Co-creation

Trend - Financial technology companies are disrupting traditional payroll systems by offering earned wage access services, allowing employees to access their accrued wages before scheduled payday. This innovation is increasingly being offered as an employee benefit by organizations seeking to provide greater financial flexibility to their workforce.

Insight - Financial stress and rigid payment schedules can create significant challenges for workers who need access to their earned income between pay periods. As the gig economy and financial technology evolve, consumers increasingly expect greater flexibility and immediacy in their financial transactions. This shift is driving demand for services that provide more control over when and how employees can access their earned wages, reflecting a broader cultural movement toward personalized, on-demand financial solutions that better align with modern lifestyles and needs.

Trend - Housing development companies are more heavily investing in 3D-printing solutions. 3D printing offers more energy and cost-efficient methods of producing houses, while also making it easier to make compact houses, or develop houses in remote locations.

Insight - Housing development companies produce mass amounts of homes in a wide range of locations. These companies are interested in prioritizing cost and energy-efficiency. Combining these desires with the need to reduce construction time, minimize waste, and offer design flexibility, these companies are being led to embracing 3D printing solutions. In awareness of this, 3D-printing companies are creating sustainable yet reliable materials for housing-related tasks.

Trend - Brands are investing in full-size innovation centres that focus on improving sustainability efforts. Often in collaboration with adjacent brands, the goal of these centres is to push the industry forward in both resource and energy efficiency to combat climate change.

Insight - As the public becomes more aware of the damaging nature of manufacturing companies, brands across numerous industries, such as energy production, apparel, and more, are facing ever-increasing pressure to reduce carbon emissions. This pressure, combined with eco-focused government policies and NGO campaigns targeting destructive manufacturing, are leading to brands investing in sustainable innovation centres at a large scale.

Trend - Popular soda brands are collaborating with other brands in the restaurant, CPG, and drinking spaces to create co-branded products. These collaborative products blend the iconic flavors and brand recognition of both products for the mutual benefit of both companies.

Insight - While there is a large variety of options when shopping for food, many consumers in the Western World fall into habits, sticking to brands and products that they are familiar with. This is due to the consumers not wanting to take risks, caused by either minimal free time, or simply because they want to continue with the safe option. To appeal to these consumers, brands across the food industry are releasing collaborative products that lend the credibility of both brands to the product.

Trend - Established food brands are partnering with candle companies to venture into the home goods space. Offering decadent scents and premium ingredients, these collaborations aim to inject the brand's identity into everyday life, providing consumers with a new way to experience its products.

Insight - Consumers often seek novelty in their purchases, gravitating to exclusivity and the opportunity to engage with brands in a fresh, unique way. Brands are responding by teaming up with leaders in adjacent industries, leveraging their shared reputations to attract consumers drawn to their designs or signature scents. Leveraging partnerships allows brands to expand into unconventional sectors, connecting them with consumers who may not typically interact with their products in the grocery store.

Trend - Brands in the more designer end of the tech spectrum are releasing products with stretchable and malleable displays. These use AMOLED technology and are built in such a way that they can be twisted and bent without breaking or stopping the image from being displayed.

Insight - Businesses and startups with more niche product ideas often run into barriers when trying to bring a concept product to reality. These barriers can include cost, scale, or simply the feasibility of the product in general. Many such products in the technology space are limited due to physical limitations regarding battery sizes or screen sizes, amongst other potential issues. In order to address these concerns, designer tech brands are creating malleable displays for unique product ideas.

Trend - Brands from various industries, including non-gaming related ones, are collaborating with gaming hardware manufacturers on co-branded controllers. These controllers offer mutually-beneficial advertising for brands, while the unique designs function as statement pieces for the consumers.

Insight - Individuality and self-expression is a core priority for humans in general. Consumers do not want to have exactly what everyone else has, and instead are more likely to purchase products that reflect their own values or interests. This can materialize in the form of clothing and home decor, but also in terms of accessory and technology choices, with even earphones being a form of self-expression. To offer more expression options for gamers, brands are releasing co-branded game controllers.

Trend - Pet food brands are releasing hydration-focused drinks and meal supplements for dogs and cats. These are electrolyte-rich products that ensure pets are intaking enough fluids throughout the day. These products can be served on their own or as additions to regular meals.

Insight - Many pet owners simply feed their pets a few regular meals per day with provided drinking water and occasional treats, but not as many owners invest in dietary supplements or products purely for nutritional benefits. While some owners do, others take a passive approach, often due to busy lives. In order to ensure pets are ingesting more healthy diets with balanced nutrients, including hydration, brands are releasing convenient products for pet owners that do not intrude on time constraints.

Trend - Supercar and hypercar manufacturers, for both street-legal and track-focused markets, are creating record-setting vehicles with hybrid drivetrains. These vehicles are more sustainable than their gas-powered counterparts while not coming with the compromises associated with purely electric supercars.

Insight - There is an ever-growing pressure from policy makers and the community alike for the automotive industry to make a shift toward sustainability. This manifests primarily in consumer vehicles increasingly incorporating electric power, whether in full or in part. However, even the luxury vehicle and racing vehicle markets are not exempt from this pressure. Fans of motorsports, as well as consumers of luxury vehicles, are placing pressure on supercar brands to make genuine sustainability efforts.

Trend - While personal finance management apps have existed for over a decade, the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) and data collection algorithms have made recent apps far more effective than before. These modern budgeting apps are used to prevent unnecessary spending while saving toward goals.

Insight - The extensive convenience of modern e-commerce platforms, such as Aliexpress, Temu, or Amazon, has led to consumers from Gen Z to older Millennials constantly facing targeted product advertising. This has led to an impulse spending problem in many consumers who purchase frequent low-cost products, unaware of how quickly these purchases add up. More tech-savvy Gen Z and Millennial consumers, in an effort to curb this aspect of e-commerce culture, are turning to budgeting apps powered by AI.