Dell is unveiling a new proof-of-concept laptop that offers a glimpse at how gadgets of the future could be designed with electronic waste minimization in mind—if and when the company begins to mass-produce the type of easily repairable and recyclable components the computer contains.

The prototype laptop is a new iteration of Concept Luna, the modular device blueprint that Dell first introduced around this time last year. The new model takes the easily repairable and sustainable design embodied in that version a step further with a laptop that can be completely assembled and disassembled in minutes, its parts easily clicking into place without screws or adhesives.

Each component is marked with a QR code that can be scanned to check its health and usage status, eliminating the need to throw out an entire otherwise working device when one part begins to wear out or malfunction. The ability to easily isolate each piece of the system would also make it easier to recycle, Dell’s engineers said, creating a closed loop of reuse known in sustainability spaces as circular design.

While Dell is still a long way from bringing Concept Luna to market, the project is part of a larger effort on the computer giant’s part to hit a series of ambitious climate milestones structured to bring the company to net-zero emissions by 2050. Reducing e-waste is a big part of that goal; the World Economic Forum estimates that the world produced 63.3 million tons of electronic waste in 2021—more than the mass of the Great Wall of China. Only around 17.4% of that sum was likely recycled.

“The e-waste problem in the world is only growing; it’s one of the single most problematic environmental issues that face us today,” said Page Motes, Dell’s head of global sustainability.

Right now, Dell’s efforts towards tackling that problem are focused on making consumers more aware of how to properly dispose of their devices or parts earlier on in the purchase process. “What we’re trying to do is educate our customers and offer more services and solutions to our customers to get that product back and have those conversations at the beginning of the cycle, not at the end of the cycle,” Motes said.

The company also has a long track record of publishing repair guides for its products online. But the latest iteration of Concept Luna would take that repairability to the next level. Dell has created a micro-factory consisting of robot arms that can assemble and dissemble the computer while assessing the wear and tear of each part and diagnosing problems. The system also includes a machine learning algorithm that can evaluate whether a replacement keyboard is needed.

As for why this type of modular design isn’t the industry standard today, Dell distinguished engineers and system architect Trevor Morrison said it is a matter of priority within each company’s engineering departments. Some might focus more on the thinness of the product that requires a different type of adhesive or a low overhead cost for parts or another area of focus that precludes modularity. Dell is hoping its companywide mandate to prioritize sustainability can now make that a bigger factor in guiding product design.

While Dell has no fixed roadmap for bringing Concept Luna to market, Motes said the next steps will likely entail soliciting feedback from prospective customers on the latest design. But whether or not Concept Luna ever actually makes it to market in the same form, Motes said the company plans to use it as a guiding vision for sustainable design.

“Next, we’re going to get a lot of conversations going like, ‘What would this look like in a corporate IT department? What would this look like for Dell to use?’ We want to get more feedback,” Motes said. “But what is very, very clear is that whether or not it’s one-for-one every single feature you see in this Luna or some version of it, I’m confident that we’re going to see a cascading effect of these kinds of innovations in the future product.”

The news and culture publisher BuzzFeed Inc., which houses the editorial titles BuzzFeed News, Complex and HuffPost, announced Tuesday that it is laying off around 12% of its workforce, or roughly 180 employees, according to a memo from chief executive Jonah Peretti obtained by Adweek.

The layoffs, which primarily affect Complex Networks, BuzzFeed.com and overlapping roles in sales, technology and studio production divisions, come amidst a series of sweeping cuts throughout the media industry.

Prompted by a downturn in the advertising market, BuzzFeed Inc. joins publishers such as Morning Brew, Protocol, BDG, Recurrent Ventures, CNN and others in trimming their headcount.

BuzzFeed Inc., in particular, has struggled to adapt to a shifting digital ecosystem, as the social platforms it relies on for traffic have pivoted to promote vertical video, according to Peretti.

“We’re taking these actions because our revenues are being impacted by a combination of worsening macroeconomic conditions, and the ongoing audience shift to short-form, vertical video, which is still developing from a monetization standpoint,” he wrote in the memo.

Complex Networks bears the brunt of the layoffs

The cuts disproportionately affected Complex Networks, the culture publisher that BuzzFeed Inc. acquired in December 2021 as part of its entrance into the public markets via a special acquisition company.

Since going public, BuzzFeed Inc. has seen the price of its stock drop from $10 per share to around $1.10, a decline that has prompted it to cut costs amid pressure from investors. The publisher also laid off staff earlier this year in March.

In his note, Peretti pointed to the high degree of overlapping roles between BuzzFeed Inc. and Complex Networks as the explanation for why the majority of the cuts came from Complex Networks.

“Over the past 11 months, we also learned there are more opportunities to centralize—and to share resources and insights across our portfolio of brands,” he wrote.

The cuts come two weeks after the completion of ComplexCon, the largest event in the BuzzFeed Inc. experiential portfolio.

The publisher also announced its intention to expand its events footprint in 2023, taking ComplexCon global and launching a series of new activations based on popular franchises such as Tasty and First We Feast.

The grim news adds a further chapter to an increasingly bleak winter for the media industry, whose stability has faltered as marketers withhold their ad spend in light of economic uncertainty.

Mattel is rolling out a new marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as it looks to expand its digital collectibles business.

The toy giant is launching a platform called Mattel Creations this week on the Flow blockchain where fans will be able to buy digital art tied to classic products like Hot Wheels and Barbie. The marketplace’s inaugural collection will be the latest set in the brand’s Hot Wheels NFT Garage Series, which the company claims to have had success in the previous three releases.

“In launching our own marketplace, we’re able to translate iconic Mattel IP into digital art,” said Ron Friedman, vice president of the Mattel Future Lab. “This is the latest evolution of our digital endeavors, and we look forward to sharing more drops soon inspired by some of the world’s favorite Mattel brands.”

This creates incredible value for our vibrant collector community

Ron Friedman, Mattel Future Lab

The launch comes as NFT technology has faced uncertainty amid months of slumping sales and a crash in the cryptocurrency market triggered by the collapse of major exchange FTX. But Friedman said the brand remains focused on delivering a digital collectible that stands apart from market volatility and offers fans some form of real-world utility.

“Mattel remains undeterred in our long-term vision to innovate and deliver value to our customers,” Friedman said. “While market volatility is out of our control, we are in control of our product and user performance, and excited to continue building best-in-class digital experiences that pioneer the future of play and create stronger relationships with our community.”

Friedman said Mattel’s Hot Wheels NFTs, which sell in $25 packs and include a voucher for a physical die-cast model, have sold out instantly in each of the brand’s previous releases.

“Our Hot Wheels digital collectibles, which are different from most other projects in the space, are built on solid collection dynamics,” he said. “This creates incredible value for our vibrant collector community using, for example, IRL redemption opportunities to exclusive die-cast cars that they love.” 

Mattel has also seen success with a collection based around Barbie in collaboration with luxury fashion brand Balmain and a collection called Masters of the Universe in collaboration with designer Cryptoys. The company plans to further flesh out its Mattel Creations platform with a new Barbie collection later this year in a team-up with women in tech organization Boss Beauties.

The marketplace is designed to appeal to people outside the crypto community with features accessible to mainstream consumers and no requirement that the buyer pay in cryptocurrency.

As the initial wave of hype in the NFT space seems to subside, many brands still committed to the tech are doubling down on turning tokens into loyalty programs, building in real-world experiences and rewards or tying them to valuable intellectual property.

The metaverse is still in its extremely early stages of development—it feels almost like a party that just started.

It’s an exciting time, but also leaves room for many questions and paradigms. How does its audience grow? How can it improve upon issues in the current iteration of the internet? Companies are focusing on a human-centered development paradigm with an almost anti-Big Tech attitude.

This episode of Metaverse Marketing explores how Web3 and Meta can reach more skeptical audiences and how marketers can get involved with its development.

Stream the Season 2 finale below, listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or find it on Spotify.

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Cannabis retailer Verilife, breaking new ground in mainstream sports, has signed a year-long sponsorship with the Chicago Wolves that will put the company’s dispensary brand front and center at the hockey champ’s televised games.

The deal, a first between a professional team and a cannabis marketer, will stretch from the Wolves’ home stadium, Allstate Arena, to eight Chicago-area stores in Verilife’s chain to both partners’ digital and social platforms.

It was seamless because we had a template. We’d been building those muscles already.

—Erika Salgado Guerra, CMO, PharmaCann

The alliance is a coup for Verilife and its parent company, multistate operator PharmaCann, given the Wolves’ high-profile status as the recent Calder Cup winners in the American Hockey League. (It was the third championship since 2002). More than 900,000 fans attend and watch games, cumulatively, per season.

The announcement could also be a harbinger of things to come, happening on the heels of MLB’s precedent-setting deal with CBD maker Charlotte’s Web. 

Breaking the grass ceiling

Though it’s not the major leagues—the Wolves are an affiliate of NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes—it’s a pioneering move from a cannabis company that has already collaborated with a sports legend. In summer 2021, Verilife signed beloved former Chicago Cubs star and Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg as a local celebrity spokesman.

“Ryne opened the door for us, and these are baby steps but, if done properly, they can be a big step for where the industry is going,” Erika Salgado Guerra, chief marketing officer at PharmaCann, told Adweek. “Cannabis combining efforts with a smaller league is how we’ll get to the future.”

In fact, the Wolves approached Verilife after watching the Sandberg partnership for the last year-plus. The meeting between the retailer and the hockey team’s officials was “love at first sight,” said Salgado Guerra, who spent nearly 15 years at PepsiCo, calling it “one of the fastest approvals” in her career.

“It was seamless because we had a template,” she said. “We’d been building those muscles already.”

Beyond the Jumbotron 

The brand will have a significant presence on-site at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, including the Jumbotron, scoreboard, digital banners, dashboards, LED screens and televisions in concourses and suites.

As part of the “advertising takeover,” Verilife will be mentioned during on-air announcements—noting that the Rosemont dispensary is within walking distance of the stadium—and as part of the crowd favorite “noise meter,” Salgado Guerra said.

There’s one caveat to the location-based hype: the word “cannabis” will be absent, per regulations for an audience that’s made up of all ages, including kids and families.

The retailer gets coveted real estate on the Wolves’ 70,000-strong email lists and banners on the team’s website. On-site hospitality means that Verilife can entertain suppliers, clients and friends on game days.

The sponsorship—which has an option to renew after a year—includes a “Score for Charity” component that raises money for a local nonprofit, Facing Forward to End Homelessness.

Verilife, which leans heavily on digital and experiential marketing, has been digging deeper into sports and music as ways to reach cannafans and potential customers. 

Though experiential activations haven’t been planned yet, they could include events and merchandise with the Wolves’ players, focused mostly on the Rosemont store.

“This is a big brand awareness and engagement play,” Salgado Guerra said. “And we’re going to use it to build positive associations with the Wolves’ fans.”

Online thrift shop ThredUP is tapping Fran Drescher to helm its first-ever holiday collection made up entirely of low-priced, secondhand clothing items.

The assortment of apparel and other gifts was inspired by the star’s personal style and spans everything from scarves, bucket hats and scrunchies to pet beds and bowls, in addition to a set of looks inspired by Drescher’s 1990s sitcom, The Nanny. The CBS series has enjoyed new popularity among Gen Z and millennials, who discovered the show on streaming services.

To curate and design the collection, which drops Nov. 15, ThredUP teamed with sustainable designer Zero Waste Daniel, which uses pre-consumer waste from New York City’s Garment District and other hard-to-recycle items destined for landfills to create his apparel lines. ThredUP will donate 20% of the proceeds from the collection’s sales to Drescher’s charity Cancer Schmancer, which aids efforts to improve cancer prevention and early detection.

“I love the ethos of this collection,” Drescher said in a statement. “This holiday season, it’s so important to consider buying gifts that are planet-friendly and give back.”

The ecommerce company paired the release with a survey it commissioned from research firm GlobalData, which found that 71% of consumers are looking to be less wasteful this holiday season while around three quarters of millennials are looking for more eco-friendly gifts.

Around 66% of the consumers surveyed said giving secondhand items as holiday gifts is now more socially acceptable than it was five years ago.

“As one of the largest online thrift stores, we are committed to thinking creatively about how we can recirculate and make use of every single item that comes through our doors,” said ThredUP vp of integrated marketing Erin Wallace. “We also love a fashion throwback, so we decided to marry two of our favorites: secondhand clothes transformed into new looks, and unforgettable ’90s fashion.”

ThredUP, which has ridden a growing appetite for secondhand goods among young people to become one of the largest companies in the online used apparel space, reported quarterly results this week that missed analyst expectations on earnings per share but beat them on revenue amid a tough economic environment for ecommerce companies.

If you’ve been on TikTok within the last 18 months, you’ve come across the various videos of young women going through the sorority recruitment at their universities process describing their outfits. The common denominator was one brand: Kendra Scott jewelry.

As the videos started to gain more attention, the Kendra Scott team showed them to their eponymous founder, who was amazed by what was going on across the social platform.

Adweek digital editor and host Colin Daniels sits down with Amy Young, vp of brand marketing at Kendra Scott. Young shares how the brand is reacting to the popular videos, leveraging user-generated content and marketing to its younger audience.

Stream the new episode below, or listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or iHeartRadio.

Discord now allows desktop users to share emoji reactions while participating in voice chats. By sharing one of these “voice channel reactions,” users can react to a conversation in real time without interrupting the person currently speaking.

Our guide will show you how to use voice channel reactions on Discord.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Discord application on Mac.

Step 1: While viewing your active voice channel, click the smiling face icon at the bottom of the Discord app. Note: This menu will disappear after a few seconds, but you can move your mouse to make it reappear.

Step 2: Click one of the suggested emoji, or click the “Find the perfect emoji” search bar to search for an emoji manually. Once you click an emoji, the emoji animation will play on top of your user tile in the voice channel.

In this week’s episode of CMO moves, Shake Shack’s Jay Livingston speaks with Adweek’s creative and inclusion editor Shannon Miller. Like many, Livingston thought business school was necessary to become an executive. He never ended up taking that route, instead working his way through Bank of America, where he eventually left to become CMO of BARK.

Livingston joins Miller at Brandweek 2022 in Miami where they discuss his journey as a marketer and how he approaches growing and building a marketing strategy.

Stream the below, listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or find it on Spotify.