Alex Saber, Chairman Publicis Media MENA, reflects on the need for broad transformation."This is the Time of Fusion. The fusion of technology and brands through a more connected, intelligent and integrated world," he asserts.
Over the past three years, many experts in our industry have talked about Transformation. It has become the industry buzzword. The only problem with buzzwords is that they tend to be overused and oftentimes lead to a broad murky lake, which is arduous to navigate. When we look forward, what we have facing us as marketers is not just a need for broad transformation, but more precisely the nexus it brings us to: a moment in time when all of the “transformation” expectations come into reality. This is the Time of Fusion. The fusion of technology and brands through a more connected, intelligent and integrated world.
To bring this into a tangible reality we only need to look at last month’s CES Conference.
At CES the world was presented with the potential of transformation momentum and how it will affect the ways in which brands and consumers interact. One bit of technology that has been long anticipated, particularly here in MENA is 5G. The anticipation is well warranted as the roll out of 5G has so many implications on the trends which we have been talking about as an industry including the realization of IoT, enabling well-being wearables, realizing sustainable supply chains, and re-imagining commerce. The implications are far reaching across multiple trends, that it ellipses the trends themselves. This ellipse is the biggest thing we will focus on; the fusion of Technology, Brands, and Consumer Experiences. The future of fusion will eventually re-set the agenda of the 4th Revolution for ourselves and our clients.
Fusion will unlock consumer experiences. We’ll see a shift from talking about consumers from a demographic standpoint to one of intention. With this, we believe that the context and relevancy of experiences must be delivered to match the intent of the consumer. As an industry, this will change not only targeting but creative content as well. It will allow for consumers to have fluid journeys with brands and will force brands and agencies to match experiences with consumer mindsets. The consumer will continue to be king, they will simply rule over a new intent based kingdom.
Fusion will be fueled by data. As with all trends affecting our future, it comes on the back of data. As our communications are actioned through better data, we see the converse reaction of consumers to demand transparency. This is creating a brand-trust dilemma, which we as agencies will be called on to safely and transparently navigate for our clients. It filters across everything we do from mining insights, architecting sound buying approaches, to enabling secure data practices. Together as an industry, we need to continue to work with industry regulatory and trade bodies, as well as our partners to uphold the highest standards of brand safety and data compliance.
Fusion will inspire immediacy. Connectivity of the world will increase and with it, so will the demand for immediacy of product, solution and personalization. Agencies and clients alike will need to adjust to the demand for immediacy from consumers.
As we embark on the future with our clients, the most critical trend is actually not a trend at all but rather a sustainable practice. Trust. To empower our clients to take advantage of everything that the future has to offer we must be trusted by our clients.
