Starcom India's December 2023 trend report: A glimpse into dynamic cultural currents

Starcom India has unveiled the Trend Report for December 2023. This report offers a deep dive into various realms, from sports and entertainment to the world of reels and beyond, capturing the essence of modern culture.

The report covers trends across 4 major platforms –

1. Google and X (formerly called Twitter)
   1. 1 Cricket
   2. 2 Movies, Music and Entertainment
   3. 3 General
2. Spotify
3. Instagram
   1. 1 Reels
   2. 2 Memes

1. Google and X (formerly called Twitter)

Cricket dominated social chatter and search with two India bilateral series against formidable teams – South Africa and Australia played in December 2023, and India women’s team ended the year on a record-setting high.

New Year and Christmas wishes also saw popularity on social media, and as always entertainment caused a lot of conversation with the release of two films – Dunki and Salaar.

For major platforms- Google and Twitter, the trends could be divided into 3 major buckets:

Cricket

The Indian women’s cricket team took centre stage on social media as it recorded two historic wins back to back. First, the women in blue thrashed England by 347 runs in a test match, recording the highest margin win for any team in women’s international tests. The performance was followed by the team’s first-ever win in test cricket over Australia. Smriti Mandhan was among the most mentioned players on social media.

Among the men, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma continued to gather chatter. While Kohli was discussed in light of the ICC Cricketer of the Year award and speculation on whether he would clinch it yet again, Sharma was in the news for stepping down as the captain of the IPL franchise Mumbai Indians.

Speaking of the IPL, the tournament’s auction for the 2024 season created waves as it saw record bids. Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins dominated the conversation as they went for Rs 24.75 crore and Rs 20.5 crore respectively.

Women’s cricket dominated conversations on social media, with phrases like “Australia first time”, “first-time women” and “beat Australia first” ranking at the top as the most searched/used phrases on social media. Smriti Madhana’s performance also created chatter.

Sanju Samson was significantly mentioned for his 114 ball 108 runs against South Africa at Boland Park. It was crucial to India beating the hosts by 78 runs, sealing the series victory in their favour. The wicketkeeper-batsman continues to be in the news with speculation that he may have managed to book a permanent place in the India ODI team. The usual suspects – Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma also featured among the top mentions on social media, while Ruturaj Gaikwad also found a place on the list.

When it came to the IPL, it was no surprise that the IPL 2024 auction was heavily discussed by fans, and also cricketers Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins for the demand they saw by the teams. With the record for the most expensive IPL players being set, and broken within an hour, the word ‘record’ itself also was among the most used terms concerning the auction on social media.

Movies, music, and entertainment: Blockbusters and celebration

The Animal craze in November 2023 gave way to Dunki and Salaar as the two Christmas weekend releases caught the fancy of audiences. Dunki was Shah Rukh Khan’s third film of the year. His first two films – Pathan and Jawaan were commercial hits signalling the return of King Khan setting the box office ablaze. Dunki is the Bollywood biggie’s first collaboration with famed director Rajkumar Hirani and the anticipation, and reception to the movie created a lot of chatter.

Not to be outdone, Prabhas starrer Salaar also released amidst much fanfare and resulted in several conversations among fans. The film, released in multiple languages, was a fan favourite with the actor Prabhas, the film’s director and other cast members getting mentions.

The top word clusters by mentions include the movie Salaar as the Prabhas starrer hit the screens. Along with the actor, people spoke about the director Prashanth Neel, and actors Shruti Hasan, Prithiviraj Sukumaran. Apart from “Prabhas prashanthneel prithviofficial”, “book right away” was the most mentioned phrase, indicating the fans’ excitement and approval of the movie.

On television, Bigg Boss continued to rule the charts with mentions and searches around its contestants and the events of the house dominating conversations. The 17^th season of the reality show showed no signs of viewer fatigue as conversations flowed through the month.

Contestant Munawar Faruqui continued to have a hold on the fans as they could not help but discuss his stint in the Bigg Boss house on social media platforms.

A particular incident which resulted in the show’s long-time host Salman Khan asking Faruqui to maintain dignity was widely discussed with phrases like “munawar shining dignity munawar faruqui” and dignity bigg boss house” gaining popularity on social media.

Other contestants who sparked conversations among fans included Ankita Lokhande along with the show’s host Salman Khan, who also celebrated his 58^th birthday in the month.

1.3 Others: New year celebrations, assembly elections

After the revelry of Diwali in November Indians extended the celebrations for Christmas and New Year with tweets marking both occasions. The last month of the year was all about celebrating the year and wishing for better things in the new calendar.

In addition to the festive revelry, netizens also indulged in political discourse, mainly around the elections in the five states – MP, Telangana, Chhatisgarh, Mizoram and Rajasthan. There was a lot of chatter speculating the outcome, and discussing the exit polls by various research agencies. The appointment of Bhajan Lal Sharma as the chief minister of Rajasthan over the expected name of Vasundhara Raje caused a stir, making the Rajasthan elections the most talked about and searched about among the five states.

Another topic from the world of politics that got people chatting was the ouster of TMC leader Mahua Moitra from the Lok Sabha after she was held guilty of “unethical conduct”. Just 5 days after this, the Parliament was a topic of discussion as it suffered a security breach when 2 individuals scaled over the visitor gallery in the building and deployed yellow smoke while shouting slogans to “end the dictatorship rule”.

In the world of finance and markets, the initial public offerings (IPO) of Inox Green Energy, DOMS, and Azad Engineering were popular topics of discussion. The three events together garnered more than 250,000 mentions and searches during the month.

2. Spotify

The soundtrack from Ranbir Kapoor starrer Animal continued its hold on listeners with 5 of the top 10 played songs on Spotify coming from the film’s album. "Pehle Bhi Main” retained the top spot with the highest number of plays followed. Buoyed by the viral trend on Instagram the track “Jamal Kudu”, adapted from an Iranian folk song, jumped up a spot in December  while Dunki’s “O Mahi” was a new entrant in the top ten list. Songs like “Arjan Vailly”, “Satranga” and “Saari Duniya Jalal Denge”, “Tu Hai Kahan” also continued to feature among the most played tunes on the platform.

Local hits were heard in the cities of Punjab (Chandigarh and Ludhiana) and Delhi, though the popular songs in the two markets differed greatly. In cities like Mumbai. Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru, top local hits constituted a mix of film and non-film music. Songs from the Telugu version of Animal were popular in Hyderabad, as were those from Salaar. (Both films were released in Telugu and Hindi versions.)

3.Instagram: Reels and memes trend

The “Jamal Kudu” craze was alive and kicking well into December, as Instagram just could not seem to get enough of the soundtrack from the film Animal. People continued to use the song and interpret it creatively throughout the month. The composition is an adaption of an Iranian song that is more than 50 years old and is a popular wedding song in Iran.

Apart from this, people used different countdown tracks and sounds to bring in the new year. Reels included counting down from five and featuring different frames of a theme (eg. Motorbikes) and a burst of “Happy New Year” graphics once the countdown is completed.

People also posted wraps of their year on Instagram highlighting occasions, events and moments from 2023. There was a resurgence of memes that poked fun at the concept of New Year resolutions and how most people do not really manage to stick to them beyond the first few weeks.

Another trend which saw a lot of couples participate in was “name a woman…” where the female partner asked the male partner to name a woman in a category she is also a part of (for example – name a woman who lives in the building). On most occasions, the male partner would not name the female partner which resulted in exasperated reactions.

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