Even if you weren’t in the Northeast last Friday to experience the 4.8 magnitude earthquake, or in the path of totality during Monday’s solar eclipse, these natural phenomena have surely been central to your digital and entertainment experiences for the last week.??
The relative seismological weakness of New York’s tremors have led creators to mock real-time content capture (and revisit their grievances toward J.Lo), while the unifying power of everyone looking up at once has publishers pondering narratives about partisan divisiveness.?(Monday’s eclipse is the last visible total solar eclipse in North America until 2044.)????
A bevy of brands launched planned real-time celestial activations to engage with their consumers in digital content and campaigns that extended beyond the path of totality. (Though we would be remiss if we didn’t note campaigns that offered free eclipse glasses to drive in-store foot traffic.) Alongside the various festivals and viewing parties that took place in different cities marking the eclipse's path, hotels and resortsoffered exclusive packages to ensure an all-immersive experience for visitors.?
Implications for brands: Seasonal activations are always an optimal opportunity for brands to align key messages and visuals to surround a cultural moment. But despite a continuously fractured digital landscape, these natural phenomena equally demonstrated the power of social platforms to amplify real-time and on-trend information.?
- Fashion and fatphobia.?Samyra?is a popular plus-size influencer on TikTok with 1.8M followers religiously?watching her analyses?of retail store?shortcomings?when it comes to catering toward plus-size individuals. Seemingly confidently, JCPenney left a comment on one of her videos urging her to visit one of their stores, though the brand likely did not expect?Samyra to upload a?less-than-glowing review?about the limited and disorganized display of clothing in their plus-size section. Days later,?JCPenney's response to Samyra's post?was automated at best, insincere at worst,?triggering a conversation?online about?the importance of size inclusivity?and?the right to speak up?if a brand does not cater to a given demographic.?
- AI chips.?As competition intensifies in an AI arms race amongst tech giants,?Google will be expanding its in-house chip efforts?with the development of Axion, a more powerful?Tensor Processing Units (TPU) AI chip. This type of chip often functions in big data centers, and as a custom Arm-based CPU, Google claims that it offer?30% better performance?than other Arm-based offerings?from competitors. Google's latest product is part of a decade-long strategy of expanding computing resources that was implemented more aggressively following the launch of?ChatGPT in 2022. Meanwhile, Intel has?unveiled Gaudi 3, its latest AI chip that is twice as power efficient and fast as the?NVIDIA H100 GPU, and Microsoft hopes to outperform Apple with its?upcoming addition of Qualcomm chips?to Windows.?
- Natural phenomena, a compilation.?The?2024 Total Solar Eclipse?has been a?primary talking point online as millions in North America gathered Monday to experience it,?fueling content of heartwarming moments? featuring?"humans being cute."?However, the eclipse was not the only natural rarity to spark headlines in the past week. For starters, New Yorkers were?bewildered?as their city shook from a?4.8-magnitude earthquake?that resulted in zero injuries but?hundreds of memes. Meanwhile, beginning last Wednesday,?Sicily's Mount Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe,?began emitting "smoke rings" into the sky—scientifically known as "volcanic vortex rings"—an unusual phenomenon resulting from the combination of rapid gas release and the vent shape of?a new crater that opened up on the volcano's summit. ??
- Elon Musk confesses.?Last fall, 22-year-old Ben Brody?sued Elon Musk for defamation, alleging that the CEO of X perpetuated a conspiracy theory when he posted a video of a fight between two far-right groups?and falsely suggested?that Brody was involved. The billionaire was?deposed?on March 27th, and?the Huffington Post published?the transcript of the deposition yesterday. In it, Musk surprises most of us?when he confesses that he thought?some of his posts on X have?financially impaired the platform. However, his moment of self-awareness is short-lived. He then claims that Brody was not in harm's way because of his post (which received over a million views), even though the young man?had to evacuate his home after being repeatedly doxed and harassed.?
- Target takes on Amazon Prime.?Target is joining the speedy delivery game with?the launch of Target Circle 360, its unlimited rush-shipping subscription service, in a direct?threat to Amazon Prime. First announced on an earnings call, the new service will allow customers to receive same-day delivery on orders of $35+ and guaranteed two-day shipping for an annual fee of $99, though, in a promotional effort, it?will be offered at a discounted rate?of $49 until May 18. Although It may take time for Target to match the breadth of Amazon's warehouses, its subscription provides customers ?access to Shipt Marketplace, which offers free delivery from other stores as well.?
Contributors: Head of Social Content and Engagement Strategy Cristina Lawrence, Senior Vice President Jerry Lawrence, Group Vice President Andrew McKernan, and Senior Vice President Tammy Pepito. At Razorfish, we help brands define their higher purpose—the emotional reason why they belong in people’s lives. Ready to find your purpose? Learn more here.
