Thinking

Lets keep this simple, Contagious Magazine rounds up the landmark events, movements and socio economic shifts that have shaped and influenced 2012.  An interesting retrospective if you have the time to spare.

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In JWT’s eighth annual forecast of future trends technology continues to take center stage.  As a result many of the surrounding trends, from business models, to personal ID’s and crowd sourced product build on the accelerating role of tech in our lives. You’ll also notice the emergence of health as a growing human priority, not surprising given the speed at which our lives revolve at now and the increasing stress that comes with a multi-multi-tasking society.  Enjoy and share.

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Apparently 2013 will be the perfect storm of necessity and opportunity.  Trendwatching.com believe some economies will do OK(-ish), others will be shaky, but in whatever market or industry you look at the opportunities are still there, you just might need to look a little harder or act a little smarter.  Think about the changing global economy (Eastern influence continues to grow), changing consumer needs (transparency and availability through mobile), big business bothers (Best Buy, HP, any department store you care to think of), not only new technologies but old technologies being applied in new ways (GPS for one) and new business models (death of ad funded, rise of free-mium, death of free-mium, rise of…).  What’s not to look forward to in 2013?

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The rising influence of technology, increasing transparency, consumer voice, shifting retail models, global accessibility, accelerating veticalisation of brands, smartphone ubiquity, the list goes on and its why many people believe we are in the midst of an economic shift on par with the change experienced during the industrial revolution.  The world we live in is altered everyday by the continued impact of digital.  Some days the increments are small, others its huge.  Brands and businesses rise and fall, products get smarter or more connected, platforms and experiences appear and disappear, it all adds up to what Peter Fisk succinctly calls, Game-changers.  A presentation well worth a read.

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It’s that time of year again…and by that I mean Q4.  From this point on my trends prediction is that we’ll start to see an acceleration on the release of 2013 digital trends presentations!  Here’s the proverbial first cab off the rank by Dynamit which covers CMO/CTO convergence, Mobility, The Quantified Self (!), Fragmentation and Location.  Enjoy.

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To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Discovery Channels ‘Shark Week’ Volkswagen decided to get involved and shake things up a little bit.  So what dod they shake up?  The shark cage of course!  Why dive in a static box when you can cruise the oceans floor on a funky VW Beetle shaped skeleton car!  Yep, totally bonkers, and totally awesome!

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Nice deck by Kyle Lacy from ExactTarget on changing consumer behaviour.  Some interesting ideas and direction around mobile, data and service as well as some gems on the increasing need for brand and personalisation.  However as a consumer (marketing hat taken off) I take offence to the idea that my path to purchase was ever predictable or controlled.  It’s so easy to package up today’s consumer revolution as a dynamic shift in behaviour compared to a tired and linear process of yester-year.  Fact is the path to purchase was never ‘linear, predictable or controlled’.  It has always been fluid and dynamic.  We as marketers just have more opportunities to influence that process thanks to the consumer being increasingly digital.

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Great summary of an important theme coming out of the Cannes Lions this year.  How can brands be more generous.  Bridget Jung (Chief Creative Officer at Digitas) hand picks the best ideas and case studies that turn the traditional notion of capitalism on its head and shows that businesses can care if they really want to!

The buzz around the Cannes Lions always lingers.  when you get the worlds best communications brains in one place its inevitable exceptional thinking will result.  Following on from Jesse Desjardins 100 Awesome Slides From The Cannes Lions 2012 the presentation maestro has pulled together another great deck aggregating his notes and100 awesome quotes from the best minds at Cannes.

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Did you attend but were too partied out to pay attention, or were you jealously following the tweets like I was from afar?  Either way Jesse Desjardins (as he did last year) has pulled together a great snapshot of not only some of the thinking but also how important the story and creative delivery is.  Enjoy.