The AdNews end of year Perspectives, looking back at 2024 and forward to next year.
Tim Riches, Group Strategy Director and Principal at Principals
If 2024 was about one big thing, I would say it was chronic uncertainty. That and the importance of an adaptive mindset.
For our business, which is nearly entirely project-based, we’ve experienced more exaggerated peaks and troughs across the year than usual forcing some tough decisions along the way.
New business has been incredibly hard-fought. On the upside, we’ve been fortunate to be invited to good pitches. On the downside, the competition on price and scope has been fierce. To meet these challenges, we had a conscious reset of our approach to scoping, pricing and simplifying our proposals, with good results in the 2025 financial year.
The key principle has been a laser focus on value to the client. Being super clear on the client-centric “why” behind projects. Being prepared to challenge the problem definition in the brief to connect it better to the business outcome. Being simple yet comprehensive. Challenging the brief while still being a good fit. Genuinely a tight-rope walk that requires open-mindedness to new approaches – not plug and play from the proposal back catalogue. Or 10 pages of AI-enabled, time-wasting, no-shit-Sherlock “insights”.
This focus on simplification and value, unsurprisingly, has characterised lots of our client projects this year too. Sharpening and simplifying value propositions sitting under the master brand. Building strategy recommendations that demonstrate rigour without adding unnecessarily to client (or agency) cognitive load has been central to getting things done within decreasing envelopes of time, money and attention.
Balancing consistency and flexibility in brand identity and voice has been a clear theme for many substantial projects this year. Specifically flexing to engage younger people more effectively – with clients like NAB and CPA Australia undertaking concerted work in this space to connect younger people to the brand. Flexing without adding complexity or fragmentation has been about finding ways to dial down formality and bring playfulness into the use of existing brand codes and supporting design elements. Focusing on the “how” of design principles rather than the “what” of new elements.
For our voice team, XXVI, it’s been about helping to introduce humour, Gen Z-isms and social media language norms into brand voice in a managed, authentic and nuanced way.
Both visually and verbally, our clients are seeing good results in terms of effectiveness from this “brand flex” work that also injects more energy into the whole brand. Compartmentalising the focus to “young people” is a handy trojan horse to show the business a more energetic and relaxed way of expressing itself. And getting the business’s head around the idea that you need to keep evolving your propositions, narrative and expression to keep pace with change is very healthy. It’s not one-and-done.
Of course, you can’t reflect on 2024 without saying something about AI.
At this point, we find it supporting productivity but not changing the core of how we approach our work. Or, so far, it’s not disrupting our part of the branding space in the way that it is in production and content.
In the bigger picture of branding, it’s clear that the sea level of sameness is rising fast as AI’s ability to quickly mass-produce creative catches on. Especially in the Uncanny Valley where houses are uninsurable.
Canva’s impact as a low-cost force amplifier for commoditised aesthetics will exacerbate this even further – especially with its focus on enterprise sales. When everyone can pull together a brand identity with high personality typefaces, bright colour palettes and “fun” illustrations (or moody portraits) and turn it into a brand hub, it’s time for serious brands to think hard about their approach.
One reaction to this is big brands – Telstra, notably – adopting very analogue creative to try and stand apart and create more human connection. Which AI will most likely be able to replicate and amplify if it isn’t already.
Finally, and also in the vein of digital versus analogue, agencies and clients spending face time together has never been more important.
While we’ve all been enjoying the productivity benefits of transactional Teams and Zoom meetings, they aren’t a great forum for the kinds of open and exploratory conversations about challenges and opportunities that are at the heart of good agency-client relationships.
Especially in the branding space, we’re focused on the bigger picture, the system view, helping the dots stay joined. We tend not to be marketing or comms BAU. We are here to re-tool the client. If we want to create value, we need to help them go further, faster, in less certain conditions without losing their sense of self. And above all, that needs trusted relationships and being at the heart of the conversation about where they’re going.
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