Trends Identified
Do smart consumers want smart homes?
By early 2018, Apple will have launched its HomePod device, a smart home speaker/assistant to rival the likes of Amazon Echo and Google Home. With Samsung, Sonos and others also set to enter this space, competition to become the default name in this area will be erce.
2018
Trends 18
GlobalWebIndex
The mobile payment race
It’s easy to think that the most inclusive and developed financial infrastructures will shape the future of mobile payments. In actual fact, it’s in emerging markets where the potential of mobile payments is being realized, as rapidly expanding smartphone penetration rates help mobile payments leapfrog relatively undeveloped financial infrastructures. Two payment providers in particular – Alipay and Apple Pay – are eyeing up this window of opportunity to establish themselves in these markets, and both services have the financial backing and technical know-how to seriously shake up the industry.
2018
Trends 18
GlobalWebIndex
The advent of social music
Across 2017, video established itself as the new driving force of social media innovation and engagement. With both Facebook and Snapchat now investing in original TV content to be made available via their platforms, the commitment of the social media giants to stake a claim to a portion of TV revenues is clear. So, what media will social services engulf in 2018? Well, a glance at the acquisition and hiring strategy of Facebook suggests that this social behemoth, at least, is beginning to take music seriously.
2018
Trends 18
GlobalWebIndex
Is the influencers marketing boom sustainable?
Influencer marketing has become the industry’s hot go-to strategy – just take a look at the host of celebrities on your social media feeds encouraging you to visit this hotel and try that beauty product. Many brands have invested heavily, attracted by the opportunity to amplify their content and organically build new relationships. But is this buzzworthy trend all that it’s cracked up to be and, importantly, is it set to be a sustainable strategy for brands?
2018
Trends 18
GlobalWebIndex
Engineered Empathy - Human engagement in an EI-expectant world
Emotional intelligence – an ability to empathise and engage on a human level – will become a core and advocacy-building consumer expectation, as well as a valued everyday life skill demanded by workplaces and personal relationships alike.
2018
Trending 2018
Foresight Factory
Life in Beta Mode - Ready for a world of forever onboarding?
The emerging Internet of Things (IoT) era creates a world in which B2B and B2C products routinely upgrade and improve long after purchase. That products reach peak performance some time after POS is a message many will welcome (and drive long-term loyalty), especially those maximisers who seek post-purchase reassurance that money has been well spent. Anticipate a greater need for post-purchase support, value-signalling and a clear process of rolling onboarding.
2018
Trending 2018
Foresight Factory
Anti-Automation - Driving change in CSR policy near you soon
Anti-automation sentiment hangs heavy in the air. All manner of people – from entrepreneurs to policy makers, from technologists to everyday consumers – fret about the promised disruption to working and leisure lives caused by the forces of automation and evolving AI. Whilst, in reality, consumers will welcome the multiple benefits that automated innovation brings, disquiet (about job prospects, spending power, status) creates opportunities for brands to create supportive messaging as well as new skills to help consumers adapt.
2018
Trending 2018
Foresight Factory
Latchkey Loyalty - Harnessing the free range shopper
In Latchkey Loyalty, anticipate consumers to seriously review long-term and overly complex commercial entanglements in favour of commitment-lite engagement where simplicity and ease of entry/departure are emphasised. The demand for relationships of this kind has been building for some time among capricious consumers: but herein lies renewed opportunity to creatively ensnare the shopper in gilded cages of apparent freedom and comfort, from where “you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”.
2018
Trending 2018
Foresight Factory
Fine to be fallible - profitiing from an age of epic fails
In societies hard-wired to strive for and venerate success, it may seem counter-intuitive to suggest that competitive advantage lies in publicly sharing our shortcomings. Fine to be Fallible describes a world increasingly at ease with the notion that failure is a necessary pre-requisite of success – and an acceptable consequence of being human. A companion trend to Engineered Empathy, herein lies an opportunity to associate brands with the kaleidoscope of human endeavour and carefully address failings of their own.
2018
Trending 2018
Foresight Factory
Quest to Purchase - The rise of elective barriers to buying
Orthodoxy demands that brands strain every sinew to kill obstacles on the path to purchase. In Quest to Purchase, brands are instead invited to recognise the perceived value of deliberately contrived pre-checkout challenge. For the One-Click Generation, used to zero delay between intent and satisfaction, new barriers to buying – with opportunities to graft and compete for favoured brands’ custom in offline, IRL settings – provide new routes to fun and status.
2018
Trending 2018
Foresight Factory