AdNews asked industry figures for their assessment of 2022 and outlook for next year
Justin Graham, CEO M&C Saatchi AUNZ
2022 was a year full of promise, it was touted as our ‘return to normal’. What's normal?! Sign me up for international travel, the kids back at school, concerts, cinemas, industry award shows. Lots of them…
Looking back at this same article from last year, I wrote that I was looking forward to “reconstructing an M&C Saatchi that presents the best possible environment for creativity to flourish”.
I’m proud to say that we have made significant progress against this ambition, and at the same time have a ways to go (I also made predictions about my favourite teams, the Wallabies and Wests Tigers respectively, best not go back to fact check those…)
In terms of how we work - we have continued to realise the positive gains that came out of the lockdown periods. We have developed more personal connections with clients and colleagues, better ways of working through borderless collaboration, and embraced flexibility as a core part of how we work.
We have momentum from the coming together of a connected creative offering between our Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland hubs. Working with brilliant local design firms Woods Bagot and Made For, we have reinvented our physical spaces allowing us to create, collaborate and be inspired in a cutting edge environment.
The year has also resulted in some significant pieces of work relevant to all Australians & our future that we are hugely proud of; ‘Come and say G’day’ for Tourism Australia officially reopened the country for business. One of our most trusted brands in CommBank is providing hope around a brighter future, and we continue to partner with the State & Federal Governments to provide Australians with the tools and resources to navigate this next phase of life. And, our partner Woolworths continues to show up for all Australians being voted the most valuable brand in the country by Brand Finance.
However, Australian creativity was clearly impacted by the extended lockdowns, and this was reflected in a relatively poor performance at Cannes compared to past years. Aussies and Kiwis love a challenge and speaking to leaders across the industry there is definitely an ambition to return better in 2023.
We know many agencies have continued to interrogate and evolve their model and M&C Saatchi is no exception. We have made incredible progress but as an industry I believe we still don’t have it quite right.
There are still mental health challenges to address, we are losing people due to burnout and new passions, and access to international talent remains a challenge.
We’re in a messy transition point in a lot of ways and 2023 will be about landing a new equilibrium.
Last year I reflected on our people being incredibly resilient. We learned that our people are fearless, and we are embracing that. We actually have ‘Hello Fearless’ plastered on our front door alongside our values to remind our people, clients and partners to unite around this common strength.
As we look at how clients want to engage, we know they want to utilise our original thinkers, but we also need to help navigate the increasing pressures that they’re under.
Amidst economic headwinds in an inflationary environment, scrutiny around budgets, and the general need to do more with less, CMOs are today responsible for maintaining customer centricity through more complex ecosystems and marketplaces than ever.
The ‘cost of entry’ in the social good & sustainability space is only getting higher and brands need to think differently around how they show up in this area to ensure authenticity and effectiveness.
More recently of course there has been a heightened focus around data and security. Helping brands traverse these issues is a theme that will no doubt only increase into next year.
Our industry must take responsibility for putting creativity on Australia’s collective roadmap to tackle these issues moving forward. We can look forward to many ‘gifts’ in 2023 to get this moving. The arrival of SXSW on our shores, the largest women’s sporting event in history in the World Cup, World Pride and many other events must be catalysts for change.
So, my plea to the industry would be that we all adopt a fearless approach and, to borrow one of our values, to ‘run towards the fire’.
It’s what Australian creativity is all about.
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