The Relevancy Read

Hot takes, early calls and astute observations, carefully curated.

A Sampling

Cruises’ Gen Z era.

May 01, 2023

Gen Z 🤝 cruise culture.

Once reserved for retirees, young travelers are setting sail in the name of affordability and efficiency. With price tags rising and vacations increasingly difficult to plan, all-you-can-eat offerings and activity-packed itineraries give this cohort a taste of simpler times. Spotty Wi-Fi provides a much-needed excuse to unplug, while city-hopping excursions scratch the travel itch for this experience-first generation. Many major cruise lines have added long-weekend itineraries to attract those with limited vacation days and updated design to give fleets a fresh, young feel—look to Nate Berkus’ design for Celebrity Cruises. The lido deck just got more interesting!

ChatGPT… but make it fashion.

With AI, online shoppers will no longer need to know fashion jargon or be limited by traditional product filters—one can simply describe or show what they are looking for as if in a conversation with a person. Platforms like YesPlz and Shop App use the same natural language processing we’ve seen from ChatGPT, along with Google Image Search-like functionalities, to make hyper-personalized product recommendations. Think of it as if e-comm, TikTok, and Pinterest had a baby that can talk to you like a personal stylist. Stop, look, and listen: Let this sink in and consider what it could mean to your business. This is important.

The woes of modern dating dovetail into a crisis of mating.

While sex and hook-ups have never been more available thanks to the apps, research shows sexual activity has declined sharply in recent years. Single Americans, especially men, are markedly less interested in relationships and casual dating than they were in 2019. As global birth rates decline as result, “pronatalists” are trying to have as many babies as possible. Framing sex as an elemental foundation for society, popular NYU professor and podcaster Scott Galloway consistently implores young people to get off their screens, go meet people, and have sex. As consumers make more of a concerted effort to reverse the downtrend, position your brand as a match lighting the flame.

All aboard OnlyFans!

OnlyFans’ non-porn, free streaming platform, OFTV, is gaining traction as it gives creators more autonomy over their content and access to their fanbases. Comedian Whitney Cummings’ new original show, the Unfiltered Roast Series, will be available exclusively on OFTV. Cummings plans to cross-promote on her OnlyFans page, posting uninhibited comedy bits and takes on current events for $10/month. British reality star Chloe Sims is launching a series about her family moving to L.A. on the platform, House of Sims, billed as the new Keeping Up With The Kardashians. As big streamers start to act like big cable, watch out for this platform as prime space for authentic consumer connections.