Trends

JWT Lists 100 Things to Watch in 2013

JWT LogoJWT has released their list of “100 Things to Watch in 2013.” It’s a fascinating read, especially if you are a solopreneur seeking to create or market new products or services.

While things such as 3D Bioprinting seem a bit far out, the JWT report starts with a recap on the accuracy of previous “things-to-watch” forecasts. For example, the 2012 list included anywhere/any way shopping, smart clothing, and crowdsourced, online learning.

Here are 10 items in the report that might be of special interest to creative pros:

Patchwork Earnings
Sites such as Etsy and Kickstarter are enabling individuals to turn side projects into profitable ventures.  Non-traditional career paths will become the norm and Millennials (and others) will cobble together income from a variety of sources.

Serialized Digital Fiction
JWT predicts that serialized fiction (which was popular in the 19th century) will experience a digital revival through sites such as Byliner and Amazon’s “Kindle Serials” program.

Prime Time for the Second Screen
JWT believes that this may be the year the Internet gains true legitimacy for its original programming.

Flexible Screens
Screens that bend and curve could begin entering the market this year, initially on phones and wearable devices. They are forecast to be common within five years.

Imperfection
Consumers increasingly value the authenticity of imperfect-looking products (such as homegrown vegetables). Marketers may begin showing more real people instead of models.

Ambushed by Amazon
JWT predicts that Amazon.com might ultimately prove to be an extremely disruptive force.  They point out that while Amazon.com started out as a threat to booksellers, “it’s fast becoming Enemy No. 1 to retailers of all stripes now that it sells everything from high-end apparel to win and has shrunk its delivery times.”

Live-Streaming Life
People will use super-compact video cameras to live-stream their memories in real time.

Media that Gets to Know You
Media (video, audio, e-book content) will be tailored to individual consumers based on real-time data about each consumer.

Mobile-Optimized Goes Mainstream
Now that a growing proportion of smartphone users are accessing the Web primarily through their mobile devices, most marketers will strive to have their websites optimized for mobile by the end of 2013.

Responsive Web Design
More marketers will seek cross-platform web designs that adapt to different screen sizes and devices.

 

Super Stress Era
If 2012 left you feeling stressed out due to too much information and/or concerns about too little online privacy, JWT says you aren’t alone. In the “10 Trends for 2013” report they issued earlier this year, their experts contend that we’re entering “The Super Stress Era” and predicted that governments, employers, and brands will ramp up efforts to prevent and reduce stress.

In this “100 Things to Watch” report, JWT predicts that more people will seek the JOMO (Joy of Missing Out) by slowing down, savoring the moment, and focusing on what’s really important.

To filter out online annoyances, you will be able to use Web browser extensions to block social-media bores. If you dislike seeing political rants or baby pictures in your social-media news feeds, you will be able to have them automatically replaced with content that is more to your liking.

You will also be able to use stress-monitoring apps, buy products that earn the “Quiet Mark” seal of approval, and enjoy “privacy etiquette” rules to avoid over-sharing on social media. JWT also expects more people to retreat to nature to avoid the stresses of city living. We might also see more natural, organic elements in décor or more nature-themed entertainment.

JWT is a marketing communications firm that employs nearly 10,000 marketing professionals in more than 200 offices in over 90 countries. The JWT Intelligence group helps clients make sense of the chaos in a world of hyper-abundant information and constant innovation.

LINKS

JWT 100 Things to Watch in 2012

JWT 10 Trends for 2013: Executive Summary

JWT Intelligence

Survey Shows Digital Publishing Has Become the Status Quo

The Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) has published the results of their 2012 Digital Publishing Survey. The AAM is a nonprofit organization that connects North America’s leading media companies, advertisers and ad agencies. Founded in 1914 as the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the AAM independently verifies print and digital circulation and sets standards for measuring and reporting the reach of print and digital media.

CAWAAMSurveyThe survey of 210 AAM member media companies shows that publishers have embraced tablets and smartphones as integral parts of their cross-platform publishing strategies. In AAM’s first digital-focused survey in 2009, only 51 percent of the respondents had a mobile presence. In the 2012 survey (conducted in October), this figure reached 90 percent, with the remaining 10 percent expecting to join suit within the next 12 months.

In 2012, the survey also asked about the profitability of digital efforts. Twenty-two percent of publisher respondents report that their smartphone and tablet apps/platforms are currently profitable. More than half expect these platforms to become profitable over the next two years.

Survey results also show that media companies are distributing content on multiple platforms, eager to get in front of readers on their device of choice. Apple products still dominate the market, with 85 percent of publishers having iPhone apps and 87 percent having iPad apps. But Kindle and Nook apps are growing. The number of publishers developing Kindle apps has grown two and a half times, up from 24 percent in 2011 to 67 percent in 2012. Nook apps have increased more than four times, from 14 percent in 2011 to 57 percent in 2012.

“Media companies know that delivering content whenever and wherever consumers want is key,” said Eric John, AAM’s vice president of digital services. “They know digital content, including browser-based editions and mobile apps, is no longer the wave of the future, but table stakes to continue reaching and growing digital readership.”

Key Survey Findings

Not only are media companies distributing content on multiple platforms, they are offering multiple apps on each device. On average, companies are producing 3.4 iPad and iPhone apps, 3 Kindle apps and 2.4 Nook apps.

  • Publishers are most likely to charge for content on the iPad (56 percent), followed by the iPhone at 42 percent, Kindle at 38 percent and Nook at 31 percent. But subscriptions are not the only revenue source. The majority of respondents agreed a dual revenue stream from advertising and subscriptions is necessary to make digital platforms profitable.
  • Even as the market matures, media companies are still testing and revising their strategies to best provide editorial and advertising content to their consumers. They are nearly split on using native apps designed for specific devices versus Web apps that function across devices. Seventy percent are publishing native apps, while 67 percent are publishing Web apps.
  • The impact of HTML5 as a new additional publishing technology is still undecided for most publishers. When asked to think about the next year, 41 percent said they plan to continue using native apps while 31 percent said they plan to try HTML5.
  • After years of allowing customers to access free online content, many media companies are charging for their website content. A number of newspapers — 48 percent — have a paywall to charge for some or all of their content. Combined percentages for newspapers, magazines and business publications show 41 percent currently use a paywall. Of those currently without a paywall, 44 percent plan to implement one in the next two years.
  • The most popular type of paywall is metered, where customers may access a predetermined number of articles before payment is required. Almost 40 percent use metered paywalls, while 17 percent use a hard paywall where payment is required to read any content. And 33 percent use a combination paywall that restricts access to premium content.
  • The million-dollar question is how publishers are monetizing mobile and how that revenue offsets print declines. Seventy-seven percent agreed mobile revenues must stem from both advertising and circulation, up from 52 percent in 2009. Fifty-four percent of respondents said mobile currently represents up to 9 percent of advertising revenue, and 56 percent said it represents up to 9 percent of circulation revenue.
  • Despite the promise of mobile publishing, survey respondents are pragmatic about their print publications. Less than 15 percent said they have plans to reduce their print publishing frequency and less than 3 percent think their publication will only be produced digitally in the next five years.

The complete survey summary is available on AAM’s website.

LINKS

Results from AAM’s 2012 Digital Publishing Survey

About the AAM

Some Surprising Stats About Android vs. iOS Devices

It’s number-crunching time! Year’s end is a good time to round up statistics that can help shed light on what happened this past year, and what trends are likely to shape the year(s) ahead.

A researcher from MBAOnline.com sent me a link to an infographic they produced with some statistics showing how the Android operating system has become the world’s most popular smartphone OS.

Here’s the infographic, which should interest any creative pro who is engaged in developing new apps (or is considering buying a tablet or smartphone).

Android

 

 

Will 2013 Be the Year of The Makers?

MakersThis is the time of year when bloggers publish lists of trends for 2013. Sure, I plan to do that on this blog, too. But if you want a broader view of where trends can lead, I encourage you to read an important book published in October by Random House.  It’s entitled “Makers: The New Industrial Revolution” by Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson. Like Anderson’s previous best-seller “The Long Tail: Why The Future of Business Is Selling Less of More,” the book “Makers” will help you make sense of multiple trends that have gained steam over the past several years.

“Long Tail” outlined opportunities for entrepreneurial self-publishers of niche books, music, and photo products. “Makers” can help designers and other freelance professionals better understand how to capitalize on emerging opportunities for independent work.

Resurgence in American Manufacturing

The book contends that the collective potential of a million garage tinkerers and enthusiasts is about to be unleashed, driving a resurgence of American manufacturing. This new industrial revolution will be driven by “The Maker Movement” and technologies that give everyone the power to be inventors.

While we won’t see the return of giant factories employing armies of workers. Anderson believes The Maker Movement will usher in a new kind of manufacturing economy—one that is built from the ground up, broadly distributed and highly entrepreneurial.

As Anderson points out, the idea of a ‘factory’ is changing:  “Today, anyone with an invention or good design can upload files to a service and have the product made, in small batches or large, and make it themselves with increasingly powerful desktop fabrication tools such as 3D printers. Would-be entrepreneurs and inventors are no long at the mercy of large companies to manufacture their ideas.”

Instead of having to find salespeople or distributors to sell their products, an inventor can simply set up an e-commerce site that can be easily found through a Google search.

He says one of the great opportunities in the Maker Movement is that companies that start out online can be both small and global. They can be both artisanal and innovative.

Anderson believes that the energy and creativity of entrepreneurs and individual innovators can reinvent manufacturing, and create jobs as their small businesses grow bigger. In the book he cites dozens of examples and other experts who agree that in the “New Industrial Revolution,” smart, creative people can discover and exploit billions of new entrepreneurial opportunities.

In addition to the rise of rapid prototyping and 3D printing technologies, the New Industrial Revolution is being enabled by online communities (for research and development), crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter (for quickly raising capital), and social-media (for word-of-mouth marketing).

As Anderson points out, inventors today aren’t working in isolation in their garages or basements. Instead, they are likely to collaborate online with communities of equally obsessed people.  This can compress decades of development work into months.

“Making things has gone digital: Physical objects now begin as designs on screens, and those designs can be shared online as files,” writes Anderson. “This has been happening over the past few decades in factories and industrial design shops, but now it’s happening on consumer desktops and in basements, too.”

According to Anderson, the number of shared production facilities (“makerspaces”) around the world is growing at an astounding rate. He observes, “This nascent movement is less than seven years old, but it’s already accelerating as fast as the early days of the PC.”

The Long Tail of Talent

In the New Industrial Revolution, companies will be smaller, virtual, and informal. Most participants probably won’t be full-time employees, but rather virtual teams or workers that form and re-form as needed.

As was discussed in another book covered on this blog, (“The New World of Work”), Anderson says companies won’t be limited to hiring only people in their immediate vicinity who are willing to work for them. Instead, they can easily find and work with the best qualified people from around the world.

Conversely, you will be able to easily find the types of projects that you are most passionate about.  And no matter what your age or background, you will be able to demonstrate your qualifications through your participation in online communities.

Anderson points out that “The Web allows people to show what they can do, regardless of their education and credentials. It allows groups to form and work together easily outside of a company context, whether this involves ‘jobs’ or not.”

Whereas companies are full of bureaucratic procedures and approval processes, communities form around shared interests and needs and have no more process than they require. An online community exists for the project, not to support the company. Yet communities can’t make physical goods by themselves.

Anderson’s book is filled with dozens of examples that illustrate how The Maker Movement has evolved and how existing manufacturing operations are benefitting from new approaches. He also shares his own experiences forming 3D Robotics Inc., a company that make aerial robotics products that were designed by an online community.

LINKS

Makers: The New Industrial Revolution

The Long Tail, Revised and Updated Edition: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More

RELATED POST

New World of Work Requires Attitude Shift

New World of Work Requires Attitude Shift

Technology and changing business practices have fundamentally altered the way we work, build careers, and search for talent. While other parts of the world have caught on to this movement, the U.S. seriously lags behind when it comes to understanding this revolution and what to do about it. That’s the theme of “The New World of Work: From the Cube to the Cloud”, a new book written by Tim Houlne and Terri Maxwell and scheduled to be released by Inspire on Purpose Publishing on January 1, 2013. Houlne and Maxwell believe that those who embrace the new world of work can succeed in jobs without boundaries or buildings.

Although the book isn’t written specifically for creative professionals, any writer, designer, or photographer who does freelance work can benefit from understanding some of global workforce trends presented to hiring managers, marketers, and project managers in “The New World of Work.”

The authors contend that competing in this new world of work requires a fundamental shift in thinking.  Once you can see and accept how work requirements have changed, you can create a better career for yourself.

For example, the authors envision a world in which professionals who have the right mindset and skills can choose jobs they are passionate about rather than settling for whatever jobs exist within a 50-mile radius of their homes. They write that when we create our own jobs, “We can put together workstreams of projects that we enjoy, rather than being forced to do tasks considered part of the ‘other-duties-as-assigned’ aspect of our job descriptions.”

The Global Talent Competition

The book explains that after the 2008 economic meltdown, our global economy spawned an entirely new way of organizing work. Work has been fractionalized, careers have been virtualized, and talent has been globalized.

“Routine work has been broken down into small tasks,” says Houlne. As a result, most companies will be hiring fewer full-time workers and outsourcing more routine tasks as contract projects.

Cloud technology is “virtualizing careers” by enabling professionals to work anywhere. The combination of fractionalized work and virtualized careers means that smart businesses can get talent from anywhere and at any time. They aren’t limited to hiring the best-qualified applicants who live within a 50-mile radius of their offices.

“While this is clearly an advantage for those businesses that can adapt, it is an even biggest opportunity for professionals who learn how to complete effectively for this work,” says Maxwell. “And, in a world with no boundaries, learning to compete for this work is paramount.”

Houlne and Maxwell believe that the speed of business and technological change has outpaced the ability of many workers to adapt, resulting in a mismatch between work and the skills required to fulfill the demand for certain jobs: “The jobs are there—in fact, businesses are crying out to fill them—workers just need to gain the necessary skills and attitudes to make those jobs their own.”

They point out “Work has spread across the globe because companies can source talent easily, and talent will compete for the work–not based on price, but on the quality of their work.”

Even though this means we all may face stiffer competition from others, some companies will compete for the best talent by providing interesting projects at competitive pay.

Stop Blaming Others and Move On

In the book, Houlne and Maxwell say it’s time to stop blaming corporations or the government for not protecting our jobs. Instead, we must accept that something much bigger is going on, set aside our fears, and prepare for the future.

They point out “The lack of good jobs is truly the most pressing issue in the industrialized world, but this challenge can easily be solved if companies and workers begin to think differently. The work still exists, but the jobs we once held do not.”

In the book, the authors present a roadmap for navigating the new world of work. For starters, they recommend that you start thinking more about the type of work you are most passionate about and the types of roles in which you can be most effective.  “Professionals who want to compete in the new world of work have a huge advantage if they can stop worrying about their jobs and build new career strategies.”

About the Authors

Tim Houlne is CEO at Working Solutions, a virtual agent and technology solutions provider in Dallas Texas. Terri Maxwell is a consultant to businesses and entrepreneurs seeking to accelerate growth. She has built numerous successful companies and created the Succeed on Purpose business incubator in Irving, Texas. Together, they have 50 years of leadership experience.

LINKS

The New World of Work: From the Cube to the Cloud

Website and Blog: The New World of Work

 

Game Design for Serious Players (Seriously, We Mean Serious)

By Chris Swain
Creative Director
Game Design Program, New York Film Academy

It boggles the minds of many non-gamers to learn the degree to which digital gaming has become a multi-billion dollar industry. About a third of Americans – adults as well as younger people – now engage in some form of digital gaming at least once a month. The dollar value of game revenues is double what it was just four years ago. Core gamers spend 18 hours per week on games.

In the mid-aughts (2005), the Nielsen Active Gamer Study found that the number of male gamers ages 25 to 40 had expanded significantly, indicating a maturing of gamers from their adolescent stereotype. The number of women gamers was also growing, particularly through the multiplayer online format and games that involve communal experiences. Women comprise about 41 percent of computer gamers, according to an article in PC World Canada (“Women video gamers: Not just solitaire,” by Hannah Guy, March 12, 2007).

Non-gamers might assume that this is just something to replace television viewing. To some extent that is true – time spent playing online games via computer, tablet or smartphone means less time watching television (there are only so many hours in a day, after all). But it helps to understand human history and psychology to see what exactly is going on.

For businesses, it is starting to make sense to embrace rather than resist the gaming phenomenon. Game play is well embedded into human psychology; something a smart manager knows how to leverage.

Aristotle wrote 2300 years ago that play and sport are among the highest forms of human activity. He said play offers senses of liberty and joy that come from no other source. Play, said the Greek philosopher, places demands on our energies and skills that transcend the everyday individual. He noted that the structure of game rules, the regulated space and the existence of a judicial system within each game represent or replicate the order of life and the universe. Meanwhile, the joy of games (and good sportsmanship in defeat) helps lift us out of the ordinariness of life.

In other words, Aristotle would probably understand World of Warcraft, Braid, The Sims, Second Life and Words With Friends.

So what might this have to do with businesses and workplaces? The aging of the gamer, or more accurately the reach of gaming into older demographics, shows that employees of companies are gaming in earnest already. The valued younger-to-mid-life employee is accustomed to interacting through games and it is something they are more than willing to do.

So it only makes sense that games are becoming a tool for teaching and problem solving. A game created already 30 years ago is the Microsoft Flight Simulator and its most recent release, Flight Simulator X. This is considered an important training aid in the aviation community, while professional emergency first responders similarly use VBS1 (a game that simulates how equipment and vehicles are used in emergency mission scenarios) to familiarize themselves with possible real-life situations and decision making. Each is referred to as “serious games.”

For non-tactical business needs, companies are using games to develop business skills. The Entertainment Software Association predicts that by 2013, fully 80 percent of major domestic employers will use serious games to train employees. The association claims that simulated programs on a computer lead to better information retention than traditional training methods. The website CareerBuilder.com reported in 2010 that games are being used by companies and the U.S. Army to recruit people. It also found companies that use games as a relaxation tool to improve employee retention, such as a clothing manufacturer in Chicago that provides its employees with time and space to play Guitar Hero.

I created my own teaching tool in the serious games category called The Redistricting Game. Its purpose is to teach by way of game engagement the means by which states draw congressional district lines following the decennial U.S. Census. The game takes players through how the system works – as well as how it is often abused and the reform initiatives intended to curb those abuses.

While most students at the school for game design at the New York Film Academy, where I teach, enter due to their enchantment with entertaining games, a portion of them might well find their way to serious games in their careers. The opportunities for new game applications are expanding, and as Aristotle notes, play is an intrinsically human activity that naturally draws players.

Play as a means to learn – isn’t that what we need in an evolving, complex and demanding world?

Chris Swain is a leader in the games design and development industry, with two decades experience that includes co-founding the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California while a professor in the School of Cinematic Arts. Chris developed games for Disney, Microsoft, Sony, The Los Angeles Times, Rockefeller Foundation, U.S. Department of Defense, Discovery Channel, Intel, among others and garnered many awards. Serious games that Chris has created include Ecotopia, Play the Game Save the Planet, a cinematic, story-driven game focused on environmental protection, and The Redistricting Game, which was funded by the Annenberg Center for Communication to educate citizens on the U.S. congressional redistricting process. He is the creative director in the Game Design program at the New York Film Academy.

LINKS

New York Film Academy

Game Design School at New York Film Academy

 

Study Shows Consumers Aren’t Sold on Online Advertising

If you are skeptical about the effectiveness of online advertising (or are involved in producing marketing content, print advertising, or TV commercials), read an intriguing new research study commissioned by Adobe.

Entitled “Click Here: The State of Online Advertising,” the report reveals that digital marketing is not meeting the needs of consumers. Produced by the research firm Edelman Berland, the report is based on interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 consumers and 250 professional marketers. The interviews were conducted from October 8 to 16, 2012.

According to the study, many consumers and professional marketers believe that traditional marketing is still more effective than online marketing. For example, the study revealed that two-thirds of consumers believe that television commercials are more effective than online advertising and that online banner ads do not work (54 percent).

Further, respondents prefer to view advertising in their favorite print magazine (45 percent) or while watching their favorite TV show (23 percent). Only 3 percent said they prefer to view ads via social media. No one said they like ads in an app.

Attitudes toward online advertising were overwhelmingly negative, with a large percentage of consumers saying they found online ads to be “annoying,” “distracting” and “all over the place.”

  • 53 percent agreed that “Most marketing is a bunch of B.S.”
  • 73 percent agreed that “Advertisements should tell a unique story, not just try to sell.”
  • 46 percent agreed that “Online advertising is creepy and stalks you.”
  • 67 percent agreed that “A video is worth 1,000 words.”

While advertising created by pros is widely seen as the most effective form of advertising, 27 percent of marketers and 28 percent of consumers believe that user-generated content is the best form of online advertising.

“This study is a wake-up call for marketers. We know there’s a tremendous opportunity – online, on mobile, in social – in terms of where consumers are spending their time and money. But as marketers we’ve yet to really break through,” said Ann Lewnes, chief marketing officer of Adobe. She believes customers will take notice when marketers start doing a better job of serving relevant content, delivering experiences that are engaging instead of intrusive, and measuring what is and isn’t working.

The Value of a “Like”

Not surprisingly, the majority of the study’s respondents use social media. More than half of the respondents said they are communicating their personal tastes and interests when they “like” a brand or product and 43 percent explicitly state they are recommending that product to their friend and families. Yet, 53 percent wish there was a dislike button to express their unhappiness with a product.

Still, the “likes” get attention, with 29 percent of consumers commenting that “likes” encourage them to “check out” a product. Only 2 percent say a “like” drives them to makes a purchase.

Companies investing in branded social media sites and activities are also facing an uphill battle. Just 2 percent of respondents believe that information about a brand from a company’s social media site is credible.

The Marketing Profession Is Not Valued

More than 90 percent of consumers and marketing professionals agree that marketing is strategic to business. And, nine out of ten recognize that marketing is paramount to driving sales. Yet, when asked if marketing benefits society, only 13% of the people agreed.

As a profession, advertising/marketing ranked among the lowest four in terms of value to society. The four professions that consumers regarded as most valuable are: teachers (92 percent), scientists (88 percent), programmer/engineers (68 percent), and social workers (61 percent).  The four least valuable professions are actor/actress (13 percent), dancer (13 percent), advertising/marketing (13 percent), and PR professional (11 percent).

“Marketers are some of the most creative people in the world,” said Lewnes. She predicted that “Now that we have data insights to back up instinct, these outdated perceptions of marketing are going to change.”

So what do you think–both as a consumer and a producer of creative content?

Personally, I applaud Adobe for releasing the results of this survey.

It’s so easy to get caught up in all the hype about social media, mobile marketing, and other online marketing channels that we often overlook the fact that people don’t change nearly as rapidly as technology does. While we like communicating with  Facebook friends and using smartphone apps, that doesn’t mean we want to see them cluttered up with ads. Plus, many of us have grown up with entertaining Super Bowl ads on TV and gorgeous advertising photography in print magazines. We don’t mind looking at well-produced or provocative ads. But does advertising have to be absolutely everywhere we look?

LINK

Report: “Click Here: The State of Online Advertising”