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Zola targets Millennials with one-stop wedding shop

Zola pop-up store, New York

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.

CES 2019: Opté’s printable serum offers precision coverage

Opté Precision Skincare System by Procter & Gamble

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.

Lush opens a plastic-free cosmetics store

Manchester – The cosmetics retailer’s Naked store will only sell products without plastic packaging, making it the first cosmetics label to do so in the UK.

At its renovated 10 Market Street shop, Lush is exploring a range of new product concepts and plastic-free packaging alternatives. These include solid shampoo and conditioner bars, deodorant bars, and bath soaks and toothpaste without wrappings or bottles, building on its recent colour cosmetic launches such as its packaging-free vegan foundations.

The brand is also promoting its Lush Labs app as an alternative to packaging, enabling shoppers to scan unpackaged products directly with their smartphones for information about ingredients, use and pricing.

As well as providing a new shopping experience for consumers, the Naked concept responds to growing environmental concerns about single-use plastics. For more, find out how brands are implicated in the problematic relationship between plastic and pre-packaged products.

Naked Skincare by Lush

BMW recycles old ads to promote pre-owned cars

Like New Again, BMW Certified, by Goodby Silverstein & Partners

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.

Stat: Fewer births are creating an unstable American population

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.

Thought-starter: Have we overdosed on CBD?

Creative researcher Jessica Smith asks whether this cannabis compound is a new miracle elixir or whether its global hype means we’ve already hit peak CBD?

If 2018 was the year that CBD seeped into everything, 2019 will be the year we’re over it. From CBD lattes, brownies and beauty oils to ice cream, cocktails and dog treats, the non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis plants is popping up everywhere.

A year ago, CBD was a little-known substance. Now, it’s as if consumers have suddenly discovered birth control or penicillin. Casting its calming, pain-reducing powers into every sector, it has gone from being the reserve of 20something stoners to a mainstream panacea.

With anxiety arguably the defining sociological condition of today, you can see why consumers are charmed by the plant’s mellowing promises. That, paired with consumers’ growing desire to take healthcare into their own hands, is already fuelling a billion-dollar industry.

But one question remains: is CBD a 21st-century cure-all or useless snake oil?

Read the full opinion piece here.