Advance

FUTUREMAN SPEAKS

21/01 2010 // aaron

Einstein said he never wasted time thinking about the future, knowing that it would arrive soon enough regardless. That said, I decided to tie our creative director to a chair, placed a crystal ball in front of him and asked him to give me his expectations for the year ahead.

I’ve divided Morten’s thoughts into three rough subject areas. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments.

Either/or

I don’t think we’re at a point yet where we can say the economy has rebounded enough to say that we’re approaching a ‘return to normal’ – whatever that was – and that’s resulted in a kind of ‘wait and see’ limbo.

That’s leading to two types of behaviour from clients: the play it safe and the bold. The ‘play it safe’ crowd are sticking to what they know media-wise and strategy-wise while the bold are striking out, embracing new tools and taking risks.

Both consumer behavior and the media landscape are undergoing such dramatic change these days that the potential for making an  impact with unconventional approaches is bigger that ever. A lot of brave clients are embracing that change. Needless to say, those are the ones we’re more interested in working with!

Transparency

Although still something of a buzzword, more and more clients are nevertheless waking up to the fact that the internet is making them transparent whether they like it or not. Most of the sensible ones are embracing it and trying to turn it into an advantage. We feel well-placed to help clients realise that thanks to our offering.

We believe the best brands are completely coherent – in other words, they always deliver what they promise. If you stick to the truth, you only have to remember one story.

Technology/media

This is where agencies can win or lose. As advertising people, we can’t afford to take our eyes off the use and effect of technology. Not so much in terms of how we push messages in different channels, but in the application of different technologies to augment a brand experience. There’s so many more ways to reach and engage with consumers, but that doesn’t make relevance and utility any less important.

Clients are finding this space hard to pin down and are still  demanding to know the answer to the question of how to get the most out of their money. We need to be able to demonstrate effectiveness and I expect we’ll see more methodologies emerging in the next year.

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