-From the Arab Spring to capitalism, Timebrings us five hot topics from this week’s Davos conference.
-With food security on the agenda at Davos, The Financial Times takes a look at how governments, industry and other organizations are scrambling to address an increasingly urgent issue.
-Two executives attending Davos report in for The Guardian: Peter Lacy of Accenture Sustainability Services outlines the need to get consumers on board in order to scale sustainability. And Aron Cramer of BSR discusses his workshop on “Consumers as Innovators.”
-Boston magazine looks at the rising numbers of Americans who are single by choice. And Fortune spotlights the “extraordinary rise” of Americans who live alone and the business opportunities they present—all in line with our 2012 trend Marriage Optional.
-The Washington Postreports on a survey it conducted with the Kaiser Family Foundation that paints a complex portrait of black women in America.
-The Financial Times reports that many luxury brands have yet to bond with China’s millionaires and looks at how they’re trying to change that.
-According to new Nielsen findings, a majority of global consumers have difficulty understanding nutrition labels and about half support calorie labeling on menus.
-The New York Timeslooks at the rise of luxury hospital suites—complete with butlers, designer linens and gourmet food—for the super-wealthy.
-The New York Times takes a look at how smart the “smart” appliances shown at CES actually are.
-YouTube’s audience is reaching mind-boggling heights, as ReadWriteWeb reports.
Vogue’s January cover featured 62-year-old Meryl Streep (possibly its oldest cover girl ever), while cosmetics brand MAC is currently featuring a collaboration with 90-year-old style icon Iris Apfel—pointing to more positive perceptions of growing older, a trend we’re calling Celebrating Aging.
We surveyed 1,055 people in the U.K. and the U.S. while preparing our 2012 trends forecast and found evidence that people are celebrating their age—but women are more likely than men to say they’re embracing their age and that people shouldn’t dread getting older. They are also more likely to have shifted their perceptions around age milestones, regarding 40 as the new 30 and so on.
One reason for the gender gap, suggested by AgeWave founder and CEO Ken Dychtwald, is that “Women and men are not running the same race, because women have a longer distance to go.” He also notes that women are more likely to have fluid identities—e.g., lawyer, mother, wife, caregiver, etc.—while men have a harder time shifting their identity as they move into later stages of life. (For more of Dychtwald’s insights around aging and perceptions of age, see our Q&A.)
Brands can remind both genders that “The best is ahead of you,” as a Żywiec beer campaign does in Poland, encouraging consumers to look forward positively rather than back wistfully.
The smart home—which involves Wi-Fi-connected appliances and home owners using their computing devices to manage their utilities and energy consumption—was one of the hot topics at this year’s CES (as it was last year as well). People are getting used to controlling their lives from their smartphones and tablets, and Samsung, LG and various other appliance brands are hoping the home will be the next frontier.
Among the more promising developments at CES was Lowe’sIris smart home management system: A partnership with U.K. company AlertMe, Iris will allow people to manage their homes from anywhere, via any smartphone or computer. We’ll see if Iris is as user-friendly as Lowe’s is claiming when it launches midyear. Another encouraging entry, already on the market, is the smart thermostat Nest, which learns your behaviors and regulates heating and cooling accordingly. It’s garnering as much praise for its design as for its functionality—co-founder Tony Fadell is an ex-Apple executive who helped bring about the iPod, and if Apple has taught us anything, it’s that design is key in winning over consumers.
Google is looking to get in on the smart home as well, via its open source Android operating system, which it sees as a platform for connecting people to their appliances. At a CES panel, executive chairman Eric Schmidt explained the goal is that “when you walk into your house with an Android device, you have all these things with computers that adjust as necessary.”
That scenario isn’t in the immediate future, however. The New York Times this week took a skeptical look at the smart home goods showcased at CES, questioning the point of most of them—at least for now.
The words “As seen on TV” are getting a second life thanks to the second screen. eBay, for one, is looking to forge deeper relationships with television networks in a bid to make the most of the fact that 86% of tablet and mobile phone owners use their gadgets while watching the tube. Currently, users of eBay’s iPad app can specify which channel they’re viewing to see relevant retail items—a hockey jersey for those watching a Blackhawks game, an Entourage box set for viewers of the HBO reruns.
While these offerings feel a little stale, the potential is more inspiring. eBay hopes to sync devices automatically with shows and to offer viewers a chance to buy wardrobe, set décor and other items featured in new broadcasts. The concept offers marketers unprecedented product placement opportunities, with multitasking viewers able to make impulse purchases based on beauty shots of sponsoring products. (But as always, ham-fisted attempts and invasive bugs are likely to provoke viewer ire, and a word from Liz Lemon.)
eBay is not the first to dream this dream. TiVo introduced a product purchase option in 2008, and HSN has offered a “purchase by remote” option since 2005. But the opportunities are expanding as more viewers divide their attention between the TV and their mobile gadgets. TV Wallet joined the gold rush late last year with a shopping widget for the History Channel; viewers can browse products via picture-in-picture technology, though the company is also aiming for mobile users. And Shopkickannounced a deal with TheCWTelevisionNetwork in 2011. In one form or another, TV commerce looks set to come to a couch near you this year.
At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month, we saw some interesting interactive screens—one of our 10 Trends for 2012—that turn windows into information hubs. Samsung demonstrated the Smart Window, a transparent touch screen that fits windows up to 46 inches; it allows users to watch TV, view tweets, check the weather and, when they’re ready to hit the hay, make the window opaque, blocking out light. While in-car apps have been available for some time, Mercedez-Benzis taking this a step further with a prototype gesture-controlled windshield called the Dynamic and Intuitive Control Experience. Drivers simply point at icons on the transparent heads-up display, and the screen provides augmented reality information (for example, identifying landmarks as the car passes them); it can even make restaurant reservations. Audi demonstrated a similar system, also controlled by gesture. With Corning and others pioneering new types of interactive glass, expect these displays to eventually become integrated into our daily routines.
-With the Western version of liberal capitalism flapping about, The Economist‘s January special report focuses on the rise of a new form of state capitalism in emerging markets.
-According to the Global Risks 2012 report, world leaders are pessimistic about the likelihood of global catastrophes in the next decade, thanks to income inequality, fiscal woes, water supply crises and cyber attacks.
-Noting U.K. consumers’ declining use of material goods, Fast Company’s Co.Exist asks “Have We Reached Peak Stuff?”
-As global economic uncertainty persists, Time’s Michael Schuman mulls over “How to Save Capitalism.”
-The Economist reports on a Harvard Business School study that finds widespread pessimism among businesspeople about America’s competitiveness.
-The Guardian dubs 2011 “the time when many ever-optimistic Americans began to give up hope.”
-Various EU leaders are urging youth to migrate for work as high unemployment persists.
-A U.N. report says putting women at the center of energy development programs is the key to bringing communities out of poverty and improving health.
-USA Today takes a look at the state of the luxury market in China.
-The Economistsketches a demographic profile of America’s 1%.
This week, Google debuted Search plus Your World, which tailors search results to users’ Google+ interests and connections. In some corners of the Internet, it was “instantly reviled,” as PCWorld notes. According to research, while many consumers on the one hand appreciate information tailored to their preferences, a substantial proportion also say they prefer to see things through an unfiltered lens.
While preparing our 2012 trends forecast, we surveyed 1,055 adults in the U.K. and the U.S., finding that 78% prefer to see the full picture and sort through results themselves, and 83% want to know what’s being filtered out. This fits in with previous research we did, for our Social Commerce report, which found that many consumers (72%) feel “like Big Brother is watching me” when they see personalized recommendations on websites that are based on their Facebook profile.
As we state in our trend Reengineering Randomness, while most people welcome the extraction of irrelevant or less interesting information and options from view, breaking through the personalization bubble will become an increasingly important way for brands to attract consumers’ attention.
British department store Selfridges is tapping into several key trends with its new 3,500-square-foot pop-up “library” in the flagship London store. Two of our 10 Trends for 2011 play a role here. There’s De-teching—more people choosing to log off, at least temporarily—since one stated aim is to “to prompt people to switch off their mobile phones, computer and television screens and rediscover reading, literature and the inspiration power of words.” There’s also Retail as the Third Space: the idea that retail will increasingly serve as a “third space” that’s only partly about shopping, with unique experiences and environments becoming more important for physical stores. Here, visitors can relax on sofas to look through the “inspirational books,” attend an event (there are some classes and storytelling sessions), play around with a typewriter and so on. Four publishers worked with Selfridges to select the books (which cannot actually be borrowed), and several celebrities curated their own selections.
Also important is the trend we’re calling Objectifying Objects, which has more people fetishizing the physical and tactile; for example, this has spurred appreciation for stationery (one of our 100 Things to Watch for 2012) and coffee table books. At Selfridges, a Words Words Words shop sells “beautiful books,” stationery and other word-inspired goods. And the library gives shoppers something tangible to relax with, an alternative to their Kindle, iPad and other screens. Selfridges has said the pop-up is also a comment on library closures that are taking place across the austerity-focused nation.
Separately, Selfridges is getting up to date on tech trends, with fitting rooms that feature cameras, allowing shoppers to examine themselves from all angles and to send the images to friends.
Popular perceptions of aging are changing, with people of all ages taking a more positive view of growing older—one of our 10 Trends for 2012. As attitudes shift, we’ll redefine when “old age” occurs and what the term means. We discussed new views on aging with Ken Dychtwald, who runs the marketing consultancy AgeWave. With more than three decades in the field of gerontology, Dychtwald has developed a keen understanding of the mature marketplace and its stakeholders. AgeWave advises Fortune 500 companies on how best to reach, engage and motivate Boomers and mature adults. Dychtwald has also published 16 books on aging-related issues, including Age Wave: The Challenges and Opportunities of an Aging Society and New Purpose: Redefining Money, Family, Work, Retirement and Success.
What does it mean to be “old” today, and how is this changing?
There are changes on five fronts. First of all, old age is being relocated. That’s one of the more profound things that’s going on. In the 1880s, when Otto von Bismarck was asked to create the first pension plan in Europe, he had to pick an age at which people would be so enfeebled and so elderly that they just couldn’t get up and work, and he picked 65. The average life expectancy was only 45. If you were trying to use the same formula today and putting old age about 20 years higher than the average life expectancy, we’d be thinking of people growing old at 98.
So now what’s happening is that most people who are 65 or 70 or even 75 do not think of themselves as old. Generally, people think old age begins around 80. There have been so many studies in the last decade that it’s a pretty convincing argument that the marker, the gateway to old age has been moved back. Because we’re living longer, people are staying healthy longer, people are remaining active longer. Continue reading “Q&A, Ken Dychtwald, Founder and CEO of AgeWave” »
-McKinsey Quarterly examines the race to tackle one of the biggest challenges in the decades ahead: the strain on natural resources that will result from a huge new global middle class.
-Tensions between the haves and have-nots in America are “at their most intense level in nearly a quarter-century,” says the AP, reporting on a new Pew Research Center study on the economic divide.
-A government study finds that in 2010, recession-squeezed Americans put off or limited health care spending.
-Post-Qaddafi, young Libyans are finding a new voice through rap, reports The New York Times.
-Don Tapscott publishes Part 2 of his “20 Big Ideas for 2012” on The Huffington Post.
-Marketing magazine highlights “consumer issues that will affect marketers most over the coming 12 months” (with a shoutout to JWTIntelligence along the way).
-PC Magazine offers up their opinion of the best of the Consumer Electronics Show.
-A rundown of the hot categories at CES this year, including TVs, tablets, Ultrabooks and smartphone add-ons, from The New York Times‘ David Pogue.
-Mashable looks at how social media is changing consumer electronics.
-Alternative-fuel cars are hot at this year’s Detroit Auto Show, but consumers ain’t buying, reports The New York Times.
-The Wall Street Journal looks at how automakers are trying to appeal to young adults, many of whom have little interest in car ownership.
Fourth-generation wireless communications will reach most parts of the globe by the end of 2012. In the BIC markets, China Mobile has started trials in China; in India, several major telecom providers will launch 4G in the first half of this year; and Sky Brazillaunched a 4G-based mobile broadband service in December. Meanwhile, more manufacturers are releasing 4G smartphones, including RIM, which debuted the first 4G Blackberry in August. Apple is expected to dive into 4G with the iPhone 5 sometime this year. —Marina Bortoluzzi
The latest innovation in contactless payments may be a throwback: microchip-embedded wristwatches that enable small mobile payments. Watch2pay, which has adopted the tagline “Time is money,” uses MasterCard’s PayPass technology and comes with a reloadable, prepaid MasterCard (the watches are made by LAKS). So far it’s available in Poland and the U.K., where it launched in November for £99. A few other markets have introduced similar watches in recent years, including Turkey, where Garanti bank has been offering the “Bonus Trink Watch,” which it describes as a “watch-shaped credit card.” —Will Palley
As the U.S. Post Office makes plans to scale back services, there is at least one startup that sees opportunity in the business of snail mail. Austin, Texas-based Outbox plans to soon start testing a service that would intercept mail at local post offices, scan it and send it to a digital mailbox. The target is busy moms, who can use bits of downtime on the go to peruse their paper mail.
While a few other companies receive and manage bills online, such as Hearst’s Manilla and two-year-old Zumbox, they bypass the post office altogether, setting up a direct line between customers and companies. Outbox assumes there’s still a place for real, honest-to-goodness mail, even if it comes via a digital screen. We’ve written about people creating analog greetings via digital devices—now, ironically, that snail mail could become digitized once again before it gets to its destination. —Patty Orsini
After a radical rebrand in mid-2011, 24-year-old singer Lizzy Grant re-emerged with a sultry American-retro look and a new name. A few months later she posted an emotionally charged video for her single “Video Games” on YouTube, then promptly sold out an upcoming show in minutes and won Q magazine’s “Next Big Thing” award. The media is abuzz, despite some online griping about her authenticity. Del Rey recently secured a modeling contract, and her debut album, Born to Die, is due Jan. 31. —Will Palley
The debunking of the notion that the Mayans predicted the world would end in 2012 isn’t going to get in the way of marketing. Mexico, home to part of the Mayan civilization, and its hospitality operators have been using the doomsday story to draw tourists. Axe has been having fun with the idea for a while, creating a Final Edition body spray. With the likes of Harold Camping predicting end times almost daily, some brands with an edge may look to add a little tongue-in-cheek urgency to their product messaging. —Aaron Baar
Earlier this month the comedian Louis C.K. announced he would sell a concert video directly to fans online for $5. The novel idea has been a hit: Grosses have already topped $1 million. Watch for more such moves as new distribution models, technologies and consumer habits translate to bypassing the traditional middleman between content creators and their customers.
In music, for example, services like VibeDeck and Moontoast for Music (Billboard’s No. 2 Top Music Startup of 2011) allow bands to easily sell to fans on Facebook and elsewhere. And authors are using Amazon’s Kindle Direct, Barnes & Noble’s PubIt! and similar platforms to bypass the traditional publishing model. —Marian Berelowitz
Technologies like augmented reality (AR) are driving a collision of the digital and physical worlds (one of our 10 Trends for 2011), with physical things opening doors to a world of digital information. Services like Blippar, which launched in the U.K. earlier this year, offer apps that allow users to see virtual content when they hold a smartphone up to a physical image. U.K. supermarket Waitrose, for example, created “blippable” print and TV ads last month that allowed consumers to access exclusive content. Here at JWT, the London office has used Blippar technology to produce nifty business cards that showcase the agency’s reel and use the phone’s GPS to provide directions to the office. (Another fun idea from JWT’s London folks: a sketching robot.) —Marian Berelowitz
As we discussed in our recent Social Good report, fundraising is going digital as charities prepare for cashless societies. Nonprofits are slowly adopting mobile payment technologies that will allow them to collect on-the-spot donations from donors with nothing to offer but plastic. Case in point: The Salvation Army, whose ubiquitous red kettles are receptacles for spare change and small bills during the holiday season, has armed 10 bell ringers in four U.S. cities with smartphones and Square card readers.
It’s likely we’ll see this small-scale effort ramping up next time around as more consumers embrace cash alternatives. As a Salvation Army spokesperson explained to The New York Times, “A lot of people just don’t carry cash any more. We’re basically trying to make sure we’re keeping up with our donors and embrace the new technologies they’re embracing.” —Patty Orsini
Arrivedis an app that moves the idea of check-ins out of the gamification, shopping discounts and social interaction realms and makes them a simple tool for notification. The check-ins are automatic—one of our Things to Watch for 2011—based on a phone’s GPS data and users’ pre-selected locations and relevant contacts. These contacts get a text or push notification when the user arrives, handy for anyone from frequent travelers who want a no-hassle way to alert friends they’re in town to anxious parents who want to know when a child gets home. Users can easily “pause” or cancel notifications. —Will Palley
Remember the first day you started social networking? You searched for everyone, people from grade school, high school sweetheart and co-workers you once thought annoying. You amassed “friends” in the multiple hundreds (even if you’d never met a significant number of them). And then, after countless Farmville updates and pictures of family vacations, you started unfriending (or at least hiding) a good number of them. The social networks even helped out by adding circles and groups.
Increasingly, the goal isn’t to amass the largest social network but to cultivate a relevant one (or perhaps several different ones). Some companies are finding ways to make their networks inherently more targeted. Nextdoor, for instance, looks to link neighbors through verified identities so they can share relevant local happenings and issues. A social network with a specific, practical purpose is a notion that may have power. —Aaron Baar
Popular perceptions of aging are changing, with people of all ages taking a more positive view of growing older—one of our 10 Trends for 2012. As attitudes shift, we’ll redefine when “old age” occurs and what the term means. We discussed new views on aging with Ken Dychtwald, who runs the marketing consultancy AgeWave. With more than three decades in the field of gerontology, Dychtwald has developed a keen understanding of the mature marketplace and its stakeholders. AgeWave advises Fortune 500 companies on how best to reach, engage and motivate Boomers and mature adults. Dychtwald has also published 16 books on aging-related issues, including Age Wave: The Challenges and Opportunities of an Aging Society and New Purpose: Redefining Money, Family, Work, Retirement and Success.
