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MAD//Fest 2024 daily recap: Passion points, purpose and design through storytelling

Photography by The Future Laboratory, UK

UK – The second day of MAD//Fest kicked off with Eric Melis, vice-president of global brand marketing at PepsiCo, discussing the brand’s shift from viewing its audience as consumers to seeing them as people, a strategy aimed at cultivating emotional connections. PepsiCo now categorises customers by interests and passion points rather than traditional demographics, with the goal to create more culturally relevant brand moments. This aligns with insights from our Communities reports on LS:N Global, which highlight the importance of understanding value-driven consumer groups.

Emily Kraftman, managing director UK and Europe of sustainable toilet roll brand Who Gives A Crap, followed with an insight into what it takes to be a Civic Brand. While the brand’s impact and purpose (providing global access to sanitation) is serious, Who Gives A Crap avoids overwhelming consumers by not taking itself too seriously and tries to make customers laugh along the way.

Kraftman also outlined the brand’s mission to turn every point of interaction with customers – from email receipts to recruitment experience, packing and even tax strategy – into a marketing opportunity.

Later, Bombay-inspired restaurant group Dishoom got stomachs rumbling as head of brand and creative Ginny Nackvi detailed the 50-page founding myth document that the group writes ahead of the opening of each Dishoom restaurant. The fictional back story for each restaurant features a fictional character whose likes, dislikes, history and personality become the ‘why’ for design choices, creating a unique dining experience at every venue. ‘As a brand gets bigger you have to deepen not dilute the quality of what you do,’ said Nackvi.

For more design inspiration, check out our Design Directions on LS:N Global.

Strategic opportunity

Embrace flat-age thinking by identifying cross-generational passion points and interests that unite your customers. Target these interest- and value-led micro-communities in your next campaign or brand activation to maximise engagement

Super-tall skyscrapers to generate and store green energy

Energy Vault and SOM, US

US – International architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has partnered with Energy Vault – a global energy storage company specialising in gravity and kinetic energy – to design four innovative sustainable energy storage systems. The systems, known as EVu, EVc, EVy and EV0, use gravity-based storage solutions (GESS) to generate and store electricity by lifting and dropping weights. The designs integrate these technologies into both skyscrapers and natural landscapes.

‘These systems can maximise sustainability, accelerate carbon payback and lower energy costs,' said SOM in a statement. The EVu tower and EVy landscape model use solid weights, while EVc and EV0 use pumped hydro-energy. EVu is notable for its superstructure tower design that aims to offset construction emissions within 3–4 years. EVc features a cylindrical tower optimised for protection against wind and seismic events, pioneering large-scale pumped hydro-storage in buildings.

EVy and EV0 spread across landscapes, using innovative water storage methods to reduce environmental impact. ‘This partnership is a commitment to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels and enhance both urban and natural environments,’ said SOM partner Adam Semel.

For more insights on the future of architecture, head to our Future Spaces topic.

Strategic opportunity

Explore opportunities to retrofit existing skyscrapers with gravity-based energy storage systems, transforming older buildings into modern, energy-efficient structures

Synthesia unveils new AI avatars with full-body movement

US – Synthesia, the pioneering start-up in AI-generated avatars, is set to release an enhanced version of its hyper-realistic avatars with full-body movement and gesticulating hands. The upgraded avatars can perform complex actions, such as singing, holding a microphone while dancing, or walking across a room, providing a more immersive and expressive experience.

Victor Riparbelli, CEO of Synthesia, highlighted the advance: ‘The new avatars will be able to express a wider range of emotions, including excitement, fear and nervousness.’ The launch of these full-body avatars is expected by the end of 2024.

Synthesia’s initial hyper-realistic avatars, launched in April 2024, showcased advanced synchronisation of expressions and tone with spoken text. But they were limited to torso-up appearances. The forthcoming update will employ a larger AI model to capture full-body movements, requiring users to record their motions in a studio.

Synthesia’s innovation highlights the move towards AI-generated deepfakes becoming increasingly realistic and indecipherable from reality. For more insights on artificial intelligence, check out our AI section.

AI imagery by The Future Laboratory, UK

Strategic opportunity

AI avatars could be your new interactive virtual assistants, customer service representatives, or virtual influencers and ambassadors, among others. Is your business ready to welcome such a change?

Stat: Klarna aims to close gender gap in women’s sports merchandise

Klarna and TOGETHXR, US

US – Klarna, the global payments network, has unveiled Rep Her, an initiative aimed at addressing the gender gap in women’s sports merchandise. In partnership with Sports Innovation Lab, Klarna released a report in June 2024 entitled Rep Her: Revealing the Unmet Demand for Women’s Sports Merchandise, which valued the market at £3.1bn ($4bn, €3.7bn) annually.

The report found a strong demand for women’s sports merchandise. Some 79% of respondents said they were willing to purchase more if more options were available, but over 60% couldn’t buy anything due to lack of inventory.

To meet this unmet demand, Klarna joined forces with women-owned media and commerce company Togethxr and athlete Ali Krieger to launch limited-edition merchandise, available on klarna.com and togethxr.com. A proportion of proceeds will go to Billie Jean King’s Women’s Sports Foundation.

‘As a brand that breaks the status quo, we are proud to launch this initiative to make merchandise more accessible,’ said Megan Gokey, Klarna’s head of B2C marketing. Togethxr consultant Ali Krieger added: ‘This initiative recognises the value of women’s sports and ensures fans have the merchandise they want.’

LS:N Global has previously analysed how sports is being rebranded in order to be more inclusive and appeal to Gen Z.

Strategic opportunity

Explore partnerships with women's sports teams and athletes to create and distribute a wider range of merchandise. This will tap into the identified £3.1bn ($4bn, €3.7bn) market and meet the unmet demand highlighted by Klarna