“THAT’S ALL.”

The Devil Wears Prada 2 opens this week and promises all the fan-favorites of the 2006 blockbuster and more—more Miranda-isms, more New York City, and definitely more fashion. Ahead of the movie opening, brand collaborations have multiplied, from Samsung mobile phones to L’Oreal Paris makeup. One would expect all these brands’ ads to play in the movie theater right before the lights dim, but the curious thing is—these brands might not even be in the movie.

OUR TAKE

Brands using movies to create cultural cache isn’t new but it is clear that brand marketing in movies has evolved from product placements to become an extended form of content and engagement. The latest slate of brand and movie marketing don’t just feature actors holding up products, but hero storytelling and feel like bite-sized extensions of the movie brought IRL. 2023’s Barbie broke the floodgates for this, with experiences such as AirBnB’s bookable Barbie’s Dreamhouse placing consumers right in the middle of the story.

Much of the more interesting marketing content tied to The Devil Wears Prada 2 goes beyond just product placement within the movie. Brands are now accessing more creative avenues to convey their message and integrate in people’s lives. Immersive storytelling and IYKYK nods to deep cuts can create stand-alone featurettes and open up other enticing parts of the world of the movie.

For behind-the-scenes footage of Runway magazine, look at the campaign from beauty brand Lancôme where actors Pauline Chalamet and Caleb Hearon reprise their movie roles to tackle a classic ‘impossible’ Miranda task. Coca-Cola brand Smartwater’s mini-game makes players search for the right shade of blue—a throwback to Miranda’s cerulean monologue in the first movie. Starbucks, which does physically appear in both movies, launched a real-life secret menu with the characters’ go-to orders and even brought back actor Adrian Grenier where he meta-comments on his hated character, Nate.

To partner with movies, brands now don’t have to be limited to the actual run-time of the movie, but can create these “pocket universes” that still feel true to the story and give audiences space within the world.

One example is not even a promotion for a movie, but accesses the legacy and shared moments of a decades-long cinematic collaboration between two veteran actors. To promote the Shogun Burger, McDonald’s Hong Kong created an entire music video with home-grown artists Louis Koo and Jessica Hsuan, channeling scenes from the multiple movies where they’ve played love interests. The campaign also included an Instagram Live session with the artists and collective trading cards riffing on their romantic scenes from movies.

At a time when demand for IRL experiences is heightened and cultural status comes from being in-the-know, brands have a real opportunity to leverage movies for their iconic scenes, characters or IYKYK moments to build their own cultural capital within the movie hype cycle. This is especially so for films with a rich history (easy for sequels, remakes and  franchises, which seem to be the norm in Hollywood today) where core fans are eager for more content and experiences to get closer to the movie-world, and it doesn’t hurt that cinema attendance is on the rise with Gen Zs, especially in APAC.

For those of you born before 1997, ‘fax, no printer‘ is Gen Z speak for ‘undeniable facts I agree with’

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 SHOW & SELL

Southeast Asia’s e-commerce market is projected to hit $186 billion by 2025, and the current market leader Shopee just made a play to dominate the field even further.

By being the first brand to join Meta’s newest project, Facebook Affiliate Partnerships, they’re allowing creators to integrate their Shopee products on their Facebook Live, complete with a dashboard to manage everything from product curation to payment. Currently piloting in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, it’s a bet that SEA’s livestream commerce market is just getting started.

OUR TAKE

This partnership arrives amid discussions about the future of the creator economy: can human influencers extend their reach through AI avatars? Can creators license their likeness? Interesting yes, but the more immediate issue for brands is how people actually buy. The online purchase journey isn’t linear anymore, it’s a combination of discovery, emotion, and repeated touchpoints shaped by creators and other customers — from traditional influencers (KOLs) to everyday consumers sharing opinions (KOCs) to the new breed of sellers going live from their bedrooms (KOSs)

Per Shopee data, in 2024, affiliates generated over 100 million pieces of Shopee Live and Shopee Video content (a threefold increase from 2023). Creator content now underpins everyday e-commerce, but it’s not all perceived as equal. In SEA, trust in mega-influencers (creators with 1M+ followers) is declining faster than trust in nano and micro influencers, highlighting the importance of authenticity. In parallel, 79% of SEA social media users are more likely to engage with creator content that ‘feels like a story rather than an ad’, and product links drive 31% of purchases, more than any other format. Taken together, the signal is clear: storytelling-led posts with soft-sell shopping cues from smaller creators are winning.

The Shopee x Meta tie-up will allow more Key Opinion Sellers — who are primarily focused on livestreams and short videos — to join the creator economy, attracted by the chance to boost their income. As they do, the volume of UGC developed by creators for brands will continue to grow, further accelerating the push towards invisible selling. Of course, that’s not just happening on Shopee. It’s also happening on TikTok Shop and Lazada.

For brands, UGC from smaller creators isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s essential. WARC’s Influencer Marketing Benchmark 2025 revealed that creator-led campaigns deliver 3.5x higher engagement rates than traditional paid media across Southeast Asia, while non-professional content investment is set to overtake institutional by 2026.

Consider what’s already happening. In Indonesia, over three-quarters (76%) of consumers buy from creator recommendations, particularly in fashion and beauty. Jakarta’s migration is slowing, partly because people can now earn from anywhere. A bedroom in Bandung is now as valuable as an office in the capital. When it comes to social shopping, the region has gone beyond proof-of-concept and entered the infrastructure-building phase. For local brands, this levels the playing field: you don’t need a marquee budget or celebrity endorsement when thousands of micro-creators can bring your product into daily life. The winners won’t be those who resist this shift toward invisible selling, but those who recognize that in SEA, commerce has always been social — but it’s now more scalable than ever.

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 PHANTOM FANDOM

This November, virtual idol Hatsune Miku will make her Singapore debut as part of an Asia-wide tour that will also stop in Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila and Kuala Lumpur. The Miku Expo will be accompanied by offshoot events in Singapore and Seoul, bringing together musicians and DJs from across the community. Next year, she’ll partner with Pokémon for a crossover event in Tokyo.

Hatsune Miku might be the OG virtual idol, but she’s not the only one making waves. After selling over 1 million physical copies of their new album and becoming the most-streamed artist on Melon, virtual boyband PLAVE are also on tour (note: while Hatsune Miku is a fully virtual character powered by voice synthesis technology, PLAVE members are real performers whose identities are hidden behind digital avatars).

OUR TAKE

The Virtual YouTuber (Vtuber) economy is exploding – surpassing 500 million hours watched in Q1 2025, with Hatsune Miku videos hitting an all-time high in 2024. SEA in particular has a long history of forming fandoms around non-human characters, with characters like Hello Kitty and Monchhichi showing enduring appeal. Interest in the latter has increased following the recent success of Labubu.

In a world where human connection increasingly disappoints, mascots are consistent. So are virtual idols and AI companions – and they’re almost always available and scandal-free (PLAVE members probably aren’t going to get into a bar fight). Unlike human celebrities and influencers, characters and virtual performers offer fandom without fallout. This is parasocial connection without parasocial exhaustion.

For all the talk of digital escapism, SEA’s character economy has many physical elements. Think Labubu queues, KFC x Butterbear ‘meet & eat’ events and partnerships with Zara, Moo Deng mall takeovers… the list goes on. Fans don’t just follow these characters online, they show up for them IRL. And this helps to explain why virtual idols like Hatsune Miku are touring as well as streaming.

Here’s the thing: fifteen years ago, admitting you loved anime or virtual idols would have marked you as fringe. Today? The fringe has become the majority. Anime fans, gamers, VTuber audiences – AKA the ‘outsider kids’ – aren’t hiding in forums anymore. They’re setting the cultural agenda. Online communities didn’t just normalize niche interests; they revealed that these interests were never actually niche. They were just waiting for permission to go mainstream. Now when Hatsune Miku announces a tour or Butterbear releases merch, it’s not subculture – it’s the culture. The tastemaking pyramid is now inverted. Forget a few cool kids telling everyone what to like. Now, communities collectively decide what matters.

Two things to consider. First, Labubu fatigue is real, proving characters can overstay their welcome. Second, in China, Gen Z are turning themselves (or their pets) into collectible characters called ‘guzi’. Forget collecting characters – it’s now possible to become one. From worshipping idols to building virtual ones to becoming merch – the circle is complete. When everyone can become their own limited edition figurine, what competitive advantage remains for traditional mascots and virtual idols?

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MOODBOARDING MANHOOD

Forget everything you knew about Pinterest. The platform long associated with weddings, recipes and cottagecore is now going full throttle on men.

For the first time, Pinterest has released a men-only trend report, spotlighting how male users (especially Gen Z) are showing up on the platform. 1 in 3 Pinterest users are now men, and no–they’re not just saving sneaker boards. Top trending searches include “Pilates outfits”, “faded beard styles for men”, “rock climbers”, and “jorts outfit”. In fact, Pinterest just launched a dedicated Pinterest Man profile to house rising trends in men’s style, wellness, and lifestyle.

On the surface, it might look like Pinterest is just playing catch-up with a demographic they previously overlooked. But look closer, and this marks a deeper cultural inversion: a rewriting of gender-coded spaces.

OUR TAKE

Spaces once seen as inherently feminine (fashion, self-care, even moodboarding) are being reimagined for male audiences. It’s the reverse of what we’re used to: think soccer vs women’s soccer. Where masculinity was once the default, feminine-coded spaces are also becoming aspirational as men look for tools and community that can help shape their identity.

Asia has been quietly leading this shift for years, expanding the meaning of masculinity beyond stoicism and strength into something more layered: emotional fluency, aesthetic exploration, and cultural self-awareness.

•  Boys’ Love dramas broadened the emotional range of masculinity in media
• Japanese brand WOLG wants to normalise “masculine makeup” and challenge stereotypes
• Skincare brands like Etude House and Innisfree offer male-specific product lines that are widely embraced by Gen Z
• American-Vietnamese designer Hung La’s label Lu’u Dan reclaims the Asian masculinity narrative, previously flattened by Western tropes

In recent years, young men have often been portrayed as “lost” through mental health stats, manosphere headlines, and a loneliness epidemic too vast to ignore. Pinterest’s move however offers a different narrative that aligns more closely with what is already unfolding in Asia. We’re not just looking at what men are into but rather what’s important to them: self-care, agency and a sense of self.

Much like their female counterparts rethinking femininity (hello brat summer, demure & mindful), we’re also seeing masculinity take on new, sometimes unexpected, cultural forms. From the popularity of aura farming to Minecraft’s box office chaos, led by Gen Alpha boys – male audiences are increasingly shaping and dominating cultural participation.

So what does this mean for brands? 

It’s time to ditch the old pink = feminine, tech = masculine rhetoric and expand your assumptions. If your brand speaks to “women,” ask yourself: what would it mean to open the door to others? And if you’re targeting men, ask: what are your assumptions about who they are and what needs to change?

Brands don’t need to solve masculinity but they can support the process. Whether it’s helping someone rewrite their own identity or giving others the tools to witness, support or even challenge that transformation with empathy – brands can either shape the space or make it safer for others to step into it.

For those of you born before 1997, ‘fax, no printer‘ is Gen Z speak for ‘undeniable facts I agree with’

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DRAMA IN SMALL DOSES

In the last issue of CultureWire, we explored how brands including Rare Beauty are shifting attention to Substack and longer-form engagement. This week, we’re tackling the opposite end of the content spectrum: micro dramas. These vertical soap operas are divided into 50-100 very short chapters (60-90 seconds each), with viewers able to watch some for free before unlocking more via ads or payment. The format is seeing huge growth – global revenue from micro drama apps surged 446%, from US$ 23M in January 2024 to over US $122M in January 2025. Platforms are seeing even more dramatic results, with Dramabox’s app store revenue skyrocketing from US$ 8M in 2023 to US$ 217M in 2024. ReelShort grew from $36M to $214M in the same period.

First emerging in China and gaining traction after pandemic lockdowns when commuting resumed, micro dramas are going global. While Japan, Korea, and Singapore represent promising markets, the fastest growth is happening in the US, Indonesia, Brazil, India and Mexico. What’s driving this explosion in bite-sized storytelling?

OUR TAKE

Beyond attention spans: Micro dramas are evidence of a fundamental shift in how audiences engage with content. However, simply dismissing the format as ‘TV for the TikTok’ generation misses the bigger picture. What we’re witnessing isn’t simply the collapse of attention spans but a redistribution. Viewers are making increasingly conscious choices about where to invest their time. Traditional formats can still be relevant — after all, critically-acclaimed slow-burns like Severance still command devoted followings — but there is a growing preference for content at opposite ends of the investment spectrum. Audience attention is becoming more intentional, demanding either substantial value or immediate gratification.

A quiet rebellion: Audiences burned by streaming platform’s notorious cancel-culture are protecting themselves from disappointment. Micro dramas offer resolution without abandonment; episodes may end on a cliffhanger, but the overall story reaches a conclusion (unlike KAOS, 1889…). Rather than asking viewers to commit first and reward them later (maybe), micro dramas deliver immediate emotional payoff while gradually building deeper investment.

Content & co-creation advantage: Yes, Once Upon a Divorce: The Double Life of Lady Diana, The Quarterback Next Door and Breaking the Ice are as cheesy as their titles suggest. But they tap into the same audience appetite driving BookTok, Wattpad fanfic and romantasy trends, and fill a gap left by mainstream streamers. This connection isn’t coincidental – the pipeline from fan-created fiction to mainstream adaptation (like Wattpad stories becoming Netflix films) has already proven the commercial potential of these narratives. Perhaps more significantly, micro dramas are revolutionizing the creator-audience relationship: ReelShort, for example, features an interactive drama section where storylines evolve based on viewer choices. This gives audiences both the content they crave and the power to shape it.

The opportunity: Brands are already exploring micro dramas’ reach and engagement. Telkomsel offers a special bundling package with FlexTV, while Lion Parcel produced a telenovela-style ‘COD Ongkir’ commercial using the format. In China, KFC created a series featuring an ancient empress time-traveling to discover their food. Skincare brand Kans integrated products throughout storylines, generating five billion views. Alipay Little Purse combined micro drama with gamified savings. Most of these brand integrations aren’t forcing traditional content into shorter timeframes. Instead they’re embracing the format’s storytelling style and community engagement aspects.

One last thing: From Substack to micro dramas, the content spectrum stretches toward opposite poles. For marketers, the sweet spot isn’t choosing sides — it’s recognizing that the middle ground of ‘just fine’ content is rapidly becoming the riskiest place to be. In a world where attention is currency, the brands that understand its changing distribution will be the ones that thrive.

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BOUNCING INTO YOUR INBOX
At the start of April, Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty joined Substack, using the platform as a place to connect with fans. Promising a ‘a semi-authorized look behind the scenes at one of the world’s biggest beauty brands’, Rare Insider posts have covered everything from how a new blush was created to an interview with Rare’s Director of Global Artistry. 

There’s a strong emphasis on community and (perhaps in an effort to skirt the platform’s emphasis on high quality editorial content) content that’s uplifting and a value-add. With Substack reaching 5 M paid subscriptions in March 2025 and Google searches for ‘Substack’ outnumbering those for ‘newsletter’, it’s a good time to unpack the role of slow(er) media in a fast-scrolling world. 

OUR TAKE

In a content ecosystem dominated by speed, noise, and saturation, the most radical thing a brand can do might be… slow down. Brands are evolving from advertisers to publishers, creating content that prioritizes relationship over conversion. The informal, experimental quality of Rare Insider makes interactions feel more human and less corporate, perhaps taking cues from other fashion and lifestyle brands (The RealReal, Tory Burch, M.M.LaFleur and Saie) that have all launched Substacks functioning more like editorial publications than marketing materials. Early movers could have an advantage: in an attention economy already stretched thin, how many brand newsletters will consumers actually have time to read?

The shift toward slower content extends beyond newsletters: 68% of marketers increased long-form content production in 2024, with 70% planning to invest even more this year. Concepts are getting more creative. E.l.f. Beauty released a 15-minute true-crime mockumentary that played in theaters before Mean Girls. Patagonia’s 25-minute documentary Last Observers has 1.6 M views. Platforms known for brevity are adapting—TikTok and Instagram have both extended video length limits, while YouTube reports 1 B monthly viewers of podcast content. It’s not about creating more content, but more meaningful content that earns attention.

For brands seeking respite from algorithm whiplash, community over conversion makes sense. Rare Beauty has a long-standing commitment to community that traces back to Covid-era Rare Chats (hosted on Zoom, of course) to IRL mental health summits (#4 took place yesterday). Not only does this lend authenticity to this endeavor, it gives plenty of editorial inspiration.

Marketing in 2025 isn’t just thinking about where you show up. It’s about changing what you are saying. Less promotion, more perspective. Less selling, more storytelling. Substack might not be the right platform for your brand. But the mindset shift—from interrupting customers to inviting them in—definitely is.

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Despite lukewarm trailers, widespread online ridicule, and an IP that doesn’t follow a traditional storyline, A Minecraft Movie has just pulled off the biggest box office debut of 2025 — raking in over $160M in the US and Canada alone. Forecasts initially pegged it at a modest $65M, later revised to $85M as buzz picked up. But nothing came close to the reality.

The hype didn’t stop at the cinema. Minecraft daily active players jumped 35% over two weekends, thanks in part to in-game events and the kind of fandom momentum money can’t buy. Online, the movie sparked viral chaos with the rise of the “chicken jockey” moment, where teens reenacted a rare in-game occurrence (baby zombie riding a chicken) by hoisting friends onto shoulders and launching popcorn mid-screening. At the same time, Minecraft: Volume Alpha — the game’s original lo-fi soundtrack — was quietly added to the Library of Congress for its cultural, aesthetic, and emotional significance.

So this week, we’re unpacking how a film that was widely dismissed online ended up outperforming every industry prediction — and what it reveals about how younger audiences are reshaping cultural consumption, participation, and power.

OUR TAKE

The unprecedented success of A Minecraft Movie wasn’t just a box office anomaly, it marked a cultural shift that’s been a long time coming. Gen Alpha, long mythologized in trend reports and think pieces but dismissed due to their lack of spending power, is finally stepping into the spotlight. And they’re not writing haikus about intergenerational trauma like Millennials, or posting shaky-camera TikToks with half-baked think pieces like Gen Z.

Unlike previous generations, Gen Alpha has been immersed in digital environments from birth, with games like Minecraft and Roblox serving as foundational platforms for creativity, social interaction, and self-expression. The screen was never just entertainment — it was where their identities were formed.

Their engagement with media is not passive; it’s participatory, blurring the lines between virtual and real-world experiences. The “chicken jockey” trend exemplifies this shift. What might seem like chaotic theater behavior is, for Gen Alpha, a natural extension of their digital lives into physical spaces. Why wouldn’t you recreate a moment from your favorite world with your real-life crew? For Gen Alpha, content is something you inhabit, not just consume.

Notably, this moment is being driven by young boys — a group rarely spotlighted in today’s fandom economy. While girls have long been the intended audience of pop marketing, Gen Alpha boys are showing up with full meme energy, reminding us that fandom isn’t gendered — it’s generational.

Sure, older Gen Z and Millennials were also at the theater, chasing one last dopamine hit from their pixelated childhoods. But while those generations built culture by remixing the past, Gen Alpha is building it in real time. Their instinct for collective chaos, their comfort in blurring boundaries, and their refusal to separate online from offline points to a future that’s less curated and more communal.
The success of A Minecraft Movie is just the beginning.​ Gen Alpha doesn’t need permission, this world has always been theirs. And now, they’re taking up space. Online, offline, and everywhere in between.

For those of you born before 1997, ‘fax, no printer‘ is Gen Z speak for ‘undeniable facts I agree with’

Which idol launched a sanitary pad brand in China?

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SPIRITED AWAY (BY AI)

What do the White House, the distracted boyfriend meme and Zomato have in common? They’ve all been ‘Ghibli-fied’.

Over the past week, images recreating the aesthetic of Studio Ghibli have flooded social media, most created using the latest update to OpenAI’s GPT-4o. The update significantly improved the tool’s ability to generate images… and more controversially, to produce work in recognisable artistic styles. After Grant Slatton posted a family photo next to a Studio Ghibli anime, the trend took off (Slattons original post has been viewed more than 50 million times).

We’ve seen AI-generated images go viral before (remember 2023’s Pope in the puffer?), but this is the first time an AI-created image trend so directly leans into a specific visual identity. That raises the question: As technology continues to blur the lines between creation and automation, how does it redefine the essence of culture itself?

OUR TAKE

The biggest winner here might be OpenAI. On Monday, Sam Altman revealed that ChatGPT had “added one million users in the last hour”, citing “biblical demand” for the updated image generation service. The same day, the company raised US$40 B and nearly doubled its valuation to US$300 B, up from US$157 B in October. Not a bad start to the week…

Beyond OpenAI’s success, this trend also highlights the enduring appeal of Studio Ghibli. The studio’s hand-drawn animation is beloved not just for its aesthetics but for the emotions it evokes—its soft palettes, careful brushstrokes, and atmospheric storytelling transport viewers to a another world. Psychology Today even noted that Ghibli’s art activates the brain’s default mode network, a state linked to introspection and calm. The AI-generated versions tap into that same visual comfort, offering users a digital ‘safe space’ to insert themselves into. Nostalgia meets main-character energy.

But here’s the paradox. On one hand, ‘Ghibli-fying’ an image lowers the barrier to participation – anyone can see themselves in the world they love. On the other hand, it raises questions about what happens when AI-generated art removes friction from the creative process.

Compare this to last year’s ‘Accidentally Wes Anderson’ trend, which involved framing shots with precision, color-correcting, and curating scenes to fit a particular aesthetic. AI-generated art removes the trial and error, the decision-making, the creative struggle.And if effort is no longer part of the equation, how does that reshape our understanding of culture?

It’s easy to get caught up in the hype cycle of every AI-driven trend. But instead of just chasing viral moments, brands should ask themselves: Are we truly shaping culture, or simply reflecting what consumers already want? There was a time when brands took bold creative risks, shaping narratives rather than reacting to them—not because they were chasing engagement, but because they were driven by vision. Cultural relevance wasn’t a metric to optimize; it was the natural outcome of compelling storytelling and originality.

We are already seeing similar patterns in the media. Consider the number of sequels, prequels and (live-action) remakes Hollywood studios have churned out over the last decade. Audiences aren’t rejecting originality—they’re just being given fewer chances to encounter it. The same thing is happening with AI-generated art: the result might look like Studio Ghibli, but it lacks the depth and human imperfection that make the style resonate in the first place.

To borrow from Kyle Chayka: “In our present moment, I worry much less for artists, who are driven to create things, than for audiences, who may be content to settle for so many pale imitations.” Perhaps the biggest irony lies in the fact that Miyazaki himself once described an AI animation demo as “an insult to life itself”.

Now seems like a good time to mention copyright issues. In what could be a landmark case, The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for training ChatGPT on its articles without permission. OpenAI has added a refusal mechanism that triggers when a user attempts to generate an image in the style of a living artist’ while permitting ‘broader studio styles’. This creates a gray area: you can’t request art ‘in the style of Miyazaki’, but ‘Studio Ghibli style’ gets a hall pass.

As the debates about originality and ethics continue to play out, there’s a bigger lesson here for marketers. AI-powered tools aren’t just reshaping how consumers interact with creative content—they’re changing expectations around self-insertion, personalization, and effort.

The real challenge isn’t just AI’s ability to recreate beloved styles – it’s how we, as creatives and consumers, choose to engage with these new tools. AI can bring people closer to the stories they love, but will it inspire new ones?

For those of you born before 1997, ‘fax, no printer‘ is Gen Z speak for ‘undeniable facts I agree with’

What’s MrBeast up to now?

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THE BAN THAT WASN’T

It was a big week for TikTok (and social media in general) after a US law banning it on national security grounds came into effect. Xiaohongshu became one of the top downloaded apps, welcoming an influx of digital refugees keen to fill their scrolling time (the irony of US users signing up to another Chinese-owned platform wasn’t lost on anyone). And while you probably know what happened, have you taken time to think about what it means? 

OUR TAKE

A DIGITAL EXHALE

One very immediate effect of the TikTok ban? Feeds free of content from the US. Some users likened it to a digital ‘exhale’ that allowed them to pause and reflect on what was to come next (i.e. how were they going to get by without American creators and content). Smaller creators outside of the US gained more visibility, resulting in either more regionally relevant FYPs or delightful discoveries. This algorithmic awakening sparked a wave of intentional feed curation, with some users actively blocking US creators to maintain variety (side-note that Instagram recently rolled out a recommendations reset).

Yes, the reversal restored access to US content but audiences are now more aware of the benefits of diversifying their feed. Even a temporary shift away from US-centric content was enough of a reminder of how business-as-usual it is to drown out local cultural conversations.

CONFESSIONS OF A CREATOR ECONOMY
Creators reacted to the upcoming ban by revealing their secrets with ‘since we’re all gonna die’ videos. Some ‘confessions’ were relatively tongue-in-cheek, others revealed the smoke-and-mirror effects many creators employ in a bid to go viral – with some fitness influencers admitting their results were not from following their own workout routine but rather from a BBL (Brazilian butt lift). Many followers were dismayed that they’d been tricked and, while the outcry will probably be as short-lived as the ban itself, it’s simply another signal of users being called to be more discerning of the content they consume.

Of course, for creators, the ban was also a reminder of the fragility of algorithm-dependent success and the ongoing need to experiment with an ecosystem building beyond TikTok – think Spotify podcasts, newsletters and more. These longer formats, and the deeper storytelling they enable, could also lend themselves to greater #authenticity… although it remains to be seen just how creators will leverage (and monetize) them.

2025: BEYOND THE FEED?

TikTok has become the first stop for brands looking to get a handle on what’s #trending in culture. But here’s the thing: most viral TikTok trends don’t actually start on TikTok. In fact, most simply borrow from marginalized creators. Whether it was dance challenges or very demure behavior, the platform’s real power has been in amplification, not originality. And maybe – just maybe – the shine is rubbing off.

Another take? The ban was just a taster of what’s to come. Not greater regulation, but more intentional user behavior. This particularly applies to younger demographics, who are afflicted by widespread isolation, feel dissatisfied with their largely digital relationships and are gravitating towards IRL communities (from book clubs in Malaysia to running clubs becoming the new dating app in Indoensia and beyond). For this group, spending time offline could be the ultimate flex.  Perhaps this disruption wasn’t just about content preferences – it offered a preview of how digital influence might be redefined altogether.

For those of you born before 1997, ‘fax, no printer‘ is Gen Z speak for ‘undeniable facts I agree with’

Which is the latest Asian city to become a tourist hotspot?

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