Issue #099

Welcome to your weekly dose of TooXToo, this week featuring Gorilla’s rider-led record label, Corona’s gift to the ocean, adding an expiration date to social media posts, and the digital consciousness campaign in Times Square…

Gorilla’s record label for their riders

The rapid delivery app Gorilla initially operating solely in Germany now carries out fast grocery deliveries across Europe. Their latest innovation is the creation of their very own record label.

The new label has been called ‘Pedal Records’ paying homage to the busy pedlars that make these rapid deliveries possible. When they are not cycling on shift, the Gorilla riders can submit their own tracks for review. If the team’s A&R team are pleased with the submission the rider could sign a contract within as little as a week. Once the rider signs the contract, and tracks are released through the label – the artist will receive a 30% cut of net profits, paid out twice a year.

To build awareness of their label, Pedal records collaborated with the Berlin based label MNF, allowing them to make connections in an existing network at the same time. Since its launch, Pedal records has signed a sizeable assortment of artists, including a Ghanaian rap artist, and a Chilean electronic music producer- oh whom all work for Gorillas in Germany and the Netherlands.

This idea from Gorilla’s has helped develop a holistic brand culture – defining the workplace these riders operate, work and network within as fun and energetic. Not only does this provide the employees with an avenue to express their creativity - but also allows Gorillas to ensure their internal culture is projected as an external asset.

Other brands should take inspiration from these record-producing pedlars, making their workplace a conduit for undiscovered in-house talent…

Corona’s gift to the ocean

Corona is no stranger to innovative collaborations- and most recently they partnered with Coral Vita to spread some love amidst Valentine’s Day celebrations.

The campaign, Corona commented, was inspired by the fact that 69% of Brits believe that Valentine’s Day encourages wasteful gift giving, with 62% admitting to throwing away an unwanted gift on the special occasion. Reflecting on this, Corona teamed up with Coral Vita to launch the sustainable ‘Gift the ocean’ platform. Corona was also tapping into the desire to invest in more sustainably conscious brands from 2022’s greener consumers.

The eco-friendly gifting scheme allows people the chance to ‘adopt’ a unique piece of climate resistant coral, helping restore the ocean’s damaged ecosystem. Each person that buys a fragment of coral through the website will be sent a digital adoption certificate and are encouraged to share their greener act of love via any social media channel.

Research from Opinium re-affirmed the greener conscious of today’s consumers revealing that caring about the environment has become a more important quality in a partner (66%) than looks (63%) or having a large salary (27%) or a good job (49%), making this new campaign from Corona ideal for those who want to pursue greener gifting.

Social media posts with an expiration date?

Social media posts act as an online trace of what we have said, where we have been and who we have connected with over time. But what if that trace had a ‘delete by date’- would consumers feel as though their online memories had been taken from them? No more nostalgic ‘throwback Thursday’ posts, or opportunities to deep dive into the past of others online…

But what if we told you erasing your past social media posts could have a profoundly positive impact on the environment? Energy company Dalkia has been investigating the correlation between people’s online lives, and their carbon footprints. They have found that online activity has a large part to play in creating substantial carbon footprints and have as a result enacted ‘delete by’ dates to social media posts for their brand in France.

Removing anything that no longer serves an online purpose will help encourage minimised carbon footprints for online users. Dalkia’s hashtag ‘dld’ short for 'date limite de disponibilité' will be followed by the month that the post will then be removed.

Commenting on their ‘dld’ campaign, Dalkia’s CEO stated: “When we use the internet, we are not really aware of the energy consumed by what we read, watch or listen to — despite the fact that the digital world accounts for 4% of global greenhouse gases—more than air travel!” 

Responding to the trace of our digital lives is harder to do overall because it is not as visible as our physical activity day-to-day. Nevertheless, it is something brands and consumers must respond to minimise further environmental degradation. From redesigning your website or reducing the number of images and videos on each page and cutting down on the number of servers used for lower energy consumption – there are multiple ways to curtail the negative consequences of our online presence.

‘A moment to pause’ – Times Square’s digital consciousness campaign

Rarely do city-dwellers take a chance to pause and take stock. This digital installation in Times Square is hoping to change this by filling its screens with Krista Kim’s visual meditations.

Synchronized footage of light, colours, and pattern will be shifting across 90 electronic billboards for the entirety of February, creating a moment of calm for those who pass by – a juxtaposition considering the chaos and visual stimulation this city is affiliated with.

The inspiration for this installation came from Kim’s realisation that, despite coming out of this pandemic – the mental effects it created are still extremely prevalent. Endless lockdowns, and the virus itself has disrupted and transformed our everyday lives, mental health, and collective well-being for two years. To bring something positive to the stressed, or depressed city-dweller – Kim harnessed technology to create a communal space allowing its viewers to decompress.

Other impressive works from Kim include her venture into the Metaverse with her creation of the ‘Mars House’: a fully virtual environment characterised by her digital zen philosophy. It was also the first "Metaverse home" for sale as an NFT in history last year.

The power of technology, and the digital world is profound in a world that is increasingly living through and by screens. This campaign is a good example of technology being used to have a positive social impact, through invoking digital consciousness. 

If only it was a tad closer to London…