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Wagamama makes 50% of its menu vegan

Vegamama by Wagamama, UK

UK – British restaurant Wagamama is the first high-street chain in the UK to give plant-based offerings an equal share on its menu. The restaurant is promoting its 50% plant-based menu with an ad featuring a Godzilla-style monster urging customers to eat more plants to help save the planet.

Taking inspiration from the kaiju genre, a category of Japanese film that features large monsters, London-based creative studio Uncommon has dreamed up giant creature Vegamama to spotlight new plant-based options on the menu. In the humorous ad, a dinosaur-like monster is seen destroying a city until it's stopped by a Wagamama diner espousing the environmental benefits of adopting a plant-based diet.

By committing so heavily to plant-based options, Wagamama is catering to the growing group of Flexitarians who are eating less meat to help combat climate change, without eliminating it from their diet entirely. ‘Turns out, profound change is possible, but it starts with choices – big and small, to live more sustainably,’ explains Uncommon.

Strategic opportunity

As well as using labels such as 'vegan' and 'vegetarian' to appeal to plant-based diners, consider the growing group of Flexitarians who don't adhere to a strict diet, but are trying to lessen their meat and dairy intake

Etsy uses AR in immersive virtual show home

The Etsy House

Global – The online marketplace is enticing shoppers through an interactive augmented reality (AR) show home. Called The Etsy House, the digital experience allows audiences to virtually walk through the space and shop from products available on the platform. Featuring photorealistic and true-to-scale renderings – by creative visualisation studio The Boundary – the project elevates Etsy’s existing e-commerce offering.

Filled with Christmas décor and gifts, the project’s seasonal approach indicates potential for future iterations informed by key calendar events or popular craft designers. ‘The Etsy House transports shoppers to a one-of-a-kind virtual home filled with holiday décor and gifts, Etsy Design Awards winners (both past and present), bespoke furniture and artwork, and other fun surprises,’ explains the brand in a blog post. ‘When you hover over select items, a pop-up will provide more information on the product and a link to purchase.’

Such initiatives reflect ongoing e-commerce opportunities informed by Programmable Realities, as brands find imaginative ways to interact with consumers through intangible mediums.

Strategic opportunity

Online marketplaces and social media platforms can take inspiration from Etsy and stimulate intrigue by creating rapidly changing virtual spaces for customers to shop in a more immersive way

Technology allows home-owners to generate electricity by walking

Switzerland – A scientific breakthrough by the Wood Materials Science Laboratory and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology could allow people to power their homes by simply walking on floors. The ground-breaking innovation uses wood, one of the world’s most abundant and renewable materials, to harvest electricity for use in future buildings.

In a similar way that rubbing a balloon on your hair creates a static charge, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) produce energy by transferring electrons from one material to another. Although TENGs have already been used in wearable fabrics and flooring to help create thermal insulation, this development marks the first time that scientists have been able to power the process using a sustainable material like wood.

By installing flooring that uses TENGs, home-owners can produce energy and electricity by walking on the ground, providing an efficient, winter-friendly alternative to solar panels. As home-owners look to pandemic-proof their properties, mechanical energy harvesting could play a key role in the design of more resilient interiors.

Indoor Energy. Campaign by Part1 studio

Strategic opportunity

The pandemic has led consumers to invest more security systems that counteract our unstable world. Now is the time for companies to create products that make the domestic space more self-sufficient and sustainable

Stat: Tattoo removal is on the rise in the US

Ephemeral Tattoo

In the US, long-term commitment is waning, as more people look to removing their tattoos. Research from Spate shows an increase in searches on this topic, as well as greater demand for niche tattoo-related products.

According to the study, searches for tattoo removal have risen by 18.6% since last year. Overall, searches for tattoos are down 2.1% in the US, compared to 2020. Meanwhile, searches for tattoo numbing cream have risen by 88.7% since last year – suggesting that such products may be in demand because of growing interest in removing tattoos. The findings indicate lucrative opportunities for skincare brands to provide post-tattoo removal care.

This shift towards tattoo removal also presents an opportunity for innovation in the temporary tattoo market. For more on the movement for convenient and commitment-free aesthetic products, discover our new microtrend Momentary Make-up.

Strategic opportunity

The beauty industry should strive to create appealing alternatives to the permanency of tattoos, considering ideas such as stick-on designs on dissolvable ink