Daily Signals 17.10.2019

Signals

Cigna’s colourful visuals make stress tangible, Hayman’s gin is driving a British rum renaissance, and print advertising loses out to social media.

Everlane gives cashmere a second life

ReCashmere by Everlane ReCashmere by Everlane
ReCashmere by Everlane ReCashmere by Everlane

US – The ReCashmere collection will halve the carbon footprint of traditional sweaters.

To create the collection, Everlane teamed up with a local mill in Prato, Italy, which specialises in upcycling cashmere wool. The mill collects worn sweaters through a recycling scheme, then – likened to painters mixing pigments – it chooses different colours to comb into new yarns. Finally, they blend them with extra-fine merino wool to create cashmere with a 50% smaller carbon footprint.

The mill has also assessed the lifecycle of ReCashmere to measure the environmental impact of a sweater’s life, from manufacturing and repairs to recycling. Recently, cashmere producers have struggled with increasing global demand, which has had a damaging effect on grasslands and goat herds in Mongolia.

To see how fashion brands around the world are innovating to give garments a second life and reduce their impact on the planet, explore our Fashion sector.

These visualisations let you ‘see’ stress

See Stress Differently by Cigna Insurance Middle East See Stress Differently by Cigna Insurance Middle East

UAE – Health services company Cigna Insurance has launched a new campaign to help people living in the Middle East better understand the long-term impact of stress.

The Stress Care initiative encourages citizens to ‘see stress differently’. To bring physiological responses to life, Cigna worked with visual artist Sean Sullivan to create a series of stress portraits – colourful graphics that represent live readings of a person’s brainwaves, heart rate and skin response.

Warmer colours, such as red and orange, suggest a high level of stress, while cooler colours, such as blue, indicate a lower level. The intensity of stress is also captured in the speed at which relating animations move, with a high-stress visualisation moving rapidly. While not a medical or diagnostic tool, the graphics aim to help people living in the UAE understand stress and take proactive steps to reduce it.

As stress affects individuals in different ways, Sullivan’s visuals help to demystify experiences by communicating bodily responses as visible and tangible. For more on data visualisation, explore our Digital Dialogues design direction.

Hayman’s spotlights the history of British rum

London – The gin producer has launched Charles Merser & Co, the first rum blending house in London for more than a century.

The new rum brand launches its first product, Merser’s Double Barrel, in October and represents a fresh era for the heritage gin distillery. Charles Merser & Co will source, blend, marry and bottle mature Caribbean rums to create new tastes ‘distilled in the Caribbean but very much made in London’.

James Hayman, co-owner of the distillery, says that his family was once involved in London’s rum trade and sourced liquid from West India Docks to create its own proprietary blends over 100 years ago. ‘Over recent years, people have come to understand the important role that gin has played in London’s social history but rum’s story remains untold,’ says Jonathan Gibson, brand director. ‘With Merser’s we aim to explore that history, to bring back those lost traditions and to encourage a renaissance of interest in London rum.’

By expanding into rum in an oversaturated gin market, Hayman’s is highlighting London’s overlooked social history while also challenging the meaning of provenance.

Charles Merser & Co

Stat: Social media ad spend forecast to eclipse print

Media agency Zenith is forecasting that advertising spending on social media with overtake print publications worldwide for the first time in 2019.

According to its recent Advertising Expenditure Forecast, ad spending on social media will jump 20% to a figure of £66bn ($84bn, €76bn) in 2019, to account for a total 13% share of advertising spend globally. Social media could therefore become the third-largest advertising channel in terms of spend, after television (29%) and paid search (17%).

Meanwhile, combined magazine and newspaper spending is forecast to fall 6% to £54bn ($69bn, €62bn), symptomatic of the growth in people using social media streams as their main source of news and essential cultural information.

For brands, social media is a burgeoning shop window where products can be discovered, shared and purchased instantly. As social commerce continues to grow, new technologies and in-platform advertising features are transforming the way consumers discover products. Explore the Shoppable Social Market for key case studies.

Previous Daily Signals Articles
Netflix’s Famous Last Words signals a new era of digital legacy

Daily Signals

Netflix’s Famous Last Words signals a new era of digital legacy

Dr Jane Goodall, the renowned ethologist and conservationist passed away this week. An interview she recorded for Netflix’s new series Famous Last ...
Technology : Legacy : Longevity
Foresight Friday: Seyi Oduwole, foresight analyst

Daily Signals

Foresight Friday: Seyi Oduwole, foresight analyst

Every Friday, we offer an end-of-week wrap-up of the topics, issues, ideas and virals we’re all talking about. This week, foresight analyst Seyi Od...
Foresight Friday : Content Creation : Media
Stat: Americans’ trust in media declines to record low

Daily Signals

Stat: Americans’ trust in media declines to record low

Media : Trust : Consumer Behaviour
London welcomes the world’s first Museum of Youth Culture

Daily Signals

London welcomes the world’s first Museum of Youth Culture

The world’s first permanent museum dedicated to youth culture is set to open in Camden, London, in December 2025.
Youth : Culture : Museum
Swedish insurer hacks social media algorithms with mental health anthem

Daily Signals

Swedish insurer hacks social media algorithms with mental health anthem

Swedish insurer Länsförsäkringar Göteborg och Bohuslän has launched Detoxify, a subversive campaign that uses music to retrain harmful social media...
Sweden : Social Media : Algorithms
Stat: Gen Z shuns the values most desired by hiring managers

Daily Signals

Stat: Gen Z shuns the values most desired by hiring managers

New research from behavioural-science company Becoming You Labs reveals that only a small fraction of American Gen Z hold the three main values tha...
Youth : Gen Z : Work
Stella McCartney debuts plant-based feathers at Paris Fashion Week

Daily Signals

Stella McCartney debuts plant-based feathers at Paris Fashion Week

At Paris Fashion Week, Stella McCartney unveiled a striking alternative to bird feathers: plant-based Fevvers.
Stella McCartney : Fevvers : Feathers
Pedestrians are walking faster and lingering less in public spaces

Daily Signals

Pedestrians are walking faster and lingering less in public spaces

Pedestrians in American cities are moving faster and spending less time lingering in public spaces, according to a new study from MIT’s Senseable C...
MIT : Wellness : Design
Stat: Taylor Swift’s new album movie breaks US box office

Daily Signals

Stat: Taylor Swift’s new album movie breaks US box office

Taylor Swift’s latest project, The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, turned a listening event into a box office hit, earning £24.6m ($33m, €28....
Pop Culture : Advertising : Media
Chanel’s le19M brings Parisian craftsmanship to Tokyo

Daily Signals

Chanel’s le19M brings Parisian craftsmanship to Tokyo

Chanel’s le19M has landed in Tokyo with La Galerie du 19M Tokyo, an exhibition that unites Parisian artisans and Japanese craftspeople in a celebra...
Luxury : Fashion : Design
You have 2 free News articles remaining. Sign up to LS:N Global to get unlimited access to all articles.
BECOME A MEMBER
SIGN IN