Focus: Latest

Focus

Paleo: dieting goes back to the Stone Age

Paleo is a diet that emphasises the importance of understanding our species' evolutionary history by determining which foods promote optimal health. When consumers aspire to go back to a time before your brand existed, how do you engage them?

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Uber: lessons from dynamic pricing

'Dynamic pricing' means prices can quickly adapt to reflect changing levels of supply and demand. When Uber, a private New York-based taxi service trialled the idea, some customers were charged over $80 per mile, causing widespread anger.

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NimbleTV: one step closer to TV Everywhere

NimbleTV is a new service that frees up satellite and cable TV subscribers to watch content on any device and in any location. It flies in the face of restrictive content providers, and heralds the gradual implementation of 'TV Everywhere'.

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We Are Lucky: philanthropy with personality

The multimillionaire founder of We Are Lucky has pledged to give away his fortune, £1,000 at a time, to the people he meets on his daily travels. His personal story is part of a deeper social movement towards generosity and away from greed.

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Coca-Cola says 'Hug Me': gestural marketing gets personal

Companies are beginning to look at ways of encouraging consumers to respond with gestures as well as words, as the rise of gestural marketing sees brands seeking new ways of showing that they understand the needs of their audience.

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Transparency and honesty from 'charity: water'

In just five years, New York-based charity: water has raised nearly $50m. This has been achieved by emphasising transparency; 100% of donations go directly towards projects, and donors can track exactly where their money is going.

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CashStar: digital gift cards and mobile giving

In societies that are cash-rich but time-poor, gift cards have emerged as a popular solution. The gift card market in the UK alone is currently worth £4bn; and with smartphone penetration rising, gift cards are becoming digital.

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23andMe: a genetic Facebook

For a couple of drops of saliva and a few hundred dollars, US-based genomics business 23andMe will extract your DNA and screen it for genetic disease markers. Since launching in 2007, the company has processed 150,000 paying customers' DNA.

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48: conquering the youth mobile market

How do you attract a notoriously fickle youth demographic to a new mobile phone network in an already saturated marketplace? Easy: you give them an exclusive, members-only deal which makes all other networks appear, well, a little bit lame.

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Kaggle: playing the data game

The open data platform Kaggle uses advanced crowdsourcing techniques to solve complex problems. Its popularity with brands presents one of the most convincing arguments yet for opening up data to as wide an audience as possible.

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Japan's virtual kiss-o-grams

Scientists at Keio University in Japan are developing digital advertising posters in the form of interactive kiss-o-grams which allow users to get up close and personal with their favourite pop idols.

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No Cash Day

No Cash Day encourages Italians – 91% of whom use cash for transactions – to use electronic transfers for purchases. The event is an attempt to raise awareness of physical currency's various pitfalls.

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TWINE: objects speaking to their owners

Two MIT graduates have created TWINE, a system that sends a tweet when your laundry's done, an email when your basement floods, or a text message when you leave the garage door open. And it could prove to be incredibly handy.

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Du darfst: Fuck the Diet!

Low-calorie food manufacturer Du darfst has outraged German audiences with a bold new campaign. In response to widespread frustration with dieting, and using shock tactics, it targets a newly emerging female consumer.

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Barclaycard Ring: the crowdsourced credit card

Touted as the first social credit card, Barclaycard Ring Mastercard has been built through the power of an online community. As the typically impersonal sector of electronic banking goes social, what are the potential implications?

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Beautiful and Bald Barbie

Sexy and smart, Barbie is the 'perfect woman'; some might say a little too perfect. Can you ever remember seeing her facing any serious adversity? Well, in 2013, after a Facebook campaign, Barbie will find out her friend has cancer.

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Karma: the gift of convenience

Karma is a mobile app that allows you to send thoughtful gifts to your friends and family based on what’s going on in their lives. The app connects to Facebook to encourage you to order a gift for them via text anywhere, at any time.

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Boat magazine: inspiration in unlikely places

Boat magazine explores the culture, history and life of each city it visits, tapping into a growing sense that our identities are formed less by the countries we live in, and more by the unique characteristics of our particular locales.

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MTV Under The Thumb: making television social

MTV has launched a new app which grants smartphone and tablet users on-demand access to the full range of its television shows. Importantly, it also includes a built-in feature which allows users to chat with friends online while they watch.

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Shanzhai phones: authentically fake

Mobile phone imitations in China are a response to the massive local demand for cheap mobile functionality. This lucrative market is called ‘shanzhai’, and has resulted in brands such as as Nkia, Blockberry and Svmsung.