Why It’s Hot: Similar to last week, my post pertains to dogs. SHOCKER. But anyways, I thought this is a cool activation that West Elm is doing to drive customers in store.

I’m one to admit that I’m never swayed by subject lines to open a promotional email but this one got me. West Elm is partnering with ASPCA to invite customers into their stores with their pets for a holiday shoot. Customers that are interested can RSVP for their local event on the branded site so West Elm can keep track of how many people plan to attend at each location. For every attendee that shares their holiday photo from the store on social using the event hashtag, West Elm will donate $1 to the ASPCA.

Although it may seem like an odd partnership, West Elm has been leveraging animals in their campaign posts to make their furniture more marketable to pet owners. Just thought this was a great activation and timely just in time for the holidays. I’m also interested to see how the stores will be with a flood of animals around.

Why It’s Hot: Wearable tech has become increasingly popular over the years but to date, the products only pertained to humans. With this Kickstarter project, wearable tech will get brought to animals thus making it the first of its kind. I believe there is a demand for tech that tracks the health of pets. Unfortunately, humans can’t speak “dog” so it’s tough to dictate the health of their pets or know when they are experiencing pain. In addition, the design is very simple and can be attached to the pet’s collar making it a natural device for any pet to wear.

Clearly there is a demand for this product considering the Kickstarter campaign funded over $78K more than the $25K pledge. Can’t wait to see this product hit the market and see advancements being made in healthcare for animals.

Aside from the massive upgrade to the screens in this area, the new screen (Smart TV —  even better than-4K and larger than a tennis court) will secretly spy on its environment to deliver targeted ads.

Clearly this is going to raise some privacy concern like: What kind of information will the screen detect? Will the data be collected and stored? Will personal information be shared with third-party advertisers? Are there any risks associated with hacking the camera and the billboard?

http://mashable.com/videos/blueprint:YxlJr2yl98/

Why It’s Hot: This new type of display allows billboards to reach audiences with more targeted ads. There are cameras embedded within the screen that has the ability to track the make, model and color of passing cars. In doing so, the billboard can serve more targeted ads based on the consumer passing by. According to Landsec (company that created the screen), content can also be delivered based on the characteristics of the crowd, such as gender, age, and even emotions!

http://mashable.com/2017/10/13/piccadilly-circus-lights-screen-targeted-ads/?utm_cid=hp-n-1#j7j.9IiAbkqm

Panasonic recently showed off a prototype for its tabletop calorie counter called CaloRieco.

How it works?

The user pops a plate of food into the device that resembles a microwave. They press a button on the lid and wait 10 seconds. Then the user gets an overall calorie read for their meal, even giving a breakdown of the meal such as carbs, fat, etc.

The machine is intended to connect via Wi-Fi to the cloud, where the user can get their nutrition profile on an app.

Learn More: http://mashable.com/2017/10/06/calorieco-panasonic-calorie-measure/?utm_cid=hp-h-1#IAI_Wja7biqz

Why It’s Hot: Current nutrition apps aren’t very reliable at getting an accurate read for your meal based on the portion size and amount of ingredients used. This device can help people keep track of their calories at home in a breeze. I personally feel like their was a demand for this product and its going to help people understand food nutrition much better in the comfort of their homes. Hopefully one day, the next product will be an app that can somehow scan the meal and project calories on the go, but who knows. Food for thought!

With the recent release of iOS 11, Ikea released their own augmented reality app. The app was designed to help customers visualize what their purchases would look like in their space.

Users can swipe through the brand’s collections, or filter by types of products.

Two downsides:

1. Currently there is no search function. This would be helpful for customers looking to find a product they found in store easily as opposed to browsing through the thousands of products.
2. People are downloading it for fun to use at their offices, on the street, in the elevator, etc. Is it going to help the brand sell products?

Why It’s Hot:

Now you don’t need to stress over how something will look in your place prior to purchasing. This app is extremely interactive and provides a unique experience to the user that they can’t get with other furniture companies. Essentially, this app is going to help eliminating the stress of buying and building something that a customer would return. Which ultimately (fingers crossed) would cut down on store returns.

German supermarket giant, Aldi entered into the very competitive China market after seeing the potential that this market has. In order to appeal to this new audience, the brand reinvented itself to sell online-only, through the Alibaba e-commerce site.

Nowadays, tons of western supermarkets are trying to tap into China’s rising interest in imported foods, in addition to the rise of the middle class, their travels abroad and their concerns about the safety of local products. “Since China’s retail environment is challenging, particularly for big-box stores, most recent supermarket entrants are going into China online-only, as Costco did in 2014. That limits investment and risk, but it doesn’t necessarily guarantee big sales.”

To generate buzz for its launch, the brand created a live event that was streamed online in real-time. Given that live streaming in very popular in China, it was a tactical move to use this format to reach the online target audience. So what did this brand stream? Well, a stunt was created using their products. The brand live streamed a fashion show of couture made solely out of food that the brand sells. Yes, that’s right, models strutted their stuff down the runway in outfits like a bustier covered in popcorn, a kilt embellished with cookies, etc. The runway even was designed to as a long white dinner table, with guests seated as diners along its edges. They were eating meals and sipping wine while viewing the show. Guests were also given a connected electronic refrigerator magnet that they can use to order Aldi’s products.

The brand needed to pull a stunt this grand because China is the worl’s largest e-commerce market and consumers are constantly bombarded with options Brands have to make big efforts to get shoppers to pay attention to them.

Why It’s Hot

Olgilvy, Aldi’s current agency, knew that it was going to be a challenge to differentiate this brand from other supermarkets using a relatively low budget. Everyday, we are all tasked with budget restraints but this out of the box idea on a smaller budget led to a lot of success! Yes, this type of live stream was certainly a different approach but it captured their online audience’s attention. Who wouldn’t be entertained by a runway show with clothes made out of food?

This launch was very well thought out to the idea to use live streaming to capture buzz considering their main competitors do this and how live streaming has grown to be so popular in this market. Also to how guests of the show received a connected electronic refrigerator magnet that they could use to place orders through Aldi.