Need to Know
04 : 01 : 18

France – Luxury jewellery brand Van Cleef & Arpels has enlisted digital designer Santi Zoraidez to create its latest campaign in which the brand’s rings float through a surrealist landscape of bubbles, suspended mirrors and pendulum swings. ‘The golden beads of the Perlée collection are an invitation to play and I wanted my creations to add a pinch of magic and fantasy to these sophisticated pieces,’ explains Zoraidez.

The heritage brand, which was founded in 1896, is diverging from clichéd visual codes around luxury advertising and, in line with our Virtual Baroque microtrend, is instead offering a new digitalised luxury aesthetic that appeals to a younger demographic.

UK – Entrepreneur and influencer Poppy Jamie is launching a new smartphone app, Happy Not Perfect, which aims to help Generation Z deal with everyday anxieties. Unlike the abundance of stress-relief apps currently on the market, which employ techniques like mindfulness to help combat anxiety, Jamie has developed the app in conjunction with psychologists, neuroscientists and breathing specialists who use scientifically-backed cognitive behavioural therapy principles.

‘In the same way we care for our bodies by exercising, our mind also needs to be looked after. Instead of waiting to hit rock bottom, what can we be doing regularly to help us have a more balanced emotional and mental wellbeing?’ explains Jamie on the app’s website. As explained in our Mental Health Market, with cases of anxiety and depression on the rise, brands are stepping into this space to help increase access to therapeutic treatment that has traditionally been largely unaffordable.

New York – Founded by a team of former L’Oréal and Phyto haircare specialists, Prose is a new haircare brand that allows customers to co-create their own hair products to meet their scalp needs and haircare goals.

Offering bespoke shampoos, conditioners and hair masks, which are freshly made to order, Prose customers can either visit one of the brand's recommended salons for an in-person hair diagnosis or complete an online questionnaire assisted by one of the brand's own professionals.

‘We’re reinventing the way that stylists retail products by enabling them to co-create the unique hair care solutions that their clients need,’ says Arnaud Plas, co-founder and CEO of Prose. Discover more of the most forward-thinking ideas within the haircare sector in our Beauty Futures Report 2017.

As explored in our Loyalty Market, as consumer choice improves there has been a widespread decline in loyalty as people choose to shop around rather than remaining faithful to a particular brand. While the number of consumers signing up to these rewards programmes is on the rise, the challenge for brands is in maintaining engagement beyond the initial subscription, something that forward-thinking brands are addressing with more personalised iterations of the traditional loyalty scheme.