Future Impact: How will strategic creative thinkers have the biggest impact on the future?
I had an end goal, a clear “why” starting the Creative Strategy Diploma offered by Miami Ad School Europe; finding out more about my way of doing strategy.
As I’m writing this future impact essay, I’m proud to say that I caught a glimpse of the future of advertising and my potential role in it as a creative strategist. As part of the graduation requisites, we had to answer the following question:
How will we, as strategic creative thinkers and problem solvers, have the biggest future impact on brands, products, businesses, culture, and communications –given the challenges, we as a global society and economy face today?
Businesses are facing extraordinary challenges, the big agency model that brought us iconic, memorable campaigns is cracking, and advertising as we know it is in decline… Google, Facebook, large consulting firms, mobile phones, shrinking attention spans, digital dominance, and “data-everywhere” are changing the very nature of communication. And when rules, attitudes & behaviors that have held firm for decades undergo rapid change, there’s an urgent need to innovate and transform.
As Darwin stated in Origin of the Species, written in 1869, “it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one most adaptable to change”. Human beings have been the ones to evolve and survive because of our ability to adapt to change. The same goes for businesses. Businesses need to be aware of the changing landscape within which they operate, adapt to the threats and opportunities presented, and evolve in order to continue to create, deliver and capture value.
As creative strategists, in order to help businesses to continue to adapt, evolve and thrive, and assist them through their transformation journey, first, we need to adapt ourselves to the new evolving models. Increasingly empowered consumers and ever-evolving technologies are redefining how advertising is sold, created, consumed, and tracked. In this environment, we need to try our best to A/B test, and balance tried and tested methods of communication with new and upcoming ways to reach and engage consumers, and discover the hundreds of moments in today’s messy and convoluted customer journeys where brands could show up for (e.g., in search, on social, through content, on web properties as well as through powerful video executions), make use of every touchpoint, as they are an opportunity to nudge up the mental availability of the brand or product.
After all, as Scott Galloway says, everyone can surf on cranking waves, but it takes a great surfer to surf well on mediocre ones.
The best surfer in the world can surf really well on mediocre waves.
-Scott Galloway
So, the challenge for doomed personalities that just love advertising despite the challenges we face today is, how can we surf our way through the future of advertising the best? In an industry that is ever-evolving, changing from moment to moment, where no one can exactly answer with certainty what’s next, how can we make sure we’re not stuck being just average or worse, left behind? What lies at the heart of speaking to the changing viewership landscape?
I know I will continue to question these, and my potential power to impact brands, products, businesses, culture, and communications throughout my career, so I would like to answer this very comprehensive question by writing a letter to future me. Hopefully, this will act as a guide to better prepare myself to be an advocate for the consumers and the brands in the ever-changing advertising and planning landscape.
Dear future me,
To survive in the hard-to-catch waves of advertising in the future here’s a guide from your-junior-self-who-thinks-she-has figured-it-all-out-just-because-she-attended-a-creative-strategy-diploma-program-and-she’s-excited-to-share-her-findings-while-they’re-still-fresh:
When the waves are small and hard to catch when you’re frustrated with everything changing so rapidly and you’re worried constantly about losing relevance because everyone is obsessed with the latest things, and you’re too, because hello FOMO… Take a deep breath and remember WHY you chose to be in this business and WHY you started out in strategic planning in the first place: The newness.
You were curious, hungry for knowledge, bold, and always on the hunt to take on new challenges. You wanted to work in a dynamic environment where every day would be different, and exciting, working with multiple brands across different sectors. You wanted to learn something new every single day.
But also, you had a desire to inspire, move and influence people and make an impact on a greater scale, and you liked that you could use the power of advertising to change behavior, disrupt, and shape the lives of people of today and tomorrow…
And the combination of those was what made advertising so enticing to you! So don’t give up on that.
One of the most memorable lines in advertising history is: ‘Good things come to those who wait’. The iconic Guinness ad that features the line has paved the way for some of the best advertising of the next two decades, but in the context of the future of advertising, even though I strongly believe that conventions need to be challenged, this time I have to disagree and agree with the convention that “Great things come to those who don’t wait”. I don’t think good things come to those who wait for cranking waves. Good things come to those who make the most of the smallest waves. So, whatever challenges the world throws your way, try your best to get the most out of it and be the strategic planner the world, brands, and the advertising industry need.
Be curious about the world in which you live. Look things up. Chase down every reference. Go deeper than anybody else-that’s how you’ll get ahead.
— Austin Kleon
In the sea of sameness, be you.
Stop doubting yourself. All humans are strategic thinking beings, and you have what it takes to catch the smallest waves. You are a creative thinker who can conceptualize big-picture strategy while paying close attention to the details. You love storytelling and dreaming up big ideas. You love wearing many hats within a creative role. You love learning about today’s cultural trends and the latest technology — and you have a knack for writing. So don’t be afraid to show yourself authentically. Don’t let fear be the driving force, don’t be afraid to say the wrong things. There’s no wrong angle, no wrong solution, no right or wrong answer, only the journey to arrive at an interesting point of view, your point of view for each perspective. Sure, utilize data to broaden your horizons and inspire creativity, and analyze current trends and possible future developments BUT; trust your gut to deliver relevant and impactful ads.
Data is nothing without gut. While a strategy without rigorous research is mere wishful thinking, a strategy without conviction is just, slides.
-Fernando Ribeiro, GUT AGENCY, Creative Strategy Diploma 22'
Also, remember that it’s in your hands to decide how brave you want to be with the point of view you offer to the decision-makers. You are where you are to craft creative concepts that cut through the noise so that a brand is noticed and taken into consideration. Don’t be afraid to say things that others might not want to say, be brave enough to be you.
In the sea of washing and hushing, be true.
Marketing is not a science. It’s an economic discipline that lives from newness. Thus marketing is in constant change, just like cultures and societies are in constant flux, too. Here your only guiding star for future success is truthfulness.
In this age of transparency, where information is widely available, don’t cheat, don’t blind, don’t pretend pseudo-purposeful won’t cut it, because “it’s not what you say, it’s what you do” is what the audiences expect from brands of today.
We live in a world filled with challenges that will only be overcome through collaboration, so be the driver of positive change. Believe in the power of your work to make a change.
Make the better choice more desirable.
- Achim Schauerte, Droga 5, Creative Strategy Diploma 22'
Help brands and businesses find ways to transform ethically. Do your best to put your money where your mouth is. Just like brands cannot be all things to all people as it means being nothing to no one, you can’t be all things to all brands, all decision-makers, all businesses, so fight for your right to plan the way you want to and make sacrifices for it, if necessary, in order to build a more equitable, diverse, inclusive and sustainable future. But keep in mind that if we want to change what CEOs care about, we should change what we measure.
A principle is not a principle until it costs you something.
-William Bernbach
It’s important to have ideals that energize you and push you toward good beams BUT;
if you want to avoid the midlife crisis almost all advertisers go through feeling hypocritical, don’t forget what marketing fundamentally does: Sell. Nevertheless, marketing may not have the power to save the world but you have the power to drive change through marketing as it helps you send the right message and capture the audience’s attention strategically. Make sure you’re standing against and standing for something, and don't forget: strategy is being clear and proactive in choosing what you’re going to do, AND choosing what you’re not going to do.
In the sea of individualism, be collectivist.
In today’s complex and constantly changing world, there’s a growing need for people to keep an open mindset and to take on different perspectives, same applies to you as a Creative Strategist. This can be achieved best through communicating with one another and sharing views and experiences. So, never think you know it all. Be open to different perspectives and discussions with peers.
In the sea of clutter, be concise.
Chaos calls for clarity. We are living in a hyper-digitalized era, with the sheer abundance of data and information available, it’s becoming harder and harder to distill and find our way through the fog of numbers, data, and facts, and on top of that attention span of people has never been lower, thus making sense of it all and then linking it back to the initial question has never been harder. But the process of making sense of it is an essential step in gaining deep insights.
When the world is on fire, deep insight into the forces of change is required.
— Mans Tesch, GREY, Creative Strategy Diploma 22'
So, the need for creative strategists who excel at making the complex simple and making sense of it all are needed more than ever.
In the sea of result-oriented culture, be creative.
Always think and behave creative first. Don’t compromise ideas through process or politics. Be the lawyer of the idea.
Creativity is a high risk, high reward strategy.
-Jordan Peterson
Love the work you produce; produce work you’ll love. It will pay off because creativity is effective, BUT; also make peace with the fact that the job is not any form of creativity but commercial creativity.
What we do is not any form of creativity but commercial creativity, meaning that the end goal is moving brands forward through generating and executing ideas.
-Agathe Guerrier, TBWA\Worldwide, Creative Strategy Diploma 22'
It’s not exactly art for art’s sake. The downside is that you don’t get full independence. On the other hand, you have the power to make an impact and change behavior. So, use creativity as a tool to unlock and deliver commercial success and create meaningful outcomes.
In the sea of awards, be human-centric.
Don’t lose the WHY of advertising, which is to get people to want something. Understand who your customers are and what they need. Don’t only read the data about your audience or go on consumer safaris— walk in the shoes of your audience. Go outside, take a taxi ride or public transport. Visit a fair, the zoo, or wherever you have the chance to mingle with and observe your audience in their “normal” habitat. Understand why they do what they do, what drives them, what turns them on, what turns them off, what they desire subconsciously, and what they believe is worth aspiring to.
It’s obvious when you think about it. Insights are the root of great ideas. So, let’s make our ideas great again. Enough of the ‘it’s just a cool idea.’ Connect to your audience. Connect to society. Be a better Creative.
- Jeremy Carson
Immerse yourself in culture; BUT make sure you get out of the echo chamber of what marketers make and what marketers like, that is LinkedIn. Don’t obsess over research and audience without actually getting close to people’s real lives, and get out of the over-saturated world of advertising. Make campaigns that speak to the audience, not the stage.
Relying on our(marketers) behaviors and tastes are narcism disguised as strategy.
-Martin Weigel, Head of Strategy at W+K Amsterdam
Forget about the waves in the sea, swim, and surf in the right ocean.
According to Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne, to win in the future, companies need to stop trying to beat the competition and instead focus on identifying where the opportunity lies: in the vast, deep, and powerful blue ocean, all the industries not in existence today — the unknown market space, unexplored and untainted by competition.
Think about how you could use this model to identify a Blue Ocean for your client. Help them define where it may be best to play, for whom and how. Help them ask the right questions to define their way forward. Clients are often working in huge, hierarchical, legacy businesses struggling to evolve in the changing context of the digital future, as their partner, you have the opportunity and the responsibility to help them navigate and carve out their future direction. Make their business your business.
It’s the planner’s duty to think about the client’s well-being even more than they do.
-Viktor Kuzu, BLAB
So, in order to ride the waves of the blue ocean, shift your strategic lens in looking at the market by rethinking and reconstructing its self-imposed boundaries to create new possibilities for demand. Raise the strategic bar!
Last but not least, don’t get lost in your personal pursuit for meaningful work and a sense of nobility trying to disrupt a whole industry. Just chill and remind yourself to not take the marketing industry itself too seriously. And if one day you start your own agency, make it the agency you wished you worked in.
Kill your darlings if you have to BUT make sure you enjoy the waves, big or small…
