Need to Know
14 : 12 : 21

France – Luxury spirits brand Louis XIII has unveiled a limited-edition cognac, N°XIII, with a tongue-in-cheek campaign that hints at the hyper-exclusive nature of the drink. With only 200 decanters produced in total, consumers have a 0.0000038361% chance of ever trying the drink.

Made in collaboration with Object & Animal production studio, the campaign reveals that it is statistically more likely to hit a hole in one, become a professional actor, or even travel to space than to take a sip of N°XIII. Further highlighting its evasive brand presence, the drink is only available in a selected number of venues worldwide, and customers who are lucky enough to try the drink will be limited to one decanter a night.

In a similar vein to the concept cars that few consumers will ever have a chance to try, N°XIII is a limited-edition project that pushes the boundaries of conventional spirits marketing. To learn the elusive marketing tactics that are emerging across sectors, read about the beauty and wellness brands exploring extremes.

Global – Free-to-access platform Yellow Trip Road aims to provoke and promote conversations about mental wellbeing by combining the mediums of music, fashion design, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and virtual art.

Hosted online, people visiting the cross-reality (XR) virtual sanctuary navigate woodland, desert, space and ocean settings as a way of exploring and supporting mental health initiatives. Accompanied by a black dog – symbolising depression – users’ experience is described as a sensory metaphor of life through which people can seek to heal or lose themselves.

Collective Enjoy Being in Transition (EBIT), which includes creatives Glen Luchford, Soo Joo Park, DJ John Digweed and Wilson Oryema, are behind the platform, together with virtual fashion pioneers The Dematerialised and NFT provider AnamXR. Yellow Brick Road emphasises its mental health mission through the provision of limited-edition virtual streetwear NFTs that can purchased through the platform, from which 10% of sales go to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Building on digital-first and drug-free mental healthcare experiences, such as those provided by the Trip app, Yellow Trip Road demonstrates how numerous sectors and creatives can align to create decentralised forms of wellness support.

Entertainment and culture are merging in new ways, as language app Duolingo finds that people are engaging with countries via tv shows, using fandom as inspiration to learn new languages. The findings come from Duolingo’s 2021 language report, which finds that the top five languages learned on the app in 2021 were Spanish, English, French, Japanese and German, with Korean rising in popularity worldwide.

Duolingo adds that more than two-thirds of its users said a ‘cultural event’ might inspire them to try to pick up a new language – highlighting the cultural significance of the Asian country and its renowned role in industries such as music, film and television. Among those who were inspired by a streaming show to learn a new language, 28% decided to learn Korean after watching the Netflix hit show Squid Game.

The lifeline that video streaming became during the pandemic continues to shape society and how we connect with foreign cultures. In our Emerging Youth: Saudi Arabia report, we reveal how anime-obsessed young people are learning Japanese, showing the deeper relationships communities are forging with far-flung nations.