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The world's largest hotel loyalty program, with over 237 million members, has launched a platform focused on outdoor travel. Marriott Bonvoy Outdoors enables travelers to search across 450+ hotels, 50,000 vacation homes, and curated activities, all filtered by outdoor pursuits.
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
As part of its ongoing push to connect people IRL beer needs to be consumed in person, after all Heineken is turning overlooked urban infrastructure into vibrant gathering spaces. In Seoul, the beer brand partnered with local culture-makers to transform unused rooftops into social venues, revealing their locations through satellite imagery marked with Heineken's red star. The activation included intimate performances from K-pop artist DINO of SEVENTEEN, a workshop with contemporary artist Cha Inchul, and an interactive culinary experience with chef Cho SeoHyeoung. Aerial photographer Tom Hegen documented the transformation from above.New research commissioned by the beer brand reveals that 57% of city dwellers across London, Seoul, Tokyo, New York, Paris and Sydney frequently experience loneliness, despite residing in densely populated areas. In Seoul specifically, 53% of residents say their city prioritizes productivity over social connection, and 37% report insufficient social spaces. Yet when viewed from above, Seoul possesses one of the world's highest proportions of flat rooftop space much of it painted green and sitting unused. By challenging Seoulites to track down these transformed venues, Heineken created both a treasure hunt and a proof of concept for reimagining urban infrastructure. (Related: Architects compile a catalogue of ideas for rooftops.)
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
In the former textile hub of Roubaix, northern France, a new school just opened. VEJA, the French sneaker brand known for its transparent supply chains, has opened L'École de la Réparation. This vocational academy pays twenty students a minimum wage for ten months of intensive training in design, cobblery and textile repair in-demand skills in a country that reimburses consumers for getting items fixed instead of buying new ones.The project stems from a decade-long partnership between VEJA co-founder Sébastien Kopp and Stéphanie Calvino, founder of the Anti_Fashion Project collective. Since 2015, the pair have been placing young people from disadvantaged backgrounds into roles at VEJA's shops and workshops. Their latest venture takes that commitment further: students are paid a salary while taking 1,400 hours of coursework across thirty-five-hour weeks. Thirty fashion brands have already signed on as partners and sponsors.TREND BITETraditional CSR often treats social problems as external issues requiring charitable intervention. L'École de la Réparation demonstrates how brands can instead build systems that create value for all stakeholders. By paying students while training them in increasingly valuable repair skills, Veja has developed a model that simultaneously addresses youth unemployment, environmental waste and skills shortages.As consumers increasingly scrutinize corporate purpose claims, initiatives that redistribute resources and create lasting infrastructure are likely to resonate more deeply than surface-level campaigns or token donations. And that goes double for Gen Z, speaking to their intersectional view of sustainability: environment + social equity + personal empowerment.Viewed through a wider lens, repair is a cultural metaphor. We live in a time of fractured politics, social inequality and climate anxiety. A brand championing the art of repair taps into a deep emotional desire: if we can fix shoes, maybe we can fix bigger systems, too.
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Marketing and Advertising
Sperm counts have dropped 59% since 1973, testosterone levels are declining, and men now father their first child four years later than they did in 1980. Yet despite men accounting for half of all infertility cases, the fertility industry has largely overlooked them. SwimClub is betting that a science-first approach can change that. The supplement brand launched in September 2025 with what it claims is the first sperm performance formula combining evidence-based ingredients at clinically effective doses. Developed with Dr. Michael Eisenberg, Director of Male Reproductive Medicine at Stanford, the daily regimen targets all four key sperm parameters: count, motility, morphology and DNA integrity.The brand emerged from personal experience rather than market research. Co-founder Osman Khan watched his wife juggle over 20 different pills daily during their fertility journey, while CEO Steve Zanette searched for male-focused solutions after multiple miscarriages. Their answer is the Spermatogen Complex, which packs 12 studied ingredients (including omega-3 fatty acids, coenzyme Q10 and L-carnitine) into a single daily dose. SwimClub is the first launch from Squared Circles, a consumer health venture studio backed by L Catterton.TREND BITEInfertility has long been framed as a "women's issue," even though men are a factor in about half of all cases. As declining sperm counts move from research journals to mainstream conversation, that imbalance no longer holds. Companies that meet men where they are with clear, science-backed solutions that acknowledge their role without shame or silence stand to capture a market that's been hiding in plain sight.
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Positioning itself as both a roadmap and a rallying cry, the Climate Tech Atlas is a free, authoritative guide to where the most significant decarbonization breakthroughs are likely to emerge. Launched this month by the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, McKinsey & Company and other partners, the platform identifies more than 60 "Innovation Imperatives" and 39 "Moonshots" across six sectors, from buildings and manufacturing to food systems and carbon removal.The platform's timing is deliberate. Historical precedent suggests breakthroughs often flourish during periods of uncertainty startups founded during the 2008 financial crisis showed better long-term survival rates than those launched in calmer waters. By directing attention toward solutions that move the needle at scale, the atlas aims to help students, innovators, investors, policymakers and philanthropists cut through the noise and focus on what actually matters.TREND BITEThe Climate Tech Atlas reframes climate innovation from existential burden to trillion-dollar growth frontier. It's a shift that gives businesses permission to tell a bolder story: "We're not tinkering on the margins; we're building the future infrastructure of human prosperity."
Category:
Marketing and Advertising