The Ipsos Almanac 2012
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Welcome to Ipsos’s review of 2012 – a look at what our research has told us about the state of Britain in a memorable year.
Our 1,100 people chose the things that most stood out to them in the thousands of studies we undertook this year into every aspect of life – whether it was economic stagnation, the soaring popularity of the Royals, sex, or the latent pride and humour of the British bursting out in a spectacular Olympics that celebrated both the NHS and history (the two things we say we are proudest about).
In our Almanac we also reflect on the increasing role of freak chance, something that occupies more and more thinkers in the post 2008 world, with our look at our incredibly successful ‘Sweet FA’ rule, which accurately predicted Boris Johnson’s re-election as Mayor of London earlier this year.
We look at business: which advertising worked, the rise of tablets and smart phones, and the mobile web which is insidiously changing everyday life – mostly for the better. We also ask where growth in market share comes from – great advertising, or great service, or just being cheap? Overall, 2012 sees Britain making do, worried about the future, but still quietly proud about itself. We face huge challenges; if nothing else, the crash of 2008 taught us that extrapolating from prior events is fraught with difficulties.
One can paint pictures of a decade of stagnation yawning ahead of us, but what our research shows is that most of us are too pessimistic about the future of the country as whole. We hope so.
Ben Page
Chief Executive
Ipsos
