Hello curious people,

Here are this week’s headlines:

And why not take a look at Angelique on LinkedIn as she takes a look at how companies optimise for metrics, but miss the one that matters most: pleasure. It’s what we’re all about and it’s what we think is the true driver of desire, and why people actually come back.

Cheers, George

"Time is on my side," sang The Rolling Stones in 1964, but in 2025, time feels like a thief. Days blur into endless to-do lists. Work creeps into nights. Rest? A fleeting sidequest, barely tracked by a WHOOP score. We’re busy, but are we truly living?

Hustle culture sold us a myth: speed equals success. Five-minute hacks, “no days off,” and a race against the clock left us breathless and burned out. I think consumers are just about done. They’re not chasing time, they’re reclaiming it. So when they can get it, they want more moments that spark a bit of joy, help them tune out or simply lift the soul for a second.

Lives Are Out of Rhythm
The American Psychological Association reports 43% of adults are more anxious than last year, with stress and sleepless nights leading the charge. Meanwhile, 63% crave time for hobbies, signalling a deeper issue: lives out of rhythm. A 2024 McKinsey study found 58% of consumers prioritise experiential purchases over material goods, seeking moments that restore balance and delight.

This is the quiet rebellion against time theft. Forget efficiency; it’s about intention. Picture a 90-minute dinner that feels like a sacred pause or a 5-minute app that resets the soul like a weekend escape, or a sumptuous sip you can enjoy now and save for later.

Fast or slow, consumers crave experiences that earn their place in the day, delivering serene calm, vibrant connection, uplifting control, or escape from the grind. They’ll champion brands that hand them the keys to their own time.

Here are some brands that are already handing over the remote control of time…

The drive for convenience and speed over the past few decades has removed many pain points for consumers and created many frictionless experiences along the way, but the gentle rebellion is here as consumers look to reclaim their time, and reframe it as something you sculpt, not shave down.

Today’s consumers don’t just want faster. They want flexibility, rhythm, surprise. A 2023 Gallup study found 70% of consumer decisions are driven by emotion, not logic. Brands that stretch, compress, or reframe time, can make their experiences feel more worthwhile, building loyalty that competitors can’t touch.

So how might you play with time? If you looked across all your brand's touchpoints, or your consumers’ daily routines, where does time feel rushed, hollow or slow? Where might new pain points pop up? Or where might friction need to be added back in? You may just find your window of opportunity to innovate in these moments.

They come straight from Future Possible®, the world's only innovation tool that combines consumer foresights, actionable opportunities, and thousands of inspiring signals. It’s a sweet bundle of everything we’re seeing that gets updated weekly, so you can stay inspired and map your next moves for only £95/year.

It’s summer, people are out and about more, so of course it’s a prime time for brands to try and grab our attention. Here are 3 that prove ‘timing is everything’ when it comes to landing your message…

Liquid I.V. Landing the Need for Hydration

A simple but highly effective stunt as the brand looks to own 4pm, “officially the most dehydrating hour of the day.” They took over Times Square, they brought delivery robots and they landed their use case loud and clear.

Stella Artois Delivering An Ace

Stella is classy in the US, less so in the UK, but I think this limited edition can goes a long way in bridging that gap. A perfect example of how a brand partnership can elevate a moment in time, and help people reappraise a brand.

LEGO and F1 Enjoy Playtime

As F1 expands its audience across continents and generations, they’re starting to become a little more playful, and this partnership with LEGO is just that. With 3kg trophies made entirely out of LEGO, it proves there’s always a time and a place to enjoy some play.

Wimbledon's promise of precision faltered when Hawk-Eye, the tournament's electronic line-calling system, was accidentally switched off, missing three crucial calls and leaving a player convinced the game was "stolen." What followed was finger-pointing, frustration, and a crowd left unsure who, or what, to trust.

This wasn't just a glitch but a rupture in our faith in automation. In a world increasingly ruled by systems, from AI decision-making to self-driving everything, the expectation is that technology gets it right, invisibly, perfectly, better than humans.

But when it doesn't, who takes responsibility? When trust shifts from the person in the chair to the code in the cloud, and both fail, we're left questioning fairness and the future of judgment, especially when the real humans who saw it with their own eyes can’t seem to do anything about it.