Barbie, banks and Beyoncé: The words that defined 2023’s conference calls

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Nick Mazing is a director of research at AlphaSense in NYC. 

You may have already read the Alphaville Language Police’s attempts to halt the dangerous rise of the “generational opportunity”, or of analysts just wanting to “double click” on anything and everything. 

As the end of the year approaches, the team at AlphaSense (not to be confused with AlphaVILLE, or any of the 1,000 of other fintechs named Alpha-something) put on our ugly sweaters, poured out some diet alcohol-free eggnog, and rounded up the most important words and phrases from 2023’s conference calls.

For the charts below, we look at quarterly transcript counts going from Q1 2018 through to December 6th of this year, across geographies and sectors. The transcript quotes have been anonymised to protect the guilty. 

Barbie 

Life in plastic was fantastic in 2023. Also, economically accretive.

“Adjusted gross margin of 51% increased 270 basis points compared to the prior year benefiting from the accretive Barbie movie related economics,” one CFO quipped. 

Taylor Swift

It seems 2023 was “Taylor’s Version” of a year: the pop star was everywhere, including on corporate calls.

An analyst raised the Swiftian investment framework on one call: “YOLO is consumers spending thousands for Taylor Swift Eras concert tickets and FOMO is consumers spending hundreds of thousands for Chief tickets because Taylor Smith is attending the game. So how do you think about YOLO versus FOMO and today’s trends in live events?”

Beyoncé

Like Taylor Swift, everyone wanted some of the celebrity star power of Say Yes singer Beyoncé on their conference calls in 2023.

One movie-theatre-chain CEO went two-for-two on a recent call: “We are so privileged to be working with artists like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, as they bring their creative vision to their fans, and we do so, too, in the United States and around the world.”

Diet drugs

Betting against American eaters has not been a good investment strategy historically, but maybe this could finally change. The new generation of diet drugs are one of the top trends on calls this year, going well beyond pharma/biotechs.

This was one analyst’s articulate question for the CEO of a clothing chain specialising in plus-size garments: “But you’re right, there is a lot of focus on the GLP-1 drugs. And it makes sense to me that as weight lines fluctuate — waist lines fluctuate, that could actually be good for you. I guess — and again, maybe if you can, is there any evidence of that?”

Moats

Transcripts with moat or moats mentions hit a new high in 2023. Popularised by Warren Buffett, there is now even a moat ETF. You can guess the ticker. They aren’t the castle type, but we did find a company with an actual liquid moat.

The CFO of of spirits company explains: “Maturing inventory now stands at over $7bn and it’s the liquid gold which provides us our strongest moat. This increased significantly over the past 3 years, driven by the strong growth of whiskey and the explosive growth of tequila.” 

Regional banks

The EKG shows a heart attack. Did something happen with “regional banks” around spring? But, like almost anything else that happened this year, it is assuredly good for private credit.

“This pullback by regional banks should create ample opportunities for private credit and nonbank lenders,” one lender CEO said. 

Price pack architecture

Almost no calls have included the plebeian “shrinkflation”, but quite a few refer to price pack architecture and variants.

One drinks company CFO explains that it is a part of innovation: “And I think it’s important, again, for everyone to note that when we talk about innovation, innovation includes both liquid, if you will, as well as packaging innovation or price pack architecture initiatives.”

Nicotine pouches

These reduced-risk products have been growing steadily both in the marketplace and on calls. Why? Napkin math: users x average consumption.

Or, if you prefer the wordcel version: “Another perspective that one could take is that of penetration among the legal age nicotine consuming population in the US and their consumer journeys because ultimately, naturally, the size of the category will be determined by how many that use nicotine pouches and their average consumption.” 

“Double click”

Did the shaming work? Alphaville’s June piece might have top-ticked and reversed the usage of the phrase. Is this impact journalism? Q3 transcript count declined by one, while Q4 is pacing well under.

But, yes, analysts still do want to just double-click on something, like during this recent SaaS call: “I wanted to just double-click on the churned customer coming up next quarter.”

Further reading
— A bizarrely online word of the year (The Atlantic)