As the UK’s days extend, slowly, the market trends are also moving from one season to the other. Here are ten search terms that have grown in popularity, along with the story behind them. This month we look at a couple of cosmetic products, a dark winter day, gambling, football (one of the biggest sectors in search), fashion and the TV program that seems to have it’s own ecosystem of trends. All the trends are curated from many thousands of recent and longer-term UK trends, calculated from multiple sources, at SISTRIX. The full 10-trend report only appears in the newsletter version.
Rosemary Oil
I best know rosemary as a woody herb that’s great with potatoes and some garlic. However, there’s a new way to use this plant: as an essential oil against hair loss.
I say new, but Mediterranean cultures’ use of rosemary in hair rinses to promote hair growth goes back hundreds of years. This could be down to the fact that the plant in essential oil form is said to have anti-inflammatory properties, promote nerve growth and improve circulation. It is this latter point, in particular, that is said to prevent hair follicles from being starved of blood supply, dying off, and leading to hair loss. Despite its ancient uses, the oil’s current comeback is largely thanks to – where else? – TikTok. The tag #rosemaryoil has amassed almost 205 million views on TikTok already, with influencers sharing videos of themselves rubbing it into their scalps. We can also see how Amazon’s follows this trend with over 50K searches for “rosemary oil” alone in the last 4 weeks. [src:SISTRIX]
Blue Monday
Blue Monday is the name given to a day in January, said by a UK travel company, Sky Travel, to be the most depressing day of the year. The concept was first published in a 2005 press release from the company, which claimed to have calculated the date using an “equation” that took various factors into account, such as the average temperature, days since last pay, days until next bank holiday, average hours of daylight, and number of nights during the month. Needless to say, the equation is bogus. Sky Travel then went on to say that it could be used as a focus for making things better, such as – surprise surprise – booking a holiday.
This marketing stunt has turned into a yearly trend that has surpassed over 200,000 searches this year! Regardless of its chequered past, the trend has gone global. Last month, McDonalds in the Netherlands had a whole campaign around Blue Monday, hoping to put smiles on people’s faces by making their high fat burgers more affordable. Whatever gets you through the winter…
Monopoly Casino
When we think of an online casino, our thoughts often go straight to the usual suspects, like slots, poker, and blackjack. However, the rapid development of technology in the world of online gambling has apparently expanded to include our favourite childhood game: Monopoly!
This classic board game went on sale to the public for the first time on 6 February 1935! It’s now been given a new lease of life in online casinos.
Monopoly-themed slots and live dealer games are popular among players who enjoy the nostalgic charm of the game. Some versions of the game even offer players the chance to accumulate property and earn rent, just like in the original game.
Here’s a fun fact about the original Monopoly: it was created by American game designer, Lizzie Magie. Born in 1866, Magie’s father had spent time with Abraham Lincoln on his political debate tour of the US. Magie grew up to be a writer, feminist, and proponent of Georgism – an economic ideology that ownership of the rent of land should be distributed equally across all members of society. Frustrated by the exploitation of people through monopolies over rent control, she devised “The Landlord’s Game”, a satirical game that would intuitively show players how rent enriches property owners and impoverishes tenants.
Monopoly Casino is a far cry from its ideological roots!
