May 2018

This weekend we saw the coming together of Duke and Duchess of Sussex Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. And this Royal Wedding was all about the numbers, with a reported 28.4 million (according to the Express) turning their attentions to the ceremony and the BBC receiving its highest ratings so far this year with 13.1 million tuned in.

Twitter fans from all over the world headed off to the platform with 3.4 million tweets they just had to get off their chest – and everybody’s favourite, passionate Bishop, Michael Curry gave an unexpected kick of enthusiasm which seemed to have woken up some attendees at the ceremony and definitely warranted a staggering 40,000 related tweets a minute.

That wasn’t the only gift that was on offer; a small number of gift bags handed out at the wedding are being auctioned and can currently be found on the website eBay – with some listings reaching more than £1,000. It must’ve been a memorable occasion.

But this wonderous, magical occasion (no sarcasm intended) was not only enjoyed by the British public, but by the rest of the world. Whilst some may not agree with the high price tag of the security, one hotel really cashed in charging a staggering £7,000 to watch the wedding unfold on the TV!

In Belgium, it brought back some pre-Brexit feelings of love and unity. Bitterness did not seep into the heart of the European Commission, in fact, the Royal Wedding seems to have been a welcome distraction. So much so, that when asked by the Telegraph if Jean-Claude Juncker (President of the European Commission) would be watching the Royal Wedding and if the commission wanted to congratulate the happy couple, a Commission spokeswoman replied: “we are always happy when love is in the air”. Maybe Bishop Michael Curry was onto something and love really does conquer all!

Unashamedly cheesy and overly enthusiastic, Eurovision has grown from 7 countries in 1956 to 43 participating this year, attracting 6.85 million average TV viewers. Without a doubt watching Eurovision has become a modern European tradition – but how close has it remained to its original mission to create European unity?

Ahead of last year’s competition, YouGov asked adults across Europe if they believe Eurovision brings Europeans closer together. Swedes and Fins were the most enthusiastic, with a third believing that it succeeds at doing this.
Brits were the most sceptical with only 14% claiming to feel closer to the rest of Europe as a result of Eurovision.
Eurosceptics aren’t necessarily to blame for the low amount of Eurovision enthusiasm in the UK; The poll didn’t indicate a strong correlation between a country’s attitudes towards Eurovision and their political beliefs. For example, 57% of the Norwegians polled thought that their country should continue to participate in the contest, yet only 18% of them said that they would vote to remain in the European Union if asked in a referendum.

If Eurovision isn’t the tool for political progress that it once was, perhaps it has shifted to become a tool for social progress. Last week Imperial College London released research showing how a nation’s participation in the contest is associated with greater life satisfaction amongst citizens. People are 4% more satisfied with their life for every ten-place increase their country achieves on the score board. Even those placing last still reported 13% higher satisfaction than those countries not in the running at all.

These findings are unsurprising given the amount of positive discussion about diversity and inclusivity generated by the contest and its fans. Across social platforms and news forums, all sentiment was 64% positive. This increased to 71% on content including mentions of ‘LGBT’ or ‘transgender’.

However, sentiment became slightly less positive around mentions of ‘Great Britain’ and ‘SuRie’. This year’s stage invasion likely didn’t help to improve Brits’ attitudes towards Eurovision. Only 36% of Brits, the least of all nations polled, think we should continue to compete. Tellingly, 75% of us (more than double the other nations polled) believe that some countries suffer from unfair political voting by other competing countries. We might just be sore losers, and we may care more about Eurovision results than many of us would like to admit.

Last week we hosted our very first session in the Cultural Insight Forum series – centred around the concepts of trust, truth, fake news and privacy. With a fantastic turnout on a very warm May evening, we explored what brands should do to combat the sea of negativity in our post-truth world.

First up, Robert Phillips spoke about the Trust crisis, equating it to effectively “sh*t gone wrong”. He blasted companies who seek to be trustworthy, and suggested that their real focus should just to be to Do The Right Thing (something we at the7stars hold dear!).

He cited the incredible rise of brands such as Airbnb and Uber as those of interest – business models based on having absolute trust in strangers, which is counterintuitive to human instinct. Phillips’ argument was that trustworthiness actually represents honesty, competence, reliability and benevolence, and these should be the guiding principles for any business.

He was followed by Sean Pillot de Chenecey, who took us on a whistle-stop tour through the Post-Trust world. One particularly poignant example of a brand showing true authenticity was the French supermarket U, who used Snapchat stories to showcase the provenance of the exact fish a consumer was currently purchasing. The authenticity around ‘fresh’ extended to the medium – as the stories only lasted 24 hours in total.

We chose to take attendees through the consumer picture, from their lack of interest in the concept of Fake News – if you consider April Fool’s Day, then you’ll agree its nothing new – through to their desire for online serendipity from brands (2 in 3 want to be surprised and delighted).

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to being authentic, but it does feel there are many ways that brands can trip themselves up in the race to appear honest. It’s not often that Lightbox references the US Navy, but given the opportunity, we think it all boils down to the KISS principle – Keep it simple, stupid.