Non-Obvious^TM Trend Collection

Reluctant Marketing

Marketing used to focus almost exclusively on the messaging behind and promotion of products and services, but today, marketers are becoming key to informing their organizations’ product development and research.

Selfie Confidence

As selfies take over the Internet, people are debating the roles that this modern form of self-portraiture can play in empowering the marginalized and insecure alike through self-expression.

Everyday Stardom

The emergence of technologies that make customization easier than ever means that consumers expect brands to treat them like stars in their interactions with their favorite brands.

Overquantified Life

Big data is offering more ways to quantify the world around us, but brands must be careful not to accumulate more data than they know what to do with.

Microdesign

The increasingly visual way that we experience and consume the world around us is creating a demand for information presented through efficient design and imagery.

Privacy Paranoia

Data breaches and an increasing focus on the many ways our behavior is now tracked on and offline is leading to a new global sense of paranoia about what governments and brands know about us, and how they might use this so-called “big data” in illicit ways.

Shareable Humanity

Content shared on social media is becoming more emotional as brands inject more humanity into powerful content marketing and branded storytelling efforts.

Anti-Stereotyping

Across media and entertainment, traditional gender roles are being reversed as assumptions about alternative lifestyles and the ways we define ourselves evolve.

Distributed Expertise

As online platforms change how we learn and gain access to previously unreachable experts, the idea of expertise itself is shifting to become more inclusive, less academic and more accessible in real time.