10 Jan 5 Consumer Trend Opportunities for 2022
It’s 2022. We’re already two years into a transformative and strange decade. So, what’s the theme of this year? In short: action. Our Marketing Team’s have put together 5 trends examples provide the fuel you need to take your mission up a notch.
1. THINK LOCAL
After surveying consumers across the UK, ASICS decided the town of Retford was due a pick-me-up. In collaboration with Mind it launched ‘Uplifting Retford‘, an event to highlight the mental health benefits of exercise. Citizens exercised for 20 minutes, logging how they felt before and after on the brand’s Mind Uplifter web page – a feedback tool that uses self-reporting and facial recognition.
Recent lockdowns strengthened calls to improve the environmental and social fabric of cities. Consumers are doing their bit. A third (32%) of global consumers claim their neighborhood banded together mid-pandemic. Can your brand make urban life better, in more ways than one?
Start with a community where your company is already established. What are their needs? Do they align with your core values? …
2. EQUITY ZONE
National politics may get the headlines, but resources are allocated and priorities are set in school boards and on city councils. In a bid to make local government sexy, John Legend recently launched HUMANLEVEL. The organisation will help community leaders in areas disproportionately impacted by institutionalised racism to create long-lasting change.
As the pandemic scoured the globe, trust in institutions, corporates and even religious leaders waned. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of people trust local community leaders more than CEOs and politicians.
Bridge this trust gap with initiatives that empower local changemakers. Consumers expect brands to wade in on front-page issues, but it’s crucial to support transformation at a grassroots level to create measurable impact. Does your company have the resources to amplify those voices?
3. GO SLOW
Trainhugger is taking trains to an even greener level: one tree is planted in the UK for every ticket sold. Offering the same routes at the same prices as other ticket sellers, the British booking platform provides consumers the convenience they’re accustomed to, with verdant, carbon-storing benefits at no extra cost.
Faced with apocalyptic headlines, consumers expect sustainability to be embedded in every product or service. It’s a matter of mental wellbeing. Almost half of young people (46%) claim eco-anxiety affects their daily life and functioning.
Trainhugger incentivises consumers to engage with slow travel — proven to have positive mental health benefits — by embedding a carbon-offsetting service within each ticket. Can you help consumers make the most of their time by introducing guilt-busting add-ons that enhance wellbeing?
4. END LONELINESS
‘Sit here if you don’t mind someone stopping to say hello!’ That’s the invitation — in Polish, Hebrew and English — to connect with strangers on Krakow’s new park benches, known locally as Gaduławka. Happy-to-chat benches were brought to Poland by Krzysiek Sabuda, a marketing specialist at Fulco System, which builds outdoor furniture and is sponsoring the initiative.
A third of the world’s adults reported feeling lonely in 2021, rising to 50% in some regions. With loneliness tied to depression and cognitive decline, it’s time for brands to start tackling this far more stealthy pandemic. The most powerful antidote to loneliness is an IRL human connection – not so easy to find in today’s busy, tech-saturated world. Can you nudge people out of their lockdown bubbles and help them connect in meaningful ways?
5. USE THE METAVERSE
Rethinking traditional school career counselling, Careers Wales has launched CareersCraft — a virtual world, hosted on Minecraft, designed to help students identify their strengths. Users roam around various landmarks in Wales, completing challenges and activities along the way. At the end, they’re presented with career paths that best match their soft skills.
The metaverse is teeming with opportunities – yes, for play and personal development. As it starts to take shape, companies should ask themselves: what will our legacy look like?
CareersCraft aims to get students excited about their future by lifting them out of the classroom and into an interactive environment. Can you use the metaverse to broaden consumers’ horizons – to introduce them to ideas and concepts they wouldn’t ordinarily encounter?
COVID-19 accelerated digital transformation, with years of progress crammed into months. What was previously awkward, niche, or even unimaginable suddenly became mind-numbingly normal: Zoom meetings, online conferences and classrooms, digital-only friends, buying groceries online, and yes… working from home, or wherever the laptop is. Although it might feel like we’re already at peak digital, expect completely unforeseen possibilities to emerge.
As physical and digital worlds continue to converge, we’re witnessing the next evolution of the internet. While yesterday’s web was dominated by websites and social media, the next iteration will be defined by virtual worlds, metaverses, and augmented phygital realities. Are you ready?