Kokoro Cuts – best of October

A round-up of the best new experiences and campaigns we’ve seen on our travels. Here’s what you need to know about.

Go bold or go home – Adidas, Gentle Monster, Louis Vuitton and H&M new store openings are worth talking about

At a time when high street closures are really hitting the headlines you can’t forget the importance of investing and experimenting in your physical estate – especially flagships. We’ve picked out four brands experimenting, being bold, providing fresh, new memories and high feel-good. First up – Adidas just opened its new Oxford Street flagship – its most digital store to date. This space fuels exploration – from the show-stopping entrance display to the lifts (which feel like you’re in a cool high rise) that get you upstairs. The store oozes desire in its trendy, fashion-led sections and customisation area; gets you immersed in ‘your run style’ with Running Lab and gets you feeling proud to belong to London with all the local touches. The VM is impressive, there are digital screens everywhere that are so huge and vibrant that the whole place has a feeling of energy. The digital changing room mirror is how to do easy in a memorable way – recognising which garments you come into the changing room with automatically so you can quickly ask for more sizes! On top of all that the staff reflect the passion and energy around this store whilst being a human friendly and approachable face in a high-tech space.

Memory-making Adidas LDN store

You won’t miss Louis Vuitton’s revamped London store – it’s a colourful marvel inside and out! Whilst most luxury Fashion brands dial up desire with paired-back, minimalist design, the brand has decided to go all-out on creating a feeling of happiness and we think that’s just what the UK needs right now! Keen to design more than just a shop and a space that wasn’t intimidating, could this ‘travel destination’ set the future bar for Luxury?

Louis Vuitton New Bond Street

H&M have launched two new stores of stark contrast. In Berlin it’s having a stab at going ‘hyper-local’ with Mitte Garten. Here H&M hopes to “offer a neighbourhood store serving as a platform for local and global talents within retail, culture and art”. The store has a vegetarian café, garden and boasts many talks and events! Whilst in Birmingham, H&M takes its Home concept outside of London for the first time and revamps its Bullring mecca! The brand has created an impressively stylish haven for home inspiration that goes far beyond what you might expect from this mass clothing retailer.

H&M Mitte Garten and H&M Birmingham

Gentle Monster takes eyewear to new heights with its latest store opening in Shanghai. If you haven’t been to a Gentle Monster store before we really would recommend – oodles of Desire, Immersion and Freedom. This is a customer experience you need to feel for yourselves. It breaks all the rules and is so intriguing you can’t help but wander in!

% ARABICA stirs up UK coffee market

Yes, we hear you…. yet another coffee chain… yawn…. But wait, this is quite a big deal. % Arabica already had 42 outlets globally with a big cult following. Its launch in the UK (with two new London stores) has come with much anticipation and it’s quickly made its way to the list of top London coffee shops. This experience is all about the coffee and the founder’s passion for creating it (they roast and produce it themselves). You get that impression as soon as you experience the stylish, clean, paired-back interior and menu. This is about letting the coffee speak for itself. It feels uber desirable and different. Most other trendy coffee shops capture a local, home-grown, quirky sentiment. Whilst here you get amazing coffee in a cup with the massive % logo on it to show just how trendy you are! Definitely one to watch!

And we’re off – Argos gets us all nostalgic as Christmas adverts roll

You’ll have to wait until our latest Christmas Unwrapped report is out to get the customer verdict on who’s won the battle of the Christmas ads, but right now we’re loving the feeling we get from the Argos Christmas advert. We can connect with this on so many levels – the nostalgic Argos catalogue (renamed ‘Book of Dreams) we all used to circle as kids at Christmas, that amazing song from the carefree 80s which takes us back to those goose bumps we got from The Breakfast Club, and that special bond of Dad and kid that’s often overlooked in campaigns. Can’t wait to see how it compares to all the others.

Lego makes us feel good about doing good – just in time for Christmas

Turns out we have a massive attachment to these iconic plastic bricks – Lego estimates a whopping 97% of consumers keep or share their bricks rather than throw them away. How many of us fall guilty to having some in the attic?! In its attempts to ‘share the power of play’ Lego has just launched a pilot reuse platform called Lego Replay in the US. People simply send off their bricks for free, which get sorted and cleaned and fed back into community projects so more kids can get new joy out of the bricks. Easy and feel-good. Lego are surely onto a winner. We wish more brands would think about the ‘ending’ they’re creating in their CX.

The brand has also launched a new iconic collectable which definitely chimes with desire for more ‘sustainable’ materials versus plastic. Its iconic mini figure has been given a wooden makeover! It’s only available in a Covent Garden pop up at the moment, but launches globally on 8 November. We think it’s going to make it to the top of many Christmas lists!

Kokoro Cuts – best of September

A round-up of the best new experiences and campaigns we’ve seen on our travels. Here’s what you need to know about

Phenomenal plant-based innovation

Wow there’s been a crazy amount of plant-based new launches in the last month. Deep breath. McDonald’s P.L.T. burger is a standout – who would have thought this innovation would happen so quickly?! The burger is based on Beyond Meat’s pea protein burger and is being tested for a 12 week stint in Canada (if only Deliveroo shipped food ;). Tesco Plant Chef range appeared on shelves as a great value alternative. Naked Glory brand was unveiled by Kerry Foods, Dairy giant Applewood launched a Vegan cheese. ASDA got in on the cheese action with a Vegan blue cheese, The Vegetarian Butcher launched a new Plant-Based Line in Supermarkets and started touring the UK and Wicked Kitchen expanded its Vegan range to include pot noodle style meals! Oh and as Christmas hits the shelves so too do Vegan advent calendars.

And breathe.

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Spotify connects us to amazing musical memories

Its latest out of home ads and films in the UK and US get us to ‘listen like we used to’ and they got us seriously nostalgic. Spotify takes us back to that moment, that feeling, that memory we had with a song, with an era even. It’s amazing that we never forget those special lyrics (even the songs we try to forget) and Spotify has done a great job at getting us to revisit old skool tunes in a funny way!

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Source: Spotify

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Want oat milk with that skin cream? Beauty got seriously healthy

There’s never a boring month in beauty – new brand and product launches are rife. But as part of the big wellness trend and a growing desire for more natural ingredients we’ve noticed more foodie ingredients getting into our beauty products over the past month. Here’s a few standouts. Kombucha (a drink that many people in the UK still don’t know exists) has entered skincare – its probiotic powers claiming a miracle healing power. Vegetables have got even hotter and are demanding a high price in skincare – take this Celery based cream from Volition. Oat milk is so in demand for our lattes that it’s now getting into our makeup – like oat milk foundation from natural brand of the moment Ere Perez. Even caffeine is booming – don’t drink too much of it but put as much as you want on your hair!

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Source: Kombucha

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Source: Klorane

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Source: Ere Perez

Airbnb ramps up Visionary experiences

Okay so you can still stay in a spare room in Putney if you want but over the last month Airbnb has really ramped up the experience ante – making our wildest travel dreams come true. You can go on an Antarctic sabbatical, stay at Highclere Castle (the home of Downton Abbey), learn from Guinness World Record holders or even paddleboard with Corgis in Miami as part of its animal experiences worldwide launch.  Not all Airbnb experiences end up in Visionary territory but these ones just might 😉

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Kokoro Cuts – best of August

A round-up of the best new experiences and campaigns we’ve seen on our travels. Here’s what you need to know about

eggslut shows how eateries can create new memories around classics

The hit LA chain came to the UK in August and caused quite a stir for such a small new eatery. It shows the power of a brand when it creates a buzz around something very simple and opens customers eyes to new possibilities – in this case the classic comfort food: eggy baps! eggslut uses only local suppliers, keeps to a tight menu, transforms the mere egg into clever hero eggy dishes (yes you heard it correctly ‘The Slut’ is a thing) and sells it all in a trendy instagrammable space. This gets customers flocking to pay a whole lot more for the humble egg!

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The average B&B could look more like this in the future

Summer may be over but next year’s plans could look a whole lot more exciting and sustainable thanks to the launch of TERA from AI SpaceFactory. It’s like nothing else on this planet – a high-tech, luxe, eco-home based in upstate New York where people can stay nightly from March 2020. It’s based on the award winning Mars habitat MARSHA which is super cool but what’s most amazing is that it’s made of 3-D printed plants and minerals which are durable and twice as strong as concrete, yet recyclable and compostable. It will be 3D-printed on site to ensure minimal disruption to the habitat versus the harsh impact of traditional construction. It will feedback operational data to keep improving future designs and it can be broken down, recycled and re-printed elsewhere, without leaving any trace. This is the future sustainable B&B!

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Hendrick’s brings escapism to life in sensory tube wrap

There’s a zillion gin drinks out there so it’s refreshing to see a campaign with a clear feeling at its heart as Hendrick’s challenges us to ‘Escape the Conventional and Embrace the Delectable’. The escapism in gin flavours has been cleverly brought to life through a high-impact tube wrap where intriguing visuals spark attention whilst a sensory element of cucumber and rose scents help fix this campaign and its signature gin flavour in our memories. We think it’s a much more effective way to hit a high volume audience (the underground boasts 5 million passengers a day) versus the usual scattergun approach to tube poster advertising.

Channel 4 reflects bold, brave brand position as it pokes fun at general public

We absolutely love this genius advert from channel 4 which pokes fun at the ridiculous complaints that have been sent into the channel from the general public. It’s a funny, honest take on how ridiculous people can be. It’s bold, it’s brave, it’s everything Channel 4 was set up to stand for. Channel 4 said: “We understand that not every programme, or even every presenter, is going to be everyone’s cup of tea. “That’s because Channel 4 was set up to be different, to provoke debate, take bold creative risks and represent unheard voices from all around the country. So sometimes we may cause a bit of a stir, but that’s part of our job.” We wish more brands could be this daring 😉

Sustainability swarm continues

August saw a whole host of new product launches and new start-ups in the sustainability space. We’ve captured a few novel ideas that haven’t been seen before.

Upchoose gives US parents a way to feel good about being more sustainable at a time when having a new kid usually means creating a lot more waste. You buy clothes from them then when your child outgrows them you simply send them back to get money off the next lot. Simple but no-one else is doing it!

Nespresso and Swedish start-up Velosophy partnered to create RE:CYCLE, a stylish bike made out of 300 espresso pods. It’s Nespresso’s attempt to create a circular economy for the billions of coffee pods discarded every year. Whilst Nespresso is a brand already providing a positive ending to the customer journey (pods are picked up from consumers’ homes to be recycled), this takes it one step further to show customers the new beginnings their waste can create.

Fairbnb launched this summer in 5 European cities. A more ethical alternative to Airbnb, the platform promises to give 50% of sales to local community projects to make short-term rentals more sustainable. Guests choose the projects registered on the site that they want to support when they reserve their accommodation.

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And just for fun…. Roocopter brings Deliveroo promise to life

Deliveroo is “committed to delivering the best food no matter your location” so it launched a helicopter food experience to demonstrate just that! Order your dish and Deliveroo will get it to you in time to enjoy food at 1000 feet over the sights of London. This is ultimate memory-making fast food!

Instagrammable dining ventures to suburbia

Bland chains watch out – immersive dining is branching out

Immersive dining, we’re all familiar with it, unique foods in beautiful settings, offering visionary experiences (and many a photo-opportunity). Think venues like The Alchemist, Sketch and Sushi Samba. They’ve been must-visit destinations in so many of our cities for so long.

So why are we talking about them now? Well… they’re stepping out of the bright city lights and making waves in suburbia. New and exciting spaces have popped up all over the place – outside of city centres, way out, where the likes of Zara and craft-coffee vans haven’t dared venture.

Perhaps it all started when elevated chain concepts like Bill’s and The Cosy Club, born in vibrant cities like Brighton and Bristol, set up shop in leafy towns. Breaking the monotony of bland pizza chains.

The Cosy Club branches beyond Bristol 
Bill’s has over 80 branches outside of London 

Then, favourite restaurants started to up their game – ambitious menus and interiors to match – with velvet armchairs and weird and wonderful wall art. You really know you’ve made it when a restaurant in your town offers sensory cocktails or installs a flower wall.

Cocktails make memories in The Old Coffee Tavern, Warwickshire
All the gins of a city bar in a cosy setting at Smoke and Liquor, Rochester
Charming, unique twists on food and décor at Coffee Architects, Leamington Spa
Feel-good vibes and immersive Indian street food at Zindiya, Moseley Village
Chic interiors immerse you at Copper House, Berkhamsted
Flower walls and stained class up the ante in The Abbey, Hertfordshire

Next, we saw an influx of unique twists on favourite concepts. We’ve seen loads just round the corner from our offices, the likes of The Pudding Stop with their Sunday film nights, The Foragers pub countryside walks to forage for your dinner and sensory cocktails from Suckerpunch. There are hundreds more all over the country…

Visionary eateries in leafy locations

Now, we reach an exciting time when truly immersive eateries and bars are launching in suburbia – visionary experiences everywhere! Here are a few of our favourites.

Fun at Indian Brewery in Solihull
Wow moments at The Florist in Watford
The Cliff House in Barton breathes new life into ‘cosy pub’
Immersive theatre at Elder and Wolf in Whitley Bay
Ultimate escape in the garden kitchen at Llys Meddyg, Newport

So what does this mean for highstreet eateries?

Not everyone has to be part of the frenzy to survive. We predict our quest for authenticity will see locals thrive, including those bucking the Insta trend, with relatively simple menus and humble environments. Food and drink to be passionate about, human touches, captivating and inspirational owner stories, proud staff, carefully selected suppliers – very little can compete with that, even a floor to ceiling flower wall.

Following a spell of closures from previously popular dining options (Jamies, Prezzo, Byron and Carluccios) we imagine big chains will continue to struggle. On one hand they miss the mark on beautiful, visionary, Insta-ready experiences and on the other, they fall short on authenticity, real charm and cosiness of local favourites. It’s hard to see how these brands can win either battle; commercially creating incredible experiences for every customer, in every branch requires an eye-watering high investment – and attempts at feeling authentically local can look fake and try hard. Instead, we believe one strategy to win, will be to invest in a few magical touches where it matters most a la Pret. For dining chains the real battle ground will be understanding how to connect through visionary experiences – paired with the sharp business mind  to maximise impact, getting the biggest bang for your buck.

Goodbye shopping – hello experience spaces

Two of the biggest tech players, Samsung and Microsoft, opened new flagship spaces in London last month. One thing they definitely have in common….. they offer so much more than shopping alone. These are experience spaces on a grand scale – oozing innovation and play. Whilst Samsung invites you to connect with your passions through a jam-packed series of events, Microsoft invites you to learn new skills for free in its Community Theatre. Both brands bring the capabilities of tech to life through interactive, memory-making moments with AR, gaming and simulation. Plus, this isn’t all about the tech – the staff working here share the passion for the new possibilities technology provides and the know-how to solve our tech problems and transform our lives.

Not seen them yet? Take a look in our galleries below

Microsoft – Oxford Circus

Samsung KX – Coal Drops Yard

Kokoro Cuts – best of July

A round-up of the best new experiences and campaigns we’ve seen on our travels. Here’s what you need to know about

Microsoft launches its first UK store with community focus (it’s not just a shop)

July saw two big tech giants launch experiential spaces in the UK – Microsoft and Samsung. Microsoft’s first ever UK flagship is impressive, not so much architecturally, but more because of the community focus. Yes it has an incredibly impressive gaming lounge but it also has a Community Theatre for students, parents and small businesses for lots of free learning. It’s great to see a brand put the emphasis on how it can help foster relationships with the community, and put its colleagues centre stage in delivering this, rather than just provide immersive experiences through tech.

Samsung launches the ultimate ‘experience space’ (no, it’s not a shop)

Samsung KX has just opened its doors in Kings Cross. Adamant that this is so much more than a shop Samsung has even put this message at the heart of its campaign “It’s not a shop. It’s a place you can #DoWhatYouCant”. The space is impressive architecturally but with all the friendly colleague faces to bring warmth to a sleek interior. It’s all about experiences – it gives people the freedom to try their hands at things like digital graffiti, DJing, the future of driving… plus the opportunity to connect with your passion through a plethora of daily talks and events.

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Converse goes beyond the sustainability headlines

There are a lot of hyped-up headlines at the moment about brands jumping on the sustainability wagon as the Fashion industry looks to clean up its act. Most high street brands have upped the ante on sustainable ranges in the last couple of months. ASOS even has a ‘sustainable filter on its app! But looking beyond the headlines its Converse that really sticks out with its credible, honest stance. Its latest campaign has emotive creatives, a really decent product range (this isn’t eco bland basics) and an incredibly transparent and simple 3-step process of how plastic bottles are transformed into great product. This is what consumers want – 0% effort, 100% feel-good.

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$50 boxes of cereal – this is value in 2019!

Who on earth would have thought of a collaboration between Travis Scott and Reese’s Puffs. Then who would have thought that an arty pop up at Paris Fashion Week could promote it. This collaboration has created quite a stir for an old American favourite. At $50 a box (yes we did say that correctly) you could have got your hands on a Travis Scott designed box for a mere 50 seconds before they all sold out! This is a fun way to create a surprise buzz and get big social coverage.  Reese’s Puffs’ official Twitter tweeted: “Missed your shot? Follow @trvisXX + @ReesesPuffs for more to come.”

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Genius timely ad from Country Life

We just had to include this clever advert which manages to link butter to a feeling of Freedom by playing on May’s confession that the naughtiest thing she ever did was run through fields of wheat…. Great timing ensured this had maximum impact.

Applications for the fan club now open

Why feel-good ambassadors deliver the greatest return in customer experience

As consumers seek experiences and generally become harder to please, the best brands are saying goodbye to staff, and hello to brand ambassadors.

Simple smiles win

Brands full of staff who are happy and proud in their work really shine. We’re drawn to positivity. Those serving us in Nando’s, Virgin Atlantic and Apple radiate feel-good. They bring an extra spark to the experience.

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Fanatics charm us

A sense of genuine passion for the brand and product brings authenticity. True brand ambassadors exude energy, and it’s contagious. Think Lego store, full of those proudly still in love with their childhood favourite. Book worms in Waterstones, beauty addicts in Sephora, animal lovers in Pets at Home, the wanderlusts in Kuoni – wow, because we’re all drawn to passion. It makes such a difference. The Harry Potter Studio tour would be a very different experience if it wasn’t guided by mega fans.

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Drama seduces

One of the biggest buzz words in customer experience is ‘theatre’ – but what does that really mean? Well John Lewis recently hit headlines for sending their staff to drama school – teaching the tools and techniques of the stage to ensure every customer interaction is as magical as possible. When we visited we could absolutely feel the difference. Turns out, there really is a little theatre in us all.

Empowerment builds bonds

Independent, liberated teams glow. Brands who empower staff are renowned for brilliant service, Lush and Pret are great examples. Lush colleagues are genuinely passionate about the cause, know products inside out and there’s a real sense they love what they do. They are well cared for too, with incredible company-wide parties and celebrations which show them just how valued they are. But the real genius for us is the ‘surprise and delight’ budget staff are in control of. They can give customers gifts and do incredible product displays (writing off sellable stock) all to create theatre and memorable moments. Pret have something similar, a big charitable cause for staff to be passionate about, but also the ability to give away freebies. The key is these give-aways and gifts lead to customer wow-moments – but crucially are the choice of colleagues. They are in control. It’s powerful and that feel-good oozes in the experience.

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Going against the grain gains traction

Lush hit headlines by taking a stance on social media. Tired of the fake, robotic game of algorithms, they wanted to hero authenticity and real community. So they are no longer on social media, instead their staff cultivate the feeling of closeness opening dialogue in human ways like email, telephone and face-to-face in stores. The revolution has begun.

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Fancy a chat at 9pm? Sorry, **insert vague excuse here**

Why are we still loyal? We explore why we’re so connected and invested in Love Island

There’s those who swear they won’t tune in but end up getting hooked, those who pretend to ‘watch it if it’s on’ but really they started the count-down 2 weeks early, and those who are so addicted they’re lost on Saturday nights. For loads of us, Love Island is totally our type.

Naturally there’s lots to connect with on the show, beautiful young things in a glorious setting is an easy watch and it’s on almost every day so that regular drum beat keeps us engaged. Even though we’ve seen similar stories play out time and time again, the drama never stops giving. “Tonight on Love Island…” and we’re already excited.  We love the grafting, the texts, the toe stepping, the head turning, the recoupling, the debates on girl code and a juicy challenge (more twitter reveals please). It even widens our vocabulary! But there must be more to it than that, if someone asked me if I had a spare hour each day this summer to squeeze something else into my schedule, I’d roll my eyes, but somehow, I always manage to make time to for a trip to the villa. This show isn’t a pretty drama, its emotions run much deeper than that.

Connection is probably the Islanders most over-used word. We examine what makes us connect and take a look what drives us to be so emotionally invested in the show.

All-seeing audiences

As the audience we really get the measure of people – we know the two-faced, those really falling for each other, the starting of a feud before anyone in the villa. This connects us, because we like holding knowledge of course, but also because we can predict the drama. We’re constantly creating our own trailers and teasers in our minds for what will happen next, very few shows give us so many tools to do this.

Revealing our own boundaries

Glued to Love Island WhatsApp groups for live updates on friends’ reactions during the show and distraction over ad breaks. And if we’re not nattering on WhatsApp we’re doing it in person – watching with our partner, family or friends. Other addictive TV shows don’t see quite the same behaviours. Love Island helps us learn about our own relationships and boundaries, we can test each other without having a tricky conversation or picking a fight. Watching others navigate the highs and lows of friendship and dating allows us to see how our nearest and dearest would react – what they think is fair game, snaky or immature. We’re drawn to this, because we love to know where our nearest and dearest heads are at.

“He shouldn’t have said that in front of everyone”

“I agree”

**follows with a warm glow of aren’t we on the same page**

Compare to:

“He shouldn’t have said that in front of everyone”

“She’s such hard work though, I think she was out of line”

“???!!!!”

**follows with hitting the pause button and a bicker over how hard it is to be the one to put yourself out there

Validation for our fears and reactions

Emotions run high – every episode there’s tears or tantrums. We’re intrigued by this. We’ve all had moments where we haven’t been our best selves. Seeing these reactions validated as normal by watching others do similar, is a nice feeling. Getting a slightly smug reassurance as others do far worse than us can also feel nice.

Meme afterparty

For at least half an hour after watching the drama unfold we’re scrolling through Twitter and Insta. Not only are the comments and memes hilarious – they further validate our own reactions. The meme afterparty is open to everyone and helps us feel like we belong.

We are all Iain Stirling

Iain’s sharp commentary is the reality check every viewer needs. Quick to highlight oddities and contradictions – we often find ourselves making similar comments simultaneously or regularly thinking how spot on he is. Iain is important, he’s the down-to-earth voice in a glossy, image-obsessed show. Which means we all feel connected, not alienated, even if we are watching it while wearing a facemask, in our PJs, binging on ice cream.

Kokoro Cuts – best of June

A round up of the best new experiences and campaigns we’ve seen on our travels. Here’s what you need to know about

Marketing with Pride (not just rainbows)

June was Pride Month and as 2019 marked the 50th anniversary there was an explosion of brands launching new campaigns, products and events to show their support. Many brands got it wrong – with token efforts or bizarre rainbow redesigns (think Pride antiseptic mouthwash from Listerine!) rather than real authentic commitment to the LGBT+ community. Here’s two campaigns that made a strong stand. Converse once again launched one of the most impressive Pride product collections. What makes this different to other brands is that a huge 100% of proceeds of sales are donated to several supportive LGBT+ organisations. Sephora wanted to do more than just sell colourful Pride make-up (which it also does very well) so it launched a campaign called ‘Identify As We’ which features big members of the LGBTQA, transgender and gender-fluid community. The video to their campaign ends with the words “We Belong to Something Beautiful” which reflects the company’s new manifesto – including a mandate to build a community “where diversity is expected, self-expression is honoured, all are welcomed, and you are included”.

Source: Converse

Empowering women’s football campaigns

June marked the most anticipated Women’s World Cup in history. As interest in the sport surges brands have most definitely jumped on the bandwagon. Tubular Insights claims that in the past 90 days, Women’s World Cup-related content scored 71.2M views across social video platforms. It’s sad that England are no longer in the running but there’s been some cracking campaigns to encourage nations to get behind the sport. Here’s our top three. Nike’s “Dream Further” campaign is truly empowering and has racked up a whopping 20.2million views since it was released on its twitter account. Lucozade Sport launched their moving #ThreeLionesses campaign and re-wrote the 3 lions song. It also released 16m special edition bottles featuring members of the England squad. ING’s commercial for the Dutch women’s football team “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us” does a great job to capture the energy, grit and determination of the sport and its players.

Primark’s truly instagrammable Central Perk café

Don’t just sell coffee – sell an iconic experience that is sure to draw in crowds and end up in their memories. We dare you to follow the footsteps of Primark and create something as ‘Instagrammable’ as their Friends throwback Central Perk café. Everything from the coffee cups to the pieces of art, the iconic orange sofa and famous window scene create opportunities for Primark to end up on your social media account! See more in our gallery

Customers’ dangerous desire for everlasting (self) love

It feels everywhere we turn, we’re encouraged to be kind to number one, open up about mental health, strive for balance and prioritise self-care. We ask, in a bid for self-love, are we creating another unattainable standard?

On the surface, it’s tricky to see how talking about feelings and being kinder to ourselves can be anything but good. It’s making us more understanding to one another; we’re no longer plugging such a strict view on ‘perfect’. By opening up, we’ve given permission to talk about tricky topics, fewer people are suffering alone and more feel supported. These feelings are sparking real action as more of us question and critique messages that threaten our ‘be kind’ manifesto.

Our image of self-love is actually piling on the pressure

The reality of prioritising exercise, committing to a natural skin care regime, practicing mindfulness, running a side-hustle, living in the moment, joining the crusade to be kind to others, doing our bit for body positivity and opening up about our feelings can be overwhelming. Especially, as to truly nail this self-love standard we have to make it look natural, authentic and effortless a la Meghan Remarkable.

We predict we’ll reach tipping point soon

We’ve created a new aspiration, it might sound more wholesome and healthy than those we’ve had in the past, but it’s certainty not easy.

Self love will become a new way to critique ourselves, we’ll see consumers snap. We already seeing ‘30 day self-love challenges’ and ‘self love hacks’. How long before we hear the phrase ‘I’m really falling behind on my self-care” or start downloading self-love tracker apps?

We’ll look to brands to help us navigate

We believe some brands will win by feeding the frenzy – making it easier for us to achieve Markle-status. We suspect subscription models, services which advise and curate for us, propositions built around easy multi-tasking will soar in popularity. Helping us achieve the impossible.

We imagine the brand to re-calibrate this and liberate us from the new unattainable aspiration, will thrive. Our money is on brands who play in the empowerment space, like Nike. Which breaks down our image of greatness, democratising fitness with liberating perspectives – summed up in their crusade, ‘if you have a body you are an athlete’.

Our unique work with emotions tells us this sense of freedom is one of the most transformational feelings we possess. We help brands reimagine customer propositions to do just this.