As a global digital agency, one of our top priorities is keeping our collective finger on the pulse of consumer appetites and behavior in digital media. Below, our take on the top 10 digital trends for 2012 that will go mass.
1. Your inner circle
We seek to mirror our social personals in the digital world. But so far,
digital has forced us to bring together not only our social selves, but also
our professional and familial ones, and present a single persona to
everyone we keep in contact with online. The average Facebook user has
130 friends, from BFFs to new acquaintances. Thanks to new filters on
social networks, we can at last separate more easily and filter the people
we know and decide with each post we share what portion of our friends
will access it. Look for greater sophistication in filtering techniques on
social networks over the next 12 months.
Examples: Google circles, Facebook Groups, Twitter Lists
2. Personalized news
We currently create more information in a year than we ever have
historically. Understandably, overwhelmed by the plethora of information
online, people need ways to navigate relevant information and choose
what to read. Already, RSS feeds and social networks facilitate the
process through integration with news sites that allow users to generate
passive status updates by posting content to the wall. Now, applications
that sort content based on digital friendship are emerging. The result:
social reading is the new standard in online content consumption.
Examples: Percolate, News.me, Counterparties, Flipboard, Zite
3. Rent, don't own
Today we can get more entertainment for less. The average Netflix user
spends over 11 hours per month watching movies. Digital has changed
our sense of ownership and the behavior of renting is extending into
categories beyond media and car rental where we realize that our use for
certain products is limited and therefore do not warrant a purchase – think
of infant clothes or art for home or office interiors.
Examples: Plumgear.com, Artsicle.com
4. Seamless transactions
We're always demanding that our processes become more efficient,
quicker and safer, especially when it comes to our bank account. We now
carry at least one screen with us at all times. Forty percent of US
consumers own a Smartphone, which has becomes so much more than a
phone. Transactions are quickly becoming fully integrated with our
screens in multiple ways, from paying with our phones to executing
financial transactions. Expect to see additional shifts in how we conduct
our banking and financial matters.
Examples: Bitcoins, Google Wallet, Monitise, Square Card, Facebook
Credits
5. Home, body, web
Technology is fast reaching a tipping point where it is both sufficiently
small and affordable (well,…almost) to allow us to monitor our bodies and
adapt to our environment automatically. In San Francisco, over 1700
members of "Quantified Self," a MeetUp group focused on personal
measurement – whether through geotracking, life-logging or personal DNA
sequencing. Our interest in leading healthier lifestyles, and automating the
process through technology and sharing our results and experience, is
increasing dramatically. NikePlus was only the beginning.
Examples: Nest.com, Jawbone Up
6. Ubiquitous accessibility
Moore's Law predicts that data storage capabilities double every two
years, so our demand for data and data accessibility is huge. With the
cloud, physical storage space is becoming obsolete. We access data from
multiple devices, whether at home or on the go. Not long ago we stored
our digital files locally, but the development of the cloud allows us to store
larger amounts online. This is a storage solution that will become more
prevalent as companies allow cloud access and service offerings drop in
price.
Examples: Bitcasa, DropBox, Google Docs, Instapaper, iCloud, SkyDrive
7. The reliable subscription
We are creatures of habit and we want availability of the products we love
in our busy lifestyle. In the past decades we have become an increasingly
time-starved society, limiting our availability to maintain our routines.
Subscription services are making a comeback and allowing us the
reliability of indulging in our favorite habits.
Examples: ManPacks, PlaneRed, Lollihop, Memberly
8. Short-term nostalgic obsessions
Nostalgia has always been integral to our culture, but being able to
catalog everything we do, everywhere we go, whom we see and where we
travel has created a new obsession with the recent past. We like to
analyze our recent life through check-ins and status updates and to
enhance our tactile experiences by bringing digital things to life. As we
become more immersed in digital objects, our desire to revisit the not-so-
recent past will increase.
Examples: Little printer, Instaprint, FoursquareAnd7YearsAgo
9. Location-based discovery
Seeing the same place through someone else's perspective enriches it
with new meaning. We want to discover and share the hidden gems
around us. Interactive websites and mobile social apps are helping us
make creative archives on locations. We catalogue these discoveries and
geo-tag them to participate in an evolving public portrait of a place,
creating a collective multimedia experience.
Examples: MyBlockNYC, Trover, Foursquare Radar, Google Maps, Tour
Wrist
10. Control over data
Data has become an intricate part of our lives. We're now able to quantify
all our digital actions and more services catering to specialized activities
have emerged, from tracking our web history to monitoring a car's fuel
consumption every inch of travel. We are becoming aware of the value of
the data we share online, and may start making decisions differently –
perhaps, charging for access to our data.
Examples: Ford Sync, LastFM, Goodreads, reading.am, Voy.url
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