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My Favorite Trends to Watch in the New Year

by Jennifer Beever

JWT 100 trends in 2014Ad agency JWT publishes a list of 100 trends to watch in the coming year. Reviewing this is a fun exercise in the New Year, since many trends affect marketing. (And some are just plain fun.) Here are my top picks from the 2014 list:

#5 Algae which is booming as an ingredient in many products from cosmetics and industrial products. The fun one is Dino Pet, a pet that comes to life through bioluminescent algae.

#6 Ambient commerce, the practice of using sensors in products to automatically notifiy customers that it’s time for a replacement, service, spare parts, etc.

#8 Arrested IRL development, the situation that millennials and Gen Z’ers find themselves because using mobile devices so much is limiting their ability to develop “In Real Life” experience.

#22 Circular economy, in which retail outlets offer used versions of their products in the same store where they sell new product. Patagonia is at the forefront of this movement.

#24 Community-sponsored everything, meaning that in addition to community-sponsored distribution of locally-grown, organic food, other things that we consume on a regular basis (think art, flowers) can be subscribed to for cost-savings and efficiency and increasing local commerce.

#25 Contemplative computing, which is trying to pull us out of the 24/7 email, social media, mobile device technology trap and into mindfulness. Can you imagine that? Think of Buick’s campaign: “Look up from your phone and live.”

#55 Live broadcasts, in which brands do live filming. An example is Lexus doing improv-based commercials during the Jimmy Fallon show.

#61 Mindfulness in classrooms. What? This effort is design to increase creativity, reduce stress, and create social and emotional empathy. Huh.

#64 Needle free vaccine using dissolvable patches, non-needle “jet” transmission of liquid medicine, dry vaccines.

#84 Speaking visually, in which instead of manuals and presentations, we use more images and fewer words to provide information.

#87 Survival of the focused, which suggest that those of us who meditate and can remain calm in the storm will prevail as multi-tasking continues to increase.

What trends do you think will affect how we market – what we market – in 2014?

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