LSN : News : The city of Tokyo to launch a dating app to combat loneliness

Heinz and Kappa honour Italy’s game day sandwich-makers

Heinz and Kappa, Italy and UK

Italy – In collaboration with sportswear brand Kappa, Heinz has launched a football kit celebrating the unsung heroes of game days – Italy’s sandwich-makers.

As part of a brand awareness campaign by Dude Milan, the kit celebrates the essential yet often overlooked role of caterers who keep football fans fed on match days. For the aptly named Paninari kit, traditional jerseys have been swapped for aprons featuring both Heinz and Kappa branding, a club badge, a collar with a sauce motif and the number 57. This creative partnership uniting food, sports and fashion has been revealed in a playful campaign film that parodies traditional football kit launch promos.

By celebrating the Paninari subculture and the vital role of match day caterers, Heinz and Kappa are joining the growing host of brands using nostalgia and cultural references to create unique, engaging campaigns. In our upcoming sports and leisure macrotrend, we will delve more deeply into how fashion, gaming, marketing, hospitality and digital collaborations are transforming this area.

Strategic opportunity

Brands can create impactful campaigns by honouring overlooked community roles, blending cultural nostalgia with modern engagement strategies to foster deeper connections with their audience

Anthropologie launches adaptive fashion collection

Anthropologie adaptive clothing, US

US – Anthropologie has launched an adaptive apparel collection, re-imagining eight best-sellers to better fit the lives and needs of the disabled community.

The collection was designed in collaboration with Lucy Jones, founder and CEO of Ffora, a fashion lifestyle brand catering for consumers with disabilities, who introduced them to three members of the disabled community to fit-test each garment. The collection includes adapted versions of the best-selling Colette cropped wide-leg trousers and Somerset dress, in addition to denim wide-leg trousers, a henley T-shirt, a denim jacket, two dresses and a button-down shirt. The initiative was launched in response to feedback that adaptive fashion often prioritises function over style, leaving a gap in the market. Influencers Allison Lang, Maya Moore, April Lockhart and Bri Scalesse were enlisted to promote the collection, with each model also fit-testing the collection ahead of completion.

In our Inclusive Fashion Market report, we unpacked how adaptive fashion is often viewed as a consumer-centric issue without considering the role of people with disabilities as designers. By collaborating with Lucy Jones and extensively fit-testing, Anthropologie’s collection is designed by and for the disabled community.

Strategic opportunity

Fashion brands should take inspiration from Anthropologie and collaborate with designers and customers with disabilities to create fashion-forward adaptive collections

The city of Tokyo to launch a dating app to combat loneliness

Japan – Tokyo City Hall is addressing Japan’s growing loneliness epidemic and falling marriage rates with the Futari Story initiative. This programme, which aims to help citizens form lasting relationships, will entail the launch of a dating app to connect singles. The initiative underlines the critical need for multi-faceted solutions to tackle social isolation and demographic decline that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has called the country’s gravest crisis. This decline, reflected in the Health Ministry’s data, highlights a drop in marriages from 504,930 in 2022 to 474,717 in 2023, and in births from 770,759 to 727,277.

The Tokyo Futari Story project aligns with broader national efforts, such as financial incentives for families and relaxed immigration policies to attract foreign workers. Youth’s waning interest in getting married and starting a family, exacerbated by long working hours and high costs – something we highlighted in our Emerging Youth Japan report – is a challenge other countries are facing too. The app’s success could set a precedent for other countries facing similar issues.

SwipeMart by Tinder Japan

Strategic opportunity

As social isolation and demographic challenges escalate globally, businesses have a role to play. Can your company use technology and community-focused initiatives to foster societal wellbeing?

Stat: Generative AI yet to be a daily habit for teens and young adults

Photography by Cottonbro Studio, Russia

US – New research from Common Sense Media, Hopelab and Harvard’s Center for Digital Thriving reveals that while young Americans are beginning to explore generative AI, its integration into daily life remains limited.

Following a survey of 1,274 US-based teens and young adults aged 14–22 at the end of 2023, the study found that only 4% use AI tools daily or almost daily. Moreover, 41% have never used AI and 8% are unaware of AI tools. Among those who engage with AI, the primary reasons for use include obtaining information (53%) and brainstorming (51%).

Among those who have never used generative AI, the top reasons for not doing so are a belief that it wouldn’t be helpful (34%), concerns about its association with cheating or intellectual theft (24%), lack of knowledge about how to use it (23%), and privacy concerns (22%).

In our Generations: Now and Next 2024–2025 report series we found that it will be Gen Alpha who lead the way in the full integration of AI into their schooling, work and lives in the same way that Gen Z embraced social media.

Strategic opportunity

How is your company ensuring transparency about the data sources and methodologies behind your technology to promote ethical AI usage and build trust with cautious young consumers?