The year 2009 was dictated by a global recession that forced households looked for ways on how to survive, while 2010 challenged people to scrutinize as they became adept at being eagle-eyed with all the possible ways to look at the different ins and outs of a brand.

The current year spells a more fun and relaxed outlook for consumers.

“Relaxed but not reckless,” was what Pamela Garcia, JWT Manila executive planning director, emphasized as she discussed the top 10 global trends for 2011 on Friday at the Society Lounge, Makati City.

“The big word for 2011 is technology plus positive economic outlook,” she said.

Known as one of the world’s best-known marketing communications brand, JWT followed a format of gathering insights, both qualitative and quantitative, from 50 countries. 

A batch of “influencers” and experts (from technology, retail and design, among others) were interviewed for the study. The local JWT team, on the other hand, interviewed consumers through qualitative, in-depth questioning for them to get the motivations behind the trends.

Here are the top 10 trends of 2011:

1.   All the world’s a game

According to Garcia, increasingly brands will apply game mechanics to nongaming spaces in an attempt to engage and inspire people to certain actions or behaviors.

Arguing “life is a game,” playing a game lets people to have unique experience with the brand. In local point of view, if brands go into gaming mechanics, it is going to a certain mind space that is usually not entertained by brands.

 “It’s a bigger playground for brands because there is less clutter. When you are in that world, you are disarmed. You’re playing while having fun,” said one of the local interviewees.

An interesting note to this trend is certain brands are considered lucky if their brands have fun element already but impose as a challenge to those brands that are categorized as serious such as medicine or finance.

This is the year for serious brands or topics can get “gamified.” Brands just have to study more of what consumers are into and know how they can convert that into an immersive, fun experience using game mechanics.

For Filipinos, they want games that are simple and social with engaging mechanics.

Another interesting note about this trend is that there will be more consumers bringing their children or the rest of the family to the mall and would not limit their purchases.

2.   The urgency economy

Consumers are not so much into spending, not because they are saving money, but more of them—especially among the middle to upscale consumers—are more into the “urgency economy.”

“It’s all about the urgency and excitement of not missing out the art of the deal,” Garcia said. Because it is time-sensitive, the trend is cooler with younger and hipper consumers to “buy now.”

She added that there are different motivations that cover this trend. “It’s the speed that’s what gets people going.”

For some people, getting a best deal from a brand might be a form of bragging off or pagmamayabang. In fact, 83 percent of those interviewed in the US and UK tend to tell their friends and family that they got a good deal. “Unlike before, consumers keep it to themselves.”

Garcia noted that the key driver for this trend is the experience of the recent recession fatigue. The past two years drove consumers to save more money and for this year people want to reward themselves.

3.   Noncommitment culture

Consumers are more reluctant to commit to big purchases. They rent, buy items and then resell them or share with friends.

“The operative term for this is consumption collaboratively,” Garcia argued.

Locally, less younger people buy houses because of the concept of nonpermanence. Often, this group of people would argue that they might just be reassigned to another place or lose their job that would leave them mind the house mortgage.

Garcia said the Web has pushed people to live a global village. People share their resources and many opt for “group buying” in order not to waste too much resources.

Consumers will shy away from buying “all of them” mentality and she argued that the key driver for this trend is economic consciousness.

Moreover, pop-up shops will be in trend that brands might consider. They would have to rent shop spaces and come up with immersive experience for a certain season. Garcia used a pharmacy store as an example where it could come up with a pop-up store during rainy season.

Common among Filipinos are the motivations behind this, which are the sachet mentality, prepaid and ukay. According to her, when it comes to sharing, local consumers remain skeptical because of certain issues as such as hygiene.

However, Garcia pointed out that there is an antitrend to this, which is nostalgia. “It’s more of adding value to the brand.” Brands will have to come out with limited edition of their products or introduce cutting-edge technology.

4. Eat, pray, tech

A unique observation of this study showed that technology is no longer a luxury. In fact, consumers around the world are willing to spend more on technology as an integral part of their daily life aside from food and clothing.

It is noted that technology has many models for specific markets that serves as a form of empowerment for everyone—“like e-book reader for book lovers, smartphones for housewives, tablets/notebooks for office meetings,” she said.

Consumers concede that they cannot live without technology anymore. Technology serves gateways to experiences.

“Gadgets are more than a piece of jewelry or a watch. It’s like traveling. The wonder of making calls to a friend who is on the other half of the world,” she said.

The challenge for the brands is how they can make their products technology-enabled.

Another concern is productivity enhancement. It will be a challenge for companies and offices to allow social-networking sites during work time that would lead to the employees’ increased productivity.

5. De-teching

While the main word for 2011 is technology, consumers may need to “unplug” from all the gadgets that they are attached with. De-teching serves an antitrend wherein those consumers feel that spending every second of their life into their gadgets is “all too much” and this trend becomes their way of protesting against it.

The caveat to this is that more people choose to log-off at least temporarily. Getting offline means going to the present where it creates opportunities to engage in deep thinking or reflection.

“When was the last time you enjoyed your coffee without ever looking at your gadget?”

Garcia said people are slowing down when it comes to their “connectivity” to technology. It is about getting back to the real world and experiencing it in real life.

One example she used was how this person wrote on his Facebook wall that he is going for a weeklong Facebook holiday for “more important matters.”

According to her, this trend will not be strictly followed by those in the middle to downscale because of the fear of being left behind. She argued that by doing it, they might lose opportunities whereas they have just started using it. 

“The challenge for brands is to align itself with human connection in a fresher way,” she said.

6.   Retail as the third space

While customers are spending more time browsing online, what happens to physical space in the store is that it now functions as the third space. It is time to reimagine the retail space as the third space.

Customers will be expecting unique experiences, environment and customer services. Looking at what the brands can offer, plus the benefit of what the consumers can get.

7.   Creative urban renewal

“It is about going back to beautifying the environment that we work and live in,” Garcia explained.

This is crucial for brands on how they can provide opportunities to improve human environments. According to her, this trend is driven by nongovernment organizations.

“While you can expect least to nothing from the government, there is no one who will do it but you.”

She stressed that these local community initiatives might not translate to sales but it would affect the feel-good mind space of the consumers.

8. Worlds colliding

This trend is fusing together two different worlds, which are the offline and online worlds, in a seamless integration making borders between the online and physical world become fuzzy.

Garcia said mobile gadgets are bridging the two worlds. Even simple things from the real and virtual world are interlinked in these days.

She added that augmented reality would be more popular. In Japan retailers are already testing digital billboards that use facial recognition technology to identify age and sex of pedestrians. 

9.   Hyper-personalization

Consumers of today and tomorrow will expect personalized digital realm that offers up what they most likely need or want before they even want or need it.

Google has already come up with a personalized search where people who once bought a specific item can be given similar item searches by the site. It has become personal and social.

This trend worries local consumers where issues of privacy and security remain to be their biggest considerations.

10. Outsourcing self-control

In effect, this trend prompts brands to gain control over their consumers to stop or moderate certain behaviors.

The so-called the space of temptation makes people to give it over to third parties to help them to exercise self-discipline. With the multiplied temptations before them, it is hard for consumers to raise that alarm to control them.

More consumers are more willing to be controlled. “When a brand does it and nicely demonstrates it, consumers will welcome this intrusion,” Garcia noted.

At present, car companies are developing in-car analyzers that would detect the breath of the driver if he is drunk and would automatically lock the car and he or she would not be able to drive. Another one is to know the alcohol content of the driver by scanning his or her retina.

An application for BlackBerry promotes “no text while driving” by automatically locking the phone when the car hits 10 miles per hour.

Garcia noted that companies and agencies should have more fun with their brands and link back to certain ideas. The key is to nurture the untapped motivation, which is to help control consumers and lead their lives to better environment.