Hello Friends,
Here are this week’s headlines:
A quick reminder that we are going on Safari to Los Angeles in September. If you’d like to be the first to discover fresh insights shaping the future of pleasure across the latest trends in the alcohol, beverage, food, cannabis, and healthy living categories, join us!
More and more brands are hacking sight, sound, and taste to create experiences that delver more multi-sensational pleasure, here’s how to win in a world craving sensation.
Stir sticks that detect danger and mental health tattoos, these innovations make safety and self-awareness quietly powerful.
This week’s picks rethink pleasure, how we savour it, personalise it, and make it last. From clean comfort food to immersive art, it’s all about feeling good, fully.
From surreal storytelling to scrappy stunts and health-conscious humour, these six campaigns show how brands are getting bold, weird, and wonderfully direct to cut through and connect.
In a world of tight wallets and big cravings, The Caviar Co. proves luxury doesn’t need a budget, just a bold, bite-sized idea.
PS since our brains are always rewiring, here are 11 ways to upgrade your mind, so you don’t accidentally undermine it.
Angelique
Why Feeling More Is the Next Big Consumer Turn On
Endless doom scrolls. Numbing headlines. The algorithm’s got us dulled and consumers are chasing something that cuts through; a visceral, sense-triggering hit that makes the moment pop.
Welcome to the sensory revolution, where breakthrough brands are cranking up sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch to deliver experiences that redefine engagement and spark connection.
Unpacking Sensory Impact
Oxford’s Charles Spence, author of Sensehacking, nails it. Tweak and trigger just one of the senses, and you instantly transform the vibe:
Warm lighting makes food taste sweeter.
A crackling soundscape makes beer more full-bodied.
System1’s research shows top-performing product launches hit an 80/20 sweet spot, 80% familiar comfort, 20% surprising spark, driving 44% happiness and 11% surprise in emotional response.
It’s like Heinz pasta sauce with a twist of Absolut Vodka.
Or like Lawson’s Nomu Mayo drink. A chilled, mayonnaise-style beverage blends creamy, tangy flavours with a smooth, drinkable texture, turning a familiar condiment into a bold sensory sip.
From sonic sweets to immersive storybooks, the following examples just might spark a new idea (or two) for you to take sensory stimulation to the next level.
Fowl Flavour
KFC and Hismile’s fried chicken vibe in a toothpaste hit fuses fast-food love with hygiene. How might your brand’s signature flavour redefine daily routines?
Indulgent Sounds
Magnum’s Utopia range with crackable chocolate and marbled textures with indulgent sound cues make ice cream epic. Could your brand own a moment with elevated sensory layers?
Smell of Celebration
Roalív’s champagne-inspired fragrance transforms fizz, fruit and vanilla into wearable joy. What feeling should your brand own and what would it’s profile be?
Immersive Storytelling
Penguin’s Living Stories fuse sight, sound, and scent for a fully immersive, multi-sensory experience. How might your brand create more meaningful engagement through multi-sensory storytelling?
Sonic Flavours
TastySounds lollipop uses bone conduction to play music directly into the head, turning flavour into a private but amplified experience. How might your brand trigger multiple senses?
Sensational Spectrums
Fitz Bar’s synaesthesia-inspired Spectrum cocktail menu turns colours into flavours to stimulate specific memories. How might your brand remix the senses to create completely unforgettable experiences?
Taking sensorial pleasure to the next level through intentional design can unlock new opportunities for brands to take the lead if you:
Use the 80 to 20 rule: Use the 80/20 rule to ground innovations in what consumers love, then add a surprising sensory twist and get a 44% uptick in emotional response.
Amplify Every Sense: Target specific feelings by designing products that hit sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch to make your brand the owner of those feelings.
Create for reaction, not just usage: Will it make someone smile, flinch, share, or crave? If not, keep going.
Elevate the everyday: Focus on the amplifying the smallest of details to make the familiar unforgettable.
Let us know we’ll send you 5 more inspiring signals from Future Possible®.
Want access to all these signals, and more?
Subscribe to FuturePossible®, the world’s only innovation tool that combines consumer foresights, actionable opportunities, and thousands of inspiring signals. It is a sweet bundle of everything we are seeing that gets updated weekly, so you can stay inspired and map your next moves for only £95 per year.
Wait, What?!: Sci-fi Tech Hitting the Real World
Stir Stick Spots Spiked Drinks in Seconds
Researchers at UBC have developed a reusable drink stirrer that detects date-rape drugs through a rapid colour-change reaction. This nightlife essential is gearing up to put portable protection directly in people's hands.Electronic Tattoo Tracks Mental Health
Researchers have developed a paper-thin electronic tattoo that sticks to your skin and monitors stress levels via sweat and vitals. It could lead to invisible mental health wearables that support emotional wellbeing before symptoms surface.
The Cata-Lyst:
5 Mind-Expanding Finds We’re Tuning Into
Biscuits Without the Baggage
Ayeshah Abuelhiga, founder of Mason Dixie, aims to bring joy back to comfort food by eliminating additives and using clean ingredients. She shows that biscuits, waffles, and indulgent treats can be satisfying without guilt, striving to redefine frozen food with flavour and integrity.
Elevate, Gently
Bud Love's CEO, Roy Lipski, discusses the brand's innovative approach of blending hemp with herbs to enhance cannabis enjoyment, providing smoother, customisable experiences. He also shares insights on navigating regulations and building trust.
Hope, Not Hype
Superagency outlines an optimistic vision for leveraging AI to enhance human potential, from accelerated healing to improved learning. Hoffman and Beato encourage us to welcome a future where technology supports autonomy, joy, and significant progress.
LOLing Into Longevity
Katherine Ryan invites guests to prick a finger and spill more than secrets, diving into their biological age and blood work results. It’s anti-aging unpacked through honesty, humour, and the occasional overshare, all wrapped in her razor-sharp wit.
Pleasure of Presence
At teamLab Planets in Tokyo, you don’t just view art, you become part of it. Walk through water, drift among digital blooms, and lose yourself in a sensory world designed for wonder.
6 Great Marketing Moves
Two brands taking very different, yet equally surreal approaches to their campaigns.
Sandro Paris SS25
This beautifully executed TikTok campaign for their latest collection leaves you scratching your head!
CocaCola Frozen
Bringing a side effect into the centre stage with these surreal illustrations for the launch of CocaCola Frozen.
Big brands are getting scrappy!
Aldi Breakfast Van
Clever guerrilla activity - this van shows up outside McDonald’s, just as breakfast service ends, offering hash browns at a fraction of the cost.
Burger King Outdoor
A bit of precision parking turned this new McDonald’s store in France into competitor marketing.
Some great examples of brands that are speaking directly to men.
Underaware
This men’s underwear brand is going to irritating lengths to encourage men to check for testicular cancer.
KitKat’s Break Brothers
‘Sending in the boys’ to protect the sanctity of break time to ensure you get your time out.
High-brow Meets Fast Food
In a cash-strapped world where taste still reigns, The Caviar Co. nails a cultural shift: pairing caviar with nuggets and burgers. This fast food-fine dining mash-up blends prestige with playfulness, making luxury feel approachable without losing its allure. Consumers, craving indulgence despite tight wallets, are eating it up, literally.
Luxury doesn’t need a big budget, just a bold idea.
How might your brand tap into growing budget concerns?
Until next week 🔮 👽 🎩 🪄