1) With more than half of U.S. Internet usage already coming from mobile devices, there’s no reason to expect that trend will end anytime soon.
Mobile data usage rose 69% last year, and 55% of mobile data traffic was from video. The mobile ad industry as a whole grew 34% year over year.
Vertical screens and content is becoming increasingly popular and Snapchat for example, with its 100 million daily active users, is all about vertical ads and says users watch them nine times more frequently than they watch horizontal ads in its app.
In a world where we are always on, brands need to connect in real-time, with relevant advertising. We are moving to a place where brands will really know us – and they’ll be able to get their messages in front of us when we are most likely to act.
Wearables will help accelerate this but a word of caution… there are strong indicators that there is an increase in consumer skepticism as sorting the wheat from the chaff is becoming loathsome.
2) It is…and always will be about talent. It’s our strongest currency. However, with a growing increase in “project” based relationships in 2015, finding the right staffing balance and retaining a consistent team to manage and grow a client’s business is a challenging proposition in today’s marketplace.
At DDB we have built smaller agile project teams and focused our efforts on a strong collaborative working model. Healthy competition between teams but knowing we are all pulling for the DDB greater good. We have a very strong mentorship program for the new kids on the block. That said, the flow runs both ways… the newbies get to teach us new ways. We have a program called “LaunchPad” that helps grow our next generation of creative problem solvers. In production I have hired producers with a diverse skill set, always looking for that person who can bring something new to the agency. It’s about continually reinventing ourselves, remaining relevant but always grounded in a strong work ethic, a collaborative mindset and the willingness to tread into the unknown.
3) The 2015 Super Bowl advertising buzz was hijacked by McDonald’s Twitter initiative.
On Sunday Feb. 1, our McDonald’s team gathered during Chicago’s fifth-worst snowstorm to attempt an idea, which had come from one of those “What if” DDB creative brainstorms, to create something that have never been done before… A live event whereby we would give away prizes from every brand that advertised on national media during the Super Bowl game.
Insane, right?
McDonald’s celebrated other brands ads…in real time.
Cars, vacations, Skittles, helicopter rides and avocados were all up for grabs by simply retweeting and sharing the love. Tweets were written on the spot, run through legal and prizes determined within moments of a commercial airing. The effort was one of McDonalds biggest social media plays to date and it was certainly its largest giveaways on social media ever.
Our hosting location started out looking like a trading floor and ended looking like that classic scene from NASA’s mission control. The adrenaline was pumping and the atmosphere was electric throughout the entire game.
McDonald’s got 1.2 million retweets overall, and 25,000 new Twitter followers that day. Touchdown!!!
4) The next big thing will be a greater cross pollination of content and connection between devices, such as Near-Field Communications and Digital Out-of-Home Media. Greater moves to improve mobile content, not just quality of image but understanding what consumers will tolerate.
