Decoding Next: Five trends you need to know including grown-up playtime, controversy & capitalism and gamification of tedious content
sparks & honey tracks trends by drawing on dozens of data sources, hundreds of scouts and cultural strategists in our London, New York and Los Angeles offices. In April alone, we covered over 1200 signals. Here are the top five trends we observed.
1. Grown-up playtime
Maybe it’s the rise in temperature but we’ve been seeing a lot of playful, yet adult, cultural signals, that we call Kidult. Gestures of reclaiming our childhood with a sarcastic twist, we’re using the naivety and sheer bliss of play to find relaxation, mental health or simply health.
There have been a number of children’s books written for adults including Hurry Up and Wait about the art of not being busy and Secret Garden, a 96-page intricate colouring book for adults, now a global bestseller.
Books aren’t your thing? Maybe a multi-floor ball pit sculpture resembling an ancient idol, decked out in monochrome art by Marvin Gaye Chetwynd is. The permanent soft play area in Abbey Leisure Centre in Barking is for kids and adults alike.
In activation land, Reebok created a wonderfully-rewarding game (video above) for adults to play while waiting for the tube.
2. Controversy and capitalism
Sometimes a little controversy can be a very, very good thing. The legalization of marijuana has been a movement for decades, but has only recently caught the eye of capitalists. Since this trend is so old and gaining remarkable power, we call it a roll, growing over years and about to explode. In the UK, CISTA has popped out of nowhere fronting 32 candidates in the general election on 7 May, and every one of them is part of history: running in the first pro-drug reform political party.
In the US, the fury for ganja fever is reaching store shelves.
Ben and Jerry’s will release a cannabis-infused flavour where marijuana is legal. “Makes sense to me,” co-founder Ben Cohen said, while savoring a bite of ice cream. “Combine your pleasures.” Aspen Colorado has become the most expensive city in the US, so of course it has a high-end weed boutique.
Another obvious, but profitable example of riding the wave: Snoop Dogg has helped Eaze app raise a mere $10m dollars (the Uber of weed service promising to deliver in 10 minutes). Probably the funniest execution we’ve seen of the movement is the app Who Is Happy? (pictured above). Conceived in Brazil, just tap on the map to anonymously share your happy place and cause social change in the process. That is, if you can see the buttons.
We may be a few years behind the US in legalization of marijuana but at least Ireland had a taste of freedom last month when almost 100 drugs became legal for a day due to a legal error.
3. DIY happiness
Hurray! Whooo hooo! This month we’ve seen an incredible amount of optimistic tools, apps, content and ideas emerge that raise awareness of happiness and mental health. The trend of a network effect of people joining forces to simply make someone happier, even anonymously, is a wonderful sign of digital humanity.
Have you tried Joy Bombing? You don’t have to be a brand to do it, but watch above what happened when Leo Burnett and Samsung taught an entire town to speak sign language for one young man.
A social network called Panopoly is in development to combat depression by helping you reframe negative thoughts.
CheerUpper, a new app, helps you find and cheer up the saddest people on Twitter. And if that person is you, well, hang in there, you can also use the hashtag #cheermeup and the people behind CheerUpper will automatically queue your tweet in the reply pile.
If you fancy a deeper look at mental health, why not read through the extensive group of stories Vice has collected in the Vice Guide to Mental Health.
4. Gamification of tedious content
Looking for a new job? Tired of Linkedin and recruiters? Bored? Maybe you should play a game to know what to try next. Pymetrics is a site offering a 30-minute test where it learns your personal characteristics by assessing 50 key cognitive and emotional traits and presents career options at the end in the form of live job postings.
Some other boredom busters we saw this month included: Statcast for Major League Baseball. If you like baseball, then you appreciate stats. Otherwise, those nine innings are unbearable. New broadcasts and app tech will animate play with oodles of info, whether you wanted to know, or not.
Sometimes this trend simply pops up as tedious content. Our obsession with just watching something boring is actually en vogue. Watch an office intern post some letters or see Mozart’s clarinet concerto sheet music turn into bright visuals or just enjoy one of the most ironic and boring unboxing videos ever.
5. Sacred family lifestyle
We’ve seen a lot of family first initiatives this month. Fathers is a new quarterly magazine building on a trend we call Dad 2.0. Geared towards young, creative dads, the publication will feature interviews, reports, photo essays and stories on children of the digital age.
Here in the UK, Dolmio created a pepper shaker and this social experiment (video above) to silence social media during dinner.
And on a more sarcastic note, IKEA wants your wedding to include everyone. Even if you get married online. Not really a joke (because it’s overlayed with product), this online wedding service is only available in Sweden, at the moment.
This piece was written and compiled by Alison Bracegirdle and Maxwell McBride Peterson.