So Katie Price is releasing a new single!  ‘Free to Love Again’ is her latest offensive on the great British public, and this time there’s no Peter to fill in the gaps.  Such as the singing bit.  Who does good looking ear muffs these days?   I found these Ugg beauties. But to be honest, with her singing, maybe what you need is some of these.

The latest celeb must have accessory is the Apple IPAD. Soon to be jailbird Lindsay Lohan even uses hers to keep the paps at bay!  I’m not really sure what problem they solve, and if I actually want one, but the iPad seems to be flying of the shelves like hot cakes, so my advice is to find something that you can sell them with – and quick!  How about an oversize Mulberry bag to stow it in?  But you need to be quick, as the luxury brand is enjoying soaring demand – despite making 500 bags a week, shops can’t stock enough.  And for the boys – Fat face have a great range of bags.

My wife just came back from a hen do, where she had the time of her life on a ‘dirty dancing’ session with her mates (I’m hoping it was based on the film!)  And the hot news is…. Leg warmers are back – and the brighter the better.  She still hasn’t taken hers off.  And for all the fellas that are looking after the kids while the wife’s dancing with budding Patrick Swayzes, what better way to wear them out, then  a long bike ride?  My friends at Evans Cycles said that keen cyclists are going mad for these.

Guilfest 2010 kicks off on Friday.  OK, so it’s not exactly Glasto, but it’s easier to get tickets, and the mighty Quo are headlining on Sunday… yummy mummies will be out en masse, channeling the gorgeous Kate Moss, Sadie Frost and the rest of the fashion pack.  Despite the great weather, Hunter wellies were out in force at Glastonbury, but let’s hope the heat wave holds, and sunnies and hats are the fashion must have this weekend.  Jigsaw have some fabulous sunglasses to choose from. This dress from White Stuff will make sure you stand out in the crowd and, for the boys, these shorts have plenty of pockets to stow away your festival goodies.

Multichannel is still one of the leading trends in retail (where have you been?)  It’s all about moving to a multi channel platform.  IMRG and Capgemini predict in their new research that UK online retail is set to more than double over the next ten years. Check the  IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index. They predict that the UK e-commerce market will reach £123bn by 2020.  I find that customers want the convenience on a multi channel platform and like the experience, so don't mess around, get in quick. (source:Internet Retailing)

Book here to secure your place and enter K3-2010 to gain free entry. Free. That's a great word.

That could be why I noticed the ‘Celebrating 130 Years’ on the store front of the local Cargo homewares store, as I breezed past with my shopping bag emblazoned with the history of the Marks & Spencer logo.

“Forget swine flu, the new epidemic sweeping the country’s creative agencies is nostalgia fever!” says Retail Marketing Maxim. This trend seemed to kick off last year with the wonderful Hovis ad, before Virgin Spiced things up with their 25 years Still Red Hot Campaign, sweeping us back to the 80’s.

On the retail front it was two giants, Marks & Spencer and Sainsburys that really grabbed us by the bygones; their nostalgia-based campaigns coming out within days of each other. Amidst a little humming and hawing over who exactly introduced the avocado to the UK, (M&S conceded it was Sainsburys), the campaigns have been trotting around stirring up fond memories of days that, in our tired minds, seemed easier.

In David Sprotts article “The power of reflection: an empirical examination of nostalgia advertising effects” he notes there can be no coincidence that this trend has appeared at a time when we struggle with the current climate. Nostalgia campaigns bring us comfort and reignite the "we will fight them on the beaches" spirit. All done, of course, in the hope that we will spend our somewhat more limited resources with 'an old friend'.

In a world where we find ourselves overloaded with viral marketing, click on this or scratch that to win an iDongleWhatsit and customer call centres that offer every option but ‘press 1 to talk to a real live human being’…then the soft cushion of nostalgia gives us somewhere to sit down and take a breath, while appealing to a base human need to ‘go home’.

Despite the bitter cold and snow on the day, all the members of the team completed the event battered and bruised and happy!

Or, of course, you can just keep coming back here.

Suppliers handPoint and Protouch signed up early to the free event, keen to take the opportunity to inject some positive thinking back into the collective 'retail conscious'. We look forward to seeing the response to the Retail Business Summit and Spring Fair in February, and fervently hope they can help boost optimism and create new opportunities.