Keeping TABS

Canvas8 is a behavioural research agency that works with leading agencies and brands to provide them with the insight needed to underpin their strategic decisions.

We are delighted to introduce the third edition of Keeping TABS, our biannual summary of the key global changes impacting consumer attitudes and behaviour.!

TABS connect and illustrates the major developments within global culture to provide a unique insight into the mindset of the modern consumer. Through expert analysis, recent case studies and commercial thinking, we provide the in-depth understanding that brands need to connect with fragmented, time poor audiences.

New TABS include Alternative Currency, Preparedness, Self & System and Global Mindset.

Keeping TABS in ContextThe Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street movements speak of the desire for genuine, grassroots change – and a belief that it might actually happen. There’s a citizen uprising spanning the globe which just wants things to be fair. For everyone. Traditional economic systems are being subverted in increasingly sophisticated ways, and Alternative Currencies are emerging. Rules, systems and people are being hacked to make them better, physically and emotionally. And people are collaborating on this massive remix with a Global Mindset that underlies the constant connectivity to others’ world views.

Global Mindset

A growing faction of consumers no longer express their identities in relation to a single place, but in relation to multiple places, cultures, beliefs and ideas. Young people, travelling more than any generation before, are adapting to and feeling comfortable with foreign cultures. This new kinship is creating a demand for more authentic and less ‘touristy’ expressions of other cultures, as well as greater sensitivity, respect and curiosity.

Global Mindset is one of eight new TABS we have identified.People are adopting a patchwork of global identities - a Global Mindset.

The contrast of global and local is a defining feature of the 21st century, which is characterised by an unease with the foreign, and an affinity with the local. Paradoxically, globalisation defines our everyday lives, as have notions of dynamic mobility, whether through travel or connectivity.

In stats:Global Mindset will accelerate with our desire to travel: by 2020 we will make 1.6 billion trips aboard.

And, when we travel we are increasingly seeking local immersive experiences: in just three years AirBnB users have booked 1.9m nights across 184 countries.

It is more than just travel and local experience, there is a real appetite to explore and learn: 78% of millennials have stated a strong preference for learning something new when they travel.

The Global Mindset attitude is most prevalent amongst the young people and digital natives.

Young people travel more than any other generation before them and find it easy to adapt to, and feel affinity with, foreign cultures.

“Millennials, more than any generation are eager to understand perspectives that are different, event antithetical, to their own, rather than push them away”Torrey Taussig; Strategic Communications, Glover Park Group

Global Mindset

Early signs include: PackabookPackabook encourages people to explore the world through fiction. It’s a free website which allows users to discover novels set in locations they intend to visit.

Early signs: Conflict KitchenConflict Kitchen is a politically motivated NYC takeaway restaurant that rotates cuisines and identities every four months to highlight a different country the US is in conflict with.

These signs are gaining traction: Life in a DayLife in a Day is a user generated film by Ridley Scott and Kevin MacDonald that encouraged people to upload video footage of their lives on July 24. 4,500 hours of film was submitted.

Signs are emerging commercially: Smirnoff Nightlife ExchangeThe Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project is a series of global events in which people define their quintessential local nightlife and share it with sister cities around the globe.

Signs are emerging commercially: Prada ‘Made In’The ‘Made In’ campaign exposes the global narratives behind Prada products and offers insight into changing perceptions; ‘Made in India’ comes to mean interesting, not cheap.

Exploring more

If you enjoyed Global Mindset, there are fifteen other TABS to explore in Keeping TABS.

In a world of dynamic and rapid change, understanding the motivations behind people’s behaviour is essential when developing new ideas, products or communications.

Helping you deliver great strategy, Keeping TABS is available to purchase from Canvas8 for just £495 or complimentary for Canvas8 subscribers.

Alternatively, if a member of our team can meet with you and provide a personal and customised briefing for £1,195.

For further information on Keeping TABS, TABS Briefings or to learn more about how Canvas8 can help your business, please contact olly@canvas8.com or call +44 (0)20 7392 2201.