The 10 sexiest brands that reimagined their industries in 2020

Get to know the secrets behind a car company that doesn’t sell cars, a telehealth company that disrupts women’s health and a 1 billion large community that is also a concert place and a videogame. Learn from Chinese companies with an entirely new mindset on e-commerce and sales and more. We summarized the raison d’etre of these companies and how you can apply their models.

1. Viya - because she's the flagship of Shopstreaming in China

She's a person, tv program, e-commerce platform and a hell of a business idea. For instance: In April, Huang - known professionally as Viya- sold a rocket launch for around 40 million yuan ($5.6 million). The live, online shopping extravaganza the 34-year-old hosts most nights for her fans across China is part variety show, part infomercial, part group chat. Last month, she hit a record-high audience of more than 37 million - more than the "Game of Thrones" finale, the Oscars or "Sunday Night Football."

Each night, Viya's audience places orders worth millions of dollars - typically for cosmetics, appliances, prepared foods or clothing, but she's also moved houses and cars. On Singles Day, China's biggest shopping event of the year, she did more than 3 billion yuan in sales. The spread of coronavirus, which put most Chinese people under stay-at-home orders, doubled her viewership

In a world where we all shop almost exclusively from our couches, Viya is one vision of our collective future. Livestream shopping is a natural confluence of several current tech trends - streaming, influencers, social, commerce - and offers companies a new path to consumers' hearts and wallets. Tesla, Procter & Gamble and supermodel-turned-beauty-entrepreneur Miranda Kerr, among others, have turned to Viya to introduce them to the Chinese market.

Why is this important for you? 

Shopstreaming is a huge trend in China that is spreading in Western markets in 2020. With early adopter brands already doing shopstreaming on Facebook Live, Instagram and custom apps, it’s just a matter of time before shopstreaming goes mainstream. It means training your sales team for live sessions, getting on the right apps and making your product available for E-commerce. Is your brand and sales team ready to shopstream? 

2. Rebelfoods - because it's the Takeaway 2.0 built on ghost kitchens

While it began life as a chain of kebab restaurants, that original concept, Faasos, is now just one of eight other brands that Rebel operates, including a tea brand called Kettle & Kegs; a Chinese concept called Mandarin Oak; a pizza brand called Oven Story; and a brand called Behrouz, through which Rebel makes and sells slow-cooked biryani rice dishes.

Rebel Foods isn't the only fast-moving operator using cloud kitchens to offer every kind of cuisine imaginable under one roof. Competitors of the company include UberEats and the food delivery company Zomato, which itself has plans to open more than 100 cloud kitchens by the end of this year.

Zomato says it isn't getting into the food preparation business - yet - but rather renting facilities, kitchen equipment and software to restaurants. Still, it's little wonder that Rebel is racing headlong into new markets as fast as it can. According to Bloomberg, the company is currently planning to build 100 cloud kitchens in Indonesia over the next 18 months, with Go-Jek's help. It also expects to open 20 cloud kitchen facilities in the United Arab Emirates by December.

Rebel was founded by Jaydeep Barman, a native of Mumbai with an MBA from INSEAD who spent nearly four years with McKinsey before joining forces with business school classmate Kallol Banerjee to launch Faasos. Despite raising money early on from Sequoia, the company was once at risk of going out of business, in part owing to high rents and employee turnover. As Moritz tells the story, things turned around dramatically when the duo closed their restaurants and opened their first centralised kitchen. That decision would prove pivotal. Not only did Rebel survive, but today, the entire operation runs the equivalent of 1,600 restaurants.

Why is this important to you? 

Rebelfoods is just one the brands reinventing a business from the ground up. A combination of using smart dispatching technology, together with a data driven business model and an extreme focus on a seamless customer experience, make this company an example for all of us. Whereas players like TakeAway suffer high costs from restaurants that are on too expensive places (not needed for home delivery), waiters (not needed), menu’s made for eating in (not eating out) and do not leverage data, Rebelfoods reimagined the entire restaurant experience from a digital point of view. What would your business look like? 

3. Lynk & Co - because it's a car brand that doesn't sell cars

The car industry today is about designing and engineering cars, making them in big factories and shipping them to dealers who sell and repair them. That's how it started 120 years ago, and that is how it still is today.However the need to own a car is fading, and that has consequences for the traditional business model.

Rather than selling cars, it sells a subscription a la Netflix or Amazon Prime

Rather than relying solely on vehicles sold, Lynk & Co will gauge success on the number of subscribers and the level of vehicle utilisation. Privately owned vehicles sit unused for more than 90% of the time, and by offering what it calls a 'car subscription service', Lynk & Co aims to shake up the concept of owning a vehicle. By signing up, users pay a fixed amount each month - like a traditional lease - but with a minimum one-month contract. That money pays for access to the car as usual, but with a twist: the car can be rented out to other Lynk & Co members.

The original 'owner' of the vehicle charges a set rate and helps to offset the monthly subscription fee. In theory, Lynk & Co subscribers could even rent out their car to the point where they make a profit. It is why the company sees the likes of Turo and Uber as competitors, rather than other car brands. The monthly subscription cost is mostly in-line with what would be expected of a premium SUV lease, but it comes with perks such as discounts for 'lifestyle' activities like festivals, gyms, cinemas and restaurants. Importantly, it differs from other subscription programmes run by automakers that charge a significantly higher monthly fee - sometimes as much as US$1,500 - for access to a range of premium vehicles.

Why is this important to you? 

The business of sharing has always had a double agenda: what seemed to be a movement driven by “green” motives, it was actually a new intent to move towards a new business model. In many cases, this whole new sharing idea was unsuccessful. Lynk & Co acknowledges the failures of it, and tries it in an entirely new fresh way tapping into the ‘millennial AND new maker mindset', combining subscribing to services as opposed to owning them, together with a mindset of doing business with your assets, like the case of AirBnB.

4. Maven Clinic - because it’s medical service without the cold hospital experience

Maven Clinic, a telemedicine network focused on women's health that is offered as an employee benefit at organisations including L'Oreal, BuzzFeed, and Snap (No. 1), more than tripled the number of companies it served in 2019. Maven connects workers with ob-gyns, nutritionists, lactation consultants, and other specialists via video chat or messaging for a fraction of the cost of an in-person visit.

It was founded on the idea that access to better care before, during, and after pregnancies benefits employers as much as patients (by requiring fewer sick days and, ultimately, keeping parents in jobs). "Millennials are overtaking the workforce, and they have different expectations of what their employer does for them," says founder and CEO Kate Ryder. In addition, to coordinate pregnancy care and services that help women get back to work, Maven also provides fertility benefits such as egg freezing, IVF, genetic counselling, and - as of January 2020 - an app to assist patients in managing payment and reimbursement for these services.

Why is this important to you? 

Maven Clinic is about using digital not only to reimagine a business model, but also build the entire customer experience based on the unique possibilities technology offers. It makes better service available at a fraction of the cost, in an industry that needs radical cost-cutting together with a new view on customer first. If you’re a government or health entity, take a look at Maven and reimagine yourself through their mirror! 

5. Rally - because it mixes profitable investing with the fun of owning high-end goods

Have you ever looked at the price tag of one of the most expensive brands in the world? Brands such as Hermes's Himalaya Birkin selling the rarest handbags for over $100,00 at auctions, or -if you are more into menswear- Rolex is selling top quality watches for at least $40,000. These products, as good as they might be, are not easily bought. At least, not before Rally launched in 2017. The CEO Chris Bruno makes it possible for everyone to own one, or at least part of one by one simple click in their app. The app practically behaves like a stock market. Yet, instead of investing in companies, one invest in the high-end collectables - such as Birkins, Rolex watches or even first edition Harry Potter novels.

Just as in a stock market, investors can sell their shares to make money, or eventually earn form the sold product. Rally does the same and invests up to 10% in each collectable. The company offers almost 75 items (basically the stocks) and can get a return up to 21%. In its most large IPO date in January, they sold 5,000 shares of $635,000 which was for a 1980 Lamborghini Countach. According to Bruno, they: "took something that was available to 0.001% of the population and made it available to every investor." A little bit of Rolex, Lamborghini or Birkin for everyone.

Why is this important for you? 

Rally took something that was available only for a very small portion of the population and made it available for every investor. Through smart technology and security Rally was able to break this paradigm and turn it into a democratising the collectibles market. What is your industries paradigm?

6. Rothy’s - because they’re making shoes out of garbage

Ever wondered where all your plastic garbage would go? Well, there is at least one place where they were able to make an immensely profitable business out of plastic water bottles; Rothy's. With a turnover of 1.4 million costumers in 2019 - more than doubling from 2018 - the company sells stylish flats. And, as of March, they elaborated their collection with handbags and kids shoes.

With a story, proper branding and the current trend of sustainability, the company has been profitable from the start. With 85 active or filed patents, CEO Roth Martin explains that their "intellectual property includes everything from manufacturing efficiencies to developing new machinery to materials”.

Why is this important for you?

Rothy was able to develop its model sustainably from the start combining used materials and efficient 3D weaving technique, their own site in China and one additional component: An incredible speed from design to market off just two weeks. Costumers are getting more aware of the impact of their choices, and that is maximised and accelerated due to the pandemic. 

7. TikTok - because it converts 6-years olds into creative artists 

If you have a smartphone, with at least one social-app, it is almost impossible to have missed it. Whether it is a friend who recommended it to you, a video on Instagram/Youtube or maybe just the app itself, by now everyone has seen it: Tiktok. But does everyone know ByteDance? The company which launched Tiktok in 2019, and invests significant amounts of money in it, from all other apps they own. These investments are also profitable due to advertising and in-app purchasing. Additionally, maybe it was the luck of COVID-19 which made the customers and members run drastically and still, yet they pulled it off to have 35 million downloads in the first quartile, and in June 2020 this increased to 2 billion.

With TikTok, everyone is an editor to their short mobile videos. It is the perfect spot to show off your creativity or procrastinate from learning, which was shown by the increase in social app use after the launch of TikTok. in the first year it drove growth in kids app use by 100% and the second year 200% by now, it nearly tripled. All of this is possible due to their recommendation algorithm. By showing only the things you're interested in, it's almost too easy to get hooked.

Why is this important for you?

Even with a pandemic, or maybe because of the pandemic, TikTok pulled it off to get an insane amount of downloads with most of it coming from people in the age range 16 to 24. As presented before, TikTok is also one of the platforms used for shopstreaming. And the influencer marketing is already receiving millions of investments through this channel. 

8. Beyond Meat - because they sell meat without using animals

Vegetarian meals are gaining popularity, especially amongst the younger generations. Yet the taste of meat is far from forgotten. This was also observed by Ethan Brown, the CEO of Beyond Meat. The company sells sustainable vegetarian burgers tasting like real ones. And they hit the market with it, found from their first quarterly report where they tripled sales as an official company. They're also making their investors very happy from the start Beyond Meat shares were $25 yet after the first report, this spiked to $119 for market shares.

According to Brown, the burgers are not yet a perfect replacement for the taste of meat, but they are coming closer and closer. Especially with the new formula they use for the burgers that will launch at the end of this year. As other vegetarian brands, they know that you don't need meat. Yet to stand out, they recognise the real taste of meat, and their goal is to match that. In the end, we can still enjoy the taste of perfectly fine meat, but maybe it can be plant-based.

Why is this important for you?

Changing a millennium long habit and culturally entrenched icon won’t go away easily, but slowly the younger generation is contesting what meat represents, and its impact. The positioning of Beyond Meat bridges this radical change to an achievable measure. How do you help your costumer change their habits?

9. Picnic - Because it shows the future of the supermarket for urban people

We dutch people might not always have the best weather, but we do love eating outside whenever possible. Yet Picnic isn't an App that makes a nice picnic basket for you. Picnic is the fastest and youngest growing company in the Netherlands. Without owning a grocery store, it does your groceries for you. The idea is that you shop whatever you need in the app, and they will provide and deliver it to you the next day for free. By getting everything from local bakers, greengrocers and other suppliers they work with over 250 companies, creating 40000 jobs. In 2019 they also had a turnover of 5 million, which (among other things) put them in the list of Top 250 scale-ups of 2019. According to CEO Michel Muller, they "brought back the milkman." Only do they bring you a lot more than just your milk.

Why is this important for you? 

This is a perfect example of tech catering to people’s needs. The algorithm is combined with the central locations, e-trucks, and predetermined routes. All of the elements are creating a synergy that allows to bring just as cheap groceries and just in time to be home.

10. Epic Games - because it transforms the gaming industry

There is an enormous amount of games on the market these days, games with in-app purchases, games that need to be bought first, games with in-app advertisement and more. So what makes Fortnite from Epic Games so profitable? It is not necessarily introducing something completely new, but it is the first free-to-play battle royal game that updates daily. It allows you to play with hundreds of other players. Together this made it possible for the game to be one of the best selling games in the industry where it made around $300 million in April, which is more than the Endgame movie made in the premiere weekend.

Before Fortnite, Epic games already spiked after it launched in December last year. In the first four months, it gained over 85 million user accounts and generated $680 million in the first year. Sharing this revenue for 88% with publishers it is no wonder that they wanted to join in as well.

Learn from these 10 examples to innovate your services today. Want to have a closer look? Contact one of our people in the company section.