• by Steve McClellan , December 30, 2015

J. Walter Thompson’s Innovation Group is out with its 2016 forecast of emerging trends across culture, technology, brands and lifestyle.

And while it sounds a tad anal, stool banking, is apparently growing in popularity. The idea, according to JWT is that these fecal matter samples may come in handy as new medical treatments are devised.

In the brand and marketing space neuromarketing is gaining traction according to the JWT trend report. The industry has dabbled in the discipline for years although up to now neuromarketing has been more of a buzzword than widespread practice. But JWT believes that neuromarketing is “finally moving into the realm of serious science and yielding actionable predictive insights for brands and forcing more traditional market researchers to take note.”

“In 2015, we’ve seen that consumers are joining the dots in multiple areas of their lifestyles, taking a holistic approach to brands and consumption, and we expect this to strengthen in 2016,” says Lucie Greene, Worldwide Director of the Innovation Group. “Diet, beauty, wellbeing, mind, body, fitness: all are viewed by the consumer as one big ecosystem to maintain. Brands, once judged on their desirability and products, are now being judged on their value systems, on whether they are innovators, on whether they are promising to change the world.”

In the travel and hospitality space, Cuba—whose relations with the U.S. have finally started to thaw after decades of cold war—is likely to be the next big destination. Cuba’s tourism market is set to take off: “Travelers are rushing to see the last of the old Cuba, even as brands are competing to be the first in on the promise of Cuba,” per the trend report.

In the Beauty space, redheads and freckles are in. And if you don’t happen to have any, no worries: “with new products consumers add freckles where they don’t appear naturally, consumers are now celebrating individualism in all of its full-freckled glory.”

In the retail sector companies are turning to satellites to keep up with store traffic. Firms are using data gathered from satellites to track traffic to stores in real time.

Among the big culture trends JWT reports is “Un-tabooing Womanhood. Menstruation, leg and underarm hair, underwear hygiene, and various other previously taboo aspects of femininity are being unearthed and brought to the forefront by fourth-wave feminism, new women’s-interest media, and a fresh string of outspoken heroes and blogs.”

More on JWT’s 2016 trends report can be found here.