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In the Philippines, the Christmas season spans the entire length of the 'ber' months, starting in September. To celebrate the unofficial yet widely-embraced start of the festive period, Manila-based cafe and coffee roaster Commune teamed up with Google Philippines on a limited edition Bibingka Latte. Drawing inspiration from a traditional Filipino Christmas delicacy, the espresso and steamed milk drink is topped with shredded queso de bola and salted egg, and decorated with a torched banana leaf.

Bibingka Latte was created using Gemini, Google's generative AI model. Gemini drafted various drink concepts, which Commune's baristas then refined. Google also trained Commune staff on AI applications to help them craft innovative new beverages. Aside from serving as a reminder that the end of another year is fast approaching, the collaboration highlights three takeaways for brands to consider. First, cultural micro-moments, like the start of the 'ber' months in the Philippines, are important organic milestones. More localized and bottom-up than the standard holidays marketers are accustomed to activating, they resonate deeply with consumers. How might your brand engage with cultural micro-moments that matter to your audience?

Secondly, using generative AI to spark new ideas that workers can run with demonstrates the power of combining artificial intelligence and human creativity — and the resulting real-world products make AI's potential tangible to consumers. Finally, Google and Commune's partnership underscores the importance of working with diverse entities to explore how new technologies can benefit to society. The combination of generative AI, Filipino coffee and festive treats might not have been on your 2024 trend bingo card, but it's time to consider which communities your brand can collaborate with to push innovation boundaries.

NIVEA's survey of 8,000 people across eight countries (🇧🇷🇨🇳🇫🇷🇩🇪🇵🇭🇿🇦🇬🇧🇺🇸) reveals a stark reality: 1 in 4 people are grappling with isolation always or often, confirming the existence of a global loneliness epidemic.

😞 Ripple effects
Health repercussions: 53% report worsening mental health and 48% feel physically worse, with loneliness linked to a 29% higher risk of heart disease and a 32% higher risk of stroke.
Stubborn stigma: 58% feel helpless when seeking support and 40% feel shame about their sense of isolation. While 67% know where to find help, only 46% feel comfortable reaching out.
Empathy deficit: 81% think people today are just looking out for themselves. 58% of them feel alone even when they are around other people.

🌍 NIVEA's response
Since 86% of people are convinced loneliness is only getting worse, NIVEA just launched NIVEA CONNECT. The project's mission is to bridge the loneliness divide, dismantle the stigma and spark meaningful connections. By 2026, NIVEA CONNECT will be active in 40 countries, working with experts and local communities to drive lasting change.

✨ Your mission?
What shape is your brand's community in? Think about its purpose: does the community genuinely connect people over their shared interest or passion (for your brand, or for what it enables them to be or do)? Could you take it up a notch by partnering with local organizations and health professionals to tackle the loneliness epidemic head on?

Every year, millions of airline passengers check in their luggage and never see it again. Eton, the Swedish menswear brand, has unveiled an innovative after-sales offering that transforms the frustration of lost bags into a novel brand experience. Dubbed 'The Phoenix Service,' it's a lifetime travel insurance for the company's iconic White Signature Twill Shirt.

The free service promises to replace any White Signature Twill Shirt lost in checked baggage. After customers provide the airline's documentation confirming their missing luggage, Eton will send them a brand-new shirt. By addressing a common travel headache, the brand positions its product as more than just an article of clothing; it's a reliable companion that its wearer can't be without. 

🧳 Eton's creative approach to customer care exemplifies what we call EMPATHY ENSURANCE: brands stepping up to provide meaningful post-purchase support in an uncertain world. By offering lifetime travel insurance for its iconic White Signature Twill Shirt, Eton addresses a familiar pain point and transforms it into an opportunity to demonstrate empathy and care. The Phoenix Service exemplifies how brands can combine practical problem-solving with emotional reassurance to foster stronger connections with consumers — and secure their increasingly elusive loyalty.

In a bid to encourage more sustainable urban mobility, a UK municipality is testing an innovative traffic light system that gives priority to cyclists. The trial uses AI-powered sensors to detect approaching riders and automatically adjust signal timings in their favor. The system, installed on the A34 Stratford Road, near Blythe Valley, where a cycle lane crosses a highway, employs video cameras and artificial intelligence to identify cyclists from up to 30 meters away.

As bikes approach, the lights for motorists turn red, while cyclists are given a green signal. By removing stops and starts, cycling becomes more appealing and efficient, potentially leading to fewer car trips, reduced traffic congestion and improved air quality. While the Stratford Road pilot prioritizes people on bikes, the lights can be programmed to favor different user groups based on time of day or a location's specific needs, and can adapt as urban mobility patterns evolve. The technology used here is by VivaCity; ViNotion developed a similar model that's being rolled out in various municipalities in the Netherlands.

Traffic management has long prioritized cars. Improving flow for cyclists and pedestrians represents a shift towards urban planning that is both more human-centric and more aligned with sustainability goals. If successful, these systems could accelerate the adoption of cycling as a primary mode of transit. And inject a bit of AI magic into people's daily commutes ✨🚦

ASICS, the sportswear brand, has launched a provocative campaign to highlight the mental health risks associated with desk work. Its global State of Mind study, involving 26,000 participants, revealed a strong link between sedentary behavior and declining mental wellbeing. Additional research focused specifically on office workers and found that after just two hours of continuous desk work, people start feeling worse, with stress levels rising significantly after four hours. To drive the message home, ASICS enlisted actor Brian Cox (aka Succession's patriarch, Logan Roy) for a PSA, where he plays "the world's scariest boss" and emphasizes that the real threat to mental health is the desk itself.

Unsurprisingly, ASICS' research also offers a solution — its desk break experiment, overseen by Dr. Brendon Stubbs from King's College London, demonstrated that a mere 15 minutes of movement can help reverse the negative effects of sedentary screen time. After moving, researchers found that activity across the brain's frontal, central and limbic regions increased, "resulting in enhanced focus, reduced stress and improved sense of calm."

Participants who incorporated a 15-minute movement break into their workday saw a 22.5% improvement in their mental state. Over the course of a week, these brief breaks lowered stress levels by 14.7%, boosted productivity by 33.2%, and improved focus by 28.6%. In light of these findings, ASICS is encouraging its own office-based employees to take regular movement breaks and is inviting workers worldwide to (a) join the #DeskBreak movement on World Mental Health Day, 10 October 2024, and (b) make desk breaks an employee benefit. A downloadable guide includes a letter people can submit to their HR department.

A recent survey by Innofact for Miele shows that 70% of German consumers see the circularity of domestic appliances as crucial for the future of our environment and society. And not just as a collective concern: 60% say it matters to them personally. Let’s zoom in:

🔄 Recycled and refurbished: 73% trust the durability of domestic appliances containing recycled materials or refurbished components (65%)

💡 USPs that matter: When it comes to purchasing decisions, price (79%), durability (76%) and energy efficiency (71%) top the list

♻️ Eco-motivation: The top drivers behind circular practices are to reduce waste and conserve resources, both at 89%

🛑 Circularity hurdles: 62% worry about quality defects, and 58% think the product range is too limited

🔧 DIY repairability: 70% of respondents want the ability to repair domestic appliances themselves to save time and money

With eco-concerns rising and the right to repair spreading across product categories, it’s time for brands to adopt a 360° approach to circularity: 

Design phase
Are your products built for disassembly and longevity? Think Miele’s vacuum cleaners embracing the cradle-to-cradle model or Somer’s modular, future-proof kitchens.

Use phase
Whether offering after-care services or empowering DIY repairs, how are you helping consumers extend the life of goods they own? Take inspiration from London’s Fixing Factories, a community hub for free repairs and skills, or Yelp’s AI chatbot, bridging the gap between consumers and repair pros.

While the Japanese government is working on a 310-mile automated cargo conveyor to replace 25,000 trucks, with the first stretch to be completed by 2034, the city of Madrid is rethinking existing infrastructure with a similar goal in mind. The Última Milla project, announced last month by regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, will see packages skip delivery vans and take Madrid's metro instead. The initiative aims to move 5,000 parcels daily from congested streets to the city's underground trains.

The first phase of the pilot, just launched on MetroSur Line 12, has a dedicated train ferrying around 700 packages daily between 7 pm and 8 pm. Four stations will serve as collection points, with Metro employees overseeing the cargo before handoff to courier company GLS Spain for final delivery. The second phase is slated for Q4 2024 and will focus on transporting goods from Madrid's periphery into the city's low-emission zone. Before passenger services commence, an early morning train will take approximately 400 parcels to Embajadores station, where they'll be collected for delivery by bicycle or on foot.

As urban populations continue to grow and e-commerce booms, creative approaches to last-mile logistics like Madrid's Última Milla could provide a blueprint for other cities grappling with traffic jams and air pollution.

As artificial intelligence weaves its way into daily life, Chinese kids are embracing the technology through a somewhat unexpected medium: smart watches. The "Youth Blue Book: Report on Internet Use of Chinese Minors 2024," published by the Institute of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, reveals that over 45% of minors surveyed have used an AI-powered product at least once. In cities, 20.5% of minors reported using AI-enabled devices, compared to 8.1% in rural areas.

As reported by Sixth Tone, the surge in AI-enabled wearables for children comes in the wake of government crackdowns on screen time for minors. Phone bans in Chinese schools are driving parents towards smart watches, particularly those by the brand Xiaotiancai, or "Little Genius." Besides allowing parents to contact kids and track their location, vital signs and emotional state, the devices feature native AI apps like one that turns text prompts into drawings, and a game that uses chatbots for interacting with characters.

The trend mirrors global developments in AI-integrated wearables, including Meta's continued push into smart glasses (worth a watch: this interview with Mark Zuckerberg by The Verge). As experiments with dedicated AI hardware proliferate worldwide, China's experience with smart watches for kids could offer valuable insights into how younger generations might adopt and interact with artificial intelligence.

Home kits for testing drugs are normally bland and clinical, but a newcomer is challenging those conventions with bold branding and an irreverent approach to harm reduction. Overdrive sells fentanyl test strips and takes its marketing cues from energy drinks, not medical devices, pulling in viewers on socials with coverage of extreme sports and underground music scenes. It's not the first time founder Brian Bordainick is shaking up a category: he previously launched Starface pimple patches, DTC morning-after pill Julie and Blip nicotine gum.

Undetectable by sight, taste or smell, an amount of fentanyl — a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin — as tiny as two grains of salt is enough to kill someone. It's frequently and secretly mixed into drugs sold as heroin, cocaine, meth, MDMA,  ketamine and counterfeit prescription pills (oxycodone, Xanax and Adderall), and is involved in the majority of drug overdoses in the US.

Overdrive's 5-pack kit, retailing at USD 12.99 via Amazon and the company's own website, includes test strips, mini spoons for precise measurement and water pouches for dilution. While the brand maintains a mischievous tone, its mission is deadly serious: to provide drug users with a reliable and accessible first line of defense against potentially lethal overdoses. Results are available in just 3 minutes, with a 99% accuracy rate. Which overlooked yet critical category could your organization tackle? Where could you replace moralizing and fearmongering with stigma-free empowerment?

Nine Hours, or 9h, is a design-conscious capsule hotel chain with over 20 locations across Japan. The latest one recently opened in an office building owned by IT and business services provider NTT Data, and the two companies are partnering on more than just real estate. In 2021, Nine Hours began offering its guests a '9h sleep fitscan.' As they sleep, infrared cameras, microphones and other sensors inside the capsules gather data on various physiological sleep markers, including heartbeat, breathing, snoring and body movements. The data is compiled and analyzed using AI, and after checkout, guests receive their personal sleep report by email.

Now, through its partnership with NTT Data, Nine Hours is expanding 9h sleep fitscan. Its new hotel, dubbed Nine Hours Shinagawa Station Sleep Lab for Men, features 70 capsules, all fitted with cutting-edge yet non-invasive sleep analysis technology, including EEG and deep body temperature sensors. Both parties stand to gain from the collaboration: NTT Data is building out its food and wellness data business, and Nine Hours aims to leverage the new, advanced monitoring systems as it rolls out more sleep-tech hotels.

While the above might sound like a massive invasion of privacy, Nine Hours says all data is anonymized. To date, over 100,000 people consented to having their slumber scrutinized in what's presented as a mutually beneficial arrangement — guests get access to a far more rigorous review of their shuteye than a Fitbit or Apple Watch could provide, alerting them to potential issues like poor sleep quality or apnea, and Nine Hours collects swathes of data to share with or sell to university researchers and corporate R&D departments.

The capsule hotel as sleep lab is a sophisticated example of healthcare and wellness being integrated into nearly every aspect of daily life — a shift welcomed by consumers seeking to optimize how they feel and function. Nine Hours wants to scale up to analyzing 1 million people a year. Given the impact of sleep on everything from mental wellbeing and performance to cardiac health and lifespan, that amount of data could prove invaluable.

The latest State of Dating Report from The Kinsey Institute's Dr. Justin Lehmiller and Feeld dives into the intimate thoughts of 3,310 members of Feeld, a location-based dating platform active in 71 countries. The results? Dating norms seem to have flipped: 81% of Gen Z fantasize about monogamy, while Boomers dream of joining a polycule. In fact, 75-80% of older generations fantasize about open relationships... 🔄

Despite Gen Z romanticizing the simplicity of old-school relationships, they're also breaking barriers with the most expansive views on gender and sexuality ever 🌈 As norms continue to evolve, how can you help people explore relationships in fresh ways? From senior sexperts shattering sexual stigmas to singles walls for those suffering from app fatigue, there's plenty of room to innovate and cater to everyone's dating fantasies.

While doing so, keep in mind what Dr. Kinsey articulated back in 1948: "The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats, and not all things are black nor all things white. It is a fundamental of taxonomy that nature rarely deals with discrete categories. Only the human mind invents categories and tries to force facts into separated pigeon-holes. The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects.”

Iconic character Hello Kitty is set to make a splash at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo, appearing in an unexpected guise at the Japan Pavilion. As part of an exhibit focused on algae's potential to address pressing global issues, Sanrio's Hello Kitty will be transformed into 32 different types of algae. This creative mashup aims to introduce visitors to the fascinating and often overlooked world of algae in an engaging, accessible way. From triangular and square microalgae to more familiar seaweeds like wakame, each Hello Kitty iteration will showcase the diverse forms these organisms can take.

Beyond mere eye-candy, the Hello Kitty algae display is designed to highlight algae's role in building a more sustainable future. These photosynthetic organisms are increasingly seen as a key to reducing dependence on fossil fuels, with applications ranging from biofuels and plastics to food and medicine. By combining the worldwide appeal of Hello Kitty with the surprising versatility of algae, the Japan Pavilion hopes to spark interest among a broad audience. The exhibit will be complemented by a photobioreactor installation, where visitors can experience the soothing ambiance of live spirulina cultivation.

Just launched in the UK, DyslexicU, or the University of Dyslexic Thinking, is a pioneering educational initiative aiming to showcase and develop the cognitive strengths associated with dyslexia. Dyslexic thinking is defined as "an approach to problem-solving, assessing information and learning, often used by people with dyslexia, that involves pattern recognition, spatial reasoning, lateral thinking and interpersonal communication."

A joint effort by Made By Dyslexia and The Open University, DyslexicU was unveiled alongside Intelligence 5.0, a report based on research by Randstad Enterprise revealing that dyslexic thinking encompasses the most sought-after skills across all job sectors. DyslexicU offers free courses to help both dyslexic and non-dyslexic individuals understand and cultivate those critical skills. The courses currently on offer are short — just an hour each — and open to anyone free of charge. Available at launch are "Entrepreneurs and StartUp Mentality" and "Changemakers and Activism." Contributors include Erin Brockovich, Barbara Corcoran and Sir Richard Branson.

DyslexicU reflects a shift in the perception of neurodiversity, emphasizing the cognitive advantages of dyslexic thinking rather than focusing on its challenges. This approach not only empowers people with dyslexia but also promotes appreciation for diverse thinking styles. AI will increasingly handle standard cognitive tasks, and is predicted to take over 42-65% of work-based tasks from humans. The skills AI can't (yet) replace are the ones DyslexicU is pushing to the forefront — innovation, lateral thinking and interpersonal skills. It's estimated that up to 20% of the population is dyslexic. Time to help the other 80% boost their ability to think differently?

In Venezuela, Operación Retuit is using AI-generated news anchors to share verified reports about the country's political situation following the July 28th presidential election. The project emerged as a response to increasing censorship and persecution of journalists reporting on electoral events. Two AI avatars, La Chama ('the girl') and El Pana ('the guy'), serve as the public faces of Operación Retuit and broadcast verified information from a dozen Venezuelan and international media outlets.

While journalists and publishers worldwide grapple with threats posed by AI — ranging from potential job displacement and revenue erosion to the proliferation of deepfakes, algorithmic bias and dwindling web traffic — Operación Retuit exemplifies AI's potential as a powerful tool in resisting authoritarian regimes and safeguarding press freedom. In this context, AI isn't a gimmick or a FOMO play, but a strategic move to protect flesh-and-blood journalists. While building AI tools for your own brand, how about doing so in tandem with an AI-for-good project? Like a buy-one-give-one model for the age of artificial intelligence.

HGTV, Pinterest boards, status anxiety... Whatever the motivation, homeowners are addicted to renovations and upgrades. And that includes ripping out perfectly good kitchens after five years. Somer, a new UK-based entrant in the kitchen cabinet market, is challenging throwaway culture with its intent focus on durability and circularity. The company's approach centers around solid wood construction and a buyback scheme, offering a sustainable alternative to the millions of pieces of furniture discarded every year.

At the heart of Somer's philosophy is a modular, adaptable system of cabinets designed to evolve along with their owners. The company offers four styles — Planar, Inset, Ovo and Overlay — all crafted from responsibly sourced solid timber. Each piece is built for longevity, with easily repairable parts and components that can be reconfigured for changing needs or a new home. This design ethos provides long-term value to customers while also significantly reducing waste. When Somer cabinets reach the end of their lifecycle with a specific household, the company's buyback scheme ensures they won't end up in a landfill. Instead, pieces will either be refurbished for a new owner or recycled.

As consumers become increasingly aware of the environmental impact of their purchases, brands offering high-quality, long-lasting products with clear end-of-use solutions will find themselves at a advantage. How could your brand implement similar design principles to create products that consumers will be happy to hold on to?