Solar Frickin roadways - its the future!

As our agency mantra is all about 'Only working with clients who want to change a sector or create something remarkable' we're always on the look out for those who are working in a same way.

And oh boy, have these guys change a sector! Solar Roadways are a US company who have come up with an ingenious idea to not only change roads, but how to solve part of the world energy problem. 

Solar Roadways have created a modular paving system of solar panels that can replace any conventional road surface! Amongst many other cool features, the panels generate renewable energy and can even heat the road in icy conditions! 

And what a way to promote such an incredible invention! Watch the video and be prepared to fall in love with this brand.

A great approach and it just shows bluesky thinking can become reality and change the way we live. This summer, Solar Roadways raised 2.2m$ on Indiegogo, which was more than double the original funding.

Not sure if we'll ever be able to change world energy problems but we'll certainly tackle each challenge on at a time. Yesterday, the retail landscape of TfL alongside changing the UK publics perception of Health retail.

 Who knows what tomorrow might bring? But whatever the challenge, it'll be frickin awesome just like Solar Frickin roadways!

The French blow us away with an Inspiration Corridor

Everyone talks about meaningful digital experiences and yet rarely do we see them in retail.Recent highlights have been Emart digi navigational shopping and Tesco QR wall, both in South Korea.

We're always on the search for ways to take a digital experience 'out-of-the-computer' and this little beauty has blown us away!

French Mall operator Klepierre have teamed up with DigitasLBi Labs to create an Inspiration Corridor. A corridor that demonstrates the future possibilities within retail using location marketing, body scanners, product scanners, high-tech touch screens combined with a geo-location enabled App.

Bought a pair of shoes and not sure how to put a look together around them? Not a problem. Step in to the corridor and it scans your body and clothes to understand the basics. Then scan your shoes and the corridor will begin to put collections together based around different social occasions.

Swipe the screens to find the right look for you. Now for the really smart part in terms of its connection with the real world. Your choices are sent to your smart phone through their App and it then shows you a floor plan of the mall and directs you to the store to make your purchase. EPIC!

See for yourself how it all seamlessly works together and be prepared for your view on the future of retail to be changed forever.

The smart part of this experience is how it takes the best of both worlds. Endless possiblities in the digital world that you just can't do in the real world (your stock holding would be bigger than Amazons warehouse!) combined with that tactile, hands on experience of touching and trying on an item of clothing in the real world. Truly connected experiences like this are the future.

Hats off to both parties involved for a great piece of innovation.

Watch the news board on TYC website for new digital experiences that we're about to launch that take the digital experience 'out-of-the-computer' to make it more meaningful, delightful and surprising.

Seeing is believing

Sometimes we see things that we know can't be real but the mind tricks us and common sense goes straight out of the window!

So hats off to Pepsi for blowing our minds and 'Maxing' out the world of possibilities with this exquisite piece of augmented reality!

We won't spoil the awesomeness by telling you how they did it, but click the video below and be prepared to see aliens, tigers and abducting monsters right in front of you!

Skating is back and going straight to the top of cool!

For anyone who ever doubted it, skating is still cool. And to prove it, its headed straight to the top of the cool list by opening up a skate park at Selfridges!

Take a look at the pics and see for yourself.

For those who participate in the act of all things skate, get down there and check it out!

Turning Charity on its head

We all do it! We go to a shopping mall empty handed and leave with bags of shiny new things, some of us wondering what just happened and how did I afford all this!?

Brazilian advertising agency Loducca is radically encouraging a change in this habit. 'A Loja Vazia' or 'The Empty Shop' first popped up in a mall in Sao Paulo last year with the simple instruction – 'bring clothes to the shop instead of taking them from the shop'.

The reason? To collect clothes to help those in need.  An innovative new way of approaching charity and the collection of clothing donations, 'A Loja Vazia' is a sleek pop-up store that starts as literally an empty shop in the middle of a mall acting as a drop-off for donated clothing.

Stylists man the shop each day and create fashionable displays of the donated clothes as if the store were a typical high-street fashion store. The store is emptied each night ready for the next days donations and the process begins again. The result? Well, VillaLobos mall managed to collect 3.2 tons of clothes and help thousands of people in need!

Amazingly, the project has been designed as an open-source platform meaning any individual or company can access the plans, communications campaign and all other details for free!

'A Loja Vazia' has already hit the UK, with the first popping up in Manchester's Arndale in  earlier this year.

Who would of it thought, charity becoming premium!

Meet The Yard Creative, new vid for 2014

We decided that it was about time that we invested in a proper video and here is the result. All new for 2014 with our refurbished office, Steve talks about the kind of work that we do and why we like to do things a little differently. We hope you like it! Let us know....

Meet The Yard Creative! from The Yard Creative on Vimeo.

Big thanks to Dom Stuart for production and Ben Wiseman for music!

EuroShop 2014

So the growing beast that is EuroShop is here once more. And what a trip!

The sprawling mass of wears for the retail world felt endless. I mean, how many mannequins does the world really need?! 13 hanger-style halls showcased the worlds best innovations and products our weird little world has to give. It was vast.

Shifting through it was challenging (an epic 5472 Nike Fuel points gained on Sunday alone!) But don't get us wrong, look deep and you'll find some gems.

Kendu have potentially changed retail fitout forever! Using a simple banner technology that has been around for years, they have now integrated it within a system to create a space that you could realistically change the entire ambience of a store within a matter of hours! Instead of wall finishes the banner system creates the entire ambience of the space integrated within the retail system, cupboards, drawers and doors.  Add interactive lighting, magnetic panels and solid fitting structures behind the system and you have and totally changeable physical representation of your latest campaign. Genius.

Baro lighting took the lighting hall by storm. Demonstrating LED technology in such a simple, elegant and relevant way that was reminiscent of the iGuzzini set up of days gone by, they engaged and wowed visitors with every step. Clever trick too. Hiring two stands either side of the walkway and forcing visitors right through the centre of the stand by bridging at both high and low levels.

The Visplay stand once again oozed excellence and precision but with an unexpected twist this year. The stand (probably one of the biggest) was constructed of recyclable plastic storage boxes promoting Visplays ever green credentials. Their new systems have yet again set the bar another notch higher and be sure, the rest will copy.

Schweitzer went all out with their Dept 3.0. A completely different approach from Visplay, their stand was based around the experience of retail and the wonders that can be achieved in the physical world. Crossing design, PM, rollout and bespoke construction, they have definitely carved a niche for themselves. Their freestanding kiosk designs were inspired by a piece of genius! Unrestricted by plumbing needs, they turned the requirements of water volume in to a talking point that mesmerised visitors beyond belief. Something so pure in such volume looked beautiful and yet it came from necessity. 

Slightly geeky, was the dynamics of quick lay vinyl flooring from Polyflor that looked just like any normal floor but without the need to adhere it in place. Once again, great for speed of fit out and no different from any normal vinyl flooring.  

For those in food retail, Norpe have developed a super slick fresh food chiller with clever double tier display. The top for fresh, the bottom for pre-packaged, leveraging the trend of associated-quality for convenience.

Also in food, Ansorgs illuminated wine bottle holders made the product look stunning! Imagine a store with almost no ambient lighting and walls lined with these holders.....! Nice.

What really stood out though, was the divide between digital and physical. Which was strange when you consider how all the talks (most, shockingly low in content) where about the two worlds coming together to create a new experience in retail. You only had to stand back and look at the expenditure on both sectors stands to clearly see where the largest proportion of cash was being spent. The physical-worlds stands dwarfed those in the digital arena, perhaps proving the physical need and desire of the customer is still very much at the forefront of retail.

When most talked about digital it was embarrassing. Missing the key component, wonderfully highlighted by the Managing Director Leasing at ECE, Klaus Striebich, was the emotional value on the retail experience. The talk titled the future of Omichannel would yet again take us down the path of the Google bread checkout experience if they had their way. One that becomes void of human interaction and simply a box ticking exercise. If that's what the future of physical retail holds, give me a hut on a deserted island any day.

The one truly incredible integrated experience came from LK-AG. Utilising the recently launched iBeacon technology, they demonstrated the ease and beauty of proximity marketing. Whether for sales or experience alone, this technology goes past permission marketing and NFC to give real value through cross platform retail in the real world. And for £100 for 3 beacons, great value too!

At last Verifone iPhone mobile payment device was on show readily available to the masses. So perhaps the day of the cash desk is no more? Especially with rumours that Apple may be about to launch their own payment system powered by iBeacons and the new iWatch. Watch this space.

Axis Communications have teamed up with Visualise and are offering analytics through their security devices. Providing quantifiable data to help understand customer behaviour it will only be a matter of time when all stores have this integrated as part of their storer design. As Google have shown, data is key.

As always, alongside the giants were the newcomers and those challenging convention in their own way.

NUD we're displaying their beautifully simple colour flexes with an array of wonderful lamps attached. Want a cheap but visually stunning lighting feature? Why not try stringing up 50 of these up and see the impact they make!

In the 'Made in China' section, there were some beautifully crafted mannequins most noticeably the 'face-on' ones. You could have some real fun with these.

Multplx were milling around too with their super-fresh range of incredibly well designed security devices for mobile and tablets. Taking inspiration from Apple designed goods, security never looked so sexy. 

And lastly, the beautifully holistic concepts from Molo. Using paper and recycled PET, Molo has created naturally inspiring lights, screens and tables that challenge the considered normal constructions. The 3m high acoustic screen actually cut out all the noise of the show and created an area of calm in an otherwise bonkers environment.

In summary:
1. A great show not to be missed, though be prepared to dig deep to find the good stuff. 
2. The worlds of digital and physical are still massively separated
3. Never underestimate the emotional connections forged by face to face experiences

Ps apologies for the lack of our usual info sharing through twitter. One of the worlds biggest shows had no free wifi and wanted to charge 8 euros an hour! Epic fail :(