Foresight Friday: Dan Hastings, deputy foresight editor

Every Friday, we offer an end-of-week wrap-up of the topics, issues, ideas and virals we’re all talking about. This week, deputy foresight editor Dan Hastings dives into the power of short-form video, haute couture watch parties and C-pop.

: Can the New York Times turn its writers into video stars? That’s the question Vulture explored earlier this week while analysing the newspaper’s podcast strategy and pivot to video. This shift isn’t entirely new. And I should know, as a former short-form video content specialist at Instagram. But what stands out now is the undeniable power of TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts in the context of elections.

According to The Ezra Klein Show, it was Zohran Mamdani’s short-form video strategy that helped secure his win in the New York Democratic primary. ‘You cannot buy attention now the way you once could; you can only earn it,’ said Klein. It marks a major shift from the political playbook of the past 40 years, when campaigns largely focused on raising vast sums for tv ads and paid social media.

The podcast also explored Mamdani’s strategy of ‘listening as broadcasting’. Instead of speaking at people through television screens, he flipped the script by putting microphones in their faces and asking questions in a vox pop style. It resonated deeply with audiences, tapping into the familiar guy on the street video format.

: The success of Lyes’ Dior watch party in Paris during Haute Couture Week is fascinating to observe. Consumers are clearly craving in-person connections with peers who share their interests and it’s not just happening in fashion – Love Island USA watch parties are also booming in Los Angeles.

: In other news, a recent study finds that long-tailed macaques pay more attention to videos featuring familiar group members than to strangers; C-pop girl group A20 May made history as the first all-Chinese girl group to hit the US Top 40 twice; and the seizure of hundreds of fake Labubu dolls with the wrong number of teeth in Ayrshire shows that the kidult craze is so popular, even fraudsters are cashing in.