2019: A Carat Perspective
We live in a world of overwhelming change; we see
content everywhere and can shop anywhere.
Change is being driven by the speed of connection
to our devices,the pace of data processing, and
the convergence of different activities like
entertainment, information, communication,and
play.
We produce trends reports regularly to ensure that
our clients know about the latest developments and
their implications.
Here is a Carat perspective on 2019’s key trends,
both emerging and established, and what they
mean for your brand.

01 02 03 04 05
06 07 08 09 10
CONTEXTUAL
COMMERCE
EXPERIENTIAL
ECOMMERCE
GAMES IN
MESSAGING
LIFE AS A
SERVICE
‘BY
INVITATION’
SMART OUT
OF HOME
DESIGN
FROM DATA
TARGETING
POST GDPR
EXPANDING
CONNECTIVITY
DIGITAL
DETOX

01
eCommerce has traditionally been focussed
around destination sites like Amazon that are
purely focussed on shopping.
The world may soon follow the example of
China, where consumers are buying from
apps like WeChat - services where people go
to send messages, catch up with friends, and
follow brands.
More than 200m people in China have input
their payment details into WeChat.
CONTEXTUAL COMMERCE

01
Western apps like Depop and Poshmark
already act as a cross between a social feed
and a shopping app.
Users scroll rather than search, looking for
inspiration within a category rather than for
specific items.
CONTEXTUAL COMMERCE

01
Instagram first allowed sales through its
platform in 2017, givingbrands the option of
tagging products in posts, including promoted
posts.
People who click on the tags can see pricing
and product details,and then click through to
buy on the brand’s site.
Instagram is introducing new features to help
people discover products, like ‘save to
collection’ tags that let people bookmark
items to a folder in the app to return to later –
just a few steps away from a shopping basket.
CONTEXTUAL COMMERCE

IMPLICATIONS
Contextual Commerce will allow brands to sell
in places people go to be entertained.
It will be most relevant for fashion &
technology, especially low cost impulse
purchases, and in particular with the inclusion
of rapid delivery.
Shopping will become more social – it will be
easier for consumers to share notifications of a
purchase, and even buy as a group.
It will be easier to attach products to
moments, targeting based on cultural events.
The best influencers will become sellers.
IMPLICATIONS

02
eCommerce is becoming experiential.
Features like augmented reality and image
recognition are allowing merchants to
become more playful and introduce
experiences to shopping, especially on
mobile.
Shopping technology company Shopify lets
retailers make videos for customers to explore
in AR in their own homes. One example of this
is the American bicycle company Pure
Cycles.
It is also being used to bring experiences to
car show rooms, for example by General
Motors.
EXPERIENTIAL ECOMMERCE

02
Snapchat has started to allow commerce
through its AR filters. Domino’s Pizza was the
first to use this, with an AR pizza box that linked
through to an ordering page. Domino’s has
now build AR into its own app.
Snapchat has also entered into a partnership
with Amazon where users can shop for
anything that they can take a photo of, using
image recognition.
Smart speakers like Amazon’s Echo are also
making shopping more of an experience –
and they are now trying to get more brands
onto the platform.
EXPERIENTIAL ECOMMERCE

02
ShopShops is a Chinese site in which
influencers stream live from real stores, with
their permission,making their own live
shopping channels.
Viewers can interact with the live streams,
asking to buy products that are being
demonstrated.
EXPERIENTIAL ECOMMERCE

Experiential eCommerce will allow brands to
let customers try before they buy.
It will be most relevant for products customers
are less familiar with, and also products that
can be personalised or configured. It can
work well for expensive items.
Influencers can become sellers, but there will
be pressure on them to perform.
Brands will also need to help the digitally
disengaged learn to use the new buying
technologies. Done well, experiential
commerce will help less technically savvy
people shop with more confidence.
IMPLICATIONS

03
Messaging is becoming more playful as
messaging apps try to increase their power by
adding more features and become more
central to our lives.
Games like Tetris and PacMan have existed
within messaging apps for a couple of years,
but augmented reality is bringing a new level
of engagement.
Apps like Facebook Messenger and Snapchat
are increasing their focus on games, breaking
down the boundaries between games and
communication.
At the same time messaging is entering other
apps and games.
GAMES IN MESSAGING

03
This is entertainment as conversation.
Snapchat’s Snappables are games that are
played within the app using the camera and
lenses. Dunkin Donuts is one brand that has
advertised in these games.
Snapchat is rumoured to be increasing its
focus on gaming, possibly driven by its part-
owner Tencent.
Facebook has created multiplayer games for
its Messenger video chat - including 'Don't
Blink', which challenges people to keep a
straight face. These are designed to liven up
chats, but are not ad supported (yet).
GAMES IN MESSAGING

The inclusion of gaming into messaging will
make messaging much stronger as a channel,
commanding more of people’s time.
As a medium, it will be most relevant to
brands with a ‘playful’ persona.
Advertising is less intrusive as part of a game
than as an interruptive message within a chat.
The more AR there is to play with, the more
people will become familiar with the
technology, which should lead to more
opportunitiesfor brands.
IMPLICATIONS

04
More consumer brands are following the lead
of Netflix, Spotify, Harry’s and others in trying to
encourage customers to see them as ‘a
service to subscribe to’ as well as a product to
buy.
There is a distinction between the purely
digital servicesand the physical brands
creating a virtual service but both types are
trying to introduce more touchpoints and
create a stronger relationship with the buyer.
Over the past six months we have seen this
model extend into previously unexpected
categories.
LIFE AS A SERVICE

04
Xbox has introduced an ‘All Access’
subscription programme. A single monthly
payment gives users an Xbox console, Xbox
Live,and access to streaming games.
Nespresso has introduced a similar model for
its coffee machines and pods – by paying a
minimal amount for the machine and
commiting to membership and a subscription
for coffee pods, customers are moving from
buying a machine to buying a lifestyle.
LIFE AS A SERVICE

04
Uber and Lyft are both testing or introducing
subscription models in the US, encouraging
people to pay a monthly amount for a
number of short rides, or even to protect them
from paying surge pricing.
LIFE AS A SERVICE

LaaS should be deployed carefully,
depending on factors like the value
proposition and frequency of purchase, to
build service into the offering.
Brands selling physical products should try to
keep the experience special – use one-offs,
birthday deliveries, and layers of membership
to personalise the offering.
It may be better to partner with an existing
service,or find a complimentary service than
establish your own programme, depending
on the role the brand is trying to play in its
customers’ lives
Lots of data will be created – how can this be
used?
IMPLICATIONS

05
Brands are encouraging their biggest fans to
become even more involved by invitingthem
to have a deeper connection, through their
own apps, or private social media
communities.
Nike’s House of Innovation store in New York
allows Nike+ members to call up and reserve
stock, to be collected from special lockers.
It’s free to join Nike+, but it separates the
people who use their Nikes for fitness,rather
than for everyday wear.
‘BY INVITATION’

05
Other brands are experimenting with private
forums and ‘secret’ Instagram accounts to
give their keenest consumers a chance to get
more.
Luxury brand Everlane has a second
Instagram account for fans (if they can find
out about it) where they tease new looks.
Peloton Cycling has a very active Facebook
group with over 110,000 members, and over
170 posts a day. New members need to be
approved by administrators.
‘BY INVITATION’

The creation of a self-selecting‘by invitation’
community is most relevant to brands that are
desirable, niche, cult, or used by early
adopters.
It is particularly appropriate for luxury brands,
who are able to create a sense of scarcity
and privilege.
It is one way to turn fans into a channel – and
become advocates for the brand.
Once brands have found a small group of
passionate fans, it is easier to offer benefits like
personalisation for them than for a larger
group.
IMPLICATIONS

06
Out of home advertisingis being
revolutionised by digital screens.
In 2018 digital accounted for more than 50%
of OOH ad spend in the UK for the first time;
globally it is projected to be just under 40%.
Digital’s biggest advantage is being able to
change the ad content rapidly - taking cues
from the weather and other live data.
The Route was a Cannes-winning idea that
allowed ambulance drivers in Sao Paolo to
warn other road users on the route to the
incident to make way for emergency vehicles
by clearing the left lane.
SMART OUT OF HOME

06
Brands are starting to buy space for longer,
knowing that they can easily change the
messages on the screens.
Diageo’s current UK poster campaign
features five brands, and can use a different
message based on the weather and time of
the day.
Retailers are using digital screens to promote
products with high inventory, changing the
copy when stocks run low.
SMART OUT OF HOME

06
Digital out of home will start to have more
synergy with other media, particularly mobile.
Combining location-based data, campaigns
could target on two screens across the day,
based on the phone’s user’s journey history.
New start-ups are proliferating - Grabb-It is
experimenting with ads that run on the rear
windowsof Ubers as they drive between jobs.
SMART OUT OF HOME

Smart out of home brings lots of synergies with
mobile – both are advertising media that are
location-based.
The new capabilities in out of home will be a
big opportunity for clients with a large
portfolio of brands, but also for small, niche
brands who will be able to use OOH tactically
for the first time.
A brand could potentiallymake a small buy
for the precise location and time when its
messages will be most effective, including
synergy with retail, including live offers.
It is also perfect for testing new marketing
messages and strategies.
IMPLICATIONS

07
New products and services are being created
and modified as a result of data being
processed and analysed at scale.
Data is not just being used to optimise the
campaign – but to create the product!
Amazon’s 4-Star Store in New York features
products curated from a list of items that have
got four star reviews on Amazon,
guaranteeing that they are popular and of
high quality.
Amazon is using their own data to create their
own take on a department store.
DESIGN FROM DATA

07
Metallica uses Spotify data to modify set lists
when it tours. The band can see which songs
are the most popular in each city, and make
sure that they include them when they play.
Metallica is using this data with Spotify’s full
permission.
DESIGN FROM DATA

07
Choosy, an American-Chinese fast fashion
start-up, mines Instagram trends to take
inspiration for its designs.
By seeing which celebrity looks are the most
popular (and get the most comments like
‘Where can I buy this?’) they can quickly
create highly sought after pieces.
Choosy is using this data without Instagram’s
permission, but only using data that is in the
public domain.
DESIGN FROM DATA

Design from Data is likely to bring biggest
benefits to established brands with a large
amount of data, or access to partner data.
It will also benefit brands with the most control
over their own production processes, and
sales channels. It will speed up concept
testing and trials.
But - brands must be careful not to let these
benefits remove serendipity; there will still be a
need for human curation.
Brands will also be able to generate new
revenues by selling their own data.
IMPLICATIONS

08
GDPR has brought new challenges in how
marketers use data to target customers with
advertising, and has driven new ways of
thinking.
Media owners and ad technology companies
are putting more focus on the context of the
page on which the ad appears.
Others are innovatingaround the content of
the ads – making ads more relevant to the
moments they are seen.
Advertisers need to assess the value of
context compared to the value of audiences.
TARGETING POST GDPR

08
The New York Times, ESPN, and USA Today
have created a way of analysing a page’s
content based on the emotion that a page is
likely to trigger. They can then place ads that
will work best when people are feeling those
emotions.
Illuma is a start-up that finds ‘lookalike pages’
(rather than lookalike audiences). If it knows
an ad has performed well on a certain page,
it can find other pages within the same
publisher or network that share the same
attributes,and puts ads on those pages.
TARGETING POST GDPR

08
Great advances are being made developing
messages personalised to the moment that
they are seen, in search, banners and video
ads.
Companies like Spirable, A Million Ads and
Ad-Lib make ads that can address users
based on factors including location, time of
day, and weather.
A typical campaign could have millionsof
variants,and can even include personal
attributes about individuals if they are legally
available.
TARGETING POST GDPR

New targeting technologies should help all
brands to ensure that their messages reach
the right people at the best time.
Brands will need to revise their measurement
and attribution modelling to understand the
effect of new parameters like emotion, in
comparison to audience targeting alone, and
the benefits generated compared to the
potential increase in price that context may
bring.
Advances in AI and speed of processing will
accelerate these benefits.
IMPLICATIONS

09
We are becoming used to fast connectivity.
4G, only introduced in 2010, now accounts for
more than 50% of connections in developed
markets.
Global mobile data consumption has grown
from 0.3 exabytes in 2010 to over 17 exabytes
in 2018, and is projected to reach 49 exabytes
in 2021. (One exabyte is one billion
gigabytes).
Connectivity is one factor behind a lot of shifts
in technology use, and the popularity of new
content formats like Stories.
EXPANDING CONNECTIVITY

09
Faster connectivity is turning the world to
video.
More than 400m Instagram users watch or
create stories each day. A percentage of
these are video, and video is also being
incorporated into messaging apps, including
group calling.
The hot new app of 2018 is TikTok, a video
sharing app from China. Facebook has now
developed its own version,called Lasso.
EXPANDING CONNECTIVITY

09
5G will be many times faster than 4G, and is
coming soon.
Many cities are triallingnow, or trialling in 2019,
before launch in 2020.
5G connectivity will give people the abilityto
stream high quality video, virtual reality
experiences and more without any latency or
buffering.
5G will also increase the amount of
meaningful data being collected from sensors
in wearable devices, in cars, and around
cities.
EXPANDING CONNECTIVITY

Faster connectivity will mean even more
content, even more choice, and even more
competition for attention.
User experience will become even more
important, as people will skip more often.
Brands will be able to monitor more data from
more devices, and include this in more of their
decisions.
Physical branches will be under even more
threat as online and virtual connection
becomes easier and faster.
IMPLICATIONS

10
Technology is becoming overwhelming, with
content and commerce everywhere.
People are trying to cut down on their screen time,
especially their social media use, over concerns
about health and wellbeing.
Global Web Index found that 19% of those
surveyed in the UK and US had been on a digital
detox, and 70% had tried to cut down on screen
time.
Concert halls, restaurants and bars are
experimenting with banning phones, to encourage
people to enjoy the moment, not live life through
their screens.
DIGITAL DETOX

10
Apple’s iOS 12 operating system shows users
how much time they spend with their screen
each week, broken into apps and categories
of apps.
Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are
introducing tools to let people be more aware
of the time they spend with the services.
These tools allow you to see time spent, and
also set alerts to remind you to put your phone
down.
DIGITAL DETOX

10
Hold is a new app, currently live in the Nordics
and the UK, which gives people points for not
using their phones.
These points can be swapped for goods from
partners – for example free popcorn in the
cinema – or donated to charity.
It is a practical way to encourage people to
be more mindful of their productivity and
screen time.
DIGITAL DETOX

If screen time falls, consumers will become
more selective over the services they use, the
content they consume and the brands they
engage with.
Brands may even need to incentivise
customers to pay attention.
Brands need to help their customers have
more meaningful connections with their peers.
This is especially relevant to brands with an
interest in wellbeing,like FMCGs, and even
socialising, like alcohol companies.
‘Detoxing’ will increasingly be a creative route
– ‘see real life, not a filter’.
IMPLICATIONS

APPENDIX 1
Contextual Commerce
Selling on WeChat
https://www.techinasia.com/talk/started-profitable-side-
business-selling-wechat
Payment cards linked to WeChat
https://skift.com/2017/07/07/chinese-travelers-turn-to-
messaging-apps-to-make-payments/
Depop and commerce
https://www.glossy.co/fashion/how-depop-is-catering-to-
gen-z-and-millennials-to-get-an-edge-over-resale-
competitors
Poshmark and commerce
https://www.retaildive.com/news/how-poshmark-made-
1b-off-the-social-mall/529343/
More ways to shop on Instagram
https://instagram-
press.com/blog/2018/11/15/introducing-more-ways-to-
shop-on-instagram/
LINKS
Experiential Commerce
AR on Shopify
https://www.shopify.co.uk/blog/shopify-ar
GM selling with AR showrooms
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/08/29/general-
motors-launches-mixed-reality-showroom-with-dentsu-
aegis-network
Domino’s & AR
https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/dominos-
delivers-pizza-with-snapchat-ar/528872/
https://newsroom.dominos.com.au/home/2018/11/7/do
minos-launches-worlds-first-augmented-reality-ar-pizza-
chef
Snapchat & visual search on Amazon
https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/24/snapchat-amazon-
visual-search/
Amazon is trying to get brands to sell on Alexa
https://www.pymnts.com/amazon-alexa/2018/amazon-
brands-alexa-ad-campaign/
ShopShops
https://fashionista.com/2017/07/shop-shops-chinese-app

APPENDIX 1
Games in Messaging
Snapchat’s Snappables
https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/25/snappables-
snapchat-games/
Games in Facebook Messenger
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/08/get-your-game-
on-challenge-your-friends-with-video-chat-ar-games-in-
messenger/
LINKS
Life As A Service
Xbox All Access
https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2018/09/03/is-the-xbox-all-
access-subscription-the-future-of-gaming/
Nespresso
https://www.nespresso.com/uk/en/subscription
Uber & membership
https://www.pymnts.com/news/ridesharing/2018/uber-
membership-program-ride-pass/
Lyft & membership
https://www.pymnts.com/news/ridesharing/2018/lyft-all-
access-monthly-subscription-plan-ridehailing/

APPENDIX 1
‘By Invitation’
Nike’s House of Innovation
https://www.retaildive.com/news/inside-nikes-house-of-
innovation-flagship-on-5th-ave/542349/
Everlane’s private Instagram
https://digiday.com/marketing/everlanes-new-private-
instagram-account-will-test-lab-new-products/
Peloton members on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/pelotonmembers/
Starbucks’ Leaf Rakers Society
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LeafRakersSociety/
LINKS
Smart Out of Home
‘The Route’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HHHmRwKIm8
Diageo’s smart posters
http://www.posterscope.com/content/diageo-
continues-out-of-home-innovation-launching-the-
mediums-most-sophisticated-portfolio-campaign/
Grabb-it
https://grabb.io/

APPENDIX 1
Design From Data
Amazon’s 4-Star Store
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45666282
Metallica & Spotify
https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/07/26/metallica-
setlist-spotify-data/
Choosy
https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2018/choosy-
fashion-instagram-social-media-ecommerce/
LINKS
Targeting Post GDPR
NYT and Project Feels
https://www.nextbigwhat.com/data-science-the-new-
york-times-recipe-to-predict-readers-emotions-297/
Illuma
https://www.weareilluma.com/
Spirable
https://www.spirable.com/

APPENDIX 1
Expanding Connectivity
Estimates for global mobile traffic
https://www.statista.com/statistics/219037/global-mobile-
traffic-per-year-since-2010/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/271405/global-mobile-
data-traffic-forecast/
The rise of TikTok
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/21/t
iktok-lip-synching-app-jimmy-fallon
5G
https://advanced-television.com/2018/11/21/5g-
predicted-to-double-internet-speeds-for-uk-homes/
LINKS
Digital Detox
GWI’s data on detoxers
https://blog.globalwebindex.com/chart-of-the-week/1-
in-5-consumers-are-taking-a-digital-detox/
Phones banned in French Schools
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/07/screen
-break-how-are-french-schoolchildren-coping-with-
phones-ban
Apple’s Screen Time
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208982
Facebook’s ‘time spent’ feature
https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/20/18104979/facebo
ok-dashboard-time-on-site-app-spent-rolling-out
YouTube’s time watched feature
https://mashable.com/article/youtube-time-watched/
The Hold App
https://www.hold.app/

APPENDIX 2
The Convergence of Ecommerce And Retail
This year eCommerce and Retail have converged like
never before. We’ve seen several DTC (direct to
consumer) brands like Casper open stores (200 in
Casper’s case), and Shopify opened a store. Amazon
continued to open stores including six cashier-less ‘Go’
stores, and two ‘4 Star’ stores (where all products rate 4*
or more on Amazon.
Meanwhile traditional retailers got more involved in
eCommerce, including Walmart, who bought FlipKart in
India, and H&M who invested $20m in Klarna, a fintech
company.
2018 TRENDS REVISITED
Loyalty & Rewards
Brands including Nike, J Crew and luxury brands like
Sephora put more focus into their loyalty programmes, as
a way of adding extra value for customers buying directly
rather than third party retailers. We’re seeing
‘membership’ as a key trend for this year, which builds on
the idea of loyalty – rather than just liking a brand, joining
a brand.
One of our most speculative ideas was brands creating
their own cryptocurrencies (as Burger King had done in
2017), and we saw some brands like Red Bull and
Swarovski experiment with this, and Starbucks talk about
it, but perhaps as a result of Bitcoin prices falling it has not
happened to any large degree.

APPENDIX 2
Chinese Influence
Asia’s power in technology and media has increased.
TikTok, from the same company as Musical.ly, is the hot
app of 2018 with over 500m active monthly users,
overtaking YouTube and Instagram in some download
charts. It is an app for short-form video, and we’d expect
it to continue to grow and attract lots of imitators in 2019.
Chinese AI is also getting more powerful, evidenced
through the Chinese government’s ability to use facial
recognition to catch criminals, and they can now even
recognise citizens through the way they walk. Self-driving
technology is also getting better, and Volvo has recently
chosen Baidu as its technical partner for autonomous
driving.
2018 TRENDS REVISITED
Niches
Companies continued to try to identify and exploit
valuable niches. Airbnb introduced a more up-market
version, against the threat of brands like Plum Guide.
StitchFix, the AI-driven outfit recommendation service
started catering for kids. Amazon started producing
versions of Echo and Alexa for the hospitality sector, and
for kids. And finally, DonalDaters is a dating service to
help fans of the 45th US president find love.

APPENDIX 2
Voice
Voice was everywhere, and almost (but not quite) looked
like it was finding sustainable business models. Several
companies are working on games, including Volley, who
make daily trivia games. Brands are also testing ways to
let people shop using voice on either phones or smart
speakers, including ASOS, Dunkin Donuts and Target.
2018 TRENDS REVISITED
Partnerships
We saw more partnerships than ever this year, including
strategic tie-ups between Amazon and Snap that let
Snapchat users shop on Amazon for anything they could
photograph, and both Google and Alibaba partnering
with (different) car companies for connectivity and
operating systems. Technology is getting so advanced,
and services are getting so specific that partnering rather
than creating is making more and more sense.

APPENDIX 2
Shared Experiences
In a World Cup year it was not surprising that more and
more collective digital experiences were being created.
The World Cup itself showed that people still loved to
watch TV together, but it was also the first tournament for
reaction videos that often seemed to be enjoyed by
almost as many as the games themselves. Facebook
introduced ‘Watch’, its video channels, with the option to
create ‘Watch Parties’ and watch together. HQ Trivia
continued to grow, getting over 2m simultaneous players
for some games in the US, including specials with Nike
and film companies.
2018 TRENDS REVISITED
Augmented Maps
We did not see as much location-based augmented
reality as we expected, but there will be still lots of
examples of brands testing this. Walking Dead,
Ghostbusters and Jurassic World all created their own
‘Pokemon GO’-style games. Snapchat produced
location-specific lenses and experiences for venues like
Disney and Universal theme parks. It’s still something that
is generally professionally created rather than user-
created (like a review), but we still think that it will
happen.

APPENDIX 2
Smart Cities
As we get to the final two trends, we need to point out
that these were the most future facing, and that we
weren’t predicting huge leaps in 2018. We did however
see lots happening around the idea of smart cities,
including lots of innovations in governmental technology,
including papers on car sharing and mobility in various
parts of the world. In the private sector things are being
gradually joined together, including new subscription
schemes for both Lyft and Uber in the US. Subscription
models are designed to make the ride hailing services
more useful to people with regular trips around their cities.
2018 TRENDS REVISITED
Blockchain
Blockchain is also a technology that has only partially
arrived. If anything it was less of a buzzword in 2018 than
2017, but lots of companies are testing or announcing
tests in areas including food provenance (we have a
pack of blockchain tracked coffee!), and in advertising.
In common with many agencies we have completed
some tests, and are planning others. Blockchain may be
talked about less than a year ago, but it’s better
understood, and we now know a lot more about how we
could use if to bring transparency to media trading and
delivery.

Contact
Dan Calladine
Head of Media Futures
dan.calladine@carat.com