LOOK UP:
CONSUMERS ARE
TAKING BACK
THEIR HEAD SPACE
The Big Take Back:
Technology has taken over our world with super speed
and we’re struggling to keep our relationship with it in
check. A push back is occurring against the distraction
and addiction that comes with it. When Anna Wintour
flaunts a flip phone at Fashion Week, you know a trend is
percolating.
Trend Framework:
The Four Pillars of Sustainability:
Personal Environmental
Spiritual
Social
The New Variables™:
Integrity
Authenticity
Community
Consciousness
Connection
Social Responsibility
Give Me Something Real:
We are wedded to our mobile devices yet we know our heavy usage isn’t “healthy” and are seeking
some relief. We want our lives, our everyday interactions and the products we use to have more
meaning. It’s authenticity and consciousness that we’re hungry for—greater connection to our
friends, family and community, not just our devices. For instance, internet searches for “mindfulness”
are sky-rocketing.
Flirting with Digital Detox:
Ci’s SHIFT Report™ quantitative study1 found that 80% of consumers say meaningful connections
to friends and family are a top priority. Tech “Detoxes” and products that block cell signals are two
signs of this. Daily tech use appears to be leveling off after years of growing.
The Paradox:
We want a new relationship with tech… but we don’t want to ditch it. We’re just ready for it to feel
different—healthier, less distracting. Just like the slow-food movement made us feel more integrated
with our local and global foodie community, we want to refresh our relationship with tech. This trend
goes across demographics, but is especially strong with Vocal Globalists who make up 34% of the
population.
The Insight:
Consumers want help connecting to the things they care about.
They are becoming more interested in contributing to the real
world, than contributing to it on-line. They want to engage in
personally satisfying experiences. They want help “Looking Up.”
Over half of people state that
contributing to community in the real
world not the internet is important.
The SHIFT Report™
1 Source: The SHIFT Report’s 2012/13 study of 5,000 North Americans, representative of the adult general population, aged 18+.
The Opportunity:
•How can you provide your consumers with a sense of “real” connection—to something tangible
and meaningful—even while you are connecting with them digitally, or providing a digital product?
•How can your brand enable healthy tech use rather than encouraging a compulsive habit?
•How can you be a Catalyst Brand™, a brand that helps your audience connect attitude to action?
Trend Pioneer: Headspace, the online meditation portal
Headspace is geared towards people who are actively trying to “Look Up.” Users are mostly
25-45 year old urban professionals but Baby Boomers also use the product deeply as they
question what they’ve done with their lives, and Millennials turn to it for help in dealing with
day-to-day lives. Headspace is spreading organically inwards from the coasts to the Midwest.
Excitingly, children are very enthusiastic users of Headspace, logging on up to six times a day
in a school study.
Insight:
The next generation views mindfulness as an integral part of a balanced life. Is mindfulness
being “un-crunched” in the same way that “sustainable” style has gone from hemp to Stella
McCartney in the last 5 years?
Opportunities:
What happens if people begin to think of mindfulness in the same way as they brush their
teeth? i.e., automatic and necessary?
?
Final Action Questions:
•How can you help your consumers to disconnect and live in the moment?
•Is there an opportunity for your brand to facilitate these offline moments?
•Where does your brand play a role in connecting in both on line and off line moments?
•Where is there a place for your brand to encourage your consumers to Look UP?
•Is there a separation between work and personal for your audience? Or
•Does your audience value that integration?
Future Focused Thought Provoker:
How will our relationship with tech evolve? Will we eventually view heavy tech usage as a “bad
habit” that people must struggle to break?” Are mobile phones the cigarettes of the future?
To learn more please, get in touch:
[email protected] or call us directly at +1-604-877-1277