Remember everything that happened in 2022? We don't either. But we've come up with a list of (some of) what 2022 had to offer. Below, you can find just a few of the things that made us think or laugh this year. It's likely you've already forgotten about a few of them...
Wordle
Ok, so technically Wordle was around before 2022, but it became a cultural phenomenon this year when the game added the ability to share your score via emoji squares. The Speak #wordle Slack channel was officially birthed on Monday, January 31. One of our resident SEO mavens, Allison Brown, showed herself to be freakishly good at the game, regularly getting the correct word within two tries.
Either that, or she cheated. A lot. But our working theory is that she's somehow harnessed her SEO prowess into Wordle keyword domination.
Sadly, the Wordle cultural supernova seems to have collapsed in on itself, becoming a neutron star that the New York Times shelled out $3,000,000 for. That's ok though, neutron stars are pretty great.
Rest in Peace, Your Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II's reign lasted 70 years and 214 days, the longest reign of any British monarch. For the Anglophiles amongst us, we mourned the loss of a stalwart figure who valued duty and service. While the royal family is not universally loved (on either side of the pond), we can all take some meaning from and celebrate the steadfastness of Queen Elizabeth's service.
Taylor Broke Ticketmaster
Whoooo. The Eras Tour. Get your tickets? 😅 Good for you if you did. Not much can be said here that hasn't already been said a thousand times. I don't know of anyone who had warm feelings toward Ticketmaster before the debacle, but surely even those hypothetical holdouts are now convinced that Ticketmaster is the worst.
In case you enjoy gloating over Ticketmaster's poor handling of the situation, it turns out that the company is projected to earn only about $12.9 million in fees from the tour, leaving Taylor with pretty great publicity and a Brinks truck full of cash.
Elon Buys Twitter
What happens when the (previously) world's richest man decides he wants a social media company? Turns out, we're finding out by the day. Since Musk's official takeover on October 27, the changes at Twitter HQ have been fascinating and, a lot of times, hard to watch. Lots of folks have lost their jobs or left because they couldn't get on board with a drastic new work-life policy, but in a completely uncontroversial move, you can now pay to get a blue check next to your name.
As of the writing of this particular post, the future of Musk as CEO of Twitter is unclear after he released a Twitter poll asking if he should step down as CEO, saying he would respect the results of the poll. Nearly 58% of users voted for him to step down.
Stay tuned, the drama certainly isn't over... 🍿
The Slap
The casual stroll. The brief pause as he winds up. The raised chin as he walks away. There's a lot of body language to unpack from the slap. Unfortunately for Will Smith, he's been banned from the Oscars for the next 10 years, and we can't imagine he's on Chris Rock's Christmas card list.
Looking for a silver lining from the whole brouhaha? Alopecia awarerness spiked exponentially in the days that followed the slap.
Leo is the GOAT
Far be it from this humble marketing blog to wade too deeply into the waters of Soccer (Football?) analysis. However, a few Speaksters are pretty hardcore followers of club and international soccer, so it was delightful to see Lionel Messi win the World Cup in Qatar. The Instagram post of him raising the trophy is now officially the most liked post ever on the platform (it currently has 65,496,100 likes).
So there you go... looking to take your brand viral? Just become the greatest footballer of all time and win the World Cup. How's that for bringing the worlds of marketing and soccer together?
The Speak Blog
Oh maybe we weren't quite as big a deal as Lionel Messi, but we pulled out a few of our favorite posts from the year. If you're looking to take a deeper dive into some solid marketing content, here you go!
From everyone here at Speak, we wish you all the best for the holiday season. Thanks for hanging out with us in 2022 – we can't wait to see what 2023 has in store for all of us!