News 02.10.2018

Need to Know

Gail’s Bakery wants to eliminate waste, Facebook launches its dating feature and how Latinx consumers listen to music.

The collective digitising the nightclub

Animations by VAJ.Power

Glasgow – Audio-visual collective VAJ.Power is now putting on club nights and workshops that sit at the intersection between digital art and music.

Launched by animators and promoters Holly McGowan and Sofya Staune, VAJ.Power provides nightclubs with 3D visual art, or VJing, defined by the duo as ‘like DJing but with visuals’. Now, the collective is expanding with its own educational events that challenge the traditional hedonistic nightclub experience.

The >Fuse events are focused on learning and include night-time 3D animation and VJing workshops. Attendees can then show their new skills during the collective’s club nights. Described as ‘conscious clubbing’, >Fuse operates a safe space policy. ‘This should not be a temporary feature, but rebuilt in the venue as a way of restructuring our ideas of gender,’ the duo told It’s Nice That.

Innovators in the nightlife industry are using digital technology to provide multi-sensory experiences. For more, read our Nightlife Market.

Gail’s Bakery repurposes leftover bread

Waste Bread by Gail's Bakery, UK Waste Bread by Gail's Bakery, UK
Waste Bread by Gail's Bakery, UK Waste Bread by Gail's Bakery, UK

UK – The bakery chain will soon sell Waste Bread, a new product created from its surplus loaves and sold at a commercial scale.

Beginning in mid-October, Gail’s Bakery will be the first chain to produce sourdough loaves made from old bread. Leftovers are turned into a thick porridge-like paste, which is then added into a sourdough mix and baked to become Waste Bread, with each loaf having its own distinctive taste.

The launch is part of a commitment by Gail’s to sustainability and reduction of food waste. Although the bakery produces small batches and donates leftover food to local charities, the Waste Bread offers a chance for the chain to demonstrate itself as a food innovator.

Another way of advancing the concept of Trash-to-Table and making use of excessive bread waste is to turn breadcrumbs into beer, a process pioneered by Toast Ale.

Facebook tests its swipe-free dating service

Colombia – The social network has begun a country-wide test of its long-awaited Dating feature.

Users of Dating must create a new profile that exists separately from their main Facebook profile, providing information such as their height, religious beliefs and number of children, while also answering a number of ice-breaker questions.

Moving away from the swiping functionality that has come to define several dating apps, Facebook instead uses an algorithm that takes into account mutual friends and common interests to match potential dates. The service works in a similar way to Hinge, a dating app that also eschews swiping and uses in-depth profiles to match people based on personality rather than just appearance.

Finding themselves mindlessly swiping either through boredom or for the purpose of personal reassurance, some consumers have been turning away from dating platforms, moving their liaisons to social apps such as Instagram. Facebook Dating hopes to capitalise on this shift by providing a more mature alternative to today’s dating apps.

Facebook Dating

Condé Nast opens a beauty studio

Condé Nast Beauty Studio, New York
Condé Nast Beauty Studio, New York
Condé Nast Beauty Studio, New York

New York – The media brand has opened the Beauty Studio, a space that allows businesses to produce editorial beauty content.

The space, located in Condé Nasts 1 World Trade Center office, provides clients with the facilities they need to create high-quality photographic and video content for use by the media company’s platforms and publications. Condé Nast says it reaches more than 240m consumers monthly across its social channels, and its videos average over one billion views a month, so the content will be largely optimised for social media.

The Beauty Studio will also offer end-to-end services such as creative ideation, strategic planning, and access to young influencers and producers. ‘Partners can now access our stable of creative, talented editors and reach an audience of engaged users looking for inspiration and recommendations from a trusted source – our brands,’ says Celia Ellenberg, Vogue beauty director and co-leader of the space.

Fashion and media publications are increasingly entering the beauty sector. Just last month, Gucci and Dazed Media both launched beauty verticals through Instagram.

Stat: Latinx consumers are driving smart device listening

Nielsen’s latest study into the music habits of Latinx consumers in the US found that music is thoroughly ingrained in their daily lives. According to the study, Latinx spend 32 hours a week listening to music, more than the average US listener. Furthermore, 45% subscribe to a streaming service for music, radio and podcasts, outpacing 40% of non-Hispanic whites.

These consumers are also welcoming new technology that enhances their listening experience. More than one in five Latinx households own a smart speaker, and 58% want to buy one in the future – 16% higher than the total US population.

Latinx consumers provide an untapped opportunity for companies producing smart home technology, with these brands having to consider the importance of music in their day-to-day routines.

Thought-starter: Why are period products still so inaccessible?

In an era when women’s equality is high on the agenda, it is astonishing that so many are still struggling to access these basic hygiene products, says The Future Laboratory's graduate trainee Tamara Hoogeweegan.

In June 2018, architecture student Ruth Pearn presented a speculative graduation project. She envisaged an old bathhouse transformed into a public space designed to fight period poverty. This project was not designed for an emerging nation, but the UK city of Hull – a place where period poverty shouldn’t really exist.

Except that it does. And projects such as Pearn’s show how period poverty has become a major social issue in developed nations. As a first step in resolving period poverty, brands and campaigns are fighting to remove the so-called ‘pink tax’ to make sure every female has equal access to sanitary products.

But the cost of female hygiene products isn’t the only reason that women are still dealing with period poverty. The stifling stigma that persists around menstruation exacerbates the myriad social and cultural reasons that make it hard for girls to talk about it.

Read more about how your brand can eradicate period poverty here.

Blume, US
Previous News Articles
Burberry revives archival outerwear for National Geographic documentary

News

Burberry revives archival outerwear for National Geographic documentary

Burberry’s latest archival display at its London Regent Street store celebrates Sir Ernest Shackleton’s legendary 1914 Antarctic expedition.
Luxury : Pop-culture & Media : Fashion
Gob launches mycelium-based earplugs

News

Gob launches mycelium-based earplugs

Gob is revolutionising the earplug market with a mycelium-based alternative that promises to eliminate the environmental impact of traditional disp...
Sustainability : Health & Wellness : Design
Brenda Lee’s holiday classic enters the AI era with Spanish re-release

News

Brenda Lee’s holiday classic enters the AI era with Spanish re-release

Brenda Lee’s iconic holiday song, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, has been re-imagined as Noche Buena y Navidad in a Spanish-language release po...
Technology : Pop-culture & Media : Society
Stat: US Gen Z are the most likely to hide their voting choices

News

Stat: US Gen Z are the most likely to hide their voting choices

An October 2024 Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll reveals that nearly half of Gen Z voters (48%) in the US have lied about their voting prefere...
Society : Youth : Politics
Camdom is the world’s first digital condom for safer intimacy

News

Camdom is the world’s first digital condom for safer intimacy

This Sexual Health Awareness Month, condom brand Billy Boy and creative agency Innocean Berlin unveiled Camdom, an app that acts as a digital condo...
Health & Wellness : Technology : Pop-culture & Media
Resting Reef memorialises pets as eco-friendly marine reefs

News

Resting Reef memorialises pets as eco-friendly marine reefs

Eco-friendly funeral company Resting Reef has launched a pet memorial service that blends pet ashes with crushed shells to create eco-friendly unde...
Design : Health & Wellness : Sustainability
Netflix new unveils Moments feature to save and share scenes

News

Netflix new unveils Moments feature to save and share scenes

Netflix has launched a new feature called Moments, allowing subscribers to bookmark, save and share their favourite scenes from shows and movies.
Technology : Pop-culture & Media : Society
Stat: Mars’ study reveals strong pet devotion

News

Stat: Mars’ study reveals strong pet devotion

Mars has unveiled ‘the largest global pet parent study to date’ of more than 20,000 pet owners across 20 countries.
Pets : Society : Retail
Samsonite’s new durable suitcase can survive travelling to the edge of space

News

Samsonite’s new durable suitcase can survive travelling to the edge of space

Samsonite has unveiled its latest innovation, the Proxis Space collection, setting new standards in travel gear with sustainability and advanced te...
Luxury : Travel & Hospitality : Design
The Saudi Investment Bank celebrates national identity with bespoke typeface

News

The Saudi Investment Bank celebrates national identity with bespoke typeface

The Saudi Investment Bank and creative agency Impact BBDO have launched I am Saudi, a campaign celebrating national heritage with a bespoke typeface.
Design : Advertising & Branding : Finance
You have 2 free News articles remaining. Sign up to LS:N Global to get unlimited access to all articles.
BECOME A MEMBER
SIGN IN