Every year, Canvas8 speaks to experts across our 15 sectors to help our members understand what the key challenges and behaviours will be in the year ahead. 2021 was a particularly tumultuous year, and 2022 doesn’t show signs of being any more predictable. So more than ever, we wanted to make sure the Expert Outlook equipped members with a sense of certainty in their planning. That’s why this year we’ve introduced our mindset-led approach, to help members identify key audiences and understand why and how they’re thinking about, feeling towards and acting against events across the year.
To develop these mindsets, Canvas8 spoke to 68 global experts across our 9 key markets - Germany, US, UK, India, Japan, China, Australia, France, Brazil - to mine their thoughts on what 2022 might look like. These insights were cross-analysed against Canvas8's macro behaviours to map out the cultural landscape and define the three mindsets set to disrupt and define the coming year. All to help you bring clarity on the key attitudes, behaviours and tensions set to emerge from consumers in 2022.
Opt in opt out
Are people supporting local or itching to go global? Living for today or tomorrow? Searching for freedom or a need to belong? The pandemic has forced people to prioritise what matters to them, and now they are taking action to opt in and out of societal expectations to build lifestyles, communities and activities that align with their values. Whether opting into novel experiences like the metaverse and opting out of traditional office work, or opting into new forms of community-building and opting out of traditional financial systems, Canvas8’s 2022 mindsets map out the consumer currents brands need to know. We spoke to 35 global experts and 33 cultural insiders across 9 countries to uncover three new mindsets set to disrupt and define the year ahead.
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Rethinking localism for a hyper-globalised world, people are reframing community, culture and craft. If the pandemic taught people anything, it was the value of their immediate surroundings and the individuals, culture, and craft that make up a community. The Culture Steward wants to preserve local culture against the backdrop of hyper-globalisation. This group is reframing how people think about the past and the future to build sustainable local solutions for the next generation.
People are unearthing their cultural histories and rewriting them according to modern values. By confronting colonial roots, The Culture Steward is pushing for new narratives around people, culture, and history to help rewrite historical narratives. Through education on a country and community’s past, The Culture Steward is offering new ways to reframe cultural identities. They are finding ways to remember and celebrate heritage, supporting local creatives and communities by increasing access to resources and learning, and making it a priority to understand a community’s values and codes to avoid ‘culture-washing’.
The Culture Steward in action:
Wales National Museum reframes colonial leader
‘Minari’: redefining the American experience
Timi Sotire on the power of Black joy
Suspicious of existing systems, people are opting out and building their own. Across the world, information and influence are being decentralised. The Systems Sceptic is opting out of existing structures to find new and progressive ways to live. Well-read and switched on to the news, they’re able to spin facts together in a way that makes their arguments – around everything from the climate to vaccines to Bitcoin – the most compelling. In doing so, they’re striving to change the rules we live by.
The Systems Sceptic is looking for new ways to hack, save, and generate financial wealth. Angered by the rising wealth of the 1% and the increasing debt of ordinary people, they are looking to put their money in new, risky, or alternative pots of gold. The Systems Sceptic is interested in redistributing power and giving it back to the ordinary citizen via alternative platforms, they are rethinking the value of money and prioritising making finances as flexible as their lives, and they are taking the lead by building systems that stand up to scrutiny and give people alternative options.
The Systems Sceptic in action:
China curbs data collection amid privacy fears
River Financial: bitcoin for Boomers
How is decentralized culture changing style?
The Contrarian
Not wanting to take life too seriously, people are ‘doing me’ and owning their contradictions. Not everyone is out to change systems or redefine cultural norms. For many, the only way to deal with the state of the world is with a dose of quirky, camp, and totally unapologetic humour. The Contrarian is down-to-earth and embraces their contradictions, these people are hunting out new experiences, living for today, and are determined not to take life – or themselves – too seriously.
The Contrarian engages through comedy - whether that's inside jokes or memes culture, they use humour as a coping mechanism through which they view social and political issues highlight the complexity and contradictory nature of it all. The Contrarian is always on the hunt for some comic relief and harnesses the power of humour and satire, they live in the moment and are keen to escape into the real world while capturing experiences to share virtually later, and the Contrarian champions self-love and relatability, nurturing self-acceptance.
The Contrarian in action:
Gen Zers match via humor on meme-based dating app
Elsa Majimbo: accessible comedy with luxe influence
Memes for good? The science of digital civicism
Access the Expert Outlook 2022 platform
Request access to the interactive Expert Outlook 2022, where you'll get access to the mindset platform, a series of 7 mini-webinars and a 10-day trial of the Canvas8 Membership Platform: https://www.canvas8.co.uk/expert-outlook-2022