LSN : News : Instagram and Facebook introduce blue tick subscription

Jangle makes online house-hunting a playful experience

Jangle rebranded by Anagram, UK

UK – Online property portals often rhyme with lacklustre graphic design and poor user experience. Enter Jangle, a platform shaking up the sector with a playful, intuitive and user-friendly design.

Founded in 2022, the property portal has just enlisted Anagram to create a strong brand matching its game-changing offer. Jangle differs from competitors by positioning as a property one-stop-shop, a unified and open market that is easier to navigate for buyers.

Jangle’s entire brand concept is built around the idea of unlocking the property market for agents and buyers. It starts with the name, which evokes the noise of a full keyring and nods at the mission of the company. The warm colour palette and playful illustrations of keyholes and windows highlight the brand’s fun, inviting and accessible personality, contrasting with the stripped down and cold visuals of most property websites.

The property market is predominantly conservative and ripe for a UX boost, setting the stage for platforms better suited for younger and tech-savvy buyers like Jangle.

Strategic opportunity

The property sector needs to prepare for Zillennials and Generation Z. To attract digital native first-time buyers, ditch confusing terminology and sterile branding in favour of accessible, easy-going and visually appealing propositions

Self Space takes self-care to Ibiza

Self Space in collaboration with Nobu Hotel Ibiza Bay, Spain

Spain – British high street therapy service Self Space is setting up a summer residency on the island of Ibiza to help holidaymakers get the most out of their breaks. From May 2023 and throughout summer the service’s trained therapists will be hosting workshops and mini-retreats at some of Ibiza’s iconic institutions including Pikes and Nobu Ibiza Bay.

Ibiza is an island renowned for holiday hedonism and escapism, and Safe Space is offering to improve holidayers’ relaxation by giving them the opportunity to focus on their mental health. This will include relationship counselling, intimacy workshops and self-care sessions. Holidaymakers seeking serenity can also expect activities such as beach journalling, group talks, walks, bonding, meditation sessions and therapist insights and interventions. Hospitality staff will also be offered Self Space’s services at the beginning and end of the holiday season.

Many working adults in the UK fail to take their full holiday entitlement. They understand the value in taking a break but need places that encourage them to fully inhabit their time off. In recent years, wellness tourism has evolved from a niche travel market to becoming the industry’s fastest-growing sector. Consumers are looking for their holidays to do more than offer them respite from their hectic daily lives; they need to be spaces where they can relax, recharge and renew themselves.

Strategic opportunity

Most consumers have good intuition about their needs but they require support. Create services and spaces that give them permission to put energy and time into doing what makes them feel good.

Instagram and Facebook introduce blue tick subscription

Global – Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced the launch of Meta Verified, a new subscription model giving access to a blue tick and unique perks for Instagram and Facebook individual users.

Following the relaunch of Twitter’s premium membership service Twitter Blue in November 2022, Meta’s package is similar. The subscription will include getting a blue badge, increased visibility of posts and comments, protection from impersonators and easier access to customer service. Meta Verified is only available in Australia and New Zealand initially. It will retail for £9.90 ($11.99, €11.20) monthly.

Big tech brands turning to subscription-based memberships shows they are trying to re-invent themselves and build new revenue streams in an oversaturated market. But creating a two-tier society between the verified and the non-verified hints at more on-platform misinformation and mistrust. In The Paralysis Paradox, we covered how radically disruptive innovation will emerge from science, technology and business organisations despite global dissonance and ongoing paralysis.

Photography by Polina Tankilevitch

Strategic opportunity

Meta Verified will start on Instagram and Facebook and follow us into the metaverse. Verified users will crave exclusive VR opportunities and experiences worth paying for a blue tick.

Stat: Global film and tv content piracy soars after Covid decline

Finding a Digital Letter-form by Gang Buron-Yi

Global – The use of illegal streaming sites hosting copyrighted film and television content rose by 18% year on year in 2022, according to a new study by Muso. The piracy-focused research firm identified 215bn global visits to piracy websites in 2022, including over 13.5bn visits from the US.

After a decline during the Covid lockdown, illicit streams and downloads are on the rise again. Pirates are also moving away from Torrent sites, which utilise a network of computers to share large files, and turning to illegal streaming websites resembling Netflix to watch content.

In our Inflationary Loyalty Market, we examined how retaining loyalty amid high inflation requires innovation and new strategies. On top of the content spreading online for free, the film and tv industry faces an oversaturated market, competition from TikTok and the cost of living crisis (a recent Deltapoll survey suggests Britons are cancelling tv subscriptions such as Netflix in times of trouble). Retaining subscribers means rethinking how they access the content and their perks.

Strategic opportunity

Since viewers of piracy sites are hybrid customers who love the product but refuse to pay, the film and tv industry should embrace a bolder approach to reach them. Consider dropping Easter eggs within the content they crave or addressing them in authentic campaigns that question the reasons behind piracy