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Read the news and 2019 was a pretty sh*tty year. The looming climate crisis. Political polarization. Culture wars. Trade wars. Big tech exposed. Soaring economic inequality.
Look beyond the headlines however and there are glimpses of a different world. A world where people and organizations are fighting for — and in many cases creating — a more inclusive and sustainable world. We’re no consumerist utopians, but we want to tell the other side of the story: a world of innovation and opportunity.
That’s what our Innovation of the Day newsletter brings you. A daily dose of inspiration as to how pioneering entrepreneurs, brands, nonprofits and governments — in all global markets and sectors — are creating a better future.
Below you’ll find 70 of our favorite innovations from 2019, categorized by industry sector. We know you’ll probably skip quickly to your own industry. We get it. But don’t stop there.
The most powerful way to spot future opportunities is to look at what other innovators are doing today. Look at how they redefine expectations. Let these innovations provoke powerful questions about what you need to do in your future.
2019 might have been a tough year. But 2020 will only be faster and more turbulent! It will also present more opportunities for those organizations that are able to spot and seize them.
Good luck!
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🚗 Top 5 Automotive innovations
Automakers have been keen watchers of consumer trends for years, hardly surprising given cars are one of the biggest purchases consumers make. Now the industry is facing its most profound change in 100 years. Autonomous vehicles, new models of ownership, connected ecosystems and more. Want a glimpse of what mobility will look like in 2020? Get inspired by these future-ready innovations:
1. Volvo
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.
2. Tencent
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.
3. Toyota
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?
4. Busbot
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.
5. Volvo (again!)
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.
💄 Top 5 Beauty innovations
Beauty customers want it all. And why not?! Personalization. Intimate connection with trusted influencers. Activism. Empowerment. Scientific breakthroughs. All-natural, eco-friendly products. New technologies. Yes, some of these trends conflict. But those brands that hit the mark will open up new demographics, new markets and new levels of meaning. Check out these five recent inspiring examples:
6. L’Oreal
This act of self-disruption from an industry giant ticks so many trend boxes, mixing D2C, personalization, live chat and the gig economy!
7. Sephora
The French brand looked to escape influencer fraud and fatigue by creating its #SephoraSquad, a year-long partnership with 24 diverse micro-influencers.
8. Shiseido
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?
9. Boticário
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.
10. Rohto
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!
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🔌 Top 5 Consumer Electronics innovations
The electronics industry used to be about specs and style. Brands competed to give customers gadgets that were faster, bigger (or smaller!), shinier, newer. But glance at the innovations below and it’s clear the industry is now headed in a different direction. As personal technology reaches a plateau in terms of raw power and basic form, consumers will seek devices with very different benefits: environmental, inclusive, and empowering.
11. Arçelik
A washing machine with a filter to stop microplastic pollution? Sign us up! Giving the technology away as an OPEN SOURCE SOLUTION?! Even better! 👏👏👏
12. Zappo’s
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.
13. Sony
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.
14. Vice
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.
15. Conalep
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?
👚 Top 5 Fashion innovations
Yes, there are still millions of people who don’t — or can’t — consider the true cost of fast fashion. But within the industry, 2019 felt like a watershed moment where both individuals and organizations woke up to the need to drastically reduce their environmental impact. Exciting new materials, business models, data, technologies and most importantly new consumer expectations are converging, as the examples below highlight:
16. Vollebak
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.
17. thredUP
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?
18. Nike
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?!
19. Google x Stella McCartney
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.
20. Unspun
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!).
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💸 Top 5 Financial Services innovations
Fintech disruption remains the big story. But there’s been a big shift. Where previously long-serving incumbents struggled to compete, 2019 saw their decade-long drive to embrace both digital and cultural transformation start bearing fruit. Customers are increasingly able to enjoy convenient, practical, and empathetic customer experiences, from organizations big and small. Hurrah!
21. Alice
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!
22. Barclays
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!
23. RHB
This Malaysian bank addressed both a younger generation and inter-generational family dynamics through its Chinese New Year campaign championing a professional esports gamer.
24. Free Trial Surfing
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.
25. Mastercard
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.
🍛 Top 5 Food & Beverage innovations
Anyone watching trends should watch the food industry. Thanks to its relatively low cost and high frequency engagement (we all eat, every single day!) you’ll see all the big consumer trends on show. You could dive into the endless reports looking at new ingredients, new channels, sustainable sourcing and the circular economy, and more. Or you could see those trends in action via the five innovations below:
26. Nestlé
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.
27. Lettuce
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! ;)
28. Solar Foods
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.
29. Returnr
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?
30. Perennial
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.
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🏥 Top 5 Healthcare innovations
The consumerization of healthcare — behaviorally, technologically, culturally — remains the biggest industry trend on our radar. People will always still want world-class ‘traditional’ (i.e. hospital-based) reactive medical care in an emergency. But innovations that empower people to engage with their health in new ways will bring huge benefits to both individuals and over-stretched healthcare systems. Here are five to inspire you:
31. Seed
The D2C probiotics company launched an Instagram Stories-based ‘certification’ to train influencers in the science behind its products and FTC regulations. #accountable > #adfraud.
32. University of Washington
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.
33. AXA Insurance
Hong Kong-based patients with social anxiety can access a six-week therapy program. The twist? The sessions are delivered in virtual reality.
34. Life Kitchen
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.
35. United State of Women
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.
🏡 Top 5 Home & Garden innovations
The opportunities — and the need! — to redesign so much of how we live are epic. We’d bet there aren’t many people out there who would turn down a domestic life that is safer, more sustainable, healthier and more socially connected. Here are five innovations that give a glimpse of what domestic bliss looks like in 2020:
36. IKEA
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.
37. Kartell
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?
38. Wutopia Lab
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.
39. Student.com & Sheffcare
This initiative pairs up students with residents of an elderly care home, because loneliness — like most trends — doesn’t discriminate by demographic.
40. Sonny
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.
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👜 Top 5 Luxury innovations
We’re no blind believers in trickle-down economics…but we are in trickle-down trends! What starts out in the luxury sector quickly ripples out into the mass-market. High-end aspirations become mainstream expectations. Which is why, no matter which industry you’re in, you should keep an eye on what luxury brands are doing. Here are five early warning signals to have on your radar:
41. Omega
All-natural as the ultimate luxury? The world’s first synthetic ‘spider silk’ watch strap turns that assumption on its head.
42. Dapper Labs
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.
43. Prada
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.
44. Shangri-La
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?
45. BMW
Second hand doesn’t mean second-class. BMW embraced this trend by recycling clips from old ads to promote its pre-owned vehicle offering.
🎥 Top 5 Media & Entertainment innovations
People now spend near-insane amounts of their daily lives immersed in media. In the US, it’s over 12 hours a day! And the modern media landscape is as diverse as humans themselves. Frivolous yet meaningful; mindless yet self-improving. Amid all the fake news, deep fakes and filter bubbles here are five glimpses of how we’ll entertain ourselves in 2020:
46. Mattel
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.
47. BASE Hologram
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.
48. ckbk
This Spotify-like subscription service disaggregates cookbooks into their component recipes. Which new business models could you import from adjacent sectors?
49. Warner Music
The entertainment giant signed a distribution deal for algorithmically-generated music. Another day, another (creative) job being done by a machine.
50. Blizzard
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.
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✨ Top 5 Nonprofit innovations
The lines between businesses and nonprofits are increasingly blurred, thanks to the totally over-used yet still welcome purpose ‘trend’ (we hesitate to call it that, because it should be so obvious as to be unremarkable). And yes, working with for-profit businesses can create challenges for nonprofits, but the sector should also embrace the big ambitions, big budgets and big opportunities on offer, too! Here are five nonprofit initiatives to get inspired by:
51. Amber Alerts
Selected Dutch ATMs will show pictures of missing children and encourage citizens to sign up to mobile alerts. Omnichannel relevance meets brand purpose.
52. Donate Life California
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.
53. McDonald’s
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.
54. Lesswalk
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?
55. LEGO
Its new Braille Bricks help visually impaired children (and their families and friends) learn braille while playing. Inclusive design at its best.
🏪 Top 5 Retail innovations
Is the two decade-long transformation and convergence of online and offline retail complete? Largely ‘yes!’ (finally). But the truth is customers don’t care. They just want what they’ve always wanted: best-in-class choice, convenience and meaningful experiences. Retailers that deliver these will find 2020 a wonderful place, those that don’t will wither and die. Here are five exciting retail innovations to celebrate:
56. Hanwha Galleria
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.
57. Starbucks
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.
58. 7-Eleven
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.
59. Taobao
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.
60. Walmart
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.
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✈️ Top 5 Transport innovations
If ‘mobile’ in the last decade has been primarily about smartphones, in the 2020s it will be about new ways to move physical atoms (i.e. people and goods) around more efficiently, cheaply and cleanly. The five innovations below show where the transport sector is headed, as technological advances (yes, all the buzz words: big data, AI, IoT and automation!) converge with new demands from individuals and society.
61. Optimus Ride
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.
62. SBS Transit
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.
63. Cyclo
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!
64. Clear Channel
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.
65. Bird
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.
💼 Top 5 Travel innovations
The travel industry faces a perfect trend storm. On the one hand, travel is so important to people. It communicates so much about their status and identity. On the other hand, the industry faces a epic tension between rhetoric and reality, especially when it comes to purpose and authenticity. Here are five innovations that are making strides to resolve this tension:
66. KLM
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.
67. Marriott
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?
68. Faroe Islands
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.
69. Sidekick
Choice saturation. Fake reviews. This South Korean platform lets travelers text a local for real-time recommendations. Sry Yelp, g2g 🤙
70. The Moxy
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.
So there you have it! 70 of the most expectation-raising, lightbulb-moment-sparking, trend-driven innovations of 2019! 💡💡💡
Which ones wowed you? Which ones do you think will fizzle? Which ones did we miss?
And don’t forget to subscribe to receive a dose of inspiration in your inbox, every morning (except at weekends…our writers need to sleep! 😉).
Finally, best of luck…here’s to making 2020 your best year yet! Cheers! Proost! 干杯! Salud! Skål! 건배! Santé! Prost! Şerefe! Mabuhay! Saúde! Chok dee!
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