Here is the forecast of global consumer trends for 2016.

Trends and innovations are changing at lightning speed, thanks to engaged, sophisticated, curious global consumers.

Innovation Group, the research and innovation department of the marketing company J. Walter Thompson, has been producing forecasts of global consumer trends under the title THE FUTURE 100 for many years. In this year’s report, trends are categorized into 10 sectors, such as culture, technology and innovation, beauty, health, lifestyle, marketing and brands, food and beverages, luxury, and travel. Within these, almost everything is covered – from super-nutrition and sustainability to cannabis culture and holographic health systems. The 2016 report also includes trends such as technological naturalism, the removal of taboos around femininity, orgasmic meditation, and personal bacterial ecosystems.

Culture

The removal of taboos around femininity – various taboo aspects of femininity have been brought to the forefront by the fourth wave of feminism, new media addressing women’s interests, and a series of extremely candid women and blogs.

Technology and Innovation

The next frontier of Silicon Valley: infrastructure. Public infrastructure is the latest utopian ambition of the tech elites, after Hyperloop Technologies made progress in its plans, and Google began constructing new infrastructure for a fully connected city.

Travel and Hospitality

Cuba. The Cuban tourism market is ready for takeoff: Travelers are rushing to see what remains of old Cuba, while brands compete to be the first in Cuba.

Brands and Marketing

Neuromarketing. For years a buzzword in agencies around the world, neuromarketing is finally entering the realm of serious science and providing predictive insights for brands, forcing more traditional market researchers to take it into account.

Food and Beverages

Inhalation cocktails. This new exotic trend in cocktail culture for consumers means less traditional alcohol consumption – through the eyes and respiratory system.

Beauty

Freckles – part of the general obsession with all features of redheads, freckles are a must-have fashion accessory for the next year. With new products, consumers can add freckles where they do not appear naturally.

Retail

Satellite retail. Retailers are turning to data collected from satellites to monitor store traffic in real-time.

Health

Stool bank. Consumers are storing samples of their personal bacterial ecosystems – also known as fecal matter – for future use in new medical treatments.

Lifestyle

Toys that grow with the child – new toys equipped with artificial intelligence can respond to the child’s vocabulary, interests, and other personality traits and develop and grow alongside the child.

Luxury

Extreme dining. The latest food consumption experiences to attract luxury consumers are extreme and take place in remote locations, in theatrical situations.

– In 2015, we saw consumers connecting the dots from multiple areas of life into one, with a holistic approach to brand and consumption, and we expect this approach to only strengthen in 2016, says Lucie Greene, global director of Innovation Group.

– Nutrition, beauty, wellness, mind, body, recreation: consumers see them as one large ecosystem that needs to be maintained. Brands that were once evaluated based on desirability and product are now evaluated based on the value systems they nurture, whether they are innovators, and whether they promise to change the world.

As trends and innovations continue to change rapidly, the Future 100 report helps brands discover emerging trends and understand the cultural changes that have led to them, providing context and analysis of meaning, especially for brands that want to be prepared for what engaged and informed consumers care about.