The future indulgence economy: Where luxury meets vice

Download the full What The Future: Indulgence issue

From $100 nonalcoholic sparkling wines to Chipotle-adjacent cannabis dispensaries, the ways Americans indulge themselves are changing, while the lines between luxury and hedonism are blurring.

That’s why six years after What the Future: Vice and four years after What the Future: Wealth, we’re examining the intersection of vice and luxury with What the Future: Indulgence.

This issue digs into the changing landscape of American indulgence, backed by exclusive data and expert insights. We explore how mainstream acceptance is reshaping vices and luxuries, like how champagne tastes increasingly include nonalcoholic drinks, how prediction markets are disrupting traditional gambling and the precarious state of sex in advertising. We also highlight how experience is the great equalizer for luxury. Our analysis and exclusive Future of Indulgence survey data highlights the luxury and vice sectors poised for future challenges or growth.

The stakes couldn’t be higher for these combined trillion-dollar markets. Luxury brands that misread the shifts risk irrelevance. Marketers who understand that today’s vice becomes tomorrow’s wellness trend or that accessibility beats exclusivity for Gen Z will capture the premium spending of American consumers navigating new economic and moral realities.

Keep reading to learn more or register for our companion webinar on October 30.

Register now

For full results, please refer to the annotated questionnaire or the Ipsos Future of Indulgence data tables. 

Introduction

Beyond luxury: The new rules of indulgence for leaders Matt Carmichael, editor, What the Future

Shifts

Shifts: How everyday indulgence will reshape our living standards Brand insights from Ipsos Strategy3’s Djamila Oumarou

Interviews & Features 

Why tomorrow’s luxury winners will prioritize human experiences David Klingbeil, adjunct professor of luxury marketing, New York University
Why Gen Z’s indulgence attitudes won’t stay the same Brand insights from Ipsos’ Jesse Peretz
What luxury events reveal about consumers’ premium experience spending Sojourner Judson, founder, CEO of Erganic Design
Why growth audiences will help brands win in a cooling market Brand insights from Ipsos’ Janelle James
Why flexible, experience-driven luxury will reshape premium beverages Maggie Frerejean-Taittinger, co-founder, French Bloom
Why context comes first for brand success Brand insights from Ipsos Strategy3’s Philip Ryan
How overconfidence fuels the indulgence of risk in prediction markets Eric Zitzewitz, professor of economics, Dartmouth College
How sex’s rising politization creates more brand risk Carter Sherman, journalist, author, “The Second Coming”
Questions for the future  Brand insights from Ipsos experts