Experiential Sustainable: ‘Festivalising’ Eco-Fluency

New research reveals 89% of people globally want to combat the climate crisis but mistakenly believe they’re in a minority, perpetuating a “spiral of silence” (The Guardian, 2025). Smart brands including international mall giant Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) are mobilising this ‘silent majority’ with creative, empowering, experimental concepts that ‘festivalise’ learning, community, and alluring eco-preneurial opportunities.

Hyping Nature-Connected Lifestyles

Exciting new advertising and media concepts are rebranding personal-planetary interconnectedness via a zeitgeisty, credible, high-desire, lens. From the anti-hustle culture ‘girl mossing’ internet trend to eco-somatic-centred events/webinars, the fashion retailer kindling horticultural lust, and the radio show plus fanzine fusing alternative music scenes with environmental love, nature is being hyped as the source of good living.

Care Culture as Loyalty Currency

Imaginative and more efficient post-purchase ‘care culture’ services (repair, refurb, reconditioning) are providing product longevity with integrity and the backbone of better loyalty/customer retention strategies. Key directions include consumer-creativity-fostering in-store spaces; ‘badge of honour’ storytelling; ingeniously nuanced tech for clienteling and  product-to-repair-specialist matchmaking, and – incoming – ‘predictive maintenance’.

Second-Hand’s Status Uplift: Archives, Auctions & Relative Rarities

A growing appreciation of ‘second-hand’ products, strengthened by the recent tariff-induced ‘shift to thrift’ (Financial Times, 2025), is paving new pathways for reselling and recalibrating desirability itself. From pre-loved wedding edits and flaws recast as ‘rarities’, to e-auctions for ‘iconic’ pieces of high-street furniture, clever comms are making ‘pre-loved’ a passion-inciting prospect.

The Poetics of Upcycling: Craft’s Eco-Love Language

Fresh iterations of fashion and accessories upcycling are igniting love for the non-new, at a time when luxury price hikes are making many consumers question spending on prestige. Elevated e-commerce art direction, ego-massaging made-to-order services, compellingly niche product transformations, and initiatives literally bringing little pieces of a brand’s cultural history to fans, are key craft-centring ideas to watch. 

Retail’s Radical & Reciprocal Perception-Shifting Civic Initiatives

Other brands and collectives across telecoms, consumer tech and fashion are presenting civic-minded collaborative schemes that rebuff damaging retail behaviour and showcase better business practice. The very best deploy ingenious creative marketing to capture maximum audience buzz – see the Re-commerce Atacama anti-landfill e-commerce initiative.