In this guest post, Cam Blackley, chief creative officer and Emily Taylor, chief strategy officer at M&C Saatchi Group AUNZ offer up their industry predictions for 2022. And they’re arguably as crazy as the year we just had…
Making predictions off the back of 2021 feels a little stupid. Because 2021 was crazy as 2020 was before it. Except it replaced fires for an earthquake. Years no one could have predicted. Worse than anyone could imagine, and in some cases, better than expected.
So, we thought we’d have a bit of fun and approach our 2022 predictions for the creative industry with the same options; worst and best. Here’s a tongue in cheek stab at it because we’re ‘over’ serious.
2022: What’s the worst that could happen?
Cam: We’ve done fire, flood and earthquake. We’re due a plague. Maybe not locusts, a plague of quirky jpegs masquerading as digital stores of value that build communities around brands.
Em: You mean NFTs?
Cam: I think you need to be careful with labels, Emily. In 2022 we don’t label decentralised digital status symbols.
Em: Anyhoo. Won’t it all be about collabs in the Metaverse? Or how about collabs hit agencies. DDB X The Monkeys.
Cam: Yeah, the idea of ‘working from anywhere’ gets really literal. For example, the CCO of DDB is working from The Monkeys for February but no one dares say anything unless it blows up the whole ‘flexible ways of working’ thing. We’ve got teams strung not just across multiple agencies but across continents. CDs are bragging on LinkedIn that their best junior teams have sent cracking ideas back from their desks at W&K Portland, maybe Pixar. Resource management becomes the biggest department in every agency.
Em: Ok, how about instead we keep working remotely for our own agencies, but cyber criminals target all the remote workers, eventually bringing an end to Google docs. We are forced to return to a world of keynote and versioning. The inefficiencies slowly eat into the time saved by not commuting.
Cam: Because we never come into the office anymore, we don’t really know each other. Banter becomes a thing of the past. No banter to help us bond and as a result we’re constantly offended.
Em: I resent that. I’m distancing myself from you.
Cam: I find that offensive.
Em: Offensive is canceled. Maybe this year cancel culture really comes into its own, ALL culture is canceled. No culture for you; advertising fills the void that culture has left.
Cam: I like the idea that personalisation is taken to new heights, a big opportunity there. Every Australian has their own advertising agency assigned to them. Hyper-hyper personalisation it’s called. And we start using micro-micro influencers… like your mum.
Em: Funny, but you’ve gone too far. Don’t bring my mum into it. And besides the thought of 25 million pitches gives me the heebie jeebies.
Cam: I have another thought. Freelancers hire advertising agencies to get access to the clients they’ve already got some bottom drawer pearlers for.
Em: So the agencies become the freelancers and the freelancers become the employers? Hmmm, okay. Maybe let’s move onto the best.
2022: What’s the best that could happen?
Cam: The opposite of all of the above.
Em: Like an influx of talent makes our lives easier? ‘The Great Acquisition’? We have lots of brilliant briefs and time together to crack them. Sounds good. Goodbye.
