"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it." Henry Ford

#WeGoAlong

Taking Care of Business

Back to our regular scheduled programming. I hope everyone in the WGA community is doing well. For those of you who were in Nashville, I hope you made it out alive. As you know our very own PB (pretty boy) has been in the desert the last week and has decided to extend his stay. I think I speak for everyone that we are quite enthusiastic about this decision. The connections he has built are nothing short of amazing and I couldn’t be more proud of him. On my end, it has been a hectic few weeks but I couldn’t ask for anything more.

A few housekeeping notes: we will be releasing the WGA Club on May 18th and our favourite lurker Chris P has worked tirelessly on making this happen. Props to our boy. Merch will be coming out in early June. I am finally pleased with the samples we have received. Get ready!

#Trending

You Know What I Just Discovered? Podcasts.

Podcasts. The new era of Radio. Just like any other social platform, it has never been easier to express yourself and build a brand. Podcasts aren't new. They've been a trending medium for some time, and many popular creators who established themselves on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram etc. have crossed over to a longer form of dialogue content. It works for some and doesn’t work for others.

But why are the numbers decreasing in active listening compared to 2022? It could be the over saturation of available content. Monthly podcast listening in the US—or the share of Americans over the age of 12 who said they listened to a podcast in the last month—ticked down from 41% in 2021 to 38% in 2022, the first decline since 2013, according to Edison’s annual report that tracks digital-media consumer behaviour.

The decrease appears to be partly driven by Americans ages 12–34, an important demographic for many advertisers. Despite the decline, podcast ad spending is expected to surpass $2 billion nationally by next year. If I were to start a podcast it would solely cover the topics of platypuses, Taylor swift, and coffee. 

#Trailblazing

Is Abercrombie & Fitch Cool Again?

I’m going to preface this article with the fact that in elementary school A&F was THE brand of the cool kids. I remember I got my first all white t-shirt with the moose logo and popped into class like I ran the school. I then spilled my pizza lunch chocolate milk all over it. Live and learn. I didn’t give a single f*ck and wore that thing every day. Fast forward a decade and it seemed like the brand just fell off and lost its cultural appeal.

Enter TikTok. The 130-year-old brand is running a paid and organic ad strategy on the platform as well as working with TikTok creators for content. The reintroduction follows Abercrombie & Fitch’s overall brand transformation in recent years as it has slowly shed its reputation of preppy exclusivity to become a more inclusive brand aimed at twentysomethings seeking fashionable basics. I am a huge fan. Last year I stepped in to check it out and those same pieces I walked out with are ones I wear today. Clean and durable basics.

To get its message out to a wide variety of TikTok audiences as well as showcase the diversity of the intended audience now, Abercrombie & Fitch worked with fashion influencers as well as a number of different creators including dancers, chefs and comedians, among others. Rather than telling them specifically what to post, the brand gave creators a strategy and empowered them to create TikToks for their channels as well as for Abercrombie & Fitch’s TikTok. This is a huge move by the brand as usually these posts are quite strict to fit the style and image that the brand is aiming for.

During the first nine months of 2021 Abercrombie & Fitch spent $25.9 million on media, per Kantar (a leading data and insights consulting company), and those figures don’t include what the brand spent on social channels, as Kantar does not track that spending. That’s a lot of Bud Lattes which we at We Go Along believe to be a solid business investment with immaculate return. 

#Traveling

The Busiest Airports List

Barred from travelling to many international destinations last year, Americans decided that Paris, Texas, and Cairo, Illinois, would have to suffice. What's more, given the increase in domestic travel, eight of the top 10 busiest airports in the world in 2021 were located in the US, according to a new report from Airports Council International (ACI).

Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson reclaimed the No. 1 spot it had held for 22 years, after being dethroned in 2020 by Guangzhou in China. Denver climbed to third last year from eighth in 2020 as more Americans tried to confirm whether the conspiracy theories are true (I think they just might be). Orlando, which was 27th in 2020, rose to seventh place and Charlotte, the American Airlines hub, jumped from 34th place in 2019 to sixth.

While leisure destinations in the US became more popular during COVID, hubs connecting international travellers lost out. Previous top 10 list diehards such as Dubai, London Heathrow, and Paris Charles de Gaulle have been unusually quiet in the past two years.

In 2021, the number of air travellers globally rebounded 25% from 2020, but still came in at just 50% of 2019 levels. We're doing our part to bump the air time, and you know more adventures are in the works!
 

#WeeklyTopPicks

We Go Along Top Picks

#AlexSongChoice
Heaven - Kane Brown

Between the sounds of Nashville and hanging with country lovin' bros in Arizona, Alex has turned a little bit (more) country. We're here for it. The hat works for him.

#Flix
Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes | 2022 | Documentary | 1 Season

Yet another reason to dislike clowns. A part-time clown's smiling exterior hides the darkness of a sadistic serial killer who preys on the vulnerable.

#Facts
Random fact of the week

That tiny dot above lower case "I" and "j" letters has an actual name: tittle. It is thought that the phrase "to a T" is actually derived from the phrase "to a tittle"—a phrase that was used in the same sense dating back to the early 17th century.