1) The speed, quality and cost of CGI is unbelievable compared to just a few years ago. And there are tons of designers and animators around the world taking advantage of it. At the same time, our screens have drastically shrunk, while the resolution has become amazing. That means framing things in lens with the realization your film may never be viewed larger than 4 or 5 inches. Finally, the vast amount of content is crazy. Not only are 300 hours content being uploaded to YouTube every minute, but all the old, well-crafted and classic content is becoming available as well. Once, we just consumed whatever was in front of us. But now, we have to curate what we watch. And what we choose to watch defines us more than ever. Personally, I’m inspired by great storytellers like Quentin Tarantino, Spike Jonze or Vince Gilligan.

2) There’s been a dramatic change in the need and ability to turn film around super fast and to tell stories in 15 seconds or less. It actually has its upsides. There’s less time to obsess over approvals and more chances to do something great. Of course, that means a higher failure rate, but it’s worth it. Also, content can be immediately reactive to social events now. And any good content has the chance of catching fire. Luckily, in the end, the quality of content is still king. And a well-timed, sharp joke or observation still kills. That said, all this speed affects our craft. For instance, typography as a whole has become an afterthought. More than anything, type done right really stands out these days.

3) Every creative gets into this business wanting to concept and create things that have never been done before. They want to win awards. To change peoples minds. And to express themselves through their craft. That was my first 10 years in advertising. Now, the best part of being a CD is helping guide and sell through the visions of younger teams. It’s a great feeling when a team surprises you and challenges you. But, man, I miss getting my hands into the small details of the work. I miss having time to concept on my own or with a great writer. And I really miss any time I can’t be at a shoot. That’s probably the worst part.

4) It’s pretty basic, but I learned not to stress out over the blank page. I’ve come to realize you can’t solve a problem or be innovative unless you understand what you’re solving for. If an idea isn’t surfacing, it usually means you just don’t understand the problem well enough yet. I’ve learned that as advertisers, we can’t forget we are invading people’s lives and we need to respect that. And now that content is so incredibly spreadable, I’ve learned we should always try to keep the quality and inventiveness as high as possible.

5) I think it’s critical we keep our finger on how people are communicating as much as what they are saying. How people talk to each other will continue to evolve, but it’s also our greatest opportunity. I don’t just mean, “will it be more through mobile” (yes, it will), but how within mobile? What apps? What games? What is the vernacular? What is the social currency? And ultimately, how do we keep the brands we are working on in the center of that?

6) I decided to sketch something first thing every morning. I got a book for Christmas – a small sketch book – each pages asks you to draw one or two things. I upload my sketches every morning on Instagram. You can check them out there (andyazu).

7) I predict a lot of change – that’s the safe answer. But that is what is so exciting about it. We are constantly being challenged by not just how to use new technology but how to make it work for the companies we are partnered with. I see our agency continuing to be a content shop that covers existing and emerging media. I see businesses continuing to find new ways to have bigger voices to a more and more refined target audience. And somewhere in there lies the next brilliant award winning work.

1) The development of technology has had the most profound effect on our business, and the opportunity for our creative, technology and production talent to deliver increasingly remarkable images for our clients. Work that continues to tell stories in evermore creative and imaginative ways. From the craft of photoreal CG creatures, to high-tech VFX techniques, from highly sophisticated interactive capability, to the mind-blowing immersive content of VR experiences. Today, we again find ourselves at a point where the convergence of technology and creativity will empower our industry yet again, to a world of even more extraordinary creative opportunities.

6) I am enormously proud of MPC’s creative contribution to the collaborative processes that continue to produce some of the best creative work in our industry. Innovating, challenging, and imagining opportunities to engage in new and more dynamic storytelling in the future is what we are most excited about; and it is very much our ambition to continue to participate in the discovery of what we can do next!

2) I have a love/hate relationship with the sense that all of the walls have come down in the industry. The walls between industry verticals, the walls between markets where talent can be accessed, the walls between who does creative, production and post. This new flat world environment creates great new challenges as well as great new opportunities. The challenge and opportunity is how to create new enterprises that maximize all of the new possibilities in this environment and keep it creatively charged.

5) The economy is ALWAYS a specter that must be watched yet something over which we have no control. Downturns are inevitable and simply must be anticipated and navigated as much as possible. At the same time, it is also imperative to try to stay ahead of the increasingly rapid changes in technology and platforms for our product. Who creates, how we create and the ultimate destination of our endeavors are questions that need to be addressed if one is to thrive going forward. The cultural migration from television to the myriad of other ways to touch the consumer will continue to challenge us all.

2) I love the explosion of ways in which we can help brands communicate with consumers. We’re no longer talking at consumers, we’re having a dialog, including through social media and real life experiences. We’re able to build relevance for our brands in popular culture and in people’s lives. Even the old tools of advertising are being reimagined, for instance long form versions of spots created for broadcast now contribute ongoing online impact and conversations.
What bothers me is the disappearance of time for craft. Superb technology’s downside is crushed timelines. When expectations are super fast-tracked what’s often lost is the time to craft, the time to come up with the truly original, the stunningly unexpected.

6) Creatively, my New Year’s resolution is to surprise people with work for those brands that are not expected to make noise, to make brands that everyone thinks they know more relevant, to enable them to communicate with consumers in unanticipated, remarkable ways.
Personally: lose 20 pounds!

4) Showing the most courage in times of success and taking chances when things are going well is the best way to ensure that you will lead, not follow. Having been in the industry for more than thirty years, I have seen many cycles, and one of the most apparent is that creativity tends to thrive at the point at which the green shoots of recovery emerge from the ashes of economic recession. After a period of consolidation, creative complacency follows. Then, as the next inevitable economic downturn arrives, there’s an air of panic, followed by the desperate attempt to cling onto the status quo. The cycle of creativity comes after the realization that the inability to change will profoundly affect your business. Having the courage to make changes at the height of your success will not guarantee eternal riches, but it will mean that you are looking for opportunities and points of relevance way ahead of your competitors.

5) My role used to focus on building teams of the brightest and best in creativity and technology, creating an environment in which they feel motivated to deliver their best work and then making our clients aware of that work. Nowadays, this last responsibility is a lot more complex. My focus is much more heavily weighted towards trying to understand who represents a potential client, uncovering what challenges they face and exploring how can we work together to find a creative solution. This, in turn, requires us to build teams in different ways. We are no longer assembling teams with the goal of finding sufficient work in the market to feed them; rather, we are examining particular challenges first and then adding new skillsets to our already brilliant teams that unlock their full potential.

Of course, I believe that we are uniquely positioned to create maximum value for our clients. But I am aware that as the old silo model breaks down and new players build different capabilities, our clients will be competing for some of our traditional work, and we will be competing for some of theirs. The ability to create genuine value and convey that to the person writing the check will be more critical than ever to maintain a thriving creative business. 

1) I am incredibly inspired by the rise and success of companies and brands that are cause related, mission based or just willing to put doing good into their bottom line. I am so passionately convinced in our ability as humans to creatively solve some of the world’s problems both big and small and I have seen great movement in companies not only using their profits for good, but working to improve the sustainability of their businesses, address the human toll that is involved in the making of their products and using the scale and power they have as companies to actually affect positive change.

2) The answer to both those questions is probably social media. I absolutely love the transparency that social media brings to corporations and brands, and the empowerment it brings to consumers is incredibly inspiring and challenging. And as a creative person in marketing, I love a good challenge.

The downside is that it is a landscape that changes crazy fast and what worked last year, last month or even yesterday is always morphing and evolving. This is exciting for sure, but it can lead to comprehension gaps, unrealistic expectations or a “me too” mentality that isn’t based on what is truly right for their consumer.

3) I’ve been in the business for quite some time, so the evolution from “just making a TV spot” to communicating across all channels and in all the non-traditional forms marketing takes on today has evolved my role considerably. And I love it. Like I said, I love a good challenge. I love thinking about human behavior in every facet and the massively expanded role marketing plays in people’s lives means we get to think in ways far beyond what we did 20 years ago. The downside of that of course is that every project feels so much bigger than it used to, which can lead to longer work days, expectations of availability 24/7 and all the work/life balance challenges that come with that.

4) The biggest thing I’ve learned over the years is something that was true when I started in this business, is true today, and will be true tomorrow. It seems obvious and disarmingly simple, but easy to forget in a world of technology and innovation for innovation sake. The thing is this: our job is to communicate to humans. Understanding those humans truly and deeply, in all their complicated facets, always has been and still is, at the heart of what we do. If you never lose sight of that, your work will always be relevant, regardless of what form it takes.

5) I would love to see more positive movement from companies, brands and agencies toward affecting positive change in the world with scale, influence and creativity. I would like to see more women and ethnic diversity at the top tier of creative companies and brands, not just creative directors, but executive creative directors, CCOs and CEOs. When you are in a position to make the final decision on something, then you are truly in a position to create change and affect perceptions. To evolve my career, it’s important for me to know that the company I work for truly cares about moving forward in these areas. I care about real change happening, not just hearing platitudes and talk of future goals.

6) I want to push our company to use creative as a force for good in the world way more often than we do. I want to problem solve community and world problems both big and small. I want to support women in real creative leadership positions not just in my agency, but local agencies and beyond. That’s more than one resolution isn’t it? Well, I like a challenge, so there it is.

7) As 2016 progresses, the presidential elections in November will begin to dominate the media cycles more and more. I believe this will have a profound effect on what we do, both positively and negatively. Elections bring out the best and the worst in human behavior. Both sides of that coin are insightful windows into the psyche of Americans at this place and time. It is up to us to listen, pay attention and learn from every minute of it. Where America lands in their choice of president will say so very much about where we are as Americans, global citizens and human beings.

2) I really like the fact that it’s less about sending the perfect message and more about putting an action behind your brand promise. With social and digital media as the amplifier, marketers really need to make stuff that’s worthwhile for people. Stuff that’s additive rather than interruptive. It’s about asking how the marketing can add value. Why anyone would care or share. It’s still about getting brands into pop culture and into the conversation but we have more tools than ever to do that and we need to work harder to earn our place at that proverbial water cooler. The key words being ‘to earn’ in all media at the moment.

6) More necessity to explore new things and as a result, ‘bravery.’ After all it’s the mother of invention right? It’s not a ‘nice-to-have’ anymore but the difference between success and failure.

2) It sounds like ancient history, but pre-YouTube it was such a simpler era, really just :30s and :60s for broadcast. There were clients, agencies, production companies and then the networks where the work played. Now it’s a totally different world. Multiple screens and platforms for everything. Mobile is king. We’re moving into an ad-blocked and streaming world. Now there are so many different models of companies that can and do succeed--is it a digital production company or an agency or is it a client, or some new hybrid? All of this change creates tremendous opportunities. More money is being spent in marketing and advertising every year, but where it’s being spent is changing. It’s also the most exciting time ever for creativity. The tools to create and distribute are the most democratic they’ve ever been. But just because everyone can be a filmmaker, doesn’t mean that everyone is a good filmmaker. The role and importance of the individual creative person is greater than it’s ever been before. Plus there are new storytelling mediums, like VR, which will open up tremendous opportunities. To me, it’s more important than ever to know exactly what your core strengths are. And to embrace the change that’s around us. And in all the change and clutter around us, people have a basic innate need to tell and be told stories, and to be entertained.

7) All of the projects we do are going to continue to be more and more under the microscope and have to do a lot of work for the brand. Not that there were ever throwaway jobs, but now all eyes are on everything. I think we are going to see an increasing trend where there are the larger, more normally funded projects, and then many smaller ones. This is also the year that VR will increasingly come into it’s own in storytelling and advertising. Our recently released The Martian VR Experience is a prime example of this. Marketing money will continue to grow, but how it is spent will change. As consumers have more choices in not watching ads, clients and brands are going to be increasingly sophisticated in reaching them. The most important thing is to know what your strengths are, while at the same time embracing the change that’s all around us.

2) The creative space for building brand communication is expanding dramatically. There is a greater interest in comprehensive campaigns that expand to longer form, live broadcast and other buzz-worthy alternatives to the traditional 60 second spot. It’s an exciting change, because it’s an arena we have been focused on for a long time and have been pushing forward. We see our clients thinking beyond the narrower scope of TV and cinema. We are working with them to take a broader approach, in which all their platforms coexist, and define the brand’s voice and identity in unison, while effectively expanding their reach.

7) There’s a real convergence of influences happening in advertising at the moment. The collaborations between brands and fashion, music, and art is hitting a stride and only going to continue to advance. I think a celebrity isn’t just going to be the face of a company anymore, but rather a driving force behind the scenes in the development of the brand and its products. And it won’t just be famous actors and musicians. It will also be YouTubers, bloggers, people with a connection to the street, who have a foot in the younger markets. As time goes on, clients are becoming more comfortable with a strategically integrated approach and are, more often, allowing cultural influencers to be the creative conduit.

4) Commercials have shown to be a most resilient communications medium. Predictions of the demise of the commercials business have been untrue even if the models for producing them have changed drastically.  I find it fascinating that traditional models of production companies along with companies whose media is more important than its production like Vice and Funny Or Die coexist across a landscape of marketing communications. The fact that large agency networks coexist with shops that are virtual is most interesting along with viral companies whose main job is to coalesce talent from a cloud source base.

But they’re still obviously attracting amazing talent within the advertising business. Consistently Wieden+Kennedy does amazing work--for example, the new stuff being done for Old Spice. Then there’s the consistency of genius work being done by The Martin Agency for Geico. While it seems a bit anachronistic to be celebrating the creation of advertising across a landscape where so many other factors indicate the success of a marketing campaign, the craft of the commercial is still something I find quite exciting. Perhaps the greatest trend in the commercial business is the rise of the celebrity director and celebrity within commercials. Not unlike what happened with magazine covers many years ago, it seems that the supermodel being replaced by the celebrity has come to the marketing business just as an influencer being as important as media buys. This is the sea change that will continue in the future.

Celebrity has become an even bigger deal to justify tent pole-type ads, while low cost/high production value services are important than ever. The middle, of course, is squeezed like never before.

The adage that “50 percent of marketing is effective, just which 50 percent?” is more true today than ever. With all of the analytics and scientific study of marketing, capturing the imagination of the public is more viral and more important than ever today. What captures audiences’ imaginations is an art form, not a science.

Perhaps one of the most intriguing indications of advertising comes from this political season where spending dollars on advertising has had a counter intuitive effect on the popularity of candidates. In fact, the more money spent in political TV advertising, it seems the less important the candidate. Use of social media and celebrity has literally “Trumped” the entire field.