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Spotify’s new video loops bring classic albums to life

Canvas Records by Spotify

Austin – At the world’s first audio-visual listening bar, Spotify has unveiled a new way of interacting with music.

Canvas is a new format by the Swedish streaming giant that allows artists to upload 8-second looping visuals that play with every track, allowing listeners to communicate with music in new ways. The campaign, Your Art Has the Power to Move, was celebrated with the opening of the world’s first audio-visual listening bar, which took place during music festival Austin City Limits.

At the Canvas Records listening bar, visitors could browse hundreds of custom-created frames replicating classic vinyl record sleeves, which displayed dynamic video art by musicians such as Billie Eilish, Bon Iver and John Mayer. ‘The second we imagined how amazing it would be to walk into a record store where every single album cover was alive, we knew we had to figure out a way to make it a reality,’ says Spencer LaVallee and Evan Schultz, creative directors at FIG, the agency behind the activation.

As social media becomes a central part of our listening habits, visual content has the potential to transform the two-dimensional streaming experience.

Facebook introduces new company branding

Facebook branding

Global – The social media company has designed new branding to distinguish the Facebook company from the Facebook app.

The company branding is designed to represent the diversity of Facebook’s suite of products and services, which include Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. To create a visual distinction between the company and app, the branding uses customised typography and capitalisation. Over the coming weeks, it will be rolled out across Facebook products and marketing materials, as well as a new company website.

A recent survey from Pew Research Center found that just 29% of US respondents know that Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp. In response, the company began including ‘from Facebook’ in all of its apps in June. Now, the change of branding is a way to further communicate its ownership structure to those who use its services, says Facebook.

As such, Facebook is recognising the need for greater transparency in the technology sector – something we explore in our Morality Recoded macrotrend.

Web Summit 2019: Cocoon is using data to elevate skincare innovation

Lisbon – This new beauty insights platform hopes to better connect consumers with brands and the wider skincare community, while driving product innovation based on individuals’ skincare experiences.

New York-based Cocoon has a dual purpose. Its B2C app lets consumers share their experience of skincare brands, as well as daily changes to their skin. In return, they are given instant, personal product recommendations and democratised access to information around efficacy and cross-category product usage to help them improve their skin and routines.

In addition, Cocoon operates a B2B platform, amalgamating its users’ data to provide brands with audience, competitor and category insights. Tapping into this insight, it hopes to help skincare and beauty R&D teams transform product offers, from ingredients and scents to hyper-local skincare issues, packaging and branding.

In the age of Algorithmic Beauty, Cocoon is demonstrating how community and trust can be built through customer experience and access to cross-brand information, while providing real-time insights to drive innovation.

Cocoon

Stat: Recycled fashion items are booming online

Sustainable buzzwords are surging on e-commerce sites, according to Edited’s Sustainability Edit 2019 report.

The study found that the number of fashion items on sale online in the UK and the US with the description ‘sustainable’ increased by 125% since 2017. While the term ‘sustainable’ is increasingly considered a buzzword, as it is unregulated and freely misused, online retailers are also using the term ‘recycled products’, which has increased by 173% online.

In addition, brands are capitalising on the plant-based qualities of their products, with a 70% rise in products labelled ‘vegan’. ‘Retail products described using these key buzzwords have seen a marked increase as retailers and brands take it upon themselves to educate consumers about their sustainable options,’ says the report.

As Daniel Freitag argues, the sustainability discussion in the fashion industry can be highly flawed as well as too moralistic. For more, read our recent Q&A.