The Future of Love, “Stinge Watching,” The Decline of Wine and an African Brand That Turned Down $1.7B

Hello from the Dallas/Fort Worth area! I’m here for an event and sharing a recap of stories with you during a week where there were plenty of stories to get you thinking about the future of relationships and love (thanks to Valentine’s Day). Other stories include bioluminescent plants you can now buy for your home, the upside of “stinge watching” instead of binge-watching, the decline of wine, the African streaming giant you might not know about, beef-infused rice, and my annual picks for the best and worst of Super Bowl ads. 

Stay curious,

The Future of Love in an Age of AI Dating and Chatbot Partners 

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day and there were dozens of stories about love in one form or another. Collectively, these stories illustrated how there is a reevaluation happening now around love and how people are experimenting with new ways to find companionship, from AI girlfriends and boyfriends to polyamory experiments to automated dating. Here are just a few stories that stood out:

• The guy who automated his conversations with 5000 women through Tinder had his chatbot set up dates with real women, forgot to tell him and then stood them up.
• Another dude created a dating app where you can only date him … which sounds pathetic but is actually quite clever if you read about how he did it.
• A new dating app only allows you to join if you have a credit rating higher than 675 — putting financial algorithms front and center in creating romantic matches. 
• Some women in China some women say they prefer an AI boyfriend because it “knows how to talk to women better than a real man.”
• Reports are emerging about privacy concerns with these AI boyfriends and girlfriends who can easily “spill your secrets.” 
• A newly published book about the merits of open marriages got a scorching review for actually ending up illustrating just how sad life was for the author who was supposedly promoting the lifestyle. 
• During the Super Bowl, Cheetos launched a “cheesy” pop-up chapel in Las Vegas where you can have Chester Cheetah officiate your wedding. At least they own their cheesiness!
• Another idea that would only work in Vegas is a new wedding chapel at Las Vegas airport right next to baggage claim. 

Instead of Binge Watching, Why Not Try “Stinge Watching”?

Last month my wife and I binge watched For All Mankind on Apple+. The show was highly original, smartly written and now that we’re done with Season 4, we are stuck waiting for a new season and we miss it. This is a familiar emotion for any of us who have gotten into a new show, devoured it and then felt the angst of a new entertainment void to fill. Instead of watching that way, what if you took longer … on purpose.

I am a big Star Trek fan, but new shows from this universe on Paramount+ are ones that I end up watching alone … so I usually only watch episodes while waiting to board flights or during longer indoor cardio workouts. As a result, one season lasts me a month or two. It seems what I have been unintentionally doing is “stinge watching,” a clever new term I heard this week to describe the idea of intentionally spreading out viewing a streaming show over more time to enjoy it longer.

This isn’t exactly “the opposite of binge watching” as this article claims, since technically that would be NOT watching the show at all. Still there is some wisdom in this idea of stinge watching and giving ourselves more time to think and digest what we are watching, while also fueling our anticipation for when we will watch the next episode. Of course, I’d probably enjoy a chocolate bar more if I only ate a bit each day too. But that doesn’t make it any easier to resist temptation and do it.  

Decline of Wine? Spirits Attract Celebrity Partners and Outsell Wine for First Time in 45 Years

Boomers love wine, but that may not be enough to keep it flying high. A new report of sales figures from 2023 shows that spirits outsold wine for the first time in 45 years. Combined with a story I shared last week about how Gen Z is not drinking as much alcohol as previous generations, it seems the wine industry overall has been struggling to reach younger consumers. In contrast, despite the early demographic data around Gen Z drinking habits being lower, spirits experienced a 13th straight year of sales growth.

Culturally we can see this playing out as well. Famous actors and other celebrities are teaming up with distillers to launch new premium spirits like gin, tequila and mezcal. A generation ago, famous Hollywood directors or others would put their name on a vineyard. Today very few celebrities are getting attention for teaming up to launch a wine. Meanwhile George Clooney, the Rock, Ryan Reynolds, Jamie Foxx and Jay Z all have popular liquor brands that get lots of attention.

What do you think – is this the decline of wine or just a momentary blip? Certainly, the collector’s market is still heavily about wine. And hardly anyone has a tequila cellar. At least, not yet. 

The African Media Streaming Brand That Just Turned Down $1.7B

One of the most famous streaming media brands in the world is one that you may not have ever heard of. It’s called MultiChoice and they are the “king of content in Africa,” owning the #1 streaming platform on the continent known as Showmax. They dethroned Netflix last year for the biggest market share in Africa, holding 40% compared with 35% for Netflix.

More importantly, they feature much more local content, own rights to broadcast the hugely popular English Premier League soccer matches and have relentlessly pursued a mobile-first interface design … ideal for a continent where more than 600 million people count on their phones as a primary vehicle for everything from entertainment to payments.

Two weeks ago, when the African brand turned down the huge $1.7B acquisition offer from French media giant Canal+ – there was a lot of criticism and questioning of the decision. Only time will tell if choosing to bet on their own growth potential will pay off. 

The Best and Worst of Super Bowl Marketing Strategy – 2024

This year’s Super Bowl Ads cost $7 million – and most are being rated today based on their entertainment value. Not exactly the metric I would pick. Instead, I always look at the year’s ads based on the marketing strategy and whether the creative the team used actually delivered on what they might have hoped to get from the big spend. Based on that, some ads were winners, some were total losers and many were “almosts.” They could have been good, but were executed in a way that didn’t work. Read my full review here >>

Even More Non-Obvious Stories …

Every week I always curate more stories than I’m able to explore in detail. Instead of skipping those stories, I started to share them in this section so you can skim the headlines and click on any that spark your interest:

• Dubai’s Mind-Bending Vertical Maze Is Bigger Than You Think
• Now You Can Buy a Bioluminescent Houseplant in the US
• Scientists Create Beef-Infused Rice with Cow Cells
• Terrorists Are Paying for Blue Check Marks on X/Twitter
• This AI Campaign Re-Creates the Voices of Gun Violence Victims to Call for Reform

How are these stories curated?

Every week I spend hours going through hundreds of stories in order to curate this email. Looking for a speaker to inspire your team to become non-obvious thinkers through a keynote or workshop?  Watch my new 2024 speaking reel on YouTube >>

This Non-Obvious Insights Newsletter is curated by Rohit Bhargava.

Copyright © 2023 Non-Obvious, All rights reserved.

Get this newsletter directly in your inbox every Thursday! Subscribe here >>