LSN : Daily Signals : Helsinki develops a city-wide sustainability app

A time capsule of young Millennials' digital musings

Streaming Consciousness by Pitch Portal

Melbourne – Pitch Portal has launched Streaming Consciousness, an interactive visual experience to unearth the innermost thoughts of young people.

The creative lab’s project aims to be a time capsule of Generation Z and young Millennials’ passing thoughts, reflecting the nature of growing up immersed in the digital world. Visitors to the online platform can browse musings such as ‘sometimes I get concerned that I use my friends to pass time’ and ‘I just deleted IG for the second time this week and it’s only Tuesday lol’.

The confessions, desires and realisations of 47 young people were collected earlier in 2019 through a private Slack group, where participants could share their thoughts anonymously, void of likes or comments. ‘We were inspired by mindfulness techniques that encourage free-flowing thoughts,’ reads the Pitch Portal site. ‘We wanted to trial an alternative communication style... where sharing our thoughts wasn’t centralised in maintaining social identity or encouraging reactions.’

As young people turn to online spaces to deal with their rising anxiety, Pitch Portal is exploring how digital platforms can encourage the release of people’s most unapologetic thoughts and feelings.

Lynx wants to keep tattoos looking fresh

Lynx Ink Shower Gel

UK – The men’s personal care brand has launched a campaign to promote its Ink Shower Gel.

The new product is designed to keep coloured tattoos bright, with a formulation that contains ingredients known to maintain skin health, including vitamin E, olive oil and glycerine. The Unilever brand worked with 72andSunny Amsterdam to create a playful series of ads in which tattoos come to life with the voices of their owners.

The product represents Lynx’s first foray into the tattoo aftercare sector, which to date has been dominated by pharmaceutical brands, as well as niche product lines such as Sorry Mom and Electric Ink. It also comes at a time when, according to The Guardian, one-fifth of all British adults have at least one tattoo.

As more adults have tattoos, daily skincare regimes are changing, with consumers looking to well-known brands for products designed to care for their tattoos. For more on how beauty labels are bringing pharmacy products direct to consumers, read our microtrend.

Recycle plastic for reduced metro rides in Rome

Rome – The city is trialling a new scheme where locals can recycle plastic bottles and receive free rides on public transport in exchange.

The Recicli + Viaggi (recycle and travel) initiative allows people to exchange 1 bottle for €0.05 in travel credit. Citizens are encouraged to collect bottles and feed them into machines at stations, which issue credit for the city’s public transport app. While Rome is a major tourist hub tackling waste issues, empty plastic bottles are a wider problem in Italy, with the country drinking more bottled water than any other European nation – reportedly 188 litres per person annually (source: Statista).

Atac, which runs Rome’s public transport network, notes that 'it will be possible to reward responsible behaviour from an environmental standpoint and retain customers who use the mobile [app]' for travel.

In this way, the circular economy is being used to provide more accessible fares for Rome's citizens. To find our more, read our Pricing Strategies market.

Imagery by Matthew Gollop

Helsinki develops a city-wide sustainability app

Think Sustainably: Your Local Guide for Sustainable Helsinki

Finland – Think Sustainably is an app guide that helps citizens and tourists experience the sustainable side of Helsinki.

The app ranks local hotels, restaurants, attractions and transport against sustainability criteria, sharing how many of these criteria have been met. Users are also shown the CO2 emissions they have incurred using different modes of transport as a way to encourage lower- or emission-free transport. The app was launched as part of the Carbon Neutral Helsinki Initiative, whereby the city aims to be carbon-neutral by 2035.

‘The city is able to effect change in this way because of its compact size, well-functioning infrastructure and well-developed knowledge-economy cluster,’ says Laura Aalto, CEO of Helsinki Marketing. ‘We hope that others can also learn from our experiments.’

With both tourists and city residents wanting to live more sustainable urban lives, platforms such as Think Sustainably, and London's zero-waste directory Useless are making this quest easier and simpler to navigate.

Stat: Suncare education is lacking in India

The report by Mintel suggests the lack of sunscreen use in consumers’ skincare routines is due to low consumer awareness of product terminology, application frequency and quantity. Terms like SPF and PA are not understood by 25% of Indian consumers, while 22% don’t understand which SPF level to use.

Minu Srivastava, Mintel's beauty and personal care analyst for India, explains: 'It is important to educate consumers about usage and re-application of suncare products. Brands need clear, educational campaigns about the potential side effects of UV exposure.’

There is a significant market opportunity in India for sunscreen brands, particularly those with multi-functional products offering moisturising, anti-pollution benefits, or integrating SPF into colour cosmetics. Our Suncare Market takes a closer look at new, global innovations in sun protection.

Thought-starter: How will museums compete for our attention?

Pop-up museums are transforming from novel experiences into platforms for people and brands to engage in discussions about the future.

Since the birth of Instagram, much of the cultural and creative world has scrambled to optimise their work, experiences and even spaces to look good on the social media platform. This Instagrammable aesthetic has led to the emergence of pop-up museums. Often temporary, these interactive spaces are, above all, photogenic. Exploding in cultural capitals across Europe, Asia and the US, they’ve included spaces dedicated to disgusting food and broken relationships, David Hasselhoff and even Brexit.

There is a key opportunity, however, for brands to tackle more important issues about our futures and society that aren’t rooted in escapism, consumerism or vanity. Volkswagen, for example, is hosting an exhibition on its role in the future of mobility at its Future Centre in Berlin, Germany.

Meanwhile, in spring 2019, SheStacks, an organisation that aims to promote financial independence among women, opened a playful pop-up museum in Los Angeles with a purpose – to provide women with a non-judgemental yet interactive space for financial education.

Read our Post-modern Museums microtrend here.