Mike's Industry View - Issue #166
AI / Creativity
Japanese researchers have created a smart face mask that has a built in speaker and can translate speech into 8 different languages — luxurylaunches.com
The supported languages include English, Chinese, Spanish, French, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, and Indonesian. Shipping from September.
Gucci’s latest collaborators are a team of pro gamers — www.dazeddigital.com
Gucci has a group of new collaborators – and they aren’t actors, musicians, or skaters. They’re a team of gamers.
Business/Marketing/Adv
M&S announces major overhaul of Sparks as "digital first loyalty scheme" in huge digital push — www.chargedretail.co.uk
Retention, loyalty and creating a more personalised experience are all becoming more important post COVID. And it's all going digital.
Today’s Consumers Are Shopping More Efficiently, Buying More — www.adweek.com
Walmart's Stephanie Jay says fewer trips to physical stores means more planning ahead, more functional and less leisure shopping.
Interestingness
First Look: Inside Sephora’s New Innovation Lab — www.fastcompany.com The big beauty brand’s new team and facility model a retail future where both on- and off-line shopping are kicked up by a serious notch.
Lockdown boosts Couch to 5K downloads — www.bbc.com Hundreds of thousands sign up to the NHS-backed running app during the coronavirus pandemic.
Wellness
Permanent Work From Home Is Coming. Businesses, Workers See Benefits — www.npr.org After three months with much of the country working from home, many employers and their workers say the benefits of remote work — cost savings and a more relaxed atmosphere — outweigh the drawbacks.
Zoom fatigue is real — here’s why video calls are so draining — ideas.ted.com There are real, psychological reasons behind Zoom fatigue, explain researchers Libby Sander and Oliver Bauman.
Platform News
Amazon Prime Video introduces ‘Watch Party,’ a social co-viewing experience included with Prime — techcrunch.com
The “Watch Party” feature, which is included at no extra cost with a Prime membership, allows participants to watch video content together at the same time with the playback synchronized to the host’s.
Zuckerberg said to say of Facebook ad boycott: ‘All these advertisers will be back’ soon enough — www.marketwatch.com Hundreds of companies around the world have joined a temporary ad boycott against Facebook Inc., but Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg says he’s not worried...