The monthly trend monitor provides a unique data-driven overview over the most important global consumer, industry, and society trends. How it works: We use the SONAR trend radar, which tracks the volume of written scientific and journalistic publications on a certain trend, to find out what the top five trends are in these three categories. Utilizing intelligent algorithms, SONAR analyzes a continuously growing database of more than 40 million publications from academic journals, expert blogs, mass media, and patent registers to gain unique insights on global trends.

SONAR can sort trends by Volume (number of articles relevant to a trend and relative to the SONAR index), Growth (YoY growth, volume of the last 12 months vs. previous 12 months) or Momentum (MoM growth, volume of the last month vs. volume of the previous month).

Each month, we present the top 5 consumer, industry, and society trends by Momentum.

Top 5 Consumer Trends in June 2023

Data Privacy has emerged as the leading consumer trend, boasting a considerable momentum far beyond its nearest competitors, replacing last month’s top trend of Vegan and Vegetarian Food. The second and third positions are now occupied by Social Media Stars & Internet Celebrities and Part-time Work Models, respectively, both demonstrating significantly less momentum. Remarkably, none of the previous month’s top five consumer trends have found a spot in June’s list.

Top 5 Industry Trends in June 2023

Artificial Intelligence, often a frontrunner among the top three industry trends, has reclaimed the pole position in June, climbing three places from its rank in May. It supersedes Deep & Machine Learning, which was the top industry trend last month. However, the second-positioned Blockchain Technology demonstrates only an insignificantly weaker momentum.

Top 5 Society Trends in June 2023

In the wake of Pride Month celebrations in June, Diversity & Inclusion have surged to become the top societal trend, closely followed by Global Threats and Urbanization. Notably, Urbanization and Population Explosion, which now ranks fifth, have retained their positions among the top five societal trends from the previous month.

The monthly trend monitor provides a unique data-driven overview over the most important global consumer, industry, and society trends. How it works: We use the SONAR trend radar, which tracks the volume of written scientific and journalistic publications on a certain trend, to find out what the top five trends are in these three categories. Utilizing intelligent algorithms, SONAR analyzes a continuously growing database of more than 40 million publications from academic journals, expert blogs, mass media, and patent registers to gain unique insights on global trends.

SONAR can sort trends by Volume (number of articles relevant to a trend and relative to the SONAR index), Growth (YoY growth, volume of the last 12 months vs. previous 12 months) or Momentum (MoM growth, volume of the last month vs. volume of the previous month).

Each month, we present the top 5 consumer, industry, and society trends by Momentum.

Top 5 Consumer Trends in May 2023

In May, Vegan and Vegetarian Food emerged as the leading consumer trend, followed by a heightened focus on Eco-Awareness, and Digital Reputation Management. Notably, Eco-Awareness stands out as the sole trend maintaining its position within the top five consumer trends from April. What’s more, its momentum has impressively doubled, indicating its continued importance and relevance to consumers.

Top 5 Industry Trends in May 2023

Deep & Machine Learning dominated the industry trends in May with a very strong momentum, closely trailed by Data-Driven Enterprise and Artificial Intelligence. It’s worthy of note that Artificial Intelligence, despite slipping to third place, is the solitary industry trend from April to secure a spot in May’s top five list. This suggests its enduring relevance in the sector, even amidst shifting trends.

Top 5 Society Trends in May 2023

Climate Change ascended to the forefront of societal trends in May, supplanting Global Threats, which, notably, did not secure a spot in the top five this month. The trend of Population Explosion secured third place, a robust performance that could potentially be influenced by recent reports of India’s population surpassing that of China for the first time.

The monthly trend monitor provides a unique data-driven overview over the most important global consumer, industry, and society trends. How it works: We use the SONAR trend radar, which tracks the volume of written scientific and journalistic publications on a certain trend, to find out what the top five trends are in these three categories. Utilizing intelligent algorithms, SONAR analyzes a continuously growing database of more than 40 million publications from academic journals, expert blogs, mass media, and patent registers to gain unique insights on global trends.

SONAR can sort trends by Volume (number of articles relevant to a trend and relative to the SONAR index), Growth (YoY growth, volume of the last 12 months vs. previous 12 months) or Momentum (MoM growth, volume of the last month vs. volume of the previous month).

Each month, we present the top 5 consumer, industry, and society trends by Momentum.

Top 5 Consumer Trends in April 2023

Data Privacy is the top consumer trend in April, followed by Eco-Awareness and Natural & Organic Products. All consumer trends in the top five are marked by relatively small momentum and/or YoY growth.

Top 5 Industry Trends in April 2023

April’s top industry trends, Cognitive Care & Mental Health and Artificial Intelligence, both boast very strong momentum and YoY growth. Neuromorphic Computing, a trend rarely seen in the top five, finds itself on a strong third position.

Top 5 Society Trends in April 2023

Against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Ukraine and mounting expectations of a large-scale Ukrainian offensive, Global Threats is once again the strongest society trend. Last month’s top society trend, Right Wing Populism, is no longer among the top society trends as the situation in Israel has stabilized.

The monthly trend monitor provides a unique data-driven overview over the most important global consumer, industry, and society trends. How it works: We use the SONAR trend radar, which tracks the volume of written scientific and journalistic publications on a certain trend, to find out what the top five trends are in these three categories. Utilizing intelligent algorithms, SONAR analyzes a continuously growing database of more than 40 million publications from academic journals, expert blogs, mass media, and patent registers to gain unique insights on global trends.

SONAR can sort trends by Volume (number of articles relevant to a trend and relative to the SONAR index), Growth (YoY growth, volume of the last 12 months vs. previous 12 months) or Momentum (MoM growth, volume of the last month vs. volume of the previous month).

Each month, we present the top 5 consumer, industry, and society trends by Momentum.

Top 5 Consumer Trends in March 2023

Self-Employment is March’s top consumer trend, followed by Mindfulness & Conscious Living and Athleisure. None of the top consumer trends in the top five show a particularly strong momentum.

Top 5 Industry Trends in March 2023

Artificial Intelligence often finds itself at the top among other industry trends, and this true once again in March. It is interesting, however, to find Sugar Replacement on the second position, as this trend rarely shows such a strong momentum. Search Advertising, the fourth-strongest industry in March is also rarely seen in the top five.

Top 5 Society Trends in March 2023

Right Wing Populism is the strongest society trend in March by momentum, though its YoY growth is slightly negative. This may be explained by the current anti-government protests in Israel. The remaining society trends in the top five all have a significantly weaker momentum.

More and more consumers expect brands to have a clear stance on social and political issues. Yet only few brands are truly effective in communicating stance. Many brands have ended up facing accusations of greenwashing, pinkwashing or wokewashing after launching an expensive purpose marketing campaign.

What should brands focus on to ensure their communication of attitude doesn’t fall flat or even lead to shitstorms? This white paper provides a game plan based on genuine data-driven insights.

Click here to download

Discussions on the ubiquitous social media have a significant impact on brand image and brand value. They also often put companies under pressure to take a stance on current social, political and cultural issues.

According to surveys, about 70% of consumers think it’s important for brands to show attitude. At the same time, the number of daily advertising contacts has been rising sharply for decades. This makes it increasingly difficult for brands to make their communication activities visible enough at all. On the other hand, brands on social media are also quickly accused of “greenwashing,” “pinkwashing,” and “wokewashing” if the communicated attitude of the brand does not quite match the actual brand perception on the part of consumers. 

For brand managers, the crucial question is therefore often not whether the brand should take a stand, but how to make the corresponding purpose marketing activities visible in the first place. In our experience, the best answers to that can be found in innovative social and expert listening approaches combined with classic marketing theory.

In this white paper, we introduce a generalizable game plan on this basis, which can serve as orientation for brands in communicating attitude. It is based on a joint project between TD Reply and the Marketing Department of the Luigi Bocconi University of Economics and Business Administration. Under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Verena Schoenmueller and TD Reply experts, Bocconi students in the Brand Management course have contributed significantly to the collection of the data on which the findings presented in this white paper are based. 

The monthly trend monitor provides a unique data-driven overview over the most important global consumer, industry, and society trends. How it works: We use the SONAR trend radar, which tracks the volume of written scientific and journalistic publications on a certain trend, to find out what the top five trends are in these three categories. Utilizing intelligent algorithms, SONAR analyzes a continuously growing database of more than 40 million publications from academic journals, expert blogs, mass media, and patent registers to gain unique insights on global trends.

SONAR can sort trends by Volume (number of articles relevant to a trend and relative to the SONAR index), Growth (YoY growth, volume of the last 12 months vs. previous 12 months) or Momentum (MoM growth, volume of the last month vs. volume of the previous month).

Each month, we present the top 5 consumer, industry, and society trends by Momentum.

Top 5 Consumer Trends in February 2023

Healthy Lifestyle & Wellbeing is the dominant trend in February, boasting more than double the momentum of the runner-up trend, Data Privacy. The three other trends in the top five are lagging far behind in momentum.

Top 5 Industry Trends in February 2023

Food Tech is the top industry trend in February, followed by Sustainable Food and Brand Experience & CX. It is worthy of note that all the trends in February’s top five are marked by a relatively strong momentum.

Top 5 Society Trends in February 2023

Diversity & Inclusion leads the top five of society trends with an extraordinarily strong momentum. It also shows high Volume and Growth. The two following trends, Climate Change and Digitalization, also boast an extremely high momentum. In the previous month, neither of these trends made it to the top five.

In recent years, marked by the Covid pandemic, the tech and marketing industries seem to have become even more fast-moving than usual. Significant and even disruptive innovations are emerging at a breathtaking pace.

This year too begins with a bang, with ChatGPT, a landmark breakthrough for AI, taking the world by storm. What else is there on the horizon?

Here, seven tech and marketing experts from TD Reply share their personal trends to watch out for 2023.

Dr. Philipp Dauderstädt, Associate Partner

More Selective Brand Collabs

“Brand collaborations have proven to be a highly effective tool for brand activation and strengthening positive brand associations. Today, however, the use of brand collabs has become almost inflationary. This demands a more selective approach to brand collabs in the future for them to remain effective. Future collabs should be carefully assessed in accordance with the strategic brand goals.”

Steffen Hück, Senior Director

Big Tech Layoffs Driving Innovation, Growth and Careers

“Last year, more workers were laid off in the marketing and tech industries than in 2020 and 2021 combined. While layoffs have a negative impact on the individuals affected, it is important to remember that the demand for technology talent is still high, and jobs will return. The influx of tech talent could recalibrate power dynamics in the employment landscape, accelerate innovation and growth in emerging sectors such as green tech, new materials, life sciences and Generative AI. The layoffs allow startups and early-stage companies in these future growth sectors to recruit talent that has previously been off-limits. In addition, lots of new startups may be founded by the layoffs around the world, which would help pave the way for economic growth in the coming years. It will be interesting to see how these shifts will affect innovation and – perhaps even more importantly – growth and careers.”

Anja Kielmann, Senior Director

Metaverse Buzz Dwindling

“Last year, the Metaverse was one of the defining buzzwords in the marketing industry. Today, impressive AI-driven tech is gaining traction and overshadows the Metaverse by offering opportunities that appear truly revolutionary and practically useful in daily life. The Metaverse has so far failed to make the same impression upon consumers. I project that in 2023, the number of articles and papers in the marketing industry discussing the Metaverse will drastically decline.”

Lars-Alexander Mayer, Managing Director  

More Attention for Share of Search

“Over the last few years, more people have heard about Share of Search, a mighty digital metric that we have been using for ten years with great success. Share of Search is a proxy for market share, an indicator of brand health, a predictor of long-term ad effectiveness and much, much more. It is the essential metric to bring the upper and lower sales funnels together. I think that in 2023, some of the attention that contextual and econometric approaches will receive owing to the coming end of third-party cookies, will also spill over to Share of Search.”

Dr. Holger Noesekabel, Chief Technology Officer

Software Development with AI Support

“The first AI-driven tools have started supporting software development in 2022. In addition to suggestions for code optimizations – a constant code review – even entire functions can be generated on the basis of a simple written description. ChatGPT goes one step further: generating entire scripts, fixing bugs, creating documentations. Right at launch, ChatGPT showed impressive flexibility. Microsoft is already planning further investments in OpenAI. In 2023, we can therefore expect even more leaps in quality that will revolutionize the daily work of software developers.”

Martin Schmoll, Director Business Innovation

AI Becomes Part of Daily Work Life

“AI is something of a hidden champion today across many industries, driving online targeting, analysing market movements for investors or automating content generation. I believe that in 2023, AI will reach an unprecedented level of acceptance and use among the wider population as well. This is because more and more AI-driven technologies are now becoming truly viable and reliable, including: text generation, visual material generation, UX & UI optimization, note-taking, video editing, data engineering and management, office management, scheduling or project management. Accordingly, the number of popular software tools incorporating AI is exploding and AI is becoming an integral part of daily work life.”

Niklas Stog, Associate Partner

The hyper-localization of O2O commerce

“Online-to-offline, or O2O, has been blurring the lines between e-commerce and classical retail for years. Geospatial analytics will fully erode this separation in 2023: whether it’s the use of online data for commercial execution, the connection of physical locations and consumers via digital media (geofencing & OOH) or a more refined segmentation of B2B and B2C target groups using geospatial features. Companies across industries – CPG, retail or logistics, to just name a few – can gain a critical competitive advantage if they adapt to this development successfully.”

The monthly trend monitor provides a unique data-driven overview over the most important global consumer, industry, and society trends. How it works: We use the SONAR trend radar, which tracks the volume of written scientific and journalistic publications on a certain trend, to find out what the top five trends are in these three categories. Utilizing intelligent algorithms, SONAR analyzes a continuously growing database of more than 40 million publications from academic journals, expert blogs, mass media, and patent registers to gain unique insights on global trends.

SONAR can sort trends by Volume (number of articles relevant to a trend and relative to the SONAR index), Growth (YoY growth, volume of the last 12 months vs. previous 12 months) or Momentum (MoM growth, volume of the last month vs. volume of the previous month).

Each month, we present the top 5 consumer, industry, and society trends by Momentum.

Top 5 Consumer Trends in January 2023

Vegan & Vegetarian Food is the dominant consumer trend in January, with a significant year-over-year growth and strong momentum. Its momentum is almost double that of the second-strongest trend, Mindfulness & Conscious Living. Snackification follows third.

Top 5 Industry Trends in January 2023

Artificial Intelligence is once again the top industry trend, boasting high volume, significant growth and strong momentum. Graphene, an interesting trend that rarely makes it to the top five, comes third, followed by Computer Vision.

Top 5 Society Trends in January 2023

All the top five society trends in January are marked by a remarkably low momentum. The respective volumes and growth indicators are also at a low level. Talent Gap is the strongest society trend, followed by Freelance Economy and Continuing Education.