Remember when faster equalled better? When driving was freedom? Volvo’s driver-facing sensors will soon detect and even prevent intoxicated or distracted driving. A divisive but bold statement of brand intent.

Apple and Amazon aren’t the only tech auto shows in town. Thanks to a partnership with 19 automakers, WeChat (with its 1 billion users!) is now accessible to Chinese drivers. Digital superpowers, freed from the screen.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics will see the Japanese manufacturer showcase its new vehicles. 90% are electric and athletes will be ferried around by an autonomous shuttle. Which global stage could be a perfect platform for your latest creations?

More autonomy, here in an Australian retirement village! Limited rollouts avoid many of the challenges of full open-road autonomy, while also bringing affordable mobility to groups who are currently under-served.

The Swedish automaker isn’t just living its brand values in its vehicles. Its pilot of a gender neutral parental leave policy shows it understands two key truths about success today: culture = brand; talent = product.

This act of self-disruption from an industry giant ticks so many trend boxes, mixing D2C, personalization, live chat and the gig economy!

The French brand looked to escape influencer fraud and fatigue by creating its #SephoraSquad, a year-long partnership with 24 diverse micro-influencers.

Its new office in Hangzhou (next to Alibaba’s HQ) will enable the beauty brand to access data and accelerate development of products better suited to local tastes. Are you responding to customer needs at 2020 speed?

Many local companies close when the Brazilian (men’s) soccer team play. This cosmetics group gave its staff time off when Brazil were playing in the Women’s World Cup. A clever yet positive reminder of socialized gender inequality.

This Japanese brand’s sunscreen’s selfie-friendly reverse print packaging taps into a very modern customer pain point. It might not be our most profound innovation, but it displays more empathy than many brands managed in 2019!

A washing machine with a filter to stop microplastic pollution? Sign us up! Giving the technology away as an OPEN SOURCE SOLUTION?! Even better! 👏👏👏

Inspired by an employee, the US shoe brand partnered with Not Impossible Labs to create a portable ‘sonic localizer’ system to help a visually impaired skateboarder.

This crowdfunded wearable air conditioning device might seem slightly crazy, but if it gets warm (!) reviews from spectators at the Tokyo Olympics it might just be the next big thing to hit warming streets around the globe.

Q is an artificially-synthesised, ‘genderless’ virtual assistant designed to challenge existing stereotypes perpetuated by existing offerings such as Alexa. A powerful signal to non-conforming audiences that they are represented.

Mexico’s National Institute of Technical Education is now offering courses in drone piloting, in order to help create future-proofed job opportunities. Today’s toys, tomorrow’s essential employment skills?

This t-shirt is made from sustainably-certified wood pulp, printed with ink made from algae, and will decompose in 12 weeks if composted. It’s not for everyone, but it is a powerful signal of where fashion eco-expectations are headed.

The fashion resale website launched its Resale-as-a-Service platform to other retailers. Will this platform play be the trigger that propels the recommerce trend firmly into the mainstream?

The Nike Fit app enables customers to measure their feet using augmented reality. It’s been a hell of a wait, but finally we’re seeing AR being used in ways that are actually…useful?!

The British eco-pioneer is deploying Google Cloud’s data analytics to give its designers a more detailed view into the impact of materials in its supply chain. Big data, meet sustainable fashion.

This Hong-Kong based startup makes custom-made jeans for people based on a 20-second Fit3D body scan. Perfect fit combined with zero inventory (and so zero waste!).

This app connects to users’ bank accounts and simplifies deducting allowable taxable expenses. Elite employee benefits, brought automagically to lower-paid and poorly-served hourly wage earners. Amen!

The UK bank enables customers to block certain spending categories, such as gambling, alcohol. Fintech-style self-disruption and true customer-centricity from an incumbent!

This Malaysian bank addressed both a younger generation and inter-generational family dynamics through its Chinese New Year campaign championing a professional esports gamer.

So many exciting new (free!) subscription offers. So many recurring charges. 😬 This clever app enables people to sign up to free trials with ‘burner’ card details so they don’t need to remember to cancel them to avoid charges.

Customers will soon be able to display their chosen names on their payment cards, regardless of their birth gender. A ‘small’ but very relevant step on the road to inclusion and acceptance.

The confectionery giant's new 70% dark chocolate product contains no refined sugar. Instead it is sweetened with previously-discarded cacao pulp. More sustainable and healthier, yet still indulgent. Mmmmm.

This Austin-based startup installs low maintenance grow beds in members’ homes, matching owners with willing local gardeners and collecting surplus produce for its zero-waste, hyperlocal subscription meal kits. Trend bingo! ;)

This Finnish startup will soon launch Solein, a high protein wheat flour-like powder made from CO2 extracted from the air and combined with water, nutrients, and vitamins. Science fiction becomes science fact, yet again.

This Melbourne-based startup makes it easier to avoid single-use food packaging by enabling customers to ‘rent’ reusable stainless steel bowls and outsource cleaning to the restaurant. Sustainability-as-a-Service?

One perennial (!) trend tip: take an innovation that’s being embraced by one segment and tweak it for another. This vitamin-enriched plant-based milk supports the brain health and bone strength of its 50 year old and over audience.

The D2C probiotics company launched an Instagram Stories-based ‘certification’ to train influencers in the science behind its products and FTC regulations. #accountable > #adfraud.

Researchers launched an app that can detect fluid behind the eardrum using a paper funnel attached to a standard smartphone. Dr. DIY and the democratization of healthcare in action.

Hong Kong-based patients with social anxiety can access a six-week therapy program. The twist? The sessions are delivered in virtual reality.

Medical treatment is just a small slice of healthcare. This cooking school for cancer patients offers those going through chemotherapy an experience filled with empathy and humanity.

The best ideas are often the simplest. The Womanikin is a breast attachment for CPR mannequins, designed so that first aid givers can get familiar with giving chest compressions to female bodies.

Growing awareness is making air pollution the next frontier for wellness. IKEA’s pollution-fighting curtains will push the issue even further into the mainstream.

The furniture brand partnered with software firm Autodesk and designer Philippe Starck to create the world’s first AI-designed chair. Will AI be your next creative companion?

This Chinese design studio created Blue Heart a ‘shared living room’ for residents in ultra-dense housing. New ‘third place’ opportunities will continue to emerge.

This initiative pairs up students with residents of an elderly care home, because loneliness — like most trends — doesn’t discriminate by demographic.

Will this crowdfunded portable bidet — with its sleek, Apple-esque design — bring bidets to the US market? Perhaps not, but it does signal that every item in the home is ripe for an eco-upgrade.

All-natural as the ultimate luxury? The world’s first synthetic ‘spider silk’ watch strap turns that assumption on its head.

Luxury is about scarcity. Which excludes all things digital. Or it did, until the auction of the world’s first piece of blockchain-based ‘digital haute couture’ gave us a glimpse of a new era of digital luxuries.

We shouldn’t need to celebrate this innovation, but Prada’s launch of its Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council is a step in the right direction for an industry that’s taken far too many wrong ones.

The luxury hotel chain opened a restaurant in Singapore’s Changi airport, showcasing a key part of its offering to a new audience. Which adjacent lanes could you move into?

Second hand doesn’t mean second-class. BMW embraced this trend by recycling clips from old ads to promote its pre-owned vehicle offering.

The maker of Barbie released a line of gender inclusive dolls. Each doll comes with both ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ hair and outfits which children are able to combine in various ways.

An Evening With Whitney will see the late singer ‘perform’ a holographic tour in 2020. Another signal that, increasingly, there’s no such thing as impossible.

This Spotify-like subscription service disaggregates cookbooks into their component recipes. Which new business models could you import from adjacent sectors?

The entertainment giant signed a distribution deal for algorithmically-generated music. Another day, another (creative) job being done by a machine.

To celebrate the re-release (after 15 years!) of World of Warcraft Classic, the studio helped players find members of their original in-game ‘guilds’. Much of our virtual lives are ephemeral, but meaningful shared experiences last forever.

Selected Dutch ATMs will show pictures of missing children and encourage citizens to sign up to mobile alerts. Omnichannel relevance meets brand purpose.

Californian police issued motorists pulled over for minor traffic violations with a ‘Second Chance’ warning ticket. But only if they were registered organ donors. Viral social media for good.

The fast food chain turned to aging nonprofit AARP to help recruit 250,000 new workers in the US, shattering many long-held demographic assumptions in the process.

This Singapore-based nonprofit is giving 10,000 bicycles — bought and recycled from failed bike-sharing startups ofo and oBike — to children living in rural Myanmar. Could you do more than just learn from failure?

Its new Braille Bricks help visually impaired children (and their families and friends) learn braille while playing. Inclusive design at its best.

The exterior walls of this South Korean mall literally change color in response to the air pollution: green when low, red when high. One signal of how dynamic data will increasingly shape our physical world.

The coffee chain continues to raise the bar when it comes to employee benefits, which now include various elements covering mental health. As we keep saying: your internal culture is now your external brand.

Not at home but still want — no, need! — some food or drinks delivered? 7Now Pins are delivery locations in public places, such as parks and malls. On-demand expectations get pushed ever higher.

The farmers’ market gets a digital makeover. 1,000 rural farmers are now livestreaming to Chinese urbanites hungry for compelling provenance stories about the food they buy.

The benefits of automation and big data will be felt behind-the-scenes. But smart (!) retailers will find creative ways to celebrate the customer-facing benefits of new technology, as Walmart’s Intelligent Retail Lab did.

Moving (crawling?!) at 15 mph, a one-mile distance limit, two human safety supervisors…the Optimus Ride shuttles are no joyride. But they are rapidly getting 16,000+ monthly riders comfortable with autonomous vehicles.

Grass roofs are moving from the hippest of eco-dwellings…to buses! Ten buses in Singapore were equipped with living roofs in an eco-conscious, air conditioning cost-cutting move.

This packable bike helmet makes it convenient for consumers to put safety first. And it’s made from recycled ocean plastic. No wonder it exceeded its Indiegogo funding goal in five days!

Stockholm’s Emotional Art Gallery transformed OOH into OMG. An algorithm scanned social media and local data to estimate commuters’ emotions, while digital subway billboards displayed real-time art to sooth them accordingly.

Say what you want about the controversial (and oft dumped-on-the-sidewalk) Bird scooters, but the company is raising the eco-bar by extending its carbon offset beyond the impact of an individual ride, and including delivery and charging.

Reminiscent of Patagonia’s ‘Don’t Buy this Jacket Campaign’, the Dutch airline asked its passengers to consider if they really needed to fly, or whether they could take a train or meet via video conference. Revenue sacrifice in the name of sustainability.

Brands touting ‘positive impact’ will look especially hollow if their own establishments play host to human suffering. Marriott trained half a million employees to spot trafficking at its hotels. What will you do?

The tiny island nation closed to tourists for a weekend, while selected ‘voluntourists’ worked to conserve and restore popular locations. A clever move that raised awareness of overtourism and secured a bit of free labor to boot.

Choice saturation. Fake reviews. This South Korean platform lets travelers text a local for real-time recommendations. Sry Yelp, g2g 🤙

Coffee maker, room service, iron and…ASMR?! The New York hotel tapped into the popular YouTube phenomenon to give guests a ‘drug-free mental massage’ via free, in-room, celebrity-performed ASMR videos.