Kai Kirkkopelto, a strategic planner at dynamo&son, identifies 10 trends expected to unfold in 2015, including the digital health revolution enhancing connectivity among patients and providers; immersive entertainment blurring reality and fantasy; and social networks like Facebook monetizing platforms by putting an end to free access for companies. Other trends involve the intensifying mobile wallet war between payment disruptors and banks; streamlined single-purpose apps; hyper-personalized experiences through predictive analytics; ongoing price cuts in the clash of cloud storage providers; beacon technology transforming in-store shopping; the importance of brand authenticity; and advancing speech-to-speech translation tearing down language barriers.

1. Kai Kirkkopelto, Strategic Planner, dynamo&son
What’s Big
in 2015

2. 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!

3. Digital Health
Revolution
1.
Technological innovation democratizes healthcare and
changes the way people treat and take care of their
health

4. 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.

5. Immersive
Entertainment
2.
The distinction between reality and fantasy starts to
fade as immersive entertainment arrives in living rooms

6. 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.

7. Pay to Play in
Social Media
3.
Facebook is putting an end to companies’ free ride and
other social networks follow the lead

8. 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.

9. Mobile
Wallet War
4.
Competition in the payment industry intensifies due to
disruptive innovations arising from outside the banking
sector

10. 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.

11. Single-Purpose
Apps
5.
Companies streamline their apps for a better and more
focused user experience

12. 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.

13. Hyper-Personalization
6.
The heightened use of predictive analysis and marketing
action optimization hyper-personalizes the Internet

14. 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.

15. Clash
of Clouds
7.
Cloud storage providers continue cutting the prices,
while increasing storage limits and adding new services

16. 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.

17. Beacon
Marketing
8.
Beacon technology transforms the in-store
shopping experience

18. 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.

19. The Art of
Authenticity
9.
Consumers demand authentic and transparent
engagement pushing brands to show their true colors

20. 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.

21. Speech-to-Speech
Translation
10.
Machine-mediated speech-to-speech translation tears
down language barriers

22. 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.

23. 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

24. 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