Could YouTube really host the Oscars? | Spin Relevance Hub Update | August Week 3

Here are the latest social media trends, industry updates, cultural revelations and audience insights to keep your brand relevant 🚀🔥

Trends

• Hard Day

  • How your brand can use this: Recreate the shots with your product. Extra points if your product isn't edible ;)

    

    @thomasthedawg0 @thomasthedawg0 ♬ original sound - 📼

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Platform Updates

• TikTok updates Community Guidelines to address AI misinformation

  • TikTok has announced some updates to its Community Guidelines, placing more focus on user safety.

Industry

• E.L.F cosmetics faces massive backlash after choosing Matt Rife as the face of their campaign

  • Here’s the brand’s public statement: “You know us, we’re always listening and we’ve heard you. This campaign aimed to humorously spotlight beauty injustice. We understand we missed the mark with people we care about in our e.l.f. community.”

• Ikea announces Brighton store with bird sh*t-covered furniture

  • A love letter to our seaside town: Ikea Brighton, working with Mother, launches with furniture covered in Seagull poo!

• McDonald’s launches VR experience in Meta’s Horizon Worlds

  • McDonald’s is bringing its iconic characters and nostalgic world into virtual reality with “McDonaldland VR” on Meta Horizon Worlds and the web. It features games, themed zones, collectables, and unlockable wearables, and ties into a real-world meal pack with a collectable surprise.

• Bemi for Burberry

  • Everyone’s favourite bus aunty Bemi is the star of Burberry’s latest TikTok.

@burberryOur fare lady: @Bemi Orojuogun on the Burberry Bus

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• TikTok top-selling beauty brand P.Louise to open immersive flagship store

  • The brand is known for its signature Bad B*tch Energy Juice Boxes, containing a lip oil and lip conditioner. It’s set to open its first fully immersive store in Manchester Trafford Palazzo in autumn 2025.

• YouTube saw the biggest increase in use across all social media platforms, ahead of Instagram (25%) and TikTok (21%).

  • Among Gen Z, this rises to 38% of respondents who report using YouTube more than a year ago.

• YouTube want to host the Oscars

  • YouTube is reportedly bidding to host the Oscars, joining media heavyweights like Disney, Netflix, Amazon, and NBCUniversal. While ABC holds the rights through 2028, YouTube’s entry signals its ambition to own more premium live events.

• Brands are shifting from one-off creator partnerships to social-first episodic series that build ongoing audience engagement.

  • Argos’ four-part mockumentary Arghaüs boosted its account engagement by 230%, while InStyle’s very good series The Intern reached 7M viewers, 99% of whom didn’t follow the brand. Billion Dollar Boy data shows 68% of marketers increased long-form creator content production in the past year, and 70% plan to do so in 2025.

Culture

• ‘Skibidi’, ‘delulu’ and ‘tradwife’ among words added to Cambridge Dictionary

  • Cambridge Dictionary has added TikTok-driven slang terms “skibidi”, “delulu”, & “tradwife”, reflecting the lasting influence of online trends on the social & cultural vocab. Other new entries include “broligarchy”, “mouse jiggler” & “work spouse”.

• Taylor Swift reveals details of The Life of a Showgirl ahead of October release: ‘Infectiously joyful and wild’

  • Swift appeared on her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast to discuss the new album, which features Sabrina Carpenter and will come out on 3 October.

• Why is TikTok overflowing with AI country music erotica?

  • AI-generated country songs have exploded on TikTok, racking up tens of millions of views in the past month and sparking a trend where younger users play them for parents in disbelief that the music is made by a bot.

    

    @user929282727333809i found this funny

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• Bezos-backed Perplexity AI makes surprise bid for Google Chrome

  • Artificial intelligence start-up Perplexity AI has made a surprise $34.5bn (£25.6bn) takeover bid for the world's most popular web browser, Google Chrome. The three-year-old firm, whose backers include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and chip maker Nvidia, is headed by a former Google and OpenAI employee.

• RIP SylvanianDrama

  • The official SylvanianDrama account has announced that they will be changing the account name and profile picture on 19th August. There's no confirmation of what the change will be but the account is taking suggestions. Looks like Epoch won…

Audience

• Booking.com have just released their global AI sentiment report, which delves into how people are using AI for travel

  • Overall, 67% of travelers already use AI tools when planning or going on trips.

  • AI assistants (24%) have surpassed work colleagues (19%) and influencers (14%) as reliable sources for travel planning advice.

• Record proportion of A-level students get top grades in England

  • Of more than 1.1m entries, 28.2% gained A or A* and 9.4% gained A*, though regional variations remain.

The Social Calendar

• Virgo season begins - 23 August

• US Open begins - 24 August

• National Dog Day - 26 August