Sophie Harding, Trends & Insights Director, and Julia Ayling, Head of Research & Insights — Mindshare UK
Sophie and Julia talk to TheNextGag about why we all love trends, how to help clients prepare for the future and how to identify the right signals.
Sophie Harding is a Trends and Insights Director and Julia Ayling is the Head of Research and Insights at Mindshare in the UK.
Mindshare’s purpose is to create valuable experiences for people in media.
Mindshare Futures is the research programme that underpins this purpose. It runs throughout the year, constantly monitoring and testing emerging tech innovations and the wider cultural changes going on in the world.
Every year, the Futures team creates a report featuring trends to watch for the year ahead. This report is build upon a unique and extensive consumer research programme, putting people firmly at the heart of each trend.
For the 2018 annual report, the Mindshare Future team surveyed over 6,000 people, held focus groups across the UK, carried out mobile qualitative and diary style exercises with over 100 people and carried out social and search analysis.
Everyone wants to know what’s going to happen in the future.
THENEXTGAG: WHY DO WE LOVE READING ABOUT TRENDS SO MUCH ?
SOPHIE HARDING: As human beings, I think we are fascinated by change. Whether you crave or fear it, everyone wants to know what’s going to happen in the future. And we like to plan for it — no one likes to be caught off guard. I think trends also take us out of our everyday bubble and let us use our imagination. Whenever we run workshops for clients, this is the main feedback we get. It can sometimes be quite a tonic just to think outside of our daily task list and think bigger picture for a moment, even if it is just for a morning!
JULIA AYLING: For me it’s something to do with the fact there isn’t a definite, exact answer to resolve — unlike more regular research studies where you are trying to move towards a truth or a fact, with trends it’s much less absolute and much more about a range of possibilities and futures. That changes how you work and think; your approach becomes more creative, more inspiration based, as a result.
THENEXTGAG: DOES IT BECOME A PROBLEM WHEN EVERYONE READS FROM THE SAME TREND REPORTS ?
JA: Our trends explore the impact of technology on consumers, brands, and communication, and around the time when everyone is launching their big reports for the year ahead, it can occasionally go a bit buzz word bingo around some of the bigger themes.
However, any company who takes their trends seriously will have been collecting manifestations, exploring themes, scouting in other markets etc. on a year round basis. It’s not something that you can turn on and off, you’re doing it the whole time. That ongoing curiosity ends up informing your thinking far more than the latest trend report that may have come through from another company.
TNG: HOW DOES ONE BECOME A TRENDS RESEARCHER ? HANGING OUT IN BARS WITH THE COMMON MAN ?
SH: Its quite a specific role and often you don’t start out with this as a focus. My role has always been about media research and strategy in general, but there is so much happening in this space and the world around us is changing so quickly, it has been imperative to keep on top of what’s happening and determine how people feel about it. On the tech and media side — absorb a lot of information, every day. Everything changes so quickly. Lots and lots of reading, watching videos, seeing tech in action etc. On the people side, it’s about being curious. Talk to people. Find out how they feel about things. Talk to people outside of your circle. And talk to them about stuff they can relate to — most people don’t need to know the intricacies of blockchain, neural networks or what GAFA is. Keep open minded and take in lots of different perspectives and opinions. And of course… hang out in the right bars.
People are a lot more open about sharing every little detail of their lives that you think they would be !
TNG: WHAT’S THE DARNDEST THING THAT SOMEONE TOLD YOU DURING A WORKSHOP OR A CONSUMER INTERVIEW ?
SH: Most recently, my favourite comment from one of our respondents about the Amazon Echo kind of summed up how most people feel about it at the moment. ‘It’s the most expensive light switch I’ve ever brought’. People like the concept of this technology, but simply don’t know what to do with it sometimes. Of course this will change. We also find that trends are a topic people really like to talk about and I mean really like to talk about. It is becoming increasingly difficult to sift through the reams of data we are collecting and we have had to increase the number of us moderating every year. People are a lot more open about sharing every little detail of their lives that you think they would be! I am always amazed by the fact that mobile ethnography for some reason, in comparison to face to face, seems to encourage far more oversharing than is necessary. Sometimes it’s about putting your professional hat on and skipping over something, when all you want to do is burst into laughter or secretly dig a bit deeper! It’s these little intricacies of human nature that every researcher loves at heart.
TNG: ARE THERE SUCH THINGS AS GLOBAL TRENDS OR ARE GEOGRAPHIC AREAS TOO DIFFERENT ?
JA: Global trends do exist, and there are some great companies out there identifying them. For me, they tend to work most successfully when there is a generous degree of nuance built into the thinking to help accommodate and reflect regional differences and varying adoption levels across markets.
We are UK based, so for us that “other market” thinking can be very helpful in identifying a development that we may not have seen on a local level yet, or in giving us some clues into how a new manifestation may land.
Talking to actual people is fundamental to getting a sense of whether these things have or will take off.
TNG: WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS THE TREND THAT YOU HOPED WOULD CATCH ON BUT STILL HASN’T ?
SH: Not necessarily a trend, more a technology, but we keep adding haptic tech to our list as a possibility every year and every year it gets turfed aside! And I can see why — adding a sense of touch and feel to technology is admittedly not on the top of people’s priority lists, but there have been some cool examples that have cropped up over the years. That and of course the cat drone (nothing more needs to be said). On this note of trends catching on, I think the industry can also be guilty of flagging things up too early, ourselves included! For example. it feels like the industry has been talking about VR and AR forever and only now is it starting to come to fruition with the UK public (well, in the case of AR anyway). We do need to keep an eye on what innovations are happening in these areas, but risking sounding like a broken record. This is where talking to actual people is fundamental to getting a sense of whether these things have or will take off. Just because something is on our radar, doesn’t necessarily mean it will be a success.
TNG: DO YOU FIND THAT NOWADAYS TRENDS STICK LESS AND COME & GO MORE QUICKLY THAN BEFORE ?
SH: I don’t think they do — the fundamental overarching topics and core drivers of trends stay pretty consistent. However, the innovations and technologies that contribute to trends are definitely changing and morphing the trends more quickly. It takes around 3 months to complete all of our research and compile our yearly trends report. In this time things can change pretty quickly. From a tech perspective, it only takes one announcement from GAFA to accelerate a trend or take it in a different direction, so we try to leave the final trend write ups as late as we can. However, what doesn’t change quite so quickly are the wider trends themselves and people’s reactions to them. Just because GAFA have brought out this great new thing, doesn’t mean that people’s opinions and beliefs on a topic will change overnight.
TNG: WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE MOVIE AND WHYY IS IT “THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA” ?
SH: “Star Wars” for me. I was obsessed with it as a kid and must have watched each of the movies 50 times over. I had all the toys — the figurines, the Millennium Falcon (unfortunately now for my bank balance, all sold when I was a kid). I have grown up a bit since then, I promise, but still love the new movies. And it helps that Julia’s husband works on the special effects, so we can find excuses to talk about it in the office…!
JA: Well I wasn’t expecting that question! Given we’re talking trends, I’m going to throw “Blade Runner” in here as my choice. I never knew Sophie had all the Star Wars toys by the way… my Star Wars enjoyment was more to do with the young Harrison Ford, if I’m being very honest!
TNG: DOES IT MAKE YOU ANGRY WHEN CLIENTS DON’T ACT ON THE MARKET INTELLIGENCE THAT YOU PROVIDE THEM WITH ?
JA: Frustrated would probably be a better word, particularly when you look back at what you’ve created with the hindsight of it not having worked out, and realise how you could have told the story in a more compelling, or relevant way.
My team put a huge amount of passion, enthusiasm, and effort into what they create, and we always go into it wanting to make a difference. I struggle to see the point of research for the sake of it; to me that just feels indulgent.
Sometimes though there are times when clients can’t act on it, however much they may believe in what you’ve shared with them. In those circumstances you just have to move on, and remember that we did the best job we could.
The analysis of a combination of digital behaviours can be very helpful.
TNG: I USED TO WORK ON THE WELLA PROFESSIONALS ACCOUNT. EVERY SEASON THEY COME UP WITH NEW TRENDS TO INSPIRE HAIR STYLISTS AND CREATE NEW PRODUCT LINES. DO YOU THINK THAT MORE BRANDS SHOULD SET UP AN INSIGHTS DEPARTMENT ?
JA: Many of the brands we work with are very interested in trends identification and inspiration, and how to make it as fresh and relevant as possible. We’re working with them to help achieve this and have found that the analysis of a combination of digital behaviours can be very helpful here, whether it’s in terms of social conversations, search behaviours, video activity, influencer content — that kind of thing. This type of approach can be great for getting at the things that are bubbling under the radar, that might just take off for a brand.
Sophie Harding
Trends and Insights Director
Julia Ayling
Head of Research and Insights
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