LSN : News : Need to know 10 : 08 : 17

1. Adidas campaign targets the children’s market

Adidas Kids 360 by Chris Labrooy and Sven Hauth

US – The sportswear brand has launched a new animated advertising campaign that taps into the lucrative childrenswear market. Commissioned by U-Dox London, the motion sequence animation is a collaboration between Chris LaBrooy and Sven Hauth designed to promote the brand’s Kids 360 range.

To appeal to a younger audience, the playful video features bright colours and cartoonish imagery, including a snapping crocodile that induces dazed birds and stars above the shoe as it passes along the conveyor belt. As we saw with the launch of Hypekids, Hypebeast’s new vertical targeted at children, as Millennials start having families they are increasingly looking to the brands that they know and love to cater for them as parents too.

2. Alibaba launches Luxury Pavilion online platform

Burberry spring/summer 2017

China – The e-commerce brand has announced its new platform, Luxury Pavilion, available through its primary brand-to-consumer site, Tmall. In a bid to appeal to high-net-worth Chinese consumers’ desire for exclusivity, the platform will be invitation-only and will feature a curated list of brands including Burberry, Hugo Boss and Zenith.

The platform offers brands the opportunity to tailor their offers to the individual in a way that would usually only be possible in-store, creating personalised homepages and VIP rewards.

Alibaba has already moved into the luxury sector through investment in bricks-and-mortar stores such as Yintai Group, but this marks a significant step in moving established luxury brands into the digital space. For more on how luxury brands need to diversify their offers in the digital age, download our free The Future of Service Report 2017.

3. The Standard hotel connects guests to US Congress

Ring Your Rep at The Standard High Line, New York

New York – Standard International Management has installed a public telephone booth with a direct line to the US Capitol switchboard at The Standard High Line hotel in the city’s Meatpacking District. The free Ring Your Rep hotline enables guests and passers-by to contact congressional staff members to voice their position on important issues.

Callers are provided with an instruction booklet and a script to use as a prompt. The project has been rolled out across the brand’s New York, Miami and Los Angeles locations, where guests can call the switchboard from the comfort of their hotel room.

‘We want to encourage our guests, our staff and members of the public to make their voices heard on the issues that matter to them,’ the brand said in a statement. For more on the rise of Brandstanding as a political tool, read our Backlash Brands macrotrend.

4. Lonely Planet launches new social travel app

Trips by Lonely Planet

Global – The travel brand is moving into social media with the creation of Trips, a new platform that hosts user-generated content. Subscribers can upload images and videos from their travels, adding text if they wish, and publish them for anyone to see. Trips offers people a place to seek inspiration and to share their holiday snaps without flooding their friends’ Instagram feeds.

According to a recent Skift report, 63% of people in the US turn to social media before booking a holiday. As an established travel brand with an engaged audience, Lonely Planet is looking to extend its influence by expanding into social channels. For more, see our Travel Technology Europe and Business Travel Show Review 2016.

5. Airbnb can prevent local house price increases

Airbnb is driving up the cost of urban living and pricing local people out of areas that have proved popular as holiday destinations, according to a new study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of California (UCLA) and University of Southern California (USC). If the brand were to change its business model to exclude from its platform all listings that are not owner-occupied, this impact on local house prices could fall to zero. For more on how sharing economy brands need to rethink their business model to become more civically and community minded, see our Civic Brands macrotrend.

6. Thought-starter: The key trends among China’s youth

In the second instalment of LS:N Global’s new series on Emerging Youth we explore how Chinese youth culture will shape global attitudes to fashion, advertising and gaming.

The idea of a Chinese Dream is on the rise as the American Dream fades. Consequently, brands need to refocus their research and development on a new type of consumer who will shape and reframe the aspirations of those across the globe, whether that is in the advertising, fashion or gaming spheres.

A sense of home-grown pride is fuelling a Chinese youth quake. ‘Everyday trend-setters are trading in their iPhones for Huawei or Xiaomi phones, consciously supporting Chinese brands and businesses like never before,’ Allyson Toy, artist marketing manager at Red Bull, tells Banana magazine.

In tandem, Chinese youth do not tolerate brands that stereotype their culture. Dolce & Gabbana (D&G), Victoria’s Secret and Airbnb have all learned this the hard way. Each brand was forced to withdraw campaigns that attempted to sell pastiche versions of China to the Chinese.

To find out more about the key youth culture trends in China, see our market piece here.