This year, Tracksuit decided to survey over 20,000 people around the globe about what pop culture moments they heard about the most. What does that have to do with brand? Well, kind of everything.

As a brand, you can’t afford not to tap into culture – which is a little different from tapping into trends – whether that’s jumping on something already making waves in the zeitgeist, or attempting to create your own moment with a spot of cultural-led marketing (like spokesperson co-creation, such as the CeraVe x Michael Cera campaign expanded on below).

This short and simple article about going long rather than shortOpens in new tab by our friends at TRA neatly summarises the need to delve deeper beneath the trend to reveal what exactly people are vibing with. Basically this means that a trend like “very demure, very mindful” is actually revelatory of the cultural sphere at large – you could argue that it taps into the enduring sense of “girlhood” (which we said was a huge overarching theme in 2023), and playing with the expectations of femininity that society puts onto us. This would allow you to draw conclusions about why that has resonated with your target audience.

If you’re a fast-moving brand that lives on the internet, because that’s where your audience also lives, then it makes total sense to jump on the trends (if you do it quickly). You can see that in this comprehensive round-up of brandsOpens in new tab co-opting Moo Deng in social posts, from Chipotle to McDonald’s to Halo to the New York Mets. It's fun and zippy; someone gets a little dopamine-hit for feeling included in the conversation.

But obviously this won’t work for every brand, just like how every trend won’t work for every brand. That’s because, like we said earlier, the trend is actually a veneer for the “cultural shifts” and meanings that a trend represents, and it won’t always align with what you're trying to project.

But when it works, it works, and it can pay dividends. That’s because at the end of the day, we are all humans desperate to find each other – own fandoms, niches, communities – and using pop culture is a perfect way to make sure your brand is creating that for your audiences: real emotional connection.

Research from US-based media company Penske Media CorporationOpens in new tab shows that 77% of people said that “pop culture experiences provide a lifelong memory” and that a further 72% say that “the experiences offer an escape from the ordinary.” Essentially, this says that if you successfully, and authentically, leach onto a powerful culture moment, consumers could associate that lifelong memory with your brand. Which would be ideal, obviously.

Building on pop culture moments (and creating them)

If you want a full breakdown, including demographic filtering, of the very top brand and pop culture moments of 2024, download our report.

Here are some of our other favourite examples of brands milking the pop culture hamster wheel in 2024.

Facebook Marketplace x Jeremy White Allen’s Calvin Klein campaign

You may have forgotten all about the Jeremy White Allen Calvin Klein photoshoot Opens in new tab– it’s been a long year – but we’re here to make sure it graces your screens one last time. Launched early January, the lead actor of Emmy award-winning show The Bear graced billboards and video screens in his Calvin Kleins, where he lounged languidly on a corduroy red sofa. Within 48 hours, Facebook found the couch featured in the ad and listed it on Facebook Marketplace. The listing went viral.

The listing (“FREE – Red corduroy sofa from famous ripped chef shoot”) generated plenty of media coverage, which ended with Drew Barrymore announcing the recipient of the couch on her talk show.

Why this is good: A fast turnaround, while also taking an angle on the moment that makes perfect sense for the brand (e.g. the couch).

CeraVe x Michael Cera campaign

CeraVe, the affordable skincare brand that expertly rode the wave as demand and cultural relevance of skincare has rapidly increased, created a false conspiracy theoryOpens in new tab that Michael Cera was one of the creators of CeraVe and stood up an entire campaign around it.

From Cera being spotted signing CeraVe products, to the beautiful but bizarre ‘80s-coded ad where Cera showcased the moisturizer (CeraVe claimed Cera placed the advertisement himself, denying all involvement), it was a weird, zany way for a skincare brand to show up.

Why this is good: It’s funny. As Allure wroteOpens in new tab: “Aspirational, conventional beauty isn’t the only thing a beauty consumer wants; that said, an extremely earnest, patronizing takedown of beauty standards isn’t always what a beauty consumer wants, either. Some of us just want to laugh at weird shit.”

Duolingo x brat summer

Your social media manager is probably sick of being shown Duolingo as an example of great viral marketing, but unfortunately they will have to suck it up, because here it is again (send this article to your social media manager).

Duolingo hired a bunch of people to dress up as its owl mascot and attend the Charli XCX’s Sweat TourOpens in new tab, generating a metric ton of UGC (user-generated content), with many chronically-online teens in the audience. While it probably was literally a Sweat Tour for these poor owls (that costume can not be breathable), at least they got to see Charli – and go viral.

Why this is good: People made content for Duolingo, free of charge.

Boy Room x Amazon

My favourite TikTok series of the year was Boy Room, a show featuring comedian Rachel Coster bravely going where no woman should have to go. Featuring messy boy rooms that could double as the seventh circle of hell, Coster sheds light on the deepest dark corners of (urban) man, and makes helpful suggestions on how they could improve their living conditions.

In the new season, Boy Room has partnered with Amazon Prime to give the rooms actual makeovers, with products available on Amazon, parodying the format of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (“Move that bus!”).

Why this is good: It’s a simple, satisfying brand integration that puts Prime in front of millions of viewers organically.

So what do I need to know about staying relevant?

Know thy audience

There’s no point participating in a cultural trend that has no resonance with your consumers. If it’s within your means, we’d recommend investing in audience insights research, or a tool like Tracksuit, so that you can best understand who they are, what they’re interested in, and what their behavioural patterns are. That’s really about nailing down your ICP (ideal customer profile), because engaging in the pop culture moments that are resonating with them is definitely a powerful way of building relationships.

Show up different

There’s always a different way into the trend, and it may be time to take a risk and do something that is unexpected for your brand. By that, we don’t mean totally unexpected – think of it more of a sideways step than a complete destruction of everything you stand for. The Michael Cera x CeraVe campaign above is a textbook example of this: weird and zany, but with a concrete link back to the brand.

Be fast

This one’s self-explanatory, and one we’ve talked about in this article already. With trends moving at a rapid pace, avoid cultural cringe by jumping on fast. And if you can’t, then let it go. Brand building takes a long time, but it takes a much shorter time to topple all the good work you spent months, years, or even decades building.

Think about what’s underneath the trend

We’ll keep banging on about this for as long as our little lungs will let us. For example, why was Ozempic the second biggest brand moment of 2024? We could view it as an overarching symptom of society’s obsession with aging backwards, and the anxieties that people are facing with getting older. Your brand could look at this and decide to take a stand against that, taking a swing that people are starting to get sick of societal pressures – if you were a fashion brand, for example, you could use older models in your campaigns.

If you want a full breakdown, including demographic filtering and exclusive media consumption data, of the very top brand and pop culture moments of 2024, download our report.