The biggest advertising trends of 2015 and what 2016 has in store
Palle Diederichsen, Head of EMEA MediaCom Beyond Advertising
What do you think has been the biggest development in 2015? From the point of view of MBA, the fact that content marketing seems to have made it onto the standard brief from clients has been hugely encouraging and something we feel is vital for all brands to do.
What has surprised you in 2015? A pleasant surprise has been how dominant MediaCom has been across new business and awards in 2015, with some great MBA campaigns leading the award success. It’s a big testament to our approach and positioning of the business as Content + Connections agency.
What most excites you about 2016? To see a further development of of our capabilities across the EMEA network. Our European operation is looking in great shape to make the most of the opportunities 2016 present – the latest proof being our Polish team’s Grand Prix win for Sprite – The Truth is That at the largest Polish advertising awards, Kreatura.
Tom Curtis, Head of MediaCom Beyond Advertising UK
What do you think has been the biggest development in 2015? Wasn’t 2015 officially the year of mobile? Or was that 5 years ago? Maybe 7? Whatever the case, in 2015, it was widely reported that mobile overtook desktop in a number of ways, from the number of mobile-only internet users to mobile versus desktop search.
And so, although an evolution, I see this as a bit of a tipping point in terms of what is to come. More vertical video? Perhaps. A greater focus on responsive design? Maybe. The recognition that things are going to rapidly change? Almost certainly. While much of the ad and marketing industries play catch up we mustn’t let mobile take our eye off the ball of future tech such as how we make properly immersive and effective content marketing for the next big game changers, AR and VR.
What has surprised you in 2015? That the debate about what the hell content is has refused to go away. Every time someone definitively announces ‘Right, let’s stop this now – it’s this’, it just stirs up the ‘Yeah, except that it’s actually that’ argument. Which is sometimes followed by ‘Isn’t content a rubbish word anyway?’.
For many different agencies and publishers the ‘what-the-hell-is-content’ debate has provided a legitimate reason to adapt what they were already doing and use it to encroach (some might say) on other territory. Personally I think a bit of healthy competition is good for clients and good for the industry. The idea and the execution is the most important thing – not what we call them.
So let’s stop the debate now. As far as MediaCom is concerned content is basically anything – including standard advertising. Oh, but ‘anything’ is a bit too loose right? In fact, isn’t content a rubbish word? Err…
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