The future of advertising: a 25-year perspective

Twenty-five years! That's not just a long time, that's a goddamn eternity. 

Back in '99, when I was busy building my first company, together with [Co-Founder] Karin Drakenberg, and trying to convince people that the internet wasn't just a fad, the ad world was as bloated as a tick on a fat dog. It was ripe for disruption and, boy, did it get disrupted.

Say hello to the mavericks

Enter the rebels, the crazy ones who thought they could change the world. Agencies like 180°, Anomaly, Droga5 and, yes, StrawberryFrog burst onto the scene like fireworks at a funeral. These weren't your daddy's ad agencies, these were the new kids on the block, and they were ready to tear up the rulebook. 

The ad world was as bloated as a tick on a fat dog. It was ripe for disruption and, boy, did it get disrupted.

Rather than position themselves as 'hot creative shops' as previous generations had, newbies like 180° talked about doing what Francis Ford Coppola called 'taking a 180° on problem solving'. TAXI talked about the size of their agency pods (only enough to fill a taxi), and StrawberryFrog launched a revolutionary approach that said, 'screw the traditional advertising model - let's tap into what really gets people fired up and create 'Movements' that mobilise audiences'. This led to our founding client the launch of the Smart Car for Mercedes and Swatch. Revolutionary stuff.

Above: The advertising industry has had some David versus Goliath moments. 

But it hasn't all been Champagne and caviar. This industry has faced more challenges than a millennial trying to buy a house in San Francisco. First, we had the rise of the corporate behemoths. These Goliaths started swallowing up agencies like Pac-Man on steroids. The small guys? They had to get creative or get crushed. So, what did they do? They went global. They opened offices faster than Starbucks. It was adapt or die, and these scrappy underdogs chose to adapt. 

It was like trying to juggle chainsaws while riding a unicycle. But the ones who pulled it off? They're the ones still standing today.

Droga opened in London, Australia and New York. B-Reel opened in Stockholm, Berlin and New York, and StrawberryFrog opened in New York, Brazil, Dubai and India - winning the global Heineken, Emirates Airline and Pampers brands. These were the forerunners to today's agencies, like Gut.

Then came the 'hybrid' approach. Suddenly, being a one-trick pony wasn't enough. Agencies had to become the Swiss Army knives of the marketing world. Creative? Check. Strategy? You bet. Social Media? Throw it in the mix. 

It was like trying to juggle chainsaws while riding a unicycle. But the ones who pulled it off? They're the ones still standing today.

Above: Agencies had to become the Swiss Army knives of the marketing world. 

Chaos, then opportunity

And, just when we thought we had it figured out... boom! The 2008 financial crisis hit. It was like watching a house of cards collapse in slow-motion. Agency fees? Slashed. Budgets? Evaporated. It was brutal. But you know what they say: when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And boy, did the small, challenger, disruptor agencies get going. Project-based approaches, agile methodologies – they threw everything at the wall to see what would stick.

The internet didn't just change the game, it flipped the board, scattered the pieces and set the table on fire.

But here's the kicker: all this chaos? It ended up being a blessing in disguise. Suddenly, those big, lumbering holding companies didn't look so stable anymore. Clients started looking at the smaller, more nimble agencies with fresh eyes. It was David vs. Goliath and, for once, David was winning.

Now, let's talk about the elephant in the room: digital. The internet didn't just change the game, it flipped the board, scattered the pieces and set the table on fire. Fragmentation became the name of the game. Consumers were no longer captive audiences sitting in front of their TV sets, they were everywhere, consuming content on more platforms than you can shake a stick at. Agencies had to adapt or become as relevant as a floppy disk in the age of cloud storage.

And just when we thought we had digital figured out, along comes AI. Can AI enhance human creativity? Or is it going to render us all obsolete? The jury's still out, but one thing's for sure, ignoring AI is about as smart as bringing a knife to a gunfight.

Above: How will advertising integrate artificial intelligence into its processes?

Most important of all

But here's the thing, through all this chaos, all this disruption, one thing has remained constant: relationships. In an industry that's all about connection, the most important connection is still between agency and client. 

[Advertising's] not rocket science. It's about honesty, trust, and not being afraid to call bullshit when you see it.

It's not rocket science. It's about honesty, trust, and not being afraid to call bullshit when you see it. It's about celebrating the wins and learning from the losses. And for God's sake, it's about having a sense of humour. This business is hard enough without taking ourselves too seriously.

Disrupting the disruptors

Just when everyone had it all figured out, along comes TikTok and the rise of the new disruptor brands eating away at the huge FMCG brands, beauty brands, beverage and food brands. In turn, the huge brands are perhaps a little less resistant to the small, innovative, creative agencies then they used to be. Now, they're reliant on them. Why? Because Advances in R&D in technology are making it easier to disrupt, and big brands reliant on Neilsen won't notice competitors eating away at them until it's too late. 

Case in point bespoke beauty brands growing 175% month over month, using TikTok as their primary channel. It's also a time when the original disruptors, product innovation companies such as IDEO and What If, are being disrupted by newcomers like Inplural, using a whole global repository of independent talent to solve problems.