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Just a few more days until the closing ceremony for the Summer Paralympics officially ends the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Then, it's time for the city to clean up and return to its everyday rhythm. For the first time in Olympic history, the organizing committee is making resales part of its dismantling process, hosting a series of flea markets, or Grandes Braderies des Jeux, across France. Fans and collectors will be able to purchase a wide array of Games memorabilia, including uniforms, cups, flags, towels used by athletes, decorative elements from venues and even items from the ceremonies.

Scheduled for September and October 2024, the flea markets will be held in cities including Mulhouse, Pantin, Rouen and Nanterre, with more locations to be announced. The initiative is part of Paris 2024's broader circular economy strategy, which aims to reduce waste and give a second life to as many Games-related items as possible. An additional B2B resales channel is operating online at secondevie.paris2024.org. As the monumental cleanup proceeds, that platform will be populated with items ranging from vacuum cleaners and hand trucks to BMX ramps and safety netting.

Older generations might accuse Gen Z of having a limited work ethic but, in reality, what it means to be ‘productive’ is evolving. A recent Ipsos survey revealed that 48% of Gen Z in the US worry about not using their free time productively, compared to 34% of all generations combined. They’re more concerned about boredom (37% vs. 26%), affording hobbies (39% vs. 26%) and choosing a vacation that lives up to their dreams (18% vs. 9%).

Black Myth: Wukong, a single-player action RPG game developed by Tencent-backed Chinese studio Game Science, has made headlines in the past week. Launched on 20 August 2024, the game sold over 10 million copies in its first three days. It garnered 2.2 million peak concurrent users (PCCU) on Steam within 24 hours of release, making it the most popular single-player game by PCCU in the platform’s history. The game’s popularity also helped Steam hit 37 million concurrent players for the first time.

Based on Journey to the West, a 16th-century Chinese novel, the game’s storyline follows the journey of the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, and his quest to reclaim six mythical relics. Actual locations in northern China's Shanxi Province inspire in-game scenes (sparking a tourist boom) and the gameplay features a host of Chinese cultural elements.

Despite some controversy surrounding the game’s influencer briefing package, its popularity is the latest signal that Asian properties are actively setting the standards for cultural cool worldwide. For the Chinese-speaking gaming community, having a blockbuster game based on local literature and presented in Chinese is a source of pride and joy. For international gamers, it's a fascinating deep-dive into less familiar stories — a much-welcome antidote to the global monoculture that has deprived consumers of truly novel offerings.

🧮 📈 For brands, Asian culture is a form of soft power that can drive hard results. Celebrating, championing and collaborating with Asian cultural properties and players is an increasingly impactful way to drive audience engagement, brand equity and commercial results. So — are you in tune with the region's latest developments?

IKEA Singapore has redesigned its famous blue shopping tote as an accessory that enables consumers to catch a few Zs on the go. Featuring a smooth cover and plush stuffing, the new-and-improved RESTEN bag doubles as a makeshift pillow. The bag is launching alongside RestFest at IKEA, a three-day event in September 2024 celebrating sleep, rest and relaxation. Visitors will be able to participate in various sleep-themed activities, including pajama parties, tranquil tea-tasting sessions and bedtime stories for kids.

A study by YouGov found that a whopping 54% of Singaporeans get 6 or less hours of sleep on a typical night, placing the country dead last in terms of sleep time among the 17 markets studied. But after years of pursuing economic progress at all costs, many Asian consumers are pushing back and advocating for prioritizing their wellbeing.

From Seoul to Shanghai to Singapore, one clear consumer theme is emerging: sleep and slowing down is the new status symbol for 2024 and beyond. Earlier this year, Seoul saw its first sold-out sleep concert, promising attendees 12 hours of restful slumber. In China, consumers flocked to attend Xiaohongshu’s Slow People Festival, which celebrated the slow living movement. How might your brand encourage, empower and enable consumers to rediscover the art of taking a breather?

🚖 Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle arm, just hit a major milestone: 100,000 paid robotaxi rides per week across Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix – a 100% increase from earlier this year, with more expansion in the works. As for the competition, Cruise, General Motors’ autonomous vehicle division, is shifting into high gear with a multi-year partnership with Uber. Starting in 2025, Uber users will be able to book a Cruise robotaxi. While Waymo and Cruise race ahead, Tesla appears to be falling behind, repeatedly postponing its robotaxi rollout.

Safety last? 🤔 As the US accelerates toward a driverless future, safety concerns continue to slam the brakes. Sometimes literally. Cruise's deal with Uber marked a significant comeback after a major accident in SF last year temporarily halted operations, but GM just recalled nearly 1,200 Cruise vehicles due to unexpected braking. No wonder claims by China’s Pony.AI that its robotaxis are 10 times safer than human drivers are boosting adoption rates. (The latest Waymo robotaxis hitting SF streets are made by Zeekr, a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer.)

✨ Whether or not the nuts, bolts and software of autonomous vehicles are all in place, robotization is here. And it's not just cars. Consumers are increasingly craving automation-fueled experiences that offer convenience with a touch of magic.

Coinciding with the Paris 2024 Olympics, Swiss startup Equip rolled out an innovative rental system to get everyone moving. To make sports more accessible and encourage impromptu play, the company installed 60 self-service rental units in Parisian parks and near sports fields and courts. Each compact unit contains basketballs, soccer balls or padel rackets in three separate lockers with glass doors, which are opened using an app.

Typically, people are charged a small hourly rental fee via the app, but these Play for Free units were sponsored by retail giant Decathlon. Since installing them in June 2024, Equip reports facilitating over 10,000 game sessions for more than 4,000 players, 30% of whom were women. Two percent of the sessions resulted in theft, much lower than anticipated. Following Paris, Equip just launched the concept in London, also in partnership with Decathlon.

🏀 ⚽️ 🏓 Equip's collaboration with Decathlon offers a practical solution to combatting pervasive societal concerns: the loneliness epidemic, excessive screen time and sedentary lifestyles. By removing barriers to participation and promoting spontaneous physical activity, Play for Free demonstrates how simple interventions can get people moving and playing together. As cities worldwide grapple with similar public health challenges, the Parisian experiment could serve as a blueprint for fostering more active communities. One to roll out across the globe?

In the Netherlands, millions of kilograms of table grapes are discarded by wholesalers and retailers every year. A supply chain issue may prevent them from reaching supermarkets on time, or the fruit might not meet rigid quality standards. Addressing that massive waste of food, Rotterdam Urban Winery just launched a line of wines made from surplus table grapes. The startup aims to transform what would typically end up in landfills or composting facilities into a marketable product.

Table grapes typically contain half the amount of sugar found in wine grapes. They also have thinner skins and, as a result, less tannin and intense flavors. So, developing drinkable wines was challenging. Founder Wouter Bijl — who previously made cider out of rejected apples and pears — turned to precision fermentation and specific yeast strains to make the most of the 8,000 kilograms of grapes RUW has saved so far. The first wines on offer are a sparkling white made of Thompson grapes priced at EUR 14.50, and a sparkling rosé made of Sable grapes for EUR 14.95. Both can be ordered directly from the company's website and are on the menu at various Rotterdam bars and restaurants. 

🍷 Later this year, RUW will add a red wine and a brut to its circular selection. While the line-up may not compete with a Grand Cru, that's not the point. As the brand's tagline — 'Urban terroir for rebels' — signals, this is wine for people who value social and environmental impact over conventional wine prestige.

Related: To cut down on waste, Champagne Telmont's new bottles come in 193,000 shades of green

Beano Brain has released its Coolest Brands 2024, gathering 55,000 responses from kids and teens aged 7 to 14 in the US and 45,000 from those in the UK, asking them, "Which of these brands do you think is cool?"

For anyone who has recently interacted with kids in that age group, it won't come as a surprise that YouTube tops the list of fave brands in both countries. The platform retained its position in the US from last year, while in the UK, it bumped Netflix off the throne. Netflix now comes in second in both countries, and Nintendo, Nike, Oreo and Lego made the top 10 on either side of the Atlantic, too. A few insights:

▶️ For Gen Alpha, YouTube is everything. It's where all of their interests can be summoned with a tap, from live gameplay and toy reviews to DIY crafts and their favorite songs. For this generation, YouTube isn't just a platform; it's a gateway to entertainment, education and influencers who feel like friends.

👣 The highest mover in the UK, up by 35 places to number 49, is Crocs. Besides being ultra comfy and easy to slip on, Crocs charms add an element of self-expression as well as the fun of collecting, bolstered by their availability on Shein and Temu at a fraction of the price of official Crocs Jibbitz.

🧴 In the US, teen and tween obsession with skincare helped two brands enter the list: Sephora, riding the coattails of Drunk Elephant, Summer Fridays and Glow Recipe (and the prejuvenation trend), and Bubbles, whose formulations are actually geared to young skin.

Innovation update  /  A year ago, we featured a new German product called Mililk, which reduces oat milk's shipping and packaging footprint by printing it into sheets. Users blend a sheet with water to create fluid oat milk. Parent company Veganz recently secured EUR 10M in equity financing to scale up production of Mililk. Meanwhile, the concept hasn't gone unnoticed on the other side of the Atlantic.

Milkadamia, an Illinois-based maker of macadamia nut milk, is adding a new non-dairy product to its line-up: Flat Pack Organic Oat Milk, 'the first and only flat pack milk in the US.' As with Mililk, a 2D printing process transforms oat milk paste into compact, lightweight sheets. To enjoy the milk, consumers simply tear off the desired quantity and blend it with water for 30 seconds, or soak the sheets overnight and shake.

According to Milkadamia, the format reduces packaging waste by 94% and cuts weight by 85% compared to traditional milk containers. A pack contains eight sheets that can each be reconstituted to make 8 fl oz/237 ml of oat milk, allowing consumers to prepare fresh, customized portions as needed. A retail rollout is expected in January 2025.

🗑️ 📦 🚛 Mililk and Milkadamia are tackling the massive problem of post-consumer waste management by proactively reducing packaging materials. Sheets of plant milk might pave the way for further flat-packing in the food industry, since taking the H2O out of liquid products could appeal both to consumers seeking sustainable alternatives and manufacturers looking for efficiency in product design and delivery.

🎶 ‘I’m coming out…!’ 🎶
When Diana Ross sang those iconic words in 1980, the song instantly became an LGBTQ+ anthem, in the same way James Brown’s ‘Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud’ became a rallying call for the Black community in 1968. Fast forward to 2024 and the landscape of coming out is shifting.

What’s happening?
LGBTQ+ adults are coming out at younger ages. A Gallup survey in the US revealed that the youngest LGBTQ+ adults (18-29) come out at a median age of 17, compared to early 20s for those aged 30 to 64, and 26 for those 65+.

Why the shift?
Today’s youth are recognizing their identities earlier. The median age of self-awareness is 14 for those aged 18-29, 15 for those 30-64 and 16 for those 65+. Plus, 70% of both LGBTQ+ adults and the broader US population agree that societal acceptance has improved over the last decade.

A beloved Brazilian soap opera set against the backdrop of cocoa cultivation, Renascer usually opens with lush scenes shot on a plantation in southern Bahia, showing people working the land in harmony with nature. Earlier this season, viewers settling in to watch their show were faced with altogether different images: logging, landfills, forest fires, plastic trash washing up on a shore, smog, parched earth...

Later in the episode, the telenovela cuts to actress Eli Ferreira speaking directly to the camera, explaining why Renascer's opening credits had switched from gorgeous to grim. "Real life isn't a soap opera. This is a warning to take better care of the environment." She continues, "We need to act together, and we need to act now," before directing viewers to Para Quem Doar, a social crowdfunding platform run by TV Globo. Sponsored by skincare and cosmetics brand O Boticário, this is the first time the network has ever changed a show's opening. 

📺 🫣 Soap operas are all about escaping into drama and romance. By replacing Renascer's familiar opening with scenes of destruction, O Boticário disrupted that sense of carefree downtime. It forced viewers to confront the stark realities of environmental degradation — a calculated effort to leverage the massive reach of a popular telenovela to raise awareness about the urgent need for action.

By directly addressing the audience through a well-known character, the show also blurred the lines between fiction and reality, making the environmental crisis feel both immediate and personal. Other brands: how can you bridge the gap between entertainment and advocacy? Where could you deliver a visual jolt that serves as a call to action?

The global shift toward cutting back on alcohol is gaining momentum. In Ireland, the iconic Guinness pint is being swapped out, and in the UK, football fans are reaching for nolo beers. Even Japan’s brewing giant, Asahi, predicts that by 2040, half of its sales will come from no and low alcohol drinks... 🍻

In the US, Gallup reveals that today’s young adults drink far less than their early 2000s counterparts. Why? 65% of people aged 18-34 believe alcohol harms health, compared to just 37% of those 35-54 and 39% of those 55+. It’s the biggest generational gap since 2001.

Health isn’t the only factor — rising alcohol prices are a boozekill, too 💸

Yet, the social side of drinking is deeply ingrained, and capable of transforming introverts into social butterflies for the night. So, as more people embrace 0.0%, it's time to reimagine the concept of social drinking. Early adopters? Munich, synonymous with beer, now has Die Null, its first alcohol-free beer garden, while Athletic Brewing has become soccer club Arsenal’s first Official Non-Alcoholic Beer Partner.

Peace of mind. That's what Samsung's new SmartThings Family Care service aims to offer people caring for elderly or infirm family and friends. Launched this month for SmartThings app users on Galaxy smartphones in the US, the tool leverages Samsung's connected living platform and smart home devices to provide comprehensive support for both caregivers and those they're looking out for.

Family Care helps monitor comings and goings, sending alerts when someone arrives at or leaves a specific location, helping to ensure their safety. It also offers activity notifications and medication reminders. Using AI, the service determines a person's regular daily routine and will send a notification if it detects anything unusual. It also keeps tabs on someone's first activity of the day. Additionally, it allows caregivers to set up automations for energy savings and improved indoor air quality.

👵🏽👴🏻 With the proportion of people aged 65 years and above increasing faster than those below that age, tools like Samsung's Family Care will become increasingly widespread. Crucially, the integration of smart assistive technologies into eldercare could enable more people to age in place safely and comfortably. 

While some family members in need of care might — rightly! — balk at their every move being watched, the tools can provide a valuable layer of security and reassurance. The key is to balance monitoring with respect for privacy, ensuring that the technology enhances, rather than infringes upon, the dignity and autonomy of those being cared for.

The so-called 'millennial lifestyle subsidy' — convenience offered at low prices by a slew of venture capital-backed apps and services — is coming to an end. No more free money means apps are raising prices, while higher interest rates (and inflation) are also cutting into consumer spending power. Many are still happy to pay for convenience, as witnessed by strong Q2 earnings posted by Instacart and DoorDash.

Others, once accustomed to cheap rides and meal deliveries, are now seeking alternatives. Reporting on the shift, Business Insider describes 31-year-old Sarah Manley facing sticker shock: "If I was using rideshares and the delivery apps and everything the way I was, I would run out of money each month," she says. Some people are ditching delivery and reverting to old-fashioned, pre-app shopping habits; others are getting creative and thrifty, comparing prices across platforms and using public transit more often.

Companies are refining their pricing models and strategies, too. Bilal Baydoun of the Groundwork Collaborative warns that dynamic pricing could become more widespread, making budgeting difficult for consumers: "It's making people miserable to not know what things cost." As businesses pursue new pricing tactics, customer loyalty may erode (or worse, as witnessed by the backlash against supermarket Kroger for alleged price gouging by way of electronic shelf labels). The good news? Caution and concerns create space for empathic brands to demonstrate they understand the plight of value-focused consumers.

This summer, the city of Montreal is hosting a series of free dog behavior workshops at Le Ber Park Dog Park. The initiative, aimed at enhancing public safety and improving quality of life for both pets and their owners, offers expert advice on a range of canine-related topics.

The 15-minute sessions, followed by Q&A time, cover crucial aspects of dog ownership, such as managing dynamics in dog parks, understanding canine play and communication, bite prevention, and addressing aggression between dogs. By equipping owners with knowledge and practical tips, the city hopes to cultivate a community of well-behaved dogs and informed caretakers.

🐕 🐾 Remember pandemic puppies? Many weren't properly socialized and owners are still struggling with their maladaptive behavior. As reported by the Guardian, "Six in 10 vets surveyed by the welfare charity People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals for its annual Paw report on pet wellbeing reported a rise in canine behavioral problems — most commonly jumping up, barking and whining, or showing distress when left — in the last two years, along with a more worrying rise in dogs growling, snapping, biting or showing other signs of fear."

People are seeking practical know-how that puts them back in the driver's seat and brings them peace of mind. Cities, brands and other organizations — figure out which aspect of life your audience needs a helping hand with, and offer convenient and low-stakes tutoring tailored to their needs.