We haven’t seen the sun for months, so excuse us while we take a moment to get a bit carried away, excited that summer may be on its way (just don’t check the forecast for next week).
And when it comes to social media, we’ve got a spring in our step.
Instagram is packed full of flip flops, boomerangs of Aperol Spritz… and the novelty inflatable is back. Yes, the must-have social media prop of the summer has made a return, and we can’t get enough of them.
But gone is the pink flamingo (now upgraded to a rose-gold version) and pineapple. This year, John Lewis is predicting that ‘the giant unicorn and pastel-toned ice cream cone will be among the most popular choices’. So get ready, you’re going to be seeing a lot of them.
Starting at around £65 a pop, these are not the atypical beach lilos which get deserted at the end of the holiday. This is the latest example of products that millennials love ‘constantly seeking opportunities to capture fun, playful content to sit on their perfectly curated Instagram feed’… and it’s big business; last year alone, John Lewis reported a sales increase of 560%.
We all went mad for inflatables back in 2015 after Taylor Swift shared a photo of herself on an inflatable swan (with ex beau Calvin Harris), and since then we’ve been searching for ‘swan pool toy’ and ‘pool float’ all summer long.
Celebrities love them, we love them, in fact last year Selfridges sold out in April, and even had a waiting list for the beloved items. In 2017 we loved floating lobsters, donuts and pizza slices, but if you fancy broadening your search for 2018, you can thank us later!
This got us thinking, what other props are we buying specifically for our Instagram grids? Showing a version of our very best aspirational life (or at least the cleanest corner of the kitchen).
From backdrop tiles to create the spotless marble worktop or perfect floor, coloured walls and front doors that definitely don’t belong to us, lightboxes, cinema style message boards, milestone cards and novelty animal outfits. Is it a phase? Much like the photoshopped images has been called out, online influencers are starting to show another side to themselves with Instagram stories, but how long until these less than perfect snapshots make it to the ‘grid’.
Maybe it’s about time we all decided to be a flamingo in a flock of pigeons.
Our consumer lifestyle PR team specialise in connecting everyday brands with everyday people across four core sectors; Consumer Lifestyle PR, Food & Drink PR, Retail PR and Sport, Health & Wellbeing PR. More information on these areas of knowledge can be found at www.escapadepr.com/about-us.
