2021 Trends

2020 was a strange year for everyone. Many people worked from home, multiple lockdowns, not being able to see our families, events and conferences cancelled, toilet paper shortages! But as a country we pulled together, we supported our NHS, looked after loved ones and neighbours who were isolating, and donated goods to food banks to support those less fortunate than ourselves. 
Throughout, Allwag looked to the future and to 2021, excited for the prospect of events starting again, and people moving back to offices. With the recent government guidelines this may cause some delays… however we remain positive and have been looking at what we expect to trend this year. 

Organisations needed to ensure their staff had the necessary equipment to work from home and manage staff wellbeing remotely – both tasked with their own challenges, but ones which they had to overcome and find solutions, enabling them to deliver a ‘physical experience’, as Accenture identified it. Solution: work from home kits and wellbeing gifts became the norm. As did onboarding packs for new staff, enabling companies to make new staff feel a part of something, and offer a more meaningful experience in uncertain times. With popular products being notebooks and stationery, drinkware and clothing – we created our new range All Boxed Up offering boxes for all budgets.

Here at Allwag we used 2020 to review our own ecommerce solutions and are currently in the process of adding functionality to our online stores. Please contact our team if one of our online stores or staff merchandise schemes would be of interest for your organisation. 

Virtual conferences look set be the way forward for the time being. Saving money on venues and travel allows investment into higher quality speakers, gifts and conference platforms. A good virtual conference is almost identical to a live one… with networking, speakers and an awards dinner, but with the bonus of causing very little disruption to your life as a delegate, as you can do all this from the comfort of your own home. Organisations looking to explore ways to improve the experience may consider investing money that would have otherwise been spent on hotels, catering and awards and putting this into delegate gift packs and speaker gifts to add a tangible aspect to their event.

You can see one example here with the fabulous merchandise we supplied for the LTSMG 2020 conference boxes.

For over 20years, Pantone’s Colour of the Year has been a much-anticipated announcement by many and influences the worlds of design, retail and fashion to name a few. 2021 saw PANTONE announce 2 colours – Grey and Yellow - PANTONE 17-5104 Ultimate Gray + PANTONE 13-0647 Illuminating.

The underlying message behind these product colours is one of unity and together these colours represent practical and solid with warming and optimistic feelings creating a sense of strength and positivity. 

Check out our latest Blog - Pantone's of the year 2021 - where you can explore products that can be fully pantone matched to your brand colour.

In Jan 2020 many organisations put out statements on sustainability, starting a new decade on the right foot, including Microsoft who claimed “Microsoft will be Carbon neutral by 2020.” Also, in January 2020, we also saw the United Nations called for a “decade of ambitious action” to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Then, a global pandemic hit and many organisations had to reluctantly prioritise other elements of their business over sustainability.

Microsoft President Brad Smith, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood and CEO Satya Nadella preparing to announce Microsoft’s plan to be carbon negative by 2030. (Jan. 15, 2020/Photo by Brian Smale). Credit Source: Microsoft

The final trend we expect to see this year is an increase in demand for UK Made. During the pandemic we saw a fantastic reaction by the entire nation supporting small businesses during these crippling economic times. It also pushed UK manufacturers to consider new products or improving their equipment, many supporting the NHS with the production of face covers and shields.