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A Los Angeles-based startup is bringing an unexpected twist to the fertility industry with a social impact model typically seen in consumer goods. Cofertility's Split program allows women to freeze their eggs for free when they donate half of the retrieved eggs to families who cannot otherwise conceive. This innovative approach transforms the traditional egg donation process, which has historically been criticized for commodifying women's bodies and reproductive capabilities.

For people who want to preserve all of their eggs for their own use, the company also offers a 'Keep' program at a cost, while still providing community access and preferential storage rates. Cofertility recently secured Series A funding of USD 7.25 million. The capital will fuel expansion of Cofertility's proprietary platform, which handles everything from matching donors with recipients to managing the complex fertility journeys of its members.

TREND BITE
With the average age of first-time mothers continuing to climb in developed countries, demand is growing for life-stage flexibility and reproductive agency. Meanwhile, healthcare is evolving from transactional to relational. Today's consumers — especially Millennials and Gen Z — increasingly expect healthcare solutions to reflect their values.

Cofertility is tapping into those broader cultural shifts by moving fertility from a medicalized, often opaque and costly journey, to something more values-driven, community-oriented and transparent. Through no-cost options via the Split model, it democratizes access to egg freezing — historically an expensive and exclusive option — while building an emotionally powerful value exchange around helping others. The platform isn't just about eggs — it's about empowerment, equity and agency.

In larger than life projections on Shanghai's SuHe Haus building, Night Bloom reimagines climate narratives through Chinese Sign Language and Visual Vernacular (the latter is a sign-based storytelling method using expressive movement). The one-off performance, which took place on 29 March 2025, featured three deaf dancers portraying a blend of climate themes and deaf expression. Sudden storms and wilting plants represented exclusion, for example, while flourishing gardens symbolized hope and renewal. The art piece was co-created by British artist Cathy Mager and Shanghai deaf performer Hu Xiaoshu, and developed through a yearlong collaboration between deaf communities in China and the UK.

Reaching beyond artistic expression, Night Bloom highlights how deaf communities are navigating both the climate crisis and communication barriers. During extreme weather events, for example, deaf individuals often receive warnings too late due to the absence of sign language alerts. The project also questions whose voices are heard in climate discourse — research shows that marginalized communities, including people with disabilities, are disproportionately impacted by climate change, yet are often not afforded a say in the decision-making that directly affects them. Night Bloom aims to highlight these challenges while raising awareness of sign language as a critical tool in climate communication.

Bringing art into public spaces isn’t new. But Night Bloom leverages eye-catching aesthetics to surface a powerful message and spark conversations. What urgent message does your brand need to communicate? And could a familiar format deliver it in an unexpected, impactful way?

A troubling trend has emerged on clothing resale platforms like Vinted: women who post photos of themselves wearing items see better sales but risk harassment and having their images posted on misogynist forums. Vienna-based startup Minimist aims to tackle the issue with generative AI.

As reported by Brutkasten, Minimist is developing a tool that lets sellers showcase clothing on realistic AI-generated models instead of their own bodies. After uploading an image of the item, users receive a professionally rendered photo featuring a lifelike avatar — preserving anonymity while maintaining visual appeal.

The feature will be part of a broader suite of recommerce tools aimed at streamlining clothing resale. Initially targeting consignment, vintage and second-hand stores, Minimist is currently testing automatic background removal and lighting enhancements to help sellers produce polished, high-quality product photos.

Global sports brand PUMA is elevating the early morning run from a personal habit to a communal adventure with its new 5 AM High Drops activation. Launching in Boston, Tokyo, London, Mexico City and other major cities through April and May, the campaign rewards dedicated dawn runners by leaving free pairs of the latest PUMA running shoes at elevated locations along city streets.

The initiative transforms the solitary ritual of pre-dawn running into a gamified, social experience. Participants need to check PUMA's local Instagram channels at 5 AM to discover the secret "high drop" locations, then be among the first to reach those spots to claim their prize: a pair of Deviate NITRO 3 or Forever Run shoes. The scavenger hunt element turns routine runs into micro-adventures, and those crack-of-dawn drops make for highly shareable moments: story and badge of honor rolled into one.

PUMA's customers aren't just buying products; they're seeking peak experiences and moments of self-transcendence in everyday life. By celebrating those who "re-arrange their lives to chase the runner's high," PUMA aligns with that desire and with a fast-growing cohort of people who view physical exercise as foundational to their identity and emotional resilience.

California-based startup Sparq aims to radically change how drivers interact with their vehicles. Its flagship product is a compact device that plugs into a car's OBD-II port, typically located near the driver's seat. Like existing OBD-II scanners, it retrieves a range of diagnostic data points. But while most of those tools cater to gearheads, Sparq makes a vehicle's data easy for anyone to understand — and act on.

After debuting at the Los Angeles Auto Show in late 2024, Sparq expanded its capabilities in March 2025 to include full conversational AI support. Through an app, drivers can now communicate with their vehicles using voice commands, text, images and even recordings of troubling sounds. The app generates a general health score for the car and offers cost estimates if repairs are needed.

The technology addresses a core imbalance in automotive care: most drivers lack access to or fluency in technical information related to their cars. Sparq translates complex diagnostics into plain English, transforming how consumers interact with software-heavy vehicles. Its 'Timelapse' feature compiles a car's complete service history with predictive maintenance prompts, while 'Glovebox' digitizes ownership documents and links them to specific issues.

Sparq's approach illustrates how AI can serve as an equalizing force, providing transparency in markets where information asymmetry historically disadvantaged consumers. For brands across sectors, it's a cue to build tools that move expertise out of silos and into users' hands.

Across Europe and the US, 79% of workers are clocking serious unpaid overtime — logging the equivalent of two full extra workdays every week. That’s over two months of free labor per year. 😵‍💫 In the US, workers average 60 hours of unpaid overtime per month, followed by the UK (40 hours) and Germany (31 hours).

Why? Because 84% say they feel pressure to work overtime — and 72% say it’s only worsened since the pandemic. Always-on devices, blurred work-life boundaries, and an ingrained hustle culture have made clocking off feel like a rebellious act.

🥥 Enter Malibu, teaming up with Succession star Brian Cox (TV’s most infamous workaholic) in a surprising turn as the poster man for logging off. In the brand’s latest Do Whatever Tastes Good campaign, Cox trades boardroom barks for roller skates and a pink blazer — skating away at exactly 17:01 to celebrate the radical joy of finishing work on time. This follows Cox’s collaboration with ASICS promoting 15-minute breaks to combat desk-bound burnout.

To drive the message home, Malibu unveiled a ‘Clock Off Fountain’ in London, where overworked pedestrians could toss their phones (safely sealed) into the water, freeing themselves from after-hours messages in exchange for a Malibu Piña Colada. 🍹💧

🛼 This campaign isn’t just cheeky fun — it hits a cultural nerve. With Gen Z logging the most after-hours comms and unpaid hours, brands that position themselves as advocates for leisure, laughter and life beyond the inbox will win hearts and hours.

Samsung New Zealand has partnered with online content filtering platform Safe Surfer and the Auckland Normal Intermediate School on The Worst Children’s Library, a pop-up experience showcasing the harmful online content children face daily. During the first weekend of April 2025, the Auckland Normal Intermediate School library’s collection of regular books was replaced with over 1,000 fictional titles representing real digital threats — think self-harm, hate speech, toxic beauty standards and more. The topics were curated based on global legal, academic and media data of actual harmful content kids have experienced online.

The exhibition, attended by parents, teachers, and government officials, aimed to bridge the awareness gap between adults and the digital experiences children face daily. It also spotlighted the partnership between Samsung New Zealand and Safe Surfer, which last year launched a Kid-Safe Smartphone with built-in safety features and content filtering to protect children online.

Online safety for children is receiving renewed attention, driven partly by the viral success of Netflix’s Adolescence, which has sparked conversations about the deeper effects of always-connected lifestyles. With a smartphone in every pocket, it’s harder for kids to escape exposure to harmful content or peer bullying. And often, they stay silent while parents struggle to grasp the digital world their children inhabit — leaving a dangerous communication gap that limits adults’ ability to intervene.

What role can your brand play in protecting young people online? Can you help parents better understand their children’s digital lives, or empower kids and teens with the tools they need to safely navigate today’s hyper-connected world?

Spain's leading bookstore chain, Casa del Libro, has launched an innovative tool that calculates exactly how many books a person needs to read to reach their life goal. The campaign, titled "A unos libros de distancia" (Just a Few Books Away), positions reading as the pathway to achieving any ambition: from becoming a finance expert to, as demonstrated during the launch event, becoming Spain's first female prime minister.

The initiative cleverly inverts today's AI dynamic. While millions turn to chatbots for instant guidance, Casa del Libro directs people back to the original knowledge sources the bots were trained on. The tool employs a sophisticated AI backend combining GPT models and semantic embeddings to analyze a database of over 250,000 books, creating personalized reading journeys tailored to specific life objectives.

For the campaign launch, a teenage girl stood before Spain's Congress of Deputies surrounded by the 148 books the algorithm calculated she would need to read to become the country's first female head of government. Casa del Libro demonstrates how to rethink the practice of futuring as a B2C service. By providing tools that help people envision their future selves, brands can help them make better decisions today. Instead of offering easy, instant answers, could your brand buck the trend and similarly create a system charting long-term, deliberate paths to personal transformation?

Kimpton Hotels is tapping into the growing trend of 'tattourism' through a new partnership with micro-tattoo studio Tiny Zaps. As of this month, the collaboration is bringing pop-up tattoo residencies to five Kimpton properties across the United States, allowing guests to commemorate their travels with permanent souvenirs inked directly onto their skin.

The residencies will rotate through hotels in Nashville, New Orleans, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, DC, with designs created to reflect each destination's unique character — think a trumpet or a shrimp tail in New Orleans, a water tower or theater ticket in New York, etc. Each location will host monthly tattoo events through June 2025, where hotel guests can receive free tiny tattoos placed by a local artist from Tiny Zaps' network.

Leveraging the intersection of travel and self-expression, the collaborative perk provides an alternative to conventional souvenirs while building on the historical practice of marking journeys through tattoos. A sailors' tradition dating back centuries, travel tattoos have found new traction among consumers seeking fun ways to document and share their adventures.

Two and a half centuries after Josiah Wedgwood perfected Jasperware, with its distinctive matte finish, the British ceramics brand is marking the milestone with a decidedly 21st-century approach. The company has launched Jasper 250 AI, a generative tool that enables anyone to get creative and play with an iconic style of pottery.

The initiative echoes a 1930 international design competition when Wedgwood celebrated its founder's bicentennial, which crowned Danish artist Emmanuel Tjerne. Now, participants can share their AI-generated designs across social platforms using #jasper250, with the winning creation to be 3D-printed and acquired by the V&A Wedgwood Collection.

Rather than asking people to passively admire tradition, Wedgwood is inviting them to actively collaborate with its legacy — positioning AI as a bridge between today's consumers and the brand's heritage. By translating 250 years of stoneware artistry into an accessible digital format, Wedgwood demonstrates how even the most storied brands can allow consumers to mold tradition and make it their own.

Once a Saturday ritual on the high street, shopping has shape-shifted into a 24/7 digital drip — from TikTok hauls to Roblox skins to one-click Amazon finds. But in the shift from discovery to delivery, something got lost: the spark. ✨

Criteo’s latest report — The Spark of Discovery: Reigniting the Emotion of E-Commerce — dives into this exact tension. Surveying 6,000 consumers and 600 brand leaders across the UK, US, France, Germany, Japan and South Korea, it maps out the new mood in retail:

🛍️ In-store still satisfies: 40% of shoppers prefer IRL experiences, with sensory appeal (71%) and practicality (64%) topping the list of reasons why.

📦 E-com: All speed, no spark? 54% want joy from online shopping, but 76% say the experience lacks surprise or delight. Also, 79% find it lonely, 78% overwhelming and 29% say it feels like a chore. Still, efficiency (63%) and convenience (61%) keep it relevant.

🛒 Impulse still hits: 50% of consumers make unplanned purchases, mostly in-store (36% vs. 13%) – #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt numbers excluded? 🧐 Anyways, 36% say the unexpected find is missing online and 49% feel most satisfied when they stumble across something unplanned.

With 61% of brands saying discovery is the biggest barrier to engagement, emotion is the missing layer. So, how can digital touchpoints recapture the magic of the unplanned and unforgettable?

🕹️ Enter at unexpected moments: Walmart meets shoppers where they already are, like Minecraft Discords. It’s not a storefront; it’s a fandom touchpoint.

🧠 Use AI for emotional design: Google’s new AI tools let users describe a vibe and get matched with curated beauty and fashion items — less scroll fatigue, more creative spark.

🏬 Reimagine retail as experience: If joy can’t be scaled digitally, bring it to life physically — like H&M’s Berlin portrait pop-up celebrating self-expression, or Glossier’s perfume launch, featuring AI-generated poetry and an immersive confetti cloud.

Following its premiere last week, A Minecraft Movie has quickly become a box-office hit. It earned USD 313 million globally in its opening weekend, making it the biggest debut of the year so far, and the highest-grossing opening weekend in US history for a video game adaptation. Its success is especially notable against recent high-profile disappointments such as Captain America: Brave New World and Disney’s live-action Snow White.

Minecraft is massive — it has 300 million copies sold and over 140 million monthly players — and the film's strong performance is driven by the original IP's immense fanbase. At a glance, the film’s popularity reflects a familiar truth: give consumers what they love, and they’ll show up. But in a landscape where studios keep churning out franchises and reboots that regularly flop, Minecraft’s success underscores a crucial gap between executive decisions and genuine consumer preferences. It’s a timely reminder for brands in every industry: how well do you understand your audience, and how many of your initiatives are truly consumer-centric?

On a deeper level, the movie illustrates how culture continues to drive commerce. Tapping into a beloved IP can unlock immediate engagement, but only when handled with authenticity. A Minecraft Movie is packed with easter eggs and deep-cut references — from ‘chicken jockeys’ (a rare in-game NPC) to the fan-favorite ‘yearn for the mines’ phrase. These moments, delivered with gusto by Jack Black, have gone viral and inspired enthusiastic audience response, transforming the film into more than entertainment — it has become a cultural moment.

At a time when media consumption is deeply fragmented, cheering in unison with a theater full of strangers over an inside joke becomes something rare. It invites consumers into a shared, communal experience and extends a sense of belonging. The memes might move on, but the lesson stands. What shared cultural moment could your brand spark? And when the next one comes around, will your brand be ready to join the conversation?

Confectionery giant Lotte has launched Shu-Chew Beats, a concentration-boosting tool that pairs custom-composed tracks with syncopated chewing to help office workers regain their focus. In response to a survey revealing that nearly 80% of Japanese employees struggle to concentrate in office environments, Lotte is pitching its gum as a functional candy that can serve as a 'brain warm-up exercise' for workers who feel distracted.

The project, developed under the supervision of neuroscientist Professor Yoshikuni Edagawa of Ritsumeikan University, offers three hour-long soundtracks at different beats — and chews — per minute, each designed for specific concentration needs. Chill runs at 66 BPM for precision and accuracy, Hyper at 120 BPM for efficiency, and Extreme at 140 BPM for processing speed (and a decent jaw workout). Japanese electronic music artists Shohei Amimori, Shinichi Osawa and Pasocom Music Club created the tracks, which have racked up hundreds of thousands of views since they were uploaded to YouTube last month.

Shu-Chew Beats answers a widespread consumer need for clarity, calm and control in increasingly overwhelming environments. Combining gum (a physical anchor) with neuroscience-informed audio (a cognitive anchor), Lotte positions itself not just as a candy brand, but as a tool for self-optimization. As the lines between wellness, productivity and entertainment continue to blur, how can your brand hit its own sweet spot by turning an everyday product or habit into a mindful ritual?

As the Netherlands gears up for King's Day celebrations, retailer HEMA is addressing a perennial pain point at large events: the shortage of toilets, particularly for women. The brand has launched Thuistoilet (Home Toilet), transforming private residences across ten Dutch cities into a network of accessible bathrooms for orange-clad revelers.

Participating residents receive a free kit containing bathroom essentials like cleaning supplies, air fresheners, tampons and The Good Roll's sustainable toilet paper. Those in need of a loo will be able to find their good samaritan via a map on HEMA's website; homes are also invited to display an official poster. Hosts are asked to provide access from 1  pm to 6 pm on King's Day, and maintain full control over access to their home.

Tapping into people's innate desire to help others, Thuistoilet creates a framework for strangers to assist one another in addressing a practical need. Transforming a common constraint into an opportunity for doing good, HEMA and campaign developer Tosti Creative identified a feel-good, human solution that should boost both brand equity and community spirit on one of the nation's biggest holidays.

OpenAI and MIT Media Lab just released their first large-scale study on ChatGPT’s impact on emotional wellbeing. After analyzing 40 million weekly user interactions, researchers found that while most chats are quick and transactional, a small group of users (~10%) engages far more deeply, spending an average of 30 minutes a day with the chatbot. These users often describe ChatGPT as a source of trust or companionship. But this digital closeness comes with caveats.

➡️ More usage, more loneliness? The study found that intensive users reported increased loneliness and reduced real-world socializing. Female participants were slightly less likely to engage socially after four weeks of use. And users who interacted with a voice-mode chatbot of a different gender were more likely to feel emotionally dependent and lonely by the end of the study.

⚠️ Another layer: ChatGPT itself shows signs of reduced emotional resilience when exposed to trauma-heavy conversations — raising questions about the mental load on machines, too.

As AI becomes more emotionally embedded in people’s lives, brands can’t afford to think in scripts and FAQs alone. If consumers are venting, bonding or trauma-dumping on your bot – tone, boundaries and emotional intelligence matter.

✨ Two trends and two tools to build emotionally intelligent touchpoints:

1️⃣ Inside the chat – VIRTUAL COMPANIONS
Bots aren’t just support agents anymore — they’re becoming low-stakes friends (like your work friends), especially for younger users seeking connections that feel safe, nonjudgmental and always-on.

🤖 Example: In clinical trials, AI therapist Therabot reduced depression symptoms by 51%, anxiety by 31% and eating disorder symptoms by 19%.

2. Beyond the chat – SOCIAL FABRICS
As screen-based comfort replaces social confidence, brands can step in with tools that rebuild confidence beyond the screen. Think AI-powered rehearsal buddies, low-pressure meetups and tech that nudges users back into the real world.

💕 Example: Tinder's new OpenAI-powered flirting coach simulates dating convos, gives feedback and helps users sharpen their in-person charm — before they move on to the real thing.