The shift to more sustainable, inclusive consumerism is the trend of all trends - any organization keen to claim its spot in this transformational decade will have to run with the most meaningful opportunities out there.
We're grounded in purpose and it's our mission to inspire you to find and take action on those opportunities - we’re scanning the world for them every day - truly powered by AI and humans.
Learn more on the 'how', below (we did our best to keep it brief 😬).
Our trend intelligence is based on a robust methodology, honed over more than 10 years, helping us to spot emerging consumer expectations and guide thousands of clients.
At the heart of our methodology is a concurrence of Basic Human Needs, Macro-Trends and Innovations.
Consumer trends emerge when relatively constant Basic Human Needs (e.g. community or self-expression) bump against ever-changing Macro-Trends (e.g. climate crisis, ageing societies).
When this intersection occurs, tension arises. Innovations resolve that tension and consequently create new trends, new consumer expectations. ➡️
We now all act, contribute and compete in an expectation economy that transcends industries, borders and price points.
You aren't just competing with others in their industry or market, you compete with the latest expectation setting innovation from any industry or market. Once people have experienced TikTok's algorithm, Patagonia's sustainability standards, Apple's UX or Zappos' customer service, it's hard for them to tolerate 'normal' alternatives.
Ultimately, developing a cross-industry mindset (something that's been at the core of our approach for many years now) and understanding how consumers transfer expectations from one product, service or brand experience to another, will help you to set consumer expectations instead of meeting them.
Trends and expectations are exciting, but to structure and focus, you also need a multi-layered trend framework. This is how we built ours:
Macro-Trends
These are the bigger shifts that play out across many years or even decades with a large-scale impact. They summarize all major forces across society, technology, economy, ecology, and politics that have a direct or indirect impact on consumer behavior.
Mega-Trends
You can view our Mega-Trends as the building blocks of the consumer arena. They identify the points of tension that Macro-Trends create when they intersect with consumers' basic needs.
Sub-Trends
With our database of around 200 Sub-Trends we spotlight the opportunities and innovations that arise from the above mentioned tension. They incite action by explaining how you can start running with emerging expectations today.
Niches
These are emerging ideas and experimental concepts at the fringes of consumerism. They are often quite industry-focused but have the potential to become wider consumer trends.
Now, let's face it, without meaningfully applying trends and insights, all of our work is useless.
Hence our focus on truly sustainable and purposed trend-driven innovation. You'll find some of the ideation tools we use to help clients to apply and act on trends in our Toolbox, which includes our Consumer Trend Radar and Consumer Trend Canvas.
Last but not least: the actual trend and innovation spotting!
For over 20 years now, with help from our researchers, analysts, spotters, endless business sources, technologies and personal encounters, we’ve been immersed in the actual scanning and curating of trends and opportunities. With gusto.
It's given and continues to give us a unique and forever fascinating perspective on how trends evolve, how the niche and the fringe, again and again, become mainstream, and how consumer behavior and innovations spread globally faster than ever before. Even more exciting: the related opportunities this brings to those who are tuned-in, informed and curious.
And yes, there is more to track, more to monitor, more to get inspired by than ever before.
The sheer amount of smart professionals now innovating, the abundance of exciting start-ups, and the countless thinkers sharing their brilliant business insights with the world instantly and relentlessly, from Bulgaria to Indonesia to Canada. Now add in AI, and we're in for a couple of insane years. Again.
Making the most of this 'overwhelm' is a 24/7 endeavor. It's also what we do, live and love. Check out the full process:
Our diverse team of trend analysts is constantly on the lookout for valuable trends, insights and innovations which are fed into our research system in dedicated channels and formats on a daily basis.
15 trend analysts, 12 nationalities
Gen Z to Boomer 😉
100s of projects, publications, presentations
We're all over AI, and AI is all over us 😉
Internally, we've been using AI for years to track thousands of sources, including online magazines, social media, industry online news, blogs, and newsletters. But we also extensively use AI research, analysis and ideation tools, as well as virtual analysts specialising in specific topics, trends, industries and/or regions. Besides the actual output, we are now actively making some of these tools available to our clients, too.
1,200+ sources tracked
80+ industry, region and topic feeds
30+ AI analysis tools and bots
Our global trend community helps us to spot hyper-local insights and innovations. Via Slack, trend and innovation professionals from all over the world share meaningful content with our analysts 24/7.
100+ spotters
30+ countries
400+ spottings per month
This is where all resource streams come together and where we prioritize, categorize and archive all of our spottings - truly our internal pool of insights.
Collaborative insights database
200+ insights and spottings saved per week
Non-stop curation
This is where we connect patterns and make sense of all of our spotting. Weekly trend idea discussions in our analyst team turn signals into clear insights.
Weekly trend idea discussions - human x human x AI
Daily fine-tuning of our Trend Framework
Integration of local perspectives
Ultimately, our proprietary content is added to Amplify, our trend intel platform. Some of it also ends up in our Free Trend Updates.
15 mega trends and 230+ sub-trends
Database of 28,000+ innovations across 16 B2C industries & various regions
100s of trend reports
Amplify is our trend intelligence platform, giving you access to our full Trend Framework, Innovation Database with 31,000+ innovations, Industry Reports, Stats, Training, Analyst Support and more. Powered by humans and AI, and used by 100s of global B2C brands and agencies.
NEW | Experience the platform yourself — instant access, no card needed — with our free 14 day trial 🙌
Understand, anticipate and ideate with AI's radical impact on consumer behavior and expectations — today.
Check out our portfolio of AI-centric consumer trends, innovations and ideation tools to the next level.
It's going to be a wild ride but we've got you covered!
We run highly curated free Webinars - including our upcoming webinar on AI x Trend-Driven Ideation on 12 September 2024.
Prefer the real world? Then check out our flagship Trend Events around the world.
Want us to come to you and present? Check out our Keynotes and Workshops.
Prepping for 2025 has never been this inspiring!
Talk to Giulia Bolzan, our Business Development Director.
Your message will go straight into her inbox and will be replied to asap.
