We are living in a Togetherness Recession and brands must adapt
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It didn’t happen overnight.First, Friday nights out became Friday nights in – same takeaway, same sweatpants, three episodes deep into the latest Netflix series. Group chats got busier, but real-life plans kept getting pushed back.
Now it’s 2025, and Britain is less social than ever. A man scrolls through his phone and realises he hasn’t seen a friend in person for weeks. A teenager eats dinner alone, gaming with one hand and scrolling TikTok with the other. A woman picks up a sharing bag of crisps – then puts it back. No one’s coming over.
The streets are quieter. The parties smaller. Even pubs are on a slow fade-out.
It sounds like dystopian satire. Unfortunately, it’s just the latest data drop: nearly half of Britons now meet friends or family just once a month or less, and our own research shows more than one in five say their social circle has shrunk over the past three years. For Gen Z, that figure rises to 26%.
We’re living through a Togetherness Recession. And for brands, the old ways of doing business won’t cut it anymore.
How a less sociable world is reshaping spending
Smartphones, news cycles, economic pressure and the death of “third spaces” have accelerated the shift towards aloneness. The average adult now spends an extra 99 minutes at home each day compared to the early 2000s. And that change is rippling through every sector.
For some, it’s been a windfall. Slack, Netflix and Fortnite have all capitalised on the rise of remote, digital living. Sales of home accessories and furniture are booming. Google searches for self-care products have jumped 315% since 2017.
But other sectors are struggling. Travel, entertainment and hospitality have taken predictable hits – cinema ticket sales have halved since 2003, and over 400 pubs in England and Wales shut their doors for good in 2024.
Even unexpected categories like FMCG aren’t immune: sharing bag crisp sales fell 6.2% in 2023, pointing to fewer social gatherings. Private label products are surging, not just because of price sensitivity, but because fewer social occasions mean less peer pressure to flash branded status symbols.
It’s a tough environment for brands to operate in. Some of the most successful campaigns of the 21st century– from Share a Coke to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge – have thrived by tapping into our need for community and connection. If that slowly dissipates, what do brands do?
Lonelier lives create new opportunities
The shrinking of social time isn’t the whole story. How people spend that time is shifting too – and it opens a window for brands.
Our research shows one in four Britons spends more money when they socialise. Young consumers, in particular, are looking for out-of-the-ordinary experiences – axe-throwing bars over a standard pub – and are prepared to pay a premium. In fact, more than a fifth of Britons spend more to maximise a good time with others.
There’s also a social currency at play. Young people, hardwired to show off, find it harder to make an impression online alone. Physical events offer a stage to splash out and stand out.
Brands that understand this can thrive. Those that don’t risk becoming their own Billy no mates.
The questions brands need to ask themselves
How do we create shared occasions in this new world?
How do we bridge the widening dopamine gap between digital and real life?
How do we bring back some of the human touch in a world that’s increasingly contactless?
How do we segment audiences more intelligently to reflect today’s social realities?
And how do we show up in new social spaces – from Roblox to Fortnite – where the next generation of culture is being made?
There’s no point in history where people have spent less time together than right now. Brands must adapt. The patchwork of new behaviours is still forming, but the brands that rethink, reshape and reconnect will thrive.
Will you remodel your brand around consumers’ new natural habitat – home? Or will you innovate, and find exciting ways to bring people back together?
Either way, understanding the role your product or service plays in this new world is essential. Get it right, and the Togetherness Recession could still be a boom time for your brand.
Read the article in Campaign
