Here come the 2026 trend reports

Gird your loins people....a flurry of 2026 trend reports are set to be unleashed by just about every brand who considers themselves worthy of producing such an auspicious document.

Pinterest Predicts 2026 is already out, as is Adobe's 2026 Creative Trends Report, amongst others.

It's great that brands are willing to share this kind of information with all of us (why do they give it away for free we wonder?), but beyond the glossy graphics and seemingly insightful content, what exactly is the point of investing time considering the content of these documents?

What value do these things offer you...the innovator?

Firstly, let's be honest about what most of these documents are; promotional material for the brand that publishes them.

Many of these companies end the year with a mountain of data, which then gets thrown into a report and offered as insight, relevant for strategists.

The value of the information however for future-orientated decision-makers who are trying to anticipate shifts in the competitive environments and identify emerging opportunities is that these so-called insights are public (everyone has access to the same information), backward-looking (because the data is historical), biased (because the data is from just one source and not intended to be objective) and unfocused (devoid of contextual nuance).

Knowing the obvious shortcomings of these trend reports, it's then easier to extract whatever value they might offer you on the other side of the warnings.

At best these things serve as a bit of background noise, at worst they distract you from the hard task of determining what truly matters in your particular context.