The AdNews end of year Perspectives, looking back at 2024 and forward to next year.
Justin Graham - M&C Saatchi Group, APAC CEO
It's certainly been a year.
Not least because I am almost completing the first full year of having a teenage girl under the Graham roof - but more on that later.
At the start of the year, I gathered together the talented humans who call M&C Saatchi home to discuss what lay ahead for 2024: what we were excited about, expected challenges, opportunities - all the points that an ad exec with a fresh suntan from the January holiday and with a microphone in hand gets the privilege of relaying.
We talked about an upcoming year of disruption through AI (I am not sure if we did, but I felt we would have), Taylor’s Eras Tour, the social impacts resulting from the hangover of the ‘Yes’ referendum and the lengthening shadow of inflation and the interest rate cycle. There were also the cyclical big hits of an Olympics and a US election falling in the same year.
There was plenty to discuss.
We distilled it all into three words to guide us through the year—simple prompts, like the words an AFL player might scrawl on the tape around their wrist before the big game, to stay focused when things get tough.
Those words? Creative, Together and Pride.
At first glance, they may seem innocuous. But when examined through the lens of our industry today, they’re inspiring and confronting in equal measure.
Creative.
As media shifts, audiences splinter, and budgets tighten, the question has to be asked: Can you still make money from creativity? Sometimes a proxy for the health of our industry, the collective showing of local brands winning at Cannes was down. Unfortunately that's less of a one-off, but more of a trend. Is this a lack of focus or a less important metric moving forward?
Of course there is money in creativity, but it's going to take some thinking, some bravery and inevitably, new commercial models to ensure we don’t just protect the wondrous asset we call creativity but create an environment in which it can thrive and engage.
Together.
Which leads me to the notion of ‘together.’ As an industry, we are a spiky lot - competitive and ambitious. We wouldn’t have it any other way. However, as the industry has felt more challenged across most metrics—spend, focus on training, ensuring we develop our junior (and senior) talent, ESG, anonymous commentary, etc.—the more we have come together.
In partnership on pitches, in collaboration around ideas, in service of new marketing models, or simply to push for more effective work through innovative marketing science principles. While trite, the notion of being better ‘together’ might just work.
Pride.
Now let's talk about pride - and being proud. Proud of the work, the craft, our impact on people, the livelihood we support, the impact on the economy. Proud of our relationships. Yet in an industry that often chooses virtual over in-person interactions, fostering pride is harder than ever.
We need to be prouder about the working relationships we have —and the ones we have yet to form from a chance meeting in the office or the local café.
And more broadly, we should recognise the undeniable role we play in culture and the opportunity to play an even greater role.
Looking Ahead
Next year offers another opportunity to shine. The opportunity to be brilliant as we swap a US election for one of our own, Taylor for Liam (and Noel) and the Olympics for Lions.
It will be the intersection of creativity arriving in new forms - not always created, often curated. Many of us are working together in new and interesting ways to ensure our industry becomes a cultural powerhouse - unmissable in its reach and impact. And finally, that we are proud of what we do, confident beyond measure, that the hard work leads to great outcomes.
M&C Saatchi celebrates 30 years in 2025 having opened its doors in London and Sydney on the same day. The future clearly looks different to the past, but the DNA will ensure tomorrow is as brilliant as ever.
Back to that issue of a teenager in the Graham house. Comedian Tina Fey has a great piece on parenting teenagers. Fey says ”Parenting teenagers is a bit like having an office crush, you're thinking about them a lot more than they are thinking about you.”
As an industry, let’s not be the parents of teenagers, standing on the outside of culture. Instead, let’s step in, lead it, and be the ones shaping what’s next.
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