Happy Monday, everyone, and hope you all had a great weekend! It’s the last week of January and with that, we’re already done with the first month of 2021. Let’s end this month on a high note– see below for the trends you need to know for the end of January and the start of February!
Upcoming Holidays & Observances
- National ‘Have Fun at Work’ Day – Jan. 28
- Groundhog Day – Feb. 2
- Super Bowl Sunday – Feb. 7
- Lunar New Year – Feb. 12
- Galentine’s Day – Feb. 13
- Valentine’s Day – Feb. 14
Trends You Should Know
- The stage is set – the two teams battling it out for the Vince Lombardi Trophy are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs. The entertainment-packed event will kick off on Sunday, Feb. 7, in Tampa, Fla., at 6:30 p.m., with pre-game shows airing before. The Pepsi Halftime show will be headlined by The Weeknd. Fun fact: this is the first time a team will be playing on their homefield in the Super Bowl! In light of COVID-19 social distancing measures, Raymond James Stadium will allow 22,000 fans in – their typical maximum capacity is over 65,000. Of those spots, 7,500 will be complimentary seats for health care workers across the nation. If you’re a major fan and looking for an in-person view of the game, ticket prices start at a completely reasonable $9,000…
- Moderna is in the process of creating a “mutant-proof vaccine,” amongst rising reports of various additional COVID-19 strains. While their original vaccine formula has been tested as effective against the variants that have popped up in Britain and South Africa, those same tests showed that it’s less protective of the South African strain. The new “mutant-proof” vaccine is planned to be in the form of a booster shot as a way to be ahead of the curve.
- In streaming service news, the NBC platform Peacock has reached an agreement with the WWE Network for exclusive streaming rights. The deal actually works out better for the existing 1.1 million WWE Network subscribers – they’ll get access to the channel as well as Peacock’s premium tier programs with ads and pay 50% less per month! The network is planned to launch on NBC’s platform Thursday, March 18.
- Popular social app TikTok will be joining the action at the Super Bowl with a virtual tailgate party. In partnership with the NFL, the NFL TikTok account will host a live stream, starting at 2:30 p.m. ET, and will have special guests like NFL personalities and TikTok creators, game day cooking segments and live music. The headliner for the event? None other than Miley Cyrus.
- While, of course, football action is what the game is all about, the Super Bowl ads are also up there as a reason to watch the event. For those who only watch the game for the ads, there will be a lot of changes including the decrease of overall ads and some companies completely opting out. We’ve bulleted all the changes below, to keep you in the know:
- Companies like Chipotle, DoorDash and Huggies will have ads during the Super Bowl for the first time ever.
- Those who are out this year are: Little Caesars, Play, Proctor & Gamble, Avocados from Mexico, Budweiser and Coca-Cola. Read more about the brands’ decision to opt out amid the pandemic, social and political unrest, and record unemployment.
We hope you all have a great week and we’ll see you on the blog next Monday!
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