Such goes one of those resolutions that often fail to make it past mid-January. But in this time of increasingly rapid change and complexity, it is essential that brands and marketers firmly resolve to hit the ground running in 2016, embracing new approaches, adopting new ways of thinking, and developing new strategies, to access all the new opportunities that the new year will bring.

If not firms risk being left behind; I foresee a year in forward motion, one in which partnerships and collaboration will be fundamental to staying one step ahead.

It’s going to be emotional

The trend we have seen in brands moving away from functional or product-led marketing to emotionally charged campaigns that connect on a higher purpose and with social issues is going to gain even more momentum. This is a rich opportunity for partnerships: by connecting to a higher purpose brands connect with people on a much deeper level, gaining far bigger insights into what really matters to their customers and therefore creating a far closer and more personal relationship with them.

In this field brand partnerships come into their own because brands can be far more impactful working collaboratively than they can alone. Collaboration is fundamental to really connecting with people on this level - you just can’t afford not to do it.

It’s going to get harder

People are getting increasingly demanding and have ever greater expectations. To meet this demand, technology and collaboration are essential. In 2016 digital services and technology will continue to open up new opportunities to understand and target people in personally relevant ways. With the tools being available, customers understandably fully expect brands and marketers to make full use of them. As technology and consulting giant, IBM, says, “The best customer experience anywhere, is the best expected customer experience anywhere”.

Customers expect to be able to engage seamlessly through multiple touch points via a variety of devices, creating a personalised multi-channel experience. As technology unites us even further and things move ever faster, brands are going to have to up their game again just to keep up with, let alone be one step ahead of, customer expectations. Once again, collaboration with like-minded brands can open up resource-sharing, helping brands to develop each other’s strengths and achieve far more than would be possible in isolation.

It’s going to be surprising

Every year something big happens that causes a seismic shift in life as we know it: a new platform opens, a new piece of technology appears, a new brand comes from nowhere. 2015 was very much the year of the meteoric rise and rise of Uber, seamlessly connecting customers to drivers through their apps, and now available in 60 countries and reportedly valued at around $50 billion.

What will 2016 bring?

Brands need to watch these new arrivals closely, to identify areas in which they could work together for mutual gain and enhance and complement each other’s capabilities. Brand partnerships must only be made if they are mutually beneficial to all parties, but there are great potential gains in partnering a new brand with a more established one. New brands need trust, credibility, and scale, while older brands might need the cool factor, the innovation, the speed. Marrying new with old can yield all sorts of exciting possibilities.

2016 will continue to be a time of great change and complexity, a year in which we must focus firmly on the new, to leverage new collaboration tools to lift ambitions, create new opportunities and to deliver new growth driving strategies.

By Tamara Gillan, founder and CEO of Cherry London

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