Start your 2019 by watching Trends Studio presented by Microsoft

It's December (or January depending on when you read this) in New York City (or wherever you are connected to LinkedIn around the world). And you know what that means. Yep, year end prediction lists (or new year forecasts). At Microsoft we want to break through the clutter. This is the debut episode of Trends Studio. On this episode:

PART 1: Round table discussion between Jon Lombardo and Peter Weinberg of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions and Geoffrey Colon, Head of Brand Studio at Microsoft Advertising on three trends they forecast for media planners and strategists to pay attention to: WAR ON BRAND, B2B BLOCKBUSTER MARKETING and POST-DEMOGRAPHIC WORLD.

What is an example of post-demographic world? Well, this photo from the front cover of the recent Athleta catalog is a great example. We can't define the world simply by simple demographic data when there is so much more to people and audiences than how we defined them in the past. The past would have defined this image as simply a woman who was 30. The future is more fluid possibly not defining people solely by gender, race, income or age but more by interests (Muay Thai Boxing) and career graphs (Aerospace Engineer). And this will become most prevalent in products designed by and for these groups. This isn't a new trend. In fact it has existed ever since the web was commercialized beginning in the mid-1990s. This has been both the promise and the peril of social networking as we've come to know it.

PART 2: Interview with Taylor Lorenz, Tech and Internet Culture reporter at The Atlantic on social media trends. Instagram is everywhere but what niche players are on the horizon for the upcoming year to drive change?

PART 3: Interview with Cortana. We've spoken with a lot of human thought leaders in 2018 but what about machine learning? And how will it continue to play out in a world of conversational commerce in 2019 where chat bots and voice bots continue to expand and evolve while voice first intelligent assistants continue to converge with screens?

PART 4: Interview with Felicia Gardner, agency lead at Microsoft Advertising. Agencies have been undergoing tons of change the last five years, what do they have to look for in the upcoming year. We ask our agency lead for her insights.

And of course, feel free to learn more on these topics and others at Bing Ads.

From all of us at Microsoft Advertising, we hope you had a great 2018 and are looking forward to a "growth mindset" new year in 2019.

#BigIdeas2019