1. Michaels :: Social Listening
Ongoing, Emerging, and Testing Trends
April – August 16, 2017

2. Social Listening: Trends Overview
Bolded titles are trends provided by Michaels Trends Team; non-bolded are from Zimmerman Social Marketing Analytics team.
Ongoing Trends:
Slime – Pink/Rose Gold and Butter Slime
Painted Rocks – Detailed Artistry
*New* Unicorn Parties – Unicorn Cakes, Snacks, Party Favors
*New* Farmhouse – Décor in the Kitchen and Living Room
Emerging Trends:
Squishies – “Huge” Squishies
Kawaii – Subscription Boxes and Cartoon Style
Origami – 3-Dimensional Origami
*New* Takochu – No Trend
Testing Trends:
*New* Gender Reveal Parties – Smoke Bombs, Items that Explode with Either Pink or Blue
*New* Emojis – The Emoji Movie, Emoji Merchandise
*New* Paint Pouring – Themed Technique Pouring
*New* STEM – Toys & Games, Summer Camps
SOURCES:
Social Listening Tool: Brandwatch, US & Canada
Sources: The social listening for this report was pulled from Blogs, News, Forums, Videos, Twitter, Reviews, Facebook, and Instagram. Brandwatch does not pull Pinterest data.
Note: Highlights are not reflective of every input provided, only observatory that could be derived from overall results of the research.

3. Social Listening: Methodology
Related Keywords: Queries utilized top 20 Pinterest searched terms for each trend identified by Michaels. Zimmerman Social Marketing Analytics team conducted independent research to best capture other potential terms associated with each trend. Zimmerman and Pinterest search terms aligned for social listening query building. Google data set not ready in time for this report.
Implication of Related Keywords: For trends that carried over from the last report to this report, the query building varied as we expanded beyond just the trend terminology and leveraged related keywords to produce more relevant results. This impacted Slime, Painted Rocks, Kawaii, Squishies, and Origami. For example, Squishies query this round included terminology “diy squishy” and “squishys” which was not included in the last report.
Conversation Growth: Any references to percent growth from the last report is specific to changes from July to August and will be influenced by the addition of related keywords. Slime, Squishies, Painted Rocks, Kawaii, and Origami all increased in conversation by at least 7.5%.

4. Social Listening: Executive Summary
Ongoing Trends: ‘Slime’ and ‘Farmhouse’ accounted for the majority of social conversation, with ‘Slime’ increasing over 7% from July to August with 887K mentions from April to August. Following a spike at the end of April, ‘Farmhouse’ generated 120K mentions and has the highest percent of positive sentiment for Ongoing Trends with the lowest percent of negative sentiment among all the trends evaluated. ‘Unicorn Parties’ and ‘Painted Rocks’ have held a low but steady trend line, with Painted Rocks increasing 40% from July to August.
Emerging Trends: Strong conversation volume for ‘Squishies’ and ‘Kawaii.’ Since the last trend spotting analysis ‘Squishies’ has shown substantial growth from 11K mentions through mid-July to over 200K through mid-August. ‘Kawaii’ and ‘Origami’ saw double digit growth from July to August, and ‘Kawaii’ yielded the highest percent of positive sentiment among all trends evaluated with 64%. Takochu, one of the new trends, had only 9 mentions with predominantly neutral sentiment.
Testing Trends: ‘Emojis,’ ‘STEM,’ and ‘Gender Reveal Parties’ held a strong trend line with exceptionally high mentions, yet mostly neutral sentiment. ‘Emoji’ has irregular peaks, with spikes trending up inJuly and August due to the movie promotion and release. ‘STEM’ held a constant trend line with a spike in May, though in recent weeks is trending down. ‘Gender Reveal Parties’ mentions spiked in June and July but have generated the lowest percent of positive sentiment of the trends evaluated. ‘Paint Pouring’ had low mentions at 1.3K, but saw the highest percent of positive sentiment among the Testing Trends.
Note: Highlights are not reflective of every input provided, only observatory that could be derived from overall results of the research.

5. Social Listening: Volume & Sentiment
Ongoing Trends
Volume
Positive Sentiment
Neutral Sentiment
Negative Sentiment
Volume % Change
(Jul – Aug)
Slime
887K
49%
34%
17%
+7.5%
Farmhouse
120K
59%
35% 6%
N/A
Painted Rocks
96K
38%
52%
10%
+40%
Unicorn Parties
30K
46%
40%
14%
Emerging Trends
Volume
Positive Sentiment
Neutral Sentiment
Negative Sentiment
Volume % Change (Jul – Aug)
Kawaii
908K
64%
26%
10%
+21.9%
Squishies
202K
41%
36%
23%
+615.6%
Origami
87K
37%
54% 9%
+47%
Takochu 9
22%
78% 0%
N/A
Testing Trends
Volume
Positive Sentiment
Neutral Sentiment
Negative Sentiment
Emojis 2M
22%
55%
23%
STEM
65%
12%
Gender Reveal Parties
201K
18%
78% 4%
Paint Pouring
1.3K
40%
54% 6%
Trends Ranked by Volume, Green = High, Red = Low

6. Trend Line: Ongoing, Emerging, Testing
CONVERSATION VOLUME
The information presented on this slide represents the trend-lines for ongoing, emerging, and testing trends.

7. Trend Line: Ongoing Trends
CONVERSATION VOLUME
The information presented on this slide represents the ongoing trend conversations.

8. Trend Line: Emerging Trends
CONVERRSATION VOLUME
The information presented on this slide represents the emerging trends conversations.

9. Trend Line: Testing Trends
CONVERSATION VOLUME
The information presented on this slide represents the testing trend conversations.

10. Social Listening: Upward Trends
ONGOING: SLIME
“Butter Slime” – 21K social mentions. Most popular highlight mixing butter slime with other forms of slime. Majority of posts are videos of people making butter slime.
“Pink Slime” – 17K social mentions. A trending color is “Millennial Pink.” People are starting to show off their hues of pink slime to even rose gold tinted slime.
“Slime Videos” – 12K posts mentioning that a slime video was created. High volume of these posts stem from slime creators.
EMERGING: KAWAII
“#Kawaii” – 832K social mentions utilizing the hashtag. Posts highlight drawings, subscription boxes, and Kawaii style/items.
“#Manga” – 162K social mentions featuring the hashtag. Manga posts displayed more of the cartoon style of Kawaii.
TESTING: EMOJI
“Heart Eyes Emoji” – 16K total posts mentioning the heart eyes emoji. Mentions feature merchandise to using the heart eyes emoji in posts.
“Box Office” – 16.6K total mentions regarding the box office and reference The Emoji Movie.
“Emoji Keyboard for the iOS” – 16K total posts. Mostly made up of promotional posts to download the keyboard for the iPhone.
The information presented on this slide represents the top topics related to the ongoing, emerging, and testing trends. Bullet points correlate to conversations that stand out, not all conversations populating on the topic cloud. The colors of the topic clouds correlate to the sentiment. Green is positive, Grey is neutral, and red is negative sentiment.

11. Social Listening: Sample Conversations
Sample posts on this slide represent the current conversation for ongoing, emerging, and testing trends.

12. Thank You.