Need to Know
01 : 08 : 19

US – The start-up uses music for a new approach to meditation and mindfulness practices.

Sitting at the intersection of technology, music and wellness, Wave’s two-part system provides a multi-sensory, music-guided meditation experience at home. The kit includes a vibrating bolster pillow and custom, over-ear headphones, plus a subscription-based app for streaming original, genre-less music. Used together, these elements are designed to make meditation more immersive.

Breathing exercises and more than 80 original tracks available via the Wave app sync with the vibrating bolster to allow users to feel each beat and breath. ‘We want to make some noise in an industry of silence by creating an immersive at-home experience that's fun, positive, and empowering,’ reads the Wave website. ‘We're here to elevate your state of mind, one track at a time.’

By putting music at the core of its wellness offering, Wave reflects how music is emerging as the next frontier for health and wellbeing. Look out for our Music as Medicine microtrend, launching on LS:N Global soon.

Global – The radio station has reworked its website to mimic a kitsch 1980s operating system.

Poolside FM, which is known for streaming feel-good summer music, has redesigned its website to provide a new – albeit retro – radio experience. The website, founded by Marty Bell and re-designed by Niek Dekker and developer Lewis King, draws inspiration from '90s-era Mac operating systems, allowing listeners to interact with its desktop-style menu and icons.

In addition to listening to the radio, users can watch Poolside TV, scroll through a nostalgic version of Instagram, buy merchandise or even join a live online forum dubbed a ‘guestbook’. Visitors to the site can even change the desktop theme or download Poolside FM wallpaper to their computer.

As well as rethinking the notion that radio cannot be both audio and visual, Poolside FM is tapping into consumers’ hunger for Netstalgia.

UK – The beverage brand is bringing self-mixing cans to the ready-to-drink cocktail market.

The Nitro Cans by Funkin Cocktails feature a nitrogen-infused widget, which, upon opening the can, is activated and releases micro-bubbles of nitrogen to mix the cocktail. Available in flavours such as amaretto sour, espresso martini and pink gin fizz, the Nitro Cans aim to elevate on-the-go drinking to rival the quality of bar-made cocktails.

According to Funkin Cocktails, which partnered with packaging company Ardagh on the new cans, while traditional fizzy beverages are carbonated with carbon dioxide, nitrogen bubbles are 100 times smaller and longer-lasting. This not only enhances the aromatics of the cocktail but provides more sensory drinking experience.

In an age of Convenience Culture, quality remains paramount for consumers who wish to emulate the bar experience in the comfort of their home or on the move.

Consumers believe that grocery retailers have a responsibility to encourage healthier choices, according to a new report published by RSPH, in which just 15% of the UK public feel supermarkets are doing enough to tackle obesity.

Consequently, nearly half of UK consumers say that legislation should be introduced requiring supermarkets to encourage healthier choices. This includes allocating more shelf space to healthier products, introducing a healthy rewards scheme, and the provision of recipe cards and cooking demonstrations on how to create healthy meals.

To learn how retailers can be an ally in consumers’ health efforts, read our Prescription Supermarkets microtrend.