Ruction

A disturbance or quarrel.

The Ruction is a weekly rundown of the top ten emerging issues from the past seven days shaping commerce + culture.

The Ruction is for communication strategists and global business executives.

#TheRuction #Caracal #Diplomacy #Statecraft #Zoom #Paris #ChampsÉlysées #MayorAnneHidalgo #IPOs #BoardSeats #WomenonBoards #Oatly #OprahWinfrey #JayZ #Spotify #Instagram #Pets #Dogs #BusinessTravel #TacoBell #Livestreaming #Burberry #CocaCola #Paboco #Recyclable #PlasticFree

Memo: The Ruction | Edition 11 | February 26, 2021

1. Diplomacy and statecraft in the age of Zoom - where there is no shock and awe of impressive offices, and all leaders are reduced to a box on a large monitor.

2. Paris agrees to turn Champs-Élysées into 'extraordinary garden': Guardian reports, Mayor Anne Hidalgo gives the green light to £225m-scheme to transform the French capital's most famous avenue.

3. Of 2020's top 25 US IPOs, just one company, went public with an all-male board - two years prior, 12 companies did the same. Overall, women held 24% of board seats at the companies representing the 25 largest IPOs last year, up from 22% in 2019 and 11% in 2018, according to analysis from 50/50 Women on Boards, an organization advocating for gender parity in boardrooms.

4. Vegan milk maker Oatly targets $10bn IPO: FT reports, Swedish group whose backers include Oprah Winfrey and Jay-Z taps rising demand for alternative products.

In 2020, oat-milk sales increased by over 300 percent in the US, surpassing soy milk to become the second-most-popular dairy-free milk.

5. Spotify is introducing its audio service in 85 markets across Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean in the coming days, expanding the company's potential market by some 1 billion people.

6. The fashionable dogs of Instagram: According to market research provider Euromonitor International, the global market for pet products other than food, including clothing, is estimated to grow from $28bn this year to $32bn by 2023.

Dog influencers are critical drivers for dog-related brands and other verticals via brand tagging and sponsored content in social media posts.

7. Business travel may never fully recover from COVID-19: Economist reports business class was late to the game. It might be early to leave too.

According to Bernstein, an equity research firm, total spending on international and domestic travel in 1995 amounted to $2.1trn, of which $400bn was for business. By 2019 around a quarter of the total, or $1.3trn, was spent on business travel.

"My prediction would be that over 50% of business travel…will go away." -- Bill Gates

8. A Taco Bell franchisee plans to build an experimental store with four drive-thru lanes and no indoor seating. Three of the lanes will be dedicated to app orders and third-party delivery services.

9. Livestreaming commerce: According to estimates by HSBC and Qianhai Securities, live streaming is expected to generate up to 20% of China's total e-commerce sales by 2022, up from 10% in 2020.

Burberry live-streamed its Spring/Summer 2021 on Twitch, a top-rated live streaming platform among gamers.

10. Coca-Cola partnered with Paboco to develop a prototype paper bottle that is 100% recyclable and free of plastic. Current iterations still use a thin plastic liner, but there are plans to test the packaging in Hungary this summer.