– Your Bright Brothers Team
David Romako / Josh Yeager /  Brandi Walsh

We’re honored and excited to be quoted in the International Downtown Association’s latest publication “Building on Recovery for Urban Place Management”, which is a seminal resource for UPMO practitioners. Every “place” is struggling right now with how to show value, support merchants and ratepayers, and provide outstanding experiences for the public; pandemic or not. This top-notch report includes roadmaps, strategies and best practices from around the globe, as well as unparalleled thought-leadership from our vertical. We’re chuffed af to be included (see page 12), and recommend reading this if you’re involved in place management, economic development, destination marketing or tourism of any kind. One of the report’s authors noted, “Your newsletters and Trends Reports are so informative and we look forward to seeing what’s next.“- Cathy Lin, AICP, Director of Research, International Downtown Association  The report is FREE for IDA members.

Photo credit: International Downtown Association

“👁❤ 🐑” said an Australian sheep farmer who was unable to attend his beloved aunt’s funeral due to a COVID lockdown. So he literally rallied his flock to send a visual love note to his dearly departed, in the shape of a massive heart. The farmer, Ben Jackson, strategically dropped feed for his pregnant ewes and captured this heartwarming image as an homage to his auntie, and we absolutely ❤️ it!  What say 🐑?

Photo credit: Ben Jackson, AP

Perception is reality, as we say, and your brand needs a voice (avatar, as it were). Audio marketing is one of the biggest areas of opportunity for brands and we’ve been exploring the various means, modalities, channels and impacts and implications quite a bit this year. From a Trends Report on “All Things Audio” earlier this year, to one of the top brand marketers at PepsiCo recommending that your brand needs an audible component in the inaugural edition of Bright Bros. Bulletin, to this article from AdAge exploring the benefits of brand avatars, it’s clear that how you sound nowadays is equally as important as your look, feel, tone and voice. Like, your actual voice!  With ads and platforms like Clubhouse, Hulu, Spotify and YouTube exploding, (and of course, Facebook is getting in on the game with Audio Rooms) consider that with a voice avatar, “…advertisers might want to create 2,000 permutations of the same ad, changing a single word for thousands of markets or test variations,”, we recommend getting a jump and defining your sound strategy now to stay one step ahead of the competition.

Photo credit: Jukka Aalho, Unsplash 

Bye bye, Billy. In a bold move of corporate social responsibility, and as a part of their ambitious efforts to reduce global carbon footprints, IKEA has launched buyback program for that Billy bookcase or Mörbylånga table that might no longer meet your design aesthetic.  Starting with a pilot program at their North American HQ in Conshohocken, PA (“Conshy” to the locals), IKEA is endeavoring to “…become circular and carbon positive by the end of the decade,”. One component of these initiatives includes buybacks of your used furniture and reselling them to prolong the lifecycle, and reduce landfill waste. Trials in the U.K. and Singapore are already underway, and the Scandinavian design stylists are apparently better suited to a circular economy based on their designers’ retooling of product. Jennifer Keessson, the sustainability manager for Ikea Retail U.S. is quoted as saying, “This is a journey and a transformation for everyone…Not only the retailers but customers, policy, the government,”.  As a global retail leader, we applaud these efforts, and hope they set the bar for other industries like fast fashion and other means of conspicuous consumption. Grattis, IKEA! 🙌 We congratulate you!

Photo credit: IKEA

The pandemic has pushed many of us to rethink, reimagine and rebuild our communities in different ways, and a pioneering effort out of Colorado, called TAXI is now home to an admirable conflation of public art, play space, skate park and stormwater mitigation outside of downtown Denver, CO. According to their website, TAXI is “…a mixed-use community of creative residents, innovators, entrepreneurs and businesses who are collaborating to shape industries like sustainability, tech, design, architecture, social enterprise and the arts,”. Now home to a hybridized space that not only serves as water mitigation in a flood-prone zone with bioswales and other water management designs, the innovative public art also doubles as a skate park and art installation galvanizing the enterprising community. We’d love to see more integrated efforts like this. Got one near you?  Give us a holler about it!

Photo credit: Black Cube