So what’s the trend today?
Trends are like snitches in our world of advertising. They’re tough to spot and tougher to catch. But they sure help you win the game.
There are plenty of websites that you can subscribe to that send you latest trends from across the globe. (trendspotting trendhunter trendrr) There are plenty of advertising pundits too who spew trends at the speed of light.
I write about this today because I see that ‘trends’ and ‘insights’ are often abused. There is almost an angry rush to catch the trend or an insight for every piece of communication we do. And judging by the number of ads released in the market every day, our planners must be spewing insights by the hour 
So I pose a question now – are trends simply observations of existing advertising?
Sample this:
Trend: ‘people are exploring their roots and being Indian is now cool’
Support: This trend could come from the observation that sanskrit language insititutes are seeing a rise in registrations, comparable to alliance francaise.
Now I can live with that. I can.
But I don’t see how trend-specialists can analyze existing advertising and pick trends from there.
Trend by trend-spewing ad-guru: ‘people are exploring their roots and being Indian is now cool’
Support by trend-spewing ad-guru: Fundamint talks about ‘being desi’.
You can’t observe an ad for fundamint and announce that being desi is a trend!
Why not? Because someone’s already thought of it and made an ad on it. Clearly you’re not spotting a trend then. You’re simply picking a trend in advertising. You’re no guru, I should think. Anyone can comment on the great work others do, doesn’t make you great strategist. Makes you a reporter.
Should a trend not come from observations made of the world which don’t include our own projection of it (advertising)? Or should we include advertising themes as part of social culture? But then it’s one big loop of a mess no?
September 14th, 2009 at 12:31 am
somebody finally said it. you just put a lot of senior spotters in a spot.
November 4th, 2009 at 5:01 am
Completely buy your point. Have been looking for trends in financial services since the past 2 days and your post just highlights the myopic vision of so many of our brethren.
Btw, do you know of any significant trends in financial services in India that you could afford to share?
November 4th, 2009 at 5:25 am
hey i haven’t worked on the financial domain much so i’ll have to give it a think!
glad you agree with the post
and good to see you here too. where do you work?
November 9th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Hi,
Nice article. You reminded of my advertising days… and my MICA days. Ya right trends are in wrong hands today !!
Durlov
@lifeisbetter
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:01 am
I was just thinking about this an hour ago. Serendipity.
I react with natural distrust to any trendmeister posts with titles like:
“The Age of _____”
“____ 3.0″
“A is the new B”
Besides your point about separating projective advertising from disinterested observation, I’d also add: good trendspotting tends to balance narrative extrapolation (right-brained trendcasting) with empirical evidence (if you can’t find at least SOME numbers to support your trend claim, don’t post it).
I have been personally guilty of many of these sins of course, but in my defense, I usually frame them in an obviously whimsical way.
Venkat
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:03 am
You may want to look at Mastering the Hype Cycle for more interesting thoughts on the nature of “trends.”