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How Delta is turning planes into music venues

Overhead Originals: A Live Onboard Performance featuring Leon Thomas by Delta Air Lines and YouTube, US

US – Delta Air Lines has launched Overhead Originals, a live music series created with creativity agency Kin and YouTube. The series features artists performing onboard aeroplanes for small audiences, with content distributed both in-flight and across digital channels. The first release features American singer-songwriter Leon Thomas.

The strategy is grounded in Gen Z behaviour: 41% of Delta’s Gen Z SkyMiles members attended a live music event in the past year, while 82% discover new music via social media (source: Delta, Kin).

Building on its 2025 partnership with YouTube, Delta is positioning itself as a cultural curator, using original content to extend the travel experience and embed the brand within music-led discovery and fandom. In Future Five 2026: Mobility, we highlighted chameleonic cars as a key trend, as manufacturers expand in-vehicle entertainment; Delta extends this logic to aviation, re-imagining its fleet as a cultural platform.

Strategic opportunity

Don’t be boxed in by category expectations: whether you’re a service, space or platform, your business can actively shape culture by creating original experiences that attract new audiences and open up new channels to creatively express your brand identity

London pledges £30m for borough-wide late-night youth clubs

UK – London’s mayor has pledged £30m ($40m, €34m) to fund at least one late-night youth club in every borough, as part of a wider £50m ($67m, €57m) budget for young people in 2026.

The Youth Lates programme will be rolled out across all 32 boroughs later this year, offering activities, mental health support, mentorship and food for the city’s youngest citizens.

Mayor Sadiq Khan said the initiative is a response to recent civil unrest and the need for broader intervention. ‘Tougher police enforcement is one part of the solution. We also need to use all of the resources at our disposal to ensure that no young Londoner is left behind.’ Khan added that the clubs would provide ‘somewhere safe to go’ and access to ‘trusted adults’.

The move follows a long-term decline in youth provision, with 81 centres closing between 2010 and 2024.

Moot, London, UK

As scrutiny of young people’s use of technology increases, Gen Alpha and Gen Z (and their parents) are seeking environments that provide both real-life entertainment and a sense of belonging – from shopping centres to sober spaces.

Read The New Youth Club to learn more about how Moot, a membership-based third space in northwest London, is redefining youth clubs for a generation seeking real-world connection, culture and community.

Strategic opportunity

Brands can support youth wellbeing by helping fund and create third spaces and experiences that offer structure, support and meaningful ways to spend time offline

Stat: The economic empowerment deficit dividing APAC consumers

Cashify, Phone Wala Shagun Campaign, India

APAC – Only two in five (43%) consumers across the Asia-Pacific region feel very empowered to improve their economic wellbeing, and just one in three are very confident in achieving their economic goals in the next 12 months, according to new research from nutrition brand Herbalife.

The survey of over 8,500 respondents across 11 markets including Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and Vietnam, found that fewer than one in three (30%) rate their current economic wellbeing positively, with an uncertain macroeconomic climate (47%) and existing personal financial commitments (34%) cited as the main pressures.

Despite low confidence, consumers are taking action. Almost half (49%) plan to cut non-essential spending, one in three intend to explore investing, and almost one in four (23%) aim to start a business to improve their financial outlook.

Younger consumers tell a markedly different story. Around two in three Gen Z respondents (66%) and Millennials (62%) expect their economic situation to improve in the coming months, well above the 55% average across all age groups. The same pattern is evident for health optimism, with younger cohorts expressing significantly more confidence in achieving their health goals than Gen X and Boomer peers. This points to a meaningful correlation between health and finance – a connection The Future Laboratory tracks closely across its Health & Wellness research.

The ambition to start a business, cited by almost one in four respondents, aligns with findings from The Future Laboratory’s Gen Z in Indonesia report, which identifies the generation as distinctly entrepreneurial in early adulthood and attuned to mental health and self-care.

Strategic opportunity

As economic confidence fractures along generational lines, brands in financial services and wellness have a dual opportunity to meet younger consumers’ appetite for self-directed health and wealth, while rebuilding trust and empowerment among older cohorts who feel left behind