LOST?/ Found

By Peter Firth and Julian Ellerby

London – The Future Laboratory has launched a guerrilla marketing campaign called Lost?/Found, to introduce key advertising agencies across London to its lifestyle news network, LS:N Global.

The campaign was designed to be playful and intriguing by gently engaging the interest of planners and heads of strategy, and then showing them the scope and depth of content on the network.

Lost?
Signs in the style of missing pet posters were placed in strategic locations around each agency. Instead of a cat or dog, the posters featured photos of the targeted firm. Above the photo was the word Lost? At the bottom of the poster was a number of tear-off strips with a URL that directed people to a web page that displayed a personal greeting to them, while showing the reader LS:N Global’s credentials and the other agencies that were targeted.

‘We targeted these people in a way that was creative, cross-channel and fun,’ says Martin Raymond, co-founder of The Future Laboratory and editor-in-chief of LS:N Global. ‘This is in line with the LS:N Global product, which provides consumer insight, trends, market overviews and sections that are clearly underpinned with data and information.’

Found
In the days after the posters were put up, two ambassadors from The Future Laboratory visited each agency wearing lab coats. They handed receptionists or planners envelopes that had to be signed for, containing an LS:N Global poster and an invitation to book a free trial of the network.

‘We wanted to build a clearer awareness among agency planning and strategy teams about LS:N Global’s capabilities,’ says Lucy Colledge, LS:N Global’s head of sales. ‘And we wanted to examine the importance of placing rigorous insight and intelligent global macrotrends at the forefront of their client collaborations.’

The campaign is part of an on-going series of events, briefings and guerrilla style campaigns designed to inform current and potential members about the reach, diversity and extent of the activities carried out by the LS:N Global team.

‘Most online networks offer their members an online experience only,’ says Raymond. ‘At LS:N Global, this is a given – our bi-annual Trend Briefings, our Future Forums, quarterly network events and forthcoming webinars offer members a more strategic stage on which to collaborate, learn and share ideas.’

To learn more, or to book an online demo of LS:N Global, email Lucy Colledge at lucy@lsnglobal.com, or call on 020 7870 1995.

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Designs on the future

The Future Laboratory – Intelligence² is launching its inaugural flight into the future with the iq² If Conference, to be held on 25–26 November at the Royal Geographical Society, London. Celebrated scientists, award-winning architects, far-sighted futurologists and other brilliant minds will shed light on the near and distant future of a technologically empowered humanity.

Speakers we are especially looking forward to include:
• Stephen Bayley – design guru and founding director of the Design Museum, who will present A circular saw, a Gauloise and a little red wine
• Ian Pearson – futurologist and global consultant on all aspects of the technology-driven future, who will talk about The future of sleep and dreaming, the future of sex and the future of play
• And, of course, The Future Laboratory co-founder Chris Sanderson, whose presentation will be on Living and designing in the DIY age

For a 30% discount off an invaluable glimpse into the future, enter code: THEFUTURELAB at the iq² website. See you there.

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Predicting the future

The Future Laboratory – The BBC website has an excellent feature about predicting the future, which explains exactly what futurologists do and what they don’t do.

In the accompanying video you can see our very own Martin Raymond, co-founder of The Future Laboratory, explaining the process of analysis, distillation and fermentation that lies behind the business of trend forecasting.

Iain Mackenzie’s article outlines different types of academic and corporate trend forecasting, covering everything from Culturomics to Arthur C Clarke.

Visit the BBC Technology pages to hear Martin explain how organic food began as a blemish, and why you’ll have a 3D printer in your home sooner than you think.

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Can you hack it?

The Future Laboratory– Did you miss The Future Laboratory’s co-founder Chris Sanderson leading a sold-out interactive seminar on the Design It Yourself age, part of the London Design Festival’s Google Design Lectures, in September?

Never fear. You can see a video of the event above. Thanks to Jane from Sugru and Bethany and Daniel from Technology Will Save Us, everyone who came along got a sense of how hacker culture is teaching us all to rethink our relationship with design, and how TWSU’s ‘digital haberdashery’ approach is encouraging us not to be afraid of tech.

There is also a second chance to hear how Design It Yourself is the new mantra of the collaborative age. Chris is delivering another lecture on this topic on 25 November at the forthcoming Intelligence Squared / If Conference at the Royal Geographical Society in London.

He’ll be among more than 30 of Europe’s most far-sighted entrepreneurs, inventors and thinkers presenting their thoughts on the fundamental trends of our age. They’ll be asking how our homes, lives and cities will be transformed by an urbanised, environmentally conscious and technologically empowered humanity.

The iq2 If Conference is on 25 and 26 November at the Royal Geographical Society. Day tickets are available. For more information, visit the website. If you would like Chris Sanderson to present at your event, contact Elaine Robbins-Hallam on 020 7870 1997.

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LS:N Global Trend Briefing: The Wisdom Age

LS:N Global – At our 2011 Autumn Trend Briefing, held at The Future Laboratory’s Elder Street headquarters last month, LS:N Global delivered a series of intimate presentations that introduced subscribers to The Wisdom Age.

Delegates learned how the changes we predicted this year warrant a new level of information management, knowledge gatekeeping and insight intelligence. We are entering a period in which experience and insight are no longer enough, and brands need to be imbued with a sense of wisdom.

The Future Laboratory’s co-founders Chris Sanderson and Martin Raymond, with strategy and innovation director Tom Savigar and LS:N Global editor James Wallman, presented delegates with the key consumer trends that will change brand strategy over the next six months.

The Tomorrow Store outlined in detail key retail trends, insights and best practices in-store. As the age of intimacy continues, we examined how bricks-and-mortar stores are challenging the immediacy of the internet.

Visitors were introduced to The Just Nots tribe, a group of low-to-middle-income earners in advanced economies who feel ignored by brands and are just not making it to where they want to be in life.

The Personal Information Economy looked at how we are sharing more of ourselves online than ever, and considered the repercussions for brands and consumers. The presentation showed how we will mine, market, value and safeguard our personal data in the coming decade.

For more analyses of our key trends, see the Trends section of LS:N Global.

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