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/ 1
Z E R O
HOU R

/ 2
HOW BRANDS CAN START
TO NAVIGATE A WORLD OF

MISTRUST,
MI SIN FO R MATION &
MULTIPLE MINDSETS
2018 We Are Social Trend Report

/ 3
 NOT
JUST
HER ANOTHE
D TREND
It’s been a year of contradiction.
We’ve seen increasing diversity and
inclusion as well as greater control
and nationalism. Technology continues

RT REPORT
to evolve at an incredible pace while
trust declines. On one hand, data can
give us more insights to build this trust,
but the process of gaining that data
can also destroy it.

/ 4
 NOT
JUST
ANOTHER
TREND
REPORT
ZERO HOUR
HOW BRANDS CAN START TO
NAVIGATE A WORLD OF MISTRUST,
MISINFORMATION & MULTIPLE MINDSETS
As our title would suggest, we’re at a
critical moment in society where we
need to all start working together.
In these conflicted times, it’s difficult
for brands to navigate this path,
but there’s an opportunity to nurture
an environment in which trust can grow.
TR
This is the third year we’ve published our
report, but this time we wanted it to be
a little different. Lots of trend reports
REP
talk about tech and innovation, but they
miss the bigger opportunity for brands
to tap into people’s social needs and
motivations. These needs are amplified
through technology, but they have been
around way before the likes of Facebook
or Snapchat. They are what makes us
human, and they are powerful drivers
of human behaviour.
If you think about the growing tensions
in the UK between identity and
belonging and how this has played out
in major societal events recently, trends
that tap into these needs have a far
greater chance of providing meaningful
impact for brands than those that don’t.
Mobbie Nazir
Chief Strategy Officer
/ 5
A P
P R
For our Think Forward report this year,
we’ve developed a framework of six

O U R key social drivers and used them as

our lens to analyse and categorise the
emerging trends.

O A
/ 6
01

04
STATUS
CERTAINTY
The need for
validation in society
P. 08

The need for

05
safety and control

P. 26

02
P. 32

P. 14
PROGRESSION
The need to grow,
learn and develop

CONNECTION
The need to
interact with others

03 06
BELONGING

P. 20

P. 38
The need to feel part CONSCIENCE
of a community The need to
help others

/ 7
C
THINK
01 FORWARD

C E R T A I N T Y

/ 8
 THINK
01 FORWARD

THE NEED
FOR
SAFET Y AND
CONTROL / 9
TREND

HYPER
T R A N S PA R E N C Y
Mistrust is mainstream. Brands are in an arms race
to win back consumer trust by providing certainty
through hyper transparency - not just glossing
over the uncomfortable bits.

/ 10
 PA R E N C Y
TRANS- CALL FOR
HYPER
CLARITY

The consumer desire for transparency

is nothing new, but in the era of fake
news, mistrust around brands, media and
governments it has gone into overdrive.

To combat this, what we are now seeing

is a race for brands to build the most
consumer trust, but it’s not an easy race
to win. Customers quickly see through
short-term marketing initiatives that
provide a ‘managed’ view of what goes on
behind the scenes, and instead seek out
information they can stress-test themselves.

Figures from global research specialists

01
IPSOS have revealed that 70 percent of
consumers don’t trust advertising and
42 percent distrust brands, seeing them
as part of the establishment and therefore,
‘remote, unreachable and self-serving’.

/ 11
ACCURACY
AMBASSADORS
Brands are increasingly giving consumers
extreme clarity around their businesses,
often using technology and apps to
facilitate this. It’s not just about telling
people how great you are, it’s about
showing them.
Dodo Pizza is using blockchain technology
(a method of independently recording and
verifying data) to allow their customers
constant visibility of their business and
an unprecedented transparency when it
comes to how the pizza chain operates.
Coffee supplier bext360 is also using
blockchain technology to show consumers
the origin of every bean, giving them
assurance that their farmers are being paid
fairly. French supermarket chain, U,
is holding itself accountable for the
freshness of its seafood by creating a
different Snapchat story for every batch
of fish caught.
The story is filmed by the fisherman and
follows the delivery to store. If there’s no
story, you know the catch is over 24-hours
old. But it’s not just the provenance of
food that is being put under extreme
scrutiny, other products are too. Amazon
has found a way to bring full transparency
into its healthcare range. Every vitamin
pack includes a unique barcode that, when
scanned using the Amazon app gives the
user detailed information about where,
how and when the product was made.
As consumers ask for hyper transparency
0
around what they’re purchasing, it looks
like this trend is only going to get bigger
in 2018. It’s time to put your brand in a
glass box.
/ 12
B A D
R N
W H AT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR BRAND

01 It’s not good enough to say you’re honest KEY WATCHOUT

or have your staff say so – it needs to be
Once you open yourself up to transparency
validated throughout the supply chain by
there’s no going back – any misstep will
third parties and suppliers.
undo all your hard work.
02 Be prepared to talk about everything,
not just the good bits. Show you’re aware
of the negative things and how you’re FURTHER READING
working to change them.
Starbucks actively combats fake news about them and their products
03 What part of your category is shrouded Google changes its search algorithm to fight fake news while Apple is

in mystery? Be the brand to take a stand working to fight fake news

and show what’s really happening. New browser extension uses algorithms to mine publicly available
sources and keep users informed about manufacturers’ ethical practices.

/ 13
 THINK
02 FORWARD

C O N N E

C T I O N / 14
 THINK
02 FORWARD

THE NEED
TO
I N T E R A CT
WITH OTHERS / 15
TREND

A U T O M AT E D
E M PAT H Y AI has EQ. Machines can determine your mood and data
is going deeper than demographics. In the past brands
tried to stimulate emotion. Now they can feed off it to
build connection.

/ 16
AUTOMATED
EMPATHY Brands have been trying to understand
emotion through analysis of social
sentiment for years, and are now
combining these analytics with technology
to create more opportunities through
‘hyper-personalised’ content.

Channel 4 used dynamic video to create

TV spots with bespoke audio for an Alien:
Covenant trailer and Coca-Cola’s latest
billboard delivered driver-specific messaging
by scanning number plates. Even though
brands are providing these personalised
experiences, the delivery method is still
BEYOND relatively blunt. Because brands can’t
THE HYPE understand the psychological state of the
person receiving them, they still can’t meet
Brands have always tried to elicit specific consumer needs.

0
an emotional response from their
consumers and with good reason
– the more emotionally responsive a
customer, the better the bottom line
(brands with emotionally responsive
ads can expect to see up to a 23
per cent lift in sales volume, 2016 Nielsen
Report).

/ 17
 Amazon is developing Alexa to determine
emotional intent in speech, while Honda’s
EMOTIONAL
NeuV concept car uses emotion tracking
ANALYTICS
and biometric monitoring to assist in
real-time driving decisions based on your
AI is now making it possible for brands to
mood. Even fashion brands are seeing the
feed off emotional data to create even deeper
potential of emotional AI. Uniqlo Australia
connections with their customers. AI can now
is using the technology to assist consumers
assist in decision-making, determine your
in decision-making by matching t-shirt
mood and replicate human emotion.
colours to their mood.
Companies like Affectiva and Realeyes are
We’re just seeing the beginning of what
already using AI to measure micro-expressions
this disruptive technology can do and how
to discover what people really feel when
brands can understand their audiences
watching adverts, opening up a wealth of
further and iterate from these emotional
untapped opportunities for marketeers.
analytics. The future feels bright.
Walmart is incorporating this technology Just ask AI.
in stores to identify customers who are
frustrated, so they can alert staff to
assist them.

02
/ 18
 R N
B A D
W H AT THIS MEANSS FOR YOUR BRAND

01 Brands now have the chance to build KEY WATCHOUT

empathetic relationships with consumers
and satisfy real–time emotional needs. Remember to ask permission from your
audience, getting them to opt in before
02 Customer service will become truly
using emotional analysis and tracking.
personalised as machines will be able to
recall every interaction you have with a
brand in perfect detail.
FURTHER READING
03 Think about context before you deliver
your messaging to the consumer. Google’s Deep Mind AI fakes some of the most realistic
human voices yet
There’s a thin line between hyperpersonal
We now have AI that can correctly determine sexual
and highly invasive.
orientation from one photo

Robots are learning to fake empathy and can evolve

their personalities the more you engage with them

/ 19
 B O
THINK
03 FORWARD

E N
B E LO N G I N G
L G / 20
 THINK
03 FORWARD

THE NEED TO

FEEL PART
OF A
COM M U NIT Y / 21
TREND

THE NEW
C O O P E R AT I V E
Consumers are contributors. It’s not just about
about being a casual buyer, it’s about truly belonging
in the brand’s community and playing an active role
in shaping its future.

/ 22
COOPERATIVE
FOSTERING
THE PEOPLE
THE NEW
Brands have always looked to involve customers in
campaigns – it’s a great way of empowering consumers.

Walkers’ 2008 Do Us A Flavour campaign got fans to

come up with new combinations based on classic
flavours and the format worked so well for the crisp
brand, they reran it for a whole year in 2014.

Lego took consumer involvement one step further by

launching its ideas platform. Users can submit an idea
for a set which the community then votes on to see if
it will become a shoppable product. The recent Women
of NASA set was a community-approved idea that is
now available in stores.

Starbucks has also created its own community hub

where coffee fans can submit suggestions and discuss
topics on the forum. Getting consumers closer to the
brand is a great way of getting their buy-in, but up until
recently the customer/brand relationship has been
purely transactional.

As brands recognise the real power of the consumer,

we’re seeing them hand over more and more of the
decision making to their communities.

/ 23
TURNING CONSUMERS
INTO CREATORS
This year we have seen a shift towards a
participatory business model. This trend
first emerged in politics.
Portugal recently announced the world’s
first participatory budget on a national
scale, letting people submit ideas of
what the government should spend
its money on.
In the commercial world, consumers are
being involved at multiple touch points
to help inform decisions on everything
from product development to brand
strategy. Beauty brand Volition is using its
community, not only come up with ideas,
but to co-create the actual products.
Once an idea has been voted on by the
community, the individual is brought on
as a product consultant throughout the
whole process.
adidas turned to the freestyle football
community to produce its GLITCH boot,
empowering their fanbase to come up with
the product concept, name, and design.
adidas then sold the boot through an
invite-only community where selected
users could create their own pair of
bespoke boots.
Finance brands are also opening up their
iteration process to their communities.
Breakout brand Monzo took a truly
grassroots approach to its development by
carrying out all its beta-testing in the open
and actively encouraging users to feedback
on its pre-launch product on social.
Communities are the cornerstones of your
03
brand, so give them the power to change it.
/ 24
 D
N
KEY WATCHOUT

Paying lip service to the community

and falling back into treating them as
a consumer rather than a participant.

A
There needs to be a continual value
exchange. If that doesn’t happen trust
will be lost and it could backfire.

W H AT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR BRAND

R
01 Trust your community and reward their loyalty with
responsibility. The more you value their input, the
stronger your bond becomes.

02 Be prepared to let the community into areas

of the business that may be sensitive, like product design.

B
03 The community can become a brand’s biggest fan,
advocating in the good times and defending in the bad.

FURTHER READING
A Taiwanese group of programmers created parallel government websites (using
g0v.tw), hacking and scraping together accessible and visually engaging data, and
showing exactly how civic participation in public decision making could operate if
the government is open to it

Mexico City is crowdsourcing its new constitution using Change.org in a democracy

experiment

In Spain, there is a town that runs on Twitter

/ 25
 THINK
04 FORWARD

STATUS

STATUS
/ 26
 THINK
04 FORWARD

THE NEED
FOR
VA L I DAT I O N
IN SOCIET Y / 27
TREND

MICRO

IS MACRO
Influencer status was once the preserve of the few.
It’s now been democratised and it’s about brands and
their communities networking at a more personal level.

/ 28
 Groups of Instagrammers are also gaming
the platform by forming ‘pods’ in order to
boost likes and followers. This has fuelled
further skepticism around the true meaning
of ‘social status’.

As consumers become wise to the fickle

nature of influencer culture, they’re looking
INFLUENCER to their trusted peer networks for more
FATIGUE reliable recommendations.

When it comes to status, the status quo is

MICRO IS
shifting. Influencers started life out as revered
independent creators, who built communities

MACRO
around their personal interests.
Partnering with brands has allowed them to
grow their audience and turn their passions
into a professions.

As they’ve become more reliant on

advertisers, their audience has become
less reliant on them.

Influencers are starting to see a drop in

engagement with their sponsored posts,
as consumers begin to tire of paid-for
promotions and inauthentic endorsements.

/ 29
BEYOND
MICRO

N
As brands get savvy to this shift in audience sentiment,
we’ve seen a rise in micro-influencers, consumers
who have a network of 5,000-10,000 highly engaged
followers. adidas has had great success with its Tango
Squad micro-influencer programme. This network is
made up of 16-17 year olds from cities across Europe who

O
are deeply embedded in their local football communities,
but not necessarily established sports influencers.
Whenever a new product drops, the Tango Squad hears
about it first via dark social and then spreads the hype
through the rest of their network. But now we’re seeing
brands go even more granular, and looking directly to MICRO
their ‘everyday’ consumers to network with. Instead of
spending big on influencers, they’re creating micro value

Y
exchanges at a personal level.

A brand who has seen the power of their one-to-

one network is Freitag. The Swiss bag company lets
customers borrow their products for three weeks to
road-test them on their travels, trading off a hashtag and
getting them to post about it. By recruiting passionate
brand fans rather than paid-for promoters, they’re forging

E
stronger more authentic connections with their network.

Small is the new big.

/ 30
B A
R KEY WATCHOUT
Be sure to have the resources and
processes in place to measure the
effects of your network.

W H AT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR BRAND

01 Stitching together multiple micro-communities
of advocates can lead to better advocacy.
02 These communities don’t just have the
opportunity to share messages, they can
FURTHER READING
L’Oreal recently used a network of 2,000 everyday influencers to promote its new
Pure Clay Mask
Research has been carried out by Columbia Business School that suggests using
everyday influencers would allow a message to be spread faster than using high-

D
provide a greater understanding of reach influencers
your consumers.
Facebook has introduced new functionality that allows marketers to amplify content
that their brands are tagged in and authorise which creators are allowed to do so
03 Raising the status of an individual within their
network raises the status of the brand.

/ 31
 THINK
05 FORWARD

O N
S I
E S
G R
R
O
P
/ 32
 THINK
05 FORWARD

THE NEED TO

GROW,
LEARN AND
DEVELOP / 33
TREND

4D
THINKING
Perspective is powerful. People are fed a blinkered view,
from stereotyping to unconscious bias.
Progression is combining different views to deliver
a more rounded experience.

/ 34
THINKING We are increasingly seeing different
perspectives being layered on top of each
other to build out the idea that everything
is better with different thinking, different
opinions and different backgrounds.

Danish TV2’s All That We Share highlighted

4D

the similarities among an incredibly diverse

population by bringing them together.

Edeka, Germany’s largest supermarket

chain, made a strong point around this by
removing all non-German products from
its shelves.
ADDED
LAYERS Heist launched The Nude Project to make
us reconsider our thinking around the
Brands are having to work harder and
colour ‘nude’ and how we perceive it from
harder to ensure that advertising accurately

0
a racial perspective.
represents the society we live in.
The days of the tokenistic non-white
person are numbered as companies
become accountable to a more socially
conscious and engaged public.

/ 35
DIFFERENT
THINKING

This idea of different perspectives will continue next year.

It’s still evolving and we’ll continue to embrace different
thinking and problem solving around race, gender and
As we move into 2018 we need to ensure
morality. But advertisers will have to work harder to
that even more brands look at things
represent things which are harder to depict.
through a kaleidoscope to deliver a more
One of these areas is neurodiversity.
rounded perspective. It’s time to unleash
Neurodiversity promotes the inclusion of people the power of different.
whose brains work differently (Asperger’s, Tourette’s
and dyslexia are just some examples). There are already
some brands who represent a more neurally diverse
way of thinking.

Microsoft has an Autism hiring policy and Sainsbury’s

is also rolling out an autism-friendly initiative in stores
where they dim lights and turn down tannoys, music and
self-checkout volumes in order to create a more calming
shopping environment. SAP, EY and HPE Australia are all
actively recruiting neurodiverse talent. HPE has already
seen success with their neurodiverse team, who have
proven to be 30 per cent more productive than their
non-neurodiverse team.

/ 36
 R N
B A D
W H AT THIS MEANSS FOR YOUR BRAND

01 There’s an opportunity for brands to take a KEY WATCHOUT

multi-faceted approach to their communication,
Tokenism will not wash with consumers.
showcasing the many sides to their audience.
Brands need to be genuine in the way
02 Adopting such an approach will allow brands to
they engage with new communities.
move with or ahead of culture – and be part of
it, engage with it and shape it.

03 Being seen from many perspectives lends FURTHER READING

brands a universal appeal, moving away from
Neurodiversity and why people should embrace it
traditional targeting of demographics and
The Neurodiversity conversation hasn’t happened yet
mindsets.
Neurodiversity and marketing

/ 37
 THINK
06 FORWARD

CON -
SCIE-
NCE
/ 38
 THINK
06 FORWARD

THE NEED
TO
HELP
OTHERS / 39
TREND

UN–FIGHT
CLUB Social is divisive. Brands are under pressure to draw a line
in the sand. But instead of just choosing a side, you need
to let the enemy in to give context to your conscience.

/ 40
UN-FIGHT
CLUB
OPINION
MATTERS
Brands have always tried to share values
with their audience, they pick up on their
consumers’ opinions and mirror them back
to build better connections. But there are
two sides to every issue and picking one
can alienate your consumer as political,
moral and social standpoints can be deeply
entrenched. It’s difficult to bring differing
viewpoints over to your side.
The NFL discovered this when it supported
players in their decision to take a knee
during the national anthem. As the players
knelt, many spectators booed and the
NFL quickly found itself divided from
many of its fans. Nike tried to express their
standpoint around gender stereotypes and
Arab women leading homebound lives by
showing them fencing, boxing and spinning
on ice skates. While many have hailed
the ad for bringing out the difficulties
women athletes face in conservative Arab
societies, many have also criticised it for
misrepresenting Arab and Muslim women.
But not all brands who firmly plant their
flag lose out. Apple has been praised for
its stance on climate change following the
0
release of Earth, shot on iPhone, which
was championed by CEO Tim Cook, who
personally appealed to President Trump
following his decision to pull out of the
Paris environmental agreement. But now
a new trend is emerging – to contextualise
both sides of the debate.
/ 41
 SOCIAL
MEDIATORS

This alternative route means brands are

moving into the role of civil facilitator
instead of decider. We saw Heineken
boldly walk into this space with Worlds
Apart, which worked on breaking down
stereotypes and bringing opposites
together. Amazon’s Priest and Imam
advert effectively highlighted that there
is more that unites us than divides us, and
Brands have the opportunity to open up
YouTube’s Creators For Change programme
a different discourse between communities
sees the channel encouraging young
and consumers. Instead of fueling
vloggers to use their voices to promote
entrenchment, they can encourage a more
tolerance, empathy and awareness.
diverse point of view. Brands are moving
As brands start to embrace these away from being a single-view mouthpiece
discussions instead of broadcasting a party and are instead becoming a platform on
line, 2018 might just be the year when which different views can be aired.

06
society can stop drawing a line in the sand.

/ 42
B A
R KEY WATCHOUT
Sensitivity is required. Be careful not to
patronise, inflame or further entrench an
alternative point of view.

W H AT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR BRAND

01 Seeing both sides of the argument gives you FURTHER READING

the opportunity to highlight your point of
In order to counter terrorism, Google’s think tank, Jigsaw,
view in context and allow consumers to join
spoke to ex-ISIS recruits to understand their mindset.
the dots themselves.
Read Across the Aisle app allows users to see beyond their

D
02 Engaging and understanding another point bubble by showing them an alternative point of view from the
content they’re been viewing.
of view can help strengthen your own brand’s
point of view.

03 Whereas in the past you would never think

about conversing with your enemy, in a world
of promiscuous consumers, you stand to make
greater gains.

/ 43
 THA
To put this report together we collaborated with
some brilliant experts across politics, technology,
media and culture to develop our thinking.
We would like to extend a huge thank you to them
for their contributions.
-NK
YO U
//44
44
 RICHARDSON
KREINCZES
KATHLEEN
CHRIS
Kathleen Richardson is Professor of Ethics and
Culture of Robots at De Montfort University, and
the author of An Anthropology of Robots and AI:
Annihilation Anxiety and Machines.
Chris Kreinczes is Head of Insight at
Canvas8. He was previously the Managing
Director of one of the world’s leading
innovation platforms and has delivered
keynotes around the world.
/ 45
 ELDERFIELD
HANNAH
STEPHEN
MAI
Stephen is the Head of Marketing,
Brand and Design at LADbible. He worked
on the hugely successful Knowing Me,
Knowing EU UOKM8? campaigns.
Hannah Elderfield is a behavioural analyst
at Canvas8, a leading behavioural insights
and consumer research practice.
Her clients include BelVita, Nike and
national governments.
/ 46
/ 47