3 megatrends that drive the public were discovered with the announcement of the Eurovision winner

If you want to know what are the hidden forces that drive your customers’ choices at the moment, the answer lies in the Eurovision finale that aired on Saturday.

The judges’ choice was the Swiss song. The French and Italian songs were also ranked in high places, and after the weighting of the audience votes the results were reversed, Italy won first place, France second, and Switzerland came down and finished in the respectable third place.

What these three songs have in common is that they sang them in the spoken language of their country. The Swiss and French songs were in French while the Italian … you guessed it … in Italian.

Why is this information critical to understanding the high and not-so-random ranking of these three songs at the top? In recent years we have undergone a covert and slow process of de-globalization. Its first highlight was Trump’s 2016 election in the US, and now — Europe has spoken.

So what happened that in contrast to the jury’s choice Italy led in the betting tables and after the public vote qualified for first place? There are two other factors that brought Italy the victory:

Nostalgia — I’ve posted in the past that in times of crisis we escape to a safe and nostalgic space. We saw this with Netflix for example. They understood this very well when they decided to broadcast one of the favorite 90’s series “Dawson Creek” (and it is clear to us that there is no lack of content), and in Italy’s case — rock & roll from the 90’s — The lead singer looks like a remake of Aviv Geffen (Israeli singer), Freddie Mercury or performance of “Guns and Roses”.

The last thing that played in Italy’s favor was an extraordinary empathy for what Italy had experienced in the plague. At the other end of this scale is Britain, which broke a record with zero points from both the judges and the crowd (as “revenge” on the Brexit).

After an evening full of trends on stage, the main ones being diversity and inclusion (both in the facilitation team that included a black woman and the transgender social network’ influencer Nicky, and also in songs by countries characterized by blonde people to be performed by black singers — Hi Holland, Sweden San Marino, etc.), we see the power of the zeitgeist of this period also in the announced and deliberate level of the choice of moderators, singers, songs, costumes and scenery, and also — and more importantly, in the (under the surface) hidden trends that affect the taste of our audience and customers.

Whether you are from the public, business, or social sector, it is important that you understand where the wind is blowing so that you can make smart decisions accordingly.

What do you think about it?

Link to the winning song, in case you haven’t watched it.

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