Trendwatching

Busy, busy, busy.  Busy is a good thing, but too often I let the urgent push out the important.  So many bright, shiny objects floating around Web 2.0 these days.

One of those bright-shiny do-dads is Trendwatching.com and their monthly briefing.  Yes, I know, trends have been a trend since before trend watching was cool.  New ideas flowed out of the Coast media empires into the Heartland and overseas.  It used to be we had to wait for a big fat book on the latest-greatest to make it’s way through the publishing world.  By the time we read it in print that just meant we could officially dismiss the trend as over the hill.

Jumped the shark, so to speak.

The time it takes to jump the shark has compressed considerably;  however, the diversity and inertia of trends zigging and zagging across a wired world is staggering.  Macro trends get bigger, micro trends get smaller, and if you blink you’ll miss them all.

Which in itself isn’t a bad thing.  In fact, ignoring trends is becoming a trend in itself.

Somewhere along the line I twittered upon Trendwatching.com website out of Amsterdam.  It’s a brighter, shinier version of the usual trend guru / marketing shop.  They’ve lured me in with their free-ware.  It’s really just positioning to hook you on their paid materials.  I gots no budget so I’m just gummin’ their hooks…

Take a look for yourself, just don’t blame me for any buyer’s remorse.

2010 is rapidly approaching; we hope the December edition of our Trend Briefing, detailing 10 trends for 2010, will assist you in getting things going (again). Go straight to the Briefing, or quickly scan the 10 trends below:

1. BUSINESS AS UNUSUAL | Forget the recession: the societal changes that will dominate 2010 were set in motion way before we temporarily stared into the abyss. More »

2. URBANY | Urban culture is the culture. Extreme urbanization, in 2010, 2011, 2012 and far beyond will lead to more sophisticated and demanding consumers around the world. More »

3. REAL-TIME REVIEWS | Whatever it is you’re selling or launching in 2010, it will be reviewed ‘en masse’, live, 24/7. More »

4. (F)LUXURY | Closely tied to what constitutes status, which itself is becoming more fragmented, luxury will be whatever consumers want it to be over the next 12 months. More »

5. MASS MINGLING | Online lifestyles are fueling ‘real world’ meet-ups like there’s no tomorrow, shattering all predictions about a desk-bound, virtual, isolated future. More »

6. ECO-EASY | To really reach some meaningful sustainability goals in 2010, corporates and governments will have to forcefully make it ‘easy’ for consumers to be more green, by restricting the alternatives. More »

7. TRACKING & ALERTING | Tracking and alerting are the new search, and 2010 will see countless new INFOLUST services that will help consumers expand their web of control. More »

8. EMBEDDED GENEROSITY | Next year, generosity as a trend will adapt to the zeitgeist, leading to more pragmatic and collaborative donation services for consumers. More »

9. PROFILE MYNING | With hundreds of millions of consumers now nurturing some sort of online profile, 2010 will be a good year to help them make the most of it (financially), from intention-based models to digital afterlife services. More »

10. MATURIALISM | 2010 will be even more opinionated, risque, outspoken, if not ‘raw’ than 2009; you can thank the anything-goes online world for that. Will your brand be as daring? More »

We’re confident that applying the above to your business will bring you at least one profitable, zeitgeist-compatible innovation in 2010!

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