On today’s podcast episode, we discuss what Crayola is aiming to achieve with its “Campaign for Creativity,” how the brand guides children from digital creation to hands-on creative play, and what’s top of mind for the art supplies company as it heads into the holiday season. Listen to the discussion with Vice President of Content and host Suzy Davidkhanian, Principal Analyst Sky Canaves, and Crayola Chief Marketing Officer Victoria Lozano.

Gen Zers care deeply about their credit scores—according to one survey, even more than their social media following. That’s because most Gen Zers believe it’s an important marker of their financial health. But Bloomberg recently reported that Gen Z’ credit scores have taken the biggest hit of any age group in 2025. As Gen Zers look to their credit scores as a measure of financial success, rapidly dropping scores may drastically alter their perceptions of their financial health. Paired with delinquencies and rising debt, many Gen Zers may be actively looking for help to turn their finances around.

The strategy: Tech platform Bluwhale has released a model for a scoring system that calculates real-time credit signals from both fiat and crypto assets, per Cointelegraph. Why this matters: We called for FIs to consider incorporating crypto assets into lending products in our report “Home Lending Trends 2025.” Here’s why: Cryptocurrency is becoming more mainstream, with big banks increasingly incorporating digital currencies into everyday solutions. Younger consumers are more interested in alternative investments including crypto than their older counterparts. Our take: FIs aren’t currently offering Bluewhale’s system, but the model still illustrates how creditworthiness scoring could look in the future. FIs that include financial activity that demonstrates strength but doesn’t appear on a traditional credit report can assess loan requests more accurately—and potentially approve more customers.

The news: Sixty-four percent of Gen Z and 65% of millennial homebuyers say their financial well-being will depend on their ability to refinance to a lower interest rate in the future, per Truework’s “The State of Homebuying in America” report. But if rates don’t significantly drop over the next few years, these customers’ mortgages could be at risk of defaulting. Our take: Financial institutions (FIs) can step in to help young homeowners navigate their mortgages while they await rate changes. FIs can start by offering automated refinance alerts, enhancing digital transparency and providing a homeownership/homebuying educational hub.

The news: A recent study found 89% of consumers prefer affordable life insurance with shorter guarantees (to age 90) over “guaranteed-for-life” policies—once visuals and real-world comparisons clarified premium trade-offs. Flexibility and control in coverage and payments also ranked high. Insurers must stop defaulting to lifetime guarantees. Our take: Life insurers should reframe product education using visuals, dollar examples, and jargon-free language to communicate the cost-benefit of “lighter” options. Designing flexible, customizable life insurance policies will attract cost-conscious buyers and boost retention in a market shifting toward personalization and transparency.

This means insurers’ educational campaigns could make a big difference.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss how some teachers think young people should be approaching GenAI, the differences between younger and older teenagers’ social media usage, and how engagement with digital gaming is changing. Tune in to the episode with Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Analyst Paola Flores-Marquez, and Vice President of Research Jennifer Pearson. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

AI skills shortage gets targeted fix in Utah: Nvidia will boost Utah’s formal AI education where it’s most lacking—higher ed and adult upskilling—offering a scalable model beyond corporate training.

In the third of five reports in our “Payments Ecosystem 2024” collection, we unpack how the lines between POS hardware and software are disappearing as providers push the innovation envelope.

An aversion to risk and debt has narrowed down their choice of banking products and led them to adopt unconventional money-management tactics.

Banks can demonstrate their understanding of Gen Z trends by inserting themselves into this popular savings process.

After facing regulatory scrutiny for some major missteps, it plans to focus on other areas of business—and that’s one less lender in the shrinking student loan market.

Retirement account balances are up from 2018, though many still fall behind on their goals and could use help from their banks.

Apple uses safety and security to win over consumers. Birkenstock focuses on education, showcased through a three-part docuseries. And Taco Bell, with the help of Pete Davidson, apologized for “over-innovating” its breakfast menu.

Brands can expand their customer bases without starting from scratch by participating in conversations that are already happening on TikTok via “edutainment,” or informational content, Colleen Conkling, CMO of stationary company Papier, said at The Lead Innovation conference in New York City last week.

Brands can take a page from lululemon athletica’s playbook and hold a dupe swap to show consumers what they’ve been missing or use social media to give a behind-the-scenes look at how a product is made. Other strategies include leaning into secondhand and adding less expensive alternatives.

TikTok promotes learning and automation at product summit: Simplicity is a big buzzword for TikTok this year, with automation at the heart of simplifying the ad creative process.

Regulatory pressure mounts in EU: The European Commission is following in the footsteps of various US agencies, states, and schools by banning the TikTok app on devices. Will the rest of Europe comply?

Tech layoffs hit Twilio, LinkedIn, Ford, and Yahoo: We could be facing a secondary wave of cost-cutting in the tech field. The good news is opportunities are open in other industries.

Year of the chatbot: Google’s Apprentice Bard is among many chatbots we’ll see released by the tech industry this year. Investors are excited, but performance and monetization are market hurdles.