From opting for beat-the-heat destinations over traditional European cities for summer travel to hotel dinner parties and several social media updates, here are the trends and news we’re keeping an eye on as we enter mid-May and plan for the second half of the year.
Trendspotting
Coolcation Competition Heating Up: This recent CNBC article calls out several international destinations that are trending as “coolcations” in lieu of the popular warm European cities of the past. Coupled with travelers wanting to avoid locations with overtourism and “no passport vacations” continuing to rise, this trend offers potential on the domestic front for mountain road trips, off-the-beaten-path lodging and more.
Like Camping, But Fancy: According to this Travel + Leisure article, 82% of Marriott Bonvoy members surveyed are interested in outdoor travel—and at least 70% took an outdoor trip in the past year. Hotels are recognizing that travelers are seeking outdoor adventure and finding ways to offer elevated packages to capture customers not interested in roughing it.
Morning DJ Sets/Summer Cold Plunge Parties: Late nights are out and early mornings are in with coffee shop DJ sets taking over cities like Austin, Charlotte, Dallas and Montreal. The movement feels part of the ever-growing trend of younger demographics drinking less, prioritizing wellness experiences and community building. It’s an easy way to activate a space that already has morning F&B offerings – but could also be an opportunity to bring life to a restaurant or hotel lobby bar.
Wine Needs to Embrace Casual Dining: As the wine industry continues to evolve and shake its pretentious stereotypes, restaurants are seeing value in adding wine to their beverage programming, and sales prove that diners are interested in small, thoughtful wine lists that offer approachable price points.
Low-Lift Creative Spins: This recent Eater piece is a good reminder that you don’t always have to recreate the wheel with creative ideas when well-executed repositioning works. The plating is simple, no fancy frills and quite literally using a free seafood tower provided by Miller High Life, leaning into the new-stalgia trend, and listening to consumers’ need for budget-friendly foods that still excite.
Year of the Dinner Party: From Meredith Hayden to Dan Pelosi, everyone is coming out with a dinner party cookbook or video series. While much of this content is intended for the home cook, it demonstrates that consumers are craving connection and opportunities to engage with loved ones over a meal. For concepts who regularly host wine dinners or pop-ups, this could be a chance to reframe the events, make them more intimate and utilize them tools for building
community.
Social Media News
Lockable Posts on Instagram Could Bolster Engagement: A new feature is currently being tested on Instagram that would allow locked posts to only be visible when followers enter a secret code to view them, which can be provided a variety of ways, either through the caption or within stories (perhaps even via newsletters if you’re looking for a way to tie communities of brand advocates together). This could be an interesting way to provide offers for previous
customers/guests or leak discounts to engaged audiences.
Monthly Performance Recaps Come to Instagram: Monthly recaps, which include summaries of views, non-follower views, top posts and month-over-month comparisons, will provide helpful insights as brands plan for the months ahead and compile reports. The refreshed report also provides inspiration and windows for posting to help reach followers. Be on the lookout for this to rollout in coming weeks/months. Instagram head Adam Mosseri also appeared on a recent podcast to discuss how to reach followers in 2025. Notably, he reinforced that average users are not sharing to the feed as much anymore and instead rely on DMs and stories, whereas creators share to the grid at a much higher rate and the platform is relying on recommended content in order to keep the main feed relevant and engaging. Mosseri also confirmed that small algorithm changes occur every day, though there is rarely an update like we saw in 2024 that significantly impacts placement. Read more here.
Marketing to Gen Z: It’s hard to believe that Gen Z’s buying power is coming of age, with the average 25-year-old having an annual household income more than 50% higher than baby boomers at the same age (according to The Economist). A new Meta study dives into marketing to the next generation, with key stats including:
- 67% of Gen Z Meta users have shared video content with family and friends, as it’s an easier way for them to
connect than a text-based conversation. - 67% want to learn more about a product or brand if they have seen content or ads several times on Meta.
- 78% say they are most likely to discover new products or brands via video.
The Return of the Facebook We Once Loved? Facebook has introduced a tab for friend-only content, a move that is reminiscent of the platform’s early days. Now available to users in the US and Canada, the tab will include a feed of posts, Stories and Reels shared by friend connections, along with birthday reminders. This is great news as it will cut out AI content that has taken over the main feed, but worrisome on the business front. Social Media Today doesn’t think the feature will stick since not many people post on Facebook regularly these days, but it’s definitely something we’re watching closely.
Threads Grows While X and Bluesky Level Out: Since launching in July 2023, Threads has seen steady growth, with the app now up to 320 million monthly active users. Compared to X’s 600 million active users, the platform still has a ways to go to catch up, but it continues to grow at a significantly higher rate than X. Bluesky’s initial momentum appears to be slowing, with just 5 million new users added so far in 2025 (for 35 million total since its Feb. 2024 launch). With Threads ads now in the mix and steady momentum, now is a good time to evaluate its place in your Meta ad strategy.
OpenAI Social Media Platform? According to The Verge, OpenAI is developing its own X-like social network, with an internal prototype focused on ChatGPT’s image generation that has a social feed. It’s TBD if the project will ever be released publicly, but it could give X and Meta a run for their money if it does, as the platform already uses its own real-time data in operations, whereas X and Meta have to help train their AI models. We don’t need another social media
platform for brands to manage a presence on, but we certainly have a close eye on this story.
