usainitiatives-blog

[usainitiatives-blog]

December

Shop Talk

It was another fascinating year for retail, sadly with many casualties, yet with much innovation too. The rising cost of customer acquisition led brands to pivot towards subscription-retailing, offering demonstrable perks - such as in-store experiences - to foster cost-effective repeat purchases. Big box retailers like Walgreens invited subscription retailers to set-up shop-in-shops; a symbiotic relationship of footfall and exposure. DTC continues to open pop-ups and is even forcing malls to rethink leases. Ikea announced its first small-format “planning studio” in Manhattan to “meet customers where they are”. REI are going one step further, creating an “outdoor experience center” in New Hampshire, where customers can try-out gear and join workshops. Few industries are embracing tech like sneaker brands (from exclusive drops to dodging bots) and everyone can learn from the beauty, which leads the way in responding to ever-evolving customer expectations. Amazon Time Amazon is considering ditching ‘Can’t Realize a Profit’ ('CraP’) products that are low cost but expensive to ship, such as bottled water. (Tide are ahead of the game, having created cardboard boxes that are lighter than plastic.) Moreover, they will start to penalize brands who do not comply with stricter shipping rules. No wonder after 50 workers were harmed by exploding bear repellent. The company are targeting airports to roll-out cashier-less 'Go’ stores, owing to time-pressed customers and the cost savings of not needing staff with security clearances. Over 2bn products were shipped for one-day (or faster) delivery last year. This piece boldly predicts how Amazon will fail, not least its drab customer experience (compare with the brands above). Small But Important

A look back at 2018 starts with Google’s ’Year In Search’. The brands that won on Twitter. The best and the worst gadgets, as well as tech tragedies (bye Google+). The biggest changes in social - and what they mean for 2019. Ten of the strongest campaigns. And top of the (streaming) pops. Some predictions!

This astonishing piece lists retail trends that “need to die”, amongst them, calling a store something different (e.g. Nike’s House of Innovation); monochromatic spaces (Glossier); and brand pop-ups (no one told Macy’s or these guys). It is unlikely that any will go this year. Here are some trends that could occur.

DTC brands have a successful route to market: simple inventory; strong customer proposition; and, in time, small and mighty stores. They also tend to have sans serif fonts and logos that are achingly similar to each other, which some believe could give rise to ’blanding’, with each becoming forgettable.  

FarFetch bought sneaker resale site 'Stadium Goods’ for $250m. The resale market is estimated to be worth $25bn - presumably FarFetch is hoping to tap-into the human capital that stoked it. Prediction: resale will finally find a use for blockchain - to track authenticity.

Whilst many companies grapple with 'voice’, Clairol have created an 'Action’ to guide people through hair dyeing. It is a smart strategy - think of the value that the channel can add first and it will drive dollars through affinity. (Not the other way around.)

Anything Amazon can do… Google is planning a $1bn campus in New York, whilst Applewill invest a similar amount in Austin.  

Michael Kors bought Versace for $2bn. This follows a trend of companies creating 'stables’ of brands to find efficiencies across customer acquisition, media, and eCommerce.

Walmart has opened its first online store in Japan, partnering with Rakuten. An overlooked market, Japanese eCommerce is worth $148bn per year!

Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show lost over 2m viewers compared with 2017. Admittedly, 3.2m viewers is a lot for a glorified QVC segment, but at some point surely its owners will change course. Abercrombie & Fitchhave proved that success is possible via improved product and not shirtless teenagers.  

Tumblr will block all adult content after their app was removed from the App Store for containing underage imagery. It is a strong move that many other channels have not taken.

Songstress Taylor Swift employed facial recognition at her LA concert to identify 'stalkers’. Seemingly fair, however, who owns the images and who are they shared with?

Ford have built a noise-cancelling doghouse to protect pets from fireworks!

And finally! The New York Times’ appeal for stories about crime in London backfired when sarcastic residents took to Twitter with very British dilemmas, such as - “Sitting on the London Underground, and a passenger met my eyes for more than a second. Then he *smiled*.” Droll Britannia.

#Taylor Swift #Versace #NIke #Stadium Goods #Amazon #New York Times #London

[usainitiatives-blog]

November

Retail Frenzy

It was another huge Black Friday / Cyber Monday, with sales of over $17bn! Yet significantly, physical retail saw a 9% drop in footfall versus last year. Full report here. The swing to online contributed to Walmart, J. Crew, and Lululemon all having site outages. There were some notable campaigns too: Amazon had a QVC-style livestream on their site, with presenters highlighting products, whilst Walmart had a pre-event with dancers, a comedy skit with friends, and Santa Claus! Here are some notable email newsletters. (Walmart's overarching eCommerce successes did not extend to Jet.com, which saw a decline of 39% on Cyber Monday compared to 2017.) The deals ran and ran this year, throwing-up the possibility of over-reliance on the period, all whilst more tales emerge about the human cost incurred and the juxtaposition that USPS continues to hemorrhage money despite volume increasing.

Movers and Shakers

One of the most protracted and tedious courtships has come to an end with Amazon choosing both New York and Virginia to accommodate 'HQ2'. Dissent has rained-down, from those decrying the tax breaks that the company receives, to fears over infrastructure and property prices, to arguments that the con, not contest would always come down to proximity to Jeff Bezos's private real estate! Next, Amazon's partnership with money transfer company Western Union means that people can pay for goods in cash. Walmart added underwear company Bare Necessities to its growing roster. It follows their approach of targeting high growth businesses with strong leadership - the market is expected to be worth $60bn by 2024 and CEO Noah Wrubel will now run Walmart's entire intimates business. (Could Glossier follow?)

Small But Important

A terrible month for Victoria's Secret! The head of PR controversially claimed they would never include a transgender model in their runway shows "Because the show is a fantasy". He later retracted the statement (but the damage was done). Then CEO Jan Singer stepped-down after only two years. John Mehas will join from Tory Burch to try and turn around ailing fortunes. Raising brand perception will be key.

Nike have opened an astonishing store on New York's 5th Avenue, where almost everything can be customised and their are two paths to purchase, one with associates and another solely via the app.  

7-Eleven meanwhile is testing scan and go, allowing customers to pay via an app instead of the cashier (Walmart shuttered a similar services earlier this year.) However, if there is nothing unique about the experience - as with Nike - what is the benefit?

News has emerged that Under Armour will no longer reimburse corporate visits to strip clubs because of #MeToo. Even more bizarre, Lands End customers raged after copies of GQ - featuring a scantily-clad Emily Ratajkowski - were added to their packages.

Retailers are increasingly looking to a direct to consumer model, as wholesale is proving too tough. (H&M announced that they would close Cheap Monday because of challenges.) Indeed, Kering announced that it will bring all eCommerce in-house and scrap third-party relationships by 2020. (DTC brands have also managed to avoid Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals too!)

J. Crew will shutter their entry-level 'Mercantile' line, incidentally the only label sold on Amazon. The move undoes some of CEO James Brett's work, who left his role this month!

Anthropologie has apologised after it emerged that they copied designs from an Australian ceramicist. 'Stealing' ideas has been a huge problem in fashion for many years.

Former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, has called for Facebook to be broken-up, citing potential abuse of power and a stifling of innovation. Also, whilst the company admitted that a top executive hired a PR firm to attack George Soros, CEO Mark Zuckerberg denied any knowledge, yet concurrently the UK Parliament seized internal documents that reveal questionable activities that he did know about. Further afield, the company has been heavily criticised for its role in exacerbating troubles in Myanmar. Despite being backed, expect Sheryl Sandberg to walk the plank soon.

20,000 Google employees staged a mass walk out after The New York Times reported that three executives accused of misconduct has been protected.

YouTube creators with more than 10k followers can now record limited-time Snapchat-style live 'Stories'. Instagram meanwhile is rolling out 'Close Friends', an option for users to establish small groups to share content privately. Meanwhile, Snapchat's partnership with Shopify lets brands sell up exclusive product inside the app!      

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne will sell the company to focus on Blockchain, stating: “I don’t care whether [personal venture] tZero is losing $2 million a month ... We think we’ve got cold fusion on the blockchain side.”

Starwood Hotels revealed that 500m guests' details had been stolen in a data breach.

Beleaguered retailer Sears won approval for a further $350m loan to stay open throughout the Holidays. The financing came from private equity firm - yet ironically, Vice and CNN believe these entities are killing the sector.

Coca-Cola wiped all of their social media accounts over Veteran's Day weekend, bringing them back on World Kindness Day with a fresh approach to social media.

And finally! Payless duped a host of influencers into buying vastly marked-up products when they opened a fake 'Paylessi' store! The stunt highlighted the fact that many of these "experts" cannot tell the difference in products. What a shoeing

[usainitiatives-blog]

June

There May Be Disruption Ahead

Instagram has set its sights on YouTube with 'IGTV', a long-form video service. Users can make (vertical-only) films up to one-hour in length – although most will be restricted to 10 minutes. Whilst it is unclear how creators can monetise content, it will likely utilise the shopping features launched on Stories. Amazon has acquired PillPack, the online pharmacy, for c.$1bn. Not content with taking-on healthcare, Prime will stream 20 Premier League soccer games from 2019. Expect fast food adverts showcasing Alexa home delivery skills. Both moves continue to round-out the Prime ecosystem. with more banking services coming. Marriott is adopting 'Alexa for Hospitality' to replace concierge phone calls. A lack of delivery drivers has led to Amazon offering vans to entrepreneurs seeking to build their own fleets, to fulfill last-mile deliveries. Lastly, the in-house buying team is being replaced by algorithms, who can more accurately assess how much inventory to buy and when, thereby reducing the threat of 'out of stock' and markdown on excess.

Retales

Rue La La has bought flash sale site 'Gilt' from Hudson's Bay (HBC). Once the darling of eCommerce – with a valuation of $1bn – it suffered, in part, from HBC trying to shoehorn it into their store estate. Further bad news, HBC will close 10 locations including the iconic 5th Avenue shop! Ironically, this article predicts a rise in shared workspace retail, as seen with WeWork x LinkedIn x J. Crew. Sephora, has announced their own LA convention 'SEPHORiA'. This follows the trend of retailers seeking 'Instagrammable' moments in-store, with purchase happening elsewhere. Hublot, the luxury watch maker, has created a digital boutique that connects customers to their nearest store via Skype or FaceTime to chat with an advisor. (Naturally, the beauty brands are not far behind.) Sales are completed via a separate call. Indeed, this piece believes that initiatives such as these are part of the 'third era of retail', whereby interactions are both inherently digital and yet more 'human' too.

Small But Important

Kate Spade, founder of the eponymous brand, was found dead in an apparent suicide. Despite having sold the business in 2007 this line captures her impact: "For many women, a Kate Spade handbag functioned as a symbol of professional achievement".

The Supreme Court voted 5-4 that states can levy taxes on eCommerce companies. Beforehand, taxes were only due in states where companies had a physical presence.

A judge has ruled that AT&T can buy Time Warner and put no conditions on the deal: this will pave the way for Disney-Fox and Sprint-T-Mobile.

The EU's response to US tariffs was to create some of their own – on very American items,like adding $2,200 to the cost of an average Harley Davidson motorcycle. This has led to companies threatening to move manufacturing out of the country to lower costs.

Is this the death of memes? A proposed EU law would require websites and platforms to filter out posts that infringe on a copyright, aka pretty much every meme.

Gap announced a new global head – Neil Fiske. His track-record is merging Billabong with its biggest rival and repositioning Eddie Bauer. He has a big job ahead.

Disturbing reports this month about physical and sexual abuse in the Asian factories that supply H&M and Gap.

Gucci has launched 'Gucci Equilibrium', a site dedicated to showcasing the company's commitment to sustainability.

The race for Asian market share is heating-up with news that Google has invested $500m into Chinese retailer JD.com. Interestingly, this is being seen as another way to build links with Walmart, from which they are reportedly buying a slice of Flipkart.

This article believes that Walmart's acquisitions and new services are part of a plan to appeal to a more affluent consumer. Between 2012 to 2016 the majority of growth in households came in the $100,000+. bracket, yet these customers do not associate with “Everyday Low Prices.” This customer is mobile-centric (hence the new site) and time-poor (see Jetblack).

The secret behind the yoga pant craze might lie in the fact that only 13% of jeans in brick and mortar stores actually fit the average American woman.

SoulCycle (gym) is building its own media division, tapping talent from Vox, Glamour, and Mashable. Spin.

An interview with a former Mozilla employee revealed that social media is deliberately designed to be addictive, as with the case of infinite scrolling: "If you don't give your brain time to catch up with your impulses you just keep scrolling."

The city of Orlando has ended its Amazon-enabled facial recognition program amid backlash.

In an important move, the US Open will not penalise women by reducing their post-pregnancy ranking (unlike the French Open).  

And finally, HBO's app has been banned in China – because of John Oliver. The firebrand comedian mocked the country's censorship of Winnie The Pooh (who president Xi Jinping apparently looks like) whereupon the show was blocked, as were all mentions on Weibo. Oh bother!

#Retail #Best #Marketing #Digital

[usainitiatives-blog]

May

Artificial Incrimination

Questions were raised this month following news that Amazon would sell its ‘Rekognition’ software — which powers the checkout-free Go store(s) — for use in law enforcement cameras. By routinely mapping people’s reaction patterns, say, from irritation to anger, body cameras could alert officers to warning signs, suggesting an intervention before the person reaches that state (should AI trump human will?). If this seems dystopian, look no further than China (where AI funding now outstrips the US), where this school monitors children’s attentiveness based on their facial expressions! They are not alone, Alphabet — and Apple — are looking to supply the militarywith drones. Association with ‘Project Maven’ has seen a dozen employees quit and a further 4,000 demand that participation be ceased. This articleforewarns “as a tech company’s propensity to do good grows [and there aregreat examples], so too does its ability to do terrible things”. That is possibly why this video of Google Assistant booking a hair appointment was greeted with a tinge of fear, rather than fanfare.

The Future of Retail?

As companies look to fight the schadenfreude-fuelled ‘Retail Apocalypse’ they are focusing on different areas of the consumer journey. Walmart is arming associates with handheld checkouts. They have also revealed Jetblack, a concierge-style service for “time-strapped urban parents” who can send a text message to receive product recommendations. In addition, the Lord & Taylor eshop-in-shop is live on walmart.com. Similarly, Stadium Goods have launched a curated store on FarFetch. Vending machines are seeing a reawakening — CompuCom is one case — to simplify the shopping experience for lower value, subscription items and prevent theft. Conversely, this articlepredicts that “Stores [will be] set up as playgrounds of hashtag”, which sees the future of physical retail as showrooms: which is possibly why Macy’s have bought Story, the experiential retailer that changes ‘theme’ every four to eight weeks. Tapestry, owner of Coach and Kate Spade, is backing personalisation, a decision that has driven sales and helped foster a 120 million-strong database with detailed consumer preferences, allowing them to refine inventory management. Finally, this piece claims that companies like Allbirds and Everlane are trying to copy big tech by creating clothes that can scale, rather than focusing on cutting-edge design, and likening their stores to Apple’s.

Small But Important

Starbucks shut all 8,000 US stores at noon on May 29th for company-wide racial bias training. This followed a high-profile incident in Aprilwhen a manager called the police having mistakenly profiled two customers.

The Thompson Reuters Foundation collaborated with YouTube star Jacques Slade, riffing-on ‘unboxing’ videos to highlight modern slavery within fashion.

McDonald’s will use recyclable or renewable materials for all straws by 2025. H&M, Zara, and others will remove mohair after reports of cruelty.

Walmart will pay for its workers to get business or supply-chain management degrees, covering the cost of tuition and books.

As suggested last month, Amazon is banning serial returners from the site!

Movie-goers can buy tickets from Fandango via Google Assistant. This is a smart vCommerce, with clear UX from ‘Google, what films are on?’, through to purchase.

In what feels like a desperate move, Blue Apron are selling kits in Costco — with 30% off.

Revolve is gunning for the UK, matching free returns seen across competitors like ASOS. Next-up is an in-country HQ.

Best Buy will roll-out in-home health regimes and services to older customers who buy hard products. (They also have a new logo.)

Snap announced a lens that reacts to sound — this could be huge for music and sporting venues looking to augment events.

Sephora have merged their digital, in-store, and customer services teams — removing internal silos will help staff to think from a customer’s point of view. They are also offering make-up tutorials for trans people. (Nice touch.) Target is the latest brand to provide virtual beauty try-on.

J. Crew has big plans, including a personalisation engine; wider product range; loyalty scheme; and full relaunch in September. It will be interesting to see where they go: companies tend to chase the millennial dollar, yet that could cannibalise Madewell’s income and steer towards huge competition. A clearer 30–45 play would be more intriguing.

Men’s Warehouse store associates now chat with customers browsing the website during slow in-store hours. Brilliantly, they have allowed the consumer to rate the sales person, to ensure they are not overly pushy! Similarly, Macy’s have created an influencer network comprised of employees: ‘The Style Crew’ share promotions and product drops, along with their personalities.

In an attempt to tackle social media usage and mental well-being, Instagram have added a ‘Time spent’ metric onto the app.

Gap was forced to apologise after they released a t-shirt with a map of China that only included the mainland. The White House — no less — claimed that China was imposing “political correctness on American companies and their citizens”.

And finally, KFC celebrated the royal wedding with a ‘Harry and Meghan’ bucket, adorned with commemorative crest. The move was inspired by the Prince’s decision to pop the question over a roast chicken. Finger lickin’ PR!

#Retail #KFC #Gap #Nike #adidas #Puma #Under Armour #Madewell

[usainitiatives-blog]

March

March Madness

Facebook: in the news and in trouble. Back in 2014 the analytics firm 'Cambridge Analytica' (CA) created a personality questionnaire 'thisisyourdigitallife' that accessed data from 270,000 participants. At the time Facebook's rules allowed apps to collect information from the friends of those who participated (even if they did not take the quiz themselves) - and thus CA mined around 50m people. The story broke when footage emerged of the CEO, Alexander Nix, bragging about winning the 2017 presidential election for Trump having used this data to deploy highly targeted attack ads. Social media in politics is not new: Barrack Obama's 'Obama for America App' also utilised Facebook data in 2012, yet the key difference, say Politifact, is that the relationship between participant and campaign was defined, whereas 'thisisyourdigitallife' claimed all collection was for academic use - and therein lies the rule breach. This is the latest in a string of PR nightmares that saw Facebook's stock plummet by $58bn, as myriad companies halted ad spend. After a period of silence - which even Sheryl Sandberg conceded was too long - Zuckerberg met with CNN; took out print adverts; and agreed to face Congress (but not UK MPs). '#deletefacebook' began trending with many taking-up arms, including the co-founder of 'WhatsApp', a Facebook subsidiary. But the scandal kept coming. This time from a senior leader whose memo statedthat the death of users should not come in the way of the company's mission! Expect a root-and-branch review of data usage (which looks bad); and potentially a subscription model to lessen the reliance on ad spend. Tech talk Activist groups are springing-up against the "Hunger Games style" fight for HQ2, as they feel cities are being strong-armed by Amazon. Next, the behemoth is considering offering checking accounts, a move that could save millions in banking fees. Twitter will broadcast MLS soccer over the next three years; Facebook Watch meanwhile will show midweek afternoon MLB games.Uber suspended their self-driving car program after a vehicle tragically killed a pedestrian. Google is banning all cryptocurrency ads. Snapchat stock was knocked (again) after they upset Rhianna with a bizarre 'would you rather' style questionnaire and she hit back. Chance The Rapper suspects that companies like Snap - and Heineken specifically - are making controversial ads precisely to obtain greater reach.  Small But Important

McDonald's stole the limelight on International Women's Day with their upside-down logo. Google meanwhile listed women-led businesses on Maps. Here are some other notable efforts.  

Deloitte research shows that the fringes of retail are actually performing well (Old Navy to Coach) but mid-tier brands are being squeezed by a shrinking middle class.

Nike's brand President Trevor Edwards resigned following reports of behaviour that does "not reflect ... core values".  

Interesting debate on AI in fashion: some defend the role of humans to create style, whereas others believe AI can predict sell-through propensity.  

Voice shopping is expected to reach $40bn by 2022 in the US alone!

Evocative piece that argues putting a rainbow flag on your logo in June is not good enough to attract the LBGT community. Also, the first genderless store 'The Phluid Project' opened in New York. 

Here were the key themes from SXSW. Notable amongst them was human loneliness and women's rights.  

Best Buy's 'Geek Squad' technicians have been serving as FBI informants, reporting computers that they suspect of having child pornography. Controversy surrounds whether or not they are stumbling across images (legal) or actively seeking them (not). 

Dating app 'Bumble' has banned images of guns on their app. L.L. Bean restricted gun sales for under-21s. And asset manager 'BlackRock' has introduced funds that avoid investments in civilian arms manufacturers.

First 'meatless meat', now lab-grown leather (which joins the list of alternative textiles). 

The environmental impact of fashion continues to startle: it is now the second highest consumer of water globally. In response, Gap set itself a goal to save 10bn litres by 2020. adidas aims to use plastic solely from oceans by 2024. L'Oreal US has targeted carbon neutrality by 2019.

Walmart has pledged to cut 50m metric tonnes of carbon emissions from China by 2030. Next, having failed to win over New Yorkers, they are upping the ante with same-day grocery deliveries (via Jet.com); they will deliver to 100 cities by year-end. 

The evolution of physical retail as a destination continues: Walmart are adding 500 FedEx shop-in-shops to reduce last mile delivery costs and drive footfall. Barney's is tapping the Wellness movement with 'Conscious Beauty' products and events in-store. JC Penny are hiring 6,500 hair stylists across the country.  

Madewell will feature in in John Lewis (the UK's Nordstrom). JD Sports, a British retailer with a checkered history of employee rights, has bought The Finish Line. 

In a blow for nostalgia Claire's Accessories and Toys 'R' Us have filed for bankruptcy, in the case of the latter, this is why. 

Insightful first-hand article about the difficulties of fashion for those with disabilities. 

The US State Department may soon ask anyone applying for a non-immigrant visa to offer-up their social media handles from the past 5 years.

And finally! Fragrance brands are known for their in-magazine scented strips however Old Spice inserted a ready-to-wear paper blazer in their GQ ad! "Everyone gets to live the luxurious life of Old Spice Captain. Smell the smells, live the life, don’t go out in the rain." Sea salty. 

[usainitiatives-blog]

February

Brand Awareness

Public perception was in focus this month. Brands distanced themselves from the National Rifle Association (NRA) in the wake of the Florida school shooting. In a "watershed moment", Dick's Sporting Goods banned the sale of assault rifles, whilst United Airlines, Delta, MetLife, FedEx, and others removed their NRA member discount. This followed Unilever's very public proclamation that Google and Facebook had to "clean up their act" with regards to illicit content or the company would stop advertising on their channels. (P&G echoed the sentiment.) Bank of America went further, hiring a 'Brand Safety Officer' to ensure its ads do not appear alongside salubrious material - with good reason, according to The New York Times. Guess's share price fell c.14% when model Kate Upton tweeted "It’s disappointing that such an iconic women’s brand @GUESS is still empowering Paul Marciano as their creative director #metoo”. Lululemon CEO Laurent Potdevin stepped-down over "poor behaviour". Lastly, the newest social media craze, 'Vero', is already facing calls to boycott owing to its CEO's 'shady' past.  Tech Talk Snapchat's redesign is here to stay according to Evan Spiegel. Despite user grumblings download numbers jumped +76%. Better still, earnings outperformed expectations. Then came 'Snap Store' and a genuinely excellent partnership with Jordan, who used AR to sell 'AJ III Tinkers' exclusively through the app! Becoming an eCommerce channel would propel Snapchat's importance meteorically. It all looked rosy until Kylie Jenner tweeted "sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me...". The markets reacted by wiping $1.3bn off their valuation. Twitter posted its first quarterly profit for over 11 years! Yet the $91m is a drop in the ocean versus their $2bn in accrued losses. Facebook is testing a 'down vote' button for users to question the authenticity of a post. Although it will not stop around 3m US and UK under 25s leaving in 2018, apparently. Instagram have rolled-out 'collection campaigns', letting viewers buy without leaving the app: Birchbox and Revolve were amongst the first to try it out. Whole Foods products will soon be eligible for Amazon Prime delivery. Excellent long-read on the cost of Amazon warehouses to US cities. A fulfillment service is coming: 'Shipping With Amazon' will initially only serve third-party sellers but expect it to become a faster delivery 'perk' for Prime members. Finally, they agreed the $1bn purchase of 'Ring', who make smartphone-enabled doorbells (for not-at-home drop-offs).  Small But Important

Good piece on how QVC survived the Amazonian onslaught. This customer relationship is ripe for 'voice commerce', with viewers simply instructing Alexa to buy an item with no call or credit card needed. 

Walmart debuted 4 fashion lines, including a plus-size one. Intriguingly, they are in talks to acquire c.15% of 'Flipkart' - Indian online retail is expected to reach $200bn by 2026. 

Saks Fifth Avenue's fortunes have been put in the hands of Helena Foulkes, who joins from CVS. L2 might point her in the direction of menswear, which is due to grow 5% in the next 2 years, outperforming womenswear, yet is often "overlooked". 

L.L. Bean (and others) revised their lifetime return policy citing $250m paid-out for goods that were in 'destroy quality', upon receipt. This figure was more than total sales of the 'Duck' boot over the last five years! One disgruntled customer has filed a lawsuit.

Macy's released a modest line, Verona Collection, and pretty good trading results. (Performance was bolstered by real estate sales.) They also revealed 'The Market @ Macy's', in-store pop-ups that aim to drive footfall. 

Patagonia launched 'Action Works' a microsite to 'match' like-minded activists.

The game may have been excellent but the Superbowl's fripperies were a little weak. Here are all the ads - the 'winner' was probably Tide.

In an attempt to catch adidas's game-changing Ultra Boost, Nike released Epic Reactand Under Armour, 'Hovr'. This battle is going to be fun to watch!

Uber settled with Waymo over claims that it stole trade secrets (around 14,000 files). The latter received a 0.34% equity stake in Uber (c.$245 million).

Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and Citi have banned the purchase of bitcoin via their cards, understandably, as half of 2017's cryptocurrencies have failed. Yet companies like Starbucks are increasingly looking to utilse 'blockchain': De Beers are running a pilot scheme to see if the tech can help them retain diamond authenticity and privacy; L.L. Bean will use it to track garment wear and tear. (But what does the consumer get out of this data exchange?)

Fox News, like ESPN, will soon have a streaming service - 'Fox Nation' - with original programming "for superfans" but zero content from the flagship channel. Good luck.

The world watched as Elon Musk sent one of his cars into orbit (safely landing the booster rockets too!); stranger still is the $10m he made from selling flame-throwers. 

Lucas Warren, who has Down's syndrome, became the face of Gerber.

The San Diego Girl Scout council was unsure what to do when one ingenious member sold 300 boxes of cookies outside a marijuana dispensary. 

And finally! A Maine court ordered Oakhurst Dairy to pay-out around $5m in 'owed' overtime to drivers because of a missing Oxford comma in their contracts. Clearly Vampire Weekend were wrong...

#Best #Best of the best #Best ever #Read #Long Read #Journalism #Data #Marketing

[usainitiatives-blog]

January 2018

Trading Places

Cashier-free ‘Amazon Go’ opened this month, somewhat ironically to huge queues. Reviews have been mixed (this is good) however the Seattle location has proved popular. There are no plans to roll-out the format, although it does mitigate the two things that Amazon views as ‘friction’, namely checkout (think ‘1 click ordering’) and workers.

More widely, this piece looks at why brands are opening stores — for too long the tired assertion that people need to ‘touch and feel’ in order to buy has been touted (despite Amazon’s meteoric rise) — cost of online acquisition, return on investment, and growth potential are heralded. This article claims the store associate will set bricks and mortar apart, and a new ‘digitised workforce’ that is connected with customers via WhatsApp and social media will win.

In other news, ‘Whole Foods 365’ opened its seventh location, in Brooklyn, replete with a ‘Juice Press’, vegan burgers, and Amazon lockers. The smaller format is seen as a competitor to Trader Joe’s with an emphasis on produce from local suppliers. They are not alone, Target will open 130 smaller-format stores by 2019, primarily in dense urban areas. Why? Kantar Retail, predicts small-store sales will grow 3.9% annually until 2022, versus 0.8% for larger-box ones. Face Time

A whirlwind month for Facebook: first, the announcement that the user feed would feature more content from people and brands, with less news. Adweek suggested that Facebook is increasingly being seen as a media outlet, thus is suffering from trust issues (Edelman claims the US has seen the biggest 12-month drop in media confidence). Next, Zuckerberg claimed: “I expect the time people spend on Facebook … will go down”, hoping instead for interactions that are good for individual “well-being”. Then came news that dwell time has reduced, by “roughly 50 million hours per day”. Shares duly tumbled — even after fourth quarter earnings of $12.9bn. Facebook is having a rough time, from 2017’s controversies, to stagnating user growth, and now declining usage. Altering content could impact advertising earnings, so there may be harder times to come, however they have arguably taken the view that a platform without users is worth less still. Small But Important

H&M landed in hot water after an image, deemed racially insensitive by many, featured on its website. The fallout saw global ambassadors, such as The Weekend, walking away from endorsement deals.

The stock market was rocked by news that Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and JP Morgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon will form a company “free from profit-making incentives and constraints” to tackle healthcare costs for employees.

CVS announced ‘Beauty Mark’, a plan to enforce a no-Photoshop rule across all images (including third-parties) by 2020.

Apple is taking advantage of a one-time tax break (coming from Trump’s 2017 bill) to repatriate $38bn to the US. They have also committed to creating 20,000 jobs andbuilding a new campus. Other companies are offering wage increases or bonuses from their tax relief.

Nestle have sold their US candy brands (including Crunch and Gobstopper) to Italy’s, Ferrero, for $2.8bn. Also, Dr Pepper Snapple and Keurig Green Mountain have merged — combined annual revenue is $11bn. What’s the worst that can happen?

Only one US retailer, Gap, featured on Bloomberg’s gender equality index list.

McDonald’s pledged all packaging from recycled materials by 2025. Nike, meanwhile, is aiming for 100% renewable energy usage by 2025.

Tellers at Chase bank’s new ‘Express’ branches will be available via video conference!

Nintendo released ‘LABO’ — cardboard sheets that can be constructed into items — from pianos to fishing rods — that combine with the ‘Switch’ console to become part of the gaming experience.

Twitter will not block world leaders, as doing so would “hide important information people should be able to see and debate”.

A string of sponsors — from AT&T to Under Armour — have ended their relationship with US Olympic Committee in the wake of the Larry Nassar trial.

CES round-up: 1) Engadget’s best tech of show. 2) 8 start-ups to watch. 3) L’Oreal debuted a 2mm x 9mm wearable that sits on a thumbnail to assess UV exposure. Remarkably, it is battery-free and last for two weeks! (Bonus: Here’s a Davos recap too.)

The Cleveland Indians will drop their divisive ‘Chief Wahoo’ logo from 2019.

A&F, launched a gender neutral kids range ‘Everybody’. Warby Parker is trailing a children’s line too.

And finally! Strava, an app that tracks jogging and cycling routes, inadvertently began revealing locations of secret military bases and highlighting movements to and from them causing a major security risk. This follows the US Military’s 2016 ban on AR experience ‘Pokemon Go’ for the same reason. Grounded.

[usainitiatives-blog]

November

Shop around The story was Black Friday / Cyber Monday - the largest discounting sales days in US history. "Cyber Monday alone totalled $6.6 billion". Little wonder that infrastructure could not handle it, with thousands left waiting for packages to arrive. Comprehensive results here. Everlane announced their first real-life store on Prince Street (NY), despite having claimed they would never open one. Warby Parker used the iPhone X's tech to map people's faces and make recommendations based on shape. Ann Taylor has launched a subscription service, whereby customers pay $95 to borrow up to three items at a time - this 'Rent The Runway' rival has an eye on work outfits. Barnes & Noble rolled-out their fourth restaurant concept in Texas. Quartz argues that the 'un-store', an experience hub where consumers interact with product but leave with nothing, remains the future of retail, with Samsung, Blue Nile, and Nordstrom leading the way. (More examples.) It is official, Lord & Taylor are joining Wal-Mart’s eCommerce mall. This follows news that Amazon will continue to discount products to compete, at their own margin's expense, not the seller's. Yet this is a Pyrrhic victory, as it undermines the brand's pricing structure. If the last few years have represented a panicked drive to gain exposure (Amazon), it feels like companies are beginning to realise the importance of their 'brand', which could point to a shift in the nature of wholesale relationships.  Tech talk

Snap's CEO announced a major redesign of Snapchat, conceding that the app is too hard to use. This, in reaction to daily user rate growing only 2.9% this quarter vs. 4.5% last. Interestingly, China’s Tencent has continued to buy-up shares (roughly 12%). They own WeChat, which has been more successfully monetised, and want to take a more active role. Facebook are set to release Messenger for kids. Even with a series of safety features (parental control) this feels risky. Also, they claim there will be no ads - at launch... Next, they have created an algorithm to recognise posts that might indicate a likelihood of suicide, in order to provide sources of advice. Some worry about the underlying AI. Further concerns, this time about 'People You Know', a service that links users based on the information they share, but do not necessarily publicly post. The New York Times went so far as to claim that the giant cannot be trusted to regulate itself. The author? A former member of Facebook's platform team.  Small But Important

Papa John's' CEO blamed sales slowdown on player protests and declining NFL viewing figures - to which competitor brand, DiGiorno, responded with mocking tweets. The fast food sector has become increasingly 'troll-like' of late, with Burger King and Wendy's particularly culpable. It raises the question, should companies rise above 'banter', as it only encourages poor behaviour on social media?

This article claims Under Armour is a good sports company, but not good at sportswear - as Kevin Durant put it, ‘No one wants to play in Armours’. Ouch!

The refreshingly self-aware Hypebeast asks if sneaker launches have gone too far, because they perpetuate customer dissatisfaction.

Talking of which, the industry has struggled with bots that buy entire collections at once, so Nike has turned to AR. Requiring real-life interaction to buy from the app.

Coach has created physical pins with Snapcodes embed; when scanned the wearer can play an online game!

Facebook’s plugin will let companies integrate Messenger chatbots into their eCommerce sites, offering live customer service or product selection.

Twitter has changed its verified policy, meaning it will remove the blue seal from accounts it deems inappropriate, e.g. white supremacists.

Airbnb is the latest site to allegedly fall victim to Russian money-laundering.

Mashable sold for $50m, c. $200m less than its own valuation. This follows consistent losses and high-profile departures.

New York City has made 'revenge porn' illegal, stating: 'This is the kind of legislation that shouldn’t be necessary, but unfortunately it is'.

The latest hijab-wearing Barbie has been modeled after Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad. It is part of the 'Sheroes' range, based on inspirational women.

And finally! Bad news for driverless cars, with the Las Vegas shuttle crashing within its first hour of service. The error was due to a truck reversing into it - yet the autonomous vehicle was unable to detect movement. #ComputerSaysNo.

[usainitiatives-blog]

October

In Focus

The big story was Russian interference in the 2016 US Presidential election, which The New York Times believes spread to "126 million users on Facebook...131,000 messages on Twitter...over 1,000 videos on YouTube". So staggering were the numbers that Senators Amy Klobuchar and Mark Warner introduced the 'Honest Ads Act', requiring companies with 50m+ monthly users to maintain a public database of ads bought by anyone spending $500+ per year. Twitter, Facebook, and Google moved quickly to introduce self-regulation - they were not overly keen on the Act - however it might not be enough. 

Technology had people pondering, be it Walmart's robots that check stock levels and pricing (alerting humans to make changes); Google Home's Mini Speakers that were found to be recording 24/7; Wi-Fi networks that detect breathing; or the surge in human tracking devices. Add to this 'Amazon Key', which gives couriers access to people's homes via smart lock and a camera to record them. In practice Amazon could have a listening device (Alexa) and camera in your house, plus keys to the front door. Without doubt, the internet has improved myriad aspects of people's lives, yet October (fittingly) has shocked many into considering its pervasiveness. 

Shop Around

In a bid to free-up cash, Hudson Bay announced the sale of its 5th Ave Lord & Taylor flagship to WeWork (the shared workspace company). Next came rumours that the brand may join Walmart's online mall. Meanwhile, 'Coach' became 'Tapestry' - here's why. (The skinny = so that all group companies felt equal.)

This Under Armour ad is amazing. Also, they launched a subscription service: customers receive four to six pieces, monthly, or every 60 to 90 days; they have a week to try them. Cleverly, a 20% discount is applied if they buy everything. Yet amid slumping sales the co-founder announced a sabbatical. Good timing perhaps, with news that Amazon will start making sportswear...

American Eagle partnered with Atelier & Repairs to sell an upcycled capsule collection. (Here is great piece about America's discarded clothing). Tommy Hilfiger's new range aims to help those with disabilities, featuring fasteners designed to assist one-handed use and carers. 

Perry Ellis enlisted Alexa to help men to dress by occasion. Whilst early-mover advantage is good, brands should ask themselves whether customers view them as a source of advice; if not, they are unlikely to ask Alexa.

Small But Important

Alphabet (Google's parent) invested $1bn into Lyft - clearly a move into driverless cars.

Amazon will soon pick-up packages direct from third-party warehouses and deliver them to customers - keeping inventory at the supplier reduces warehouse-overcrowding. (It has spooked USPS and FedEx.)

'Context Cards' let people swipe a Snap for more information about location etc. This could make Snapchat a genuine contextual search engine.  

In a bid to boost positivity Facebook acquired the anonymous compliment app 'tbh'. Aimed at teens, users pose multiple-choice questions amongst friends like 'Who's the best dancer?'. 

Hot on the heels of Ikea, Target has introduced AR for home furnishings. 

Reddit will remove far-right groups, a departure from their initial 'anything goes' stance. 

Ever wondered why plane costs vary from search to search? HBR believes it is the internet trying to profile how much consumers are willing to spend...

Dove apologised for an advert that was widely considered to be racist. Yet the model felt very differently. Like other brands, Unilever executes creative work in-house, a move that arguably removes the agency-client friction that should, in theory, prevent mishaps.

Cyrus Goodman, a Disney / Andi Mack character will have a 'coming out' story arc.  

Conde Naste will launch an LGBT-focused publication.

Dating app 'Bumble' has introduced professional networking. As with the matchmaking service, women have to message first. 

Stranger Things 2 Snapchat lens, apparel, apparel, and taxis: no wonder L2 thinks that Netflix is trying to outmaneuver its oppo by diversifying revenue streams. 

PayPal users can send money via Facebook Messenger. Plus, Venmo is available anywhere you can use PayPal (c.2m US retailers). No wonder PayPal is worth more than American Express,

And finally! KFC follows 5 Spice Girls and 6 people called Herb on Twitter = 11 herbs and spices. 

#Spice Girls #Russia #Russian #Russian Interference #PayPal #Venmo #Nike #Under Armour #Adidas #Conde Naste #LBGT #Gay #Coming Out #Disney #Google #Facebook #Snapchat #New York Time #NYT #NYC #NY #Bumble #KFC #L2 #Netflix #Stranger Things #Stranger Things 2

[usainitiatives-blog]

September

In Focus As Fashion sustainability gains momentum, some brands are tackling it head-on. H&M's has its 4th 'Close The Loop' line; Nike's new 'Flyleather' is made from 50% recycled leather; and Patagonia has the 'Worn Wear' website, with recycled items on sale and store credit given when old items are traded-in. (Here are some other pioneers, plus a balanced article.) Everlane has produced a denim range that is less harmful to the environment. Cotton and wool have come under the microscope too. Greenpeace has called for 'true materialism', namely valuing what you have, rather than simply consuming. The importance of this issue to Gen Z, plus their more frugal approach to money (compared with millennials) could represent a huge challenge to retailers, especially fast fashion.  Tech Talk Apple released iOS 11 - not normally a showstopper (although install issues did happen) it was notable because the camera now has a QR code reader and AR features. QR failed first time around because people had to download an app (wasting memory and time) and experiences were poor. Now, codes can link to trailers, playlists, or social media. Next, Safari will block cookie-driven ads after 24 hours, to remove retargeting. This feels like a headline-grabbing move, given that only c.4% of people use the browser, but it has upset the ad industry. They also released new phones - review - the X is pushing ahead with facial recognition, including emojis mimicking user prompts. Like Apple, Snapchat is backing AR. First came 3D Bitmojis; then 'World Lenses', (branded content added to Snaps); and finally 'sky filters'! Facebook is catching-up, although AR Studiofocuses on the user adding items to their face (sunglasses etc.) whereas the others are looking to enhance surroundings (a dream for brands!) In other news, 'Discover' is adding college newspapers - know your audience. Instagram has filters for Stories, plus users can now limit who comments on photos. It has been alleged that Russia paid Facebook $100k for US election ads. Also, the company won a bid to broadcast NFL recaps. Live-streaming of sports is the new battleground. The tech giants represent a very real threat to one of the remaining jewels in the cable TV crown. Indeed, Amazon - who broadcast Thursday night NFL games - claim that they can track viewers who watched an ad and then bought on site. Next, c.2,000 Whole Foods products are now live on the parent site. Plus, Chipotle, Shake Shack, and alcohol delivery are coming! Pinterest's new tools help brands find top pinners and collaborate with them. LinkedIn is returning to the ad game to compete with Google and Facebook's networks: 45% of professionals earning $75k+ in the US use the site, so it makes sense. Google is trying to retire the age-old problem of 'Where's the remote?' by adding voice search to their TVs. Finally, Twitter is trialling 280-character tweets - a good move, 4 years too late?

Small But Important

Toy 'R' Us filed for bankruptcy. Many will blame Amazon, but the truth is, they are laboring with c$400m of private equity debt. It is causing concern within the toy world.

Lululemon's CEO claims that retail will never die because people crave human connections. Bloomberg paints a bleaker picture saying that too many people have been removed from the shopping experience.

Nordstrom's new store format has zero inventory; stylists will offer advice to customers who then order online. Timberland's 'flex retail' pop-ups can move location and be rebuilt in 3-6 days. Saks meanwhile is backing wellness to drive footfall. HBR predicts only adaptable retailers will survive - as these brands are showing. (Disney would agree.)

How CEO Chip Bergh turned Levi's around. Also, their bot claims it can help customers find the perfect fit!

Check out Amazon's European fashion line, 'Find'. 

Nylon has shuttered its print edition, becoming a digital-only publication. 

Soon people can ask Alexa: 'What films are on my American Airlines flight?'.

Ikea is buying small job site 'Task Rabbit' to add a construction service. Also, their AR app lets users 'place' objects in rooms via a smartphone camera to trial how they look!

adidas is now the #2 US sneaker brand (above 'Jordan'). Nike can make custom shoes in 90 minutes! This is a great read about the battleground for female sporting goods consumers. 

The only thing more competitive is cosmetics - cue fervor following Rhianna's Fenty range. (FYI. Kylie Jenner's line made $420m in 18 months.)

Coca-Cola has a sponsorship deal with a virtual EA sports soccer player, 'Alex Hunter', replete with cross-channel story-boarding and promotion.

And finally! When submariners found the ($38k) Virginia-class periscope joystick to tricky to use the Navy simply replaced it with $30 Xbox controllers!

[usainitiatives-blog]

July

Fashion Conscious

This month has seen further activism. For example, Quartz reports on the revival of 'Craftivism' (coined from the AIDS quilt in the '80s) with Americans using product to voice their disquiet. Brands are joining-in, adidas Outdoor and Patagonia are rallying against a potential executive order that would shrink federally protected lands. Reformation is opening their factories to highlight the importance of migrant workers to the industry. Spotify created 'I'm With The Banned' featuring artists from the six countries targeted by President Trump's travel ban. Elsewhere, American Eagle Outfitters released a denim hijab. A slew of companies - including Facebook and Google - combined on July 12th for a 'day of action' to support net neutrality; brought to prominence John Oliver. There could be more! Tech Talk

A funny month for Snap. Firstly, 'Game of Thrones' reminded everyone of Snapchat's ability to engage by creating a selfie lens, which received 122m impressions. (By comparison, 16.1m people watched the show's premiere.) Next came the unlikeliest of heroes... a hotdog. Not only was the tiny dancer a huge success, but because it uses 'World Lens' it moves with the camera and is being seen as an important step for AR. Sadly, these two could not prevent the share price dropping significantly, with early investors offloading previously ring-fenced stock as soon as they could.Facebook is building a 'village' for employees near their Menlo Park HQ, where average monthly rent has tripled to $3,349 since 2011. There are now Groups for Pages; this represents a pivot from open forums to a recognition that people often like things that their friends do not (like political parties). A paywall subscription service for newspapers and journals has been mooted; publishers can promote 10 freemium articles and take a fee for further reading. Facebook made $9.16bn in ad revenue during Q2, so ads are coming to Messenger.Also in Q2, 1m US users quit Twitter. The social network is trying to combat trolls by letting people mute non-followers yet they are also about launch a $99 per month service that selects tweets from your feed and promotes them to non-followers. Prime Time

It was Amazon's annual price-slashing 'Prime Day' on 12th July. Sales were +60% on last year, yet its real purpose is to get people into the Prime ecosystem because members spend $1,300 annually vs. $700 for non-subscribers. (This is a great article explaining the value of customer networks.) Amazingly, there appears to have been a halo effect, with nationwide digital sales lifting +44%; well, if you can't beat them, join them. Not everyone was impressed though: according to Priceblink 40% of the deals were Amazon exclusives, 20% were available cheaper elsewhere, and of the remaining 40%, Amazon was cheaper by just 18%. Their Blue Apron-style meals service is live. (Online groceries is expected to be a $29bn industry by 2021.) Moving on, people can now pay for TGI Friday meals via 'Pay Places' on the Amazon app (rather than by cash). Also new to the app is a pinboard / sharing element called 'Spark'. Open to Prime members, it is being seen as a threat to Pinterest but will likely be used for P2P direct recommendations. Do not rule out a consumer affiliate scheme either (see 'Enthusiasts'). Also, news of a messaging app - 'Anytime' - which looks like Facebook Messenger + Venmo hybrid! Lastly, their new accessories line 'The Fix' launched - there are around 50 pieces ranging from $49 - $150. Small But Important 

Buzzfeed's 'One Top' is go! A Bluetooth-enabled cooker, it connects to the publisher's recipe library and can prompt chefs to complete actions.

Brandless is very Gen Z: branding has been removed from products to reduce prices; it is fair trade; and makes a donation to Feeding America with each product bought. 

The Republicans have given-up on the Border Adjustment Tax, which would have imposed hefty levies on imported goods. 

Michael Kors will buy Jimmy Choo for $1.2bn. The move is designed to diversify the portfolio and target menswear. 

Everlane is opening their first store - in San Francisco. Netflix: 5.2m members added in Q2 but $400m in lost revenue loss due to password sharing. 

eBay is embracing AI - users can upload an image or URL of an object and the auction site will search for similar items. 

Meet the lady behind Nike's 'Back To The Future' sneaker. 

A connected home device called New Mexico police when it interpreted a man's rage towards his partner 'Did you call the sheriffs?' as a command. 

 The popular game 'Cards Against Humanity' highlighted gender inequality with a tongue-in-cheek '...For Her' version: "It's exactly the same as the original Cards Against Humanity game, but the box is pink and it costs $5 more." Many took the bait despite the sarcastic website. 

Honolulu is the the first US city to ban people from looking at their phone whilst crossing the road. Fines range from $15 - $99! 

Uber will soon introduce a $15 flat-fee for a driver to return a bag that has been left in the back seat. Steep or reasonable regulation? 

Vulture claimed that Spotify might be making-up fake songs to bolster playlists and reduce royalties. This is a blow, given that 'curated' playlists have been a cornerstone of their recent success. 

Under Armour is enlisting A$AP Rocky to boost its lifestyle range. They also have an intriguing new campaign - 'Unlike Any' - featuring ballet dancer, Misty Copeland and taekwondo champion Zoe Zhang, amongst others. It represents a return to athletes. 

K-Swiss is eschewing sporting prowess to focus on 'the greatest era of entrepreneurs'. Is it a bit boring? Decide for yourself. 

 Puma are also partnering with a businessman, albeit J-Zay, for his 4:44 tour. Old Navy have turned to Pharrell for back to school. 

 Reebok reacted to President Trump's remark about Emmanuel Macron's physique by publishing a flow chart explaining when it was appropriate to make such a comment.

Lyft recognised that people were pit-stopping at Taco Bell, so for two weeks they offered 'Taco Mode' whereby passengers could ride to the nearest location - visualised on the map as a taco, naturally.   

Target is to test curb-side pick-up again (where an assistant brings goods to your car). This drives down last mile delivery costs and, crucially, follows a 'storEcommerce' model that many predict 

Amazon will attempt with Whole Foods. Coca-Cola has recorded 1000s of jingles about the names on their bottles - check yours here! 

Talking of, sad times: Coke Zero will disappear; Adobe is killing Flash; and Microsoft Paint's future looks uncertain (despite an outpouring). 

A new trend - fast food fashion: KFC have a clothing range and an eCommerce site, yes, really. And McDonald's celebrated their UberEats partnership with a capsule collection. 

One third of millennials read their partner's texts or emails without their permission research has shown. 

And finally! A Wisconsin company is proposing to insert microchips into employees that automatically log in to computers, open locked doors, and activate vending machines. Some have questioned the long-term health implications; everyone else thinks it is crazy. 

#Amazon #KFC #McDonalds #Under Armour #Nike #Puma #Reebok #Coca Cola #Coke Zero #Pharrell #Jay-Z #Whole Foods #Google #Twitter #Game Of Thrones #GOT #eCommerce #A$AP Rocky #Misty Copeland #Zoe Zhang #Stunt #Vulture #Spotify #Snap #Snapchat #Facebook #Old Navy #Gap #Back To The Future #K-Swiss

[usainitiatives-blog]

June

Food War Amazon stunned everyone with its $13.7bn acquisition of grocer Whole Foods. The news was greeted with a flurry of analysis about 'disruption' in the space, yet arguably this is a data deal, one that helps Amazon to further understand a customer segment with a relatively high disposable income that is not particularly price conscious. A lucrative bunch, Whole Foods can provide unrivalled insight into their spending habits. These consumers are arguably more likely to utilise voice search too - make no mistake, spoken word is central to everything that Amazon does. Indeed, right on cue, the $20 Dash Wand was released this month. Available to Prime Members, it can be stored in the fridge and owners can ask it to suggest recipes or order ingredients. Soon brands will be able to buy $2.8m ad packages for Thursday night NFL games. As the service is for Prime members only, Amazon will already know the user's spending profile and purchase history. Ads could therefore be hyper-targeted with Alexa incorporated to monetise the experience: "Alexa, order Domino's." "Alexa, ask Fandango for Spiderman showings." (Having shown the trailer.) It will be interesting to see if Amazon pivots on alcohol; the NFL has. Next, a patent filed reveals Amazon's vision of drone delivery. Imagine a hive with trucks delivering goods at the bottom and parcel-laden contraptions flying around up above. It raises so many interesting questions: Will there be delivery hours (to combat noise pollution)? Will police require machines to have a 'disable' option? Will they be programmed to crash land in a secure location? Bloomberg revealed that Amazon has issued over $1bn in loans to its Marketplace merchants. Algorithms are used to identify good sellers, who repay the debt via sales made on site. Also, in an effort to reduce credit card fees the company is offering members a 2% bonus if they use their debit card to transact. A lower $5.99 monthly fee for Prime has been introduced (usually $10.99) for people who receive financial assistance from the government. It is being seen as a move against Walmart. 'Prime Wardrobe' was revealed: customers who order more than 3 items can have them delivered to their door (in a return-ready box) with 7 days to try them. The twist? Customers are only charged after they have made their returns or the time elapses. However, the biggest fervour was reserved for the news that sports behemoth Nike will start selling on Amazon - having resisted for years. It is being positioned as an attempt to control their brand and reduce counterfeiting. (Ps. Nike manufactures all NFL kits.) Tech Talk

Snapchat have copied Facebook! 'Snap Map' allows friends to share their location, then search the world to find connections and click their Bitmoji avatar to reveal snaps. Whilst you have to opt-in, the service has attracted concern as younger users might connect with people without knowing who they are, inadvertently revealing sensitive information such as their route home from school. (Other Snap UX updates can be found here.) The iPhone turned 10: here is how it changed the world. Next, Apple aired 'Planet of the Apps', a TV program that is essentially Shark Tank for app developers. Contestants present concepts to a panel of celebrity judges; those who progress are mentored by one of the stars, who help them pitch a private equity firm for investment. It is Apple's first probe into this increasingly competitive space - the show has been met with 'mixed' reviews. Time Warner meanwhile, are banking on Snapchat and 5-minute programs to engage viewers. After months of controversy Uber's CEO, Travis Kalanick, was forced to step-down by investors. The very real fact is, like other leaders before him, Kalanick's antics led to a negative perception of the brand that was gaining momentum (as consultancy cg42 reveals). A new threat looms with news of an alliance between Curb and Via to offer car-pooling for New York's yellow cabs. Facebook has hit the 2bn user mark. However, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced "What we really care about is being able to connect everyone". He will no doubt be pleased then that their drone Aquila, which aims to bring high-speed internet to all areas of the globe, had a successful second test flight. Also, they are testing image verification in India in an attempt to prevent people's pics being repurposed on fake profiles; it may be rolled-out globally. Instagram has released ways for influencers to clearly label sponsored content, rather than relying on '#s'. It comes following pressure from the FTC. Messenger's AI now speaks Spanish. Twitter has had a UX facelift. Finally, Google has moved into job search, adding filters, allowing Gmail alerts, and mapping commute distances, all to help people find the perfect role. Small But Important

In the same month that LVMH launched their '24 Sevres' eCommerce site (early opinion), Conde Nast announced they were closing their own shopping portal, Style.com, striking a partnership with online retailer FarFetch instead. Conversely, fashion content site 'Who What Wear' has announced a shopping app.

Even bigger news stateside was J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler's decision to step-down. There have been many professional obituaries written - this is one of the better ones - the fact is, he lost sight of who the customer was and what they wanted.

Transparent banks are aiming to satisfy the millennial customer. One example, Aspiration, has created 'Aspiration Impact Measurement' which rates businesses on their employee welfare and diversity. It passes this onto their customers so that they can make ethical purchases. Another area of interest is transparent pricing within manufacturing; the theory being that people would rather know what the underlying costs are, even if the mark-up is significant. (However, this article claims that ethical trading is going to become increasingly important for millennials.)

Venmo, the P2P payment app, is experimenting with a debit card that allows in-store purchase but draws funds from a user's online profile.

Airbnb are planning a top-tier service 'Lux'. Full details are yet to be released but it will likely be by-invitation only and is being seen as a challenger to high-end hotels.

Space is at a premium, so MIT have developed a $10,000 piece of furniture which reconfigures itself to hide unused items, for example, the desk is tucked under the bed at night time. Fully automated, it can even be controlled by Alexa.

Another bad month for the Jenners. First Kylie was accused of ripping-off PluggedNYC for her camo-inspired range, then both received fierce criticism for featuring legendary musician's faces on t-shirts - overlaid with their own - without asking permission to do so.  

Jay-Z dropped his 13th album '4:44' exclusively through Tidal / Sprint - but that did not stop it going platinum within a week.  

A great piece on the impact of mannequins on body consciousness.

Here are the best campaigns from Pride Month.

The European Union hit Google with an eye-watering $2.7bn fine, declaring its 'Shopping' listing uncompetitive because their results are promoted over any other provider's.

Blue Apron went public but the reception was lukewarm... Shares for the food delivery company fetched around $10 rather than the expected $15. Investors were possibly put-off by the news that new customer acquisition apparently costs around $460 per person!

The new 'it' job? Being an influencer's ghost-writer, really.

It was only a matter of time... Now Netflix have replicated the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' concept on TV! The new episode of 'Puss In Book' has over a dozen decision points. It is an experiment for now but may be developed in the future.

Universal Standard, a plus size brand, recognises that people's weight fluctuates, so they are offering a full exchange within a year of purchase, with returned items donated to charity.

Domino's Pizza celebrated Ferris Bueller's Day Off's 31st birthday by live-streaming the film on Facebook.

McDonald's has ended its relationship with the Olympics. Not lovin' it.

Jeff Bezos took to Twitter to crowd-source philanthropic ideas.

Starbucks is to hire 2,500 refugees throughout Europe and a further 7,500 worldwide. The move was part of ex-CEO Schultz's reaction to President Trump's travel ban.

New emojis! Breastfeeding and modest-wear have been included.  

George Clooney sold his 'Casamigos' tequila brand to Diageo for $1bn.

Ken, long-time partner of Barbie, is having a revamp, including different body types and a man bun. Yup.

Taco Bell is now letting people marry in its flagship Las Vegas restaurant. Who says romance is dead?

And finally! Delta, recognising that people have a penchant for exotic photos on their dating profiles, teamed-up with Tinder to paint murals of famous locations on a Brooklyn building. People can pose in front of landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben, and then add them to their profile to appear well travelled and up their chances of a right-swipe!

[usainitiatives-blog]

May

Status Update? The top story was Facebook, who said they would hire around 3,000 people to review content following a series of shocking live streams. Seemingly impressive numbers, bolstering its existing 4,500-strong team; yet within context, roughly 2 billion people have an account. Just days later, a court in Austria ruled that they must remove any content - globally - that could constitute as 'hate speak'. This brought into question how the concept is defined; something that a Guardian article vicariously answered with a leaked memo of the tech giant's own rules. In it were notions of 'credible violence' versus 'graphic violence'. It is a fascinating area. Who does decide what content members should be presented with? Whilst no one wants to see harmful media, equally, should Facebook - a company whose role even the CEO struggles to define - be a censor? Out On Its Own

Amazon shares hit $1,001.20 - up c.40% from a year ago. Its $478bn market value is double Walmart's.

Yet Quartz claims their New York store 'sucks the joy out of buying books'.

The Seattle company has clinched a patent to develop pricing labels with parachutes in them. They have also created their own air traffic control system, with a team focusing on how drones will avoid trees and birds. (On a related note, the FAA have removed the need for people to register personal drones.)

The ever-evolving healthcare situation has led the giant to conclude that it will take-on the pharmaceutical industry. Why? "In the United States alone, more than 4 billion prescriptions are ordered every year."

Meet the Echo Show: the $230 item offers all 'ask Alexa' capabilities plus it has a screen for watching YouTube, viewing photos, and making calls (all via voice command, of course).

Tech Talk Twitter have teamed-up with Live Nation to stream concerts and gigs. Also, having seemingly relinquished the NFL in fact they have struck a deal with the league for an exclusive 30-minute weekly show, along with highlights and pre-game live action (e.g. warm-ups). Next, their collaboration with Pandora lets people tweet an emoji and the music service will respond with a URL to a tune, e.g. send the bee and get a Beyonce track! Lastly, this Business Intelligence graph shows that Twitter active users really are growing. Facebook - never out of the news - is placing importance on consumers building a relationship with businesses on Messenger above revenue, apparently. Might they be aiming to become the customer service channel of choice, thereby tapping into the lucrative telephony market long-term? (They are also eyeing take-out with a new ordering feature.) This HBR piece questions Snapchat's long-term future if Facebook keeps ripping off its ideas. Evan Spiegel seems unconcerned, even after shares plummeted 23% following their first earnings report: “Just because Yahoo has a search box doesn’t make it Google.” Either way, Zuckerberg is still at it, Instagram has added face filters. Google has enhanced its 'Personal' search option - whereby the engine returns items from a user's accounts only (rather than the whole internet). They are also tying search and viewing behaviour with credit card data in an effort to prove a link between what people do in the Alphabet ecosystem and physical purchases (in order to drive ad sales). Full details are a little murky. Pinterest is introducing (silent) auto-play sponsored pins on mobile. Interestingly, if someone swipes past an ad within a second of it playing, the advertiser has to pay, but if they watch with sound, they do not. This is part of Pinterest's strategy to encourage longer interaction with content, as opposed to the almost disposable nature of Snap and Instagram. Apple has become the first company to be worth $800bn. They will invest in physical retail and US manufacturing, with a $1bn fund. Small But Important

Following a rocky few weeks (Fyre Festival and Pepsi) Kendall Jenner is the new face of adidas. Given that Bella Hadid is fronting NIke's Cortez campaign it is 'Full house!', with Gigi at Reebok and Kylie at Puma. The saturation of celebrities can arguably be traced back to Under Armour's collaboration with Giselle, born from the theory that women responded to models more than athletes. The New York Times wonders how much longer this group can hang on for...

Campaign marketing perfection was achieved with Nike's 'Breaking2', a project that aimed to surpass the mythical 2-hour marathon. Alongside a great story and product, it invited consumers to participate by running on the day - those who logged a half-marathon via the Nike app were added into a draw to win the shoes ('premium friction' at its best). Even adidas congratulated the initiative.

L2 believes that retail ridicule can drive sales, as seen with Nordstrom's 'rock' and muddy jeans, as well as Topshop's plastic-kneed jeans.

"US sales of women’s plus-size apparel, including those for teens, rose 6% to $21.4 billion in 2016". More here.

If you won't join 'em, beat 'em. That seems to be the ethos of Coach and LVMH, with the former adding Kate Spade to its portfolio of US brands and the latter setting up a full eCommerce site selling only their products. Both are, arguably, attempting to reestablish the importance of 'brand'.

Uber might soon show local transport times at nearby stations on Android app - they could lose some to the local bus, more likely most will be put-off by the wait time and hail a cab. Their newest revenue stream is 'Uber Freight' (trucks).

Niche but nice, Matletik offers athleisure for pregnancy. Whereas Dankskin, the activewear brand, have joined with Nickelodeon to create a line for kids. More astonishingly, they have recruited 14 year-old influencer Jojo Siwa to inspire and promote the range.

JackThreads has officially closed...

Gildan Activewear lays out a vision for American Apparel including wholesaling and charging more for 'Made in the USA' items. (A manufacturing approach that this article explores.)

Nordstrom has launched Reese Witherpoon's line and have consciously coupled with Goop. Also, the hugely popular online rental service 'The Black Tux' will feature in 6 outlets.

Many claim that Trump has positively affected Twitter but now it seems that small fashion labels are benefitting too, with '#Resistance' lines.

Here are BoF's 10 top fashion start-ups. Keep an eye on 'Away', from ex-Warby Parker execs.

The new FitBit will play music and have built-in contactless payment. Will this really help them to break into new customer segments? Unlikely.  

US men's footwear sales are due to surpass women's, according Forbes. They claim a cultural shift with women buying 'all occasion' items and men ploughing through sneakers.

A&F - whose sales have largely been driven by Hollister - are reportedly a target for American Eagle Outfitters. Talking of Hollister, they have just created a YouTube documentary called 'AwesomenessTV' which looks like a Real World-Road Trip mash-up.

Forever 21 are rolling-out a beauty concept 'Riley Rose' into 13 locations.

This is a fascinating piece on the hidden cost of the decline in mall culture, namely the loss of sales tax income to states.

Walmart will bridge the pay gap for employees who take time off to serve in the military.

Gillette is taking-on Dollar Shave Club with a text on demand service. Also, the rise of BirchBox Man where "average order value ... for men’s products is 10% higher than women’s."

Target are offering next day delivery to its REDcard loyalty members.

'Flexe', essentially the Air BNB of warehouses, offers overnight delivery to almost anywhere on the mainland without retailers having to sign long-term leases, perfect for brands looking to test growth in new regions.

Fitz, a $300 service, will send a stylist to a customer's apartment whereupon they spend three-hours helping to sort their wardrobe and throw items away.  

Lululemon partnered with Vice's agency, Virtue, for their first ad.

Dove, whose campaigns are often championed faced backlash when they released a series of bottles that were meant to represent body types.

The agency, Mother New York, celebrated motherhood by creating a company called 'The Pregnancy Pause' on LinkedIn. It helps mothers avoid maternity leave 'gaps' in their online resume. Should a prospective employer click on the 'company' they find items such as skills that mothers develop whilst on leave.

And finally, Ben & Jerry's ice cream has banned the sale of two same-flavour scoops of ice cream in Australia until same-sex marriage is allowed. Pretty sweet!

[usainitiatives-blog]

WalM&Art. Bonobos is about to be snapped-up by Walmart for c.$300m. The brand, aimed at men who want to look good but with minimal effort, also offers a unique approach: go in-store, pick-out clothes; then they are delivered to your home. (More here.) It follows the purchases of Jet.com, ModCloth, the domain name / social media accounts of (now defunct) shoes.com, and the hiring of ex-Rent The Runway founder Jennifer Fleiss to head new project 'Code Eight'. They mean business. Next, Mike Ashley, the controversial owner of the UK's Sports Direct, has made a foray stateside buying Eastern Mountain Sports and Bob's Stores. Also, the relatively upscale condiment maker 'Sir Kensington' has been bought by Unilever for an undisclosed fee. This follows their rebuttal of Kraft Foods' merger proposal in February. No wonder retail M&A is at a 10-year high! Out On Its Own 

Amazon picked-up the rights to stream 10 American Football games (replacing Twitter). This follows Facebook Live's deal with MLS and YouTube TV getting MLB action. 'Cord cutting' has been a trend in recent years, yet sports has arguably been one of the last bastions; this is an interesting time for the networks. (Good podcast here.) 

You may remember this newsletter pointing-out the threat posed by Amazon within finance? 'Amazon Cash', allows people to go into a CVS store and give money to the cashier, which is then added to their Amazon account as a gift card. This is not banking per se, as money cannot be withdrawn, however it gives those without a bank account a way into Amazon's ecosystem. (Note also, Chinese retailer Alibaba's subsidiary 'Ant Financial' is set to buy US company MoneyGram.) 

Next, the brand is attempting to create a true influencer-affiliate model; whilst it might not garner interest from 'high end' personalities, it has been embraced by WhatsUpMoms, because the products they recommend typically feature on the site. Win-win. 

Scott Galloway's must-watch talk on how Amazon is taking-apart retail. 

Lastly, meet Echo Look which can take full-length photos and give styling advice via algorithm! 

Tech Talk YouTube TV is live - here's the skinny. Plus, YouTube has changed its partner program rules and will only allow those with 10k+ lifetime views to monetise their account - the move is designed to reward original content makers, rather than those who simply repost. Twitter locked horns with the government, which demanded to know the identity of a derogatory account allegedly run by someone in the Immigration department: the little bird claims the request violates the First Amendment right to free speech. Google is embracing fact-checking, kinda. It is adding tags to articles that will signpost authenticity. However the giant is passing the verification process onto third-parties, like PolitiFact. Soon icons will be added to search results to highlight platforms where a film or song can be streamed! Next, Autodraw's machine learning can guess what your mouse-guided scribbles were attempting to draw and make suggestions. Tumblr released 'Cabana', an app for 6 users to concurrently watch YouTube videos and live chat. AOL and Yahoo, once the heavyweights of tech, have been rebranded as 'Oath'. No one knows why. Instagram Direct now has 375m users and yet more Snapchat-esque features such as disappearing messages. Facebook Messenger is taking on Venmo with peer-to-peer group payments. Lastly, Facebook is planning an interface that lets people type with their brain. Small But Important 

A new retail threat is looming - the border adjusted tax. In an effort to balance potential corporation tax cuts President Trump's proposed measure would see a 20% levy on imported goods. Target, Gap, and Best Buy are so concerned that they have spent a combined $3.2m on lobbyists during the first quarter this year (versus $800k in Q1 2016). In 

Burger King's recent TV spot the narrator claimed that 15 seconds was not long enough to describe the Whopper, so instead asked: 'Google, what is the Whopper'; whereupon viewer's connected devices answered the question. It was not cleared by Google... 

Interestingly, their rival pulled a similar stunt in this ad. Riffing on the theory that Coca-Cola tastes better at McDonalds, Mindy Kaling implores people to search for 'that place where Coke tastes so good'. The burger joint's name is not mentioned precisely because they knew that Google results would do that for them. Is this the new guerilla marketing, where companies hijack other brand's tech to promote their wares? 

It was a bad month for PR: adidas sent runners a 'Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon' message; Bud Light's #UpForWhatever included the inexcusable line, 'The perfect beer for removing 'No' from your vocabulary for the night'; there was Pepsi's now infamous advert, which was pulled after 24 hours due to backlash; and sobering scenes on United Airlines. It was a surprise then to see Puma being taken to task for: 1. Using Kylie Jenner (rather than an athlete). 2. Her running style. Within the context neither seemed too bad. 

adidas's senior VP of global brand strategy talked to GQ about over-taking Nike. Punchy. However, given the success of Vapormax, could this be the beginning of the beginning of a swing back? 

Boohoo - the UK online retailer - saw full year US sales surge 140%. 

In an attempt to reduce last mile delivery costs Walmart is discounting 10,000 items - but customers must pick-up in-store. 

Nordstrom are selling $425 jeans covered in fake mud - 'rugged'. 

Outside magazine's female-only May cover features 10 icons. 

Under Armour's campaign takes aim at the old-fashioned notion that 'You're pretty' is the ultimate compliment for a women by repositioning it as a prefix, with terms like 'strong' and 'powerful' as a suffix. 

The Zappos 'Adaptive' range / site experience - for those with special needs, who find getting dressed a challenge - is admirable. 

J. Crew have parted company with their Executive Creative Director Jenna Lyons after 5 years. A downturn in sales - and quality - led to her demise. The vacant role will be not be filled. Rebekka Bay - once of Gap and Everlane - joins Uniqlo. 

3D knitting could be a way for brick and mortar stores to compete, especially with Gen X, who will grow-up with eCommerce and be less amazed by it. Machinery will be able to measure the body and then knit inventory on the spot. adidas is all in... (Although so are Amazon.) 

Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister will wholesale on Zalora (part of Rocket Internet), offering it access to 600m pan-Asian customers. 

This piece looks at the emotive language that brands use towards consumers. It believes that expressions like 'we love our customers' are beginning to feel disingenuous. With the rise of voice search and bots brands must consider tone of voice across touch points. 

Farfetch are talking about 'the offline cookie', whereby brands collect data about their customers in-store, as they do on websites. Snapchat is trying to offer similar targeting opportunities too. 

Lingerie is the next sector primed for disruption, according to this article. Yet Bloomberg thinks all is rosy for Victoria's Secret reputation. Andie Swim is the 'Warby Parker' of swimwear, apparently. 

British food chain 'Pret a Manger' is trailing a vegan NY pop-up to test consumer feedback - via #NotJustForVeggies. 

BoF chatted with Anna Wintour (two parts). 

98m users have watched 500m hours of Adam Sandler movies on Netflix. 

Zeitgeist symbiosis? K-Beauty + Pokemon = Pokemon make-up. 

Gap's CEO responded to a 5 year-old's complaints about the overly pink and flowery designs in the girls section: 'you are right ... I’ve talked with our designers and we’re going to work on even more fun stuff that I think you’ll like.' Nice. 

Reddit gave the internet a blank canvas on April Fool's Day and let them draw. 72 hours later and over a million people had taken part. Interestingly, because individuals could only add one pixel every five minutes, groups - known as sub-Reddits - came together to coordinate activity, such as drawing flags and combatting hate speech. 

And finally! Doritos have teamed-up with Guardians of the Galaxy 2 to create a limited run of chip packets that have a music player built-in featuring the full soundtrack. Tasty. 

[usainitiatives-blog]

February

Tech Talk Instagram's newest update allows people to upload multiple images in one post. Next, apparently men like Insta ads more than women. Tinder have partnered with Facebook's Audience Network to offer programmatic ads. (Cue keyword recognition and subsequent "New jeans for Friday night's date?" ads.) A bad month for Uber. The CEO, Travis Kalanick, left the President's economic advisory council after the campaign #DeleteUber gained momentum, then a video was leaked of him arguing with a driver. In response to Walmart lowering shipping prices, Amazon has reduced the free delivery threshold to $39 (from $45). Money transfer company Transferwise will let people send money internationally through Facebook's Messenger chatbot. Personal finance could become a new battleground, in this author's opinion. Facebook's pincer move against Snapchat continues, this time in the form of WhatsApp status updates, which is uncannily like the little ghost's 'Stories'. Snap officially filed for IPO. (More next month.) Talking of which, you can now buy their Spectacles online. Google have added (sub-$100) voice shopping to their Assistant device. YouTube is to drop its 30 second skippable ad format. Finally, 'YouTubeTV' signals an imminent entry into the cable market. This could actually be a good thing for the networks as people might pay for content that they know is quality, rather than risking getting it for free via a dodgy upload (= $0).  More Than A Game February ushered-in the annual high-profile Super Bowl adverts. The value of advertising continues to be questioned: this year it cost $5m, or $166,666 per second, just to appear. Although protagonists pointed to the 350,000 hours spent watching ads on YouTube. A full list can be found here (or a curated 'top' version here!). There were some hotly debated ones... Firstly, Audi's, featuring a father musing equality for his young daughter, which drew a mixed reaction, with many pointing to the lack of women on Audi's board, thereby rendering it 'hypocritical'. Next, Budweiser's, a tale about their founders meeting, following Busch's immigration from Germany was seen as a direct response to President Trump's executive order banning people from 7 countries from entering America. Sarah Palin tweeted that it was a "politically charged message". (FYI. Some companies did outwardly opposed the ban.) #BoycottBudweiser even surfaced on social media. The company denied any link.  Airbnb's '#WeAccept' was interpreted as an attack on the same travel ban; a rumour that it had been turned-around in a matter of days fuelled speculation.  The maverick move was from Lumber 84, a building materials distributor. They created a 6-minute piece about a mother and daughter trying to make it over the US border. Yet the true message felt vague. Not so, thought Fox, who apparently banned the original edit. The New York Post tried to establish a link between the subject matter and advertiser, citing (old) data about the construction industry being the second highest employer of illegal immigrants. Lumber 84 stated that it was an awareness and recruitment driver - they are opening stores out west this year. Either way, their servers were the biggest chokers of the evening - the rush of traffic crashed their website. 

In other news, the hashtag was relegated to the bench, featuring in only 30% of the 51 ads, down from 45% last year. 

Gatorade reprised their wildly successful water cooler Snapchat filter, earning 160m impressions (vs. the 115m people who watched the game).

Drones appeared during the half time show. They were pre-programmed by Intel to take the shape of the US flag and then Pepsi's logo. 

A final stat: there were 175.5 million Super Bowl interactions on Facebook, 62% of those were female and 42% were under the age of 35. 

Small But Important

Great work Nike, who released an incredible, inspiring ad featuring Arab female athletes. More stories here.

The much-loved Nokia 3310 is back! Full of ring tone and 'Snake' nostalgia. It will only cost $50. Yet some see the excitement around a retro handset as a damning indictment of smartphone innovation.

What next in beauty? Nail Tech. L'Oreal is leading the way. Also, the industry is looking to tap-into the lucrative athleisure market with 'fitfluencers', who give advice on how to apply work out make-up. (Oh, also, temperature-responsive colour-changing hair could be a thing.)

Reformation are looking to drive in-store activity: they continually monitor the top 30% best-sellers and only physically stock those items; the remaining inventory can be purchase via touch screens.  

Nordstrom dropped Ivanka Trump's line - her father was unhappy about it. Also, the retailer announced that its discounted 'Rack' proposition was offsetting a decline in footfall for its main line.

Abercrombie has launched a new store format in Ohio, as part of its refresh. Of note, the fitting rooms, where you can control the lights, music, and charge your phone!

This study believes that wearables do not help you get fitter or lose weight. (Darn it.)

UPS is actively testing drone delivery, to combat last mile delivery costs.

An unknown error downed sites on Amazon's servers, aka a huge part of the internet (revealing the scale of reliance on them).

'If you can't beat them, incubate them' appears to be the new mantra for agency M&A activity, where speed to market is all-important.

H&M and Google have teamed-up to produce an app that tracks your daily journeys and then maps them onto a dress, thereby offering a highly personalised design.

For their Oscars ads Walmart asked three famous directors to take a random shopping receipt and shoot a story about it. The results are here.

The NBA has teamed-up with Take-Two Interactive Software to create the 'NBA 2K eLeague'. They will invite people to try-out (from their homes) and then select 5 players to represent e-teams over an 82 game regular season and play-offs.

And finally, BBDO New York have launched 'Put Her On The Map', a campaign that aims to rename public places after influential women because, "Women make up 50% of the population, but most streets ... are named after men." They claim "this imbalance ... makes it harder for women to find inspiration and to see their own potential in the world around them." They want people to contact state governments to achieve gender equality literally on the streets. Timely, with International Women's Day, and equally fantastic!

#BBDO #Nike #International Womens Day #IWD #NBA #2k eLeague #Computer Games #Google #Amazon #UPS #Oscars #Super Bowl #Super Bowl LI #Lumber 84

[usainitiatives-blog]

January

Retail Frenzy 

Amongst American Apparel's demise and rumors that Boohoo are to buy Nasty Gal, The Limited announced that it would shutter its stores.

Brands and commentators are quick to blame eCommerce (Amazon in particular) for the industry's malaise, yet this article - which addresses the 'woes' facing retailers - inadvertently identifies the salient issue, many of these players are overwhelmed about where to focus their efforts. 

Patagonia will soon offer store credit in return for submitting old - but usable - unwanted items. The millennial appetite for sustainable clothing is not new, as Bloomberg reported and brands like Everlane and these were quick to recognize. (It dovetails with a wider demand for brand authenticity.)

Uniqlo will launch a line of modest wear, including the hijab, in Canada this February. 

This article believes that the beauty industry is doing more than any other to drive social change. To underpin the point, Maybelline have picked two male influencers / makeup artists - Shayla Mitchell and Manny Gutierrez - to be their ambassadors. Moreover, Sephora's inclusive #Neverstop campaign focuses on 5 women, one of whom is transgender.

Social Mobility Ford is to expand its ride-sharing 'Chariot' service to 8 new cities in 2017. It is designed to support areas that are poorly-served by existing bus or rail routes. Next, whilst Uber has resisted information-sharing with cities in the past they recently released 'Movements', a tool that aggregates data and lets anyone access information about inner city travel trends. It is based on historical data and is anonymous, yet it is interesting to consider whether it is a retrospective breach of data privacy; instead, should the company start collecting data, from this point forward (that it intends to share), having issued a new privacy update? Others, like Waze, also compile stats - ostensibly to help people go about their lives - but could this signal a new version of privatization? It is not unimaginable that cities will struggle under the weight of data-compilation, town planning, and public service delivery: could they look to collaborate with companies, supplying the demand (people) but passing fulfillment to a partner like Google or Ford who can change routes based on customer demand - that their stats reveal - unlike rigid railroads).  Small But Important

This Nielsen report gives a number of fascinating trends, not least that Generation X spends more time on social media than any other. 

L'Oreal have launched a connected brush that assesses your hair as you maintain it (such as brushing too hard). Interestingly, it features in this article about the worst connected devices at CES!

On a related note, JWT explore the role of phones in 'selfie healthcare', where facial recognition identifies symptoms. (See here for a real life version a few years back.)

Similarly, Accenture has found that one in 3 people would move their banking to Google, Amazon, or Facebook if they offered it. The primary reason is 'Robo-banking', which has less human interaction. This piece believes that fintech will continue to change banking, especially for consumers who struggle with the traditional model, like immigrants and those in rural areas. 

Under Armour have designed a sleepwear range (with Tom Brady) which aims to enhance recovery whilst analyzing your sleep, making recommendations about how to improve it.49.2% of all online purchases on the Monday before Christmas were made on Amazon. See here. 

More Amazon love, this time for Alexa, which this piece believes is still the best voice offering around. (Lots of great examples in there.)

Quartz claims that sports has outgrown any other retail category for the third year in a row. 

Founder and CEO of Trunk Club, Brian Spaly, has left the company three years after selling it to Nordstrom. It will be now be led by Nordstrom Rack's Terry Boyle. 

The bag maker Herschel will introduce men's and women's apparel. 

Target will soon launch 'Art Class' a range aimed at the 86m teens and tweens of Generation Z. It has been co-designed by 14 year-olds like Mercer Henderson (click here to feel like an under-achiever), and looks to tap into a $600bn sector.

The second wave of sCommerce has seemingly died as consumers fail to be enamored by the 'buy button', largely because the process is clunky. 

Nike, Reebok, and adidas have each issued intriguing adverts. Nike are trying to move away from its 'performance first' stance, whereas Reebok is rooting itself entirely in that heartland (despite having a link to street through 'Classic'). adidas continues to innovate, playing on its 'Originals' name to promote a series of cultural game changers. The link back to 'heritage' is created via the choice of music, 'My Way' by Frank Sinatra. 

Wal-Mart have discontinued their 'Prime' style service, claiming that 2 days is what people expect, so they should not charge them.

This video might be quite low-grade but it outlines Intel's vision for the future of in-store retail - such as knitting sweaters on-site in a printer-like fashion. Neat. 

On the flip side, Google and BMW are investing in virtual reality shopping with VR showrooms. 

Snapchat has had another redesign. FYI. 

Facebook are trying to tackle fake news, including adding a self-regulation 'Flag' option.

This is a great: Google's Android app saves searches that you make whilst offline and runs them as soon as you get service.

McDonald's have created an app, which, once downloaded, helps viewers find limited edition bottles of Big Mac sauce. They are given away on a first-come-first-serve basis, as long as you utter the words 'There's a Big Mac for that' (to the server).

If you liked the animator who upgraded his son's everyday adventures then you might enjoy this father's effort - he used a tiny camera to create a virtual reality walk-through of his daughter's doll's house for her. It's the little things...

#NIke #adidas #Quartz #Wal-Mart #Target #Snapchat #Ford #Google #USA #Blessed #Campaigns #Social Media #Social #Long form #Commentary #Retail #US Retail #Landscape #Prose #Big Mac #McDonalds #Virtual Reality #VR #Facebook #Gmall #Intel #Windows #New York #Android #BMW

[usainitiatives-blog]

December

Back and Forth

Here are the best ads from 2016! It is hard to argue with 1 & 3: 'Evan' packs a punch… Forbes largely agrees, with some notable additions.

This Facebook video, courtesy of WeAreSocial, is quite clever.

A recap of 2016's major trends. This piece echoes the sentiment seen across most outlets that it was Snap's year. This Guardian article claims that 2016 was when Facebook became the bad guy…

Looking into the new year, SocialTimes outlines how Spectacles will affect influencer marketing; a return to unboxing…

The Washington Post has made some predications around what will sell in 2017. Amongst food and toys they have a piece on fashion – 80s silhouettes and 'Athluxury' apparently.

The Minnesota Wild NHL team have started using Spectacles, offering fans direct access to the locker room and dugout.

8 tech trends that retailers need to embrace for 2017. Two cents? Voice has been hugely undervalued – except by Amazon. (Talking of which, food services are there already, e.g. ordering Pizza Hut via Alexa.)

Lastly, in case you missed it, Sparks & Honey, JWT, and Ogilvy all created trend reports for 2017 – find them here!

Tech Corner Amazon opened their first grocery store, 'Amazon Go', in Seattle and it is cashless. Proprietary software detects when items have been taken from the shelves and then applies the amount to your Amazon account when you walk out. (Interestingly, Rebecca Minkoff is trialling something similar.) Next, 30.9% of all spending over Cyber weekend was on Amazon. Best Buy was in second place with 7.4%.

Snapchat has added a group chat function for up to 16 people (at last!). The Minnesota Wild NHL team have started using Spectacles, offering fans direct access to the locker room and dugout. Google has launched a 'Trusted Contacts' app, that allows your nearest and dearest to check your phone's status, i.e. are you using it, or has it run out of batteries. It might make it hard to avoid your Mother's calls… Next, emoji search: if you tweet, say, a taco icon to @Google they will return food options in your location!

Instagram has introduced 'Save it for later', letting viewers save images to a private folder. This is seen as a direct challenge to Pinterest. VR. Everything you need to knowabout Oculus Touch (but were too afraid to ask). Google used VR to let customers tour the world-famous NYC Holiday window displays. Starbucks is accepting Bitcoin payments through its app. Could this be the break that the digital currency has been waiting for? Small But Important 

Wunderman have produced a video report that unveils a new concept 'Wantedness'. It believes that companies must now prove that they really want a customer's business. There are a number of themes, not least personalization and space. 

Revolve introduced both a grooming and beauty shop. As with core lines it is a branded play, of which there is a decent variety. Also, they have now started offering free 2 day shipping as standard. 

Amazon continues its push into fashion, issuing new brands (e.g. 'Buttoned Down'). Speculation also that they will buy American Apparel. Next target? Private label food via 'Wickedly Prime'. 

We have seen an attack on Instagram stylists and now it appears that make-up artists are hitting back at their online counterparts. 

In 2017 74% of major US companies will use Instagram, overtaking the 61% who Tweet. (Other stats included.) 

The bane of parents everywhere, here are details about the very modern multi-channel product launch that generated the success of 'Hatchimals'. 

Sweetgreen is going fully cashless in all 60-odd stores in 2017. 

Aerie sent an interesting Christmas email inviting recipients to ditch their phones and have a 'digital detox'. No shopping! A far cry from Gap's '51% off' your order. 

adidas have launched a shoe with a mid-sole that is 3D printed. They can be bought for $333! This, hot on the heels of their new 5th Avenue 'Brand Flagship'. You can read more about it here. (Ahem.) 

To coincide with their own store opening in Soho, Nike have launched a series about 'cities' - the US one is NYC (here) and celebrates athletes affiliated with the city, cultural hubs, and exercise options. 

Under Armour will produce MLB uniforms from next season onwards, replacing Majestic. It follows base layer and cleat deals. 

This incredible list outlines those companies who have already committed to Superbowl LI - a 30 second slot costs $5m... 

Also, a leaked document shows that Snapchat are charging similar sums, following Gatorade's success last year. 

Rag & Bone will work with Google to produce a 'behind the scenes' NY Fashion Week VR experience. 

Chance the Rapper made history when his album 'Coloring Book' became the first stream-only album to be nominated for a Grammy. 

Nintendo brought Mario to the iPhone. 'Super Mario Run' is a glorious return to their NES gameplay style. 

Tinder have created a TV app. Yup. 

In an amusing move, Ikea renamed products after commonly Googled relationship issues. For example, their 'Hemnes' 1-person daybed was renamed 'My partner snores'. Check them out at the bottom of each page. 

#Tinder #Dating #Online #Nike #adidas #Under Armour #MLB #Ikea #2016 #2017 #Adverts #Ninetendo #Mario #Super Mario #Superbowl #Superbowl LI #NFL #Football #Gatorade #Snap #Snapchat #Amazon #Facebook #Twitter #Sweetgreen #Chance The Rapper #Rap #Grammys #Target #Instagram