Ogilvy PR Australia’s Futures #3 report highlights a return to “getting real”. The report, which identifies key emerging trends, including consumer reaction to overuse of technology and the impact of AI and use of data, will be a wake-up call to some.

Some of the key trends impacting business and brands are:

• Consumers looking to escape technology and celebrate the ordinary and the impact on how products are marketed;
• Corporate scandal and mistrust resulting in consumers looking for ‘people like us’ to engage with
• The impact on applications and efficiencies that the use of data, security breaches and the increased use of AI will have on business and brands.

The report provides a detailed analysis of data and information gathered from the world’s best technology and creative industry conferences, including Cannes and SXSW.

The report covers topics that impact all industries, such as artificial intelligence, voice recognition technology and the power of geodata,” explained Richard Brett, deputy chief executive officer of Ogilvy PR Australia.

“It delivers a unique take on future trends providing exclusive and original insights before anyone else. It has never been more important for business and brands to understand change, where it’s headed and what it means. In today’s fast-paced digital world, a wealth of instantly accessible information, globalisation and social media have exponentially increased the emergence of new trends.

“The speed of discovery and development of innovative new products and services, means brands must take both a short-term and a long-term view, planning strategies not just for the next year, but for the ensuing decades,” he added.

The report is divided into Seven Forces of the Future:

These are:

1. Cultivators revealing three cultural trends that are shaping marketing in the age of social media
2. Communities tells stories of how effective communications today is driven by placing the community at the heart
3. Creators outlines new trends which jar and juxtapose our visual senses
4. Constitutors reveals how demographics and technologies are solving decades old challenges, but also creating new forces. Two trends that will impact and dictate government policy
5. Corporates reveals insights where data, artificial intelligence, technology and innovation are fundamentally changing the machinery of business
6. Cyborgs reveals challenging insights where human and machine are merging
7. Clones encompasses radical new trends in healthcare that will lead to great leap forward in life expectancy and cures, but also creates new challenges around designer babies and even warfare

In the Cultivators section, for example, the report notes that a new trend is forming in our fast paced, mobile first, hyper-connected world. People are moving towards the dull, the boring and the ordinary.

Brett commented, “Brands and organisations can embrace this movement by realising that many consumers want an escape from technology, information and the rat-race. Embrace the humble, the everyday and real stories of small but remarkable achievement.”

In the Communities section, the report notes that in a world largely driven by social media and the shared economy, corporate scandal and institutional mistrust, consumers are engaging more with real ‘people like us’.

Brett noted, “From a communications perspective the impact is that organisations will need to look at ways to put real people at the heart of their campaigns, with a meaningful role, to co-create share-able content that moves communities and nations.”

The Corporates section examines how Australian business will be increasingly impacted by the debate about data and the use of it, data breaches and cyber security – a debate which will only be accelerated by the rise of AI.

“The tipping point of AI has been reached, and now companies are opening up their software so that we can all use it,” Brett explained.

“As a result, a myriad of new applications and uses are now coming online that help us create, produce and make our world more efficient, organised and smarter.”

He concluded: “We’re living in a content bubble, with ever increasing amounts of shows, images, messages and information distracting us, so to cut through peoples’, organisations’ and brands’ clutter we need quick and simple ways to engage our target audience.”

Want a copy of the report? Email Sigourney Dean at Ogilvy.