With kaomojis you can let the world know just how you’re feeling with a few simple key symbols.  The craze for Japanese emoticons shows no signs of abating with young urbanites in Japan creating and sharing new and more elaborate emoticons every day.  There’s even a new app called Twikao available to download for free from the App Store.  It’s able to transform a picture of your face (or a friend’s) into a an emoticon that captures your facial expression.  And already for tweeting.

To find out more, contact Rob.

Aldi got some positive and polite attention last year with its introduction of New Zealand produced Wagyu beef as part of its premium meat range. Now they’re making headlines as the Wagyu beefburger is available – £2.99 whilst stocks last.

This is a great story to generate awareness of Wagyu beef beyond foodie purists.  Wagyu beef from Japan with its distinctive marbling of fat and melt in the mouth quality rightly commands a premium price of £100 per kilo.  Fully justifiable no doubt given the great care and attention paid in production, but definitely putting it out of reach of normal family budgets.  Aldi’s step certainly lowers the threshold for us all to taste Wagyu.  But Japanese Wagyu producers and marketers will have to work hard to maintain their premium and communicate differences to consumers.

To find out more, contact Rob.

Amsterdam has become a world capital for denim with high street and high couture brands finding their home here.  The city is well represented by regional headquarters for some of the world’s biggest brand – Tommy Hilfiger, Diesel and Levi’s Vintage Clothing.  Other local and high end brands have equally made Amsterdam home and have been achieving success on an increasingly worldwide stage – from Gstar to Kings of Indigo and Denham.  Amsterdam is a great fit with jeans – not too formal, highly independent, and always a bit rebellious. The creativity of the city is certainly a big draw for designers and denim innovators. And where else could you imagine the home of Jean School?

To find out more, contact Rob.

Speaking at the recent Automobilwoche conference in Berlin, head of the automotive division at Robert Bosch, Wolf-Henning Scheider predicts that fuel cell technology will be commercially viable for mass use in cars by 2025.

“They are not out of the race. They are a viable alternative to other zero-emission vehicle technologies,” Scheider said.

Daimler, Hyundai, Nissan, Ford, Toyota, Honda and General Motors are all developing fuel cell vehicles.  And Toyota and Honda are expected to start selling production vehicles next year.  Priced at about Euros 56,000, fuel cell vehicles are able to run five time longer than electric cars.  But widespread acceptance has been difficult to achieve due to the massive development costs.

To find out more about our automotive technology expertise, contact Dam.

Alibaba has caught up with Wechat – both now have new digital alternatives to the traditional Chinese new year’s gifts of money in red envelopes.  There’s a practical side to it as people are able to avoid the long queues that can form in the rush to get the crispiest and shiniest new notes for new year presents.  The boost to Alibaba’s social network Laiwang has also been positive as young people rush online to update their status.

To find out more, contact Rob.