Welcome to Neuewave!
At the end of 2025, we asked our team of (at the time) 20+ creatives from across the agency to offer our collective POV on the most anticipated—and most necessary—shifts in content, creator strategy, and platform trends for 2026, fueled by our own strategic insights and cultural analysis.
Put simply, the team answers the question: “If you could control the trends, what would you want to see?”
We released these predictions and hopes for the future of content in our 2026 Trend Outlook
And while most trend forecasters release a fresh trend report for the upcoming year, they rarely address what their report actually said once the year is done. Were they right? Were they wrong? How do these new forecasts build off the previous ones?
While the team at Neuemotion is putting together our 2027 Trend Outlook, with our growing team’s POV revealing what we see for the future, we wanted to take a look back at what we predicted at the beginning of the year and break down what came true, what didn’t, and how the world has influenced social media and culture throughout the course of 2026.
Let’s dive in.
Digital Aesthetic Comforts
Our first prediction for 2026 was the return of digitally comforting formats. We expected more radio shows, more long-form content on social, and a renewed appetite for late-night television as a shared viewing ritual. As digital life became more overwhelming, people would gravitate toward familiar ways to tune in.
That appetite for comfort showed up, but it was less about the format than the aesthetic. “Summer ’16” nostalgia, finstas, and the longing for flip phones all pointed to a desire for a version of digital life that felt more casual, more personal, and less curated. People were reaching for the feeling they associated with an earlier internet.
This month’s trends brought that into focus. Neuemotion Creative Optimization Specialist Jeremy Nealis talks about the rise of the Frutiger Aero aesthetic with Gen Z– the blue & green 2000s aesthetic characterized by its use of glossy textures, cloudy skies, nature-oriented imagery (tropical fish, water, bubbles), lens flares, and bokeh:
“Frutiger Aero is Gen Z’s version of millennials’ analog nostalgia. Millennials became interested in the characteristics of vinyl, cassettes, and VHS. Gen Z has the glossy desktops and aqua buttons of their childhood…Frutiger Aero also appeals to Gen Z because that era of tech was trying to charm us compared to today’s interfaces.”
Frutiger Aero is an isolated example of a much larger theme that continues to play out as the year winds down: Gen Z is gravitating toward the Frutiger Aero aesthetic not because of what it looks like, but because it represents a future promised to them when they were young. Aesthetics that charmed users in the 00s created a feeling of optimism and safety that Gen Z has been desperate for as the world grew increasingly chaotic this year.
Brands leaned into that feeling, too. Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez’ Rare Beauty collaboration drew on retro tech, feelings of safety, and shared cultural memories, leaning heavily on 00s visual aesthetics to bring the world to life. Across reboots and retro references, the appeal went beyond revisiting an old favorite: it was about reconnecting with the world they existed in.
However, digital comforts did show up in a few unexpected mediums. Few things channel “Millennial Optimism” like memories of being young, sitting in a parking lot with your friends and listening to music. To channel that experience and invite people back into it, Wendy’s and Burger King both created music specifically for listening to in a parking lot. Wendy’s then launched their own retro role-playing game, bringing digital comforts to their audience through old-school gaming.
Our prediction captured the desire for digital comfort. What evolved was how people found it: through the visuals, references, and small rituals that made an earlier era feel familiar and worth revisiting.
Interesting & Consistent > Influential & Viral
At the beginning of the year, we noticed the growing frustration we saw with influencer culture, and knew that in 2026, the yearning for inspiration and discovery online would lead to people being less inspired by the lifestyle and experiences of influencers, and more interested in seeing the kind of people online that educate, inspire, and uplift through their content.
What we saw play out was the rise of educational, expert creators who felt like normal people with a genuine passion, and the rise of a very complicated relationship between traditional influencers and the public. Remember the influencer drama at the US Open and the viral Nantucket “No Influencers” sign? The mass online critiques of out-of-touch influencer hauls, Coachella weekends, and private jet tours? There is a strong negative feeling toward the shallow nature of some influencers, and at the same time a massive outcry in defense of the creator industry as a legitimate profession after comedian Pete Davidson criticized it.
This has created a perfect environment for expert and passion creators: note the rise of Coach Jackie J, a social media influencer whose platform is dedicated to their passion and advocacy for women’s sports and has amassed over 1.7 million followers across channels for their passion, commentary, and expertise, rather than their influencer lifestyle.
Not only does Coach Jackie exemplify the interesting over influential, but she’s a case study in how we have seen consistency win over virality. We predicted audiences would be looking for clarity, depth, and real value, whether that’s education, product knowledge, or storytelling.
If you’re a fan of Dancing With the Stars, which has had a massive revival among Gen Z and Millennials, you might be familiar with Coach Jackie’s weekly recaps of the show. The weekly recaps have become a staple for fans, and her thoughts on the show, and unfiltered love-hate towards Derek Hough, have become so impactful that she made an appearance in DWTS content, and even in the live show, where she pushed Derek Hough out of screen during the live broadcast— an IYKYK inside joke making it to the big screen.
Coach Jackie’s breakout success validates what we predicted at the beginning of the year: maintaining a dependable cadence of content is no longer just a best practice; it’s a differentiator. People want to know what they can expect from the brand, and they want that expectation met repeatedly. Influencers like Coach Jackie have capitalized on both trends, bringing a personal passion and understanding that long-term consistency builds trust and comfort with a brand, rather than relying only on viral moments to maintain relevance. Audiences want creators with real passion, reliable consistency, and something worthwhile to say, proving that depth and authentic value continue to outlast vapid virality.
Shock Has No Value
Getting people talking is one thing. Giving them a reason to like your brand is another. Our “Shock Has No Value” prediction questioned whether ragebait would remain a worthwhile move in 2026, as audiences grew tired of content designed to get a rise out of them
Tarte Cosmetics launched the Tarte Glambulance in July 2026 to promote its $26 “Snatch Stick,” a dual-ended contour stick, where Makeup artists dressed in medical scrubs performed “snatch consultations in branded ambulances.” The entire premise centered on cosmetic procedures, resulting in influencers and consumers alike who called it blatant ragebait, saying that using emergency medical vehicles and plastic surgery markings on people’s faces crossed a big line.
This year also saw Drake’s album promotion with a giant, 200 ton ice cube. The initial reaction was big - fans swarmed the sculpture, trying to torch, chip, or hammer the ice away. A Twitch streamer and influencer did break into the structure and retrieve a bag of cash and an album release date. That’s it. The installation lasted less than a week before firefighters in Ontario melted the ice due to safety risks. It makes you wonder if that shock really added any value to the album release, especially when Drake is memed for constantly dropping multiple albums at once.
These high-budget activations, along with the infamous Callaway x Good Good Golf campaign and Novig x Sydney Sweeney campaign, with questionable payoff, fit a broader pattern across several campaigns brands rolled out this year, leaving audiences asking, “What were they thinking?”
So where did this prediction land? Shock still gets people talking, but that conversation alone is a shaky measure of success. We are seeing a stark shift away from “all press is good press,” with a clear difference between remembering a campaign and feeling good about the brand behind it. These examples also show that brands don’t have to intend to create ragebait to end up managing the fallout.
Our prediction was rooted in an appetite for brands that feel grounded, human, and emotionally safe. The takeaway is not that every campaign needs to play it safe, but that provocation needs a purpose beyond provoking. If the audience remembers the controversy more clearly than the product or the brand has to pull the ad and explain the joke, what did that attention actually earn?
Craft Over Clout
Maybe the most pronounced trend coming to fruition was our prediction that high-effort content and skilled creators would be highly sought after and appreciated in a world where anyone can generate AI content.
As the use of generative AI has become commonplace, it’s no longer the end result that’s considered a novelty, it’s showing the creation of that work that’s become just as celebrated. We’ve discussed at length how projects like Nolan’s The Odyssey and Apple TV’s use of practical effects made them cultural beacons for creativity and human craftsmanship, how slow-maxxing has become the ultimate response to optimization culture, and how Anti-AI social trends gave permission to shame AI use both on and offline.
This rejection of AI has paved the way for what we foresaw at the beginning of the year, where high-effort content and “how it’s made” style coverage is the most luxurious thing you can offer audiences today. Just as the public felt like they could really lean into the Odyssey after watching how they made a whirlpool with jet skis, or celebrate Paper Magazine’s recent cover featuring Hilary Duff, where each gemstone was carefully placed and glued on by an artist, brands and creators are leading with process and highly polished content to differentiate and celebrate human creativity.
“Effort Signaling” has become the new benchmark for online content, with creators like Ken Eurich making highly polished commercials for the feed, as opposed to the seamless brand partnerships we have grown accustomed to, and brands like Asics are basing their content on the process and creation to demonstrate to viewers how much work and process went into their content.
However, Prada, Dior, and ELF Cosmetics seem to have found themselves in the ultimate handmade showdown with their holiday campaigns. Dior created an animated short film meant to evoke the nostalgia and magic of classic holiday movies titled “Dior’s Night in Color”.
Then came Prada, starring brand ambassador Maya Hawke, with a similar selling point: hand-drawn animated videos that channeled the whimsy of old-school animation. Prada even went one step further with their “Drawing Prada” social series, which takes users into the artist’s process by showing behind-the-scenes footage, rough sketches, and storyboards that brought the campaign to life—making the artist the real star.
The response to these has proven how distrustful the public is of brands claiming human-made creativity, and it can serve as a cautionary tale for brands. Both Prada and Dior have been accused of using AI in some capacity to complete these campaigns despite leading with human creativity, and both brands have denied using generative AI to create the campaigns.
However, the public continues to analyze, compare, and argue over what you are allowed to claim as “handmade.” After Dior’s film was picked apart online frame by frame, the producers tried to set the record straight by clarifying that they did not use Generative AI; however, they did use AI-based software to add motion in certain places. While the artwork was still hand-drawn, viewers instantly saw the distinction as deceptive, sparking a collection of thought pieces and comments praising Prada’s campaign for “showing Dior how it’s done.”
Amid the luxury brand showdowns, consumer brand ELF Cosmetics just launched its handmade holiday campaign, featuring intricate stop-motion animation narrated by Alan Cummings, and accidentally became an incomparable display of human creativity in a space where everyone is looking for unmistakable human-made art.
So, how did we do predicting 2026? After review, we saw 4/5 of our major predictions come to fruition, telling a story of hopefulness, intentionality, and depth.
Report Card:
❌ Digital Comforts — Less about formats, more about aesthetic expressions
✅ Interesting Over Influential
✅ Consistency Over Virality
✅ Shock has no Value
✅ Craft Over Clout
Forecasting the future is easy when you never have to grade your own work, but holding ourselves accountable to how those cultural shifts actually materialized is what builds real understanding of how culture moves– both in the long and short term. As we finalize our 2027 Trend Outlook, we’re carrying these lessons forward and using them to figure out what’s next.