Doodle Inspirations – July 3
At NDP we pride ourselves on staying on top of the industry – what’s new, what’s trending, what’s surprised us. Here are a few things from this week that caught our attention and got us talking:
Sephora – in partnership with Instagram – debuted a new social shopping capability. This social commerce initiative will allow the retailer’s 20 million followers to connect with some 80 brands allowing them to buy products directly from their feed or stories with a connected buying experience. As 24% of consumers have said they don’t plan on returning to a physical store for beauty products, this is an interesting development as brands look for ways to entice consumers business back in any way possible. While NDP believes this offering was most likely in the works for months prior to the pandemic, it is an interesting time to launch as consumer grooming habits have changed in many ways.
Colin Kaepernick has been in the news cycle again this week. While it was announced on June 18 that Kaepernick had reached a publishing deal and would join the board of directors for Medium, this week’s story revealed that a Netflix series is being developed about his life. The series – developed with assistance from Ava DuVernay – would focus on the athlete and activist’s formative teenage years. The six-episode series will be scripted and have Kaepernick acting as narrator. NDP is interested to see how his involvement with Medium impacts their online performance numbers given the context of his larger star power and the entertainment industry’s evolving focus on him.
A story about TikTok got us talking for the second week in a row, but not necessarily in a positive way. It seems TikTok was caught spying on iPhone users. In late June, there was an issue identified that allowed the app to read the last thing that had been copied to an iPhone’s clipboard. This problem was said to have been related to an outdated Google advertising SKD, but that story changed. It now appears the issue was squarely within TikTok’s design and a new version of the app has been added to the App Store. NDP encourages all users with an iPhone to update their app with the latest version as the data implications appear to be greater than originally thought.
Lululemon’s purchase of Mirror provides an interesting diversification for the brick & mortar, athletic wear giant. Mirror seemed to hit its stride as Covid hit forcing traditional gym goers to find a new way to maintain their fitness. It is said that Mirror will continue to operate as a standalone company within the Lululemon Athletica empire. As this technology offers on-demand and live classes for users, NDP is interested to see if a paid advertising opportunity within this platform (or competitors such as Peloton) will exist in the future.