Kai Kirkkopelto, Strategic Planner, dynamo&son

What’s Big in 2015

From weak signals to strong ideas, we gathered a list of ten trends we expect to unfold in 2015. What will

make it or break it? Find out!

Digital Health Revolution

1.

Technological innovation democratizes healthcare and changes the way people treat and take care of their

health

Healthcare industry is in the early stages of major disruption. Personal medical devices and mobile health applications continue

to enhance and connectivity among patients, medical professionals and devices increases.

Not only can digital self-care increase individuals’ wellbeing but it

can also bring major savings to the society as a whole. The healthcare sector and policy makers should therefore rather

embrace than fear the change.

Digital health will become a major industry in the near future – Gartner expects wearable fitness and personal health devices to

be a $5 billion market by 2016.

Immersive Entertainment

2.

The distinction between reality and fantasy starts to fade as immersive entertainment arrives in living rooms

From technology heavyweights to small start-ups, numerous developers around the world are harnessing technology to create

new forms of storytelling that puts people in the center of the action.

Head-mounted displays among other technologies bring

emotional engagement and realism to entertainment like never before and take the user experience to a whole new level. The

video game industry was quite expectedly among the first ones to dip its toes in the water, but other industries follow right behind.

There’s a lot of buzz in Hollywood around immersive video and

several major film studios have already announced to be developing content for virtual reality headsets.

Pay to Play in Social Media

3.

Facebook is putting an end to companies’ free ride and other social networks follow the lead

By now, Facebook has made it very clear that to reach your target audience, brands have to pay for it. Organic distribution keeps on

declining, as the competition to appear in the News Feed is getting fiercer.

It’s not only about generating more ad revenues, but also about

improving the end user experience by showing people more relevant and useful content. At the same time, other social media services are also exploring new ways to monetize their platforms.

To master social media, brands still need to deliver highly engaging

content to the right people at the right time, but by adding strategic ad spending to the equation brands are able to amplify

the content to even bigger masses.

Mobile Wallet War

4.

Competition in the payment industry intensifies due to disruptive innovations arising from outside the banking

sector

Mobile payments are expected to top $720 billion a year by 2017 and that’s attracting a great deal of interest outside the

somewhat conservative banking sector.

Companies such as Square, Apple and Google are becoming major players in the wallet space, while banks and payment institutions fear of getting left behind. According to the Millennial Disruption

Index, banking is at the highest risk of disruption especially among a generation born 1981–2000.

33% of millennials believe they won’t need a bank at all in the

future and 70% percent say that in 5 years the way we pay for things will be totally different. The money is going mobile, but the

wallet war is just beginning.

Single-Purpose Apps

5.

Companies streamline their apps for a better and more focused user experience

What we’re seeing is a shift towards single-purpose apps that focus solely on one task. Companies are unbundling the user

experience by simplifying their services and addressing different use cases with different apps. The way Facebook, for example, has

divided messaging and photography into their own entities.

While single-purpose apps are taking the home screens by storm, they are facing a strong competition for user attention –

smartphone owners between 25-44 use a stunning 29 apps on average per month.

The social landscape is becoming more fragmented and people put increasing value on digital products that are simple, easy and

fast to use.

Hyper-Personalization

6.

The heightened use of predictive analysis and marketing action optimization hyper-personalizes the Internet

The rapid growth of data and processing power has created an opportunity for highly personalized and targeted products,

services, and content. Hyper-personalization requires a set of multi-disciplinary technologies that utilize a wide range of

mathematical algorithms to predict what the users will enjoy.

Think Amazon, the king of personalization, which knows their customers so well that their patented shipping system even

delivers products near the customers before they place the actual order.

The obvious risk with hyper-personalization is falling into a filter

bubble in which we are selectively shown things based on our past behavior and become intellectually isolated from contradicting

viewpoints.

Clash of Clouds

7.

Cloud storage providers continue cutting the prices, while increasing storage limits and adding new services

The prices for cloud storage are racing to zero and tech titans such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft are at the center of the

battlefield. Just take a look at Amazon Web Services that slashed its prices for the 45th consecutive time in only 6 years.

Cloud computing may be well on its way to become free for

everyone, so companies need to differentiate with new criteria. The last companies standing will be the ones that are able to look

beyond the storage space and provide value beyond the traditional offering.

Identifying and capturing the right use cases, offering superior

functionality and managing data privacy will rise in importance as price cuts go on.

Beacon Marketing

8.

Beacon technology transforms the in-store shopping experience

Beacons are radio transmitters that send signals to smartphones, which enter their close proximity via Bluetooth Low Energy

technology. Beacons provide a viable solution for indoor spaces that struggle with weak cell signals that make it nearly impossible

to locate devices via GPS.

With beacons marketers can deliver more precise and personalized messages to consumers in a locale – for example

tailored offers, flash sales or information regarding in-store purchasability.

While the current utilization of beacons focuses largely on

marketing activities, the possible applications will reach far beyond that as the technology matures.

The Art of Authenticity

9.

Consumers demand authentic and transparent engagement pushing brands to show their true colors

In the digital age the truth will always come out eventually. Therefore, authenticity resonates now more than ever. To be truly

authentic, however, requires much more than just marketing communications – it takes commitment of the full organization.

The brand needs to stay consistent with the way it

communicates, because digital backlash can be brutal – miss the mark and someone will surely spot the flaw.

Big brands such as McDonald’s, Dove, and Under Armour are

embracing the all-real, all-authentic initiatives, but in the end the brand isn't what you say it is, it's what the people say it is.

Speech-to-Speech Translation

10.

Machine-mediated speech-to-speech translation tears down language barriers

Speech-to-speech translation is becoming increasingly important in various applications. Therefore, it’s no wonder that Google, Microsoft and Facebook are all looking into enabling real-time

cross-lingual conversations.

Out of the big three, Microsoft was the first to release a working copy of software that translates voice input into text and

translated audio. The magic is made possible by combining speech recognition, language translation and speech synthesis.

Simultaneous interpreting remains an extremely complex task

that involves almost all human cognitive and emotional capabilities, but we might have gotten one step closer to

connecting the world through machine-mediated translation.

TL;DR Summary of trends for 2015

1. Digital Health Revolution 2. Immersive Entertainment 3. Pay to Play in Social Media

4. Mobile Wallet War 5. Single-Purpose Apps

6. Hyper-Personalization 7. Clash of Clouds

8. Beacon Marketing 9. The Art of Authenticity

10. Speech-to-Speech Translation

Thank you!

Interested in hearing more? Want to discuss what the future might hold for your business?

Please, get in touch:

Kai Kirkkopelto Strategic Planner

kai.kirkkopelto@dynamoson.fi +358 40 9657 235