LSN : Daily Signals : YOTEL introduces Anti-Appy Hour for screen-fatigued guests

Starbucks champions in-person creativity with new campaign

Made in Starbucks, UK

UK – Starbucks UK has launched Made in Starbucks, a campaign celebrating its coffee houses as spaces where creative communities come together to collaborate and develop ideas. Created by Anomaly, the campaign features real customers, partners and creatives, alongside in-store activations across seven UK locations.

Starbucks is championing its coffee houses as destinations for collaboration, where face-to-face interaction is increasingly valued as a catalyst for creativity, idea-sharing and innovation.

For brands, the campaign reflects growing demand for physical environments that foster connection and creativity at a time when consumers are re-assessing the value of digital interaction.

Explore our Liquid Intentions report’s Amplify section, where we examine how morning drinks are evolving beyond caffeine and into experiential in-person moments driven by daytime social gatherings, coffee raves and sober events that blend music, performance and community.

Strategic opportunity

Create physical spaces that foster community, serendipitous discovery and personalised rituals, giving consumers meaningful reasons to gather, explore and return beyond the transaction

YOTEL introduces Anti-Appy Hour for screen-fatigued guests

Europe – Hotel chain YOTEL has partnered with digital blocking app Bloom to launch an Anti-Appy Hour across hotels in Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London City and Manchester.

Launched on Global Wellness Day (13 June), guests tap a physical Bloom card against their phone to block chosen apps for an hour. Unlike software-only blockers, regaining access requires physically retrieving the card, making mindless scrolling a conscious act.

During the hour, guests are nudged towards analogue alternatives: writing postcards, ordering a Bloom-themed cocktail and talking to people.

The initiative aligns with insights from The Tech-Resisters Communities report, which identified digital disconnection as a new luxury for many consumers. The hospitality industry is responding by launching Digital Detox Destinations across the globe, offering solace, peacefulness and a break from screen fatigue.

YOTEL's Anti-Appy Hour, UK and The Netherlands

Strategic opportunity

As consumers increasingly pay for the absence of digital noise, consider where screen-free moments could become a designed feature of your business

Stat: Generative search and chatbot advertising set to become the fastest-growing advertising channel

Photography by Ekaterina Bolovtsova, Global

Global – Generative search and chatbot advertising is emerging as one of the fastest-growing channels in the global media market, as AI reshapes how consumers discover, compare and choose brands.

According to WPP Media’s This Year Next Year report, generative search and chatbot advertising revenues are projected to surpass £75.6bn ($100bn, €87.7bn) globally by 2030, making it the fastest advertising channel to reach this milestone.

But the report suggests the bigger shift is behavioural. As consumers spend more time with AI chatbots, advertisers will need to rethink visibility for a world in which commercially relevant decisions are increasingly influenced by non-human systems, including AI agents, rather than human attention alone.

This week, we are launching our macrotrend report, The Future of Discovery, which maps the changing dynamics of discovery, trust and relevance.

Delve into the report to gain insight into how the content we consume, the communities we join, the products we buy and the recommendations we follow act as signals of affiliation that shape how we understand ourselves and the world around us. 

Strategic opportunity

Design for AI-mediated discovery. Build context-rich content that helps chatbots and agents understand, recommend and accurately represent your brand, service or products