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While Calm’s 30-second US election ad went viral, we got a look at the state of mental health in another region via GIG’s 2024 Wellbeing Report. Saudi-based insurance group GIG commissioned YouGov to survey people in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain, and here's what they said:

📊 65% faced mental health challenges last year, with 34% reporting anxiety and 23% depression
🔍 62% self-diagnosed their issues
💬 While 63% say seeking help is stigma-free, 35% don’t know where to go for support
⚠️ Top stressors? Financial concerns (43%) and future worries (35%)

The mental health crisis won’t disappear in 2025. Support gaps are widening in many parts of the world, and people will welcome brands that step in to help. Two objectives for your organization to focus on:

🏬 Increased accessibility: Could you boost access and lower barriers to psychological services? Consider Dubai’s shopping malls offering on-site, walk-in centers for psychiatry and counseling

🛋️ Early intervention: What if you could help people find comfort and support before they reach a breaking point? Take inspiration from Zimbabwe’s Friendship Bench, where people can chat openly with trained community members

The creator economy is reaching new heights, with nearly two-thirds (65%) of consumers now purchasing products and services from creator-founded companies. That's according to creator agency Billion Dollar Boy, which recently polled 4,000 people across the US and UK.

According to that research — keeping in mind that the company stands to benefit from a buoyant creator economy — creator entrepreneurs are slightly outpacing traditional brands on consumer preference, with 27% of shoppers more likely to buy from creators or influencers, compared to 24% who expressed a preference for established companies. Buying behavior is particularly pronounced among younger demographics, with 91% of consumers aged 16-24 having purchased creator-founded products.

Behind this shift lies a mix of motivations. While 35% of shoppers say they want to support small and emerging businesses, nearly a third believe the products on offer are actually superior in quality. Other reasons: trusting influencers over traditional brands, feeling like part of a community, wanting to get in on a trending product and being a loyal follower of a creator.

So, what are people buying? Personal care/beauty leads the category mix, with 40% of consumers having purchased a creator-founded skincare, make-up or haircare product. Food and drink is next at 21%, followed by fashion at 17%. The phenomenon is notably stronger in the US, where 71% of consumers have bought from creators, compared to 58% in the UK.

Many of your stakeholders — from customers to factory workers — are feeling more fearful and vulnerable. The 11th Future Risks Report by Ipsos and AXA surveyed 19,000 people and 3,000 experts worldwide, revealing an escalating mood of anxiety. The cause? A relentless polycrisis 🌪️

According to the data, 90% of people sense a surge in crises, while 91% feel the pressure is hitting harder every day. Vulnerability is at an all-time high: of the 25 risks studied, 22 have record levels of concern. Climate-driven issues might top the list of worries, but AI risks are also on the radar, and societal and political anxieties are surging. Misinformation is now among the most feared threats 🤯

Dutch Design Week 2024, Northern Europe’s largest design event, lit up the stage with Europe’s freshest creators. Here’s a peek at top student concepts sparking change:

🧘 NOISE takes mindfulness beyond mobile apps with a tactile, audio-visual device by Benedikt Herzau. 🇩🇪 Winner of the UX Design Award Gold 2024, it’s a soothing escape from digital chaos.

🧵 Screen time has dulled kids’ fine motor skills, but Anna-Maria Nilsson 🇸🇪 weaves a solution with KLURA — a math-meets-embroidery tool to revive dexterity and creativity.

🍆 Sex-toy shopping gets a stigma-free twist with Sander van der Lecq’s 🇳🇱 conceptual store for easytoys_nl, where imagination flows freely.

🦜 Mundo Pemón, a VR tour by Ana Lorena Lodeiros, 🇨🇭 invites users to explore Venezuela’s Canaima region and Pemon culture, raising Indigenous awareness through immersive storytelling.

🧴 Addressing the Sephora kids debate, Nataly Sijtsma 🇳🇱 introduces SkinTwin, duo skincare packs for kids and caregivers that build healthy habits and bonding time.

💧 The Reef by Anton Vervoort 🇧🇪 leverages the filtering power of Dreissena polymorpha mussels to tackle agricultural water pollution. Winner of the national James Dyson Award.

Are your brand’s pain points ready for a student-inspired fix? Explore these projects and more by DDW creators to shape the future of design 🔮

WWF's Living Planet Report 2024 sounds the alarm: average wildlife population sizes have plunged by 73% (!) since 1970, with the steepest declines in Latin America & Caribbean (95%), Africa (76%), Asia-Pacific (60%) and freshwater ecosystems (85%). Ecosystems are nearing their tipping points, from the Amazon’s rapid dieback to coral reefs’ decline.

For 2025, it’s time to take off the carbon tunnel glasses and bring biodiversity into focus. This week’s UN biodiversity conference in Colombia urges brands to act, too!

💡 Ask yourself: how is your brand contributing to biodiversity loss? What can you do to safeguard and regenerate nature? Amid rising climate adaptation demands, consider how you’ll reshape your processes and priorities with biodiversity — and its (mainly Indigenous) guardians — in mind.

Accenture's Life Trends 2025 report surveyed consumers across 22 markets and spotlights 5 key trends. One that caught our eye? Cost of hesitations. And this stat in particular: 62% of consumers now say trust is an important factor when choosing to engage with a brand, up from 56% in 2023.

In 2024, consumer trust was put to the test as AI-generated content flooded feeds. Concerns over algorithmic bias, copyright, deepfakes and privacy rose, leaving 59.9% of consumers doubting online authenticity. Platforms that were formerly discovery-friendly spaces became oversaturated with AI-generated content, leaving consumers more wary than ever.

📉 A closer look: 38% of consumers encountered fake product reviews in 2024, while 52.8% regularly question the authenticity of reviews they read. But the problem is bigger than reviews — everything from product visuals to brand identities (Austin's viral restaurant Ethos doesn't actually exist; all the images on its Instagram feed are AI generated 🥐🦛) are under a microscope. Heading into 2025, how can brands rebuild trust and show AI delivers real value, not just quick ROI?

A study just published by The Lancet Planetary Health explores climate-related emotions among US adolescents and young adults aged 16-25. Six key findings:

🙁 Of the study's 15,793 respondents, 85% reported being at least moderately worried about climate change and its impacts, with 58% being very or extremely worried, which is notably higher than in previous studies and suggests climate concerns are intensifying rather than diminishing among young Americans.

🗳️ The distress cuts across political lines. While Democrats showed higher levels of concern, a majority of young Republicans also reported significant worry about climate change, challenging assumptions about partisan divides. Nearly one in four (73%) said they're likely to vote for candidates who support aggressive climate policies, indicating this issue could influence future voting patterns and policy.

👶 Climate anxiety is impacting major life decisions: 69% said climate change will influence where they choose to live, 67% expect it will affect their career choices, and 52% report being hesitant to have children due to climate concerns.

🧠 Mental health impacts are significant, too: 43% indicated climate change is affecting their mental health, while 38% reported that climate-related feelings negatively impact their daily functioning, including the ability to focus at work/school, sleep, eat and maintain relationships.

🏭 Those surveyed primarily place responsibility with corporations and industries (89%) and with the US government (86%) for both causing and addressing the climate crisis, suggesting they expect systemic solutions.

💼 Corporate climate action matters to young talent: 67% report they plan to choose employers based on commitment to sustainability and reducing climate impact, which will no doubt affect future workforce dynamics.

Spotify’s Culture Next report is here and it spotlights how youth across 16 countries are remixing culture. The three trends shaking up the soundscape?

👯 Blendships: music and podcasts are Gen Z's go-to for deeper connections

🎸 Playlist Diary: hyper-personalization gives Gen Z that main character energy

🎶 Mainstreaming: Gen Z is (re)embracing the mainstream. In fact, 80% of US Gen Z say niche and underground culture are going mainstream, with near-identical percentages in the UK (81%) and Australia (84%). By comparison, 74% of Gen Z labeled themselves as mainstream in 2023, up from 59% in 2021

Medical breakthroughs have extended lives, but the pace is slowing. In the 1990s, life expectancy in the longest-living countries grew by 2.5 years per decade. By the 2010s? Just 1.5 years. And even eliminating all deaths before age 50 would only add 1.5 years to the average lifespan, according to an October 2024 Nature Aging study. 📉

Despite billionaires chasing immortality, aging isn't slowing down. As public health expert S. Jay Olshansky puts it, "Bodies don’t operate well beyond their warranty period." Bad news for the 32% of Americans who want to live forever.

It's time to focus on health-span instead of living 120 years. Women, who outlive men but spend 25% more time in poor health, could especially benefit.

Forget pricey longevity retreats — how about free preventative bio-age testing or rewarding healthy living? 👵🌿

Recent events surrounding Hurricane Helene brought the issue of fake vs real imagery into sharp focus. Speaking to his Hard Fork co-host, journalist Casey Newton reported on the circulation of an AI-generated image of a frightened young girl on a boat holding a puppy. "Yeah, so a number of high-profile right-wing accounts have been sharing this stuff online. Utah Senator Mike Lee reposted the girl with the puppy on his personal X account, although he did later delete it. That same image was shared by Amy Kremer, who is a Republican National Committee — National Committeewoman, and a co-founder of Women for Trump."

"And Kevin, I thought this was interesting because after she was called out for posting this fake image, she said, quote, 'I don't know where this photo came from and honestly, it doesn't matter. It is seared into my mind forever. There are people going through much worse than what is shown in this pic. So I'm leaving it because it is emblematic of the trauma and pain people are living through right now.' So that's a pretty rich text, I would say, because what it's telling us is, we're now in a world where we share things not because they're true, but because they're emblematic of the way that we feel."

Valuing the emotional resonance of a photo over its factual accuracy isn't limited to news events. It's a notion that's increasingly encouraged by phones and other tools people use to capture and edit everyday, personal images. Pictures of their kids, their honeymoon, a picnic with friends. A few months back, Wired spoke to Isaac Reynolds, the group product manager for Google's Pixel Camera, about Pixel's new AI tools that allow people to entirely alter photos they've taken. 

Reynolds said, "It's about what you're remembering. When you define a memory as that there is a fallibility to it — you could have a true and perfect representation of a moment that felt completely fake and completely wrong. What some of these edits do is help you create the moment that is the way you remember it, that's authentic to your memory and to the greater context, but maybe isn't authentic to a particular millisecond."

As the lines between fake and real blur at accelerating speed, businesses and marketers face new challenges and opportunities. How will consumers' relationship with visual content evolve? What are the implications for brand authenticity in a world where "authentic" might mean "emotionally true" rather than "factually accurate"? Should we stop thinking of this as a problem to solve and start viewing it as a new reality to navigate?

According to Hilton’s 2025 Trends Report, 2025 is the year of the travel maximizer. With a third of people having already booked a trip and 67% prioritizing vacation budgets over other saving goals, global travelers want to make the most of every moment. Featuring insights from 13 countries, the report is a snapshot into what will fuel wanderlust in 2025:

1️⃣ THE GREAT OUTDOORS // 1 in 4 seek out unique experiences, with 20% chasing outdoor adventures ➡️ To mitigate the impact of light pollution on wildlife, Red Sea Global is the Middle East’s first certified Dark Sky Reserve.

2️⃣ SOUL SEARCHERS // Tired of Insta-perfect vacations, 22% embrace #SoftTravel for self-discovery and mental wellbeing ➡️ Set to open in Austin in 2026, Submersive is a 25,000-square-feet spa merging art, tech and wellness for a transformative escape.

3️⃣ FAMILY FLIGHTS // Family travel is soaring – 37% vacation with parents, 40% bring extended family, especially in India, Mexico and Saudi Arabia ➡️ The Grans Go Free campaign by EasyJet Holidays saw the company fly grandparents to sunny spots like Spain and Greece for free.

💡 Not a travel brand? Consider how expectations created by these travel trends can be translated into your industry.

The Vogue Business size inclusivity report reveals a worrying trend on the SS25 runways. Out of 8,763 looks presented across New York, London, Milan and Paris, a mere 0.8% were plus-size (US 14+), 4.3% mid-size (US 6-12), while a staggering 94.9% were straight-size (US 0-4). While a few champions of body diversity stand firm, notably Ester Manas (see photo) and Rick Owens in Paris, Bach Mai in New York and Karoline Vitto in London, many designers are reverting to the toxic 'ideal' of ultra-thin.

As the report highlights, "the body positivity movement has lost steam in mainstream culture as the pendulum has swung back to the glamorization of thinness, amid the rising use of Ozempic and the subsequent shrinking of celebrities and influencers." This trend is building pressure far beyond runways and celebs: 31% of Gen Z and 32% of Millennials in the US say simply knowing about GLP-1 drugs makes them feel pressured to lose weight.

💊 With weight-loss drugs like Ozempic becoming more accessible, brands need to ask themselves: do we truly want to abandon body acceptance? Beyond the moral imperative of protecting people's self-image and wellbeing, inclusive representation has the power to boost sales (by up to 16%).

The 2024 Global Wellbeing Report from Lululemon uncovered a wellness paradox: the relentless pursuit of wellbeing may be making people less well. While 89% of people across 15 countries are doing more to improve their wellbeing, the global wellbeing score is stuck at 66%. Why? The report flags three key pressure points:

1️⃣ Societal pressure: 61% think they need to appear well, even if they're not. The percentage jumps to 76% for Gen Z and 71% for Millennials. For many, that pressure leads to wellbeing burnout (45%), with the majority (63%) feeling powerless to improve their wellbeing

2️⃣ Advice overload: 53% say there's too much contradictory information on how to improve their wellbeing

3️⃣ Loneliness: 89% of those with wellbeing burnout say loneliness is a contributing factor

In 2025, it’s time to break the cycle. The authors of Lululemon's report suggest quieting the noise, inviting others to join the journey and doing what actually feels good.

Improving its service for deaf and hard-of-hearing passengers, Virgin Atlantic has become the first UK airline to offer British Sign Language (BSL) trained flight crew. The airline recently put its commitment to the test by inviting deaf Gladiators star Jodie Ounsley and deaf content creators Hermon and Heroda Berhane to experience the enhanced service on a flight from London to Washington, DC — and it promoted the initiative in a sign-language-only video.

Research by RNID, a UK charity supporting the 18 million people in the UK who are deaf, have hearing loss or tinnitus, indicates 82% of deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals plan to travel in the coming year. Over half are worried about communicating with crew members. When flying with Virgin Atlantic, they can request a trained staff member who can use BSL to welcome passengers, assist with navigation, relay announcements and help with accessible in-flight entertainment. The airline is also working on increasing subtitled entertainment options and implementing on-demand BSL interpreters for customer service teams.

Virgin Atlantic isn't the first airline to get its cabin crew signing:
🇹🇷 In 2017, Turkey hosted the Deaflympics and Turkish Airlines introduced a six-day 'international hearing impairment language training' program
🇺🇸 In 2019, Delta debuted name tags identifying crew members who speak sign language
🇳🇿 In May 2024, Air New Zealand flew the world's first commercial flight where attendants communicated with passengers using New Zealand Sign Language
🇮🇳 In May 2024, Indian low-cost airline SpiceJet started adding attendants trained in sign language to select flights
🇸🇦 In June 2024, low-cost Saudi carrier Flynas announced it would be training cabin crew in sign language
 
🤟 Those corporate DEI efforts overlap with a growing interest in sign language among non-deaf individuals, fueled by interpreters captivating audiences during concerts and COVID-19 briefings, and by easily accessible tutorials on YouTube and TikTok (not all of which are accurate 🙄). That wider popularity is making it easier for brands across various sectors to engage workers in learning sign language, potentially leading to more inclusive workplaces, public spaces and service industries. 

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?