The following is a part of our first Annual Trends Report. Stay tuned as we release the full report in the coming weeks.
New York Yankees catcher, Yogi Berra once said, “It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future.” Those words of wisdom have perhaps never been more relevant than they are today. It seems almost trite to say that the pace of change in our industry and our world is accelerating, but that doesn’t make it any less true. As a purpose-driven marketing agency focused on helping clients drive transformational business impact, we are looking at trends that impact our industry for two reasons:
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We need to understand where our space is going in order to evolve our offerings and provide our clients with the solutions that will set them up for long-term success.
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We recognize that these changes are not set in stone. The way that we all react to these trends will help to write the future of our industry. We all have a part to play in that, and understanding these trends is critical to understanding how to best play our part.
Against this backdrop of change, we are pleased to present our first annual trends report. First, though, we’d like to offer a quick explanation of our approach to trendspotting. The lens we view this through is, of course, the relevance of trends to the world of marketing. Sometimes this is obvious, but sometimes it’s more nuanced.
We track macro trends that are more consequential and enduring, along with micro trends that tend to be more timebound and ladder up to the larger trends. It is the former that we present here in part one of our annual trends report. We’ve plotted these macro trends on two axes: impact and urgency, breaking them into four quadrants.
Significant Finds: These are the trends in the upper right quadrant, and they are the ones that we are watching most closely. They not only have the potential to significantly impact our industry, but they are also urgent. These are the trends that command our attention in the here and now.
Current Observations: These trends live in the lower right quadrant of the chart. They are happening now, and they are important to watch, but their potential impact on our industry is not as significant as the most impactful trends.
Emerging Matters: These are the trends that occupy the upper left quadrant of our chart. They have the potential to transform our industry significantly, but that impact seems likely to occur further into the future than some of the other trends.
Future Predictors: These are trends that fall into the lower left quadrant. They are less urgent, and while they are important to keep an eye on, their potential impact on our industry is not as significant as other trends.
Stay tuned for our full annual trends report.
