From horses on the blockchain to social media you eat, here’s what made us say ‘That’s Interesting’ in the studio this week.
Virtual Party.
Depending on your viral wariness of human contact, you may-or-may-not have had your office Christmas party this year. Fear not for next year though, because no matter the variant, the party can go on. Luna Park is a New York based start-up (named after the famous Coney Island Theme Park) that offers a range of human-hosted, green-screen powered Zoom-based games that make it as if you’re in a game show. Made for the post-pandemic world of team building, the service is a much welcome alternative to Zoom drinks. There’s a rush of companies developing propositions catered to the needs of a post-pandemic world. Is there anything your brand could do?
Fingers on buzzers here
Non-Fungible Thoroughbreds.
Impractical for modern life, a horse must be one of the most denied requests on Christmas lists all over the world. During this time of high demand, however, VisitLEX, the tourist board for Lexington, Kentucky has something to brag about – it’s the horse capital of the world. Taking a satirical route on the NFT hype-train, it’s released a set of Non-Fungible Thoroughbreds as an affordable gift alternative to traditional thoroughbreds — creating a humorous ad to communicate the fact, alongside a promise to donate its auction proceeds to charity. Humour is a good way of getting a core message noticed. Wrapping it up with cultural and seasonal relevance — even better.
Saddle up here
Circular Cars.
BMW recently set itself the objective of becoming the world’s most sustainable manufacturer of ‘individual premium mobility’. To illustrate this, it’s releasing speculative vehicles that act as proof-of-concept for what it wants to achieve. The latest is the BMW i Vision Circular: an electric car built with circularity in mind by being made from 100% recycled materials and entirety modular. The vision comes through in its design – with minimal surface finishes, reduced excess, and visible detachability, together with the car’s space-esque shape, colours and materials, creating a design language that hits futurism, sustainability and luxury. With ostentation getting ragged on for signifying excess (and thus waste), brands should think of more value-orientated ways to create luxury.
Accelerate here
TikTok I’m hungry.
Watch out! TikTok is jumping out of the screen and into your dinner. Teaming up with Grubhub and Virtual Dining Concepts, the brand is aiming to open over a thousand delivery-only restaurants in the US by the end of next year. Its menus will be built off viral food trends, but far from a passing fad, the move has serious potential as a revenue stream. A three-month trial in the UK, USA and Canada saw TikTok-created Mr Beast Burger sell over one million burgers. We’ve seen features and services converge on devices (i.e. in smartphones) but now we’re seeing services converging within apps. Are we entering the age of the super app?
Drool here