As the new 2013 year approaches, JWT, one of the biggest global marketing comms agencies, has recently released its newest 8th trend report for 2013 —a 171-page white paper, encompassing the results of a year-long quantitative, qualitative and desk research conducted by JWTIntelligence in the U.S and U.K. Additionally, 70 JWT experts across more than 25 international markets were interviewed about technology, health and wellness, retail, media and science.

From persuasion to platform, from positioning to purpose, from consistency to experimentation, from control to liberation and from ownership to ‘boundarylessness’ — these are the crucial shifts in branding theory spotted over the 20-year career by Robert Jones, head of new thinking at a brand and innovation firm Wolff Olins and visiting professor at UEA, published in the current issue of the Journal of Brand Management.

With less than a few weeks left before we all enter the year of 2012 (as some believe, the last one in our calendar), we are looking back at what innovations captured consumers’ attention over the past 12 months. Some of the new projects and products appeared within the trends, which emerged earlier, and some of them are truly innovative and ambitions and pave the way for something completely unseen and unpredicted by average minds.

Defining which global brands are better at the current moment, which of them has shown striking results in the tough economic conditions of the recent year is a challenging task. For the 12th consecutive year, Interbrand, the world’s leading brand consultancy, undertakes profound research, building the Top100 Global Brands 2011 list by taking several criteria such as presence on the global market and financial performance of the brand into consideration.

Keeping up to current trends is essential for companies, which strive to be relevant to the fast-pace world and meet ever-changing consumer demands. In this piece, which is an abridged version of ANTHEM SIGHTINGS, Vol. 2, 2011,  the most notable trends of today are covered—some of them root in old approaches, and some seem to be completely new, but all of them are shaping modern marketing efforts and influencing our perception of brands. The author of the paper, Kathy Oneto, Vice President, Brand Strategy in the San Francisco office of Anthem Worldwide, made a list of ten current trends and their examples from all around the globe, demonstrating the processes redefining the marketing industry right at the moment.