24 NOVEMBER 2023
Welcome to this week’s edition of Culture Wire, a newsletter brought to you by Singapore-based pop culture and lifestyle marketing agency Culture Group.
Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends who are celebrating. We’re bringing you a bumper crop of pop culture updates in this week’s newsletter, just in time for a weekend read. Let’s dive in!
In this week’s edition:
- Innovation of the Week: How LoL Worlds became a pop culture moment
- Fax, No Printer: Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year
- Regional Round-up: Successes and failures, fast fashion… and more!
Innovation of the Week
🏆 IN A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN
The League of Legends (LoL) World Championship (Worlds) just broke an esports record, with the Grand Finals seeing more than 6M peak viewers (note: that figure excludes China). The viewership record was previously held by the Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore (5.4M viewers, and we all know what else was happening that year 🦠). As always, Worlds wasn’t just about esports: the impressive opening ceremony blended music and tech, with NewJeans and virtual boy band HEARTSTEEL performing. Let’s break down the Worlds Effect…
💡 OUR TAKE
Over the years, Riot Games has mastered the art of establishing cultural cool for League of Legends through savvy collaborations and brand tie-ups. That includes working with Nike to create the the world’s first esports apparel line (a partnership developed by Culture Group 🎺) and a multi-year collaboration with Tiffany & Co. that saw the luxury jeweler redesign the Summoner’s Cup.
For Worlds, Riot Games harnesses the intersection of passion points to drive cultural equity, blending esports with music, fashion, multimedia and more. It also has a demonstrated history for launching and showcasing artists, IPs and experiences that go on to become the next big act in culture — just see the meteoric rise of Jackson Wang, who performed at the Worlds final in 2022 and was named Louis Vuitton’s global ambassador in January this year. Scroll through the timeline below for a primer!
The Worlds finals is succeeding in creating a halo effect around LoL, attracting gamers who are not necessarily LoL players and casual pop culture enjoyers. It is not a stretch to say that the event has become one of the tentpole moments in pop culture, akin to the Superbowl or the Met Gala. Marketers keen to know what’s next in pop culture would do well to keep an eye on the event.
Taking a broader view, the cultural collision at Worlds highlights how the popularity of gaming and esports is interconnected with various passion points. For brands looking to engage consumers through gaming, it is important to understand the ways different fans engage beyond pure gameplay — see Genshin Impact and its music. Mixing gaming and esports with other passion points will allow marketers to approach the saturated space with fresh takes.
Fax, No Printer*
For those of you born before 1997, ‘fax, no printer‘ is Gen Z speak for ‘undeniable facts I agree with’
Which word did the Cambridge Dictionary name as the Word of the Year 2023?
A. Rizz
B. Greedflation
C. Hallucinate
Scroll down to the end of the newsletter for the correct answer!
Regional Round-up
🇮🇩 Cigarette Girl, Netflix’s first Indonesian original series, has entered the platform’s top-10 most-watched non-English series, with 1.6M views in the last week. Set against historical events that took place in the 1960s, it’s an epic adaptation of a beloved novel. We’ve said it before (and we will again): there’s a myriad of SEA stories that are waiting to be (re)told. How can your brand contribute?
🎮 Sticking with local drama and esports: Gamers Mangkuk, launching next week, follows a group of amateur players competing in the MLBB Professional League Malaysia. Produced in partnership between MLBB developer MOONTON and TV streaming provider Astro, the comedy series connects esports with societal conflicts. We will watch to see whether it broadens the reach of the original esports IP.
🎤 Aiming to ‘deconstruct society’s perception of failure’, FuckUp Nights invites innovators and creators to share their mistakes (they get seven minutes and up to 10 slides). Now, the series is coming to Bangkok, with speakers including Piyarat Kaljareu, the VP of integrated TV production company Kantana Group, taking the stage. It’s time to normalize conversations about failure — and brands can open the door.
☕ To celebrate 10 years of operations in Vietnam, Starbucks recently opened its first Community Store. In partnership with local nonprofit REACH, the brand will support youth vocational education. Patrons can contribute too: VND 3,000 per beverage sold at the store contributes to training programs. How will you help consumers give back?
🖤♻️ Vestiaire Collective just banned a second wave of fast fashion brands (including Zara, and H&M) from the French resale site. To promote the campaign, the brand used AI to ‘dump’ piles of textile waste outside recognizable locations, including Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. Running ahead of Black Friday, the campaign advocates for more mindful consumption during a high-profile shopping event.
⚠️ ICYMI: Let’s finish with a K-pop roundup. First, BLACKPINK will be in your area thanks to a tie up with Meta. The 70-minute VR experience will recreate the finale show of the group’s Born Pink World Tour which took place in Seoul. Meanwhile BTS are getting nostalgic with BTS Monuments: Beyond the Star: an eight-part documentary series that covers the band’s 10-year career. Premiering on Disney+ next month, it promises to take ARMYs BTS.
This Week's Trivia Answer
C. Hallucinate
Per the Cambridge Dictionary definition: when an artificial intelligence hallucinates, it produces false information. Other AI-related words, including large language model and generative AI, have also been added to the dictionary, but the Cambridge Dictionary team chose hallucinate as “it recognized that the new meaning gets to the heart of why people are talking about AI… a powerful tool but one we’re all still learning how to interact with safely and effectively”.
Generative AI has made headlines (see the recent OpenAI saga), been responsible for viral images and broke records this year. Although we’re just at the start of the journey, 2024 will mark a shift from excitement to deployment and 70% of marketers plan to unlock the potential of generative AI in their marketing in the coming 12 months.
Start considering how generative AI can supercharge your next cultural initiative — through custom local campaigns at scale, driving personalization, enhancing content creation, and more.
🚀 Over and Out!
This newsletter does not hallucinate and it’s still written by humans. So do subscribe, forward it on, or share the love on social media. Thanks for reading!
Your Culture Mavens,
Acacia, Angela, Kiko, Teri, & Vicki
