McDonald's made the sauce lid a wedding favour
The part McDonald's let couples personalise is the first thing anyone throws away. The product and the price did not change. Only the day it sits on did.
2 min readFind the Breakthrough
Industry trends, insights, and updates from ASTER.
They built the home a 25 year old can afford, at full scale
In Stockholm the average 25 year old can afford 1.9 square metres. A Swedish developer did not put that in a report. It built it as a house you can stand inside.
2 min read
Lufthansa turned cabin etiquette arguments into clothes
Who owns the armrest. Is reclining allowed. Lufthansa never answered. It printed the argument on hoodies and t shirts instead.
2 min read
Park Under Their Billboard and Show Them Their Own Numbers
An unknown B2B company with no ad budget and no prospect list reached Spotify's decision-makers. It parked a truck directly beneath Spotify's billboard.
3 min read
The More Unrelated Your Partner, the Bigger Your Reach: Japan's "Hat Alliance"
You can't partner with a competitor. Suppliers come with strings attached. So who is left? The answer was: a company with nothing to do with you at all.
3 min read
A $175 Banana Exposes an Industry's Pricing: The Ordinary's Fake Luxury Supermarket
"Same ingredients, lower price." Every brand says it, so nobody believes it. Instead of saying it, The Ordinary put a banana on a shelf for $175.
3 min read
Don't Attack the Competition — Build Next Door to Them: Chili's Two-Day Fake Loan Shop
Saying "we're cheaper" convinces nobody. So show people, physically, what eating at the competition costs. Chili's picked a site right next to a McDonald's.
3 min read
When the Numbers Line Up, a Discount Stops Looking Cheap: Japan's "888 Sales War"
The same 100-yen discount lands completely differently depending on whether the reason is "end of fiscal year" or "the numbers lined up." On 8 August 2026, Japanese brands proved it all at once.
3 min read