Three Covid-19 adland accelerants and vaccines for future relevancy – because business as usual is not good enough.
Covid-19 is exactly what adland needs.
Adland is an industry that should constantly strive for business unusual, flexing to contribute to culture, corporate and individual needs. With people’s needs accelerating beyond the norm, aligning brands with future trends has never been more necessary.
Advertising isn’t spoon fed push content anymore – that time has passed. In the early 90s people would look forward to TV ads as much as the programming.
But people now pay to avoid ads.With adland positioned as one of the least trusted professions. Leading to a pollutant output that nobody trusts.
But Vaccination against what?
Old economy models are just becoming far less effective as the market values them less. A FAANG employee generates x10 more market value than one at WPP.
Worse still big tech ‘frenemies’ are eating more of the advertising communications and media placement outputs, the old adland cash cow.
1/ Accelerating the fact Adland ? advertising
One of the key stakeholders for adland, the CMO agrees that advertising is one of their least valuable outputs. With brand strategy, topping most valuable outputs – due to its influence on upstream business decisions. Although not if it is solely channelled into downstream communications.
2/ Accelerating agency operating models
Working outside of corporate bubbles forces agencies to be what they should be, solutionists operating in the wild. This pandemic has got agencies out of their ivory towers forcing them to develop approaches outside of business as normal.
3/ Accelerating the need for far greater agency talent diversity
As the industry and evolution of agencies accelerates this will reflect on the talent. This will further shine a light on where the gaps in thinking are and the huge diversity gaps. We need less old boys’ club and more keeping it real club.
Follow the white rabbit into a positive future and don’t fall down the rabbit holes.
www.WhiteRabbitStrategy.co.uk is a new generation ‘agency’ adapting around client problems. Shaping solution sprints for each challenge at speed.
Creating something with future immunity is better than waiting for a vaccine in the hope future relevancy will become possible.
Follow the white rabbit into a positive future and don’t fall down the rabbit holes!
Matt Cox is a strategist at new generation ‘agency’ WhiteRabbitStrategy.
