We often get asked what trends will hit in 2020, what’s cool and what will shape the new year. Most of the time we make a wild guess and write down words that sound cool and tell a different story to last year. In all honesty, we just never know what will happen but a great way to peek into the future is to look at the generation taking control of it. To look at where their attention is and what matters to them. They move fast, time is everything, they decide in seconds, welcome gen-swipe left or Millennials with our little friends Gen Z. So to tag onto the two previous posts about food trends for 2020 and plastic the other major talking point for 2020 I thought I would throw out a few other random changes/trends in our culture.

Gen - swipe left, a fast-moving generation that will not buy into the bullshit marketing of the past. Gone of the days where tv ads worked, email campaigns or emails in general ever get opened, think my emails currently sit at 18023 unopened emails. We swipe left at the bullshit and we swipe left fast. Authenticity is the new brand love, hugs and kisses or “brand love”, “love marks” or whatever you wanna call it, just don’t work on this generation. Authentic brands that are actually doing what they say they will do, are actually helping clean up this planet and not throwing words like eco in front of everything will be the brands that win. Communicating through channels that we don’t swipe left to, the channels we live in, like Insta and of course Tik Tok. This is where the futures attention is, this is the swipe right zone.

The second trend relates directly to the type of lifestyle that millennials take part in - binge living. Millennials live on the extremes in every aspect of their lives; they will work out every day of the week only to reward themselves by hunkering down on the couch to watch 10 straight hours of “Game of Thrones” on a Saturday. Or, they might unplug from their social accounts during an event with friends only to scroll through their Instagram feed for hours later on to catch up on all they might have missed.

This is no different when it comes to snacking. Living on the extremes means snacking on the extremes and this is clear when considering how the choices of snacks evolves as the day progresses. Mintel research found that healthy, energizing and light snacks are consumed earlier in the day, whereas evenings and nighttime snacks progress into indulgences both sweet and savory. Brands must realize this as they look for innovation opportunities in flavor profiles and portion size, as well as when developing products to meet the emerging needs of an individual consumer who partakes in various snacking occasions.

Snacking is the future, plant-based diets are taking over fast. Meat and veg, three meals a day is dead, it’s not how we live anymore. The future is here, 2020 trends are happening now, everything we are doing now will be X 1000 in 2020. So be ready, we know its coming and we know it’s all here to stay.