Claire Beale

Global Editor-in-chief, Campaign

If you’re already feeling a little queasy about the pace of change in the advertising and marketing industries, you might want to skip this edition of R/GA’S Futurevision. If you’re clinging on to the familiar, the comfortable, and hoping you can just get through the rest of your career before Armageddon hits, then move along, move along. Nothing here for you. For the rest of us, though, the portrait of our industry sketched over the next few pages is a daunting but exhilarating prospect. As this report underlines, adspend on digital now outstrips TV spend; meanwhile management consultancies are moving into the agency heartland, snapping up digital and creative shops; and clients are seeing their own sectors facing unprecedented upheaval. Of course, we know disruption is the new constant. And we’ve understood for a while now that the smashing apart of the old order offers smart agencies and marketers the chance to reconstruct around a futurefacing model. But, as you’ll read in Solving the Innovator’s Dilemma, knowing and understanding are not the same as actually having the faculty to pivot your business and grasp the new opportunities. What those new opportunities are depends on what sector you’re in. In the agency space, companies like R/GA are already working with their clients on everything from consulting, through strategy to developing and making transformational new products and services, all Connected by Design. And if you’re a marketer, the chances are your industry is already being disrupted by technology. From automotive to hospitality to finance, no sector is immune to radical change and as this report points out, finding your place in the new world might mean completely rethinking what sort of company you actually are. It’s a thrilling prospect. This is the moment when the safety bars come down, the chains start to tighten, the brakes come off and the ride really begins. If you don’t work with, or for, an agency that’s excited for the adrenaline rush to come, you need to find yourself another agency. And quick.