Where Newscrafting Meets Trendspotting

PR Today:

April 2015

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Newscrafting?What Is

First, what it’s NOT: Not the old practice of simply pitching the news

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What it is: a new discipline, a mix of putting out routine news in more compelling ways, creating news opportunities and coattailing relevant breaking news

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Trendspotting?What Is

The art of ID’ing what’s driving the future—and planning for long-term success

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Important?Why Is It

For direction on the journey to pilot industries and brands with smart, insightful strategies

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the world is moving at the speed of light ... a trend comes out of nowhere and a meme disappears before our eyes ... trendspotting is more important than ever—a way to arm yourself with the right tools to survive and thrive ... and it’s essential for creating relevant content and shaping products, services and markets.

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trendspotters?Who Are

• We hunt down global trends across borders and categories.

• We are lookers—and listeners, observers—and we don’t like to overcommit to anything up front while we get our bearings, though we tend to find them quickly.

• Good strategic trendspotting requires developing intuition about what’s just off the radar.

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• We aren’t futurists, fortune-tellers or mystics—rather, we are strategists.

• A trendspotter is different from a trendsetter. (Hint: Look at the names; trendspotters spot trends; trendsetters set trends.)

Can a Trendspotter

Create New?

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Trendsetters tend to

be ahead of the pack,

restlessly trying out

new things—while

trendspotters are able

to observe, and in

so doing identify the

emerging.

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• In the age of social media, #TrendsAreTrendy—and #NewsIsCrafted, but both live on social media platforms.

• But with an ever-more-fragmented audience, news lives everywhere.

Where Does News Created

by Trendspotters Live in Today’s Media Landscape?

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Phenomenon?Is This an American

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Not necessarily, but the U.S. drives trends, and here are some reasons why …

• Innovation: Americans love what’s new

• Experimentation: Americans love to tinker, improve and change

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• Future focus: America is about tomorrow—what’s next

• Scale: Massive economies in which trends rise and gain momentum

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• Common culture and language: Ideas are shared easily, quickly and widely

• Money: Good ideas make money quickly in the U.S.

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• Media: The U.S. has an outsized influence on the trendshapers of modern life

• Cool: For the rest of the world, America has more cool than any other nation

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Some

andfor NewscraftingDon’tsDo’s

DO: Monitor and react to the news agenda

DO: Provide commentary

DO: Leverage announcements (partnerships, new hires, innovations, etc.) to further craft a brand narrative

DON’T: Overlook the importance of contributing to features and opinion pieces

DON’T: Forget to amplify with social media

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Some

andfor TrendspottingDon’tsDo’s

DO: Develop peripheral awareness—the ability to notice things that aren’t front and center

DO: Look beyond your organization or group; in this hyperconnected world, things don’t happen in isolation

DO: Develop filters to sift out the noise and leave the promising info

DON’T: Scan only the Internet— neither newscrafting nor trendspotting can be done in a vacuum

DON’T: Confuse trends with a trending topic

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Metrosexuality

GlobesityLocal is the new global

Parallel universes

Sleep is the new sex

A Quick Survey of the Historical Trendscape

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NEXT?What’s

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No. 1 Water’s Making Waves

Move over, green building and electrical energy conservation. The buzziest segment of the renewable energy and clean-tech sector right now is water innovation.

• Water scarcity—both a natural and human-made phenomenon—is poised to become one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century.

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No. 2 Gender Equality Insists Men Join in

The drive for gender equality asks women and men to lean in together.

• Emma Watson for HeForShe and Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean in Together (in partnership with the NBA and ESPN): Both are about mobilizing men to be advocates for gender equality—and showing them why it’s important.

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No. 3 Makers Have Takers

Combining a DIY spirit with tech savvy and the progressive belief that the best learning comes from doing and collaborating, the maker movement is at the epicenter of creativity and innovation.

• It demonstrates a shared recognition that the key to the future lies in technological innovation.

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No. 4 Age Is the New Androgyny

If the last year in fashion was all about transcending gender, then this year is dedicated to embracing (old) age.

• From Joan Didion modeling for Céline to Joni Mitchell fronting for Yves Saint Laurent to Iris Apfel for Kate Spade and Alexis Bittar, to anonymous Italian grandmas at Dolce & Gabbana, fashion is embracing a “what’s old is in” attitude.

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No. 5 The De-Cluttering Backlash

De-cluttering is hardly new, but in recent months it has reached fever pitch. Will jettisoning your stuff really bring you joy?

• All of a sudden, we are all on the de-cluttering hamster wheel, constantly feeling we are not living up to our full potential if we are not purging our stuff.

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profiting from personal data

breakfast ramenspiritual values

box office blitz

reverse white flightmy eyes are up here

generosityJD Salinger

Bristol stepping out

blurred hospital/spa experiences

(more) affordable private jets

Loui

svill

e

mili

tary

-insp

ired

look

s

cherriesflour documentaries

blurred shopping experiences

post-gender

outer space

healing teas

rise of an articulated working class

solo

moo

ning

Kirsten Gillibrand

CopenhagenUdaipurChristmas in September

rise of male feminists

bones, feathers, wood

cars for women

Portland, Maine

unpl

ugge

d re

spite

s

chef swaps

Pala

wan

Isla

nd

Kendall Jenner

Leather

mealworms

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Angela Merkel

disgust for athletes

shows based on comics/cartoons parenting of benign neglectSw

eetg

reen

Tavi Gevinson, movie star

fast casual

Alibaba

Chon

gqin

g

cricket

cash-free

Flores

disrupt

CarPlay

empathic accessories

cultu

red

mea

t

Tiffany Foxx

Khanom

Dubai

Naha Google smart lens

masstige retail

Ouija, the galaxy, darkness

Berlin

Hillary ClintonRo

sam

und

Pike

rum

Tokyo

Nestify

mind mining

silk

Colombia

edible clay and coal

People, Places and Phrases—Each a Backbone for NewscraftingNEXT:What’s

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Thank YOu.