Nearly a century after turning the sound of Rice Krispies into a brand asset, Kellogg’s commissioned a cereal bowl designed to amp it up. This is so gloriously unnecessary. Kellogg’s commissioned British designer Dominic Wilcox to create a Snap, Crackle and Pop amplification cereal bowl. It looks a little like a gramophone attached to your breakfast. Pour in Rice Krispies and milk, switch it on, and a microphone picks up the familiar crackling from the cereal. A speaker inside the large red...
1 day ago • 2 min read
New research shows that uncertainty makes a reward more desirable. Imagine two people each receive a $20 gift card. One is simply handed the card. The other spins a prize wheel offering $10, $20 or $30, and happens to stop on $20. Both got the same card, and the exact same value. But the second person likes theirs MORE. That’s the cool finding from new research involving seven preregistered experiments and more than 12,000 participants. The researchers call it the “uncertainty spillover...
2 days ago • 1 min read
The World Cup gave Coca-Cola a sales surge, plus something that could keep paying off for years. I’m not a huge Coke drinker. Or even a massive soccer fan. Sorry. * Football. * But I bought into Coca-Cola‘s World Cup campaign anyway. Apparently, a lotta people did. Coca-Cola says its World Cup activation helped drive 5% quarterly volume growth for trademark Coca-Cola, its strongest in 17 years outside the COVID recovery. But here’s an even BETTER number: 25 million first-party data points....
3 days ago • 1 min read
New research suggests near-expiry discounts can accidentally make buyers worry about how other people will judge them. I’ve occasionally bought meat or some other perishable product with one of those bright stickers: “ENJOY TONIGHT & SAVE 30%!” If I’m going to cook it that evening anyway, great. Right? BUT… I’ve also caught myself wanting to peel that sticker OFF before anyone in my family sees it. Apparently, I’m worried they’ll think one of two things: Laurier is a cheap-ass. Or Laurier is...
4 days ago • 2 min read
IKEA’s new Swedish billboard campaign exposes the messy reality behind a neat room, and turns storage into the hero. My family owns dozens and dozens of IKEA storage bins. That’s not an exaggeration. Those bins are in the basement, garage, closets and pretty much anywhere else we can stack ’em. They’re durable, remarkably efficient, and if there’s ever a flood, the stuff inside stays safe. Plus, they’re transparent, which means you can easily know what’s inside each one, even without labels....
5 days ago • 2 min read
Giving customers a way OUT can make them more willing to get IN. Tesla‘s new Cybercab has a physical Stop button mounted between the dome lights. Press it and the vehicle requests an immediate pull-over and ends the ride. Passengers can already request a stop through the touchscreen. Tesla gave them a big red button anyway. That decision says a lot about how people experience control. Imagine you’re alone in a Cybercab when something makes you uncomfortable. Like maybe the vehicle is behaving...
6 days ago • 2 min read
The $499 CameraJet toothbrush is absurdly over-engineered. Dyson’s intense new ad makes that the whole point. When I first saw Dyson’s new CameraJet, I thought it looked sorta like a power screwdriver. Then I learned it had a camera. And my immediate reaction was: Why the heck does anyone want a camera on their toothbrush? My wife and I have used Philips Sonicare toothbrushes for about 25 years. They do a phenomenal job, so both of our girls have them too. Toothbrushing is one of those...
7 days ago • 2 min read
The next smart-home breakthrough may be making the WHOLE house intelligent (and private) instead of adding another device to it. My house is reasonably smart. It also has no frigging clue what’s going on. Lights live in one system. Cameras in another. Speakers somewhere else. Thermostats, locks and assorted sensors each stick to their micro-piece of our world. Not one of them understands how my family really lives in the house. That’s why this new idea from LiveLarge Home is so different....
8 days ago • 2 min read
New research shows creating a physical version of a digital product can undermine the qualities that made the original desirable. Imagine Nike releases a virtual sneaker. It’s scarce. It changes colour. Let’s say it glows when you run in VR, leaves animated footprints behind you, or does other stuff no physical shoe possibly could. People want it partly because of what it can ONLY be and do in a digital world. Then let’s say Nike decides to capitalize on its popularity. And they make the shoe...
9 days ago • 2 min read
