So…2017. What a whirlwind of emotion and change; a tidal wave of innovation, disappointment, wins, and losses. As Shakespeare might say:
“This is too much.” – Henry VII
“Farewell, and thanks.” – Antony and Cleopatra
“Ay me! what is this world!” – Hamlet
A brilliant writer and a psychic? What a guy.
I’ll stop myself there.
In the face of such enormous national change, we’ve done a lot of cool research for our clients, our partners, ourselves, and you! We’ve delved into some of society’s most discussed and pressing news, while also covering those trends that won’t make it to the headlines, but have enormous impact (even if just for entertainment purposes) for many folks and industries.
It was quite the ride, and I might be ready to hop off. Before that happens, though, let’s close off 2017 with 17 of our most shared and/or viewed blogs of the year.
#17: The Changing Political and Social Traits of Sports Fans – and Why They Matter
As you’ll see below, sports were a huge topic this year. Though interest in sports faded, overall, we noticed a few groups that defied the national decline: Gen Z and Baby Boomers. Interestingly enough, the political makeup of sports fans reversed, as well.
#16: In the Age of Stories, Millennials Are Ditching Snapchat for Instagram
So, you have your Instagram stories, your Snapchat stories, and…no, that’s not right…is it? As more storytelling platforms hit the digital stage, we found Instagram to be winning out among Millennials.
#15: When It Comes to Banking, Gen Z Will Make Millennials Look Old School
Sexy? Maybe not. Important? Very. It looks like Gen Z isn’t as interested in new financial technology, so much as they’re interested in the prospect of a reliable financial partner.
#14: 50 First Dates: Brand Loyalty Among Millennials Continues to Decline
Definitely a fun piece to write. Today’s brands are Adam Sandler, and today’s Millennial consumers resemble a Drew Barrymore-like persona. Every day, brands have to make Millennials fall in love with them. Again. Every single day. Well – every single buying cycle may be more accurate.
#13: A Data-Driven Look: Does GPA Matter Down the Road?
How does College GPA correlate with financial success, job satisfaction, health, and overall happiness? We were somewhat surprised by the data; perhaps you will be, as well!
#12: McDonald’s New Sandwiches Could Be a Signature Hit
In our research, we found that the Sweet BBQ Bacon sandwich wins by a decent margin, followed by the Maple Bacon Dijon sandwich, which beat out the Pico de Guacamole sandwich by a nose. As an aside, you don’t need to be a data scientist to know that bacon wins. Always.
Well, unless of course you don’t eat meat…Hi.
#11: Four Data-Driven Reasons Why Amazon + Whole Foods Could Be Huge
Reason #1: Whole Foods customers already buy a lot of groceries on Amazon. Reasons 2-4 paint a similar story, but only time will tell how this deal will turn out.
#10: The Forgotten Social Media Platform as Told by a Robot
You might not know this, but we have a robot on staff. Her name is Lucky, and she’s a star. When fingers are cramped and minds are drained of creative juices, she’s able to turn our data into natural language summaries.
In this case, she took a few minutes out of her busy schedule to tell us a little bit about Tumblr – the forgotten platform.
#9: Netflix May Be Safe Without Disney, but There’s No Guarantee
After this year’s announcement that Disney will pull its programming from Netflix, our initial data showed that Netflix is likely to survive. Two demographics (women and parents), however, said they were more likely to take their families elsewhere.
#8: For NFL Fans, Protests Are Drawing a Hard Line
Yes, sports again. Consumers saying that anthem protests were the main reason they were watching less NFL games nearly doubled after one of the year’s most public demonstrations.
#7: Pepsi’s Kendall Jenner Ad Did A Lot of Damage in Just One Day
Seems like forever ago, no? When we focused on the people who had seen/heard of advertising from Pepsi, the people with an unfavorable view jumped nearly 3X in less than 24 hours of the controversial commercial.
#6: Facebook Affects Purchases More Than Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram Combined
Among major social platforms, we found that Facebook is by far the most influential in terms of purchasing behavior. 16% of U.S. consumers have made a purchase based on a Facebook ad, for example, while only 1% have made a purchase based on a Snapchat ad.
#5: Who is the American Entrepreneur?
There are lots of questions that humans will never be able to answer, but fortunately, this isn’t one of them. We took an in-depth look at the traits of American Entrepreneurs, and even included a free proprietary report on the subject. Happy Holidays!
Not only has Netflix’s audience grown significantly in the past two years, but the composition of its user base has changed dramatically as well. This blog post also comes along with a free proprietary report.
#3: Women’s Spending Habits Reveal More Bad News for Retail
Clothing splurges…down. Alcohol and food splurges…not-so-down. As our research shows, there has been a distinct decline among women who prefer to shop for clothes when splurging on themselves. Not great news for a struggling retail industry.
#2: The NFL May Have a Full-Brown Crisis on Its Hands
Ok, so maybe this post was so popular because our friend Mark Cuban tweeted it out, or maybe it’s because it’s just fascinating. Perhaps a mix of both? We asked everyday folks what sports they would allow their children to play, and the data don’t look so great for football.
#1: The LGBTQ Community May Be Larger Than Prevailing Data Suggest
This year, we led one of the first-large scale initiatives around LGBTQ data ever. The resulting blog posts, and the initial report, were our most shared posts of 2017. Untz Untz.
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So, there you have it – our top blog posts of 2017. A quick reminder that we’ve had 150+ blog posts over the course of the year, so this isn’t even close to everything we covered.
In 2018, we’ll continue to research trending topics and news, and if you have suggestions for what to research, let us know! We’re always happy to chat 🙂
