Five phenomena that are back in style
- The podcast
The days of radio are back, now in contemporary format. Anyone who thought that listening to shows like “the Voice of Israel” or radio lectures such as “Broadcast University” on GLZ is a thing of the past – was in awe by the outpouring number of podcasts that came out this year. Until very recently, we believed that the more we activated the consumer’s senses all at once, the better. But that too is changing. Just like the slow-food movement responded to the explosion of the fast-food industry – minimalism that posed an alternative to consumerism – so too is the return to the calm of listening to a podcast: its an act of defiance against the swift swipe of TikTok. Peacefulness, Curiosity and depth are back in fashion.
- Party is protest
The rally that ended with the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, marked the end of a period of 20 years of demonstrations at Rabin square (formerly known as Malchei Israel square). Rallies rarely took place there, except in the run-ups to elections when they were organized by political parties and big money, and not in the same magnitude as before. The public is exhausted, the public is tired of politics. Most people prefer to put their kids to bed early and binge watch Netflix (or listen to a good podcast). But 2020 was the year of the protests. A new format of demonstrations across the country seemed to appeal to a whole swath of people; from the anti-Netanyahu protesters, to the folks totting banners and flags at intersections across the country, to the anti-vaxxers. Demonstrating has become a family pastime, and frankly we’re quite in to it. Let’s be real, how much TV can one person watch?
- Here’s your newsletter! Umm, sorry, blog
Once upon a time in the early days of the Internet, collecting email addresses was THE thing. In order to send a newsletter of course. Sending a newsletter to thousands of addresses (thousands of which were incorrect) was an organization’s status symbol. But then spam filters came along and effectively made newsletters ineffective. This year, we saw a surge of personal and organizational blogs. Same same, but with significant differences: Platforms like Wix or Weebly allow just about anyone to design very esthetically pleasing blogs, to integrate them into corporate websites and to target audiences much more effectively than before. Hey, we’re like that too.
- A message without a tone
Another thing we haven’t done since the ’90s: listened to voicemail. And then came WhatsApp with recorded messages, and we’re freaking out as if it were the answering machine.
- Membership discounts are back
Loyalty programs of the past used to send us a monthly booklet that we would excitedly flip through, checking out all of the impressive discounts that the membership provided us. The online version of those are loyalty programs such as “Reut, Buy it For Me”, which gained plenty more traction due to the Coronavirus. Indeed, what activity is more delightful during lockdown, than that of scrolling through discounted products that the loyalty program compiled for us?