Back-to-School Apps, Viral Holidays, and GenAI’s Latest

Summer may be over, but the digital drama didn’t take a vacation. 

TikTok sent travel bookings soaring, back-to-school apps duked it out, and (surprise!) another round of GenAI drama.

Here’s the September issue of Insight Out.

ParentSquare is making noise in the school hallway

For years, ClassDojo had a head start in the parent-school communication race. But this summer, ParentSquare pulled ahead.

The challenger app made major deals with Houston ISD and six-figure contracts across states like Utah and Wyoming.

So, it overtook ClassDojo in iPhone downloads for the first time in July-August.

Both apps digitize school comms.

But it’s ParentSquare that showed up for the 2025–26 school year with its backpack zipped and its permission slip signed…(with a little extra swagger in the hallways!)

The gender breakdown is still heavily skewed, though. In most households, moms are replying in the school group chat.

Jet2 went from British budget airline to accidental TikTok celebrity

All summer, the “Nothing beats a holiday…" jingle kept popping up under vacation-fail videos.

What started as a UK ad spot snowballed into a viral soundtrack, sending surprise waves of US traffic Jet2.com and Jet2holidays' way.

Talk about brand awareness on autopilot.

Bonus points go to Zoë Lister (voiceover) and Jess Glynne (soundtrack). This is proof that internet fame plays by different rules. 

And that sometimes, you go viral whether you're ready or not.

Google's Gen AI team gets playful with pixels

Late August brought the low-key launch of "Nano Banana."

Essentially, it's an image editor tucked into Google's Gen AI toolkit.

The result? A traffic jump for Google AI Studio, as curious creators lined up to play.

But Gemini's traffic didn't enjoy the same traffic jump. 

The lift was mild at best...nowhere near the numbers we saw back in June with the Android 16 release.

The GenAI summer slump myth needs to die

Finally, can we retire the whole "GenAI summer slump" storyline??

This is GenAI's third summer in the spotlight. And the myth that usage tanks when school's out just isn't true.

→ Summer 2023: After a period of hypergrowth, ChatGPT cooled off with four straight months of decline (April-July)

→ Summer 2024: A one-month drop in July after six months strong

→ Summer 2025: Five months up, then a small dip

The data says summer break has nothing to do with GenAI engagement.

Clearly, the drama is happening elsewhere.