1) Across the board, I would say ‘collaboration’ –- not just from the perspective of consumers/influencers contributing to brand building, but the fact that more than ever ‘great’ and ‘smart’ cannot be done without everyone having skin in the game. In the game of “No risk. No reward,” all parties (client, agency, production partners) can do better at playing ball. It follows the success and impact of the collaboration economy, with examples like Airbnb, Uber, Kickstarter, and Etsy.
Continuing into 2016, mobile will keep demanding new ways to plan and execute with dramatic shifts in consumer behavior, and harvesting the abundance of data to make better creative will remain a challenge.
In 2015, there was no more room for using buzzwords like agility, transparency, or simplify. It was time to deliver in order to retain and grow business.
2) We believe clients and agencies get to their ‘best’ work when there is focus on a long-term master narrative. We are always looking out for what our work will be in three years time, meaning we’re crafting and executing against a much wider arc. This in turn gives more freedom to specific creative executions as they are singular pieces in a broader narrative. It means putting in the tough foundational work up front, goal setting, defining the business framework and solidifying the best ways to work together and build a solid cross-team culture that gets to greatness. We’ve been paving this path with clients like adidas and Mondelez.
Every year, we also look at our portfolio of existing clients to find some of the best short-term engagements, where we can push ourselves to do something spectacular. An example of this was our work with Google on their Micro-moments platform, which came with a great open brief that challenged us to inspire our industry about the power of mobile. And done in record time: a robust campaign for two iconic brands in just 4 weeks. It’s like high-intensity training at its best.
Looking back to 2015, our agency talent is getting stronger, operating at a very high level across both long-term creative vision as well as high-intensity creative/production turnaround. Clients have been able to test our capabilities, challenging us to be both stewards of the long-term with the flexibility to capitalize on what’s happening now.
3) We love helping to transform our own industry. This year we helped Google inspire the marketing community to adapt to the changing landscape of mobile behavior by bringing their Micro-moments platform to life. When brands think in terms of Micro-moments, they are able to anticipate and meet mobile consumer’s needs, and ultimately win in the marketplace. This was Google’s largest B2B narrative for 2015.
At Advertising Week 2015, we helped Google power mobile experiences for Dunkin’ Donuts and Airbnb. We created live case studies so that marketers could live and breathe the potential of Micro-moments themselves at this industry event.
The challenge was operating at the speed of now and being on the bleeding edge of ad technology. It was also incredibly gratifying to define mobile experiences that the industry could use as the benchmarks for how to meet consumer needs in these moments.
4) I am not a believer in the “next big thing.” I keep looking for better ways to merge the digital and the real worlds. We need ideas and executions that allow both to be strong. I think it requires greater leadership from producers, taking a more central position within their agency or production company. Maybe the “next big thing” is to see the launch of a roster of producers!
