LSN : News : Thought-starter: Can kids design our future cities?

Chobani builds hype with kids clothing

Chobani Gimmies merchandise, US

Chobani Gimmies Merchandise, US

New York – Following the launch of its healthy snacks, the yogurt manufacturer has debuted an accompanying clothing collection.

The collection, which includes onesies, hoodies, denim jackets and jewellery, ties in with the flavours featured in Chobani's Gimmies range of Greek yogurt snacks. To better instil a sense of hype around the launch, each product will launch online as a daily drop at 12pm EST and will be limited in number.

To create the collection, the brand hosted a series of focus group workshops to ascertain children’s priorities when it comes to clothing. ‘[One of the things we learned] was the desire for these kids to express a certain authenticity and uniqueness in how they dress,’ says Leland Maschmeyer, chief creative officer at Chobani. ‘We were very careful about overbranding these things. We really wanted it to feel like pieces of fashion as opposed to brand promotional pieces.’ As explored in our Childrenswear market, Generation Alpha are increasingly turning to fashion as a means of expressing their sense of identity.

This bar uses colour to denote flavour profiles

Social 24, London

London – Social 24, the bar at Michelin-starred restaurant City Social, has launched a colour-coded menu to help customers understand the flavour profiles of its cocktails.

The London bar’s new menu uses different hues to represent six flavour profiles: salty, sweet, floral, fruity, sour and bitter. Cocktails include the Sunset 24, made with vodka, Meloncello, citrus, melon, egg white and melon merengue, with its sour notes highlighted by dashes of yellow on the menu, as well as orange to represent fruity flavours and blue to denote sweetness.

Using this simple system, guests can quickly and easily find cocktails to suit their palate and drinking preferences. In a similar vein, a new Japanese salon in Paris embraces New Bricolage-inspired modes of communication by using geometric shapes rather than words to symbolise key ingredients on product labels.

Walmart makes plant-based baby care affordable

US – The retailer's new range, Hello Bello, offers parents access to plant-based and organic botanical products such as diapers, wipes, baby lotion and laundry detergent.

Featuring 10 items in total, prices for Hello Bello products range from £1.44 ($1.88, €1.67) to £18.33 ($23.94, €21.32). Actors Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard – themselves a couple and parents – developed the brand in partnership with Walmart to ensure that consumers on a budget would not have to compromise on the quality of their baby care products.

‘Parents shouldn't have to choose between what's good for their baby and good for their budget,’ says Shepard. ‘That's why we couldn't ask for a better exclusive retail partner than Walmart, who is making it possible for us to offer premium products at a non-premium price.’ The range positions Walmart in direct opposition to competitor Target, which recently announced its expansion into affordable baby essentials like diapers, wipes and feeding products.

As the plant-based and organic categories continue to grow, brands are diversifying the Accessible Premium model to incorporate consumers at every life stage.

Hello Bello, US

Carling’s new campaign spotlights LGBTQ football

Black Country Fusion FC Made Local campaign, Carling, Havas London

UK – The brewer and beer brand has unveiled a new two-part campaign featuring players of LGBTQ-inclusive football team Black Country Fusion FC.

Carling’s Made Local campaign, which celebrates people making a positive difference in their hometown, seeks to draw attention to Carling’s own local impact in the brand’s UK home of Burton-on-Trent. The second phase of the campaign includes a TV ad and a long-form documentary both centred on players for the first LGBTQ-friendly football club in the Midlands to enter a Sunday league.

‘We’re really pleased to be able to support Black Country Fusion FC,’ says Miranda Osborne, brand director at Carling. ‘Their inspiring story is truly what Made Local is all about, which is why we were so keen to make them some of the stars of our new advertising campaign.’

In addition to providing the teams with new home and away kits, Carling has pledged multi-million-pound investment for its Made Local Fund to support important community projects over the next three years. For more about brands acting as forces for good in society, read our Civic Brands macrotrend.

Stat: CBD’s cross-sector potential is blooming

New research from investment banking company Cowen & Co. reveals the CBD market in the US to be going from strength to strength as consumers – predominantly between the ages of 18 and 34 – take it as a wellness supplement. Of the 2,500 people surveyed, 44% chose to take CBD in tincture form, followed by topicals (26%), capsules (22%) and beverages (19%).

The researchers conservatively predict that the number of US-based consumers using CBD will grow to 10%, or 25m consumers, by 2025. ‘We can envision a scenario where a consumer that uses a CBD tincture or capsule may also be inclined to convert his or her beauty regimen to include CBD,’ explained Cowen & Co.'s report, signifying the importance of these findings for the future of sectors like beauty. For more on what’s driving both consumer and brands' obsession with CBD, read our viewpoint with Melisse Gelula, co-founder of Well + Good.

Thought-starter: Can kids design our future cities?

As urban planners and architects deliberate on the future of our cities, deputy foresight editor Kathryn Bishop considers how children are helping to reclaim the streets and redesign public spaces and buildings.

According to the UN, one in eight people already live in one of the world’s 33 megacities and by 2050 two-thirds of the world’s population will live in an urban area. Our future towns and cities will need to confront several major challenges – in particular, how to create urban spaces that work for children.

‘It’s about looking at what affects young people most and using this as a framework to inform all aspects of planning, designing or managing cities because it benefits all of us,’ explains Sam Williams, landscape architect at Arup, which recently published Cities Alive: Designing for urban childhoods.

The city of Aberdeen is already working to become Scotland’s first Unicef Child Friendly City, with pupils from local schools invited to its council’s chamber to learn about decision-making within their communities. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, architect Vicky Chan is teaching thousands of children about urban design and planning through a voluntary scheme called Architecture for Children.

Read the full micro trend here.