Selected by our experts, delivered daily.

Live events are booming, but there’s a disconnect. Performers are frustrated because fans are more focused on capturing content than soaking up the live vibe. Heineken has a fix. Following the buzz around its minimalist Boring Phone (a collab with streetwear brand Bodega that saw impressive demand), Heineken returns with an app called Boring Mode, urging people to embrace the moment, phone-free.

To promote Boring Mode, Heineken used stealth tech at major music events like the Silver Live Out Festival and, most recently, at DJ Barry Can’t Swim’s opening set at Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE). The tech made a message appear on attendees' screens if they were using their phone's camera, 'Keep the moment in your memory, not on your phone,' nudging them to stay present.

📈 This push follows a survey revealing that 41% of Gen Z and Millennials across the US, UK and Netherlands are frustrated by excessive phone use at concerts (35% admit to checking their phones too often during social events). And while 55% prioritize filming over being present, only 13% ever watch the videos they made.

With the Boring Mode app, available from October 2024, Heineken brings its be-here-now approach to any phone running iOS or Android. The app silences notifications and makes phone cameras shoot in low definition, reinforcing the brand's mission to spark real-life connections in an always-online world.

📵 Whether to boost crowd engagement and create immersive experiences, or to nurture connections with friends and family, could your brand step in to block distractions? How else might you help your audience be more fully present?

At this month's Japan Mobility Show Bizweek, Toyota Motor Corporation unveiled the latest iteration of its portable hydrogen cartridges. Designed primarily to power fuel cell electric vehicles, the new cartridges are compact enough to be carried by hand or in a backpack, allowing drivers to instantly pop in fuel instead of recharging at a station. Toyota envisions the swappable cartridges becoming a ubiquitous renewable energy source, powering not just cars, but also appliances. As a test case, it worked with Rinnai Corporation on an outdoor stove.

The plug-and-ride portability of Toyota's new hydrogen cartridges solves common pain points for drivers: extending their range and offering peace of mind about getting to a charging station before their battery runs dry. As extreme weather events and accompanying blackouts become more frequent, having a backup power source for household appliances extends that sense of security beyond transportation. 

⚡️ Bigger picture? Transitioning into a society powered by renewable, no-emission fuel requires a coordinated effort across the energy value chain.

Soccer meets social entertainment in a hospitality concept that rethinks how people experience the world's most popular sport. TOCA Social, which launched at London's O2 Arena in 2021 and opened a second location in Birmingham this summer, combines interactive games with a bar and restaurant.

The concept's centerpiece? Private gaming booths equipped with professional-grade ball-tracking technology, where groups of friends can compete in fast and immersive soccer games. Think karaoke for those who'd rather kick a ball than hit a high note.

Backed by a recent USD 100 million funding round, TOCA Social is now preparing to bring its formula to the US in partnership with Major League Soccer. Its first American outpost will open in Dallas in 2025, ahead of the 2026 World Cup. Meanwhile, in Europe, the company inked a deal with Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield to open two new TOCA Socials in 2025: one in Westfield London and another in La Défense, Paris.

A few key drivers:
⚽️ Less drawn to traditional bars than previous generations, Gen Z is seeking alternative reasons and spaces to hang out with friends
⚽️ Competitive socializing is on a roll, spreading from the UK to the rest of the world. TOCA Social taps into that demand while leveraging soccer's built-in fan base
⚽️ With alcohol sales trending down, game-centric venues can make up for lost revenue by catering to families during the day

A study just published by The Lancet Planetary Health explores climate-related emotions among US adolescents and young adults aged 16-25. Six key findings:

🙁 Of the study's 15,793 respondents, 85% reported being at least moderately worried about climate change and its impacts, with 58% being very or extremely worried, which is notably higher than in previous studies and suggests climate concerns are intensifying rather than diminishing among young Americans.

🗳️ The distress cuts across political lines. While Democrats showed higher levels of concern, a majority of young Republicans also reported significant worry about climate change, challenging assumptions about partisan divides. Nearly one in four (73%) said they're likely to vote for candidates who support aggressive climate policies, indicating this issue could influence future voting patterns and policy.

👶 Climate anxiety is impacting major life decisions: 69% said climate change will influence where they choose to live, 67% expect it will affect their career choices, and 52% report being hesitant to have children due to climate concerns.

🧠 Mental health impacts are significant, too: 43% indicated climate change is affecting their mental health, while 38% reported that climate-related feelings negatively impact their daily functioning, including the ability to focus at work/school, sleep, eat and maintain relationships.

🏭 Those surveyed primarily place responsibility with corporations and industries (89%) and with the US government (86%) for both causing and addressing the climate crisis, suggesting they expect systemic solutions.

💼 Corporate climate action matters to young talent: 67% report they plan to choose employers based on commitment to sustainability and reducing climate impact, which will no doubt affect future workforce dynamics.

After a bit of an uptick during COVID lockdowns, the percentage of Italians who read for pleasure dropped back to one of the lowest rates in Europe. In 2022, just 35.4% of people over the age of 16 read at least one book for a reason other than school or work. Aiming to help everyone rediscover the joy of reading, Italian hypermarket chain Bennet is turning everyday food packaging into a pint-sized literary platform. Its new Good To Read Packs provide a taste of celebrated novels, with excerpts printed on milk cartons, boxes of rice and tea, cans of beans and packs of biscotti. Authors currently on offer include Flaubert, Salinger and Murakami.

As Bennet underscores in an accompanying campaign, books are vital nourishment for human minds. Beyond the new packaging, the retailer has also expanded its in-store book selection to include a broader range of classics and contemporary bestsellers. The move exemplifies the evolving role of brands in consumers' lives, delivering value beyond their core offerings; by wrapping groceries in literature, Bennet demonstrates that everyday customer touchpoints can be reimagined as channels for cultural engagement and personal growth.

A new feature on Taco Bell's app puts customer spending control front and center. The app asks, "How much are you looking to spend?" After the user inputs their budget — with a USD 5 minimum and USD 25 maximum — the app generates combinations of menu items fitting that constraint. Drinks, combos, party packs and certain other items are excluded, but customers can pin preferred items to their cart and continue randomizing other options to complete their order.

The fast-food chain's budget-oriented innovation comes as the industry continues to grapple with a slump in sales. While the usual response to inflation is price adjustments (both up and down, as with PepsiCo's recent de-shrinkflation), Taco Bell presents a new tactic for dealing with heightened price sensitivity. By allowing customers to mix and match a menu within a specific spending limit, its tool can transform budgeting into an engaging experience.

That said, feedback on social media points to the feature not serving up the types of bargains consumers could get simply by selecting a fixed meal deal. One to keep in mind as you tweak your own brand's customer journey to help navigate financial constraints 💸

Spotify’s Culture Next report is here and it spotlights how youth across 16 countries are remixing culture. The three trends shaking up the soundscape?

👯 Blendships: music and podcasts are Gen Z's go-to for deeper connections

🎸 Playlist Diary: hyper-personalization gives Gen Z that main character energy

🎶 Mainstreaming: Gen Z is (re)embracing the mainstream. In fact, 80% of US Gen Z say niche and underground culture are going mainstream, with near-identical percentages in the UK (81%) and Australia (84%). By comparison, 74% of Gen Z labeled themselves as mainstream in 2023, up from 59% in 2021

Czech skincare brand Astrid is guessing it's been a while since most of its customers had a sleepover. To ensure there are "no more excuses for not getting together with your besties," the brand has declared 7-10 November 2024 Sleepover Weekend, offering prizes to those who register their gathering on astridsleepover.cz. The campaign aims to encourage a record number of sleepovers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with winners receiving Astrid's Hydro X-Cell products, makeup sponges, a silk pillow and other goodies.

As much as they yearn for meaningful connections, people struggle to carve out dedicated time for friends. By reminding its customers of the joy of a sleepover, Astrid offers a hook for them to (finally) organize a get-together. Meanwhile, by setting the scene for a shared self-care ritual, the brand is promoting its skincare products in an entirely relevant context.

In Australia, 16 October 2024 was National Banana Day. To celebrate, Australian Bananas launched the Banana Gym Pass. For one day only, Aussies could access over 350 gyms nationwide, including Fitness First and Goodlife Health Clubs, using a banana bought from any local grocer as their entry pass. In addition to promoting bananas as an ideal workout snack, the campaign aimed to encourage people to get active by giving people one-day access to gyms. The idea came about after a study revealed that 46% of Australians without a gym membership considered signing up ahead of the summer season.

Consumers will always love a good deal, especially when many are concerned with the ever-rising cost of living and prioritizing value for money. Meanwhile, 80% of global consumers said "the best way for a brand to stand out and earn their loyalty is its ability to surprise and delight them in unexpected ways." With the Banana Gym Pass, Australian Bananas addressed both expectations through a fun and quirky route to a valuable perk while remaining true to the company's core business.

The campaign turned bananas from just another commoditized product into a passport unlocking a coveted experience. It's a powerful way for brands to enhance the perceived value of their products, especially with consumers who value doing over owning. Typical applications of this strategy usually involve brand partnerships with media IPs — think "buy a product, unlock access to a K-pop concert" — but the Banana Gym Pass demonstrated that desirable experiences don’t always have to come with an expensive IP partnership. Could your brand reposition products as passports to memorable moments?

Bees pollinate approximately 75% of human crops and 90% of wild plants, playing a pivotal role in global food security and the natural world. And yet, the average lifespan of an adult honey bee has halved in the past 50 years, and one in ten species of wild bees are facing extinction. As New Zealanders welcome spring, Woolworths New Zealand raised awareness about the plight of pollinators by opening a supermarket for bees.

Designed as a miniature supermarket, the Woolworths for Bees pop-up was stocked with fresh flowers that bees love. Human visitors could learn more about bees from on-site beekeepers and information placards, complete education challenges, and purchase seeds to grow their own bee-friendly garden. The supermarket was open from 28 September to 6 October 2024 at Ambury Farm in Auckland.

Missed opportunity: Woolworths doesn't mention the role of pesticides in the demise of bees. As the country's second-largest grocery chain, it could arguably do more to protect bees by stimulating sales of produce grown with no or minimal pesticides than by opening a temporary haven for pollinators. That said, the activation reflects a growing understanding that environmental and human welfare are deeply interconnected.

Woolworths highlights that interconnectedness by creating a 'shop' that provides the same kind of essential service for bees that supermarkets do for people — thereby drawing an easily understood parallel between the natural world's needs and human needs. Related initiatives? Last month, Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa submitted a proposal for the International Criminal Court to classify ecocide as a crime, alongside genocide. Earlier this year, Spotify recognized Nature as an artist. 

Medical breakthroughs have extended lives, but the pace is slowing. In the 1990s, life expectancy in the longest-living countries grew by 2.5 years per decade. By the 2010s? Just 1.5 years. And even eliminating all deaths before age 50 would only add 1.5 years to the average lifespan, according to an October 2024 Nature Aging study. 📉

Despite billionaires chasing immortality, aging isn't slowing down. As public health expert S. Jay Olshansky puts it, "Bodies don’t operate well beyond their warranty period." Bad news for the 32% of Americans who want to live forever.

It's time to focus on health-span instead of living 120 years. Women, who outlive men but spend 25% more time in poor health, could especially benefit.

Forget pricey longevity retreats — how about free preventative bio-age testing or rewarding healthy living? 👵🌿

Casio, the Japanese electronics giant best known for calculators and watches, is venturing into plushier territory with Moflin, a fluffy AI-powered pet robot that's designed to form an emotional bond with its owner. Resembling a guinea pig or maybe an earless rabbit, a Moflin reacts to being spoken to and cuddled, and can recognize a specific person's voice and touch. After about a month, it becomes more vocal and active, learning to respond to its owner with wriggles and meow-like sounds. According to Casio, artificial intelligence enables it to pull from 4 million potential combinations of audio and movement to develop and display its personality. The creature's mood is boosted by affectionate interaction, and drops when neglected or startled; users can get a closer read on their Moflin's emotional states through an accompanying app.

Originally developed by Vanguard Industries Inc. and launched on Kickstarter in 2020, Moflin's initial production was stymied by pandemic-era supply chain issues. Now manufactured and distributed by Casio, the device is available for pre-order in Japan, with shipping planned for November 2024, though it's currently listed as sold out. Available in grey and brown, Moflins sell for JPY 59,400 (USD 395/EUR 365), plus an optional annual membership for discounts on hospitalization (aka repairs), fur care and fur replacements.

🐹 So, is this all fluff? Probably not. Speculations about the future of human-bot interactions have gone into overdrive since ChatGPT was introduced, and chatbots have proven to be exceptionally engaging for those seeking emotional or intimate connections. Casio offers a simpler, more innocent form of companionship that provides moments of delight and helps soothe people when they're stressed or anxious. Take the growing popularity of Jellycats and other stuffed animals among adults, throw in responsive, AI-powered interaction plus an ever-expanding market for self-care tools, and Moflin seems like the natural evolution of multiple trends. Cats: it's time to start worrying about an animatronic furball taking your job...

Reuters reports that Spain is making history by welcoming its first all-transgender men's soccer team, Fenix FC, to a regional league in Catalonia. Named after the mythical phoenix, symbolizing rebirth, the team has overcome administrative hurdles and prejudice to achieve federated status in Europe. Fenix FC, now competing in the fifth tier of Catalan soccer, emerged from the vision of Hugo Martinez, a player who faced discrimination during his own transition. The team provides a safe and supportive environment for trans men to play soccer.

The participation of trans athletes continues to be a hot-button issue — and fodder for culture wars — but the Catalan Football Association's inclusive policy indicates an evolving understanding of gender in sports. As Fenix FC gains visibility on soccer fields around Barcelona, their introduction could provide valuable insights for other sports organizations grappling with questions of transgender inclusion. At the very least, it'll kick off further dialogue.

Recent events surrounding Hurricane Helene brought the issue of fake vs real imagery into sharp focus. Speaking to his Hard Fork co-host, journalist Casey Newton reported on the circulation of an AI-generated image of a frightened young girl on a boat holding a puppy. "Yeah, so a number of high-profile right-wing accounts have been sharing this stuff online. Utah Senator Mike Lee reposted the girl with the puppy on his personal X account, although he did later delete it. That same image was shared by Amy Kremer, who is a Republican National Committee — National Committeewoman, and a co-founder of Women for Trump."

"And Kevin, I thought this was interesting because after she was called out for posting this fake image, she said, quote, 'I don't know where this photo came from and honestly, it doesn't matter. It is seared into my mind forever. There are people going through much worse than what is shown in this pic. So I'm leaving it because it is emblematic of the trauma and pain people are living through right now.' So that's a pretty rich text, I would say, because what it's telling us is, we're now in a world where we share things not because they're true, but because they're emblematic of the way that we feel."

Valuing the emotional resonance of a photo over its factual accuracy isn't limited to news events. It's a notion that's increasingly encouraged by phones and other tools people use to capture and edit everyday, personal images. Pictures of their kids, their honeymoon, a picnic with friends. A few months back, Wired spoke to Isaac Reynolds, the group product manager for Google's Pixel Camera, about Pixel's new AI tools that allow people to entirely alter photos they've taken. 

Reynolds said, "It's about what you're remembering. When you define a memory as that there is a fallibility to it — you could have a true and perfect representation of a moment that felt completely fake and completely wrong. What some of these edits do is help you create the moment that is the way you remember it, that's authentic to your memory and to the greater context, but maybe isn't authentic to a particular millisecond."

As the lines between fake and real blur at accelerating speed, businesses and marketers face new challenges and opportunities. How will consumers' relationship with visual content evolve? What are the implications for brand authenticity in a world where "authentic" might mean "emotionally true" rather than "factually accurate"? Should we stop thinking of this as a problem to solve and start viewing it as a new reality to navigate?

Real estate platform Zillow has introduced comprehensive climate risk information to its property listings across the United States. It will soon feature data on five critical environmental hazards — flood, wildfire, wind, heat and air quality — for each home listed for sale. In addition to numerical scores, the tool provides potential buyers with interactive maps showing risks nearby, as well as historical data ("1 large wildfire within 20 miles since 1984") and projections ("this property has a 100% chance of flooding over the next 30 years"). The information is provided by climate risk modeling firm First Street, which provides a similar but less in-depth set of data to Zillow's competitor Redfin. 

Environmental concerns are making their way into real estate decisions. In a 2023 survey of 12,000 prospective buyers, Zillow found that 80% consider at least one climate risk when determining where to look for a new home. Most likely to do so? Millennial and Gen Z shoppers, who now comprise 54% of home buyers. Notably, just 23% of all buyers consider moving somewhere with fewer climate risks, while 27% plan to move to an area with more climate risks, where prices are likely to be lower. Affordability remains key, especially for first-time buyers.

That said, buyers and sellers will increasingly take climate risk data into account as home insurance premiums skyrocket and worries about health and safety escalate. Beyond real estate: which climate-related information should your company unlock to help people make better decisions? Which risks are specific to your industry, and how can you make them transparent and easy for the average consumer to comprehend and act on?