The Best Trends Already Exist, They Just Need a Name
· Paige Karchmar · Trends / Branding
Students at Penn started calling it SABSing, short for see and be seen, and somehow that one word explains a habit I've watched play out on Speedway all year without ever having a word for it.
One of the smartest things you can do in marketing is name something people already recognize. Not invent a behavior, not convince anyone to change, just hand them a word for something they've been doing without thinking about it.
That's basically what happened with SABSing, short for see and be seen. The term comes from Penn, where students use it to describe lingering somewhere public partly because you're hoping to run into someone. Maybe a friend. Maybe a crush. Maybe someone you suddenly need to avoid.
The Behavior Was Always There
College students have always found reasons to take the busier route, sit somewhere visible, or stay a little longer in a place where people they know might pass by. Nobody schedules it. It just happens.
At UT, I recognize the habit way more than the terminology. I have never heard a single person here say SABSing, and I understood it immediately anyway. That's usually the sign of good branding.
A Name Makes It Shareable
A strong name doesn't have to create a new behavior. Sometimes it just makes an existing one easier to notice, explain, and pass along. Once something has a name, people start seeing it everywhere.
This happens constantly online. Quiet luxury existed before TikTok. So did girl dinner, the Sunday scaries, and main character energy. The label didn't invent the experience. It made the experience specific enough to talk about.
Why This One Actually Sticks
SABSing also captures something social media can't fully replace. Posting where you went lets people see that you were there. Being somewhere in person gives you the chance to actually run into them.
That difference matters on a campus this size, where you can pass thousands of people in a week and still feel anonymous. Sometimes being visible is superficial. Sometimes it's how people become familiar.
What Small Brands Can Take From It
If you run a small business, the takeaway isn't to go make up slang. It's to pay attention to what your customers already do and give it language. The thing they always order together, the ritual they've built around your product, the reason they keep coming back on a specific day.
Name that, and you've given people a way to talk about you when you're not in the room. That's cheaper and more durable than almost anything you could buy.
Penn gave it a name, and now the rest of us know exactly what they mean. The behavior didn't change at all. It just finally became something you could say out loud.