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How fast did your week go?  How fast was your month, year, decade? Was it faster than the one before?  Mine was.  

Is it because as you age time experienced is a smaller percentage of the time you’ve lived so far?  So everything seems quicker...or is it because there’s lots more stuff happening?

How does the ‘life accelerator’ make you feel?

We did a trends presentation to a global client recently. It was an update of a deck presented to the same client two months earlier. Just two months!

Consider the changes: 20m+ more people on earth, 13m+ more cars, $777m+ more dollars spent by governments on healthcare, 2bn+ emails sent, 1bn+ tons of food produced and there were c. 623,532 more Christian converts, 2,371 Islamic converts, 1,809 Hindu converts and (only) 429 Bhuddist converts...

Black swans had happened - the Japanese tsunami caused phenomenal devastation to one of the world’s most developed nations and the Arab Spring had begun.  Since then oil prices have risen and Germany has abandoned its nuclear energy programme...

Speed of change causes big feelings - hope in developing economies, uncertainty in the developed ones.  Brands in emerging markets  foster the positive disruption that consumers in their economies relish whereas brands from established markets aim to offer stability.

But if you are responsible for a global brand which voice are you to choose? One that taps into your consumer’s uncertainty or one that builds on their happiness?

Consumers embrace the brands that match their feelings.  Consider the national pride in brands such as ICICI in India, Baidu in China, Telcel in Mexico and in Brazil’s most trusted brand Petrobras.

Cultural identity will only strengthen with economic potency so when developing markets become the developed markets who will exert the greatest economic power? Brands from over there or brands from over here?

MSL is the 3^rd largest global communications group. We advise some of the world’s largest consumer and corporate clients helping them to speak with the relevant voice in every market they operate; from consumer PR to employee communications, from public affairs to reputation management and from crisis communications to event management.