The Evolution of Cozy Culture

The deck from a webinar I gave in conjunction with NextAtlas around the evolution of cozy culture, updated with Autumn 2024 social listening insights.
Dive into details around:

Cozy Fashion
The Cozy Home
Cozy Food and
How Cozy Became a Lifestyle

There's an accompanying webinar available to watch here:https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:7262509833914839040/

Transcript

1. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 The Evolution of Cozy
2. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Today we’ll cover Generate 101 How cozy fashion took over the world The cozy home Edible cosiness Cozy as a lifestyle
3. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 What is the Generate Suite? Generate is Next Atlas’s AI-powered insights and strategy product, based on the social data from their 300k+ early adopters. Leveraging the ease of GPT but with a data source that I trust, it makes my life as a researcher/social listening person/strategist easier. In my work I use Generate in two di ff erent ways.
4. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 How I use Generate as a way in If I’m not already well versed in the subject I’m researching, I’ll use Generate as a fi rst step to help me understand the audience, current trends, platforms of interest and innovators in the space. I’ll identify any relevant insights for my search, check them against Google and TikTok search data and then use them to help shape my boolean query. This saves me loads of time and data, as I’m o ft en cu tt ing out that initial phase of irrelevant results and much longer cleaning and rewriting my search.
5. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 How I use Generate to dig deeper If I’ve already set up my search and started analysis, but I want some pointers of what else I should be looking for within my data set, I’ll o ft en use Generate at this stage of my process to identify smaller trends that I might be missing. This is particularly useful if I’m dealing with a massive data set, and am constrained by time. Opposite is some of the data I got from Generate around my ‘cozy gaming’ conversation. I can immediately start to look for these keywords and start uncovering more relevant insights I might have missed without.
6. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 The big picture
7. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 What is cozy all about? If you’re not sure what cozy actually is, you’re not alone. Google search data shows that over 90k people a month are asking the exact same question Cozy culture is, like all cultural shi ft s, the converging point of multiple sub trends, sub cultures, fandoms and wider communities. There’s no one thing we can look at and say this was the starting point. In this webinar, we’re going to cover some of the bigger aspects of cozy culture and talk about what’s trending up and how it’s showing up on social and beyond. Time is limited so this is more of an overview than a deep dive! GOOGLE SEARCH DATA ACROSS THE LAST 12 MONTHS AROUND SEARCHES RELATED TO COZY.
8. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 The big picture on social 81,490,300 mentions from 63,111,400 users with an NSR of 69 over the last year. There is clearly a seasonal peak, but we’re still seeing over a million mentions per week during the spring and early summer months. Mentions of cozy have increased signi fi cantly in 2024, with an average of 2.7 million posts per week as we entered October. Cozy OR #cozy OR cozy OR #cozy OR #cozyseason OR #cozyseason OR #cozycore OR #cozyvibes OR #cozytok
9. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Pinterest is the undeniable home of cozy when it comes to volume of mentions. TikTok barely gets a look in.
10. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 The big picture The US completely dominates the trend with over 4 times as many mentions as Australia or the UK, but cozy culture is de fi nitely a global phenomenon.
11. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 The big picture on search ‘Cozy’ and all associated long tail keywords on Google over the last fi ve years. Even in the lowest ebb (May) we’re still seeing around 2.8 million searches per month. Interest increases around 20% YoY. Although there are huge seasonal peaks there is loads of search during the summer months. Each year the cozy down time is ge tt ing shorter.
12. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Cozy is really trending up on TikTok And fi nally, speci fi cally zooming in on TikTok, what you’re seeing here are the TikTok videos (shown as orange bars) and TikTok views (the purple line) around the #cozy tag over the last year. Since June the views are on an insane upward trajectory, and have recently passed 1.5 billion.
13. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 On TikTok e v e r y t h i n g can be cozy These are the hashtags that have been used alongside #cozy on TikTok over the last month. In the last month this tag has generated 2.7B views from 221.1K+ videos being uploaded.
14. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Cozy crossover As we’ve seen elsewhere, at this time of the year cozy and autumn are inseparable with a 30/26% crossover with the seasonal hashtags. There’s a 15% crossover with #cozyathome suggesting this is very much a vibe for people who don’t have FOMO. Other than that the various aesthetics and vibes have a huge and nebulous crossover.
15. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Cozy is mega female Obviously the cozy audience varies platform to platform, as does audience data due to API limitations, but the audience tends to be between 65-85% female identifying. The cozy audience overall is 5x more likely to be female than male. The data on the right shows relevant interests for an audience that web searches for ‘cozy’ and lives in the US. You’ll see that many of these topics show up in my social data, but it’s worth keeping in mind the limitations of search data when dealing with a younger audience!
16. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Each channel favours different cozy elements COMMUNITY COMMUNITY & INFLUENCERS COMMUNITY & SOCIAL COMMERCE SOCIAL COMMERCE Gaming Fashion Home Home Fashion Home
17. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 How cozy fashion took over the world
18. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 What is cozy fashion all about? Born out of loungewear, and massively accelerated by the pandemic, cozy fashion is exactly what you think it is. Cozy is fi rst and foremost sensory (it’s probably no coincidence that we’re seeing this trend come of age at the same time as the interest in neurodiversity) and comfortable. Think: • so ft , stretchy fabrics • neutral colours • multiple layers THIS INSIGHT FROM NEXT ATLAS IN 2019 IDENTIFIED THE VERY BEGINNINGS OF COZY FASHION, WHICH WAS THEN SUPERCHARGED BY THE PANDEMIC AND MORE RECENT GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
19. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Skims in search Global Google search around Skims has increased almost 340% over the last fi ve years. We’re now seeing an average of 3.5 million searches for the brand each month. On TikTok the hashtag currently has 1.9 billion views. Although Skims releases collections throughout all seasons on a very regular basis, hashtag usage tends to increase during autumn and winter, indicating that it’s the cozy pieces that people are most interested in.
20. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Skims elevated cozy Originally set up by Kim K in 2019 as a size-inclusive shapewear brand, the brand quickly grew to be the home of luxe loungewear that embodies all cozy fashions main themes but also manages to be sexy at the same time. Skims knows their consumer and the culture be tt er than any other brand of its size, and are continually ahead of the curve when it comes to all things comfort fashion based.
21. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Cozy fashion has killed colour I understand that fashion is cyclical and that colours come and go, but with that in mind: In my analysis of fashion and clothing based posts on both TikTok and Instagram, I found that in the top 5 colours that were present in the visuals, only one was not a neutral. This was light pink and only accounted for 2% of the overall posts. The other 98% were either browns or greys. LIGHT GREY 18% LIGHT BROWN 33% BROWN 7% LIGHT BLUE GREY 3% LIGHT PINK 2% GREY 36%
22. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Cozy fashion has killed colour NEXTATLAS SHOWS US THAT, LARGELY DRIVEN BY INSTAGRAM, ‘ESPRESSO BROWN’ HAS INCREASED 134% YOY, AND ’EARTHY HUES’ HAS RECENTLY INCREASED 69%. The image opposite is a random selection of fashion based posts from our cozy search on Pinterest. You’ll note are no vivid colours, instead instead, consumers are opting for neutrals or the trusty so ft black. Cozy is so gentle that a vivid colour may o ff end. All neutral all the time
23. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 More than fashion And cozy expands beyond what you’re wearing into how you smell and what your hair and make up look like. Maison Margiela in particular are a brand who have really capitalised on cozy scents, explicitly grouping them by coziness on their website. Key fragrance themes for coziness are • Co ff ee • Fireside • Cigar • Vanilla
24. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 The cozy manicure Nails are big business when it comes to cozy. Pinterest features the most nail-based content, while TikTok leans more towards nail art. Taupe and grey were the dominant colours in the images following the same theme as the rest of the fashion search. THERE’S SIGNIFICANT (81%) OVERLAP WITH #FALLNAILS ON TIKTOK, WHICH CURRENTLY BOASTS OVER 2.7 BILLION VIEWS.
25. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 The cozy home HYGGE PLUS!
26. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Pinterest loves a cozy bedroom Maybe it’s due to the extremely high amount of Gen Z on Pinterest, and how many of them are still living at home, but a ft er analysing 6 million mentions on Pinterest over the last month, the bedroom is the most talked about room by far. Living room is also popular, and kitchen accounts for 10% of the topic. Nook is a newcomer in the space and most of the conversation is driven by book and reading nooks. BEDROOM 45% SNUG/NOOK 10% LIVING ROOM 31% KITCHEN 15%
27. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Living room trends cozy earthy neutral organic modern While bedrooms are dominant within the huge Gen Z Pinterest user base, millennials are all about the living room. Cozy living room leads the way, but a more grown up approach to cozy is happening across multiple other living room trends.
28. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 The cozy home desires perfection ON INSTAGRAM 81% OF “HOME” POSTS USED THE WORD ‘PERFECT’ Across my entire cozy search almost 20% of all posts used the word perfect, but when we dialled in on homes that number increased drastically. In an out of control world home is the one thing you can control, so it’s no surprise that perfection is desired.
29. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Neutrals become natural #so ft minimalism #warmminimalism #organicmodern Last year NextAtlas talked about the Gentle Modern trend which has been increasing steadily and is predicted to increase by another 35% over the next 12 months. Gentle Modern as a trend is a slightly more mature version of cozy. It focuses on the same colour pale tt e and themes, but here the natural colours are taken one stage further and become natural materials. This trend is most popular with millennials and Gen Z but is broadening into all age groups as it gains traction.
30. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 #cozyathome The second most used cozy hashtag on TikTok is #cozyathome with just over 10.2 billion views to date, which is really testament to how home-based cozy culture is. This chart shows how #cozyathome has overlapped with other hashtags over the last 14 days. It includes so many disparate communities. This is the cozy convergence!
31. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Cozy food
32. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Coffee is everyone’s favourite cozy drink Cozy culture is more Gilmore Girls than Gossip Girl when it comes to a warm beverage. Co ff ee was the clear winner over tea or even hot chocolate. Pumpkin Spice didn’t even make it into the top fi ve products. But! We’re starting to see the early rumblings of a hojicha la tt e trend emerging in the hot beverage area. Google search is up 83% this year. HOT CHOCOLATE 8% LATTE 11% TEA 23% COFFEE 57%
33. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 In cozy culture cafes are the only cozy place outside of home But even then, we’re starting to see a trend of co ff ee shop at home emerging with cozy. Alongside this there were multiple posts featuring gourmand scents like Maison Margiela’s Co ff ee/By the Fireplace. People want to smell like a cozy co ff ee shop as much as they want to visit one.
34. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Cozy recipes Cozy recipes are more concerned with savoury than with sweet dishes. As we would expect as we enter soup season, these are the dishes that are really trending upwards on social. Lasagne soup received 8.79 million searches on TikTok over the last 7 days. Instant pot and slow cooker recipes are here to stay. Marry me chicken soup Lasagne soup Broccoli cheddar soup Baked potato soup Fufu soup
35. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 The cozy convergence. Cozy as a lifestyle
36. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Anything can be cozy Although we can analyse all these subtrends as separate communities, there’s also a huge amount of crossover between the communities. People who are big cozy gamers are o ft en big cozy fi ction readers, and have styled their spaces just so. We’re now seeing the rise of the cozy influencer, who has multiple interests, that all sit under the cozy umbrella. Cozy is the vibe, not the theme.
37. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Key themes and interests of a cozy life Indoors Comfort Co ff ee Slowing Down Self Care Alone time Reading Cra ft ing Gaming
38. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Blogging is making a comeback Slowing down, and taking the time to read something longer form is soothing to our dopamine addicted brains, so it’s no surprise that we’re seeing a return to cozy blogs and themes of coziness trending up on Substack…
39. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Cozy activities are wholesome needlework cooking kni tt ing baking Thanks to cozy culture, cra ft ing and home making are back in a big way. INSTAGRAM LISTENING DATA
40. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Deeper into cozy gaming
41. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 What is cozy gaming? • Low stakes • Calming and stress-free • Cra ft ing, farming, exploring • Accessible • More inclusive audience #cozygaming #cozygamer 2.2 BILLION VIEWS 1.8 BILLION VIEWS #cozygame 912 MILLION VIEWS #cozygames 3.5 BILLION VIEWS CURRENT TIKTOK VIEWS ON CORE COZY GAMING HASHTAGS
42. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 The rise and rise of cozy gaming Cozy gaming is trending up exponentially across search and social. Searches for Cozy games have increased 3000% over the last 5 years. With Nintendo Switch and Steam both experiencing even bigger increases in search. NextAtlas predicts that ‘Cozy Games’ will steadily grow 69% over the next year. Cozy games are unstoppable
43. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Cozy gaming key themes Farming Cra ft ing Community Relationships Narrative Management Cozy gaming is the most laid back style of gaming. There’s recently been some backlash about the amount of cozy games that feature farming, but it’s a mainstay for a reason. The rest of the activities are similarly low stakes, but there’s a real focus on community building and narrative development. Witches Potion making
44. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Who are the cozy gamers? In juxtaposition to the traditional idea of who a gamer is, cozy gaming is an incredibly female space. The data here is from cozy gaming influencer Cozy K. 91% of her audience is female, and almost 80% are in their twenties. THESE ARE THE BRANDS THAT SHE HAS MENTIONED OR COLLABORATED WITH. THERE’S ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT VERTICALS HERE. COZY IS WIDE REACHING!
45. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 How does it crossover? Interior Design Books Cozy Gaming Cozy game crosses over with many other interests and communities, but the most signi fi cant are: • Booktok/Bookstagram/Booktube • Interior design/desk set up/stationery
46. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 What’s trending up? fi elds of mistria At the end of August, a new cozy game, heavily inspired by the OG Stardew Valley, but with the addition of witches, dragons and magic, released into early access. The cozy gaming community went wild, and the game had over 100k downloads on Steam within the fi rst seven days. Expect much more when the game is updated and o ff icially released.
47. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 What’s trending up? cozy gaming room set up Perfectly curated feminine neutral-coloured gaming room set ups are on the rise and represent a big retail opportunity for tech, home and lifestyle brands.
48. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 What’s trending up? accessibility in cozy games Accessibility is important across the board, but because cozy a tt racts a broader and more diverse gaming audience, conversations about both accessibility features in games, and representation of di ff erent bodies for game characters is on the rise.
49. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Why does this matter?
50. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Wellness & witchcra f Hygge & homes Cozy Gaming/ Study Loungewear/ Fashion Cleangirl Booktok/ Reading Cozy Culture Cozy culture is the convergence and unifying factor of multiple other (primarily female focused) communities, with very few other commonalities. It’s fast culture meets slow culture. It’s a symptom of what it’s like to live in late stage capitalism. It’s a reaction to burnout on a global scale.
51. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Cozy has evolved from just meaning warm and soft to becoming a synonym for safety, and to a certain extent, escapism. It’s holding space for yourself in whichever way that you can. In light of recent events, it’s likely that cozy culture will become even more vital as we move into 2025 and beyond.
52. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 To recap • Cozy is a year long trend with de fi nite seasonal peaks • Cozy is extremely female led and particularly relevant to Gen Z and millennial audiences • Cozy is rooted in self care, and linked to the rise of interest in mental health, holistic wellness, neurodiversity and coping mechanisms • Cozy is the vibe, not the topic. Anything can be cozy if you approach it the right way • Cozy is undeniably neutral/earth themed in colour
53. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 How can brands work with this. People are looking for support and comfort, brands can help create this. Cozy culture comes from a desire for things to slow down and be more considered, another lesson for brands. Cozy culture is very community focused, consider how brands can get involved in a mutually bene fi cial way. Indie brands tend to be be tt er at cozy vibes than bigger brands, but this is mostly because indie brands know their audiences be tt er! Really listen to your audience, and unpack what the micro-trends mean on a longer timeframe.
54. KIM TOWNEND STUDIO 2024 Thanks!