1) One of the industry trends that I think was significant and hasn’t really shown signs of slowing down is the obsession with data. The amount of data. Who owns the data. How private the data is or should be. What the data means. How it should be used…. Data is a powerful and important part of what we do, but it’s also still pretty much the wild wild west right now. There’s not a lot of brands or agencies using data in surprising and culturally impactful ways yet, but Spotify is a great example of one who is.
2) Every year, there are more and more things competing for the attention of the people we’re trying to reach. A shit ton of content. Multitudes of streaming services. Social feeds. Fake news. real news. But despite what you might hear, people’s attention spans aren’t decreasing – binge habits prove that – it’s just that the bar for what is worthy of their attention is higher than its ever been. Indifference is at an all-time high. One of the things we’ve done at the agency that I’m really excited about is created a group called the The Cultural Impact Lab. It’s a super group of PR/EarnedMedia and Comms Planning expertise and we’ve imbedded it in the creative department. Our job is to get brands noticed. Buzz and earned media is not a nice to have, it’s a business imperative. Talked about brands grow 2.5 times faster than brands that aren’t. And when we make PR part of the creative process, we aren’t leaving cultural impact to luck. And when you impact culture, you impact sales. and at the end of the day, that’s really what we’re all here to do.
3) I’m proud of a lot of work that we’re doing, but one of the standouts is what we’re doing for Donate Life, an organization that encourages people to become lifesaving organ donors. We created a streetwear brand called 83Futures and the only way you can get the exclusively designed stuff is by signing up to be an organ donor. 83 Futures refers to the amount of lives you can save with your donated organs. It’s crazy ambitious because it hasn’t really been done before. It’s not a one and done effort, it’s a brand that lives and grows in the world. The amount of work that had to go into securing not only the at-launch design collabs but the seamless connection to donation sign ups was daunting and we’ve only scratched the surface. I love big ambitious ideas that break new ground and I especially love them when they are doing good in the world. 83 Futures saves lives. It doesn’t get more important than that.
5) In 2020, one of the biggest elections in our country’s history will take place. I think that will dominate media time and mental availability. I also think it will continue the important conversations about a variety of really big and weighty topics like social media’s role in disinformation – how accountable are they or should they be? Or the seeming inability of much of the American populace to discern truth from untruth, or even more importantly, their complete lack of interest in facts and provable science. Or the complete disintegration of things like civility, honor and compassion. This kind of stuff isn’t just politics, it’s a major shift in the psyche of Americans. As marketers, much like the 2016 election proved to be, 2020 will be a modern marketing playbook that we should all be paying attention to.
6) New Year’s resolution both personally and professionally: Do at least 10 things (hopefully more) that scare the shit out of myself.