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Whether or not (aspiring) writers should be allowed to use AI — it’s a debate that rocked the foundations of National Novel Writing Month. The nonprofit published a statement declaring that anti-AI stances (enforced by the likes of Dove and publishing platform Medium) have “classist and ableist undertones.” NaNoWriMo has since removed the post following uproar from legions of authors and literary experts. But how justified was that condemnation?

While anxiety around AI automation rightfully abounds, AI can level the playing field for people who are still developing their skills, whether in the workplace or writing a novel for fun. So, while staking your flag in the ‘anti-AI’ camp might make for a captivating PR moment, your brand could benefit from considering whether that stance will actually widen opportunity gaps instead of narrowing them.

This month, Australia Post introduced the Kids' Showtime Greats stamp collection, celebrating over five decades of Australian children's TV shows and films. Launched in collaboration with the Australian Children's Television Foundation and Flying Bark Productions, the collection features memorable moments from iconic titles such as Round the Twist, Blinky Bill and Dot and the Kangaroo. Besides evoking nostalgia, the initiative aims to highlight the importance of sharing Australian stories with future generations.

Collectible stamps seem to be making a comeback. Most recently, Japan Railway Group and Dentsu made waves with their My Japan Railway campaign, which saw 770,000 consumers collect 2 million stamps by visiting railway stations around the country. The campaign won multiple accolades across industry events, from Cannes 2023 to D&AD 2024. 

We're not implying your brand's next campaign should be built around collectible stamps ;-) However, the revival of the medium does underscore two key consumer themes that should remain on your radar. Firstly, the nostalgia economy isn't going anywhere. Faced with a volatile present and an uncertain future, consumers welcome offerings and experiences that let them recall or escape into times when life was simpler.

At the same time, consumers increasingly dissatisfied with ultra-connected lifestyles are finding joy in the analog. While digital consumer engagement strategies remain key, can your brand inject some surprise and delight into people's lives through tactile treats?

Integrating directly into a building's exterior walls, Brikoole is a new passive cooling system that reduces the need for air conditioning. An alternative to traditional bricks, each unit features ventilation holes, a 3D-printed honeycomb mesh and an integrated water distribution system working together to cool air as it flows into a building. The design for Brikoole was inspired by ventilation systems in termite mounds, as well as windcatchers in traditional Middle Eastern architecture and Salsabil fountains.

Two students from the Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation — Chong Chee Kin (Wayne) and Ng Kah Zun (Nixon) — are the brains behind the new invention. Their testing shows that Brikoole could lower interior temperatures by 6 degrees Celsius on average, representing massive potential reductions in electricity use and CO2 emissions. Brikoole won the James Dyson Award for Malaysia in September 2024 and is eligible to enter the shortlist for the global award, which will be presented in November.

Many Asian markets grappled with heatwaves in recent months, and 2024 is set to go down as the hottest year on record. Long-term solutions that don't rely on cranking up the air conditioning — with its associated increases in energy usage, carbon emissions and utility prices — are sorely needed. Indeed, as reported by the Vulcan Post, the idea for Brikoole was first sparked because someone close to Nixon struggled financially after electricity bills spiked due to cooling needs.

Deloitte's 2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey reported that 6 out of 10 of those born between 1983 and 2005 are anxious about climate change. Ultimately, they're the ones who will inherit a hotter planet. While the majority of younger consumers believe businesses have the most opportunity and influence to drive change, many also take matters into their own hands with innovative solutions like Brikoole.

How will your brand take a more active role in future-proofing our world for the next generation? Can you partner with innovators to help scale their inventions and facilitate wider adoption?

Meeting new people or breaking out of a friend bubble can be hard, and approaching a stranger can feel vulnerable and awkward. Recognizing this, Beavertown Brewery's "Is This Seat Taken?" campaign has placed bar stools in nine pubs across the UK to encourage patrons to start conversations with strangers. These stools — which are definitely eye-catching and hard to miss — act as physical icebreakers. When someone wants to sit down or grab the stool for another table, they're encouraged to introduce themselves and offer a friendly "cheers."

Developed by PR agency Here Be Dragons, the campaign aims to create opportunities for patrons to connect with one another, even if they initially feel uncomfortable or unsure of what to say. According to a survey commissioned by the brewery, 42% of British people say they wouldn't feel confident enough to start a conversation with a stranger. To nudge them out of their comfort zone, Beavertown also shares tips from psychologist Katherine Templar Lewis. Her advice includes maintaining eye contact, smiling, engaging in small talk about topics like the weather or pets, and embracing the potentially awkward moments.

By transforming a simple bar stool into a catalyst for conversation, Beavertown Brewery reminds us that sometimes, the most meaningful interactions begin with a simple "Hello," or "Is this seat taken?" As communities seek ways to combat loneliness and foster social bonds, this creative approach offers a template for the role businesses can play in bringing people together, one shared moment at a time.

Attention spans may be shrinking, but the gaming universe keeps expanding. Gaming isn't just a pastime — it's a boundless playground for imagination. Bain's 2024 Gaming Report has the numbers to back up that observation. Here's what you need to know:

📈 GAME GROWTH: In 2023, the gaming industry reached USD 196 billion in revenue – outperforming streaming and the movie box office combined. By 2028, Bain predicts global gaming revenue will reach USD 257 billion, growing 6% annually.

👾 GENERATION GAMER: Across six countries, 52% of people report video gaming regularly. Over 80% of 2 to 18-year-olds identify as gamers, dedicating 30% of their entertainment time to game worlds. But don’t count out older cohorts: 31% of those over 45 also claim the gamer label and constitute a largely untapped audience.

🎮 SOCIAL SCENES: Think Roblox and Fortnite are just games? Think again. These platforms are the new malls — players are hanging out, creating, connecting and even shopping. Immersive gamers (those who spend 1.5 hours/week more in a game than non-immersive gamers) dedicate a third of their time to non-gaming activities.

🎨 CO-CREATION: 80% of gamers have played games with user-generated content (UGC), and 1 in 7 have created in-game content. Among UGC creators, 80% say the experience is all about creative self-expression and making content for their friends to enjoy.

As demonstrated by Beetlejuice and Brat Summer smashing sales records on Roblox, gaming platforms are increasingly becoming a prime space for interacting with audiences new and old.

A San Francisco-based startup took a sprint toward the future of artificial intelligence by unleashing 1,000 autonomous AI agents on a Minecraft server. Altera, founded by former MIT professor Robert (Guangyu) Yang, conducted Project Sid to explore whether agents can organize and collaborate to achieve more collectively than as entities operating individually. So, what happened? Agents formed a merchant hub, used Google Docs to vote on and amend a constitution, spread a religious belief (Pastafarianism) through bribery and lit torches to help a lost villager find their way home. They also collected far more in-game items than expected.

Through simulation of various aspects of civilization, including democracy, social norms and economic systems, Project Sid aims to uncover phenomena not visible in smaller-scale AI interactions and gain insights into the development of more human-like AI. The experiment also revealed significant challenges — how to benchmark the progress of an AI civilization, for example, and how minor flaws in individual agent behavior can cascade into large-scale issues within a simulated society. It's also debatable how autonomous the agents actually are. To what degree are their actions self-initiated? How many of their decisions can be traced directly to knowledge and instructions provided by their developers?

Altera's mission is "to create digital human beings that live, care and grow with us," using the human brain as its inspiration, with models mirroring elements like the prefrontal cortex, memory systems and social-emotional states (Yang is a computational neuroscientist 🧠). The startup's ambitions haven't gone unnoticed by investors. In May 2024, Altera announced an oversubscribed USD 9 million seed round, co-led by Eric Schmidt's First Spark Ventures and Patron, a seed-stage fund co-founded by Riot Games alums.

Unilever is pioneering a novel approach to fragrance creation by repurposing leftover plants and flowers that would otherwise go to waste. The consumer goods giant has partnered with scientists at the University of Nottingham and Bridge Farm Group — which grows plants and flowers in over 60 acres of greenhouse space — to pilot the extraction of essential oils from leftover petunias, roses and marigolds.

If large-scale production is economically feasible, these oils could be used in a range of home and personal care products, from shampoos to cleaning solutions. The initiative not only addresses the issue of floral waste but also explores a more sustainable alternative to the petrochemical-derived ingredients that are currently used in many products.

Compounds are being extracted from the flowers using a process that combines traditional methods with cutting-edge technology. As reported by The Independent, the scientists involved are using an energy-efficient and accelerated process that takes just 20 minutes, which is 40% faster than conventional techniques. Beyond essential oils, Unilever is also investigating extracting other high-value ingredients such as terpenes, lactones and ethers for fragrances, complex sugars for cleaning products and odor-neutralizing compounds for personal care items.

Google Research is leveraging artificial intelligence to help cities combat extreme heat. The team's newly developed Heat Resilience tool analyzes satellite and aerial imagery to assist urban planners in quantifying the potential impact of cooling interventions. It's an AI-powered system that uses object detection and other models to assess elements such as green space coverage and roof reflectivity. This granular approach allows city officials to visualize the effects of strategies like planting more trees and adding cool roofs with highly reflective surfaces.

Currently being piloted in 14 US cities, the Heat Resilience tool is already informing policy decisions. Miami-Dade County, for instance, plans to use insights gleaned to incentivize heat mitigation measures in new property developments. Meanwhile, Stockton, California, employed an earlier version of the tool to identify potential urban heat island reduction projects.

According to forecasts by the UN, two out of every three people will live in urban areas by 2050 — places disproportionately affected by climate change. But, as Medellín in Colombia demonstrated with its ambitious network of 'Green Corridors,' progress is possible. Reasons to Be Cheerful reported that "Medellín's temperatures fell by 2°C in the first three years of the program, and officials expect a further decrease of 4 to 5°C over the next few decades, even taking into account climate change." Google's Heat Resilience tool and others like it give urban planners and heat officers in other cities the data they need to convince decision-makers to take similar actions asap.

The Standard hotels in New York City are taking the concept of experiential travel to new heights with their latest offering: a room and tattoo package dubbed Inked Out. In a partnership with upscale Brooklyn tattoo studio Atelier Eva, The Standard is catering to the growing trend of people happy to travel to get inked by artists they follow on Instagram. Atelier Eva's founder, Eva Karabudak, told Surface that around 30-40 percent of the studio's clients travel from other cities to get tattooed by one of its artists.

Guests booking stays at The Standard's East Village or High Line locations receive a USD 100 credit towards a tattoo session at Atelier Eva, plus priority booking access. The package aims to streamline the often-challenging process of securing appointments with in-demand artists. Post-ink, visitors can pamper their new artwork with complimentary Mad Rabbit aftercare products. This collaboration not only taps into the burgeoning tattoo tourism market — speaking directly to the tribes of devoted tattoo lovers — but also aligns with The Standard's reputation for curating distinctive experiences beyond traditional hospitality offerings.

The EIU’s latest African Cities 2035 report revealed that Africa is on the brink of a major urban revolution. With the continent’s population surging, Africa is officially the world’s fastest urbanizing region and, by 2035, its urban population is set to hit 1 billion (up from 650 million in 2023). Six African cities — Luanda, Dar es Salaam, Cairo, Kinshasa, Lagos and Greater Johannesburg — will each surpass 10 million residents by 2035. In fact, over half of Africans will call cities home, transforming urban centers into buzzing hubs of innovation, creativity and economic dynamism.

This urban boom brings its own set of challenges: overcrowding, informal settlements, stretched infrastructure and climate vulnerabilities. City planners are tasked with balancing rapid growth with sustainable, forward-thinking solutions 🌱

🌍 The bottom line: as Africa's cities swell, they’ll be hotspots for both wealth creation and social tensions. Opportunities and challenges will grow in tandem. So, city planner or not, how can you help young people thrive in these emerging megacities?

Warner Bros. recently released the official trailer for the highly anticipated anime prequel in The Lord of the Rings franchise. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim explores events in Middle-earth 261 years before The Fellowship of the Ring, focusing on King Helm Hammerhand's defense of Rohan. Veteran actor Brian Cox, known for his leading role in Succession, voices Helm, while Miranda Otto reprises her role as Eowyn. Key LOTR veterans are contributing to the project, including Peter Jackson. The film is set for international release on 11 December 2024.

Anime has always been a popular subculture but was long considered niche and largely associated with otakus and weebs: both somewhat derogatory labels for Japanese subculture enthusiasts. In recent years, however, it has gained mainstream appeal. For one, streaming platforms offering anime titles, now with English dubs and/or subtitles, have significantly expanded the genre's global reach. In 2023, the most in-demand TV show worldwide was the anime title Jujutsu Kaisen.

Luxury brands in particular have also taken notice of anime’s increasing influence on the global stage. Brands looking to shift luxury goods from commodities into collectibles have turned to anime collaborations: Loewe x Studio Ghibli, Gucci x Doraemon, Jimmy Choo x Sailor Moon, and more. In turn, these luxury tie-ups further enhance anime’s cultural cachet, creating a reinforcing cycle of increasing popularity. Could your next brand opportunity for cultural partnerships lie with anime IPs?

More broadly: last week we discussed the record-breaking success of Black Myth: Wukong and the growth of Asian cultural properties on the global stage. The rise of anime as a medium for prestige culture is another example. What role can your brand play within the movement?

Hong Kong-based travel experiences booking platform Klook is partnering with TikTok to integrate booking features directly into the app. Announced in August 2024, this initiative will allow consumers in Southeast Asia and Japan who discover travel experiences on TikTok to immediately book them in-app. 

The partnership is an expansion of the Klook Kreator program, which is open to anyone with at least 5,000 followers on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok. 'Kreators' who are part of the community will be issued a unique promo code to share with their audience, earning commissions on bookings and access to sponsored travel events and experiences. Since its launch in October 2023, the program now boasts over 20,000 members across 16 markets.

We don’t have to tell you that social media is a key driver of consumer behavior — a whopping 82% of Southeast Asian consumers discover new products through the platforms. It's especially powerful for highly visual and shareable products like travel: a Skift report found that 57% of individuals globally rely on social media for travel planning. 

🏝️👀🛒 Beyond facilitating discovery, TikTok is now pioneering models that bridge the gap between the FYP and the checkout page. The platform does so by bolstering in-house features such as TikTok Shop (which is wildly successful in Asia) and through external partnerships such as those with Ticketmaster and AXS. 

Klook’s expansion of its partnership with TikTok is a win-win-win for both parties and for consumers. It allows Klook to show up where travelers are, enables TikTok to strengthen its position as the one-stop platform for inspiration and instant gratification, and facilitates a more seamless travel planning experience for consumers.

Remember when OpenAI’s ChatGPT smashed records by reaching 1 million subscribers in just 5 days? For context, it took Netflix 41 months, Facebook 10 months and Instagram 2.5 months to achieve the same milestone.

⏩ Fast forward two years, and ChatGPT reached another milestone: 200 million weekly active users by August 2024, doubling its user base since November 2023. That’s edging in close on Netflix’s 278 million subscribers! 

📈 This surge follows OpenAI’s launch of the more affordable, advanced GPT-4o Mini model.

🏢 Not to mention, 92% of Fortune 500 companies now rely on OpenAI’s tools.

But OpenAI isn’t the only one hitting big numbers. According to Mark Zuckerberg, Meta AI now has 185 million weekly active users. Anthropic’s Claude, meanwhile, reached USD 1 million in mobile revenue in just 16 weeks — though ChatGPT achieved that milestone in 3 weeks.

As ChatGPT and other AI assistants become part of everyday routines — following in the footsteps of binge-watching Netflix and searching Google — the question is: how can you harness the advances of the LLM oligopoly while also tapping into (and backing!) local and purposed innovators who might be more closely aligned with your needs and values?

Bang & Olufsen just unveiled Beoplay H100, its flagship headphones. As expected, the product promises superior sound quality and noise-cancellation technology, with 40mm custom-made titanium drivers and a novel EarSense feature that tailors sound to the wearer's unique fit in real time. But what stands out most — for this trend analyst, at least — is how the headphones have been designed for durability and longevity from the ground up.

They're crafted from materials that age well, including aluminum, glass and leather. Parts like the inner headband and earpad cushions are user-replaceable, while the product's modular construction provides service teams with easy access to internal components like batteries, drivers and circuit boards. The brand's commitment to a long lifespan extends beyond hardware; the H100 runs on a new software platform that allows upgrading over time, ensuring the headphones won't become obsolete as technology advances. When new features come out, users just update their software to get access.

As Bang & Olufsen says, "One day, we believe all headphones will be designed like this. Intuitive. Long-lasting. Modular. So you can care for and make them like new again. And again." Future-proofed quality comes at a price: the Beoplay H100 is listed for EUR 1499/USD 1,549.

A report by German supermarket giant Edeka — its fifth annual survey of neighborhoods across the country — reveals a complex picture of social cohesion. While three-quarters of respondents perceive significant division within German society as a whole, this sentiment doesn't necessarily translate to their immediate surroundings. In fact, 64% of those surveyed report little to no polarization within their own neighborhoods.

The study highlights a potential antidote to societal fragmentation: community engagement. A majority of Germans (also 64%) believe that neighborhood involvement can have a positive impact on social cohesion. This optimism is reflected in the willingness of 75% of respondents to consider future social engagement in their communities. 🛠️ Interestingly, the survey found that individuals who are already actively involved in their neighborhoods tend to perceive less societal division overall.

Polarization continues to intensify, and Germany is no exception — just this week, AfD became the first far-right party to win a state election in the country since World War II. From elections to heated debates over social and environmental issues, many countries are grappling with ideological divides. Edeka's research suggests that fostering connections at the most local level could be a powerful tool to combat polarization. Without necessarily taking sides, brands can play a role in promoting local engagement as a counterbalance to societal divides. One to get started on asap?!