Need to Know
15 : 01 : 19

New York – Online wedding planning company Zola has opened a seasonal retail space where consumers can organise their entire wedding in less than an hour.

The Zola store translates the company’s many digital planning services into a retail destination, targeting Millennial couples with a casual, convenient and efficient experience. Located in the city’s Flatiron district, Zola’s on-site planners help visitors to design free wedding websites, create playlists for their big day in a listening booth, and register for more than 2,000 gifts. As an added quirk, the store features a CBD lounge where stressed couples can take a break.

With its casual, one-stop shop aesthetic, the pop-up aims to capture couples before the summer wedding season and demonstrates a new retail format in the wedding industry. Discover the brands creating wedding products and services that break with tradition in our Non-conformist Weddings microtrend.

Las Vegas – Presented at CES 2019, beauty start-up Opté has created Precision Wand, a device that help users achieve natural-looking skin coverage.

The device’s in-built digital camera detects signs of skin discolouration and hyper-pigmentation, which are analysed by artificial intelligence (AI) to determine the size, shape and intensity of the problem area. Using a form of skin printing, the wand then administers Opté’s Precision Serum, which combines mineral pigments, spot-lightening skincare ingredients and moisturisers to keep skin hydrated.

A result of incubator programme P&G Ventures, Opté allows women to target problem areas with a high degree of accuracy rather than having to use brushes or sponges for broad-stroke, unnatural looking coverage. ‘By working with leading scientists and experts across industries, we have been able to create a first-of-its-kind, digitally advanced skincare device that is visibly transforming the look of skin,’ says Leigh Radford, vice-president and general manager of P&G Ventures.

As explored in our macrotrend Algorithmic Beauty, technology is driving a new beauty narrative that addresses beauty in objective rather than subjective terms.

US – The campaign promotes the rebranding of BMW’s pre-owned car programme, based on the tagline ‘Like New Again’.

To promote the newly rebranded BMW Certified service, the brand worked with creative agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners on a campaign that playfully recycles its old advertisements. The videos, originally used to advertise new vehicles, date back to 2013 in line with the oldest model of car that BMW Certified customers can buy.

Each ad features a voiceover by actor Chris Pine, who sarcastically comments on how outdated the adverts appear. As part of the wider campaign, BMW is also rolling out recycled radio ads, billboards and digital banners.

As eco-conscious consumers turn to second-hand and recycled goods, there is an opportunity for luxury brands to promote pre-owned products as part of sustainable modern living, something BMW is championing in a playful, accessible way.

Americans are not having enough babies to keep the population stable, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the total fertility rate needs to be 2,100 births per 1,000 women for the population to reproduce itself at current numbers, the rate is just 1,765.5 per 1,000 women.

In 2017, just two states in the US met the standard for the number of births – Utah and South Dakota. Experts say that the decline isn’t due to a single cause, but a combination of factors such as greater availability of contraception, a decline in teen pregnancies and delays in childbirth.

Birth disparities between continents are creating a significant population imbalance. With births in India and Africa rising at an exponential rate, in the west, where fertility rates are falling, a child-free lifestyle has been dubbed the new vegan.