231) Predictive Lists

I've been perusing agency blogs lately, and came upon JWT Intelligence's 10 Trends for 2011 this afternoon. It's certainly the season for such predictive lists - every industry puts out their own version towards the end of the year (ex. 2011 National Restaurant Trends, Fashion Trends 2011.)

My favorites on this list are #5: De-teching, #6: Retail as a Third Space, and #8: Worlds Colliding. The three are interrelated, different sides of the same, er, impossibly three-sided thing. First, the idea that our ever-increasing consumption of and engagement with technology will make us seek offline "down" time. It's almost as if we inherently feel guilty when we spend too much time plugged in, even if we are working, learning, or socializing digitally. Even in the days before the Internet, spending the whole day zoning out in front of the TV was looked down upon. Imaging the ways in which brands could act as enablers of face to face, analog interactions is intriguing, as there is such an avalanche of brands going digital. It almost seems counter-intuitive.

Retail as a third space. I read an article recently about whether or not brick and mortar retail spaces are dying due to the rise of e-commerce. Their argument was that no, the consumer still sees value in stores, but that the in-store and online shopping experiences must be made seamless. I much prefer the way JWT puts it - that the in-store experience should only partly be about shopping. I think there is huge opportunity for stores to also become educational learning hubs and social venues, much like their online counterparts are.

Lastly, worlds colliding. Faithful readers will now that I am a firm believer that the separation of online and offine worlds is silly and dated. We are constantly overlaying our online life onto our real life (using Google Maps on the street, broadcasting what we're doing and where we are).

And just for fun, here is JWT's 10 Trends for 2010. Accurate? Yes, no, maybe so?