Trends Identified

Winners and Losers of Globalisation
The winners of globalisation are often said to be the millions in the emerging economies who have been lifted out of poverty in recent decades, together with those who were already rich and are now richer. The losers are said to be concentrated in the developed countries - the squeezed middle whose jobs, income and prospects have been hit.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Governance Challenges for the EU
Over the past few years, the EU has had to confront a series of crises that have put a lot of strain on its governance system and opened new fault-lines across European societies: sovereign debt issue, migration, Brexit, Ukraine, Russia's newfound assertiveness, terrorism. The outcome of the US elections will also have to be factored in over the coming months and years.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Society and Conflict in a Changing Global Environment
Our strategic environment is changing rapidly. We live in a world that is at once more connected, contested and complex. The fragile societies, instability and conflict which we meet in many parts of our neighbourhood and beyond also have consequences for our internal security and prosperity. To take account of the new global context, our approach to conflict must also change. Greater connectivity is both an asset as it drives communication, trade and mobility, but also makes us vulnerable to cross border crime, terrorism, global pandemics and cyber-attacks. The rise in human mobility compels us to rethink our approach to migration, sustainable development, security and governance.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Cities and Regions of Tomorrow: Drivers of a Better Future?
Cities are catalysts for policy change and the 21st century will be shaped by metropolitan values: diversity, creativity, industriousness, entrepreneurialism.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Organised Civil Society and Governance: Trends and Challenges
Advances in technology, wealth and income concentration, shifting demography, migration flows, under employment and climate change are transforming our societies. The (dis)empowered citizen, as introduced by the World Economic Forum 2016 Global Risks Report, describes the tensions between the growing cyber connectivity empowering citizens with more information and means of communications against the increasing feeling of exclusion from meaningful participation to decision-making among citizens and civil society.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
The evolution of social ROI
For years, we’ve been predicting the death of short-sighted vanity metrics. In 2018, we’re seeing this long-promised shift finally take place. What’s dfferent? While organizations have traditionally used social media to increase top-of-funnel engagement, many are exploring and discovering the value of social in other phases of the customer journey. In addition to brand awareness, social media is also helping organizations achieve business objectives such as lowering customer service costs, tracking changes in brand perception, mitigating risk, attracting top talent, and even feeding social insights into supply chain analyses. But this evolution requires new metrics—and alignment of social media strategies with your organization’s most urgent business challenges.
2018
Social media trends 2018
Hootsuit
Mobile fuels the growth of social TV
Mobile usage, shorter attention spans, and the thrill of novelty have accelerated the consumption of video content. The old buzz phrase used to be that “brands need to be publishers.” But in 2018, social networks will encourage brands to become broadcasters as mobile video and social-TV style programming take the spotlight. Creating broadcast-style content won’t work for every brand or product category. And the metrics that bump the stock price of social networks—such as engagement rates or video views—might not help your organization achieve your specific business outcomes. However, for many industries, this will open up innovative social advertising formats and bold new ways to engage social audiences.
2018
Social media trends 2018
Hootsuit
Trust declines, while peer influence rises
2017 was a tumultuous ride—we saw the explosion of fake news in public discourse, U.S. President Donald Trump’s unexpected triumph over traditional media, and an erosion of public trust in mainstream institutions. Politics aside, these cultural and technological shifts impacted both businesses and consumers. As Edelman found in their global study of consumer confidence, for the first time in history consumers trust peers just as much as technical experts and more than CEOs, governments, and academics. Marketing leaders are also more skeptical of inflated influencer metrics and wary of paying to reach social media bots instead of humans. We’re moving away from trusting institutions, vanity metrics, and mega-influencer celebrities—and moving towards smaller and actual spheres of influence where customers advocates, genuine customer communities, and engaged employees matter more than ever.
2018
Social media trends 2018
Hootsuit
Humans, meet AI
The machines have risen. And marketers have discovered they can be delightfully useful. The danger, of course, is following this trend, rather than understanding the far-reaching changes AI will bring to social marketing. Over 100 thousand Messenger bots are now active on Facebook (a 233 percent YOY growth over last year’s 33 thousand). But it’s still unclear whether customers will value these human-less engagements. While AI is still a future-facing trend, marketers can expect to start reaping the practical benefits in 2018. Facebook, for example, has released new predictive analytics to help marketers find insights faster. And visual search engines are using machine learning to help consumers search by images rather than keywords, a shift that will redefine the future of online product browsing.
2018
Social media trends 2018
Hootsuit
The promise (and reality) of social data
Organizations have long heard about the benefits of deep listening and uncovering customer insights with social data. But they’ve also realized that integrating social data with other analytics systems—or finding usable insights from mountains of social mentions—requires a lot of work and more resources than they originally thought. In 2018, the promise of social data remains—but organizations will need to recalculate the effort and resources they’ll need to invest to turn social data into a true source of customer insights that can be used across the enterprise.
2018
Social media trends 2018
Hootsuit