The motto of this year's Ad Age Digital Conference was " The Future of Marketing in a Post-Digital World". While we in Europe still understand "digital" as a medium in the communications mix, the clocks in the USA are ticking faster as ever. Here they have already arrived in the post-digital era.

But what does post-digital mean? Quite simply: the internet has disappeared because it has penetrated all areas of our lives and is therefore part of our lives.
I have summarized what this change means for you as an entrepreneur or marketing manager and for us as agencies in the 12 strongest trends for marketing, creativity, media and agencies.

M A R K E T I N G

The essential success factor is excellent customer relationships

The communication of stereotypical brand messages has had its day. The focus in the future will clearly be on building individual brand experiences and creating excellent relationships between customers and prospects and the brand.

"The new Head of Marketing is a "
Allison Checchi, Yellow Pages

The marketing manager of the future is a marketing technology specialist

Technology is not a game for nerds, but a key success factor in marketing. The decisive opportunities for the future are to be found in the technology fields of new media, individualized advertising production, data mining and individualized online placement.

"My main task today is to find the right partners and technologies to exploit our opportunities"
Ram Krishnan, Frito Lay

The search for and promotion of talent is critical for the company

In such a rapidly changing world, young talent is needed in all areas. These talents should not be "standardized" as quickly as possible in specialist departments, but should be focused on a goal in a team with other talents and given free rein. It's not without reason that leading marketers bring in 14-year-olds as "mentors" to understand how they think, express themselves, communicate and consume.

"The key ingredient in the recipe for success is talent"
Justin Smith, Bloomberg

C R E A T I V I T Y

New technologies open up new opportunities for creativity

In Europe, we very often still understand "digital" as a medium in the communications mix. A completely new perspective is needed here. "Digital" has the power to create new brand experiences. And it's up to creatives to engage with new technologies and their creative uses.

"All the impressive advertising ideas of recent times have been ideas to use media innovatively."
Eric Hirschhorn, Burger King

Programmatic creativity creates individual brand experiences

It's no longer about communicating ONE message, but the right one for each individual user at each point in time. Data-driven individualized online advertising (content, banners & videos) is possible and therefore a must.

"By mid-2016, 50% of online advertising media will be created programmatically"
Matevz Klanjsek, Celtra

Content alone doesn't create value, only interaction with content does

One of the shortest overhead slides of the 2 days was "Nobody cares what you have to say". This statement elegantly sums up what it is all about. It is not about telling stories with a sophisticated content strategy in order to sell as much as possible, but about recognizing the problems of the prospects and customers and entering into a dialogue about them as individually as possible.

"It's all about brand impression, not content or ad impressions"
Adam Kleinberg, Traction

M E D I A

No progress without experiments

A key success factor for brands in the future will be the willingness to take a calculated risk in the use of new forms of communication.
Major brands in the USA spend around 10% of their media budget "experimenting" with new media and interaction possibilities. If successful, these will be added to a pool of 20% that will be further perfected. Consequently, correspondingly large shares of previously "classically" used expenditures will be eliminated.

"We use 10% of our media spend experimentally to test new forms of communication for their relevance to us"
David Christopher, AT&T

100% visibility is the new dogma

Studies in the U.S. show that only about 50% of the online advertising billed as placed was actually seen in the medium. For this reason, new "viewability standards" are being developed and some media are already rushing ahead with viewability guarantees. The development of such standards is also a must for Europe.

"The goal is 100% viewability ... and we solve the fraud cases in cooperation with the FBI"
Rob Norman, GroupM

Time is the new currency

Current studies show that the frequency of a circuit is significantly less relevant for learning a brand message than optimal viewing time. Every message needs a certain amount of time to unfold. So the new measure could be CP10/20/30. (what do 10, 20, 30 seconds of continuous advertising contact cost). Time capping will therefore also replace frequency capping. In order to achieve the longest possible viewing times, the quality of the surrounding content must also be given greater consideration and, if necessary, completely new page layouts and forms of advertising must be developed by the media.

"Time as a metric will also lead to better creative executions"
Shenan Reed, MEC

A G E N T U R E S

The agency of the future is a fusion of know-how in marketing and technology

Creativity as it is now expected from agencies needs to be extended to include creativity in the use of technological capabilities and the mining, analysis and targeted use of user-centric data.

"Automated user-centered marketing with a clear purchase or customer loyalty focus is the "
Tom Adamski, Razorfish

Evaluation benchmarks for agencies are redefined

The evaluation of agencies according to an untraceable "creativity" has had its day. Ultimately, it is a matter of assessing what measurable benefit an agency can provide for a company.

"Don't evaluate an agency's creativity, evaluate what they can achieve for you."
Andrew Benett, Havas

Collaboration beats briefings

Companies from IBM to Beats Electronics have abandoned traditional briefings. They develop strategies, concepts and in some cases completely new business models in interdisciplinary teams that are completely detached from their organization during these project phases. Of course, agency employees also sit on these teams.

"We don't write briefings. We develop campaigns WITH the agency that understands us."
Omar Johnson, Beats Electronics