“Divorce, babes. Divorce.” -Adele in that one IG live, 2020
Except now, divorce is also a market sector?
Today WE (Sophie) dives into the rise of the so-called “divorce economy” and why the marketing industry has become obsessed with turning deeply human experiences into trendy little business categories. Because while algorithms see a consumer transition, actual people are usually just trying to hold their lives together.
- abdel, brand & marketing exec
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?
Pizza Hut goes OG, Hooters wants to be more family friendly & Twitch expands monetisation features
Do you ever think about a better time?
A time that feels far, far away from here. And for once I’m not talking about The Horrors. I’m talking about the OG Pizza Hut. The one that had a freaking salad bar, checkerboard tables, the coolest stained-glass lamps you’ve ever seen, red booths, a freaking DIY soft serve!??? When going to get pizza actually meant something??? When the iconic red roof was actually… you know… a part of the building?
We used to be a real country. And maybe we still can be. Because the pizza chain is bringing it all back. Hopefully now our children will be able to experience the magic we once did there.
Speaking of family friendly restaurants, Hooters, which you may think is the furthest from that, is rebranding as such. Or, reclaim its original brand, which CEO Neil Kiefer says has always been a “beach-themed, family-friendly concept.”
“It's a neighbourhood place that many families frequent, and singles and couples,” he said. “[a] tongue-in-cheek type of beach theme restaurant.”
He said it was never intended to turn into the restaurant it is today, and judging by the comments from former workers and frequent goers, he’s 100% right. An example of why brand sentiment and reputation are so important.
Lastly, Twitch wants to help small creators build a following. The platform is allegedly evolving its creator model, widening access to monetisation tools that once made it a haven for smaller, community-driven streamers. Twitch announced on its blog some of the new ways for all eligible monetising streamers to “earn more from the collective energy of your community.”
Creator Badge Drops: you can now design your own custom badges for your big events and choose how viewers unlock them based on subs or minutes watched.
Custom Power Ups: use Bits to trigger fun effects and interact with your streams
More Hype Trains: including fine-tuning how they get triggered and creating new types of rewards viewers can earn. These special types of Hype Trains will only randomly kick off on a small percentage of all Hype Trains, so be on the lookout for when they happen.
Momentum That Earns: These features are just one part of all the different ways you earn on Twitch. And you can dive deeper into the ones that work best for your community.
Full details here, at TwitchCon in Rotterdam, or on the next episode of Patch Notes.
-Sophie Randell, Writer
DEEP DIVE
Is branding everything blinding us to the consumer?
Imagine waking up to a feed flooded with advertisements for asset-splitting apps, micro-apartment rentals, and single-parent financial blueprints.
You haven’t updated your relationship status (yet). But your search history, late-night music streaming, and sudden location shifts have betrayed a painful truth: your marriage is ending.
To a platform algorithm, this is a triumphant data match. To tech venture capitalists, it is a lucrative market sector playfully dubbed "the divorce economy." But to the human being sitting behind the screen, it is a deeply invasive reminder of a personal crisis.
As digital culture continues to add "-economy" to every facet of human existence, brand strategists face a critical crossroad.
We must ask ourselves: Are we solving actual human problems? Or are we just treating human trauma as a scalable transactional event?
Divorce is undeniably a multi-billion-dollar reality. When a household splits, massive structural and economic shifts occur:
Real estate demands pivot as one home inevitably turns into two.
Legal and financial advisory tech experiences a predictable surge.
Consumer spending habits reset entirely as solo financial identities are rebuilt.
The mistake we tend to make as marketers, is looking at these high-stakes life transitions through the cold lens of a trendy creator economy style framework. But y’all, a consumer going through a divorce isn't really looking to engage with an ecosystem aesthetic. They are trying to fkn survive a logistical and emotional nightmare.
When a brand treats a crisis like a consumer category... you can see how the marketing would feel a little… opportunistic, no?
I really feel that for brands, the goal in these sensitive markets should not be hyper-targeted noise, but quiet utility.
True consumer loyalty during a life transition is earned through empathy, discretion, and friction reduction.
Solve, don't shout: If you offer financial planning or moving services, your value lies in simplicity and respect. Do not market to the "divorced lifestyle"; market to the immediate need for security and clarity.
Ethical data boundaries: Just because an algorithm can identify a vulnerable consumer does not mean a brand should aggressively chase them. Brands that practice data restraint build long-term trust that survives the crisis.
This brings me to a broader, more annoying trend infecting the marketing industry, which is the obsession with linguistic commodification.
From the "passion economy" to the "divorce economy," we have developed a bad habit of transforming complex, vulnerable human environments into clinical market sectors. We do this because it makes human behaviour sound predictable, quantifiable, and venture-backed.
But I think we should advance with caution. Because audiences are suffering from profound buzzword and digital fatigue.
When you rebrand raw human suffering or personal milestones into trendy economic jargon, you sound detached. Not innovative. Just out of touch. You also strip the nuance out of the consumer experience, reducing genuine pain points to mere clicks and conversions. If you want to beat the bot allegations, maybe act a with a little more compassion than one.
In short; speak to the human, not the market.
If your marketing strategy relies on chasing the latest hyphenated "economy," you may just be building on a foundation of hype and not human truth. Consumers do not view their broken relationships, their hobbies, or their private anxieties as economic sectors.
They view them as their lives. It’s less about finding a clever new way to map the market, and more about remembering how to speak to the human being inside it.
After all, that is kind of… the whole point.
-Sophie Randell, Writer
TREND PLUG
Got to be real
Today's trend is for the girls who see “annoying him” as quality time.
The sound of this trend is by Cheryl Lynn "Got to Be Real". And creators are using it to see how their brother, boy-bestie or boyfriend handles carrying their handbag. Whatever his reaction, it's simply about vibing with the special guy in your life, perfect for seeing whether he would carry your belongings with style.
A few of my fav examples:
How you can jump on this trend:
Just follow these steps: Hold the phone between two people, usually a girl and a guy. Record the girl holding her bag with a caption (like the examples above). Then, show the guy putting on the bag and flexing it.
A few ideas to get you started:
Testing my desk buddy's masculinity
POV your manager doesn't have a fragile masculinity
You ask your millennial boss to hold your bag at a networking event
-DJ Taivairanga, Intern
FOR THE GROUP CHAT
😂Yap’s funniest home videos: Grill masters, explain this
✨Daily inspo: “you have to lose…”
😊Soooo satisfying: Dumpling maker
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Dumping bake… duh
ASK THE EDITOR
Is paid/boosted content worth exploring? – Roy
Hey Roy!
Yes, paid definitely has a place, but only if the content you're boosting is already good. If you're putting spend behind content that's not performing organically, you're wasting your money. So if you're going to boost content, do it strategically. Test out what performs well organically, then put some spend behind it because you have confirmed the content resonates.
Your other option is to create content that's designed purely for conversion rather than brand awareness. But, again, do this with intention, not randomly. Don't throw money at content that's no good because no amount of spend can make up for weak creative.
- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡
Not going viral yet?
We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.