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.

As the Black Friday rush in the US and Canada is over and the official Christmas shopping frenzy is almost there in the Catholic (and, frankly, all the remaining) world, retailers and brands are looking to make the most of this holiday season in every possible channel: physical stores and malls, on the web, on mobile devices and even in social media.