Introducing sparks & honey's Business Bets 2022

In 2021, sparks & honey’s Chief Strategy Officer, Camilo La Cruz, wrote for WARC about ten challenges that will shape business in 2021. Now in 2022, the desire to get back to business will hit the world at full force. And though challenges still abound, so do opportunities. In its latest special report, sparks & honey explores select cultural influences that are shaping those opportunities for next year. 

By mining their taxonomy of 160+ cultural shifts to identify the most energetic areas of change in 2022, as well as analyzing both fringe and provocative trends, sparks & honey pinpoints eleven specific areas of culture that are on the move. These are business bets that leaders should plan on addressing in 2022.

“From AI drug discovery to Chief Heat Officers and net zero steaks, these bets resonate with many of the burning questions CEOs come to us for. This report is meant to be a roadmap for them to navigate the year ahead,” said Terry Young, Founder & CEO, sparks & honey. “Every leader and curious consumer will find inspiration in this report.” 

These bets include: 

Bet on Audio as a Gateway to the Metaverse 
New software applications are using sound to transport users to sonic spaces, bringing audio to the forefront of AR experiences — and as a gateway to the metaverse. The richness of sound can transport users to new experiences, affecting moods and behaviors.  

Bet on AI Discovering the Next Drug
Big tech has been inching into healthcare, and now Google’s Alphabet is set on AI-drug discovery with its recent formation of Isomorphic Laboratories, building on research by artificial intelligence lab DeepMind, acquired by Google in 2014. 

Bet on the Chief Heat Officer
Climate change is an undeniable threat, but taking action on it has the economic upside of creating new jobs, such as Chief Heat Officers. Cities where climate change is marked by extreme heat from Phoenix to Miami, have introduced these new roles to implement everything from resiliency centers where residents can go cool off to planting trees and educating city dwellers on climate action. 

“Business Bets provides an edge for illuminating changes that are both disruptive and emerging in the year ahead. From audio technologies that evolve to better bridge the physical and digital to products created with direct carbon capture, we can expect to see many innovations intensify and gain momentum in 2022 and beyond,” said Camilo La Cruz, chief strategy officer, sparks & honey.     

sparks & honey will explore select business bets in a special Culture Briefing this Wednesday, December 15th. For more information on sparks & honey and the Business Bets report, click here.

About sparks & honey: sparks & honey is a cultural intelligence consultancy helping organizations understand explosive and immediate cultural shifts, as well as cultural movements that develop over time. They leverage their custom SaaS platform, called Q™, in combination with a powerful human network to quantify culture, decode the future, and ignite transformation for brands and their consumers. Produced in conjunction with the World Economic Forum, sparks & honey’s recent intelligence report, Precision Consumer 2030, was presented from the stage at Davos in 2020. sparks & honey is a part of the Omnicom Precision Marketing Group.

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