Culture Round-Up: Britney Spears to Zomato IPO- all that kept internet buzzing in July

From Jeff Bezos venturing into space to Britney Spears going vocal against her conservatorship to Zomato’s much-awaited IPO, to the chatter around Tokyo Olympics, the netizens had a gamut of options to discuss on the web in July and that led to some interesting trends shaping up through the month.

And with so much happening, there has been a significant decline in conversations around Covid on both Twitter and Google, Starcom’s monthly Culture Round-up indicated. “With a fall in the number of cases reported, both brands and consumers are moving on-figuratively. Sports and entertainment led the conversations on Twitter and Google,” the report said.

Engaging with Sports

The first half of the month was largely dominated by the finals of three major tournaments -- Wimbledon, Euro UEFA & Copa America. Argentina’s win, in the latter, took the internet by storm as netizens across the country congratulated the team and Lionel Messi as pictures of him celebrating the grand win swept the internet. Conversations around cricket were led by the ODI series and India vs Sri Lanka. Interest in women’s cricket also witnessed a spike, especially after Harleen Deol’s iconic catch went viral. The latter part of the month witnessed the start of the Tokyo Olympics; the interest in which has been rising steadily. Updates, scores, and different players have been trending along with Mirabai Chanu’s silver win in weightlifting - India’s first medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

Everyone loves celebs

And like always, celebrity birthdays & passing away, and new content releases led the conversations in Pop Culture and Entertainment. While singer and Bigg Boss 14 contestant’s wedding to actress Disha Parmar kept the internet buzzing, a great deal of attention was grabbed by Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao’s decision to get divorced. Stan Swamy, Dilip Kumar, and Surekha Sikri’s passing away also created huge ripples on social media as people mourned them.

This was closely followed by various days that brands and netizens celebrated- from Eid, to World Social Media day to Zomato IPO- there wasn’t a dry moment. Other key events were Jeff Bezos stepping down as the CEO of Amazon and Richard Branson as well as Jeff Bezos (on separate occasions) going to space. Kareena Kapoor’s book and BYJU’s #HonorTheirSacrifice campaign on parents day also kept the netizens engaged.

Of K-Pop and Loki’s stardom

On YouTube- Music had the highest engagement followed by Sports, Vlogs and Gaming. While, on OTT, some of the most popular platforms were Disney+ Hotstar, MX Player, Netflix, Prime Video etc.

Internet’s favourite Loki’s final episode was aired on Disney Plus Hotstar, and there was a plethora of content trending- from Never Have I ever to Black Widow to Samantar S2 to name a few. OTT platforms were seen to be taking to social media to promote the latest releases. Netflix created a huge buzz around Haseen Dilruba with their ‘Kaunspiracy’ theories, whereas Prime Video used an AR filter on Instagram for the promotion of their release - The Tomorrow War.

K-Pop remained extremely popular on Spotify India and remained on top of the charts throughout the month. An interesting trend that was also noticed is how the popular songs on Spotify India are also some of the most popular reel trends. While in some cases (eg- Olivia Rodrigo) users are discovering artists through reels, whereas on the other hand artists are turning to reels to increase engagement with their music (eg.- Paani Paani by Badshah and Astha Gill).

Reel-ing it up

On Instagram, reels are becoming the new go-to source of short form entertainment as celebrities, influencers and regular users are creating their own versions of popular trends (Poof Be Gone- Hook step, Trinidad’s Dinero- hook step,Don’t talk to me, How hard did puberty hit you etc). Deepika Padukone’s birthday post reel for Ranveer Singh took the internet by storm as she created a reel on hit Yashraj Mukhate x Shehnaz Gill audio -- Tuada Kutta Tommy…llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

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A post shared by Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone)

Additionally, brands and users all created and shared memes; from trending topics like the beedi packet that has Messi’s photo printed on it to topical content memes (Vin Diesel’s Family meme, Haseen Dilruba scene, Zomato IPO etc).

12-year-old Sahdev Dirdo’s version of ‘Bachpan ka Pyaar’ went viral prompting users and brands to create reels, and memes around the same. Celebrating its birthday month and the release of its IPO- Zomato was constantly a part of the user conversations. In other news, Netflix after the huge success and an Emmy nomination of its Indian Matchmaking is now partnering with tinder India to create a reality dating show.

For more information on the report and additional information on the trends, get in touch with rajiv.gopinath@starcomww.com