The Age of Re-enchantment [REPORT]

A new trend report exploring how brands can deliver on consumers’ yearning for re-enchantment.

Wunderman Thompson Intelligence is proud to present “The age of re-enchantment”, a global trends report unpacking how brands can help people transcend tough times by creating emotion-inducing experiences that deliver feelings of joy, wonder, and even fear.

It’s time to remake the world through the lens of re-enchantment, where the new brand metrics are jaw drops, heart swells, and goosebumps. Whether numbed by pandemic isolation, burned out by grind culture, or shocked by the 21st-century horrors of politics, war, and climate crisis, people are feeling a sense of absence that is hard to neatly define. Brands can help them transcend these tough times and jolt them from long-standing malaise by celebrating the thrilling, the uplifting, the awe-inspiring, and the magical.

People have always enjoyed being transported but, crucially, there is now an appetite for brands to deliver this. In a global survey for Wunderman Thompson, almost twice as many people say they are likely to buy from brands that bring them a sense of joy (49%), or those that surprise and delight them (45%), than from brands that just do what they say they will (26%). Yet, few brands are tapping into this desire: 70% of people say they can’t remember the last time a brand did anything that excited them.

The age of re-enchantment unpacks emerging consumer trends and shares key implications for brands and businesses. It builds on original research conducted with SONAR, Wunderman Thompson’s research consultancy, in China, the UK and the US, exclusive interviews with 20 experts, qualitative studies with generation Z consumers from 17 countries, and more than 100 case studies.

Key findings include:

• 65% of people would like brands to wow them with spectacular advertising and marketing
• 61% want brands to help them feel intense emotions.
• 68% prefer to spend time in places that spark their imagination
• 63% of consumers want companies and brands to provide them with multi-sensory experiences.
• 89% believe having fun is a necessity, it keeps them going in tough times

To download report, CLICK HERE.