PHILIPPINES, JANUARY 19, 2011 – This week, JWT Manila presented the JWTIntelligence report “The Top 10 Trends of 2011” to the press and to top clients at separate events in Makati City. The trend report predicts this year to be dominated by games, tech, and personalization.
The first of the compiled trends on the report is “All the World’s A Game”, predicting that rise of brands out to play. Brands apply game mechanics to drive certain actions or behaviors. An example of this is the Pier Roxas mystery campaign, where viewers are challenged to put together the story of a man identified as Pier Roxas, who lost eight days of his life. User-generated content resulted in eight films shot with the Nokia N8 cellphone.
This game environment is followed by “The Urgency Economy”. As seen in sites such as Groupon, and CashCashCash Pinoy, or even those on the lookout for Cebu Pacific discounts, people are driven to buy all while bagging the best deal in that little window of time. JWT Head Planner Pam Garcia says that the Urgency Economy is also a way for people to bond and compete with each other, helping each other get the best deals while showing off who got the better deal on Twitter and Facebook.
Yet consumers are part of a “Non-Commitment Culture”. A repercussion of last year’s recession, consumers are wary of having a long-term commitment to a product. If before it was about having a house or a car to call your own, brands now have “temporary” options. In the Philippines, consider the popularity of the pre-paid option.
Tech is becoming as essential a commodity as food and water under the fourth trend, “Eat, Pray, Tech”. The smartphone is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity to keep up with an interconnected, high-tech world. But alongside needing tech comes a need to “De-Tech”, to log off and engage in offline activities. “Unplugging” or “Facebook less” is becoming as common as “losing weight” for a New Year’s resolution.
The next four trends are about the world around us. “Retail as Third Space” talks about how shops will become more than just a shop, but an entire experience. In the Philippines, the mall culture has long been defined as a way for a family or groups of people to bond and hang, rather than a place to get goods and go. The shopping space is no longer defined by its mass, but what they have to experience. An optical shop in SM, for example, scans a customer’s face and lets him see how he looks with different eyeglass frames.
In creating an experience, brands are now also able to do more through “Creative Urban Renewal”. Corporate Social Responsibility can be more than feel-good activities but programs that bring entire communities together. When the public sector fails to live up to its promise, corporations and brands have filled in the gaps. So more than just selling a brand, the name can truly stands for something meaningful.
As worlds are created, they also collide. Under “Worlds Colliding”, offline and online worlds find a way to link. Not only is your smartphone connected, but even fridges and dog collars may find their own internet access before we know it. In the U.S., a Calvin Klein ad displayed a QR codes on a billboard. Scanning it on a mobile phone leads the mobile user to a sexy commercial featuring Lara Stone.
It is also the time for customization, or “Hyper Personalization”. More brands will cater to consumers through their location, interests, or social network, making their product especially for him or her. It has been suggested for local brands who have engaged in Facebook picture contests with consumer and the brand at work, for them to share an experience related to that brand instead.
And finally, consumers will “Outsource Self-control” in different aspects of their lives. While banks have previously rewarded consumer spending, more and more banks are offering the option to limit consumer spending.
These trends paint 2011 as a brave new world to experience, offline or online, but are brands ready to take that leap? This is the year to be bold, to try technology and to find the perfect fit between brands and the life we now live.
