JWT has unveiled its annual list of 100 Things to Watch for the year ahead.
“Our list spotlights developments that are bubbling up across sectors, including travel, technology, food, retail and sustainability,” said Ann Mack, director of trendspotting at JWT. “It also reflects broader shifts that we’re forecasting for the year ahead, including the rise in Peer Power, Predictive Personalization and Intelligent Objects.”
Many of JWT’s Things to Watch are technology-centric, including the proliferation of “appcessories,” digital ecosystems, flexible screens and responsive Web design. The list also includes new foods or ingredients to watch (faux meat, teff), new types of goods or businesses (quiet products, shopping hotels), new behaviors (mindful living, privacy etiquette) and ideas with the potential to ladder up to bigger trends.
Here are JWT’s 100 Things to Watch in 2013, unranked and in alphabetical order:
1. 3D Bioprinting. 3D printing was on our watch list two years ago, and while much of the focus has been on its ability to change manufacturing, its use in medicine could be revolutionary. Biologists are working on creating tissue with “bio ink” made from living cells, and while we’re a long way off from printing organs—though surgeon Anthony Atala created a kidney onstage during a TEDTalk—the near term will see printing of smaller items like heart valves and cells applied directly to burn wounds.
2. Adult Playgrounds. Municipalities worldwide are trying to combat obesity and a trend toward inactivity by creating playgrounds for adults that come with workout equipment rather than jungle gyms. Some even offer amenities like rock walls, for the kid in all of us. Taking inspiration from similar playgrounds in China and parts of Europe, these spaces eliminate two of the biggest barriers to working out: access and cost. New York City opened its first adult playground in 2012 and plans to create two dozen more. In the U.K., orders for outdoor fitness equipment were up 1,200% in 2012.
3. African Tech Stars. Now that many more parts of Africa are getting Internet access, tech entrepreneurs and engineers are emerging around the continent, converging in a rising number of tech hubs and incubators. In Rwanda, for example, the government launched kLab, an “open community innovation center,” as part of its development plan. These hubs are producing innovative ideas, largely focused on mobile tech and born out of unique local needs.
4. Allergen-Free. With food allergies rising worldwide—a 2011 study found that as many as 1 in 12 American children may have a food allergy, twice as high as previous studies found—we’ll see “allergen-free” becoming as ubiquitous as gluten-free. Products will multiply as more brands build facilities dedicated to manufacturing foods free of allergens like dairy, peanuts, egg, soy and shellfish.
5. Alternative Brand Currencies. We’ll see more brands promote their goods by giving them away in exchange for various consumer actions (and potential word of mouth). For instance, choclatier Anthon Berg created a one-day pop-up. The Generous Store, that accepted generosity (a promise to do something nice for a loved one) instead of money. Nike’s award-winning “Bid Your Sweat” campaign allowed runners to vie for products in an online auction using kilometers tracked by Nike+. And a pop-up store from beverage brand Activate invited visitors to pay for drinks with calories burned. Naturally, participants are encouraged to share on social media.
6. Ambushed by Amazon. The e-commerce giant started out as a threat to booksellers, but it’s fast becoming Enemy No. 1 to retailers of all stripes now that it sells everything from high-end apparel to wine and has shrunk its delivery times. Amazon will prove an “extremely disruptive force,” as Kantar Retail’s Bryan Gildenberg puts it, with the rise of “showrooming.” For brick-and-mortar shoppers, Amazon’s Flow app quickly reveals the Amazon price, which is generally hard to beat. The e-commerce brand—which could pass Walmart as the world’s biggest retailer by 2017, according to consultancy ChannelAdvisor—is also mulling physical stores.
7. Appcessories. Accessories are taking on high-tech functionality, turning into “apcessories.” High-tech specs, like Vuzix’s M100 smart glasses, include microphones, speakers and small screens that provide users with info on the world around them. Wristbands like the Nike+ fuel Band, Jawbone’s re-released UP and the upcoming Amiigo monitor physical activity and provide stats via a mobile app. Even gloves and socks are getting high-tech: hi-Fun sells gloves with embedded microphones and speakers, letting users “talk through your hand” and RFID tags in BlackSocks help ensure the socks are correctly paired.
8. The Arabic Web. With smartphones bringing the Internet to more Arabic-only speakers, the Middle East/North Africa region is “a market of untapped potential for online businesses,” as Euromonitor puts it. While Arabic can be challenging to program and input, there’s rising incentive as this region of around 420 million people starts warming up to the Web. One stumbling block is the regional preference for cash transactions, but Middle Eastern entrepreneurs are creating work-arounds.
9. B2C/P2P Partnerships. As the peer-powered marketplace continues to heat up, look for established brands to strike partnerships with fledgling peer-to-peer services as a way to infuse freshness or modernity into their persona, broaden their appeal or get an existing consumer segment to consider the brand in a new light. Both Gap and Pepsi Next recently held promotions with TaskRabbit, which helps users outsource tasks. Initiatives also provide opportunities to learn more about the audience, inner workings and strengths and weaknesses of the P2P world.
10. Bee Venom. Bee venom therapy—an ancient practice dating back to Egypt, Greece and China—is experiencing a revival. The practice, which involves systematically stinging patients suffering from joint and nerve conditions such as arthritis and MS, is thought to help improve circulation, decrease inflammation and stimulate immune system responses. Beauty buffs are also turning to bee venom as a “natural Botox,” with spas offering bee venom facials. One cosmetics company told The Wall Street Journal in June that prices for New Zealand venom were up 33% over the past year.
11. Biometric Authentication. To reduce fraud and otherwise improve security, governements and businesses are starting to adopt systems that identify people based on iris scans, digital fingerprints, voice prints or face maps. India is well underway with its unique identification program,w hich is linking biometric info to national ID numbers. Airports are adopting biometric security programs, as are banks which are rolling out biometric ATMs. Going beyond cash withdrawal, French company Natural Security is worknig with four banks on a system that lets people pay for goods with a fingertip. For smartphone security, Android 4.0 has a Face Unlock feature, while the startup PIPA Touch enables creation of fingerprint-based PIN codes.
12. Blocking Social Media Bores. Some social media users are tiring of finding their feeds stuffed with maddening posts from political rants to never-ending baby pictures. We’ll see more of them adopt web browser extensions like Unpolitic.me and Unbaby.me, with replace partisan rhetoric and images of infants with alternatives like pictures of kittens or bacon. These extensions could branch out to more categories, offering lighthearted opportunities for brands.
13. Chia Seeds. Make room for another superfood: Chia seeds, once part of the Aztec and Mayan diets, offer protein, antioxidants and fiber, as well as omega-3 fatty acids. People are adding the whole or ground seeds to foods and beverages, as are brands including Dole—whose new Nutrition Plus line offers whole or milled seeds and Chia & Fruit Clusters—and Nature’s Path, which recently rolled out 11 products, including Coconut Chia Granola.
14. Click-and-Collect Shopping. Already gaining popularity in parts of Europe, “click and collect” melds digital and physical commerce by letting customers order online, then pick up the goods (frequently groceries) at a store nearby. It’s hyper-convenient, with retrieval often at curbside. In Europe, retailers including Tesco and Asda in the U.K. and Ahold in the Netherlands now offer the service. A few U.S. retailers are testing the waters, including Ahold’s Peapod. Online retailers including Amazon and eBay are getting into the pickup game too. Look for digital-physical hybrids to expand to more categories, such as home improvement.
15. “Cloaking.” As people increasingly look for ways to carve out private spaces while still living publicly online–one of our trends for 2013–watch for services that help them temporarily hide from social media exposure. The notion of “cloaking” comes from Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley who explaned to The New York Times, “You can imagine a service that says ‘I don’t want my name to show up on any social services for the next three hours.'”
16. Coaching Brands. Hyper-Personalization, one of our 10 Trends for 2011, continues to play out in various ways; one phenomenon we’ll see is brands coulpling data they’ve collected on a customer with their own expertise to provide customized “diagnoses” and suggested solutions. With consumers sharing more data, and marketers passively collecting more info, brands are coming to know consumers better thatn they know themselves. In turn, they will coach consumers on how to do better, whether its cutting their regular expenses (BillShrink), managing their money (22seven, Mint.com) or living healthier (UP by Jawbone, Larklife).
17. Cool Techie Camps. The nerds are hacking summer vacation. Now that it’s cool to be a tech whiz, kids trying to channel their inner Mark Zuckerberg are attending camps that offer everything from game creation to robotics. iD Tech Camps cater to age 7 through 18. The Teens in Tech incubator taps into the entrpreneurial drive of Gen Z, with an eight-week program focused on lauching a startup. eCamp in Israel allows campers to choose among tech-related workshops. And SWEappcademy, a weeklong program hosted by Stockholm-based SWE Advertising (a JWT partner agency) gives 10 to 12-year-olds the chance to creat mobile apps.
18. Crowdsourced Translation. Crowdsourced translation is reaching critical mass, giving global audiences access to multilingual talks, education and popular entertainment. Duolingo, a startup launched in 2012 by a Carnegie Mellon professor, combines language learning with translation: As English-speaking students work their way through free lessons in French, Spanish, Portugese or German (and vice versa), they translate websites and documents as part of their coursework. TED’s Open Translation Project, which started three years ago, now has 8,000+ volunteers contributing to subtitles and interactive transcripts, available in 94 languages. And at international entertainment site Viki, fans have translated 250 million words in videos, TV shows and moves into 150+ languages.
19. Cutting out the Middleman. The success of vertically integrated e-commerce players like Warby Parker (eyeglasses), Dollar Shave Club ($1 razor blades), Stella & Dot (jewelry) and Bonobos
(menswear) will spur a host of new niche brands that cut out middlemen and sell quality products online at below-market rates. We’ll see a range of upstart challengers as the model extends to more categories, from office supplies (Poppin) to bedding (Crane & Canopy).
20. Cyber War. Some are warning that cyber wars are the battles of the future, with electric grids failing and planes falling out of the sky at the click of a mouse. That vision may be overstated but U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has warned we’re in a “pre-9/11″ moment.” When it comes to cyber warefare (“actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation’s computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption”). We’ll see a shift in armed forces recruiting, with premiums placed on IT specialists. The 780th Military Intelligence Brigade, activated by the U.S. Army in 2011, is expected to be at full staffing by 2014.
21. Dads in the Aisles. With women just as tied up with careers as men, and the ranks of stay-at-home dads multiplying, more marketers will lose their singular focus on moms. Men are taking on more cooking and cleaning, parenting duties and shopping. As they populate the aisles of supermarkets, drugstores, toy stores and more, we’ll see market research taking the male perspective into account, goods retooled for male appeal and messaging that acknowledges the man’s changing role. “Man up, clean up,” P&G’s Swiffer brand is telling men.
22. Data Scientists: The New Hotshots. With governments and corporations starting to rely on Big Data for decsion-making, we’ll see demand explode for the scientists needed to cull insights from the analyses gleaned through analytics platforms. What may sound like a dull and wonky affair will become one of the hottest topics around, putting these data wranglers into the spotlight. And they’ll command heady salaries, with data scientists expected to be in sort supply into the near term as the role becomes increasingly central to business planning processes.
23. Decline of Chinese Bling. Chinese luxury buyers are moving away from overt displays of wealth and opting for more understated luxury goods and products not intended for public display (e.g., pricey housewares). Splashy logos are losing their appeal among the most selective shoppers. Gucci, for instance, reported that 23% of 2012 handbag sales in China did not prominently feature its logo, compared to only 6% in 2009. and Warnaco Group chief exec Helen McCluskey has cited designer underwear as an “underdeveloped category” in China.
24. Desalination. With forecasts of serious freshwater shortages by 2030, and improved technologies helping to lower production costs, nations are investing in seawater desalination. Investments are set to jump to $17 billion by 2016, up from $8.9 billion in 2012. Currently just 1% of the global population relies on purified seawater, but that will soon expand: 2012 saw construction of some of the world’s biggest desalination plants in Australia, Argentina and Israel. The latter is to get 75% of its drinking water from desalination in 2013. In the Americas alone, 17 desalination proposals are pending in California and two in Mexico, according to the Pacific Institute.
25. Detoxifying Life. What was once a fringe activity—cleansing one’s body and environment of all things toxic and carcinogenic—is going more mainstream as awareness of and anxiety about
toxins heighten. Brands are responding by pledging to remove various chemicals from their products. Johnson & Johnson is cutting usage of several potentially harmful chemicals and reformulating its personal care range. Walgreens has introduced Ology, a line of nontoxic personal care and cleaning products. And apparel brands including Nike, Adidas, H&M, Zara and Levi’s have pledged to phase toxins out of their supply chains, thanks largely to Greenpeace’s ongoing “Detox” campaign.
26. Digital Ecosystems. Today’s tech giants–Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook chief among them–are working to create or expand ecosystems that lock customers into an array of devices, tools and sevices. The ultimate goal is to “own every waking moment” as The New York Times has put it, or serve as “control points to consumers’ digital lives,” as The Wall Street Journal says. Initially operating in separate spheres, these heavyweights will increasingly be going head to head in the battle for consumers’ hearts, minds and data in a fight that’s intensifying with the advent of the mobile wallet and the proflieration of multiple devices, content streaming and cloud services.
27. Drones. Drones aren’t just for military surveillance anymore. Civilians can buy devices like Parrot’s AR Drone 2.0 for just a few hundred dollars or cobble together amateur versions. Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson drew attention to the phenomenon when he left to lead a firm he co-founded, 3D Robotics, that sells low-priced dronews and DIY kits. Users guide these unmanned aerial vehicles, which usually come with cameras attached. Potential applications range from checking on crops or damaged roofs to assisting with humanitarian aid.
28. ecoATM. ecoATM is poised to revolutionize the e-recycling industry. In a bid to keep e-waste out of landfills and tap into a vibrant aftermarket for consumer electronics, the company markets kiosks that make it easy to recycle mobile phones and MP3 players. The kiosks can identify the make and model of these devices and assess their condition; it then makes a cash offer, based on bids in a real-time electronic auction. ecoATM was aiming to reach 300 kiosks in the U.S. by the end of 2012 and planning on international expansion in 2013.
29. Egg Freezing. The techniques for freezing and thawing women’s eggs have markedly improved in the last few years. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine changed its position on the practice in late 2012, terming it “safe and effective” rather than “experimental.” While the procedure is pricey, watch for more women to opt for this “insurance policy” in their more fertile years.
30. Emotion Recognition. Reserachers and programmers from Egypt to the U.K. and U.S. are working on getting computers to read human emotions through a practice known as “affective computering.” Teaching our increasingly interactive devices to recognize how users are feeling could improve not only basic digital interactions–think Siri commenting cluelessly to frustrated users–but enhance digital education tools or help people on the autism spectrum learn to better “read” others.
31. The End of Voicemail. Voicemail is gradually going the way of answering machines or the pager. Checking or leving messages is coming to feel like a chore, especially for younger people who have little patience for wading through lengthy menu options when they could text or email much faster. Internet phone company Vonage reports a year-over-year drop in users leaving and retrieving voicemails, and a PCMag.com poll found that 70% of respondents never or infrequently use voicemail. For businesses, voicemail transcription services offer a message-retrieval work-around.
32. Faux Meat. Meat substitutes are gaining adherents among the masses as more people cut down on meat for budget, health or environmental reasons and as faux meat gets tastier and more convincing. Beyond Meat, whose investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Twitter’s Biz Stone, launched in 2012 with a fake chicken that’s fooled some experts. Two-year-old Dutch restaurant Vegetarian Butcher now markets its lauded faux meat products to outlets across Holland. An imitator, Spoon’s Vegetarian Butcher, has opened in Sydney. And Like Meat is an EU research project focused on creating “high-quality meat-like products” that can become “widely accepted meat alternatives.”
33. Fitness Beyond the Gym. Watch for more people to question whether gyms are the best route to fitness and look to alternatives that are more fun or functional. MovNat for example, is a fitness philosophy that’s winning adherents worldwide: The workouts bring urbanites back to nature—climbing trees, balancing on rocks and so on—and focus on strengthening the muscles needed for everyday activities such as bending to pick up luggage or children.
34. Flexible Screens. Screens that can bend and curve are forecast to become commonplace within five years, but we could see them filtering onto the market in 2013. LG has said it will be capable of mass-producing flexible OLED displays by the second half, while Samsung is reportedly planning to mass-produce flexible displays for release in the first half. Corning launched a thin, flexible glass, dubbed Willow, in 2012, a breakthrough that “could herald a revolution in consumer electronics,” said TechNewsWorld. We’ll likely see these screens used initially for phones and wearable devices.
35. Food Sharing. One of our 10 Trends for 2013 outlines the rise of peer-to-peer services, from car-sharing to accommodation-sharing. One of the newer categories is food-sharing, which encompasses both meal co-ops–services like Mealku in NY and Super Marmite in Paris that enables sharing of home-cooked dishes–and concepts like Feastly that bring disparate diners together in the homes of amateur chefs. Watch for more food-focused services that offer the promise of community, authentic experiences and new tastes.
36. Frontier Markets. Sierra Leone, Mayanmar and Bangladesh, the so-called “frontier markets,” are the hot new tip for investors, particularly as emerging markets slow down. With young populations looking to move into the middle class and vast natural resources yet to be tapped, these countries–some considered unstable just a few years ago–offer the potential for high yields. Economist Dambisa Moyo says one big advantage over the BRICs is thehir limited exposure to the developed markets; growth will be driven by domestic demand rather than trade. Investing giants BlackRock and Guggenheim Investments have launched index funds tied to these markets.
37. G20 Devolves to G-Zero. With geopolitical power starting to decentralize, expect the dawn of a G-Zero era, one in which “no single country or durable alliance can meet the challenges of global leadership,” according to political scientist Ian Bremmer, who popularized the term in his book, “Every Nation for Itself.” As the world’s economic powerhouses refocus on internal priorities and lose the will for international collaboration, Bremmer suggests we’ll see a reshaping of policy, the global economy and trade relations.
38. Gender-Blurred Toys. With some experts questioning the effects of traditional gender-focused toys, marketers and retailers will blur the lines that have dominated playtime. Lego and Mattel are tackling gender stereotypes with construction sets for girls and the new Roominate lets girls build and decorate rooms while teaching about electricity and circuits. In 2012 Harrods created a “non-gender-specific” toy department, and Swedish toy company Leklust stirred a sensation with catalog imagees of a boy in a Spider-Man costume pushing a doll carriage and a girl driving a toy tractor. In 2013, Hasbro plans to release a gender-neutral Easy-Bake Oven, spurred by an online petition.
39. Geofencing. Watch for more brick-and-mortar retailers to launch opt-in mobile programs that send SMS promotions or other messages when consumers are in their stores or within range of a store. While the technology has been in place for a few years, more retailers will start adopting it as a way to combat showrooming and survive in today’s hypercompetitive environment. Best Buy, for instance, will be using eBay’s price comparison app, RedLaser, to show shoppers in-store specials and other relevant information. Skin care brand Kiehl’s uses geofencing at its retail outlets and is investigating its use within department stores where Kiehl’s has counters.
40. Green Growth. Most industrialized nations embrace a “grow first, clean up later” philosophy as The Economist puts it, an approach that can’t be sustained as more of the world modernizes–and at a faster rate. So more business people and policymakers are embracing “green growth,” the idea that economic development need not mean environmental degradation. The European Commission’s Eco-innovation Action Plan puts green growth at the center of decison-making. In 2012, green growth was a point of focus for many at the Rio+20 Conference; Denmark hosted the second Global Green Growth Forum; and Vietnam approved a green growth strategy as part of its development plan.
41. Handwriting = Hieroglyphics. Handwriting’s death has been mourned for a while now–what’s next to go is the ability to decipher handwriting. With little need to ever read more than a few lines of written text, younger generations are losing the ability to do so. Soon, handwriting will be just as inscrutable as hieroglypics to digital age consumers.
42. Hotels in Africa. Driven largely by an explosion in business travel to Africa, international hotel brands are racing to expand their portfolios. Marriott plans to open a property in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, in 2013 and aims to grow its African properties six-fold by 2020. French hotel group Accor is planning to add almost 5,000 rooms in 30 hotels by 2016, and Starwood intends to open 10 African hotels in the next three years.
43. Human-Centered Tech. As voice activated systems and gesture-based recognition become more sophisticated and experimentation with wearable computing and emotion recognition grows, technology will increasingly adapt to humans. It will become more intuitive, integrating more seamlessly into our lives, rather than requiring people to adjust to it. “We’re entering an age of huma”” n-centered design, shaped around people and their existing habits and body language,” said Olof Schybergson, founder/CEO of digital consultancy Fjord. “Instead of learning how to interact with machines, it’s the reverse—machines learn to work with us.”
44. Humane Food. Consumers will become more concerned about the humane treatment of the animals they eat, a trend that’s already underway in Europe. In the U.S., awareness began rising in 2012, as fast food retailers including McDonald’s pledged to push suppliers to phase out gestation stalls for pregnant pigs; California passed a ban on selling or producing foie gras; and meat giant Tyson Foods said it would start auditing suppliers’ farms for animal treatment. Watch for animal advocates to bring new issues to light and mainstream consumers to pay close attention.
45. Hyper-Personalized Customer Service. Businesses in some industries now have the means to fine-tune their customer service to individual consumers. Restaurants are logging details on customers with the help of software programs, then catering to various preferences without patrons having to ask. And British Airways launched Know Me in 2012, a program that aims to provide very personalized service to VIP frequent flyers. The airline, which spent several years collecting passenger data from many sources, explained that crew members might pay extra attention to a first-time business-class customer or perhaps fuss over a business customer on a personal trip.
46. Impact Sourcing. Impact sourcing involves outsourcing relatively simply business processes with the aim of giving workers new skills and lifting them out of poverty. A 2011 study forecast that the market for impact sourcing would rise from $4.5 billion in 2010 to $20 billion by 2015. Both non- and for-profits are helping to connect global employees with workers at the bottom of the pyramid. The best-known nonprofit is four-year-old Samasource, whose 16 centers in South Asia, Africa and Haiti have paid more than $2 million to 3,000+ workers.
47. Imperfection. Consumers have been seeking “authenticity” from products and services, and increasingly it’s the “imperfect” that will feel especially authentic—a counter to the standardized, mass-produced or otherwise polished offerings that prevail today and the smooth, shiny surfaces of our digital devices. For instance, the lumpy form of an heirloom tomato or gnarled carrots at a farmers market are coming to have more appeal than the prettier produce on supermarket shelves. The same goes for imagery, with marketers shifting toward showing real people over models: e.g., Rent the Runway now features user-submitted photos of its designer dresses, letting customers see how they look on everyday bodies in addition to models.
48. Individual Attention. More mass market retailers and hospitality providers will be catering to a growing expectation of superior service. At a time when many transactions are digitized and multinational chains are replacing local vendors, consumers are seeking out friendly faces who can cater to their individual needs. For instance, Target is testing a “beauty concierge” program, and J. Crew’s recently relaunched personal shopper program, now dubbed Very Personal Stylist, is available for free at all stores. More supermarkets are hiring dietitians to help shoppers make nutritious choices. And more restaurants are pampering patrons by relying on software that can track individual preferences; watch for this type of service to trickle down from the higher end.
49. Instant-Erase Apps. Since the digital record isn’t easily erased, we’ll see more apps and other services that help people guard or instantly delete things they may later regret. Snapchat, for example, is a photo exchange app that lets senders specify how long a recipient can view an image (from one to 10 seconds) and notifies senders if the recipient takes a screenshot of the image. Tiger Text is a similar app.
50. JOMO (Joy Of Missing Out). It’s the flip side of FOMO: consciously opting out of the endless social media stream, the 24/7 news cycle, the deluge of email and countless other distractions and demands. People are putting their fear of missing out to rest by excising the extraneous and often irrelevant, finding a joy in missing out (blogger and entrepreneur Anil Dash coined the acronym JOMO). They’re consuming information on a need-to-know basis so they can slow down, savor the moment and focus on what’s really important without feeling anxious or stressed.
51. Live-Streaming Life. Memories will be live-streamed in real time. The newest super-compact video camera from GoPro is 30% smaller and 25% lighter than its predecessors—a big selling point for
the skiers, divers and other extreme sports enthusiasts who love to document their exploits—and includes built-in Wi-Fi, enabling live-streaming of footage. Users can also control the camera remotely using a smartphone app.
52. Low-Cost Robots. As sophisticated robots get increasingly affordable, we’ll see them changing industries and manufacturing. The new $22,000 Baxter robot from Rethink Robotics, for example, is intended for the factory floor; it’s easily programmed and can work safely in tandem with humans. In 2013, Baxter development kits will be available to researchers and inventors, potentially expanding its use into realms beyond the factory.
53. Low-Tech Charging. A number of companies are devising ways to charge devices without power outlets or wireless chargers. Nokia is developing a Portable Solar Charger for use in places such as Nigeria and Kenya, where sun is plentiful but outlets are not; Sony Japan has released a wind-up charger; Powertrekk has a technology that uses available liquid to create charges; and Biolite products convert heat (from burning wood, for example) into electricity to charge devices.
54. Media That Gets To Know You. One way that Hyper-Personalization (one of our 10 Trends for 2011) is manifesting is with media that’s tailored to the individual consumer. For instance, the BBC’s R&D department is experimenting with Perceptive Media, video or audio content that’s customized based on real-time data about the people experiencing it (for example, their location, local weather and news events, etc.). Possible uses for the technology include a TV set that would automatically identify a viewer and deliver relevant content, and radio and TV shows that tailor music to individual preferences. Meanwhile, e-book publisher Coliloquy produces novels that morph their story based on reader preferences.
55. Medical Smartphones. LifeWatch AG, which makes medical monitoring systems, has produced the first medical smartphone, featuring built-in sensors for monitoring heart rate, ECG, blood
sugar levels, body temperature, even stress levels. Users can also check blood glucose by inserting test strips into the phone. Results can be shared with caretakers, physicians, etc., via email or text. The phone also reminds users to take medication and includes a pedometer application and diet apps. LifeWatch is seeking approval as a medical diagnostic device in the EU and the U.S.
56. Menu-Free Dining. As more restaurants try to be all things to all diners in this era of fussy eating—catering to a multitude of dietary restrictions and food allergies—some are going in the other direction, adopting a limited options approach. The prix-fixe-only or “table d’Hote” menu are catching on outside Europe: The concept has been a hit for restaurants like Torrisi Italian Specialties and Chef’s Table in New York, Next in Chicago and 12 Chairs in Shanghai, which all serve elaborate multicourse meals. Watch also for ultra-minimalist restaurants like mini-chain Burger Et Lobster in London where you can order a burger, lobster or a lobster roll.
57. Midcalorie Foods. The concept isn’t new (and some previous offerings have bombed), but food scientists are doing better at producing tasty products that compromise between all or nothing. With consumers wary of “light” and diet foods but looking for healthier choices, it’s a potentially lucrative niche. Pepsi has launched Next (60 calories and 60% less sugar), and Coke is testing 70-calorie versions of Sprite and Fanta. Hershey’s new Simple Pleasures treat has 30% less fat, while Frito-Lay has added new flavors of its reduced fat Kettle Cooked chips.
58. Mindful Living. Consumers are developing a post-recessionary, quasi-Zen desire to experience everything in a more present, conscious way. Mindful eating involves savoring every bite without distraction from electronics and even conversation. Mindful running pays careful attention to form. Mindful shopping means not overspending and buying only what’s needed to feel fulfilled in the present. Once the domain of the spiritual set, mindful living is filtering into the mainstream as more people feel drawn to the idea of shutting out distractions and focusing on the moment.
59. Mobile-Optimized Goes Mainstream. Smartphone sales worldwide now eclipse those of PCs, with a growing proportion of smartphone owners accessing the web primarily through the mobile device. But as many as 6 in 10 of Google’s top advertisers did not yet have a mobile-optimized website as of April 2012. As consumer patience with mobile-unfriendly experiences wears thin (4 in 10 already shift to a competitor’s site after a bad experience), expect 2013 to be a turning point, with the vast majority of marketers’ sites optimized by year-end.
60. MOOC Stars. As more people sign on to MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), we’ll see a cohort of star instructors emerging. Whereas teaching skills are often secondary to research work at universities, this platform will push the most compelling lecturers to the top—perhaps even enabling them to command Hollywood-level salaries, as some have predicted. One rising star is Duke philosophy professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, whose Coursera class “Think Again: How to Reason and Argue”has a roster of 150,000 students.
61. Nature As Antidote. With urbanization rising steadily—today more than half the world’s population lives in cities, compared to less than 40% in 1990—more people will retreat to nature to escape the pressures, noise, pollution, traffic and other stressors of the city. We’ll also see this urge manifest in other ways, from an embrace of natural, organic elements in d๏ฟฝcor to ever more nature-themed entertainment programming.
62. Neurotechnology. “Brain power” is starting to take on a new meaning. New advances in the field of neurotechnology—connecting technology to the brain and central nervous system—go beyond bionic limbs to robotics controlled by the brain. In 2012, Nature published a successful test of robot arms controlled by brain activity. Israel is looking to become the center of this new universe, with Israel Brain Technologies offering a $1 million prize to anyone who “can demonstrate an extraordinary breakthrough in brain technology.” While neurotechnologies promise hope for spinal cord injuries, Alzheimer’s and ALS, some ethicists are preaching caution, lest we get into wars involving brain-controlled weaponry.
63. New Digital Royalty. When Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, gives birth, this bundle of joy will be the first member of English royalty born in the age of social media. It will be the most tweeted, blogged about and photographed royal baby in history, and the first of many world leaders with a digital trail following them from birth. Watch for the royal family to embrace severe caution, lest they face future “Prince Harry goes to Vegas” scandals.
64. News Bites. As smartphones proliferate, more people are catching up with the news on their mobile devices. Watch for consumers to adopt apps that use algorithms to provide summaries of news stories, making it easy to stay current with a quick scan. Summly an iPhone app created by Nick D’Aloisio, who has been called “the Internet’s newest boy genius,” boils news stories down to about 400 words. And Wavii is a new app (and site) that pares articles to a simple sentence. For both apps, users can narrow the feed to topics of their choice.
65. NFC Tags. With about 300 million near field communication enabled mobile devices expected to sell worldwide in 2013, watch for wide adoption of customizable NFC tags. Users can program these small tags (which also come in other forms, like bracelets) to initiate an array of functions on mobile devices—e.g., just tap the phone to switch it to a silent mode, send messages or open up apps. Brand including Sony (Xperia Smart Tags) and Samsung (TecTiles stickers) are now in the game. The tags have interesting potential for brands, which can use them to simplify processes like downloading info or even making a purchase.
66. Objects With Attitude. As more everyday objects evolve into connected tech-infused smart devices, they’re gaining their own voice. Toyota Friend, which launched in Japan in 2012, is a social network of sorts that connects customers with their cars. Drivers can “friend” their vehicle, then see info like battery charge and fuel level. Ericsson is developing a prototype Facebook-like interface where users can see detailed messages or instructions from their smart objects (lamps, fridges, ovens, etc.). As objects become interactive, marketers will need to provide them with personalities.
67. Offset Thinking. Offsets aren’t just for carbon anymore. As a way of encouraging people and corporations to act more responsibly, the idea of mitigating one’s harmful activities is taking hold. The ecologically minded have been pushing biodiversity and water offsets. In the U.S., two lighthearted sites offer up chicken offsets for people who want a Chick-fil-A sandwich but don’t support the company’s stance against same-sex marriage.
68. Online Groceries. Online grocery shopping is slowly going mainstream as more consumers start purchasing across channels. A 2012 global Nielsen survey found that 26% of respondents planned to buy food and beverage products using a digital device in the next three to six months, up from 18% in 2010. In the U.S., IBISWorld is forecasting annual growth of 9.5% in the sector.
69. Paperless Education. The days of telling students to put pencil to paper are on the way out. Thanks to the quick adoption of tablet computers, the idea of “paperless education” is gaining adherents worldwide. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said traditional textbooks should be obsolete “over the next few years”; South Korea is aiming for its schools to be fully paperless by 2015; and the UAE is handing out tablets at its major higher-education institutions.
70. Passwords 2.0. “The age of the password has come to an end,” wrote Wired’s Matt Honan in November. With hacking and email phising rising dramatically, we’ll see more complex alternatives replacing traditional passwords. Two factor authentication—which requires two different forms of identify proof—is now offered by Gmail, PayPal and Dropbox. LaunchKey, an app with private beta, offers a similar service. Biometric security which relies on facial recognition, fingerprints or voice patterns, is already coming to smartphones.
71. Patchwork Earnings. The Millennial Generation is sowing as many professional seeds as they can, driven in part by an economy that necessitates cobbling together an income and aided by sites such as Esty and Kickstarter that help turn side projects into profitable ventures. Forbes called this “multi-careerism”; MTV dubs it “sidetrepreneurism.” We termed it “patchwork earnings” in Generation Go, one of our 10 Trends for 2012; the phenomenon is only gaining steam as nontraditional career paths become the norm.
72. Personal Data Ownership. With online and mobile consumers generating greater amounts of data and businesses growing more adept at leveraging it, the question of who owns that information is coming to the fore. Increasingly, people will start to perceive their data as currency. We’ll see consumers adopt services like Reputation.com’s upcoming data vault, Personal and Qty that help users limit how much is shared or platforms that help them profit from their data. Users of Enliken download software that tracks their Web activity; the money generated from selling the data is then directed to designated charities.
73. Prime Time for Second Screen. 2013 may be the year the Internet gains true legitimacy for its originally programming. In April, Netflix answers fans’ calls to revive the cult hit Arrested Development. Hulu, Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft (and possibly Amazon) are all recruiting big-name talent to develop attention-getting programming, while YouTube’s $100 million bet on programming channels is well underway. With so much invested, high-quality web programming is almost too big to fail.
74. Privacy Etiquette. The more that digital sharing becomes a ubiquitous part of life, the more people are looking to formulate rules around the behavior; an etiquette for how and what is shared. Watch for social media users to start thinking twice about behaviors ranging from photo tagging to posting congratulatory notes on Facebook as they grow more tuned in to sensitivities around personal privacy. We’ll also see “social media policies” for milestone events such as weddings and baby showers, as well as various other gatherings, with people asking guests not to tweet about, check into or post photos of these intimate occasions.
75. Quiet Products. Watch for marketers to tap into the rising desire for quiet as today’s buzzing, beeping world stirs demand for a retreat from noise. In the U.K., the Noise Abatement Society, a nonprofit dedicate to fighting noise pollution, recently unveiled Quiet Mark, a seal of approval for products that dial down the volume. Lexus, a supporter of the organization, has played up the quietness of its CT200h compact hybrid in a campaign dubbed “Quiet Revolution.”
76. Reduced-Guilt Candy. Consumers can have their cake and eat it too with candy that dials down on the sinful stuff and amps up the beneficial ingredients. The Unreal line—which uses no artificial ingredients and preservatives, corn syrup or hydrogenated oils—came on the U.S. market in 2012 and sells in mainstream outlets like CVS and Target. Supercandy, from a company called Snap Infusion, is marketed as a functional food: Its gummy candies, jelly beans and caramels are enhanced with vitamins and electrolytes and sweetened with evaporated cane juice and tapioca syrup. Meanwhile, Hershey’s new Simple Pleasures chocolates have 30% less fat.
77. Responsive Web Design. The proliferation of online platforms (smartphone, tablet, desktop) is pushing marketers into cross-platform designs that adapt to different screen sizes and devices. Brands that have already adopted this flexible approach include Jack Daniel’s and Starbucks.
78. Retailers Enable Recycling. In a bid to be more green, apparel sellers are ramping up efforts to keep clothing out of landfills. In 2012, Puma introduced Bring Me Back, adding in-store bins into which shoppers can deposit used clothing and shoes (of any brand); the goods are then reused, upcycled for industrial use or recycled into new raw materials. Starting in February, H&M will similarly start collecting used clothing. And Marks & Spencer offers “shwopping” (shopping + swapping), collecting used garments in collaboration with Oxfam.
79. River Cruising. River cruising is slated to make a splash in the travel industry. In 2012, for instance, British cruise brands Voyages of Discovery and Hebridean Island Cruises both introduced river cruises. Other companies are adding river cruise itineraries worldwide, as well as new ships.
80. Self-Service. Consumers will be doing ever more for themselves as businesses cut labor costs by adding new self-service options. Airlines are putting more control in flyers’ hands with the advent of “tag your own” luggage and self-boarding. Self-checkout is becoming more common in retail, and the advent of “smart carts” and mobile “scan and go” apps will put a new spin on the idea. And mobile health tools are enabling patients to monitor their own vital signs. While the benefits of face-to-face interactions are sacrificed, self-service is often more efficient, and today’s consumers frequently prefer to take the reins.
81. Serialized Digital Fiction. Serialized fiction—popularized in the 19th century as a way to sell newspapers and test the commercial viability of a novel—is experiencing a digital revival. It’s a good match for readers accustomed to complex plots on TV shows such as Mad Men, Lost and Breaking Bad. Digital publisher Byliner recently announced Byliner Serials. Plympton, a “studio” for serial fiction co-founded by a former New York Times journalist and a novelist, will provide three of the eight titles that Amazon plans to release under its new Kindle Serials program.
82. Set Jetting. New Zealand has seen a 50% spike in tourist visits since The Lord of the Rings debuted in 2001; now The Hobbit is expected to bring even more travelers to the Pacific nation. Long popular among film fanatics, “set jetting” will become more mainstream, especially as more sites start to tout their Hollywood connections. As part of the promotion for 50 years of James Bond films, the stars made appearances at set locations around the U.K. in 2012. In 2013, Life of Pi (filmed in India) and The Lone Ranger (the American West) are expected to help draw visitors to filming locales.
83. Shopping Hotels. In Middle Eastern countries including the UAE, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain, megamalls with hotels in them are fueling a tourism recovery after the Arab Spring of 2011 took a toll. A Sheraton will open in Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates in 2013, and the upcoming Yas Mall in Abu Dhabi will house seven hotels.
84. Social Media Hacks. With everyone from college admissions officers and employers to potential dates routinely gleaning info from Facebook profiles, people are learning to “hack” the social media system in a bid to maintain a certain image. For instance, some create Facebook profiles under pseudonyms known only to friends and a few reportedly create second profiles portraying an “ideal self,” filled with updates about volunteering and the like. A survey we conducted in the U.S. and U.K. in November 2012 found that 30% of men and 15% of women have created alternative online personas. Watch for more people to game the system as privacy concerns multiply.
85. Standup Desks. As research connects an array of health problems with sitting for prolonged periods—even among those who exercise regularly—watch for the proliferation of stations that enable upright working. Office furniture brand Steelcase has said sales of stand-up desks are expanding at four times the rate of its normal desks; among its offerings: “Walkstations,” which feature a treadmill below a desk. Similarly, Ergo Desktop, which sells adjustable workstations, says sales have quadrupled in the past year.
86. Stress-Monitoring Apps. As we enter the Super Stress Era—one of our 10 Trends for 2013—stress is getting more widely recognized as a serious medical concern, opening up a market for tools that help people manage their stress. Recent examples include Bandu, a prototype developed by MIT neuroscientists and engineers, which monitors stress through a watch and mobile app; Deepak Chopra’s Stress Free, a six-week interactive course that’s available for the iPhone; and GPS for the Soul, an upcoming app from The Huffington Post that will measure stress indicators and help users “get back on course.”
87. Sugru. “Looks like Play-Doh, acts like Super Glue,” said Time of the moldable silicone rubber substance intended to help consumers “hack” everyday objects. Sugru (which means “play” in Gaelic) is slowly gaining wider distribution and more notice from DIYers and “maker” types. “We think that someday people won’t know how they did without it,” says the brand’s Twitter label, a boast that may prove true based on raves around the Web.
88. Tablet Shopping. As a wider array of consumers adopt tablets and more retailers embrace the platform’s opportunities, watch for Tablet Commerce to take off. The appeal of tablet shopping includes a bigger screen than smartphones; a more lean-back experience and easier touch browsing than traditional e-commerce; and aggregation apps (like Catalogue) that let shoppers scan multiple catalogs simultaneously. In a 2012 Shop.org/Forrester Research study, about half of merchants surveyed reported higher average orders from tablets than PCs or smartphones. Watch for more creative tabletbased offerings from online retailers as shopaholics develop a new guilty pleasure.
89. Tech-Enabled Farm-to-Fork. Technology is stepping in to help farmers, restaurateurs and consumers craft a better food system by bypassing industrial distribution centers. A crop of startups is seeking to help farmers with the logistical challenges of distributing directly to consumers, including Farmigo (which connects local producers with American consumers) and Good Eggs (in the San Francisco Bay Area), Mint Market and FarmersWeb (both focused on connecting restaurants with wholesale farm-fresh ingredients), and Hoofty Match, which focuses on meat distribution. Out of Our Own Backyards helps organize community-supported agriculture programs in New Zealand, Australia and Ireland.
90. Teff. Consumed for thousands of years in Ethiopia, this super grain has been slowly gaining favor outside the Horn of Africa, due in part to its exceptional nutritional quality. Teff is gluten-free, full of essential amino acids, high in protein, calcium and fiber, and low in fat. As consumers embrace ancient grains like quinoa and millet, we’ll see more interest in teff flour and recipes that incorporate the tiny grain.
91. Trade School. With no guarantee of a job following college graduation and the cost of higher education soaring, more people are turning to trade schools or apprenticeships instead. In the U.S. especially, as demand for certain skills outpaces supply, this training path his regaining its appeal. Manufacturing programs, for one, are seeing a dramatic rise in enrollment among young people, laid-off midcareer workers and long-time factory workers seeking to add new skills, according to CNNMoney. In Germany, where apprenticeships have long been a standard practice, the youth unemployment rate is the lowest in Europe.
92. Trust Ratings. As the peer-to-peer market expands in size and scope, currency will be only one part of the transactional equation for sites such as Airbnb and TaskRabbit. Enter startups Reptify.com and Connect.Me and nonprofits such as Open Identity Exchange that focus on assigning “trust” ratings that reflect whether someone is a good transactional risk. “New trust networks and the reputation capital networks they generate will reinvent the way we think about wealth, markets, power and personal identity in ways we can’t yet even imagine,” says Collaborative Consumption guru Rachel Botsman.
93. User-Based Insurance. Auto insurance companies are starting to base rates on info such as speed, distance traveled and time of travel, collected directly from customers’ cars. Drivers install a wireless device that links to a car’s computer systems or they can let the insurer access data from a car’s telematics system, such as Ford’s Sync or GM’s OnStar. State Farm, Allstate and Progressive offer the option in some U.S. states; Motaquote, in partnership with TomTom, is among those offering it in the U.K. In Oregon, MetroMile bases insurance rates on miles driven each month.
94. Variable Pricing. Airlines and hotels have long charged different prices for the same seat or room, a practice that’s expanding into more categories with a big boost from technology. Prices are shifting based on time of day, competitors’ pricing, fluctuating demand and individual consumer profiles. For instance: Some Amazon vendors rely on software that constantly adjusts their prices; grocers are starting to use loyalty card data to personalize offers; and demand-based pricing is being tested everywhere from parking spaces to restaurants. With the middle market still squeezed, brands will use variable pricing to cater to both the spenders and the savers.
95. Vegetable Boxes. Watch for this trend, which has long been popular in the U.K., to pop up in more markets and become a new revenue stream for brands and retailers. Vegetable boxes, delivered to customers’ homes, are packed with locally grown and mostly organic produce and sometimes meat and dairy products. They appeal to consumers who want to support local producers directly and enjoy the challenge of cooking with unexpected and sometimes unfamiliar ingredients. In the U.K., small suppliers now have a big rival in Tesco’s new veg-box brand, Soil and Seed.
96. Vertical Farming. In a bid to reduce its dependence on imports, Singapore recently opened the first commercial-scale vertical farm. Its 120 aluminum towers, each 30 feet tall, produce more than 1,000 pounds of vegetables a day. Vertical farming is reputed to be more environmentally sound than traditional farming and also enables year-round agricultural production. Watch for this practice to find followers in other dense population centers.
97. Video Games As Art. “Are video games art? They sure are,” says Paola Antonelli, MoMA’s sr. curator. Increasingly, as other museums align with MoMA’s perspective, video games will come to be viewed as more than entertainment. In March 2012, the Smithsonian Art Museum opened “The Art of Video Games,” showing everything from Atari classics like Pac-Man to contemporary epics like Biooshock and Uncharted 2. In November, New York’s MoMA added a series of video games to its collection, including Tetris, Myst and The Sims.
98. Window Shopping. Store windows are turning into 24/7 retail platforms, via technologies like interactive touch screens and QR codes. In late 2012, PayPal rolled out a test in Amsterdam’s De 9 Straatjes shopping district in which retailers posted QR codes on their storefronts, enabling shoppers with the campaign’s mobile app to scan the code for purchase links to products in the window. And in Germany, shoppers outside one of Adidas’ Neo Label stores were directed to a mobile URL that linked a smartphone with a shopping bag on the window; consumers could then drag products into the bag and buy them or save them for later purchase.
99. Wireless Charging. The worldwide market for products like Duracell’s Powermat—which wirelessly charges a compatible smartphone—is forecast to leap from around $4.9 billion in 2012 to $15.1 billion in 2020. The adoption of an industry standard by a consortium of manufacturers will help propel this rise. Companies including Starbucks and Delta are investing heavily in the technology, putting wireless charges in their stores, lounges and even Madison Square Garden; Intel is looking to embed the technology in Ultrabooks; and Apple was granted a patent for an alternative system in June. Cars could be next, with Toyota’s revamped Avalon sedan set to include a wireless charger.
100. Yogurt Shops. Yogurt has been spiking in popularity, especially in the U.S., as consumers seek healthier snacks and functional foods, and embrace Greek yogurt. Now yogurt is going from the shelf to the streets. Two yogurt brands opened yogurt boutiques in New York in 2012, selling cups of (nonfrozen) yogurt with a range of toppings: Greek yogurt maker Chobani and The Dannon Co., under the subsidiary Yogurt Culture Co. Watch for the concept to spread beyond brand-based ventures.
This is the seventh year JWT is publishing such a list, a complement to JWT’s annual 10 Trends forecast. Some of the things JWT has spotlighted in the past include Crowdsourced Learning, Gen Z and Smart Clothing (in 2012); P-to-P Car Sharing, YouTube the Broadcaster and The Nail Polish Economy (in 2011); Mobile Money, Coconut Water and Bacon Everywhere (in 2010); Lady Gaga, Crowdfunding, WikiLeaks and Gluten-Free (in 2009); Radical Transparency and Staycations (in 2008); and Barack Obama, Jennifer Hudson, Companies Going Green and Age Shuffling (in 2007). For more details, log onto www.jwtintelligence.com.
