I was asked to make this presentation for a conference and, despite the topic being really tricky, I've tried to place some bets about the future for agencies and brands. Don't take this really seriously because the future can't be guessed and there is only one prediction that is 100% sure...

1. THE FUTURE OF ADVERTISING
SOME THOUGHTS FROM THE PRESENT TO PREDICT THE FUTURE OF BRANDS COMMUNICATION

2. ARE YOU CRAZY OR SOMETHING?
SERIOUSLY, FUTURE PREDICTIONS?

3. BUT I HAD TO DO THIS PRESENTATION FOR A CONFERENCE. I PROMISE THIS ONE IS INTERESTING, SO KEEP READING!
YEP, I KNOW, SORRY IN ADVANCE FOR THIS

4. LET’S BEGIN ASKING SOME COLLEAGUES FOR THEIR OPINION
NO WORRIES, WE ARE PROFESSIONAL GUESSERS...

5. 84%
72%
71%
OF CONSUMERS SEE
ADVERTISING AS A PART
OF EVERYDAY LIFE
OF CONSUMERS THINK
ADVERTISING IS AN
IMPORTANT PART OF
CULTURE
SAY ADVERTISING MAKES
THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE
Source: The truth about advertising. McCann truth central 2013. 1000 consumers.
OF CONSUMERS SAY
ADVERTISING GIVES THEM
SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT
OF CONSUMERS LOVE ADVERTISING
FEEL IF THERE WERE NO
ADS, THE WORLD WOULD
SEEM A STRANGER PLACE
57%
40%
63%

6. WE DA FUCKING BEST!
UNCORK THE BOTTLE AND LET’S GET DRUNK, WE DESERVE IT

7. THINKS ADVERTISEMENTS
ARE TOTALLY TRUE
DECREASE IN TRUST IN
ADVERTISING IN JUST TWO
YEARS (LOWEST IN HISTORY)
HALF OF ALL KNOWLEDGE
ABOUT A BRAND IS HELD BY
JUST 20% OF ITS BUYERS
OF 200 BRANDS STUDIED ONLY
ONE SHOWED A LEVEL OF
ENGAGEMENT OVER 2%
FROM 46 ANALIZED
CATEGORIES, THERE IS LACK OF
DIFFERENTIATION IN 40 OF THEM
TRUST IN BRANDS HAS
DECREASED FROM 52% TO 25%
3%
-24%
20%
25%
2%
13%
Source E: Karen Nelson-field & Jennifer Taylor, ‘Facebook fans: a fan for life?’, Admap, may 2012. Seen in Martin Wiegel’s “How to fail”
Source A: Lab 42 survey 2013. 500 consumers.
Source B: Nielsen trust report 2012.
Source C: Enni Romanuik, Byron Sharp: ‘where knowledge of your brand resides: the Pareto share of brand knowledge’. Seen in Martin Wiegel’s “How to fail”
Source D&F: John Gerzema, The brand bubble.

8. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?

9. DON’T WORRY GUYS, THE INTERNET WILL SAVE US!
IS THE MOST POWERFUL MEDIA TO CONTACT WITH CONSUMERS, RIGHT?
65%
OF CONSUMERS
CHANGED THEIR
OPINION ABOUT A
BRAND AFTER A
DIGITAL EXPERIENCE
96%
OF THEM
WHERE
INFLUENCED
WHEN DECIDING
ON A PURCHASE
Souce: Conversation LLC, Marketing 2020: The future of advertising

10. BUT TRUST ONLY COMES FROM RECOMMENDATIONS (90%)
Source: The Nielsen Company. Global survey of over 25,000 consumers online across more than 50 markets
AND CONSUMER OPINIONS (70%) RATHER THAN ADS IN SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS (41%)

11. AND THE AVERAGE CLICKTHROUGH RATE OF DISPLAY ADS IS 0,1%
Source: Doubleclick by Google.
IN OTHER WORDS...

12. YOU’RE MORE LIKELY TO COMPLETE A NAVY SEAL
TRAINING THAN CLICK A BANNER AD
Source: Solve Media

13. 1.000TWEETS EVERY SECOND
684.478
ITEMS SHARED ON
FACEBOOK EVERY SECOND
48 HRS.
OF VIDEO UPLOADED TO
YOUTUBE EVERY SECOND
3.600
PHOTOS SHARED ON
INSTRAGRAM EVERY
SECOND
OK, THEN SOCIAL MEDIA IS THE FUTURE FOR BRANDS!
THE BIGGEST SHIFT SINCE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION COMES TO THE RESCUE!*
Source A: Buzzz Social Media: The social media revolution 2014
Source B: Mist Media Group: Social and digital media revolution statistics 2013

14. 0.5% PROPORTION OF
FANS ARE TALKING ABOUT
A BRAND ON FACEBOOK
Source: Karen Nelson-Field & Jennifer Taylor, ‘Facebook fans: a fan for life?’, Admap, may 2012
1 IN 1,000,000 ODDS OF A
PERSON VIEWING YOUR
CONTENT ON YOUTUBE
Source: wistia.com. Seen in Martin Wiegel’s ‘How to fail’
ONLY 3% RECOGNIZES THAT
SOCIAL MEDIA HAS INFLUENCED
THEM TO TRY A NEW PRODUCT
EMAIL IS NEARLY 40
TIMES MORE EFFECTIVE
TO ACQUIRE CUSTOMERS
THAN FACEBOOK AND
TWITTER COMBINED
FACEBOOK'S PAGES
PLATFORM REACHES ONLY 6%
THE BRAND'S FOLLOWERS
Source: Bob Hoffman - The golden age of bullshit
Source: Time Magazine, ‘The Free-Marketing Gravy Train Is Over on Facebook’
Source: Bob Hoffman - The golden age of bullshit

15. 2010: PEPSI CANCELLED ALL ITS TV AND SUPER BOWL ADVERTISING
TO INVEST EVERYTHING ON PEPSI REFRESH PROJECT...
COSTS: BETWEEN 50 - 100 $M.
DROPPED FROM THE 2ND-BEST
SELLING SOFT DRINK IN THE US TO 3TH
3.5 MILLION FACEBOOK LIKES
24.000 TWITTER FOLLOWERS
5% LOSS IN MARKET SHARE
Source: Pepsi Refresh Project Study case
Source: Bob Hoffman - The golden age of bullshit

16. LESSON LEARNED: TRENDS CAN KILL YOU
INTERNET, SOCIAL MEDIA, MOBILE, WEARABLES, 3D PRINTING OR IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES... NO TECHNOLOGY REPLACES THE CREATIVITY

17. ‘EVERY YEAR THERE IS A NEXT BIG THING. AND FOR THE PAST 10 OR MORE YEARS, WE HAVE BEEN SEEING ALMOST ONE EACH YEAR.’
Source: Rei Namoto - ‘Why ad agencies should act more like tech startups’
THE FUTURE IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PREDICT

18. NOT EVEN ROBERT ZEMECKIS COULD
HEY DOC, ALL OF THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE INVENTED IN 2015?

19. FUCK THE EXPERTS & GURU’S
NOBODY KNOWS SHIT

20. BUT HEY, LET’S AT LEAST PLACE SOME BETS
SOME PREDICTIONS THAT WILL NOT ELIMINATE THE RISK, BUT WILL INCREASE THE ODDS OF SUCCESS. NO FEAR, HERE WE GO!

21. 1
BRANDS WILL FOCUS TO
ENTERTAIN LIKE NO BRAND HAS
ENTERTAINED BEFORE
DEFEAT THE INDIFFERENCE BY MAKING THINGS PEOPLE WANT
INSTEAD OF MAKING PEOPLE WANT THINGS.
CONSUMERS WILL ONLY TOLERATE ADVERTISING AND ITS INVASION
OF PRIVACY WHEN IT IS ENTERTAINING OR USEFUL.
In a stressful society, entertainment
is now an important added value
Source B: Tom Morton in http://wfoa.wharton.upenn.edu/perspective/tommorton/
•
•
Source A: Mark Earls and John Willshire in ‘The future od advertising’

22. 2
STORYTELLING WILL EVOLVE
TO STORYDOING
EVERYONE IS TELLING STORIES NOWADAYS.
CREATE EXPERIENCES THAT DEMONSTRATE YOUR BRAND
PURPOSE AND INVITE CONSUMER PARTICIPATION. ADD
CREATIVITY TO EXPERIENCES WITH THE OBJECTIVE OF HAVING
A SPACE IN CONSUMERS CONVERSATIONS, NOT ONLY IN SOCIAL
MEDIA, BUT IN EVERY MEDIA.
Credits B: Jesús Melero’s Planning Manifesto
Trust in ideas that make stories
& find stories that grow ideas.•
Credits A: Bart Muskala
•

23. 3
GOODNESS STRATEGY IS NO
LONGER ENOUGH. BRANDS WILL
NEED TO FIND THEIR PURPOSE AND
MAKE IT TRULY STRATEGIC
OVERCOME EXPECTATIONS, SURPRISE AND IDENTIFY PEOPLE WHO
BELIEVE WHAT YOU BELIEVE. THE GOODNESS STRATEGY IS A TREND
NOW, BUT WILL BE A NECESSITY TOMORROW. BUT BE CAREFUL, 2015
WILL BE THE YEAR OF ‘PURPOSE FATIGUE’. BE SURE THAT YOUR
PURPOSE IS AUTHENTIC, LIVING THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE BUSINESS,
NOT ONLY ON THE MARKETING SIDE.
Source B: Walter Susini’s conference at El Sol 2014: ‘We are all Gabo’s sons’
According to Walter Susini, brands with a deeper social
purpose showed performance improvements of up to 350%•
•
Credits A: Luis Miranda

24. 4
95% of the downloaded apps
are abandoned within a month
JUST BECAUSE YOU WILL BE ABLE
TO MAKE SOMETHING DOESN’T
MEAN YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT
WITH MOBILE & SOCIAL MEDIA WE HAVE MORE WAYS TO CONTACT AND
INTERACT WITH CONSUMERS THAN EVER BEFORE. THIS DOESN’T MEAN THAT
YOU WILL SELL MORE WITH THESE TOOLS, AND MORE IMPORTANT, THAT
CONSUMERS WANT TO INTERACT WITH YOUR BRAND THROUGH THEM.
MOBILE WILL BE ONLY PROFITABLE FOR A VERY FEW BRANDS.
Source: Robert Gary, Nuance.com. ‘Why 95% of Mobile Apps are Abandoned— and Tips to Keep Your Apps from Becoming Part of that Statistic’
•

25. 5
THE BIG DATA STRATEGY WILL
BE THE HOLY GRAIL FOR BRANDS
THE ABILITY TO INFER A PERSON’S CONSUMER HABITS FROM
THEIR MEDIA HABITS AND SERVE MESSAGES ACCORDINGLY
WITHOUT LOSING THE HUMAN TOUCH AND CREATIVITY IS LIKELY
TO BE THE MAIN GOAL OF BRANDS IN THE NEXT YEARS.
Integrating left and right brained approaches (data
+creativity) into a unified whole will be the battlefield.
Source A: Tom Morton
Creadit B: Mark Barden in Medium
•
•

26. 6
THIS IS ABOUT TRIAL AND ERROR.
THAT’S WHY AGENCIES WILL
EMBRACE THE ‘LEAN MODEL’.
‘A BRAND IDEA NEEDS TO BE LEAN AND AGILE. HERE THE LEAN MOVEMENT
COMES TO THE RESCUE. THIS MODEL HELPS QUICKLY AND INEXPENSIVELY
DEVELOP PRODUCTS/SERVICES PEOPLE WANT. INTRODUCE THE IDEA WITH THE
MINIMUM VIABLE THINKING AND WAIT FOR FEEDBACK FROM THE CLIENT’.
IMPROVE THE IDEA. INTRODUCE IT AGAIN. KEEP THE LOOP GOING ON.
THIS IS A PROCESS THAT IS ALREDY BEING USED IN SOME AGENCIES AND THAT
WILL BECOME MAINSTREAM DURING THE NEXT YEARS.
‘The agencies that incorporate Lean methodology and go through a
build-measure-learn feedback loop will become the industry leaders’
Source: Andrew Cole - Lean advertising & the age of disruption
•

27. 7
CO-CREATION: A POWERFUL
WEAPON FOR BRANDS THAT IS
GROWING UP REALLY FAST
IT IS ALREADY A REALITY (BURBERRY IS THE PERFECT EXAMPLE) BUT CO-
CREATION WILL BE ONE OF THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAYS TO FULFILL THE
CONSUMER DEMANDING OF INDIVIDUALIZED EXPERIENCES.
‘CO-CREATION INVOLVES A COMMUNITY OUTSIDE THE COMPANY IN THE
IDEATION PHASE OF A NEW PRODUCT/SERVICE DEVELOPMENT.’
Co-creation is also happening between tech companies (Innovation Partnerships),
who open the code of their products to be developed and improved by others
Source A & B: Stephen Benson - Co-creation: the pathway to innovation
Credits C: Luis Miranda interview in Medium.com: ‘demonstrate your value rather than talking about it’
•
•
•

28. 8
TRADITIONAL MEDIA WILL HAVE
THE SAME WEIGHT FOR BRANDS
‘DO THIS EXERCISE: GO TO THE SUPERMARKET AND FIND A BRAND THAT
WAS CREATED ENTIRELY BY ONLINE ADVERTISING.’
IT IS NOT ABOUT THE CHOICE BETWEEN TRADITIONAL OR NEW MEDIA, IT IS
ABOUT THE COMBINATION ACCORDING TO YOUR OBJECTIVES:
TRADITIONAL MEDIA WILL CREATE DEMAND FOR YOUR BRAND AND
DIGITAL MEDIA WILL FULFILL THIS DEMAND.
ANY MEDIA WILL CHANGE THIS. PLEASE, STOP TRYING TO KILL TV.
Facts: during the 3rd quarter of 2013, the guy on the right
saw the 97% of all video content on TV and 3% on Internet.
Source A & B: Bob Hoffman- the golden age of bullshit
•
•

29. 9
Source B: Grant McCraken - ‘Chief Culture officer’
Mark Barden
THE MAIN ILLNESS FOR BRANDS
IN THE FUTURE WILL BE THE
DISCONNECTION FROM CULTURE
GREAT BRANDS ARE LARGELY A MANIFESTATION OF CULTURE.
BRANDS LIKE ABERCROMBIE & FITCH, LEVI’S OR ADIDAS ARE LOSING
RELEVANCE BECAUSE THEY SUFFERING ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT AND NO
LONGER CAPABLE OF CAPTURING PEOPLE’S INTEREST OR SURFING CULTURAL
WAVES. MORE THAN EVER, A BRAND WILL NEED A SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
IMPACT AND NOT ONLY BE RELEVANT FOR A SMALL GROUP OF PEOPLE.
CULTURE EXPERTS WILL BE MORE NECESSARY THAN EVER.
Culture is changing faster than ever. Consumers can be part of diverse
groups and ethnics. Brands need cultural experts to make brands relevant.
Source A: NIgel Hollis - ‘the rise and fall of Abercrombie & Fitch’
•
•

30. NOW LOOK AT THIS LIGHT AND FORGET EVERYTHING
NOBODY KNOWS THE DAMN FUTURE

31. ONLY ONE PREDICTION WILL BE 100% TRUE...

32. GO BACK TO THE BASICS: THE POWER OF CREATIVITY WILL
ALWAYS REMAIN AS THE KEY FACTOR OF SUCCESS
SOCIAL NETWORKS, APPS, INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY... ALL ARE THE EXPRESSIONS OF A BASIC HUMAN NECESSITY: COMMUNICATION.
THIS IS SOMETHING THAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING SINCE THE BEGINNING OF ADVERTISING, BUT THE ONLY WAY TO BE IMPORTANT AND RELEVANT TO PEOPLE’S
LIFE IS TO DO REMARKABLE WORK. YOUR BRAND DOESN’T NEED MORE FANS, ENGAGEMENT OR RELATIONS. YOUR BRAND NEEDS MORE GOOD IDEAS.

33. OVERCOME THE CONSUMER’S INDIFFERENCE WITH AWESOMENESS
AND YOU’LL WRITE THE FUTURE INSTEAD OF PREDICT IT
Credits go to you here, Martin!
•

34. THIS PRESENTATION HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
AGUSTIN SORIANO | STRATEGY DIRECTOR
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LEARN MORE
ABOUT ME!
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