Social Media and Retail Trends for the Week of May 15th, 2017
Spring/Summer 2018’s Top-Trending Items according to WGSN Trend Services:
1. the Two-Piece Dress
2. the Loose Dress
3. the Strong Shoulder Dress
4. the Soft Ruffle Skirt
5. the DB Blazer
6. the Split-Front Top
7. the Angel-Sleeve Top
Top Denim Trends for Spring/Summer 2018 and Beyond, According to WGSN Trend Services
1. Controlled Patina with a Heritage Feel. Washes are controlled to elevate the fabric character. A range of green casts emerge.
2. Glossy indigo. The influence of japanese sukajan jackets means indigo dye is being used on silks or synthetic jackets. Brands doing this include Blue Blue Japan and Kapital.
3. Gradated washes re-emerge with new techniques.
4. African textiles and indigo mud cloth in both home interiors and apparel.
Retail and Mobile Marketing News
1. GOOP Pop-Ups in Nordstrom
- “Nordstrom is partnering with Gwyneth Paltrow’s goop lifestyle brand to bring wellness products to the retailer’s Pop-in@Nordstrom pop-up shops. The partnership is goop’s first major partnership with a retailer and the first time it has had a retail presence in multiple markets at once, according to a goop press release.” — Via RetailDive
2. More Snapchat-like Features for Instagram Stories Announced
- In a recent company blog post, Instagram announced exciting updates to the photo-sharing platform. The channel is now offering creative tools like face recognition for filters, rewind video, an erasable tool and hashtag stickers. Some of these features look very similar to the Snapchat tools that already exist, which is interesting coming on the heels of the announcement that Snapchat lost 2.2 billion dollars in investment last quarter. What’s even more exciting is that the new hashtag stickers will link-out into the Instagram platform once tapped, so users can explore other pieces of content within the same hashtag. — Via the Instagram Blog
3. Visual Search with the help of Video and Artifical Intelligence is Now a Thing for Brands like Wayfair and Apps Like Pinterest
- “Wayfair has launched “Search with Photo,” a visual search tool that leverages artificial intelligence to help users find products among its selection of more than 8 million home furnishings that match or are of a similar style to items they take pictures of with their mobile phones, the company announced in a press release emailed to Retail Dive.” — Via Retail Dive ‘
- Pinterest is beginning to extend the image recognition capability behind its visual search and production recommendation features to ads on its site, Pinterest CEO Tim Kendall announced at the TechCrunch Disrupt NYC event on Tuesday. Extending the feature will allow Pinterest to add more relevancy to the ads by enabling them to show up adjacent to similar products that have been searched for using Pinterest’s visual search capability. Ads benefiting from the extension are now showing up in the home Pinterest feed through the Instant Ideas button and related pins section, according to TechCrunch. — Via MobileMarketer
4. Less Stuff, More Experiences for Consumers (Especially Millenials)
- In a recent CNBC article, staff reporters Courtney Reagan and Leslie Picker explored the reasons why the retail industry as a whole is on a record-setting pace to rack up massive debt and experience seismic amounts of store-shutterings in 2017 and beyond. From their journalistic findings, Reagen and Picker identified the four key trends that are contributing to the nation-wide squeeze on North American retailers. One of the biggest consumer-driven trends affecting the sales slowdown is a preference for less stuff, and more experiences. Consumers are spending more on experiences rather than hardgoods. When consumers do head in to the stores to pick up stuff for themselves, more often than not they are heading to pick up items for their home, or on home improvement projects that will add value to their residence; paying off for big-box retailers like Lowe’s and Home Depot. — Via CNBC
5. Reese Witherspoon’s Lifestyle Brand Enters Partnership with Nordstrom
- Draper James; Reese Witherspoon’s Lifestyle Brand, breaks into the wholesale market with Nordstrom partnership. — Via Glossy
6. ‘Our Yoga Pants Aren’t Just for Yoga”: Lululemon’s Summer Ad Campaign Speaks Directly to Millennial Consumers
- Lululemon has launched a new ad campaign spanning digital and social in conjunction with Vice Media. The campaign; geared towards Millenials, is titled “This is Yoga” and encourages consumers to think of their athleisure apparel as not just clothing for the gym, but for life outside of it as well. — Via Fortune Magazine.
7. Kraft-Heinz Tells Mom It’s Okay to ‘Swear Like a Mother” with Help from Crispin-Porter and Bogusky
“Kraft-Heinz and agency CP+B released a foul-mouthed digital video spot that has a mother’s swearing censored with a Kraft Macaroni & Cheese noodle as she tries to come up with kid-friendlier alternatives like “monkey-flunking,” according a press release from the company. Released just ahead of Mother’s Day, the ad has gone viral, according to Mashable, being viewed nearly 2.4 million times on YouTube. The “Swear Like a Mother” campaign is rooted in a Kraft survey that found that 74% of moms admit to having cursed in front of her kids. The mother in the video spot suggests that the other 26% who say they have never sworn in front of their kids are “full of s — t.” Kraft also offered a guide to alternative swearing, Mother’s Day cards and noodle-shaped “fail-cancelling earplugs” for kids looking to block out their moms’ lewd language, which were available on a campaign site while supplies lasted.“Kraft Encourages Moms to ‘Swear Like a Mother” in Viral Campaign. Natalie Koltun. May 8th 2017. Marketing Dive.
http://www.marketingdive.com/news/kraft-encourages-moms-to-swear-like-a-mother-in-viral-campaign/442166/8. Youtube Live Mobile Streaming for All
- “The ability to Go Live on YouTube (not to be confused with the entirely unrelated YouTube Go) previously required that you have 1,000 subscribers, and before that the requirement was set at 10K. In a bid to compete with other services, it looks like that limit has been dropped further, all the way to zero. That’s right, now everyone can Go Live on YouTube without any subscribers. The only requirements are a verified channel and no live stream restrictions in the last 90 days.” — Via AndroidPolice.com
9. Branded Pinterest Posts Now More Focused on Measurement for Marketers
- “As brands increasingly ask for solid measurement transparency from digital ads, Pinterest is rolling out a new feature that gives marketers a small drive-by look at how posts are performing. Here’s how the tool works: When brands login to their account, an icon overlays each Pin that breaks down the post’s engagement. When clicked on, the icon pulls up the number of impressions, the number of times people look at a close-up of the Pin, clicks and how many times the post was saved. The icon is only available to users with a business account.” — Via Adweek
CASE STUDY: “Wendy’s Fan Shatters Twitter Record for Most Retweets, Receives Year’s Worth Supply of Free Nuggets.”
“THE CASE: “Wendy’s is providing 16-year-old Carter Wilkerson with a year’s supply of its chicken nuggets after a tweet he posted broke the Twitter record for most retweets in the platform’s history, now standing at 3.5 million, according to People. The previous record was held by Ellen DeGeneres’ selfie from the 2014 Oscars ceremony.
Wilkerson, who goes by the handle @carterjwm, asked Wendy’s how many retweets it would take to get a year of free chicken nuggets last month and the brand’s official account responded with 18 million. Wilkerson then campaigned with a #NuggsForCarter hashtag that quickly went viral, picking up support from other brands like Microsoft and even celebrities.
Along with the free nuggets, Wendy’s is also making a $100,000 donation in Wilkerson’s name to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.”
THE INSIGHT: Wendy’s and Wilkerson together have turned what could have been a small social media moment into one of the more viral Twitter sensations ever. Wendy’s could’ve easily ignored the initial request for nuggets — or simply told Wilkerson that it wasn’t going to happen — but, in responding to the tweet with a set a goal, however unrealistic or cheeky, the brand’s managed to stay at the top of the social conversation at almost no cost and has also become a part of platform history. Perhaps acknowledging that Wilkerson’s campaign has provided an immense brand awareness lift, Wendy’s lifted the 18 million retweet goal to give Wilkerson his nuggets anyway, essentially ceding him the win. The whole phenomenon highlights how social media and Twitter, in particular, are key places where brands can drive conversation, though it’s easy to fall flat with tone-deafness or misguided efforts.” — David Kirkpatrick for MarketingDive. May 10th 2017
