Last Sunday, the premium workout center Equinox unveiled its biggest out-of-home (OOH) promotion to date dubbed “We don’t speak January.”

The nationwide campaign, created in collaboration with independent agency Collins, discourages irregular dedication in favor of continuous commitment. To drive home the point, the company blocked new clients who wanted to join the gym on January 1.

According to Will Mayer, the vice president, and executive creative director at Equinox, January is a farce. It’s a month full of mantras and affirmations that are only viable for only three weeks.  Equinox does not support the idea and instead embraces people who consistently push themselves to extremes. Equinox is an example of the idea that life is fashioned to extremes.

Equinox’s unusual new year message

When people visited Equinox’s website on January 1 to join up for the lavish gym, they were met with an unusual message.

“It’s not you, it’s January.”

The firm also described the month of January as “a fantasy, brought at your door in a box of pastel colors.”

“You are not a resolution for the new year. The beginning of the year is not the beginning of your life. Being a part of Equinox is not about that, ” read the message to the potential new members.

Equinox only allowed new registration on the second day of the month

The message’s final paragraph assured individuals interested in signing up that the gym was looking forward to welcoming them the next day.

To justify its position, the business shared a list of arguments for not allowing new clients to join in a photo on Twitter.

According to Mayer, the campaign represents a change from photographic advertisements to monochromatic language.  It disrupts and questions the conventions of the wellness sector.

Visual components with statements like “January promises and doesn’t deliver, we don’t speak January” and “January won’t text you back next month” will be displayed in clubs and on city streets across the country.

Online Reaction to the campaign

The gym chain’s posts has generated online criticism with the hashtag “#ItsNotFitnessItsLife.”

A Twitter user referred to the marketing ploy as “the cringiest flex in New Year’s history”.

Nevertheless, some people have praised the campaign on Twitter with one user referring to Equinox’s marketing as A+.

McDonald’s has launched its newest vegan burger in UK and Ireland from the plant-based company Beyond Meat, the Double McPlant, which has two patties.

It is unusual for a fast-food dish to get a better reception outside than inside the United States. 

Except for the random promotion, since 2013 Yum Brand’s KFC has excluded the Chicken Twister Wrap from their American menus. However, it’s a necessary component of its menu in nations like France and China. McDonald’s  Huge Wings were not a success when the chain attempted to introduce them in the United States in the 1990s or later in 2013. However, they are a popular and constant menu item in areas like Singapore and Hong Kong.

But McDonald’s attempt to embrace plant-based may be the biggest difference between the U.S. and practically every other country. While the McVeggie corn-and-pea patty has been available in places like India, Switzerland, and New Zealand since 2012, McDonald’s took its time introducing a plant-based burger in the United States.

There’s still a market for McPlant in some places

After promising customers a plant-based burger for years, McDonald’s eventually released one at the end of 2021. However, the company only observed a few sales of the McPlant. According to a BTIG analysis, popular eateries in California and Texas were barely selling 20 sandwiches a day.

The burger was developed in collaboration with Beyond Meat as a mixture of peas, rice, and potatoes. But it was intended to taste like beef.

McDonald’s began telling media outlets that the test had met expectations after a six-month trial. But the McPlant was missing on the menu on an ongoing basis.

Even while the McPlant’s American saga may be over, there is still a significant market for the sandwich elsewhere.

On January 4, the Double Double McPlant, will be available at the almost 1,400 McDonald’s restaurants in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The sandwitch consists of the same tomato, lettuce, and cheese on a bun sandwich but with two patties,

The normal McPlant became permanent in the UK in January 2022 after a trial run that was far more successful than in the US, and the Double McPlant will join the roster a year later.

According to Michelle Graham-Clare, chief marketing officer for McDonald’s UK and Ireland, the company had a tremendous reaction to the trial period back in October. Even now McPlant is in retail parks, on the high street, and in gas stations.

Why McPlant is doing better outside the US

Why then did something so well-liked overseas fail to catch on in the United States?

While there are several tales about how much Americans adore their actual meat, the truth is that rivals like Burger King, owned by Restaurant Brands International, have been effectively distributing plant-based burgers since 2015.

Through 2030, the U.S. plant-based market is still anticipated to expand at a compound annual rate of 19.3%.

However, the McPlant was launched at a period when consumer demand for alternative meat peaked and the market was overrun with a variety of goods.

As more companies have entered the alternative-meat market, Beyond’s stock price has plunged precipitously. Additionally, the high price of substitute meat is unquestionably a concern, especially when inflation is on the rise.

According to BTIG analysts Peter Saleh and Ben Parente, for McPlant to be more widely available, the price point needs to be more competitive with regular burgers, and the health and climate benefits need to have more emphasis.

It’s only been a month since Amazon announced plans to shut down its meal delivery service as a cost-cutting measure. The company has now debuted its Prime Gaming service in India. For current Amazon Prime and Video subscribers, Amazon Prime Gaming is a complimentary service. It offers games for mobile, PC, and Mac devices as well as free in-game purchases. New titles are also introduced each month.

Is Amazon Prime Gaming ideal for the Indian market?

Prime Gaming makes an Amazon Prime subscription, at just $18 per year in India, even more alluring. According to Rishi Alwani, a seasoned market analyst and communications manager,  it might have some “fascinating long-term impact” on Indian PC gaming.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, is just one of the titles that Prime Gaming offers. However, not many people may have thought to pick up and play yet. Considering the in-game content for well-known games like Modern Warfare 2 and Apex Legends, Amazon India is turning to gaming to maintain its increasing Prime subscriber market share.

Prime Gaming is Amazon’s recent effort to capture India’s lucrative market

The most recent Amazon service to launch in India is the gaming platform, as the e-commerce titan looks to take a bigger chunk of the lucrative market there.

By 2027, the $2.6 billion Indian gaming sector is expected to almost double to $8.6 billion.

To appeal to India’s expanding internet population with live and interactive content from influencers and content creators, it introduced the Amazon Live streaming platform in September.

Amazon Pay launched last year in an effort to capture a piece of the growing digital payments market.

However, recently the company said it would liquidate a number of its current operations and lay off employees as part of a global cost-cutting initiative.

Along with shutting down other specialized delivery services like bulk deliveries to small businesses, Amazon discontinued its meal delivery service Amazon Food, which worked like Uber Eats. According to media reports, several upcoming launches, including the Amazon Academy learning platform, would also be postponed.

Amazon’s struggle in the Indian market

Amazon has had some levels of success in India. But it has had difficulty competing effectively with domestic rivals such as Reliance Industries, Tata Group, and Walmart-owned Flipkart. It has also encountered regulatory challenges from Indian authorities.

When it first announced the closures, Amazon India stated that it would concentrate on its core business categories.

Volkswagen has brought back its renowned 2010 Dutch ad, which tells the tale of an elderly daredevil selling her Golf. This time, for the electric vehicle age.

The Volkswagen automaker’s most well-known advertising campaign to date is “Buying a Volkswagen from an Old Lady.” In the original commercial, a timid elderly woman tries to sell her Golf, which is then quality-tested by possible purchasers. As they examine the car, viewers are treated to flashbacks of the elderly woman racing her Golf. 

It is funny to observe the “seasoned” father assisting his son in purchasing the Volkswagen hatchback that appears to be in pristine shape. He frequently makes signals to imply how little such a grandmother probably drove her car. In other words, it has to be virtually new. That is a typical misunderstanding among many people trying to purchase used vehicles.

The tagline for the 2010 advertisement read, “Not every old lady is trustworthy, but fortunately, every Golf is.”

Volkswagen is bringing back the energy in 2022

The drama continues in the most recent episode, “Bring Back the Energy,” after the elderly woman sells her Golf. You don’t really know what you have until it’s gone. That’s her experience after separating from her beloved car. Everything in her life starts to make her feel depressed bringing back her happy memories with the Volkswagen.

She expresses her desire to be reunited with the Volkswagen car by visiting a showroom. The ad shows her inspecting a brand-new electric ID.4 GTX and showing excitement about being invited for a test drive. The all-electric GTX driving experience was ultimately the only thing she needed to revive her vitality.

The goal of the ad was to demonstrate how much harm a Golf could withstand and still maintain its flawless appearance. This expert campaign was released in Germany in December 2022 and was developed by the advertising agency DDB for the Volkswagen brand.

Pizza Hut has a new business model that’s targeting younger customers. The pizza franchise intends to transform its reputation as a special-occasion restaurant that attracts older consumers in the coming year.

Older Pizza Hut customers fondly recall the pizza franchise as the restaurant they frequented as youngsters after soccer games and where they used their Book It coupons for the last 64 years.

Offering value to younger customers to increase revenue

The company is aware that in order to sustain long-term revenue growth, it must draw in a younger demographic of consumers. Pizza Hut management believes that by competing in different eating situations and providing products that are portable and convenient, they will be able to draw in more younger customers.

 It is, therefore, offering younger customers menu options like the Pizza Hut Melt to attract those seeking value. Priced at $6.99, the portable foods resemble a hybrid of a quesadilla and a stromboli. The new Pizza Hut Melt is a part of a strategy to make the historic pizza restaurant more accessible to younger customers. It was launched in October 2022.

Additionally, the Pizza Hut Melt appeals to a segment that the company hasn’t had since the introduction of the individual diner.  Powell estimated that 45% of all fast-food meals are consumed by individual consumers. The  Melts are made with those customers in mind.

The company is also a sponsor of a college basketball feed, which has unique product connections and logo integrations.

Pizza Hut’s approach to increasing revenue

CEO Aaron M. Powell claims that the firm will increase revenues in 2023 through a three-pronged approach. 

• An open kitchen where customers can see their meals and the fresh product right in front of them. This creates an excellent first impression and enhances the customer experience.
• There is a lot of new technology. The pizza franchise is currently testing computerized takeout cabinets in Mexico as an example.
• Reduced capital costs, which the pizza delivery might help achieve. Assets geared towards delivery are being optimized for the delivery of takeaway. Takeaways have better paybacks and are less capital-intensive. 6,500 restaurants in the US are changing significantly and are already focusing more on delivery.

Boosting digital orders to target younger customers

Meanwhile, according to the Ad Exchanger website, Pizza Hut intends to increase its marketing budget for its loyalty program in order to increase online orders. Additionally, the business will put a lot of effort into CTV, an internet-connected device, or linked TV advertising. 

It’s no secret that Pizza Hut has traditionally been more well-liked by older people than by younger ones, and there are challenges with that. Powell wants the company to be as well known among his children as it is among his generation.

Meta-owned chat app, WhatsApp, has unveiled an emotive promotion ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations to showcase the value of personal bonds and how the platform unites loved ones all over the world. On New Year’s Eve, WhatsApp consistently breaks records for the volume of text messages and phone calls as users use the platform to connect with those who matter most.

This year’s campaign uses a very moving 90″ film directed by Nicolai Fugulsig to highlight the value of interpersonal bonds. It depicts the “Fireworks Within,” which touches on how people feel during a private one-on-one or group call over the holidays. 

WhatsApp enables private conversations amidst celebrations regardless of distance

“The Fireworks Within” commercial shows a variety of people texting, making video calls, and leaving voicemails for friends and family. A doctor is wrapping up his shift, a woman is taking a foot bath rather than relaxing on the beach with friends, and a mother is unable to be with her daughter owing to job obligations.

In India, Brazil, and the UK, the campaign will continue until the end of the year. To make it more prominent, Ketchum created several shorter films for online ads and a content deal with LadBible.

The campaign, created by AMV BBDO, highlights WhatsApp’s special role in enabling private conversations amid the most widely observed cultural event of the year.

A reminder of the value of personal bonds

While many people like the festivities, loudness, staying up until midnight, and fireworks, for others, the emotional reset of the New Year is not about staying up until midnight or having another drink. It’s about coming closer together by engaging in private texts and calls to reconnect with the people that they love the most.

“We wanted to remind people that the greatest thing about the new year is truly our connection with one another,” Andre Sallowicz, creative partner at AMV BBDO said. It’s not the external fireworks, but the interior ones that really count. And such often occur as soon as we get a touching message or call from a loved one, no matter how far away they are.

Want to know Chipotle’s Honey Vinaigrette recipe? Here’s your chance.

On Wednesday, Chipotle welcomed their customers to donate to the RoundUp for Real Change initiative to help The Farmlink Project, a charity that sends vegetables to food banks that assist underserved communities.

You and other Chipotle Fans will soon, therefore, know the nine secret ingredients that make up its popular “Honey Vinaigrette” sauce. But there’s a catch — you will be required to first assist the company in hitting its goal of donating up to 20 million pounds of foodstuff to those in need this winter.

Chipotle’s partnership with The Famlink Project to distribute foodstuff

More than 34 million Americans, experience food insecurity, which is characterized by a lack of regular, dependable access to enough food for an active, and healthy life. The Farmlink Project will help distribute the foodstuffs received to the top 20 US cities with the worst food insecurity, including Augusta, Georgia, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Albuquerque, and New Mexico. 

Since Chipotle started assisting The Farmlink in 2020, more than 40 million pounds of produce have been donated. For instance, Chipotle assisted The Farmlink in presenting 185,000 pounds of food to Fort Myers, Florida, following Hurricane Ian.

According to Chris Brandt, chief marketing officer of Chipotle, the company is a clear restaurant leader in local sourcing. Last year alone, it managed to purchase over 35 million pounds of local vegetables.

This holiday season, the company has already committed to working with The Farmlink Project to deliver over 10 million pounds of vegetables to food banks throughout the US. However, the ultimate objective is to donate 20 million pounds of vegetables by the end of January 2023.

TikTok chef Nick DiGiovanni will share the chain’s Honey Vinaigrette recipe

The fast-food chain will share its vinaigrette recipe with the assistance of TikTok chef Nick DiGiovanni, who you may recognize as the youngest-ever finalist on “Master Chef” season 10. Additionally, he has around 20 million followers on social media. And he represents Farmlink.

According to the company, Chipotle’s vinaigrette alone also has a sizable following.

How can you participate?

If Chipotle customers’ contributions help hit the 20 million pound goal, the fast-food chain will reveal the recipe. 

Through January 31, you can round up your orders on the Chipotle app and Chipotle.com to the nearest dollar amount. You can also donate Chipotle Rewards Points by choosing The Farmlink Project as the recipient. That will be equivalent to a 30-pound contribution of food.

Google has debuted its first-ever 3D anamorphic billboard in Times Square, New York. Visitors to the town can now learn how to take their most convenient selfie using the new

In the ad, the animated Ludacris shows the hands-free capabilities of the foldable Samsung Z Flip 4’s Google Assistant. The phone offers the easiest and most convenient selfie solution ever.

“The Future Is Unfolding” campaign is continued with the digital OOH activation, which highlights the extraordinary capabilities of the foldable phone.

In the advertisement, Ludacris’ 3D avatar shows how to prevent the all-too-common “selfie-fail” by asking Google to take their selfies.

Partnership marketing to deliver the most convenient selfie

The 3D anamorphic billboard in Times Square featuring the Galaxy Z Flip 4, Google Assistant, and YouTube Music with the help of Ludacris is part of Google and Samsung’s ongoing partnership marketing push.

This ad campaign provides Google with the ideal chance to display its first 3D anamorphic billboard in the middle of Times Square. For Ludacris, it’s an opportunity to see his passionate character capture the attention of onlookers going about their daily routines.

Samsung might benefit the most from Google and Ludacris’ promotion of its newest product. The Google Assistant’s hands-free capabilities, which include the ability to take the most convenient selfies yet, are demonstrated by the activation on the foldable Samsung Z Flip 4 device.

The 3D ad for the best selfie

The content on a 3D anamorphic billboard can seem to be jumping out at you. That is what Google has used to continue the ad campaign.

In particular, the Flip 4 is in its “Flex mode” 90-degree upright position. The avatar of the dog on Ludacris’ “Word of Mouf” album features in the advertisement. The dog tries and fails to take a selfie using a normal phone that is standing at an angle. That’s not the first time Samsung has highlighted a pet’s physical prowess.

“Hey Google, play Stand Up by Ludacris,” the musician then requests as he enters the scene, a command that causes YouTube Music to launch.   After the next command, “take a selfie,” we then witness the phone taking some hands-free selfies. The ad demonstrates the 3D capabilities of the billboard in the demos that follow.

Designed in collaboration with Universal Music Group and design firm CEKAI, the advertisement is particularly eye-catching. The 3D billboard is located on the sidewalls of the New York Marriott Marquis, on Broadway between 40th and 45th Street.

Walmart has launched a free Text to Shop feature for users of iOS and Android, according to Dominique Essig, vice president of Conversational Commerce at Store No. 8. This comes a year after the

A user’s Walmart account connects to the Text to Shop feature, which is familiar with their usual purchases. Customers can text a generic product name, such as “cereal,” and the store will send details about the brand and variety that customers often order to the user’s cart. They will have the option of enabling and either changing, adjusting, or removing it.

Through the Walmart app or the text messaging service Text to Shop at Walmart, customers may check out their shopping carts. Customers can also schedule a pickup time or use delivery.

Text to shop feature is targeting all Walmart customers

Despite being a brand-new offering, Walmart’s Text to Shop is not the company’s first venture into text-based shopping.

In 2018, the business began testing a more pricey option known as Jetblack. The busy, affluent city people were the aim of the text-based support and shopping service. After being onboarded with an initial 10-minute phone conversation and maybe a house visit to further customize the experience, customers were able to text Jetblack with questions and requests. These requests and inquiries could be anything from placing common household goods to offering support for gifting suggestions. The service used a  blend of human and artificial intelligence.

However, Walmart stopped offering the service in 2020. According to a Walmart spokeswoman,  this happened as part of a plan to move the service from an “incubation” stage to Walmart’s bigger corporation. After the cancelation, the spokesperson said, they will focus on developing the concept.

Two years later, Walmart’s Text to Shop initiative appears to be living up to the retailer’s promise.

The newly launched feature is targeting all Walmart account holders, not only those with higher incomes.

Walmart’s Essig said, “We are aware that young professionals and busy families place a high value on opportunities to slow down and experience the present. That served as the inspiration for Text to Shop.”

The big picture

Mobile commerce is growing as a result of people interacting with companies more frequently on their phones. On Thanksgiving Day last month, 55% of online sales were made on a mobile device, according to Adobe Analytics. This was an all-time high, increasing by 8.3% over the past year. On Black Friday, mobile commerce surpassed another milestone, accounting for 48% of online purchases, up from 44% in 2021.

As the 2022 FIFA World Cup draws to a close, another match, Adidas VS Nike, is taking place in customers’ shopping carts. The brands are competing to win customers over and maximize their sales during the quadrennial event.

Nike is never too far from where Adidas is during a World Cup cycle, and the opposite is also true. The two brands are rival businesses with different ideas. Yet on this, football’s biggest sales battlefield, they share the same space and compete for the same territory.

As the World’s Cups main sponsor, does Adidas have mileage over Nike?

Adidas would appear to have an advantage being the event’s primary sponsor, but data from Refinitiv shows that Nike is competing favorably in the product pitch. A  lot of the equipment used in the competition including the game balls bears the Adidas label. It appears that this exposure is helping the brand since Adidas earnings are predicted to increase by 61.4% this quarter. Nike, on the other hand, sold out 23% of its World Cup products in the United States within two weeks, compared to Adidas at 11%. Since the World Cup began, Nike has had a far greater sell-out rate than Adidas.

Both businesses’  have almost similar size selections. Although not all of the 15 soccer teams are participating in the World Cup, Nike has 397 products from those teams listed on the National Teams area of its American website. On the other hand, Adidas has 380 items from 14 competing nations listed in the FIFA World Cup category.

England, France, the Netherlands, and Portugal are the top teams whose goods are in high demand in the United States. Only one of them, France, is still in the competition, which has been reduced to two finalists: Argentina, and France.

For its shirts and jerseys, which are the main merchandise for the games, Nike has a higher average price point than Adidas, at $71 vs $46. Due to the success of the World Cup, neither of the companies has had to significantly reduce its prices. However, Adidas has been giving a larger average discount of 9% in order to prevent inventory obsolescence. Adidas’ FIFA lineup included 27% reduced items at the time of Refinitiv’s investigation, but Nike’s clothing wasn’t marked down at all.

Nike is likely to win the World Cup sales match

Jharonne Martis, Director of Consumer Research at Refinitiv, said that compared to Adidas, Nike is selling out World Cup apparel faster and at a higher price in the U.S. Nike’s stock has also done well, indicating that it may be on the verge of scoring the decisive retail goal.

Aside from Saudi Arabia’s victory against

The sale and consumption of alcohol are strictly regulated in Qatar. The country is a Muslim nation that is seen as being particularly conservative. FIFA said in September that ticketed attendees would only be able to purchase alcoholic beverages three hours prior to kickoff and one hour after a match.

The world’s governing body of soccer decided to concentrate the sale of alcoholic beverages on the FIFA Fan Festival, and other fan attractions. It also eliminated beer sales stations from the outer perimeter of Qatar’s FIFA World Cup 2022 stadium and permitted establishments.

The alcohol ban put a kink in Budweiser’s World Cup marketing plans. The Qatar liquor ban had drastically reduced the company’s visibility to thousands of World Cup attendees. To remain relevant at a World Cup without alcohol, Budweiser used clever marketing strategies.

Budweiser’s clever marketing strategies against Qatar’s liquor ban

At first, things got awkward for the beer maker but the brand quickly managed to recover. After deleting its tweet “ Well, this is awkward ”, it came up with the following two strategies:

The business came up with a creative way to get rid of all the beer left on its hands.

It also promised that the winning nation would receive the tens of thousands of beers Budweiser could no longer sell, shifting the celebrations from Qatar to the winning team’s country.

Additionally, the company supplied Bud Zero, an alcoholic-free beer, to concession outlets and filled the stadiums with television commercials featuring football legends Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr.

Why the 2022 Budweiser campaign is not a loss for the brand

Budweiser gave FIFA $75 million in exchange for the sole license to sell beer in Qatar. It may have spent an additional $5 million for brewing, refrigeration, shipment, etcetera before the World Cup. The company will not be able to recover this money.

However, the negotiations for the 2026 World Cup will be Budweiser’s best opportunity for success, and here’s why. Due to the disaster in Qatar, the business may ask FIFA for a $47 million discount on its $112 million deal.

And for the record, not everyone in the stadiums kept sober. An American fan reportedly used a bottle of suntan lotion as a flask during the USMNT games.

Qatar will be hosting the FIFA World Cup 2022 through December 18.

With the adoption of the trompe l’oeil (optical illusion) technique by Our Legacy for its corduroy pants and Maison Margiela for its Reebok sneakers, the technology has quickly made its way into the world of fashion. Adidas is also creating optical illusions of its own modifying four renowned Three Stripes icons — The  Superstar, Stan Smith, Samba, and Forum Low to create Puffylette sneakers. 

These four upcoming hues of the Puffylettes are deceptive from every aspect and flawlessly capture the appearance of each of the sneakers mentioned above. They serve as a tribute to Adida’s heritage and design. At a distance, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell a pair from the genuine thing because of the style’s straightforward, nearly seamless build, which speaks well to the image of these particular classics.

 A global release won’t happen until later in 2023, despite the fact that it’s already available in Asia.

There’s more to the Adidas Puffylette than meets the eye 

The New Puffylette sneakers from Adidas have false print patterns that are inspired by vintage Adidas styles including the Samba, Superstar, Forum, and Stan Smith.

From a distance, the shoe appears to be a slightly oversized Samba sneaker in the image. The Puffylette, or Samba dupe, on the other hand, sports a Samba print on its quilted top, giving the appearance of the Adidas soccer shoe.

The other three Puffylette variants, naturally also use the same optical illusion.

The Adidas Puffylette have images of 360-degree plush tear-resistant uppers on them. PrimaLoft® insulation contributes to the warmth of the water-repellent uppers. The EVA midsole and outsoles used throughout the pack match the prints for a consistent appearance.

25% of the materials that creates the upper were created with at least 50% recycled material.

Adidas avoids the more significant environmental impact of generating virgin content by using recycled content. The content is created from production waste.

What’s Puffylette?

The Puffylette, which debuted in the second part of 2022, is essentially an Adidas puffer jacket for your feet. The Adidas variant has an insulated PrimaLoft-infused padded upper and a cushioned EVA midsole and outsole.

The Adidas adilette slide has expanded its universe to include slip-on shoes with stuffed animals, clogs, and seismic technology. The Puffylette is essentially a fluffy version of the slide.

Adidas enters the mind-trick fad in fashion with its most recent puffer shoe release. This follows Puffylette’s introduction in safe hues and traditional Three-Stripe patterns.

The slip-on came into the market as an upgrade to its Adilette slides and aims at increasing comfort. The most recent “Fake Printed” Pack honors the German sportswear company’s vintage footwear styles in addition to earlier offerings.

There are body print dresses, leather jeans, and now fake Samba mules. Fashion is quickly replacing “is it cake?”

It has been over 50 years since the invention of the barcode. It is widely used and nearly faultless. But that isn’t quite good enough for Amazon.

When an item enters an Amazon fulfillment center, staff members utilize barcodes to identify it at several points before it is transferred to a delivery vehicle. The problem is, every time, the items must be physically picked up in order to find and scan the barcode. Worse still, the barcode may occasionally be broken or completely absent.

Amazon has a vast collection of products in all sizes and forms, for which this process has to be repeated. Unfortunately, the process is difficult to automate. There is also currently no robot that can alter any item that enters a warehouse before being scanned.

For Amazon, the solution lies in  Improving or doing away with the barcode. Doing away with the cumbersome and ineffective manual item identification completely is a better idea. 

To achieve that, Amazon is using multimodal identification or MMID. To automate the identification, this technique leverages a variety of information modalities, such as extracting an item’s appearance and dimensions from its image.

Robots are not able to locate barcodes

While robots may be the way of the future, it appears that they are not very adept at exploiting a tried-and-true piece of technology: the barcode.  According to Amazon, robots aren’t particularly good at locating barcodes. The barcodes can be less discoverable or attached to unusually shaped objects.

To help robots ship your orders more quickly, Amazon has created a computer vision algorithm from scratch to recognize objects without barcodes.

As a result, Amazon has chosen to do away with the barcodes.

The camera system will work with robots

The e-commerce company has created a camera system that can record items traveling down conveyor belts one after the other, and ensure the items match their images in the Amazon warehouses.  Amazon’s AI specialists and roboticists hope to eventually integrate the technology with robots that can recognize objects while picking them up and rotating them around.

Nontas Antonakos, an applied science manager at Amazon’s computer vision group in Berlin, emphasized the importance of finding a solution to this issue so that robots can pick up products and process them without first needing to locate and scan a barcode. “It will make it easier for us to precisely and promptly deliver items to customers,” he said.

The camera system is already in use and improving parcel delivery

The technology, dubbed multi-modal identification, won’t completely replace barcodes any time soon. However, it’s likely that a future Whole Foods or another Amazon-owned chain with physical locations may use the technology since all of Amazon’s businesses will eventually embrace it. 

According to Amazon, the technology is now in use in facilities in Hamburg, Germany, and Barcelona, Spain. However, the business claims that it has already sped up the processing time for parcels there. 

The company notes that the issue that the technology solves—customers receiving incorrect items—doesn’t occur very frequently. But when you consider how many things a single warehouse processes in a day, even isolated errors build up to considerable slowdowns.

The accuracy of the new camera system

Since the business hadn’t had a need to capture product photos before this initiative, Amazon’s AI experts had to start by compiling a photo library.  The images themselves as well as information on the dimensions of the goods supplied the early versions of the algorithm. The cameras are constantly taking pictures of fresh images to train the model with.

In the beginning, the algorithm had an accuracy rate ranging from 75% to 80%, which Amazon thought was a good beginning. When the system first tried to detect color changes, it had trouble. The system was unable to distinguish between two distinct hues of Echo Dots during a Prime Day offer.  According to the business, accuracy is currently 99%. 

The system can now attribute confidence scores to its evaluations that only flag items that it is absolutely certain are erroneous.

The ultimate goal is to have robots handle products. According to Amazon’s AI, it will be difficult to fine-tune the multi-modal recognition system to evaluate products that humans handle.

Rental properties typically forbid renters from short-term subletting. Airbnb has launched a new platform to help change that. With the help of a number of significant landlords and property managers, Airbnb will soon be able to list specific apartment complexes where tenants are permitted to advertise short-term sublets on the website.

The company revealed that a brand-new page on its website would showcase Airbnb-friendly buildings, offering tenants the same chance to host visitors in their residences as property owners do.

This change will make it easy to identify more than 175 buildings in 25 different cities throughout the United States that permit tenants to host on a part-time basis if it’s their principal residence. This will assist people who want to host to find landlords who are supportive of hosting and have the required checks in place.

Current markets covered by the new Airbnb platform

The showcasing will first cover more than 25 main towns, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Seattle, and Phoenix.  Due to municipal regulations on short-term rentals, some cities, including New York City and Washington, D.C., are not available.

The platform will help people host their rentals and assist buildings in luring clients who might wish to host. 

Potential hosting income for tenants

According to Airbnb co-founder, Nathan Blecharczyk, tenants’ potential earnings will differ depending on the building and the location.

Apartment rents have increased significantly over the past few years, along with property prices and other growing costs. Tenants are, therefore, increasingly looking for additional sources of income to cover their monthly obligations. According to Apartment List, rents are beginning to decline but are still 10% higher than they were a year ago.

Over the past year, rents increased by over 15%.

The newly added page on Airbnb’s website will also feature a calculator that will display the potential monthly income for the tenant. The formula varies according to the number of available bedrooms and overnight stays each building allows. The potential asking rent amount in consideration of the amenities provided also makes a difference.  Additionally, apartment buildings have the right to charge the primary tenant up to 20% of the cost of each Airbnb use. According to Airbnb, residents in the test-mode buildings have hosted an average of nine nights per month, bringing in an average of $900 a month.

Qualifications to participate in the Airbnb listing

Hosts of buildings participating in the program should be their primary occupants. The buildings may also impose a cap on the number of nights a month that an apartment may be sublet equating to about 80 to 120 nights each year. The limits are enforceable because all transactions happen on the portal. They stop investors from taking part and renting out the apartments permanently.

Before a listing goes online, the owner or management business of the apartment building has the right to inspect it and deactivate it if it doesn’t meet the requirements of the facility. They may also require all eligible subletters to present a government ID.

The Cutting edge Airbnb strategy

Among the well-known companies providing units with hosting rights on the new Airbnb platform are Equity Residential, UDR, which are apartment real estate investment trusts, or REITs, and Greystar, the largest apartment management company in the United States.

According to a Greystar official, “We think this platform will give the proper tools for both owners and residents to successfully manage short-term rental activities without harming overall housing supply. We are working with Airbnb to develop this cutting-edge strategy to take a responsible role in the sharing economy of the twenty-first century.”

With direct-to-consumer commerce sales in the United States forecast to grow to almost $213 billion by 2023, more brands are adopting D2C models as part of a multichannel approach. Diff specializes in growth strategy, front-end design, site optimization and system integrations which has enabled the agency to create some of the most innovative, complex and high-performing online stores on the Shopify platform, which now accounts for 10% of the United States’ eCommerce market share. Among Diff’s high-growth D2C client portfolio are Giant Tiger, Kith, Sakara Life, and more.

The acquisition will further strengthen WPP’s digital commerce capabilities and reflects the company’s ongoing investment into its commerce offer for clients as consumer needs continue to change. It is aligned with WPP’s accelerated growth strategy, building on existing capabilities in the areas of commerce and technology. WPP is ranked as a Leader in Forrester’s latest global Commerce Services Wave, and already manages more than $40bn of direct and $20bn of marketplace GMV for clients, employing 13,500 commerce specialists across its agencies.

Mark Read, CEO of WPP, said: “The tremendous growth in the digital commerce ecosystem means our clients are looking to us to deliver the innovative solutions they need to reach new and existing customers in meaningfully engaging ways. Diff’s Shopify expertise, alongside its unique blend of strategy, optimization and design, will be a welcome addition to our commerce portfolio and will drive results for our clients in North America, which is WPP’s largest market.”

Neil Stewart, CEO of Wunderman Thompson Commerce, said: “This acquisition boosts Wunderman Thompson’s commerce and technology ecosystem across North America, bringing Shopify expertise to our roster of well-established technology partnerships. Our global clients will now have access to the expertise of one of Shopify’s longest standing partners and its multichannel platform that caters to 600 million shoppers in more than 175 countries. Together we offer brands and retailers extended routes to market, including D2C, marketplaces, eRetail and social commerce.”

Benjamin Crudo, CEO and Founder of Diff, said: “We couldn’t be more excited to join the ranks of Wunderman Thompson, bringing Shopify’s disruptive power to its global client base. Ecommerce has been radically reshaping the way brands bring their products and services to market, and Diff has been at the forefront of this revolution. As one of Shopify’s founding and most innovative agency partners we’re looking forward to continuing to expand the platform’s reach.”