Need to Know
22 : 03 : 19

UK – Spark Progress, a new initiative from shoe brand Converse, aims to both spotlight and advance the careers of emerging female creatives in London.

Taking a Female Futures stance, the initiative aims to give a new generation of inventive women the opportunity to break through. Spark Progress will support the projects and progression of London-based women including Iranian menswear designer Paria Farzaneh, singer, skater and artist Lava La Rue, and Feng Chen Wang, a Chinese-born menswear designer.

To mark its launch, the five women co-created a film with Converse showcasing their individual personalities, talents and future outlooks. Working to the mantra ‘while others are busy deciding our future, we’re busy making our own’, the ongoing program will be supported by a mini-site and Instagram profile that shares their efforts.

Young creatives are increasingly using visual-first culture to demonstrate their ambition, activism and altruism, something you can explore further in our Gen Viz macro trend.

Boston – Teplo 2.0 brews customised cups of tea based on the customer’s mental and physical state, as well as the variety of tea leaf.

To produce a personalised tea-drinking experience, the IoT kettle adjusts brewing conditions based on tea type, and combines this with user and environmental data such as the drinker’s heart rate, body temperature and room temperature. Teplo collects this data via various sensors, including touch sensors, and then brews accordingly.

While smart tea brewers are not a new category, the brand claims that most focus on the individual needs of various teas, rather than the drinker. For example, if a user is stressed, Teplo brews tea at a slightly lower temperature to make a more calming, sweeter tea

‘Traditional tea masters change tea brewing conditions by seeing or feeling the drinker's mental and physical state,’ says co-founder and CEO Kazunori Kawanobe. ‘Our goal with Teplo is to capture some of that ritual in a convenient, beautiful design that puts brewing control back into the drinker's hands.’

For more on the next generation of countertop beverage dispensers, read our Countertop Connoisseurs microtrend.

Buenos Aires – For its latest initiative, the Argentine auto insurer uses lights from traditional advertising billboards to illuminate unsafe roads.

Working with advertising agency TBWA\Buenos Aires, La Caja set up advertising billboards on some of the most dangerous roads in Argentina. ‘We had to identify the most dangerous curves around Argentina, and then find out if it was even possible to place the billboards there. We then had to find out how big the billboard needed to be to light the roads properly at night,’ says Juan Cruz Bazterrica, ECD at TBWA\Buenos Aires.

The company also worked with Argentina’s National Road Safety Organization to ensure the boards were correctly angled. By using billboard lighting to help and protect night drivers, La Caja is taking a Civic Brands approach to advertising, seeking to benefit drivers by preventing accidents, rather than covering costs after the fact.

A new study published in the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR) claims that consumers’ threshold for advertising repetition is far higher than previously suggested.

According to the results of the study, people can be exposed 10 or more times to an advert before ‘wearout’ sets in – a far greater number than previously accepted by advertisers.

While the study’s researchers concede that our modern, digitally-driven lives mean we are surrounded by more messages than ever before, they claim there exists an opportunity for brands and marketers to ‘strive for an average frequency of beyond 10 exposures,’ with a focus on humour and engaging stories.

In our macro trend The Focus Filter, we explore the new approaches brands are taking to capture consumer attention, from silent advertising to focus-led wellness activities.