LSN : News : Foresight Friday: Olivia Houghton, insights and engagement director

Puma unleashes Go Wild campaign celebrating all runners

Puma, Global

Global – Puma has launched its most ambitious global brand campaign to date – Go Wild – marking a bold new direction in its positioning. The campaign celebrates the joy of running and encourages amateur and professional athletes to embrace their authentic selves through sport.

‘This new brand campaign represents a new vision for sport and a new chapter for Puma,’ said Richard Teyssier, global VP of brand and marketing, in a press release. ‘We want to inspire everyday athletes to look inside themselves and have the courage to unleash their true self.’

A hero film leads the campaign, spotlighting everyday runners – from new mums to early risers – as they chase the high of running. Moving beyond celebrity endorsements, Go Wild wants to position self-expression as the ultimate sporting achievement.

CEO Arne Freundt added: ‘With our second brand campaign, we are taking another step in strengthening our emotional connection with consumers.’

For more insights on what’s new and next in sports branding, read our Game-Changers: The Future of Sports Fandom macrotrend report.

Strategic opportunity

As runners (and sports participants more broadly) are not a monolith, consider re-evaluating how your brand defines an athlete. Move away from the lean, fast, able-bodied stereotype and celebrate a broader spectrum of bodies, motivations and routines

Foresight Friday: Olivia Houghton, insights and engagement director

Every Friday, we offer an end-of-week wrap-up of the topics, issues, ideas and virals we’re all talking about. This week, insights and engagement director Olivia Houghton discusses saving the UK economy, psychedelics research and artificially-enhanced humans.

: I’ve been thinking about Diary of a CEO’s latest podcast – the first in its debate series – featuring economist Gary Stevenson and entrepreneur Daniel Priestley. They discuss the UK economy’s dire state, something Gary predicted 15 years ago when he bet on the collapse of the Western economy. While they agree on the crisis, their solutions differ: Gary advocates taxing billionaires who hoard wealth, while Daniel pushes for an entrepreneurial revolution. It’s a complex issue (too much for a single Foresight Friday) set against a backdrop of trade wars, remote work and rapid technological change.

: At SXSW 2025, Dr Grace Blest-Hopley, founder of Hystelica, touched on the growing synergies between women and psychedelics. Despite a renaissance in clinical and recreational psychedelic use, research still overlooks women – due in part to systemic biases in science. Hystelica is tackling this, advocating for safe and effective use tailored to female biology. With oestrogen linked to neuroplasticity and memory, and progesterone regulating emotions, considering sex as a biological variable could reshape psychedelic research and mental health treatment for women.

: This week on TikTok, shoegate was sparked after a young athlete was barred from racing in Nike’s Vaporfly. It got me thinking about our recent team discussion on a future of performance-enhancing Olympics. In The Synthocene Era, we explored how biotech and neural enhancements are blurring the line between natural and artificial. Innovations such as Arcteryx’s MO/GO trousers, designed to boost mobility by 40%, hint at a future where Olympic apparel becomes a competitive edge.

AI imagery by The Future Laboratory, UK

Quote of the week

‘The rich get the assets, the poor get the debt and then the poor have to pay their whole salary to the rich every year just to live in a house. The rich use that money to buy the rest of the assets from the middle class and then the problem gets worse every year’

Gary Stevenson, economist, speaking on Diary of a CEO

Stat: Value and trust drive consumers to permanently switch to store brands

Boots, UK

Global – A new report from Bazaarvoice reveals a significant shift in consumer behaviour, with 57% of respondents permanently switching to store or cheaper brands to manage rising costs. The 2025 Shopper Preference Report, based on a survey of 8,000 consumers in three continents, highlights how different tactics are helping shoppers stretch their budgets in response to inflation.

The study also shows that 54% of people have opted for more affordable brands, and 45% are delaying non-essential purchases to save money. Many (88%) have shifted their spending to focus on value and on trusted products, while 37% are using coupons and discount codes, and 32% have joined loyalty schemes to access better deals.

Retailers are adjusting to these preferences, with stores such as Costco, Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale increasing their private label offerings. These store brands are becoming popular not just for their lower prices but also for their perceived quality, such as Costco’s Kirkland Signature label.

‘Costco is not focused on how cheap they can sell a product,’ says Jim Griffin, president of Daymon North America. ‘Quality is vital.’

Explore our latest macrotrend report New Codes of Value to understand consumer mindset and behaviour in an era of economic uncertainty.

Strategic opportunity

Tap into the growing demand for high-quality, budget-friendly alternatives by developing or enhancing private-label offerings and focusing on essential products