GLOBAL – NEW YORK, JANUARY 2, 2012: The annual list of JWT’s To Watch in 2012 showcases broader shifts in the industry such as more brands in more categories, greater brand and consumer awareness in curbing food waste, screened interactions, and digital platforms.
“Many of the items on our list reflect broader economic, environmental, technological and social developments we’ve been tracking, while others have potential to ladder up to bigger trends,” says Ann Mack, JWT’s director of trendspotting.
Technology has a prominent presence on JWT’s Things to Watch: Among other things, the list spotlights the rise of LCD art, growing concerns over cloud and mobile security, the much-anticipated Facebook IPO and interactive screens infiltrating our retail and restaurant experiences. The list also includes noteworthy events on the calendar, people to keep an eye on, and things to watch in marketing, retailing, travel, food and sustainability.
The following is JWT’s list of 100 Things to Watch in 2012 in alphabetical order (descriptions of each can be found in the “2012 and beyond” section of JWTIntelligence.com):
1. Access Everywhere
2. Album Evolution
3. All Things Military-Inspired
4. Antique Eats
5. Anywhere, Any-Way Shopping
6. App Overload
7. Apps for an Aging World
8. The Attention Economy mai
9. Batuka
10. Benefit Corporations
11. Book Club 2.0
12. BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)
13. Cloud Security
14. Crowdsourced Commutes
15. Crowdsourced Learning
16. Curbing Food Waste
17. Danger Zone Travel
18. Digital-Into-Physical Postcards
19. Electric Fleets
20. Facebook’s IPO
21. Facial Recognition Fury
22. Fat Taxes
23. Flipped Classrooms
24. Floating Yoga
25. For-Profit Chains, Nonprofit Stores
26. Fuel From Waste
27. Garden Camping
28. Gen Z
29. Gesture Recognition
30. Healthy Vending Machines
31. Heirloom Everything
32. The Hobbit
33. Honey
34. Hydration Stations
35. Indian E-commerce
36. Inhaling
37. Internet-Enabled Cars
38. iTV
39. LCD Art
40. Leadership Shakeups
41. Lighter Cars
42. Loosecubes
43. Lytro
44. Marques Toliver
45. Mobile Security
46. Motivational Objects
47. Mushrooms as Functional Food
48. Mushrooms Go Green
49. Myanmar
50. Nadine Ponce
51. Olympics’ New Sport
52. Online Lives, in Print
53. P-to-P Experiences
54. The Personal Retailer
55. Play as a Competitive Advantage
56. Pluerry
57. Public Bookshelves
58. Rainwater Harvesting
59. Remaking “Made in China”
60. Rolling Stones’ 50th Anniversary Tour
61. Rooftop Farming
62. Roots Revival
63. Scooter Surge
64. Screened Dining
65. Screened Shopping
66. Senior Cohousing
67. Silence
68. Silicon Valley Siblings
69. Smaller SKUs
70. Smart Clothing
71. Smarter Check-ins
72. Social Seating
73. Solar Gets Simpler
74. Spiking Food Prices
75. Split-Personality Smartphones
76. Stationery
77. Stripped-Down Products/Services
78. Sundance London
79. Sustainable Palm Oil
80. Tablets Replace Paper
81. Tap-and-Pay Incentives
82. A Titanic Anniversary
83. Tokyo Sky Tree
84. Tom Daley
85. Toys for Tablets
86. TV Commerce
87. “Ultra”
88. Unwrapping the Process
89. Vdio
90. Video-grams
91. Virtual Fitting Rooms
92. Voice-Based Microblogging
93. Voice Control
94. Web Chat Everywhere
95. Wii U
96. Women-Only Hotel Floors
97. Your Public Story
98. YouTube, the New Boob Tube
99. Zimbabwe
100. Zink
