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Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Guide

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Media monitoring helps organizations stay informed about what’s being said across online news, print, broadcast, podcasts, and other media channels. Whether you're tracking brand mentions, measuring PR performance, monitoring competitors, or identifying emerging trends, our expert guides, best practices, and industry insights will help you build a smarter media monitoring strategy and make more informed communications decisions.

Discover expert media monitoring guides, best practices, and industry insights to track brand mentions, monitor competitors, and stay ahead of the news.

Media Monitoring: Guides, Best Practices & Industry Insights

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.

Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?

The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

How do customers interact with my newly launched product?

How do I increase the productivity of my employees?

How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?

We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.

So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.

But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!

But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.

We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.

Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

AI adoption is no longer the challenge—trusted context is. Most organizations have AI tools, but many still rely on disconnected, stale, or unverified data, limiting the quality and trustworthiness of AI-generated outputs. Meltwater MCP brings trusted, real-time intelligence into AI assistants.

Your Best Context is Already in the Room

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIn to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

What Is Data Analytics?
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.
Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.
Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

2025 looks set to be another bumper year in digital, with rapid advances in AI, the evolving social media landscape, and broadening online behaviours all gearing up to reshape our connected lives over the coming months.

With so much going on, the pace of digital trends can feel overwhelming, but our enormous new Digital 2025 Global Overview Report – published in partnership between We Are Social and Meltwater – has all the stats, insights, and trends you need to make sense of the current “state of digital”.

Top stories in the 630+ pages of this year’s flagship Global Digital Report include:

Digital’s ever expanding role in our daily lives

How people discover brands and products in 2025

Some surprising truths about the world’s TV habits

Details of some dramatic shifts in ad spend

All the latest trends for the top social platforms

But those headlines barely scratch the surface of all the insights that you’ll find in the complete report.

Indeed, we’ve analysed millions of the freshest, most revealing datapoints to identify key trends in the world’s digital behaviours, and this latest update – the largest Global Digital Report we’ve ever published – is packed with loads more data, trends, and surprises, as you’ll see below.

As always, we’d like to extend our heartfelt thanks to our generous data partners, who provide much of the best-in-class data you’ll find in this report:

All of this year’s analysis has been written by Simon Kemp, without the use of generative AI [click here to learn why this matters]. 

Simon has been researching and producing the Global Digital Reports series for 15 years, so he’s intimately familiar with the “state of digital”, and how the world’s connected behaviours are evolving.

If you’d like to stay up to date with Simon’s regular analyses, he’d be delighted if you connect with him on LinkedIn.

As you explore this latest report – and especially as you compare trends over time – please be aware of the following data notes:

Wherever possible, we use the latest available data for all datapoints in our global digital reports. However, in some instances, data for recent periods may not yet be available, and source data may not have been updated during the past 12 months. This is particularly relevant in the case of internet user data, where the challenges associated with conducting representative research into internet adoption mean that it often takes many months for new data to become available. As a result, we may report no change in certain metrics, even if we expect such metrics will show meaningful change when data for the relevant period(s) become available at a later date. Because of this, we strongly encourage you to explore the timeline charts available in our local country reports, which will provide more informed insight into the evolution of digital adoption and behaviour. Note that our Digital 2025 local country reports will be available to read in full – and for free – on the DataReportal website at the end of February 2025, but you can already explore data for previous years via our complete online library.

The United Nations published a comprehensive update to its World Population Prospects data in July 2024, and this update included some important revisions to population numbers around the world. In addition to impacting the figures that we report for population, these revisions may also affect any data point where we show digital adoption or activity as a percentage of the total population (e.g. internet and social media adoption), or as a percentage of specific age groups within the broader population (e.g. people aged 18 and above). As a consequence, any comparisons with equivalent data points published in older editions of the Global Digital Reports series may result in unexpected trends, including apparent decreases in user figures or activity. However, any such change may be solely the result of revisions to underlying population data, and may not necessarily indicate any change in actual digital adoption or behaviour. As a result, we advise significant caution when interpreting any changes in values that show digital adoption or activity as a percentage of the population. For more details, please see our comprehensive notes on data.

We’ve identified a number of unusual trends in the ad reach data published by various social media platforms over recent months, including a mix of both unexpected declines and unusually large gains. We’ll explore some of those trends in detail during the course of this analysis, but please pay careful attention to the notes on relevant pages of the full report to understand some of these changes in context.

The complete Digital 2025 Global Overview Report

You’ll find our complete Digital 2025 flagship report in the embed below (click here if that’s not working for you), but read on past that to explore what all these numbers actually mean for you and your work.

The global state of digital in February 2025

Let’s start with a look at the latest headlines for digital adoption and use around the world:

Population data from the United Nations shows that there are 8.20 billion humans living on Earth today, with that total increasing by 70 million people (+0.9 percent) compared with the equivalent figure for this time last year. At a worldwide level, almost 4.8 billion people – 58.1 percent of the global population – now live in urban centres, while 3.4 billion people live in rural areas.

5.78 billion people use a mobile phone today, which equates to 70.5 percent of the world’s total population. Unique mobile subscribers have increased by 112 million over the past 12 months, delivering year-on-year growth of 2.0 percent. Meanwhile, data shows that smartphones now account for almost 87 percent of the mobile handsets in use around the world.

A total of 5.56 billion people use the internet at the start of 2025, resulting in a penetration figure of 67.9 percent. Internet users increased by 136 million (+2.5 percent) during 2024, but 2.63 billion people remained offline at the start of 2025.

Kepios’s latest analysis shows that global social media user identities now stand at 5.24 billion, with that figure equating to 63.9 percent of all the people on Earth. The global total has increased by 4.1 percent over the past 12 months, thanks to an additional 206 million new user identities [note that “user identities” may not represent unique individuals].

That’s some great context to start things off, but – while these headlines provide a useful benchmark for the current “state of digital” – we need to explore the underlying numbers in order to uncover the richest findings.

But my complete analysis of those underlying numbers clocks in at close to 23,000 words. Ahem.

So, to make it easier for you to find the insights that matter most to you, this article offers a selection of key headlines and charts.

Each of those sections then links to a separate article that contains significantly more data, as well as in-depth analysis of the associated trends and implications.

All the evidence points to strong growth in digital adoption over the past year, despite internet user numbers already reaching “supermajority” status in April 2024.

For initial perspective, data from Statista indicates that the world’s 5.56 billion internet users now outnumber the 5.32 billion people who watch broadcast and cable TV.

But perhaps more importantly, data also shows that people are now turning to connected tech for a wider variety of activities than they did this time a year ago.

Indeed, after averages declined for several quarters during 2022 and 2023, GWI’s latest research shows that the number of reasons people cite for using the internet has rebounded to levels that we last saw during Covid-19 lockdowns.

“Finding information” remains the single greatest motivation for going online at the start of 2025, with 62.8 percent of adult internet users stating that this is one of their main reasons for using the internet today.

However, it’s also interesting to note that more than 6 in 10 internet users now say that “staying in touch with friends and family” is a top digital motivation.

And in what may be something of a related trend, GWI’s latest research finds that adult internet users now spend an average of 6 hours and 38 minutes online each day.

That figure crept up over the course of 2024, although it’s still slightly lower than the figure that we reported this time last year.

Dig deeper: Online motivations and behaviours vary meaningfully by age, as we explore in this in-depth analysis of the latest trends.

At the time of writing, DeepSeek is making plenty of headlines around the world, as AI companies vie for supremacy.

However, insights from data.ai indicate that ChatGPT still tops the AI leaderboard, with its mobile app already averaging more than a quarter of a billion monthly active users between September and November 2024.

ChatGPT was also one of the world’s most downloaded apps during that period, placing eighth in data.ai’s global ranking across all app categories.

ChatGPT enjoys considerable success on the web too, with both Similarweb and Semrush ranking ChatGPT.com in the world’s 10 most visited web domains at the end of 2024.

For example, Similarweb’s data shows that ChatGPT had an average of 310 million unique monthly visitors between September and November, who generated a combined 3.5 billion visits to the platform’s dotcom domain.

However, it’s unclear exactly how many people make use of tools like Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot, because these tools are integrated into their respective company’s broader offerings.

Similarly, while Meta recently announced that Meta AI now has “more than 700 million monthly actives,” this service is delivered by default to all Facebook and Instagram users whenever they search for something on those platforms, so it’s unclear how many of those 700 million “actives” are looking specifically for an AI solution, and how many are simply looking for the latest memes.

And for perspective, while AI will undoubtedly play a defining role in shaping the future of tech, it’s also worth considering that Yahoo! still attracts almost 100 million more unique monthly visitors than ChatGPT does.

Dig deeper: Explore the latest AI trends – and learn which platforms are making the biggest gains – in this complete analysis.

Netflix and Disney+ continue to grow subscriber numbers, but the latest research from GWI shows that broadcast and cable channels still account for close to 57 percent of total TV time.

Indeed, it’s only amongst audiences aged 16 to 24 that streaming accounts for more than half of TV viewing time, and even then, OTT’s share only accounts for about 51 percent of the daily total.

Meanwhile, linear TV remains significantly more popular than streaming amongst older age groups, with people aged 55 to 64 spending more than two-thirds of their TV time watching broadcast and cable channels.

However, a hefty 91.9 percent of internet users watch some form of streaming TV each month, which is actually greater than the 87.8 percent who watch “live” TV like broadcast and cable.

Dig deeper: Our comprehensive analysis points to plenty of potential streaming growth, but key questions remain for marketers.

GWI’s research shows that the typical adult internet user now discovers brands and products through an average of 5.8 different channels.

At a worldwide level, search engines remain the primary source of brand awareness for the world’s connected consumers, with 32.8 percent of GWI’s survey base saying that they discover new brands and products via online search.

TV ads aren’t far behind though, with 32.3 percent of respondents citing this channel.

Word-of-mouth recommendations rank third, with just under 3 in 10 respondents selecting this answer option, while social media ads come a close fourth, at 29.7 percent.

But the key takeaway for me in this brand discovery data is that no single channel introduces brands to more than one-third of adult internet users.

Even the top channel – search engines – is only cited as a source of brand awareness by 32.8 percent of respondents, meaning that it’s imperative for marketers to embrace a mix of different channels in order to achieve their objectives.

So how can marketers go about building the most robust mix of channels?

Dig deeper: Our complete analysis of this section has all the details.

Statista’s Market Insights data shows that the world’s marketers spent close to US$1.1 trillion on ads in 2024, with global spend increasing by $75 billion – 7.3 percent – compared with 2023 levels.

Moreover, Statista’s data indicates that global ad spend has increased by more than 50 percent since 2019, with digital advertising responsible for the vast majority of that increase.

Digital 2025: The essential guide to the global state of digital

In our 2025 Marketing Trends Guide, we explore how generative AI is reshaping the content marketing industry — both in how content is created and how it is received. And while authenticity has always been an essential element for connecting with audiences, it has only become more crucial as people increasingly ask themselves how “real” what they consume is. The line between what is created by humans and what is created by AI has never been blurrier, with audiences still learning how to distinguish between the two. So what does that mean for marketers also learning the landscape of this new world? We used our social listening and analytics platform to learn more about what consumers have to say about AI-generated content and how marketers can adjust. 

How much are social media users talking about AI-generated content?

From January 15, 2024 to January 16, 2025, there was an average of 70 social media mentions every day from users detecting, speculating about, and/or sharing their opinions on AI-generated content.

Overall, the volume of mentions in the second half of that year-long period analyzed, from July 15, 2024 to January 16, 2025, was 27% higher than in the first half, suggesting that this conversation will only continue to grow.

How do consumers feel about AI-generated content?

Two occasions drove significant spikes in discussion over the past year:

Kate Middleton released a video sharing her cancer diagnosis in March, which led to conspiracy theories spreading across social media about it being AI-generated. 

On September 4, a thread on X went viral with the fanbase of K-pop group P1Harmony. In the thread, the user goes into detail on why they suspect recently-released album teaser images were created with AI, which sparked a deluge of angry quote reposts criticizing the group’s management company for supposedly not hiring real artists. 

The reactions in these and related social media conversations not only point to distrust in AI-generated content’s ability to inform and entertain, they also highlight the anxiety many consumers have around being able to tell if something is created by AI or a human being. As a result, positive mentions made up only about 16% of the overall conversation, compared to about 29% negative ones. 

As we lay out in our 2025 Marketing Trends Guide, transparency around the use of AI will be key as audience familiarity with, and sensitivity to, AI-generated content continues to grow. Marketers and advertisers need to be crystal clear about when they are presenting AI-created content to audiences, highlighting when it is used as a tool for innovation rather than a shortcut past creativity. At the same time, there also seems to be an increasing need for organizations and brands to label when something is not AI-generated. Otherwise, in some cases, they risk accusations of misleading the public or not properly investing in creative talent. 

Current trends suggest that as AI-made content proliferates, the premium on human-made content and creativity will only grow. This gives marketers new opportunities to give audiences peeks behind the scenes that can strengthen brand identity and trust. Think content like behind-the-scenes videos and captions that tag the creators and creatives behind a product or concept. 

AI-generated content isn’t the only shift to be on the lookout for this year. Catch up on all of the trends that will take over the industry in our 2025 Marketing Trends Guide.

What Social Media Users Think about AI-Generated Content

Dry January, the month when thousands of people around the world try to abstain from alcohol, has been an annual tradition since 2013 when non-profit Alcohol Change UK launched the first Dry January campaign. However, in 2025 the month gained new gravity across the pond in the U.S. after the nation’s surgeon general released an advisory linking alcohol consumption to increased risks for cancer. Lucky for non-drinkers, sober people, and the sober-curious, the non-alcoholic (NA) beverage sector is expanding each year. And as the New York Times noted last summer, the growth of the non-alcoholic spirits, wine, and beer sector is outpacing its alcohol-included counterpart many times over. 

We used our social listening and analytics solution to dive into how the NA beverage conversation has looked on social media over the past year.

How big was Dry January on social media this year?

Social media mentions of Dry January in January 2024 and January 2025.
On social media, Dry January had less buzz than it did in 2024. From January 1 to January 21, 2025, there were about 87,200 mentions of Dry January across 16 social media platforms and channels, about a 13% decrease from the same period in 2024.

However, there have also been about 74,200 mentions of mocktails and other NA drinks in the first three weeks of 2025. This is up 40% from about 53,000 in the first 21 days of 2024.

So while the popularity of Dry January has waned on social media over the past year, buzz about NA products seems to be gaining steam.  

How big is the buzz around non-alcoholic beverages?

Social media mentions of non-alcoholic beverages in 2024.

Star power helped drive the NA drink conversation in 2024. Over the year, there were about 952,000 social media mentions of NA beverages. The volume of conversation was about 22% higher in the second half of the year compared to the first, thanks in part to actor Tom Holland. On October 14, the day after he announced the launch of his non-alcoholic beer brand Bero, NA drink social media mentions spiked 26x higher than average. 

Bero’s first Instagram post on October 13, 2024 has generated more than 15,200 likes. 

He wasn’t the only celebrity to drive the visibility of the NA sector last year. In August, Pernod Ricard acquired a minority stake in Almave, the NA agave brand owned by F1 driver Lewis Hamilton. By September, rumors began to spread that Hamilton, who now drives for Ferrari, may sponsor himself via the Almave brand, alongside other backers like Monster Energy and Puma.

With these and other household names drawing attention to the NA sector, celebrity influencers could play an even bigger part in its growth in 2025.

Learn more about how Pernod Ricard uses consumer intelligence to stay ahead of beverage industry trends and learn more about the three types of influencers driving results for alcohol brands.

What is the biggest driver behind choosing non-alcoholic beverages?

Our analysis of mentions of three drivers — health, taste, and sobriety — from January 22, 2024, to January 21, 2025 showed that health was the most discussed topic in the overall NA beverage conversation. However, discussions of taste were not far behind. 

In both conversations, recipe sharing played a large part in driving engagement, with instructions on how to make mocktails like cucumber elderflower spritzes and strawberry mint mojitos being especially big on Pinterest. 

Food and beverage industry marketers should brace for an ever bigger year for NA drinks in 2025. As more celebrities drive buzz and more consumers share mocktail recipes, there’s a huge opportunity to leverage consumer intelligence to stay ahead of emerging trends around favorite flavors and mixers. And while the NA sector was traditionally geared towards sober audiences, today, there are many more people beyond that niche who are simply looking for drinks that taste good and are good for them. Marketers can meet this rising interest with innovative concoctions and messaging that speak to the concerns of health-conscious foodies.


Learn more about another major industry trend in our Consumer Insights: Food & Beverage report.

Dry January and the Non-Alcoholic Beverage Sector

Did you catch the hubbub around the first viral fashion item of 2025? For a brief moment this year, the Walmart Birkin was the must-have social media bag of the holiday season. And for marketers, the discount alternative to the luxury Birkin bag offers an interesting case study into how name-brand items fare in online and media conversations when their duplicates go viral. We used our Meltwater social listening and analytics solution to learn more about the virality around the Walmart Birkin and how it has impacted Hermès Birkin buzz.

The bags informally known as Walmart Birkins, or Wirkins, were dupes of luxury brand Hermès’s iconic Birkin bag sold at the chain retailer. Unlike Birkins, which cost tens of thousands of dollars, the original Wirkin was only about $80. Just before Christmas, the Walmart bag, made by a third-party seller, began trending online. Soon, it went viral, generating a slew of discussions about exclusivity, value, and “dupe culture".

Dupes, short for “duplicates”, are cheaper, alternative options for in-demand, high-end, or highly exclusive products. Unlike counterfeits, which claim to be the branded products they imitate, dupes are more affordable competitors sold by legitimate brands. Dupes are particularly hot in the beauty sector, with consumers flocking to platforms like YouTube and Instagram for influencer recommendations of the best drugstore dupes of luxury skincare and cosmetics.

This dupe review video from beauty influencer James Charles racked up 3.4 million views in 10 months.

In recent years, demand for dupes has exploded as more consumers strive to keep up with evolving style trends (as well as fleeting microtrends) without breaking the bank. And while dupe culture has created new complexities for high-end brands, some have used it to strengthen their identities. For example, in 2023, Lululemon hosted a “dupe swap” in Los Angeles that successfully appealed to new, Gen-Z consumers while reinforcing its unique selling points. 

From December 25, 2024, to January 12, 2025, there were about 6,300 mentions of the Wirkin across social media, as well as news and broadcast. In that period, the media that drove the most engagement was a YouTube video by luxury-on-a-budget content creator Autumn Beckman, which racked up more than 179,000 views in just two weeks. In it, she reviews the Wirkin and shares her recommendations of luxury handbags with comparable styles as the Birkin, but at lower price points. Within the 888 and counting comments left by viewers are numerous valuable perspectives about what budget- and style-conscious shoppers are looking for from their purchases. Budget luxury fans expressed valuing attributes like craftsmanship and emotional attachment. Meanwhile, Wirkin-owning commenters appreciated getting the designer look at a price they could afford without the hassle of paying and caring for an expensive item.  

Posted on December 28, the video preceded the peak of the Wirkin’s virality on New Year’s Eve, when the bag was mentioned over 1,600 times across sources, including more than 600 times on broadcast channels alone. Interest in the Wirkin could have ended there, but conversation spiked again on January 3, when mentions on Reddit surged thanks to lively discussion in the r/handbags community. Finally, mentions spiked a third time on January 6, soon after TV personality, entrepreneur, and 2023 Meltwater Summit speaker Bethenny Frankel reviewed the Wirkin in an Instagram Reel.

In the video, which generated more than 28,000 likes in one week, Frankel walks viewers through the dupe bag’s differences from the Hermés Birkin, including stitching, leather quality, and interior lining. Though Frankel declared her preference for the original, her comments were full of people advocating for the Wirkin’s price point and availability.

So why did the Wirkin hit such a nerve? The discussion it sparked divided consumers on the question of what purchases are (and aren’t) financially and emotionally “worth it” to the people who buy them. On one side were Wirkin fans championing the bag for bringing an in-demand style to the masses. On the other side were not only Birkin and luxury fans but also vintage and slow fashion enthusiasts who value craftsmanship and quality over instant access to coveted trends. So while speculation abounded concerning how the Wirkin could impact consumer perceptions of Birkins, it essentially revealed, through videos like Beckman’s and Frankel’s, that each bag’s audiences are different.

How did the Walmart Birkin affect the Hermés Birkin?

Each time discussion about the Walmart Birkin rose it also boosted mentions of the Hermés Birkin, including on December 31, 2024, when mentions of both bags spiked. And while the January 3 surge in Reddit conversations about the Wirkin almost helped conversations about it surpass those of the original Birkin, Hermés still generated more than double the mentions of its alternative from December 25, 2024, to January 12, 2025. Overall, the Wirkin helped to boost the Birkin’s visibility. 

Budget-conscious luxury fans and dupe luxury fans aren’t necessarily the same audience. While both are looking for a good deal, the former may be more willing to play the waiting game to score the on-sale or secondhand finds that can deliver the name brand and quality they want. Plus, that wait only deepens their emotional investment in their purchase. By contrast, dupe fans may place more value on immediacy and convenience than brand loyalty. 

Dupes don’t automatically dilute the presence of the brands and products they duplicate. In some cases, they may have the opposite effect, enhancing the exclusivity attached to the original. When it comes to visibility, as we saw with the Wirkin, viral dupes can actually drive conversations about the originals — that’s the thing about dupes, you can’t talk about them without mentioning what they are duplicating. Brands on either side of the dupe/luxury divide can use those comparisons to their advantage, emphasizing the attributes, like affordability or quality, that made consumers love them in the first place. 

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