PDF slides of the talk I gave at the Social Intelligence Lab Trend Summit in April this year.
Learn about all things cozy, and how I use social listening and social intelligence to understand the bigger cultural shifts that are happening.
Townend Social listening-fuelled Cultural & Social Strategist. Working in social since 2006. Freelance since 2009. I like to work on entertainment/ fandom/community projects, and with brands who are trying to make the world a better place. me
September 1st 2023 and April 1st 2024, across Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Twitch, Threads, and Reddit 63,095,396 1,859,322,923 Mentions of ‘cozy’ Generated engagements
300,000,000 600,000,000 900,000,000 1,200,000,000 Pinterest Twitter YouTube Facebook Reddit TikTok Twitch Number of engagements Cool, where are people actually engaged?
fi rst step in understanding whether a trend is bigger than just social is to see if it's made the leap to search. The search trend is extremely seasonal, but it's on a steady upward trajectory and the forecast is positive. This chart shows the global search data around simply the word 'cozy' over the last fi ve years.
culture Seasonal culture Fast culture TikTok trends Net fl ix shows Fashion cycles Turning inwards Tradition Nurturing Cooking Nature/The Land Human PSL season Finding community "Cozy season"
audience is global, but with a concentration in US/UK 5 x more likely to be female than male Extremely likely to be younger millennials The cozy audience
Fashion Home Aesthetic Books TV/Movies Gaming Music Food 0% 17.5% 35% 52.5% 70% 12% 0.5% 3% 1% 5% 16% 39% 22% Di ff erent social networks favour di ff erent cozy themes. To be expected, but worth bearing in mind
The only search that over-indexed in the UK spelling of cosy. A big UK audience but also many Anglophiles • Twitter, TikTok and Reddit are key platforms for the cozy bookish, but early data shows threads is becoming a key contender in this space • Cozy crime, cozy fantasy, and cozy mysteries are becoming full-blown sub-genres • Cozy reading nooks crossover into the cozy home trend. Books
Although a smaller volume, cozy music is largely focused around seasonal lo fi beats playlist videos, which are usually hours long • There's a whole tv/home cozy crossover around 'the Gilmore Girls aesthetic' which is almost entirely driven by Pinterest • Movie nights and in particular family movie nights are a part of this theme. Movies/TV/Music
Low stakes • Calming and stress-free • Crafting, farming, exploring • Accessible • More inclusive audience What is cozy gaming and why should you care?
cozy gamers are much more likely female than male. Cosy gaming as a standalone search does not peak in Autumn/Fall. According to the data we can access, cosy gamers are most likely younger millennials. Cozy gamers are also into art, collecting, anime and cats.
gaming is accessible to all! The demographic data available to us will always have a platform skew. I found this Reddit thread in r/CozyGamers last week talking about how old gamers on this sub were. The ages ranged from teens to people in their mid-70s. Cozy gaming is for non-traditional gamers.
the market becomes more saturated gamers are becoming bored with formulaic games Nintendo Switch is the uno ff icial home of cozy gaming but since the release of the Steam Deck many gamers are considering switching due to the wider variety of games Reddit is just about the gaming whereas TikTok and Pinterest heavily crossover into the whole cozy lifestyle and aesthetic. Key points
Down Analysis Start with an idea of the broader meta-trends. Regular horizon scanning for up-and-coming themes. Use trending topics and tools to aid your analysis. ‑ KIM TOWNEND
Up Analysis Platform led. Identify up-and-coming trends in your own/your brand feeds. Immerse yourself in the topic, learn the language, watch the key content, identify the in fl uencers. Use hashtags and keywords to identify connected themes, track any tags that seem relevant to you. KIM TOWNEND ‑
Present Future Look at historical data for the last 3-5 years Is there an upward trajectory? Is it spiky, consistent, seasonal, or gradual? Is there a speci fi c platform associated? Real-time social listening. Is this an actual trend or is it being served to you by an algorithm? Is it manifesting across more than one platform? Who are the audience? This is where software can really give us a steer. Is this going to continue to grow? Exploding Topics Pro Next Atlas: Generate How does it fi t into the wider culture?
recap No longer just autumnal, cosy life happens year round IT HAS MOVED BEYOND SEASONAL It’s a more accessible route into gaming and it’s heading to the mainstream COZY GAMING IS GROWING EXPONENTIALLY Social data + cultural context can future-proof your brand BRAND FUTURE-PROOFING Cozy culture isn’t new, but it’s converging and growing in a way we haven’t seen until now Women make up the vast majority of the cosy community across all sub- genres COZY CONVERGENCE IT’S FEMALE LED No surprise here, but TikTok is dwar fi ng all other platforms in terms of engagement SHORT FORM VIDEO IS THE MOST ENGAGING CONTENT
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