Need to Know
31 : 05 : 23

Europe – Creative agency Saint Elmo’s and the Long Covid Europe patient network have teamed up to launch an awareness campaign on the long-term debilitating effects of Covid through the world’s most popular single-player games, including Minecraft.

Using game modifications, Long Covid mode imposes effects on the game characters that resemble real long Covid symptoms, including exhaustion, reduced concentration, dizzy spells, blackouts and shortness of breath. This creates a new level of difficulty for players – an exciting proposition – while also recreating the sensation of living with long Covid.

According to the World Health Organization, one in 10 Covid infections leads to long-term health problems, which means millions of people are now living with long Covid, a number that continues to grow with very few diagnostic and therapeutic solutions available. The vivid stimulation of a life with long Covid showcases the potential of gaming platforms as sites for activism, especially as the line between people’s real lives and online worlds blur – a phenomenon we explored in our Affirmative Avatars market report.

Australia – Energy bars upcycling a part of the coffee bean that is usually wasted hit the shelves in May in supermarket chain Woolworths.

Only about 60% of the coffee plant is used during coffee bean extraction, while the fruit is typically discarded as food waste (source: Green Queen). By starting I Am Grounded (IAG), co-founder Vanessa Murillo set out to create a business with a twofold mission: harness the nutritional benefits of the coffee fruit and reduce the waste associated with coffee farming. IAG salvages the raw material, upcycling coffee fruit pulp to create tasty snacks. The coffee cherries are a nutritious food source, packed with fibre, vitamin B2, magnesium and antioxidants. IAG upcycles about 50g of coffee fruit in every snack bar, pairing it with whole food ingredients such as nuts and dates to create a functional plant-based snack that provides a sustained energy release. In addition, this closed-loop approach to coffee production offers new revenue streams to coffee-producing communities.

IAG is a food waste innovator, repurposing overlooked ingredients and creating resilient food supply chains from by-products of large crops.

UK, US – Digital marketing company Super Awesome has released its Retail, Gaming & the Next Generation report. The research draws on interviews with 1,600 consumers from Gen Alpha and Gen Z, as well as 1,200 parents, and includes analysis by global consulting agency Bain & Co. The study found that an astounding 90% of children and teenagers in the UK and the US identify as gamers.

Retail, Gaming & the Next Generation emphasises how important it is for brands and businesses to understand gaming spaces. Young consumers spend about 12.5 hours per week in gaming worlds, more time than they spend on any other form of media. Furthermore, 51% of young consumers say seeing a brand in-game would motivate them to buy something from it in real life or visit a brand’s store.

Despite sometimes being treated as a niche hobby in the broader media landscape, Gen Z and Gen Alpha are re-affirming what we have observed in our Gamer Wellness Market analysis: gaming is an essential to many consumers. Brands that understand how to present themselves in gaming spaces can establish powerful connections with consumers.