UK – A new ad by Vue Cinemas highlights the impact of modern living’s myriad digital distractions – and encourages people to focus by heading to the cinema.

Created in partnership with Joint and RSA films, the Get Lost in Great Stories campaign marks the cinema chain’s first move into advertising. Featuring actor John Boyega and a cameo from director Ridley Scott, the spot critiques the way movie watching has been reduced to phone screens, while drawing attention to the overwhelming number of digital distractions in our everyday lives.

It was created after Vue and University College London commissioned research showing the health benefits that come from a cinema trip. According to the study, being immersed in an out-of-home film experience has profound cognitive, emotional and psychological benefits, helping to alleviate depression and loneliness, while keeping the heart healthy by raising heart rate levels similar to cardio exercise. As the campaign’s director Jake Scott says: ‘It’s never been more important to find time to switch off from the incessant distractions of the modern world – and to get lost in a great story.’

As explored in our macrotrend The Focus Filter, brands are facing a constant race for consumer attention, with advertising and cultural outlets working to cut through the impact of digital distraction.

US – Brand strategy and design agency Emotive Brands has launched Emotive Feels, an interactive dictionary to help brands and designers explore the meaning of common emotions.

Focusing on 50 feelings ranging from ‘aware’ to ‘purposeful’ and ‘zealous’, the dictionary pairs graphic design and animation with quotes relating to each feeling from Emotive Brands team members and various influential thinkers. The resulting online resource is designed to help brands make decisions or inspire ideas, with each emotion depicted as a visual metaphor that brings the emotion and its meaning to life. According to Emotive Brands, the project is a reflection of the agency’s aim to encourage brands to trigger feelings, inspire action, earn loyalty and lift spirits.

With a new wave of emo-diversity emerging in the creative industries, people are becoming increasingly obsessed with how everything makes them feel. We examine this further in our macrotrend on The E-motional Economy.

Research by Mintel reveals an impressive rise in UK gym memberships, up by 15% from 2014 to 2019.

In 2019, revenue for the UK private health and fitness club market is estimated to have reached nearly £3.4bn ($4.4bn, €4bn), a growth rate of 4.1% since 2018. This is due to greater affordability and an increase in gym locations making gyms more accessible, combined with consumers displaying a greater interest in overall health and fitness.

In particular, they are seeking classes where they can exercise as part of a group, with almost three in five (58%) Britons saying classes are the main reason they go to a health and fitness club. As a result, health and fitness clubs are one of the fastest-growing leisure segments in the UK, with 18% of adults now using a gym or fitness service, compared to 15% in 2018. With health and wellness increasingly at the front of mind for brands and consumers, both leisure and fitness operators should consider ways to make health and fitness not only more convenient but also accessible and inclusive.