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The new Stress G Harmonizer mist, launched through Shisheido's innovation program Fibona, addresses an overlooked aspect of stress: the specific odor emitted by skin during moments of tension. The company discovered that psychological stress triggers the release of distinctive volatile compounds through skin gas. Its research suggests these stress-related emissions create a feedback loop, potentially exacerbating the user's psychological state. The mist uses fragrances to gently neutralize those stress markers and interrupt the cycle.

Traditional aromatherapy aims to induce relaxation or stimulation via inhalation of pleasant scents, often with a general mood effect. Shiseido's mist is formulated to target not just the olfactory pathways, but to envelope the specific VOCs emitted by the skin when someone's feeling tense, modulating both odor and emotional state in a targeted, physiological way.

Beyond scientific innovation, Shiseido's new product reflects beauty's evolution from external aesthetics to emotional wellbeing. As consumers increasingly seek products that soothe the mind alongside the body, brands are responding with multi-sensory experiences designed to regulate emotions in real time. For now, the product remains a limited release, available only at Shiseido Beauty Park's Fibona Lab in Yokohama, retailing at JPY 2,200 (approximately USD 15) for a 20 ml bottle.

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The launch illustrates how mainstream beauty brands are tapping into consumers' hunger for holistic self-care. Today's wellness economy extends beyond 'feeling good' to providing moments that help people feel safe and centered amid daily pressures. With mental health awareness continuing to grow globally, expect more products to bridge the gap between physical and emotional care. How can your brand help people regulate their emotions? Which tools can you offer for restorative micro-moments throughout their day?

A Berlin-based startup is preparing to shake up travel within Europe. Nox, founded by railway enthusiast Thibault Constant and former FlixTrain co-launcher Janek Smalla, plans to launch night train services in 2027 featuring exclusively private compartments — or rooms, as the brand refers to them — at flight-competitive prices across 35 European routes.

The train's accommodation design is a departure from traditional sleeper configurations. Each room will feature two-meter beds, dedicated seating areas with tables, full standing height and integrated luggage storage. Premium options include double beds and panoramic window configurations. Nox claims this layout enables higher passenger density, creating the efficiency needed for competitive pricing, with single rooms starting at EUR 79 and double rooms at EUR 149.

Constant brings credibility to the venture through his Simply Railway social media presence, where he has documented over 400 train journeys to half a million followers. His co-founder Smalla contributed to FlixTrain's European expansion and previously led Bolt's German ridesharing operations.

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Nox's proposition taps into evolving expectations around sustainable consumption — the desire for environmentally responsible choices that not only don't compromise on comfort or convenience, but actually offer a better experience. No waiting in airport queues, no cramped seats on planes or shared compartments on trains.

As climate consciousness (slooooowly) reshapes people's travel decisions, the startup's challenge will be proving it can be economically viable while offering prices that can win over consumers accustomed to cheap flights. Success could validate a new model for short- and medium-haul travel, positioning night trains as genuine flight alternatives.

A Brazilian beauty giant has transformed a familiar product — its widely circulated catalog — into a health screening device. Natura embedded an olfactory test featuring distinctive scents like cheese, mothballs and bacon alongside a 20-question assessment to help detect early signs of neurodegenerative diseases. The loss or alteration of sense of smell can precede more noticeable symptoms of conditions like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's by years, yet the WHO reports only 10% of cases are diagnosed, with women comprising approximately 70% of patients.

People who notice smell perception changes through the catalog test can access more comprehensive screening through a partnership with NoAr Health, utilizing digital technology that combines olfactory and cognitive assessments at local public health units. This private approach to public health leverages Natura's massive distribution network. Since the catalog is sent to approximately 4 million consultants, with each copy passing through 10-30 women's hands, it has the potential to significantly impact early detection rates. The program was developed by Africa Creative and is initially rolling out as a pilot in Minas Gerais, one of Brazil's largest states.

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Perfume brands have long used magazine scent strips to coax readers into trying a new fragrance. By turning that read-and-sniff experience into a health test, Natura transforms passive catalog browsing into a screening tool with genuine utility. The approach stands out in an increasingly digital world by creating a meaningful analog experience that can't be replicated on a screen. While serving a public health mission, Natura demonstrates how traditional media can deliver surprisingly intimate and valuable engagement through our most primal sense — smell.

The initiative is a clever offline example of the AMBIENT WELLNESS trend, which sees health interventions embedded into everyday touchpoints and habits. From smart mirrors that analyze skin health during morning routines to fitness trackers disguised as jewelry, brands are recognizing that the most effective wellness solutions require zero additional effort by time-pressed consumers.

🧱 LEGO just dropped more than a remix. Teaming up with RUN DMC and a global crew of Gen Z and Gen Alpha icons, the She Built That campaign rewires the 80s hip-hop classic It’s Like That into a bold anthem for the next generation of girl builders. Youth talents like DJ Livia, Nandi Bushell, Pink Oculus and Cacien front the reimagined track and music video, which features RUN DMC’s original duo as LEGO Minifigs. Their message? Building isn’t a boys’ club.

📈 The campaign lands alongside LEGO-commissioned research showing that stereotypes continue to stick: while nearly all parents say they build in daily life, only 57% of moms see themselves as good at it. 39% of kids still picture “a man on a construction site” when they hear “builder,” and girls are five times less likely to be seen as natural builders. The good news? 92% of kids believe everyone should feel empowered to build – and 86% want the creative toolkit to do it.

🛠️ So LEGO isn’t just remixing a song; it’s rewriting the narrative. Alongside the music video, the brand has expanded its Creativity Workshops (online and in-store) and launched a new game where kids can direct their own She Built That video, complete with avatars, backdrops and side quests. The next phase of the campaign drops later this year with a clear message: girls have always been builders, and now the world gets to see that.

✨ Why it matters: Gen Alpha girls are already building — audiences, beats, brands, businesses. They’re looking for brands that don’t just talk representation, but reconstruct it. She Built That is a blueprint for cultural remixing: legacy IP + Gen Z talent + Gen Alpha power = inclusive impact. Can your brand turn representation into reconstruction, too? And as Gen Z flocks to blue-collar creativity amid white-collar automation, Gen Alpha will demand a future where everyone sees themselves in the blueprint.

Irish whiskey brand Jameson has launched a limited-edition Black Barrel Gift Box that transforms personal messages into bespoke songs using artificial intelligence. The Father's Day offering includes a QR code that unlocks an AI-powered tool. Gift-givers can input a personal message, select a music genre and receive a fully customized song in return.

Developed by Impero, this is Jameson's first foray into AI-powered personalization. Beatriz Zambrano, who came up with the idea, explains: "We didn't want to make another campaign about fictional people giving gifts to other fictional people. We wanted to make something real. This is a way to bottle that, literally." Special edition bottles are available through Amazon UK and select O'Briens stores in Ireland, retailing for GBP 39.65 and EUR 38.00.

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Jameson's campaign taps into a consumer appetite for hyper-personalized experiences, particularly in the gifting space where emotional connection drives purchase decisions. As generative AI lowers barriers to creative output, brands are discovering new ways to help people articulate emotions they might struggle to express themselves. Jameson's AI songwriter joins a growing category of tools that transform basic inputs into sophisticated responses, essentially serving as emotional amplifiers.

Brazil's public IT company Dataprev has partnered with DrumWave to create individual data savings accounts that let citizens control and monetize their digital data. The initiative, unveiled at Web Summit Rio, aims to transform personal data into economic assets with monetization potential.

As reported by Rest of World, "The 'dWallet' allows users to deposit the data generated by their daily activities into a 'data savings account.' After a user accepts a company's offer on their data, payment is cashed in the data wallet, and can be immediately moved to a bank account."

The initiative seeks to establish complete transparency about data use, enable population-wide participation in the AI economy and generate wealth for citizens through compound returns on their data's worth. Dataprev President Rodrigo Assumpção calls it a step toward digital equity by recognizing the intrinsic value of people's data. Brazil is currently rolling out a pilot to test dWallet in real-world scenarios.

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Brazil's dWallet could shift the digital economy from data privacy as protection to data property as empowerment. People increasingly expect not just privacy but their cut of the economic upside of data-fueled technologies. The model could transform personal data into dividend-paying assets, similar to streaming royalties for artists.

DrumWave is focused on taking the concept several steps further, to an agentic economy where people profit from the labor of their AI serfs: "In the next phase of the data economy, humans will open data savings accounts for their agents and robots, treating them as data-generating extensions of themselves."

Back in Brazil, critical questions remain: will affluent, digitally connected users benefit disproportionately? Could financial incentives pressure vulnerable populations to sacrifice their privacy? How will data value be calculated fairly? Governments and companies implementing similar models must develop transparent valuation, equitable benefit distribution and strong safeguards against exploitation.

Take-back schemes and in-store recycling boxes are widely offered by fashion brands and retailers, often accompanied by discounts on new purchases. But a Japanese maker of organic cotton clothing has devised something altogether more engaging. Pristine's new CoTToN BANK, launched in May 2025, allows customers to grow their own cotton and exchange it for clothing. The concept emerged from a decade-long practice of distributing seeds to customers and schools on World Cotton Day. As customers started bringing their homegrown cotton to stores, the brand recognized an opportunity to create a deeper connection between people and the clothing they buy and wear.

CoTToN BANK awards customers points for depositing cotton they've cultivated and for returning well-worn Pristine garments. Since Pristine takes sustainability seriously, it requires its consumer-farmers to sign a cultivation agreement promising not to use pesticides or chemical fertilizers. Customers exchange their points for Do CoTToN shirts or socks produced using domestically grown cotton; each comes with a packet of cotton seeds to continue the growing cycle.

The initiative is part of the Domestic Cotton Revival Project, developed by Pristine's parent company Avanti Inc, which is working to raise Japan's textile self-sufficiency rate from zero to one percent. Pristine aims to incorporate 2% domestically grown cotton into its products by 2030, increasing to 50% domestic and recycled materials by 2050. Pristine and Avanti are partnering with 37 locations across Japan to cultivate cotton, mainly by restoring abandoned farmland.

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CoTToN BANK exemplifies how brands can transform passive consumers into active participants in their supply chains and draw them into the production process. By making clothing's lifecycle visible and engaging, Pristine addresses people's demand for transparency and their interest in food, textiles and other goods with a traceable, local origin.

As supply chain vulnerabilities and environmental concerns intensify, expect more brands to explore similar models that turn consumption into collaboration, creating stakeholders rather than just shoppers.

When Japanese office furniture manufacturer Okamura conceptualized an installation for the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo, it ditched the typical corporate playbook in favor of something more human. The brand's Kimochi Kiosk (kimochi meaning 'feelings' in Japanese) transforms the mundane act of convenience store shopping into an emotional exchange between friends or strangers. Visitors enter in pairs and browse shelves stocked not with actual snacks and drinks, but with 46 different packaged emotions, including playful options like Otsukare Rice (a pun on the phrase "good work") as well as more vulnerable sentiments about love or forgiveness.

The concept operates on a simple premise: participants select products that represent a feeling they want to share with their co-visitor, then 'purchase' these emotions at a checkout counter that prints a receipt they can use to communicate the feeling they chose. It's retail therapy in its most literal form, stripping away the commercial transaction to focus purely on human connection. The installation ran in April 2025 in the expo's Future Life Village. While it might seem like a radical departure for a purveyor of office systems and retail fixtures, the concept aligns with Okamura's core mission of "realizing a society where people can thrive."

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The emotional convenience store taps directly into the growing pushback against machine-driven perfection. While algorithms and AI optimize for engagement and efficiency, Kimochi Kiosk celebrates the beautiful awkwardness of human connection — the vulnerability required to select a feeling and the uncertainty of not knowing how it will be received by someone else. The installation embodies what we've dubbed HUMANIFESTO: the (counter) trend of choosing authenticity over optimization, emotional messiness over algorithmic precision.

Related: Naples welcomes Italy’s first 'emotional bookstore' — Patrons select emotions to order cocktails at Suntory's 'Glass and Words' pop-up bar

Nederlandse Spoorwegen has welcomed an unusual new arrival to Rotterdam's main train station. The Poem Booth, an AI-powered poetry kiosk that resembles a sleek out-of-home advertising unit, is now parked in the bustling transit hub as part of Poetry International's festival programming. The installation leverages literature for an interactive moment of surprise in an otherwise utilitarian space, making poetry accessible to anyone who happens to be passing by.

The booth captures a photo of the person or people standing before it. Based on that image, it generates a personalized poem using generative AI that's been trained on the work of Dutch poet Ellen Deckwitz. Users are shown their custom verses on the unit's mirror-like screen and can save their poems via QR codes for sharing with friends. The project signals how cultural institutions are rethinking audience engagement, moving beyond static consumption towards participatory experiences that meet people wherever they are.

According to the latest WMO report, there's an 80% chance that at least one of the next five years will top 2024 as the hottest year on record. And with the US, UK and India all forecast to break summer heat records this year, 2025 could set a new global high before the year is out.

The Northern Hemisphere needs to brace for impact: prolonged heatwaves, wildfire risks, water stress and overwhelmed infrastructure. Public health, food systems and worker safety are at risk, and marginalized, aging and outdoor-working populations are especially vulnerable.

The climate crash isn't a distant scenario — it's at your customers' doorstep. No matter your innovation category, consumers expect brands to help them adapt to climate change's immediate effects. So, how are you helping people stay cool, safe and resilient — now?

🧊 Can your product line offer instant cooling relief, like skincare formulas tailored for citizens in tropical Malaysia?
🧴 Can you reimagine product utility, à la KFC turning sauce packets into sunscreen for delivery drivers?
🏠 Can your tech mitigate risk, like insurers using digital twins to help homeowners preempt wildfires?

A former cargo port in Rotterdam could become home to Europe's largest floating residential community, as Danish marine architecture studio MAST unveils plans for over 100 apartments floating in place. The proposal arrives as the Netherlands grapples with an acute housing crisis, racing to build one million new homes by 2030 while contending with scarce buildable land.

Rather than pursuing costly land reclamation — a practice that continues reshaping coastlines worldwide at significant ecological expense — MAST's floating neighborhood embraces water as an integral part of urban infrastructure. The development would feature modular buildings constructed off-site and towed into position, creating minimal disruption and indicating the possibility of relocating entire structures if needed.

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Floating urbanism is gaining momentum as cities worldwide confront rising sea levels and housing shortages. Unlike traditional waterfront developments that struggle to keep water out, these communities work with their natural aquatic environment. MAST's design incorporates 900 square meters of floating reed beds to improve water quality while providing habitat for wildlife.

Connected to Rotterdam's extensive cycling infrastructure and accessible by boat, Spoorweghaven demonstrates how floating communities could integrate seamlessly with existing urban networks. As MAST pursues similar projects in Denmark and elsewhere, the studio positions floating architecture as a scalable response to 21st-century pressures.

Singapore's National Library Board is pioneering technology that could reshape how people engage with books. The library system has developed Augmented Reading — an experience that uses Snap's Spectacles to overlay real-time audio and visual effects onto physical books. The glasses scan text as readers progress through pages, using machine learning to trigger ambient soundscapes, music and visual elements that correspond to the story's mood and action.

The technology tackles a key challenge: competing with digital entertainment for shrinking attention spans. Rather than replacing traditional reading, Augmented Reading aims to be a tool for sustained engagement. By adding layers of images and atmospheric sound — creaking doors, distant chatter, suspenseful music — the system creates an immersive environment for reluctant readers. The project, currently in beta testing with plans for public trials later this year, represents a broader trend of cultural institutions experimenting with AR technology to remain relevant.

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Augmented Reading reflects a pragmatic approach to serving audiences whose expectations have been shaped by gaming and streaming, texting and scrolling. If successful, this Singaporean experiment could signal a new chapter for how stories are consumed, combining the tactile, offline pleasure of physical books with the multimedia experiences digital natives have learned to expect.

French startup Lokki, a platform for rental companies, has introduced a dedicated paid leave policy for abortions. It offers employees two days of paid time off with complete discretion over what they choose to disclose. The policy, announced by co-founder Benoit Prigent, emerged from a personal conversation with a friend who felt compelled to use vacation days and hide her experience from colleagues during an already difficult time.

The initiative reflects a shift toward radical empathy in the workplace. Rather than forcing workers to navigate an abortion through generic sick leave or vacation policies, Lokki has created a specific framework that acknowledges people will sometimes need to terminate a pregnancy. While it's entirely up to the employee whether or not to share the reason for their two days leave, Prigent hopes the policy will lead to normalization and more open conversations, to "empathy without shame or guilt."

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Traditional boundaries between personal and professional life are being redrawn, particularly among younger generations who expect employers to acknowledge life's complexities rather than pretend they don't exist. As employees increasingly expect psychological safety and authentic care from employers, organizations that acknowledge the full spectrum of human experience can gain a competitive advantage in talent acquisition and retention.

The question for other companies becomes: which of your existing policies unintentionally force workers to hide real life behind euphemisms and workarounds?

Spotted in Boston, Month Friend represents a deliberate rejection of social media's obsession with performance and optimization. The service randomly pairs users for exactly one month, during which the pair exchanges daily messages guided by prompts ranging from mundane ("What's your favorite kind of soup?") to profound ("What are you most proud of?"). There's no swiping, no algorithmic matching, no endless scroll of content. Just two strangers committed to a month-long correspondence by email.

Users can't choose their partner and must navigate whatever chemistry — or lack thereof — emerges from the pairing. As the concept's unnamed developers explain, "The closest feeling we'd like to replicate is those intense friendships you form at summer camp, where you're thrown together with a stranger and share everything with them, even though you're not quite sure if you really get along and never see each other again."

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Month Friend explicitly acknowledges that it's "probably worse" by any measurable standard than existing social platforms. Which points to something marketers are increasingly recognizing: people are growing weary of hyper-optimized experiences where they feel a constant pressure to perform and rack up likes.

The month-long commitment also creates artificial scarcity in an attention economy built on infinite choice. Whether this represents a viable business model or an art project masquerading as a social network remains unclear, but it signals a growing hunger for authentic digital experiences that prioritize depth over engagement metrics.

Salesforce just dropped the 6th edition of its Connected Shoppers report, the result of surveying 8,350 consumers and 1,700 retail leaders across 21 countries. The headline? 85% of retailers agree AI is transforming retail. No shock there. From synced services to AI agents buying on shoppers’ behalf, the path ahead is paved with seamless, automated ease. But what lies beyond convenience? Let’s unpack two shopper shifts pointing to deeper desires:

🎲 SERENDIPITY SEEKERS – bring back the joy of the unexpected

By 2026, shoppers expect 41% of their purchases will still happen IRL — a gentle dip from 45% in 2024. Amid algorithmic precision and hyper-personalized feeds, consumers are craving surprise. After all, if every search yields the expected, where’s the thrill?

Only 17% of shoppers have taken part in a unique in-store experience. That’s a missed opportunity. Curated randomness, sensory subtraction, unexpected collabs — it’s time to transform brick-and-mortar outlets into discovery engines. Want to tempt people off-screen? Make IRL irresistible. Take a peek at our new Retail & Commerce report for inspo. 👀

🎁 WORTHWISE – prove your worth beyond the price tag 

Yep, 66% of shoppers switch brands over high prices. But a full 26% say brands simply stop keeping up with their evolving needs. And while 77% belong to at least one loyalty program, 35% never use them. Why? Because many still serve up points-for-purchase that lack emotional pull.

Gen Z are 3x more likely than Boomers to crave experiential rewards — think backstage passes, invite-only workshops, in-store masterclasses. The future of loyalty? It’s emotional, social, identity-driven. Smart brands are those rewarding participation, not just purchases. 📒 Beauty and Food brands are already onto this. Are you?