2007 Trend Forecast: How Did We Do? Part 1

It’s the end of the year and probably now is the best time to provide a critical eye on the 2007 Trends predictions we made last January:

BRAND ABSTINENCE

We said:

In response to this inertia by larger brands, some consumers will react by engaging in brand abstinence. When no healthy products are available, these consumers will ask questions like, “Why should I replace my phone so often? What will happen to my old one? Why upgrade my PC? Do I really need a faster machine made of plastic and metal just to surf the web?” They will wonder what their product purchase decisions will mean to the world around them.

What happened?

Craft boom, Pledge Handmade, Etsy, consumer concern, Carbon-Offsetting confusion, anti-fashion-consumption

WIDGETS & BRAND UTILITY

We said:

What’s happening is that the internet, and the content is contains, is beginning going to go to the people… Gradual widget adoption combined with RSS technology means that 2007 will see a boom in the use of widgets. It’s taken media and brands quite a while to get round to thinking of using these things - but now every brand, ad agency and media site is going to try to work out how to broadcast content, entertainment, information and even coupons via widgets… [and] we hope, we’ll actually see brands providing something useful for people: who knows, the widget might make it the year of Branded Utility?

What happened?

Facebook apps, Twitter, RCRD LBL, WIdgety Goodness and Brand Utility as a buzz word.

THE HEARMESEEME WEB

We said:

As 2006 saw the maturing of the read-write web (or Web 2.0), 2007 will see the rise of the third stage of the internet’s evolution: the HearMeSeeMe web. The rise of video and audio on the web has been phenomenal and we will see the average user’s behavior change over the next year as he/she moves from reading and writing text to consuming and generating moving image and sound.

What happened?

Personal-casting through Justin.TV, Kaltura, 5min, Sumo.TV, Blip.TV, YouTube Quickcapture.