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Singapore's National Library Board is pioneering technology that could reshape how people engage with books. The library system has developed Augmented Reading an experience that uses Snap's Spectacles to overlay real-time audio and visual effects onto physical books. The glasses scan text as readers progress through pages, using machine learning to trigger ambient soundscapes, music and visual elements that correspond to the story's mood and action.The technology tackles a key challenge: competing with digital entertainment for shrinking attention spans. Rather than replacing traditional reading, Augmented Reading aims to be a tool for sustained engagement. By adding layers of images and atmospheric sound creaking doors, distant chatter, suspenseful music the system creates an immersive environment for reluctant readers. The project, currently in beta testing with plans for public trials later this year, represents a broader trend of cultural institutions experimenting with AR technology to remain relevant.TREND BITEAugmented Reading reflects a pragmatic approach to serving audiences whose expectations have been shaped by gaming and streaming, texting and scrolling. If successful, this Singaporean experiment could signal a new chapter for how stories are consumed, combining the tactile, offline pleasure of physical books with the multimedia experiences digital natives have learned to expect.
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
French startup Lokki, a platform for rental companies, has introduced a dedicated paid leave policy for abortions. It offers employees two days of paid time off with complete discretion over what they choose to disclose. The policy, announced by co-founder Benoit Prigent, emerged from a personal conversation with a friend who felt compelled to use vacation days and hide her experience from colleagues during an already difficult time.The initiative reflects a shift toward radical empathy in the workplace. Rather than forcing workers to navigate an abortion through generic sick leave or vacation policies, Lokki has created a specific framework that acknowledges people will sometimes need to terminate a pregnancy. While it's entirely up to the employee whether or not to share the reason for their two days leave, Prigent hopes the policy will lead to normalization and more open conversations, to "empathy without shame or guilt."TREND BITETraditional boundaries between personal and professional life are being redrawn, particularly among younger generations who expect employers to acknowledge life's complexities rather than pretend they don't exist. As employees increasingly expect psychological safety and authentic care from employers, organizations that acknowledge the full spectrum of human experience can gain a competitive advantage in talent acquisition and retention.
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Spotted in Boston, Month Friend represents a deliberate rejection of social media's obsession with performance and optimization. The service randomly pairs users for exactly one month, during which the pair exchanges daily messages guided by prompts ranging from mundane ("What's your favorite kind of soup?") to profound ("What are you most proud of?"). There's no swiping, no algorithmic matching, no endless scroll of content. Just two strangers committed to a month-long correspondence by email.Users can't choose their partner and must navigate whatever chemistry or lack thereof emerges from the pairing. As the concept's unnamed developers explain, "The closest feeling we'd like to replicate is those intense friendships you form at summer camp, where you're thrown together with a stranger and share everything with them, even though you're not quite sure if you really get along and never see each other again."TREND BITEMonth Friend explicitly acknowledges that it's "probably worse" by any measurable standard than existing social platforms. Which points to something marketers are increasingly recognizing: people are growing weary of hyper-optimized experiences where they feel a constant pressure to perform and rack up likes.The month-long commitment also creates artificial scarcity in an attention economy built on infinite choice. Whether this represents a viable business model or an art project masquerading as a social network remains unclear, but it signals a growing hunger for authentic digital experiences that prioritize depth over engagement metrics.
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
For its reopening after two years of renovations, Fotomuseum Winterthur recently created a satirical video claiming 'Switzerland is fake.' Working with JUNE Corporate Communications and AI artist Patrick Karpiczenko, the video featured AI-generated content that questioned Switzerland's authenticity and played with various disinformation tropes from mind control through yodeling to Swiss command of global finance.It's a clever marketing exercise tied to the museum's new exhibition, "The Lure of the Image How Images Seduce Online." The campaign's rapid-fire clips mimic disinformation tactics to make audiences question what they see online. As the museum says: "In a world of AI and fake news, it is more important than ever to scrutinize, actively reflect on and critically examine images."TREND BITEBy weaponizing the tools of misinformation to promote media literacy, Fotomuseum Winterthur taps into a deep cultural undercurrent: "What's real, and who decides?" As the tidal wave of synthetic content continues to swell (AI images, deepfakes, virtual influencers), Fake Switzerland reflects a growing need for clarity and critique. It also suggests a way for institutions to forge deeper, more meaningful relationships with their audiences invite them to question rather than simply consume.
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
German discount retailer Aldi Süd is challenging supermarket convention by reorganizing its fresh meat displays around animal welfare standards rather than product categories. Instead of the traditional arrangement by meat type beef here, pork there, chicken elsewhere the chain has introduced a color-coded system that groups products by the conditions in which animals were raised. Blue sections house meat from conventional farming (welfare levels 1 and 2), while green areas showcase products from higher welfare standards (levels 3, 4 and 5), with promotional items marked in red.The new system reflects Aldi Süd's #Haltungswechsel (welfare transition) initiative, which aims to eliminate all products below welfare level 3 by 2030. The company has already completed this transition for milk, turkey and beef, responding to what it describes as steadily growing customer demand for higher-welfare products. The retailer reports that sausage products from the lowest welfare category have disappeared from its shelves entirely.TREND BITEAldi's welfare-first merchandising taps into a crucial barrier preventing consumers from living more purposefully: decision paralysis. When faced with complex sustainability challenges from climate impact to ethical sourcing many people struggle to know where to begin. The overwhelming scale of global issues, combined with the fear of making imperfect choices, often leads to inaction instead of incremental progress.By reorganizing its cold storage around clear welfare categories, Aldi removes cognitive friction from ethical decision-making. The color-coded system transforms a complex assessment of farming practices into an intuitive shopping experience. Less moral math, more doing the right thing by default.
Category:
Marketing and Advertising