LSN : News : Need to know 18 : 08 : 17

1. Acne Studios celebrates the modern family

Kordale N Kaleb for Acne Studios

Sweden – The latest marketing campaign from luxury fashion house Acne Studios marks a shift in branding from playful imagery featuring Millennial models to a more family-focused approach. The brand has collaborated with Instagram influencers and real-life couple Kaleb Anthony and Kordale Lewis on a photography series featuring the couple and their four children.

As explored in our Neutral Culture macrotrend, Anthony and Lewis featured in Nikon’s 2015 campaign I Am Generation, which was designed to encourage consumers to rethink their idea of ‘normal’. The Acne Studios campaign builds on this idea by acknowledging that the term ‘nuclear family’ encompasses a range of family units and parenting styles. ‘I wanted to portray households of today in all constellations,’ says Jonny Johansson, creative director of Acne Studios.

2. Johnnie Walker ad focuses on female drinkers

The next step is inside you by CP+B for Johnnie Walker, Brazil

Brazil – The brand’s new campaign, which celebrates female drinkers who do not conform to stereotypes, is designed to speak candidly to a Millennial audience.

The tv spot by Crispin Porter + Bogusky Brasil depicts a series of young people travelling through a desert-like landscape in solo carriages before focusing on a woman who is visibly anxious. She enters a trance-like state and breaks out of her carriage as the tagline ‘The Next Step is You’ fades into view.

The video taps into research conducted by the brand, which shows that Millennials feel increasingly overburdened by excessive choice in their daily interactions.

As LS:N Global explored in our Female Whisky Drinkers market report, which highlighted the brand’s adoption of a more gender-neutral aesthetic, whisky brands are moving to champion both male and female whisky drinkers.

3. LinkedIn launches mentorship programme

Global – Driven by the rise of remote working, the free online programme is designed to foster the next generation of workers. It aims to connect employees working at the same company, enabling them to seamlessly impart and receive career advice.

‘As people spend less and less time at a company, it’s hard to find the people that you need to talk to,’ says Hari Srinivasan, director of product management at LinkedIn.

According to internal research, 89% of senior leaders on LinkedIn are interested in mentoring a more junior colleague, while exploring career options is one of the top issues that those seeking advice want to discuss with a mentor. For more on the changing face of the workplace, download our free Workplace Summit Report.

LinkedIn mentorship feature

4. Audioburst search tool makes voice assistants smarter

Listening Identity by Audioburst Search, US

Tel Aviv – Start-up Audioburst aims to revolutionise the way people listen to podcasts by creating a search engine that indexes podcast and radio content. The idea is to make it easier for listeners to locate content that may otherwise be lost in cyberspace by inputting a specific search term.

The brand assigns each subscriber a Listening Identity, which features his or her personal information alongside topics of interest, such as local and national news, and their most listened to sources. The service can be integrated into voice assistants such as Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant, allowing these devices to broadcast audio content that is personalised to the individual’s taste. Read more on the Future of Voice Assistants here.

5. Price transparency is killing the discounted grocery model

Growing pressure on UK retailers led by organisations including the Office for Fair Trading to offer more transparent pricing is driving a decline in the number of discounted grocery lines. Multinational supermarket chains are increasingly focusing on keeping their prices low across their product range rather than applying discounts to products to ensure they can compete with discount supermarket chains such as Lidl and Aldi. Download our Food and Drink Futures Report 2016 to find out more.

6. Thought-starter: Should e-sports adopt new formats?

As e-sports continue to gain in popularity among Generation Z and Millennial consumers, Steen Laursen, vice-president of communications and brand at RFRSH Entertainment, asks whether brands need to focus more on live events.

For the over-35s, sports such as football and basketball are still favourites, but increasingly digitally native Generation Z are foregoing these traditionally popular games in favour of e-sports.

Perhaps surprisingly – or unsurprisingly, depending on your demographic – the sector is already rapidly closing in on NBA Basketball fan figures, and those of other traditional sports, demonstrating the lucrative potential of this sector.

The time-intensive nature of the tournaments, however, is preventing e-sports from reaching a wider mainstream market. In order for it to evolve to the next level, brands need to consider how they can appeal to time-poor, family-orientated consumers.

Read the whole opinion piece on the future of the lucrative e-sports market here.