Need to Know
30 : 08 : 22

Singapore – Consumer electronics giant Samsung has partnered with advertising agency BBH Singapore for a campaign allowing customers to shop for its products directly on social media. The social-first shopping format combines Instagram browsing with frictionless in-platform payments.

A series of miniature model homes mimic the feel of a shop window, showcasing the brand’s products in tiny sets inspired by interior styling trends from Dark Academia to Neon Maximalist. Running across Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, the campaign aims to create an immersive, cosy feel, tapping into the immediacy of social media to show how Samsung products can slot into home designs.

‘This creative seeks to turn scrollers into shoppers, drawing people into the charming worlds of these model homes, filled with craft and interior design flair,’ says Olivier Bockenmeyer, head of corporate marketing for Southeast Asia and Oceania at Samsung Electronics.

Social media continues to reshape shopping, providing a platform that gives brands and retailers new ways to serve up interactive and shoppable content to users online.

Los Angeles – Pronounced ‘zero’, [0] is a new innovation lab and creative studio founded by metaverse artist Krista Kim and producer Peter Martin that is designed to bring forward a new vision for the metaverse, developing realistic digital humans and immersive experiences for a more open, interoperable virtual world.

In place of the gaming-centric vision now dominating the emerging image of the metaverse, [0] aims to realise the untapped potential for other types of enriching content to flourish, including wellness and meditation. ‘The metaverse has the power to deliver accessible wellness programmes to millions through powerful immersive experiences at the intersection of art, science and technology,’ says Kim. By 2023, the company hopes to roll out a series of initiatives promoting education and healing in the metaverse.

In partnership with industry leaders including The Third Floor, Blvck Pixel, and Valis Studio, the new studio is looking to create a virtual space that adds meaning and value to our lives, in line with the themes we explored in The Betterverse.

China’s real estate market was down 40% in July compared to the same month one year ago, according to Bloomberg, and hundreds of thousands of home-owners across more than 100 cities are refusing to pay their mortgages on unfinished homes as the nation’s property crisis deepens.

Beijing’s 2020 crackdown on excessive borrowing has led to massively indebted property developers failing to finish projects, which is in turn suppressing consumer buying power, with the entire situation worsened by the economic fallout from continuing pandemic restrictions.

Cities are coming up with unusual methods to encourage sales, including arranging for residents to make purchases as a group, and developers accepting wheat and garlic crops as downpayments on rural properties.

Read more about why the future is impossible to predict in China in our viewpoint with venture capitalist Edith Yeung.