do say they enjoy the communal experience and talking to other line-waiters. But it seems more likely that lines are “trending” because young people just want to have access to exclusive, low-cost experiences, and viral products—often that means waiting in a line to get it. As one creator explains, “I really think it’s the thrill of the unknown and wanting to say you got whatever everyone else is waiting for.” (Dazed)
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Starbucks is back in the holiday music business. Holiday Blend marks their first holiday album in more than a decade. (Millennials will remember that Starbucks CDs were a huge part of the brand’s merch in the early aughts!) The new seven-track collection brings together Brandi Carlile, Leon Thomas, Coco Jones, Magnus Ferrell, TRÍADA, and The Womack Sisters, who all put their own spin on seasonal classics, plus an original holiday song from boyband JYT. The album is on streaming platforms, and select locations will also play the songs throughout the holiday season, so customers can hear it during their coffee runs. And in the spirit of giving, the album’s release also comes with a $500K donation to World Central Kitchen. Music has long been part of Starbucks’ brand identity, from their acquisition of Hear Music to their partnerships with Concord Music Group and with Spotify. Now, Holiday Blend gives the brand another way to bring more music to their customers, and it arrives as more brands, like Wendy’s and e.l.f., experiment with albums as a marketing tool. (Billboard, Parade)
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Tinder brought in Owen Thiele to promo new Group Hangouts. Gen Z is tired of swiping for dates and getting none, so Tinder is introducing a way to just build a friend group. (And who knows where that could lead!) To promote it, they brought in influencer, podcaster, and Adults actor Owen Thiele, particularly because he recently went viral for making a spontaneous friend group. After an emergency flight landing, he made the best of it by going for drinks and dinner with a group of commiserating passengers—obviously documenting live on social. And while the ad doesn’t mirror this exactly, it focuses on another Gen Z favorite group activity: birdwatching. Though it is a scripted mockumentary, the brand says their latest approach to creator marketing is letting them improvise and be themselves in order to get Gen Z’s attention on social media. (The Creator Brief by Ad Age)
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Levi’s is betting human effort will stand out in an ad market flooded with AI. Their new holiday campaign, “Let’s Get Fuzzy,” centers around a 60-second claymation where a yeti crashes a cabin party, then calms down when someone throws him a sweater that fits perfectly. While the ad is a nostalgic callback to the brand’s 1995 claymation commercial, “Clayman,” it’s also an intentional, timely response to young consumers preferring brands who don’t use AI in their advertising. (We told you the human-made label would be valuable this year!) Each second took four hours of filming, the sets and characters were made by hand, and the brand clarifies that no AI was used. Levi’s isn’t alone in taking this route; e.l.f. and Prada have also gone handmade for ads this holiday season. But for Levi’s, this is also a direct response to their back to school campaign falling short of expected demand and traffic, leading them to invest more in their marketing. (Marketing Dive)
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