trends

JWT On '11: Watch For People 'Checking Out'

Fun-Theory

Although digital technology is keeping us connected everywhere, all the time, people are beginning to look for ways out.

That's just one of the trends that ad agency JWT says will define 2011. The firm's sixth annual trend report says that while technology is becoming as integral to peoples' lives as food and clothing, there's also a "de-teching" trend, wherein consumers are making it a point to find ways of extricating themselves from the ubiquitous world of the Internet.

Other drivers for next year: brands will ramp up game mechanics both online and off; time-sensitive deals are back among younger consumers and marketers will take "act now" beyond the Web; people are looking for choices that offer a lower level of commitment, including things like BMW on Demand, Car2go, non-contract cell phones; creative urban renewals, frequently with brands involved, e.g. Dulux Paints' global "Let's Colour Project"; and the Internet enabling of everything from dog collars to billboards.

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The study is partly based on surveys in the U.S. and UK of 1,005 adults this year, as well as input from JWT planners around the world and a panel of influencers, including Stephen Baker, VP of industry analysis for NPD Group; New York Times technology reporter Nick Bilton, and Nicholas Carr, author of recently published The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.

Ann Mack, director of trend spotting for JWT, says technology is driving the trends, although what's hot fluctuates annually. "It's a huge driver, year after year," she says. "Two or three years ago, a major trend was mobile media as the 'everything' hub where all digital activity -- communications, entertainment, gaming, our personal schedules -- will reside. Last year, it was location-based technology."

This year, there's also a counter trend resisting that "everything" tendency of mobile digital technology to keep people connected. "There have been lots of studies on the effects of technology, how it leads to attention span problems and lack of creativity, and weaker language skills. People are becoming more aware of that and want to re-engage in the world. It's not about being a Luddite, but more logging off or mono-tasking," she says.

Another big trend for 2011, says Mack, is "gamification," or the use of games both online and off to drive loyalty and engagement. "This really is the next level of loyalty programs," she says. "Increasingly, brands are applying game mechanics to non-gaming spaces. It's not just brand-sponsored games. This is about engaging consumers more in brand communities through incentives or rewards."

The idea, she says, is using gaming mechanics to make everyday activities more fun partly by offering immediate rewards and gratification. Typical loyalty programs offer points that require a long waiting period. Mack says 65% of survey respondents felt loyalty rewards take too long to get significant numbers of points to even bother trying. "With gaming mechanics, you get some sort of immediate reward."

Last year, for example, JetBlue celebrated its 10th anniversary with a scavenger hunt in New York. Volkswagen ran a campaign in the UK called Fun Theory, whose central purpose was to use games to change peoples' behavior: it turned a bottle recycling bin into an arcade machine with blinking lights and a scoreboard listing points for depositing the right bottle in the correct slot, and mounted a "Speed Camera Lottery" on a main thoroughfare that rewarded drivers for staying within the speed limit.

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