Doodle Inspirations – June 15
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:
MediaPost reported the launch of Impossible Foods direct-to-consumer website specifically featuring their plant-based burger products. This is the same company that created the newly announced Impossible Croissan’wich and Impossible Burger in partnership with Burger King. While shelter-in-place orders have changed how we shop and meat-alternative options such as this are becoming more popular, we’re interested to see how this stacks up sales-wise and if the Burger King-assisted introduction to the consumer market was enough to circumvent other marketing tactics to support product sales.
While both #slack and Amazon Chime have been regular parts of NDP’s technology profile and workflow, we were excited to see reports of their growing partnership to take on other companies that have seen major jumps in usage since shelter-in-place orders took heavy effect. While the platforms have always worked for our needs, we’re excited to see what additional benefits might come up as they work to take on the likes of Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
The Hollywood Reporter shared some details related to SmileDirectClub’s suit against NBC. SDC is seeking $2.85 billion in damages related to a piece that ran in February 2020 on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Filed in Tennessee federal court near where SDC is headquartered, the suit alleges over 40 false or misleading statements ran during the short piece and the company says that story was part of a coordinated effort to attack the company that ultimately has resulted in a 15% drop in stock value and a market capitalization loss of $950 million. Given SDC’s consumer popularity, we’re interested to see how the court finds in the long run as direct-to-consumer products and solutions are hot items currently in the consumer world.
After reading reports early in the week that talks between GrubHub and UberEats were breaking down, we were surprised to read on CNBC that GrubHub is merging with European food delivery company Takeaway.com. This makes some sense to us given the concern of antitrust law in the states and the optics of if GrubHub and UberEats happened it would result in a strong monopolization of the market. Now UberEats will need to be more concerned with a now stronger-backed competitor is sharing the space with them. We’re waiting to see how this affect consumers from a user-experience perspective both in-platform but also in cost and availability.
Would you be surprised to hear that 92% of adults subscribe to at least one paid television or audio streaming service? Some of us were surprised the number was that high, but given the pandemic, we weren’t surprised to see that 48% of adults report subscribing to three to five service now – up from 37% prior to the pandemic. While consumption and need has certainly changed across all age groups because of the pandemic, we’re interested to see how these trends once again shift following states reopening.
Ben & Jerry’s company culture again made headlines with their latest statement titled Silence is not an Option. This is one of the strongest brand statements we’ve digested in the past few weeks.