MarketingWeb from South Africa delightfully reprinted Trendwatching’s 2008 Predictions. The one that caught my eye is Trend 3: Snack Culture.

It talks about the rising popularity of on-demand “media snacking.” I love that term. And I see the realization of that trend in my own series of podcasts in that one of my top shows, The Joy of Living Creatively, runs between 8-12 minutes long. It’s frequently an iTunes Top 100 show and in addition to being about a popular subject - creativity - it’s also great simply because it’s a short, powerful boost to one’s daily life that takes a few precious minutes.

Listen to it while you’re waiting for your baggage to arrive, while you’re zipping to buy milk, while you’re walking to a meeting, while you’re walking the dog. The idea of a deep subject, broken into small portions is powerfully appealing.

Click Here to Go to the Blog and Listen to the Show in Your Browser

Click Here to Subscribe to Joy of Living Creatively in iTunes. 

Trend 3: Snack culture (reprinted from MarketingWeb)

Snack culture represents the ‘transient sphere’ on steroids, catering to consumers’ insatiable craving for instant gratification. It embodies the phenomenon of products, services and experiences becoming more temporary and transient.

It is not a ‘new new ‘ trend, but definitely one that will continue to thrive next year.

According to the New York Times: In just three years, sales of 100-calorie packs of crackers, chips, cookies and candy have passed the US$200-million-a-year mark, and sales grew nearly 30 percent last year. According to analysts, the market for these pint-size packages could easily double because of their simple appeal: they help consumers eat less without having to count calories themselves.

A report from the Hartman Group found that 29 percent of Americans believed that 100-calorie packages were worth the extra cost. For manufacturers, snack packs are about 20 percent more profitable than larger packages.

Then there’s media snacking

“Music, television, games, movies, fashion: We now devour our pop culture the same way we enjoy candy and chips-in conveniently packaged bite-size nuggets made to be munched easily with increased frequency and maximum speed. Today, media snacking is a way of life. In the morning, we check news and tap out emails on our laptops. At work, we graze all day on videos and blogs. Back home, the giant HDTV is for 10-course feasting - say, an entire season of 24. In between are the morsels that fill those whenever minutes, as your mobile phone carrier calls them: a 30-second game on your Nintendo DS, a 60-second webisode on your cell, a three-minute podcast on your MP3 player.”