James McQuiveyFeaturing:

James McQuivey, Vice President, Principal Analyst

Show notes:

It’s noisy out there. Our days are a whirlwind of endless notifications, alerts, and updates — combine it all with nonstop advertising, and the noise floor continues to rise.

Have we taken the digital opportunity too far?

It would seem so. Current trends like hygge and KonMari are creating peaceful spaces where people are converting empowerment to control. More specifically, 1% of the US population — an influential 1% with more than $24 billion of spending power — are placing themselves safely and quietly behind intelligent agents (Alexa for example) and away from the noise.

Another way to look at this is the tip of a major correction — a pendulum swing in a different direction — that distances brands from consumers and places one more hurdle in the way of traditional advertising. This is not simply lessening the power of brands; it is further redistributing power to the likes of Amazon and Google.

In this episode, James McQuivey discusses this small but powerful trend forming in the wake of the digital noise that helps describe our future in clear and peaceful ways.