Today we released our seventh annual year-end forecast of key trends that will shape or significantly impact consumer behavior in the near future. Continued economic uncertainty is at the center of or driving several of these trends; another theme is the rising idea of shared responsibility. As always, new technology is a key factor as well.
The economy will push brands into opening up more entry points for extremely cost-sensitive consumers as the “new normal” becomes a prolonged normal in the developed world. At the same time, tough times will generate an unprecedented entrepreneurialism among the so-called Lost Generation, with today’s youth becoming a uniquely resourceful group that creates their own opportunity.
Two years ago we forecast that packaging would become a much bigger environmental issue; this year we believe the next big eco-issue will be the impact of our food choices on the environment, with various stakeholders—brands, governments and activist organizations—driving awareness around the topic and rethinking what food is sold and how it’s made.
On the tech side, more flat surfaces will become screens, and more screens will be interactive—touching them, gesturing at them and talking to them will become part of our everyday behaviors. And as technology makes our individual worlds more personalized and niche—and narrows the types of content, experiences and people we’re exposed to—greater emphasis will be placed on reintroducing randomness, discovery, inspiration and different points of view into our worlds.
For more on our “10 Trends for 2012,” see the Executive Summary below.
The full report—in which we cover each trend in detail, highlighting what’s driving the shift, how it’s manifesting and what it means for brands—is available here.
Marketing Trend studies and reports that would have cost hundreds of dollars a few years ago will be given away for free, in the name of transparency and engagement!
Pakistan and similar developing markets can be seen as the developed world five years ago. If you want to see or experience something that happened or was believed to be the norm in the business culture or best practices five years ago, you need only book a flight to Nepal, Pakistan, India and similar countries. While mobile phone usage is nearing 99% penetration in these countries, these devices are used just to text and make calls .. online buying has quite made it here yet as an acceptable habit of everyday life, neither has online advocacy.
We have too many digital agencies cropping up that sell half baked solutions … the exposure of these idea’s negates the value of the digital emergence as a whole.
My own agency (co-owned with a former GroupM strategist) is barely 6 months old and we manage the Kraft Foods portfolio in Pakistan. Our clients asked for 15k ‘likes’ on the Facebook page in 3 months time … its been 6 weeks and we’ve reached 50k likes. We also operate with full transparency with our clients, going so far as teaching them how we achieved our results. Mainstream media has dubbed our niche or USP to be ‘honesty and integrity’.
What we see as a future trend for Pakistan, is the a favorable stance from B2B and B2C markets towards suppliers and partners that behave outside of predestined norms and perhaps display somehow honesty and commitment towards long term benefits.
We also find that a great deal of social media savvy Pakistani’s insist on brands that recognize political and environmental chaos … siding with the ones that participate in bringing a change. This is something very clear with consumers preferring Omore (product of Pakistan owned Engro Foods) over Cornetto (of Unilever Walls) simply b/c the former is more socially involved than the former on the issues that personally impact the everyday citizen.
Do you think that trend #6 (Marriage Optional) is a result of women reflecting on societal values on the whole or a result (or combination) of how men’s value-shift fits into this equation?
Also, trend #7 seems accurate, but to what degree are people comfortable with exploring the unknown? I’d figure that people are comfortable within some tolerance but that ‘discovery’ still can’t be too far from their current value set.
We believe that Marriage Optional is driven by a combination of factors, including improving education and career opportunities for women, and shifting attitudes towards motherhood and dating.
In regards to Reengineering Randomness, while many people welcome the extraction of irrelevant or less interesting information and options, most people recognize when they are in a rut. As such, many will find surprise and delight in the unknown.
For more information, our full report is available for purchase here:
As noted in our Things to Watch in Music report, we’ve been seeing some novel ideas around pairing music with goods and services in a customized way. In the U.K., Lurpak butter has recently teamed up with the music streaming website Last.fm to provide recipe-inspired playlists via FoodBeats.com (only accessible in that market). Users simply type in the dish they’re making and an approximate cooking time before they are served up a food-appropriate soundtrack (for example, a classy salmon dish is accompanied by smooth jazz, a chicken salad generates chilled summer songs, and fajitas bring a Latino beat). A countdown timer and tips to improve your recipe bring additional credibility and position Lurpak as cooking experts. FoodBeats.com places Lurpak at the heart of the kitchen and helps to enhance the routine task of daily meal prep.
As we noted in our April trend report, Gen Z—the fledgling generation that follows the Millennials—is the most connected cohort yet. In Sweden, SWE Advertising (a JWT partner agency) has created the SWEappcademy for 10- to 12-year-olds, designed to “let them teach us while we teach them,” as chief innovation officer Mattias Hansson puts it. This weeklong summer camp at the agency’s Stockholm office will give 30 kids the chance to create mobile apps; one of the goals is that one to five of these apps will subsequently be built by professional developers. Clients underwrite the fee for a third of the kids, and the rest pay a relatively nominal fee. Look for more initiatives that seek to better understand and be inspired by young mobile mavens while giving future tech stars a head start. —Will Palley
In a post last October, we looked at innovative ideas for crowdfunding movies. The new film Iron Sky, a sci-fi comedy involving Nazis on the moon, was financed both by traditional crowdfunding (from some 10,000 contributors) and crowd-investing (around 200 people are shareholders and stand to benefit from any profits, according to Wired.co.uk). And Finnish writer-director Timo Vuorensola, who amassed fans with a low-budget Star Trek spoof, also involved the crowd in the creative process—e.g., to help with historical research, props and visual effects. This had the added benefit of creating evangelists, he told The West Australian: “When people are contributing to a film, they take ownership of it and spread the word.” Iron Sky is playing around Europe, in Australia and a few other markets, and has a North American distributor lined up. —Marian Berelowitz
More flat surfaces are becoming screens, and more screens are becoming interactive, as we note in our 10 Trends for 2012 report. In one recent manifestation of this trend, the upscale Hong Kong Jockey Club installed several 10-by-4-foot touch-screen tables, where members can view videos and see updated race results, as well as gamble, using RFID-enabled smart cards to place bets. The tables, which each accommodate eight players, can also interact with members’ digital devices.
The Club is looking to install the tables at other tracks around the world, according to Possible, the WPP agency that created them. “Designed to resonate with the always-on tablet and smartphone generation,” screens such as these will increasingly replace formerly static flat surfaces. —Will Palley
While some are questioning how much potential remains in the Facebook gaming market, a batch of celebrities are turning out their own apps for the social network. Oprah’s Thank You Game, which aims to “help spread gratitude around the world,” was designed by game maven Jane McGonigal’s SuperBetter Labs. Jay-Z’s new Empire is based around his rise to fame, with players creating a Sims-like avatar before running empires of their own. Another famous rapper is behind 50 Cent’s Blackjack, basically a version of the casino game. And Jersey Shore’s Snooki beat them all to the punch with Match Game in February. —Will Palley
Brands are increasingly using Twitter in innovative ways—e.g., via “micro-affiliates” or for e-commerce. To help manage demand for sought-after new sneaker editions, Nike recently debuted a Twitter RSVP process that allows customers to reserve a shoe at any of a dozen U.S. stores, avoiding long lines and mayhem. Sneaker fans must follow the Twitter account of their local store, which sends a tweet at a random time on the designated day. Consumers must then direct-message the store within 60 minutes, including the product-specific hashtag, their name and shoe size. Shoes are awarded on a “first respond, first serve” basis and can be picked up on the launch day. —Will Palley
Launched in late 2011, BackBid.com is a booking site that pits hotel against hotel to gain a client’s business—in the end helping the consumer to win out above all. Here’s how it works: Users book a room and post the details to BackBid.com. From there, other hotels in the area can outbid the current booking, offering lower rates or room upgrades and more amenities. Users can then accept one of the offers and rebook at the competing hotel. The model offers hotels an opportunity to fill empty beds without resorting to heavy discounting—which could ultimately cheapen the brand’s image. Instead, hotels can make savvy travelers feel like VIPs by offering a seemingly personalized discount package. But it’s a potential catch-22, since those beds might be empty due to would-be guests defecting to competitors with better bids. —Jessica Vaughn
It’s one thing for a brand to have millions of followers on Twitter; it’s another to have that army doing some work for you. American Express recently started offering a credit to customers who tweet an Amex-related promotion (e.g., #AmexWholeFoods, to receive $25 off a $75 purchase at Whole Foods). U.K.-based Park Resorts, similarly, is offering savings and credits to brand followers who share promotional links.
“It’s simple and frictionless,” as Ed Gilligan of American Express told The New York Times. The ease of getting consumers to send a brand’s message certainly saves on media costs, and the message is more likely to be noted (Nielsen reports that 92% of consumers around the world trust recommendations from friends and word-of-mouth more than any other form of messaging). “Micro-affiliates,” as these consumer participants are sometimes termed, is an idea that fits well in a post-Groupon world, where deal-loving consumers respond to offers to save money they may not have spent otherwise. —Aaron Barr
With businesses like TOMS Shoes and Warby Parker, we’ve seen the rise of the “Buy One, Give One Away” business model—a strategy we highlighted in our 2011 100 Things to Watch List. Now, we’re seeing more brands linking customer purchases to tangible do-good initiatives. Apparel maker United by Blue, a certified B Corp, says it has “one hand in the apparel industry and the other hand in waste management.” That’s because UBB vows to remove a pound of trash from oceans and waterways for each item sold (since launching in 2010, they’ve removed some 83,000 pounds of junk). The company proudly “does its own dirty work,” as the UBB website lays out, and the brand-organized cleanup events serve as organic community-building experiences for the volunteers, typically local residents. With more cause-minded products and CSR activities launched every day, socially focused efforts will increasingly need to promise tangible results so that customers associate each purchase with a measurable benefit. —Jessica Vaughn
TV networks aren’t the only ones experimenting with complementary mobile apps. Big-screen producers are seeing potential in the second screen, with movie apps that go beyond the outtakes and commentary of classic DVD extras. A $4.99 iPad app that debuted along with the Blu-ray edition of Monty Python and the Holy Grail yields the screenplay, Michael Palin’s diary and more. And if synced with a Blu-ray player, the app doubles as a remote control and surfaces pertinent extras at key points. Kids flicks are a particularly good fit: Warner Bros.’ free Happy Feet Two app, for instance, helps viewers “sing, dance, and play along” in sync with the Blu-ray. Disney offers free second screen apps for Bambi, The Lion King and Lady and the Tramp that include extras like stills, storyboards and flipbooks along with Blu-ray syncing. These apps provide a window into a future where viewers access augmented content across synced screens. —Deanna Zammit
Today we released our seventh annual year-end forecast of key trends that will shape or significantly impact consumer behavior in the near future. Continued economic uncertainty is at the center of or driving several of these trends; another theme is the rising idea of shared responsibility. As always, new technology is a key factor as well.
