Strategy and Early Topic Recognition
with FirstSignals®
Be the first to benefit from future trends
If there is anything that companies need to prove nowadays, it is their innovative strength, adaptability and sustainability. This also includes an early detection of discontinuities and disruptions in the markets. The FirstSignals® research method implements the concept of ‘weak signals’ originally developed by Ansoff as a concrete practical application for strategic early recognition of emerging trends.
The combination of text mining and the expertise of experienced News Managers and analysts allows FirstSignals® to detect the initial weak signals of an emerging trend at the exact moment when so-called ‘buzzwords’ are just entering the echo chamber of the decision makers and consumers.
SHIFT Mobility 2021: The Great Shift - Urban Mobility of Tomorrow
SHIFT Mobility - powered by IFA - together with pressrelations presents a study on mega trends of the mobility industry. Under the title "The Great Shift: Future of Mobility and New Urbanism", the most promising future topics in the field of mobility are identified.
Micromobility, Mobility & Sustainability, Autonomous Driving and New Urbanism are among the 10 trend topics that the study identifies as the mega trends of our time from current discourses. All of them will significantly change life – both in the city and in the countryside – and play a major role in shaping the urban future of mobility. The selection is based on the FirstSignals® trend and topic early identification method from pressrelations.
FirstSignals® gives you everything you need for …
- Strategic topic planning with ongoing evaluation and classification of new trends for your company
- Boosting your visibility and reputation in the media by making use of the right topic at the right time
- Controlling the discussion with early and well-founded positioning in upcoming debates and future trends
- CEO positioning as a Thought Leader in important future topics
- Effective and sophisticated content planning as well as setting up a target group oriented topic agenda
- Fine-tuning or re-positioning and re-focusing of the agenda in the currently critical context in order to increase the impact of your communication work
- Management of the opinion shaping processes with your own specific keywords, aspects, content and message in current, highly relevant topics
- Re-evaluation of your corporate communication and optimization of your strategy ahead of your competition
The sooner a weak signal is detected and correctly classified, the more leeway you have to act and the bigger your possible competitive advantage will be.
How does FirstSignals® work?
In order to identify new buzzwords, we carefully evaluate editorial articles, interviews and contributions by experts and opinion leaders, as well as investigative reports in leading media from Europe, the US and Asia on a daily basis.
In the next step, our online crawlers and automated entity-recognition systems determine the degree and the speed of the buzzword spread on the Internet and identify other related keywords. This allows us to track the development of new trends continuously and over long periods of time.
Analysis and classification of trend developments require human expertise. Our team explains the substance of the most important and exciting buzzwords and topics, defines the resulting trends, presents the context, outlines its impact on specific companies or industry sectors and evaluates their relevance.

Get the FirstSignals® study
A reporting format that is utilized by the editors-in-chief at Handelsblatt and WirtschaftsWoche, as well as in the event planning of Euroforum: FirstSignals® will find strategically important topics before they become trends.
Simply fill out the form below and we will send you a sample report.