Trend Analysis Expert William Higham Forecasts Major Changes for Marketers and Consumers Alike

Co-hosts Brad Forsythe and Ray Schilens interview William Higham, author of THE NEXT BIG THING. William has worked with consumers for 20 years. He began his career in the entertainment industry: running marketing and communications campaigns at Sony, Virgin and then Universal, for artists from Michael Jackson to The Rolling Stones. He moved into research in 1999, working as a consultant for global trends network Breaking Trends for a range of clients, from Levi’s to British Telecom. He set up future trends and consumer research consultancy The Next Big Thing in 2001. The Next Big Thing studies and predicts consumer trend patterns across a range of industries and demographics. Higham writes trend and future strategy reports, runs trend workshops and focus groups, and organises and interprets field surveys. He specialises in Macro (cross-industry, cross-demographic) social, consumption and leisure trends. Favourite current trends include: Re-Booting, Flip Flop Generations, Control Freaks and The We Decade. Blue chip clients range across Media (Hachette to News International), Entertainment (BBC to Universal Music), Technology (AOL to Siemens), Finance (Nat West to HSBC), Food (Aga to Budweiser) and Advertising (Ogilvy to WPP). Higham is considered an authority on consumer trends, and is regularly quoted in the Media: from ‘The Economist’ to ‘Cosmopolitan’. His book ‘The Next Big Thing: Spotting & Forecasting Consumer Trends For Profit’ has just been published by Kogan Page.