Brave New Year 2015

What are the trends and developments for 2015? How will they impact our agency business? Four both personal and professional views on the future.

Christian Hanke

A couple of days ago I came across an ad in my timeline: “This is the year of no excuses – start working out today!” This perfectly expresses my thoughts on this year’s expectations. Working with digital editorial teams in news organizations and media brands last year I have the feeling that 2015 will be the year of no excuses. In 2015 media brands will have no excuses to not innovate the way they create, deliver, present or monetize their content. And true change has to touch those four poles at the same time – or it will not be lasting.

Now is the point to put our pride away (or whatever hinders collaboration across departments) and make bold decisions to change mindsets and workflows. This year in media has started with a huge tragedy around the shocking massacre in Paris. I hope this threat will only strengthen journalists in their efforts to ask, criticize, unveil and explain and ultimately foster meaningful experiences.

Robert Stulle

It’s 2015! Now we officially live in the future. (Only 6 more years to go and we have reached the magical year 2021 where I expect humankind to have colonies on Mars and Venus… :-)) 2015 will bring us all even deeper into a fine mess of magical digital entanglement as we will continue to connect everything with everything in our businesses and in our personal life.

The population of digital natives is growing by the minute and by now constant connection is a given. (Just turn off the Wi-Fi in a household that contains teenagers and measure the time it takes for everyone to pop out of their room and run around in panic.) At Edenspiekermann the Internet of Things has our full attention and this year we will work on interesting projects around connected cars, homes, household appliances, pets and people.

Pia Betton

As a mother of two teenagers, I have begun to pay attention to my sons’ views on consumption as they gradually grow more and more independent. In many ways, it is immensely different from mine. I don’t mean their constant use of social media or the way their mobile phone has become an integrated part of their body at every step they make, every day. What I admire is their attitude to brands. Classic consumer brands means virtually nothing to them (ok, apart from the chosen few like Apple). In fact, it can even turn them off if I buy them a heavily branded product. Their reaction – why pay for the well-known brand’s extensive use of marketing budgets? Not that they don’t consume, they just consume differently from the classic assumptions. For them, transparency (where does it come from, how is it manufactured?), authenticity and personal relevance are crucial factors for their decision making. They would rather buy a no-name product if recommended by their peers on Instagram or Youtube than a well-known one. Often they chose NOT to consume at all – less is more!

I don’t think my sons are out of the normal. I think most brand managers are aware of this shift in the mindset of the coming consumer generations. Maybe it is a wake-up call for our consumer oriented society forcing us to think differently about how to be relevant for the coming generation. Be more sustainable and honest and create more intelligent and relevant offers. We want to support this development with our work in 2015.

Steven Cook

As of late I have seen a lot of businesses (many of them start-ups) putting together proclamations or manifestos. You can call this a trend, but these endeavors are grounded in the attempt to convey an attitude both to the employee and the customer. I see it more than necessary today to have conversations that take on a new light, sometimes bordering on uncomfortable. This translates that brands need to stand for something beyond just selling their products or services. This might come to no surprise but there has been some polls that show younger generations tend to gravitate and appreciate this confidence and standpoint.

Brands can no longer be soft on issues or try to take the middle-of-the-road on social, cultural and/or economic issues. Brands should start to talk about the issues that are troubling the people that work for them and buy from them. It doesn’t mean a business needs to force ideas down people’s throats. They just need to act more responsible and show interest in things others care about. And it must be authentic or it won’t stick.

So be bold, creative, pick an issue and stand by it. Don’t be afraid to rock the boat, some have done this in the past and it worked for them.

Illustration: Max Mussehl