FEATURE30 December 2014

2015 Preview: Most likely to succeed

We asked our panel which companies and/or brands were most likely to succeed in the coming year. Once we’d taken out all of those who named their own companies, they suggested a mix of specific companies and some general observations.

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See the selection below:

Colin Strong, head of industry, GfK: “Companies that embrace the changes in the data economy.”

Martin Filz, CEO, EMEA Lightspeed GMI: “The brands that adapt best to the demands of the always on consumer – speaking to them through the channels and in the time frames that they want. And I think we will see the emergence of new social media players that challenge to current crop. The successful ones will manage to balance the requirements of users while managing their expectations on advertising and privacy.”

Andrew Wiseman, MD, ICM: “At the large end of things, Amazon appear to not put a foot wrong at the moment. The amount of flex it has managed to get into its brand identity is astonishing – video devices, streaming services, mobile payments, grocery delivery, music streaming – the list goes on. If the Amazon brand can get the success from these developments, it arguably becomes a credible and realistic competitor to Google for the world’s most innovative company.”

Jem Fawcus, CEO, Firefish: “Ones that realise you can’t bullshit a bullshitter. Authenticity and transparency are key. And ChelseaFC.”

Frederic Charles Petit, founder and chief executive, Toluna: “It’s interesting, I recently saw a great presentation, and the graphic showed a small fish on one side and a big fish on the other. We’ve always felt that we’ve wanted to be the big fish, right? Well, when the slide advanced, and the small fish advanced as if to come after the big fish it became very clear. The big fish has the most to lose; the big fish is less agile. The big fish in that example, he was toast. There are a lot of small fish out there.”

Robert Passikoff, Founder and president, Brand Keys: “The usual suspects: Apple, Google, GE, Louis Vuitton.”

Simon Lidington, founding partner and CEO, Big Sofa: “Mizzouri, VoxPopMe, On Digital, CrowdLab, Uber, Lidl, LandRover.”

Stephen Phillips, CEO, Zappistore: “Millward Brown which has been very focussed on new ways of thinking.”

Dan Hagen, chief strategy officer, Carat: “I think digital businesses, social businesses and content businesses will still be very valuable acquisitions for the bigger groups so there are definitely opportunities for small and mid-sized companies to get themselves acquired.”

Elissa Moses, EVP, Ipsos Neuro & Behavioural Science Centre: “Health brands (because boomers are getting old and worried), mobile brands (because no one wants to be limited in accessibility to anything because of location) and fun brands (where fun can be in the design or the experience) because our drive for pleasure continues to trump most needs. This is reflected in recent public response to Fitbit, Apple Watch and craft beers like those from Three Floyd’s in the US.”