Need to Know
22 : 01 : 19

Detroit – The American lifestyle brand has opened the first Shinola Hotel in the city’s downtown shopping district, combining elements of hospitality and retail on a grand scale.

The hotel, which is spread across two restored buildings and three new annexes, taps into local history to reflect the brand’s heritage. Conceived as a ‘living room’ for the city, its 129 guest rooms and 16,000 square feet of retail, dining and bar space have been created with both Detroiters and visitors in mind. The joint venture between Shinola and real estate firm Bedrock aspires to be a new hub for Detroit, which has been hailed as the Comeback City.

In addition to outfitting the hotel with custom Shinola products, including blankets, candles and wall clocks imitating the brand’s signature watches, its on-site retail space brings together both global and Detroit-based brands, including Le Labo and Good Neighbor. As we explore in our microtrend Furniture as a Service and In-Situ Showrooms, the retail sector is increasingly looking to hospitality as a new brand touchpoint.

San Francisco – The new app combines screensharing and video chat so that friends can turn solitary screen time into shared social experiences.

Launched in January 2019, Squad is the first iOS app that lets up to six users broadcast their screens with each other simultaneously. In this way, the app responds to the way younger consumers use platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube while side-by-side with friends, but the company says Squad’s mission is also to reduce loneliness by making social media truly social.

Users engaged with the app are able to socialise, while simultaneously using other social media platforms and dating apps, with the ability to show each other messages and photos, coordinate travel and food orders, as well as play games, watch videos and listen to music. To date, the company reports about 70% of the app’s users are teen girls aged 13-17 years, who are primarily screensharing while using Instagram. For more on the shifting use cases for social media, explore our listicle on the ways Generation Z are transforming Instagram.

UK – As part of a nationwide campaign to promote better sleep habits, Ikea has partnered with Dr Guy Meadows, the co-founder of The Sleep School.

The campaign encourages consumers to place as much value on their sleep routines as their waking hours. Finding that 63% of people feel unhappy with the amount of sleep they get, the partnership with Dr Meadows will include training for its workers on the science of sleep, which will enable them to better help customers in store. It will also offer insight direct to consumers with the Ikea Sleep Hub, a new online resource.

To promote the initiative, Ikea teamed with creative agency Mother to reimagine sleep as an event to be celebrated akin to a group night out. In the video, a group of friends arrive at a nightclub in their pyjamas, a fast food truck dishes out cereal and the dancefloor is filled with Ikea beds.

As the commodification of sleep continues, the market for sleep technology is also booming. Read our interview with sleep doctor Meeta Singh to discover how bedtime routines will evolve in the future.

As consumers become more aware of food safety, the market for food safety testing is projected to see huge growth, according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. The market, which includes testing for pathogens, pesticides, GMOs and allergens, is expected to grow from $17bn (£13.2bn, €15bn) in 2018 to $24.6bn (£19.1bn, €21.6bn) by 2023.

This growth has been attributed to the rising demand for convenience and packaged food products and an increase in outbreaks of contamination in the food industry. With more people aware of foodborne illnesses, triggered by high-profile events such as 2018's E. coli outbreak, brands are creating intelligent food storage systems that allow them to safely track the edibility of food while reducing waste.