100 Trends: What’s Up In Business And Culture For 2013

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100 TRENDS | ARTS & LEISURE

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09. Musicians Get PaidDigital Streaming Services Supplant Some PiracyIt is widely believed that music piracy did

much to topple music industry profits,

with artists now looking to touring,

merchandise and licensing to make a living. Record companies and entrepreneurs have

finally caught up with what music fans have wanted all along – access to all music,

anywhere and all of the time. Spotify, Pandora and similar services make that possible

while supplanting the urge to download tracks from questionable sources.

As paid subscriptions and advertising revenue increase, so have payments to artists.

SoundExchange, the main digital royalty tracking and distribution organization, now

consistently distributes over US$100 million to artists each quarter. Hopefully this marks

the path away from piracy toward a more practical, enjoyable, fair and sustainable method

for listening to our favorite jams.

SoundExchange Tops $1 Billion in Total Payouts, Surpasses $100 Million in Q1

Billboard.biz, June 18, 2012

SoundExchange

10. NBA HipstersBasketball Ball Stars Don Thick-Rimmed Glasses And Bowties Traditionally some of the biggest

trendsetters in sports, NBA players have

recently begun dressing more like Brooklyn record store clerks than streetballers. When

Kobe Bryant is photographed in red skinny jeans, you know something is up.

In reaction against the baggy clothes and b-boy style that ruled the courts for decades,

geek chic is now how NBA stars stand out off the court – plaid shirts, paperboy hats, and

skinny ties abound. In other words, goodbye Foot Locker, hello Bonobos.

And of course there’s the inevitable tumblr blog to track the latest trendy baller sightings.

Check the NBA Hipsters page for what’s hot among the more fashionably-daring elite

athletes of the NBA.

NBA Hipsters on tumblr


100 TRENDS | BUSINESS

25. Product SubscriptionsSocks, Razors And More At Your Door Every MonthProduct subscriptions have kicked into overdrive. Grooming essentials, bulk basics, apparel,

creative supplies and trendy trinkets are just a few of the myriad goods that can be purchased

via an online subscription and periodically shipped to your door. Buyers love the convenience

and investors love the recurring revenue.

While many subscription services have been created from the ground up as tech startups,

there’s every chance that big retailers will start offering similar services to cost-conscious

subscription fans. Meanwhile, smaller players like Bespoke Post will continue to pitch super-

unique monthly experiences-in-a-box to connoisseurs of what’s new.

Bespoke Post

26. “Topless” Meetings

No Laptops/Phones/Tablets Allowed

Frustrated by distractions and disengaged participants, some companies have instituted

old school screen-free meetings. While connectivity is key for more and more offices,

sometimes it’s nice to turn it all off and have a chance to practice those social skills with

an actual face-to-face conversation. It’s also a good way to see which employees are the

first to suffer social media withdrawal.

What is a Topless Meeting? wiseGEEK


100 TRENDS | COMMUNITY & SOCIETY

37. Indie Gaming Gets Its Own ConsoleThe Little Game System That MightIndustry observers have predicted the death of the home video game console for years, but

Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo continue to occupy a place in living rooms around the world.

Now there’s a new game in town – OUYA (pronounced “ooh-ya”). The Android-based, Yves

Behar-designed, Kickstarter-funded system will take on the big guns in 2013.

This product has the potential to represent the true mainstreaming of crowdsourced goods.

After raising US$8.5 million on Kickstarter, some big name developers quickly came on

board to support the system. And because it runs on the hugely popular Android platform,

thousands of developers already have the capability to make games for it. Finally, at just

$99, it undercuts the competition on price. Not just a video game console, OUYA may be

crowdfunding’s hockey stick moment.

OUYA on Kickstarter

OUYA official site

38. Make Your City AwesomeLowkey Funders Support “Awesome” Projects

The Awesome Foundation, comprising 59 chapters in 12 countries, is a growing “network

of people dedicated to the forwarding of awesomeness in the universe”. Each chapter

solicits project ideas, and offers a series of monthly US$1,000 grants to help see the best

ones to fruition.

From San Antonio to Ulaan Bataar and Berlin to San Francisco, artists and activists have

completed cool small-scale projects with the aim to make their cities just a little bit cooler.

357 projects later, that’s a lot of awesome spread to cities around the world. Does your

city support awesomeness?

The Awesome Foundation


100 TRENDS | FOOD

43. Bacon DustAs Pork Belly Futures Rise, So Bacon Shall Become A Rarer Treat

Food prices are on the rise, and bacon is no exception. Climate change and increased

demand have put upward pressure on pork prices, which may mean we’ll see fewer

extreme bacon gut busters on menus.

Instead, chefs are turning to portion control by serving bacon in bits, cooked until crisp

and dry, then buzzed in a food processor to accent a whole array of dishes both sweet

and savory. The salty strips are also showing up in baked goods and deserts with

increasing frequency – bacon mints, anyone?

44. Classy Cocktail MixersHome Mixologists Class It UpCraft beer, whisky, vodka and other spirits abound in

liquor stores, yet the mixer aisle is still crammed with

high-fructose corn syrup-laden concoctions that feel more

Kool-Aid than cosmopolitan. But smallscale entrepreneurs

are looking to change that.

Real fruit juice, agave syrup, organic herbs, and an artistic

touch are the hallmarks of this new breed of booze

brighteners. In fact, a healthy handful of entrepreneurs

have successfully funded cocktail bitters companies on

Kickstarter in the past year. Your old fashioned will never

be the same.

100 TRENDS | MARKETING

65. A/B Test EverythingLet Your Fans Decide What WorksDigital marketing allows us to easily test multiple versions of advertisements, marketing

messages and design elements. Without the need to print massive quantities of a finished

product, savvy marketers have taken to A/B testing everything they do. An experimental

sample of two emails, ads or page layouts can help determine which version has more

impact. Then it’s as simple as taking the better one and pushing it to the entire targeted

audience. This technique is also helpful for determining how different audiences react to

the same message. A/B testing should be a basic tool in every marketer’s repertoire.

Google AdWords

ABtests.com Learn. Share. Improve your conversations every day.

66. Ask WhyWhy Do You Care About Your Brand? Why Should Anyone Else?All of the conversation around

quantitative analysis of social media

post performance, engagement levels,

followers and sentiment is important

for improving data integrity industry-

wide. However, the effort to optimize

toward the perfect post can reduce the

spontaneity and sense of human-to-

human interaction that defines social

engagement.

With that in mind, it is important to

understand what it is about your brand

that excites you every day and how that

should excite your audience. After all,

social media is about driving organic

real-life discussion about the day’s most

interesting topics. If you want your brand

to be part of the conversation, you need to be interesting enough to talk about. This is

often less feature-specific and more about brand essence. What are your fans already

saying without prompting from “official sources”? How can you encourage even more

such discussion?

So while quantitative analysis is vital for tracking campaign ROI, it also behooves you to

not forget the qualitative because people are savvy – we all know the difference between

corporate robo-posts optimized for engagement and real social media conversation starters.

42ROOM214.COM | [email protected] | 866.624.1851 | @ROOM_214 | FACEBOOK.COM/ROOM214


100 TRENDS | TECHNOLOGY

81. 3D Printing = Invention Revolution3D Printing For AllOffice supply giant Staples recently announced a plan to introduce 3D printing services

at select retail locations in 2013. Forward-thinking designers have been using 3D printing

machines for rapid prototyping, machine part manufacturing and just plain fun for several

years. But now we’ll all have a chance to become acquainted with the process. We may

soon see print-your-own toys, tools and replacement parts as a result. This takes Made in

the USA to a whole new level.

Staples announces in-store 3-D printing service CNN, December 2012

MakerBot desktop 3D printer

82. ArduinoThe Next Wave In Computing

Check out any online forum for tinkerers and DIY gadget makers, and you’re bound to

find tons of talk about Arduino. It’s an open-source electronics prototyping platform,

developed in Italy in 2005, that consists of a microcontroller and interchangeable circuits

with a complimentary programming language that engineers and enthusiasts can use to

create all sorts of devices. LEDs, GPS units, power controllers and light sensors are just a

few of the components available for building customized robots and gadgets.

Arduino enthusiasts have made musical instruments, home lighting controllers, games,

and Lego robots among hundreds of other creations posted online. This could be the

beginning of a custom electronics revolution.

Arduino official site

Arduino Community

40 Arduino Projects on the Web Hack n Mod

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