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Late-night Zillow scrolling just got a little easier on the eyes. The residential real estate platform announced that dark mode is now available on its iOS app. Just tap your profile icon in the top-right corner, then tap app settings, select the dark app theme, and voil, you can scroll through listings more comfortably in the dark. “Your midnight move starts here,” Zillow says. Dark mode has been one of Zillow’s most requested features, the company says, and before the update, the best fans of dark mode could do was use a browser extension that offered a three-month free trial. Dark mode is popular for reducing energy consumption (and saving battery life), and Zillow says it’s about more than just aesthetics because it reduces screen glare and eye strain in low-light settings. [Image: Zillow] The reason Zillow dark mode took so long to arrive is because the companys app has many content-rich screens, including interactive maps, listing photos, and financial tools. Designing a dark mode wasn’t as simple as applying a dark theme across the board, Zillow tells Fast Company. Extra attention had to be paid to elements like color-coded map pins that show different listing types and statuses such as rentals, for sale, new construction, or homes youve already viewed. Zillow has 227 million average monthly unique users. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zillow usage surged as Americans on lockdown dreamed of moving to a new place. Today, scrolling Zillow without any purchase intentionknown as Zillow doomscrolling (or Zillow therapy for some)is how many people use the app since mortgage rates remain high and home sales are softening. At least with dark mode, there’s one less reason bedtime Zillowing will keep you up at night.
Category:
E-Commerce
How do we tell our story? That’s a familiar phrase in brand marketing. Its a decent question, but heres a provocation to challenge this conventional wisdom: Storytelling and marketing are no longer reliable ways to build and grow a brand. To understand whats to come, its useful to look at what gets awardedand what doesntat the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Based on what we saw last week, the patterns indicate that marketing, storytelling, and, in particular, the marketing funnel, in a conventional sense, have become less dependable. This framework has long been defined as: Company builds brand (awareness) Brand attracts customers (interest and consideration) Customers buy product (purchase) [Image: I&CO] In the past decade, three factors have emerged and dominated human psyche, culture, and marketing: short-form video, people as brands, and heightened consumer expectations. These shifted the power dynamic between brands and consumers, rendering the traditional marketing funnel doctrine less relevant. As marketers and brand builders helping companies grow, what we should be asking now is this: How do we build trust? Trust has always been essential for any brand, but it’s becoming a new, essential currency. The premium on trustworthiness has increased as the line between what is real versus generated or what is true versus not becomes indistinguishable. Here are the four steps of Trustnomicsthe new currency for brand growthin an algorithmic, agentic, and synthetic world. Identify your key product moment A key product moment is a distinct feature that makes the product value visible and readily understandable. Weve been obsessed with storytelling and marketing and overlooked the power of key product moments for brands. Look to the French insurance company AXA to see the power of a key product moment with measurable impact. Home insurance policies typically guarantee emergency relocation for fire and flood victims. AXA added de violences conjugales (and domestic violence) to contracts for its customers. It is a promise to help survivors of domestic violence escape by providing emergency housing relocation. Three Words is a profoundly simple key product moment that makes AXAs product value immediately tangible and morally differentiated. Within six months of adding domestic violence coverage to its policies, AXA provided emergency relocation assistance to more than 500 families. Customer trust metrics increased by 27%, and brand consideration among women ages 25 to 45 rose by 34%. The German discount supermarket Penny created another example with its Price Packs initiative. After redesigning packaging to display fixed prices in bright colors and big fonts, and showing its commitment to price stability, Pennys store traffic increased by 22% and market share grew by 3.2% in key regions, despite broader market volatility. In customer surveys, 78% of shoppers cited price transparency as a key factor in choosing Penny over competitors. To earn the currency of trust, dont tell why your brand is better. Show why its different in the product. Treat product as content Theres a brand that was on everyones mind and lips but didnt win any Lion inside the Palais: OpenAI. The company has grown by treating product as content. OpenAI publishes product-related press releases and articles several times a week. There is little effort in creating an emotional connection with consumers through marketing or storytelling. CEO Sam Altman understands that products are the make-or-break for any business. In an information era that is becoming agentic, the best way to earn attention and trust is through the products themselves. The brand that understands product as content best iswait for itApple, the Grand Prix winner of Creative Effectiveness for its decade-long Shot on iPhone initiative. At the ceremony, everyone was hoping for an emotionally driven, brand-led campaign. Quite the contrary, Shot on iPhone is technically a product demo, which creative judges and types often look down on. As appealing as brand marketing has been, a better way to earn trust, build a brand, and drive business now is by treating product as content. When you do this, though, you have to have a point of view and stick to it. Kudos to the Apple team for being highly disciplined and single-minded with their Instagram page and not littering it with product ads. Dont confuse product ads with product as content. [Screenshot: Apple/Instagram] Repeatable system > Scalable campaign Using Apple as a guide is aspirational but unrealistic. Most marketers and brand builders dont have $48.5 billion sitting in our bank accounts to spend on huge campaigns, media buys, or expensive productions. The Japanese streetwear brand Human Made, founded by the ultra-hip Nigo and supported by Pharrell Williams, was established in 2010. Despite its celebrity status, it had modest growth for more than a decade, and its revenue hovered around 1.7 billion yen (roughly $11.6 million). When Rei Matsunuma, a longtime Uniqlo executive, joined in 2021 as Human Mades COO, he created a 52-week product planning calendar and addressed supply chain issues. Then, he started Daily Tsdaily drops of date-stamped white T-shirts, making each days T-shirts unique and exclusive. [Image: Human Made] These were not shiny, scalable campaigns that would see much limelight at marketing industry events like Cannes. Instead, they were repeatable systems that generated consistent demand among brand fans and prospective customers. In less than four years, Human Mades revenue grew sixfold to 10 billion yen (nearly $70 million), with a presence in more than 80 countries and minimal investment in storytelling or marketing. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit, wrote Will Durant in his 1926 book, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers (paraphrasing Aristotle). Repeatable systems beat scalable campaigns. Flywheel of Trust By the time a business problem reaches marketing, its too late. When culture moves in real time, no marketing funnel can save a business. We need to turn our funnel mindset into a flywheel. [Image: I&CO] The flywheel of trust framework is based on the product itself, which is now the main driver in attracting customers. Company creates product Product attracts customers Customers trust brand Brand differentiates company In the past decade, this phenomenon has increased. Besides the aforementioned examples, others like Stanleys Quencher or Uniqlos Round Mini Shoulder Bag became sensational hits without relying on emotional storytelling or brand marketing. These brands gained traction not because they asked How do we tell our story? They asked, How do we build trust? If we translate this flywheel into tangible action, the four steps of Trustnomics are: Identify your key product moment Treat product as content Build a repeatable system Kick the flywheel of trust into motion As the world shifts from the information era to the agentic era, the marketing funnel doctrine is giving way to a new flywheel framework focused on earning and building trust. Trustnomics is not just an ingredient of your brand. Its the currency that powers brand growth.
Category:
E-Commerce
Fresh off her French Open win, and before she gets rolling on the green grass of Wimbledon, tennis star Coco Gauff is launching a new three-part content seriesalong with entrepreneur Emma Grede and UPSwhose aim is giving advice to small-business owners. Created by The Martin Agency, the campaign kicks off with an anime-inspired spot featuring the 20-year-old phenom announcing her collaboration with Grede. Gauff, who first signed on as a brand partner with UPS in 2023, says she was really excited to work with Grede, cofounder of Skims shapewear and the Good American clothing line. She’s such a powerhouse in her world of business, so it was awesome to help give the opportunity to small-business owners to work with her, Gauff tells Fast Company. The campaign follows Gauff and Grede as they meet with the owners of three different small-businessesAnima Iris, Petrova Chocolates, and Classy Casitafor one-on-one mentoring sessions with Grede. Highlights from these sessions will be part of the campaigns content, which will roll out throughout Gauffs tennis season. [EMBED] Tennis Star-preneur Gauff herself is a big business. Last year, she reportedly made $30.4 million, including $9.4 million in prize money and an estimated $21 million from brand partnerships, appearances, and bonuses. In April, she launched Coco Gauff Enterprises with William Morris Endeavor (WME). She says she was listening closely to Gredes advice to the UPS campaigns three entrepreneurs. Honestly, I was just listening to what she was telling everyone else and taking notes, Gauff says. I learned a lot about working in bigger organizations and marketing, which is what she’s really good at, especially with Skims. I have her contact [info] for the future, and definitely want to dive more in depth with her. Gauff works with a long list of brand partners covering a variety of product categories, including Rolex, Bose, Head, Barilla, Carols Daughter, and Naked Juice. Her first deal, at age 14, was with New Balance. The two most important criteria for how she picks a brand partner are whether she has a connection to the brand as a customer or in some other way, and that the commitments cant interfere with tennis. Because tennis doesnt have a traditional offseason like football or basketball, Gauff says it can be tough to balance her time. It’s about finding the fine line to make the most of what you’re doing and your opportunity, but also making sure it’s authentic to you, she says. Because there have been some people who maybe got too overwhelmed with all the commitments. Trying to find that balance of keeping your career first and not wasting opportunity is very hard. I’m still trying to navigate it. More immediately, Gauff is focused on navigating the WTA’s No. 1-ranked player Aryna Sabalenka and the other contenders at Wimbledon.
Category:
E-Commerce
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