Non-Obvious 2018 Edition. Rohit Bhargava

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       Virtual Empathy (2016 + 2018). During a time when virtual reality was a hot topic, the underlying theme behind VR was how it managed to amplify a sense of empathy in anyone who used it. As a result, I paired the term “virtual” with “empathy” instead to create a new way of thinking about the powerful effects of Virtual Reality. In this year’s report (Chapter 12), the Virtual Empathy trend is revisited within a new, broader context, but the name still works.

       Experimedia (2015). The name for this trend came together quite quickly after finding several articles all talking about how social experiments were creating a new category of media stories. Putting “experiment” together with “media” works because the prefix of “experiment” remains unchanged, and a new ending creates a word that engages people’s curiosity while still being clear enough that you could guess the meaning.

       Obsessive Productivity (2014). As the life-hacking movement generated more and more stories of how to make every moment more productive, I started to feel that these tools and advice about helping each of us optimize every moment were bordering on an obsession. The naming of this trend was easy, but to me it worked because it combined a word most people associate as negative (“obsessive”) with one that is usually discussed as a positive (“productivity”). I used the same principle to name “Fierce Femininity” in 2017.

       Mashup. Mashups take two different words or concepts and put them together in a meaningful way. Likeonomics is a mashup between likeability and economics. Shoptimization is a mashup between shopping and optimization. Using this technique can make an idea immediately memorable and ownable, but can also feel forced and artificial if not done artfully. There is a reason I didn’t call my book Trustonomics. The best mashups are easy to pronounce and are as close to sounding like the original words as possible.

       Alliteration. When naming a brand, this technique is commonly used and the virtues are obvious: think Coca-Cola and Krispy Kreme. The idea of using two words beginning with the same consonant is one I have used for trends such as “Reverse Retail” and “Disruptive Distribution.” Like mashups, it can feel forced if you put two words together that don’t belong, but the technique can lead you toward a great trend name.

       Twist. The technique involves taking a common idea or obvious phrase and inserting a small change to make it different. The name should employ a term that’s already commonly used and then twisted a bit to help it stand out. One of my favorite examples was a trend from 2015 called “Small Data” to counter all the discussion about Big Data. The “Unperfection” trend, which was first published in 2015, used a similar method—just enough of a twist on the actual word “imperfection” to feel new and different.