Group SCAB

On Wednesday, we had the chance to attend an event hosted by Creative Social about the future of agencies : “Agency 2020”.

Some of us thought about passing on this opportunity. Big no no! Never pass on an opportunity if you gave the time to do it. First impressions of Digitas LBi? “A bit futuristic itself”, “Taxidermy judging down on a swanky looking bar with projections of fish swimming along behind sofas”…A perfect setting to sit comfortably in discussing the agency landscape of 2020.

As students just about to enter the professional world in less that a year, we were really looking forward on hearing the opinions of the five creative leaders picked by CS for the event.

The first one was Ed Warren, creative co-founder of Creature, suggests 5 “holy cows” that deserve to be ground into burgers. Three of them really caught our attention:

1. Ad Agencies make ads (well, yes, they do but it’s not about just interrupting we need to be thinking about contribution to audience and society in general.

2. The creative team is two people with a book of ads. (Cast the right team to crack the brief. A department and open network of collaboration.)

3. Media and Creative are separate businesses. In fact, the divide between media and creative agencies and work is getting blurry and has almost disappeared. These two businesses shouldn’t compete against each other but build a healthy competition where they could learn from each other by collaborating.

Shanice Mears, 22 year-old planner at Iris Worldwide sees 2020 meaning no degrees requested, people entering the industry will be even younger, more diverse, workspace anywhere, no age restriction on seniority, talent and ability over age, sex and ethnicity.

Brian Cooper, CCO of Oliver group, says agencies are often fighting a war that doesn’t exist anymore. As demands on them for faster, better and cheaper work grow it needs to be met with less time wasting back and forth.

Liz Jones, CEO of Fortysix, thinks the industry needs to know how to be more socially useful. We hold a mirror up to society and need to reflect it correctly. Be a force for good. Different perspectives united by the same value.

Last but not least, Sam Connie Joint CEO, Co-Founder and Chief Purpose Officer of Livity, was a passionate about pirate code 2.0. Stand for change and disrupt capitalism.

At CS Agency 2020, the different opinions and discussions on challenging the fundamental beliefs of the agency was a really interesting experience.

It seems that a lot of people in the industry hate the word “content”. I remember for example an important reflection told by Ed Warren “Content is a terrible phrase to describe filling empty space. Contribution, however suggests direction”

We need to think forward and always remember to be creative, participate and be more diverse. Diversity can allow for more cultural insights fostering creativity for example : the use of untraditional ambassadors for brands (something new, young, and fresh)

A big big thanks to CS for having us!