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Designers in Quarantine Now Have Their Own Set of Relatable Emojis
Seemingly every part of our lives can be split up into two categories: pre-March 11 and post-March 11 (this date in particular stands out as the day Tom Hanks revealed his Covid-19 diagnosis, President Trump announced his European travel ban and the NBA suspended its season). Let’s now toss something as silly as emojis into that deep bucket of things that have changed. &Walsh, the design agency launched by famed designer Jessica Walsh, is behind this fun creative quarantine exercise.
See them: If you’ve been craving a client budget as roll of toilet paper emoji, now’s your chance.
More Quarantine Creativity: Smirnoff Repurposes Summer Campaign to Send a Quarantine Message
And this is how you pivot a campaign: Smirnoff was ready to go hard on patriotism this summer with a red, white and blue star-studded extravaganza. It didn’t go as planned because, well you know why. So instead of ditching the campaign, Smirnoff used the faces of the original spot, soccer star Megan Rapinoe, actor/wrestler Dave Bautista, and actresses Laverne Cox and Diane Guerrero to do inner monologues about the importance of staying home.
Updated Retail Outlook: 10 New Predictions for 2020
At the end of 2019, retail experts clued us into what they thought the industry would look like in 2020. Those predictions are largely moot at this point, but here’s a few of the things they said:
- Walmart and Target followed Amazon’s lead in creating a media network in 2019. They predicted this year would bring additional media networks by retailers.
- Stores would invest in brick-and-mortar to boost shopping experiences.
- Personalization would increase.
Last week, senior writer Lisa Lacy spoke to the same experts for their updated takes, which include booming contactless transactions, as well as massive transformations for fulfillment models and online pickup of orders.
Read it: Get all the predictions for a heavily disrupted retail sector.
7 of This Week’s Most Telling Marketing Stats, From Booming Flour Sales to Gen Z’s Spending Habits
Let’s play a game: Real or Fake Stat. We’ll give you three stats from last week, guess to yourself which of them are fake. The answer will be below the Best of the Rest section of links.
- U.S. TV ad spending will suffer a loss of between $10 billion and $12 billion in revenue in the first half of 2020.
- 20% of salaried American employees are having trouble sleeping.
- The ongoing Covid-19 crisis is projected to cost the travel industry $159 billion.
Read more: Check out 7 eye-popping marketing stats from last week.
As Once-Hyped Magic Leap Flounders, Agencies Say the AR Market Has Passed It By
Not too long ago, virtual reality headset maker Magic Leap looked poised to dominate a promising industry. Instead, VR hasn’t gone mainstream and smartphone innovations eliminated the need for a headset to enjoy augmented reality. Quarantine could have been Magic Leap’s big moment, but consumers remain underwhelmed by the product. The company is reportedly pivoting away from the consumer market and cutting 1,000 jobs—or about half its workforce.
Read more: Dive into what went long for the consumer VR and AR market.
Best of the Rest: Today’s Top News and Insights
Real or Fake answers:
https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/quarantined-emojis-an-updated-retail-outlook-mondays-first-things-first/
