Clear Hayes has released its trends report looking back at the recent Advertising Week APAC, providing a snapshot of industry-defining trends from industry and business leaders.
Principal of the B2B agency Alex Hayes said in the report: “We tend to have a bias of looking at the future as a destination where everything will be settled. But clearly we all need to accept that’s never going to happen. Progress (in most areas at least) is inevitable.
“But keeping up with change can feel exhausting, especially as you get older and much of the technological and societal evolution isn’t necessarily aimed at you. And when you work in an industry like marketing, where being on the bleeding edge seems to be a prerequisite, it’s inevitable you will get worried.
Hayes added elsewhere: “If I’ve learned one thing, it’s that planned obsolescence doesn’t exist. It’s those who don’t plan who risk becoming irrelevant.”
The report explored at the future of leadership and work, and the changing landscape of work. It noted that $6.3 billion is how much the gig economy was worth in 2020, increasing nine-fold from 2015-2019
Globally renowned author and business consultant Rishad Tobaccowala spoke on a panel at the event and said: “I believe that every one of your careers is going to be a gig career.” He explained that the changing nature of work will see more project-based collaboration in the future.
The talent shortage was also addressed at the event with the likes of Lara Thom, CMO of Guzman y Gomez, Vinne Schifferstein, managing director of MediaMonks and ADMA CEO Andrea Martens.
Clear Haye’s report highlighted the future technology as a key point of Advertising Week festivities, with the acceleration of AR, VR, metaverse and Web3 front and centre of discussions with companies such as Outbrain, Yahoo, Snap Inc. and Meta.
Sustainability was another important topic from the panel, Hayes noted in the report that if the internet was a country it would be the third biggest polluter in the world after the US and China.
Representatives from companies such as MiQ, Saatchi & Saatchi Australia and independent agency Scout Frontier spoke at Advertising Week about the environmental impact of the industry, innovations that are leading the space and how the industry can improve.
The report also looked at creativity, particularly at the growth and impact of TikTok in recent years. It noted that the platform is to make $12 billion in ad revenues this year and expected to reach 1.8 billion by 2023.
TikTok creator Rowi Singh said on a panel: “TikTok is a space for creators. It’s for people who have a craft or bring something to the table. And it’s an entertainment space, not just a hub full of personalities.”
TikTok now performs better than any other social platform. This result is largely down to TikTok’s uncanny ability to harness the power of real people who are talented, creative and authentic in the way they speak to their audiences, according to the report.
Measurement was another main area of discussion at Ad Week as marketers continue to perfect cross-platform measurement and collecting data, particularly as new channels arise quickly and in the aftermath of Google’s recent cookies delay.