The Future 100: A Look Toward Global Trends in 2015 & Beyond

JWT, the world’s best-known marketing communications brand, today released The Future 100, featuring original analysis and insights on 100 key trends and cultural shifts to watch in the year ahead.

“It’s never been more important for brands to understand change, where it’s headed and what it means,” says Lucie Greene, worldwide director of JWTIntelligence. “The fast-paced digital world, instantly accessible information, globalization and social media have accelerated the pace of trends exponentially. Meanwhile, the speed of innovation is requiring brands to take both a short-term and a long-term view, planning strategies not just for the next year but the next 20.

The Future 100 connects the dots between the “what” and the “why,” spanning categories including Culture, Beauty, Brands, Food and Drink, Innovation, Lifestyle, Luxury, Retail, Sustainability and Technology.

In Culture, the report spotlights the rise of the Mipsters (Muslim + hipster) and the growing number of Teetotal Millennials. It also looks at Experiential Public Spaces—the transformation of public spaces via creative immersive projects—and Experiences Going Dark, the advent of unsettling experiences as entertainment. 

Beauty trends include South Korean Beauty: a look at how the axis of influence is changing in the beauty world as the global appetite for South Korean products grows. In Brands, the report covers the rise of 1-for-1, or Third Way Commerce: While charity and profitability have been viewed as mutually exclusive, a “third way” of business models combines social good with sales and marketing, a popular approach with ethically minded Millennials.

The Food and Drink section includes Cold-Pressed Everything (consumers are increasingly fetishizing cold-pressed and unprocessed foods), Guilt-Free To-Go (healthy, ethical fast food will gain momentum as a raft of virtuous brands appropriate junk style for the Millennial generation) and Haute Vegan (a new wave of hip restaurant concepts departs from the hippie vibe associated with meat-free dining).

In Innovation, the report notes the rise of the Tactile Internet as innovators play with haptic technology, wrapping in digital connectivity with physical action, among other trends. And in Lifestyle, the report examines the rise of new centers of influence (for instance, Los Angeles is reinventing itself as a fashion, tech and innovation hub) and the new Adventurist Impulse, as well as the crash in Helicopter Parenting.

The Future 100 also looks to the worlds of Luxury and Retail, where the sharing economy is increasingly aligning with business and luxury, Amazon is launching its first store, and retail experiences are channeling BuzzFeed surveys (see: BuzzFeed Retail).   

Find the full report on the “2015 and beyond” section of JWTIntelligence.com & on SlideShare.