5 Ways the Advertising Industry Is Preparing for a Digital Future

Chris Schreiber is director of marketing at social video advertising company Sharethrough. A leading expert on social content strategy, Chris recently presented a two-hour workshop on viral video at the Cannes Lions festival, entitled Making Videos Go Viral: Creative, Social, and Technological Techniques.

Last week, the worlds top brands and agencies descended on the Cannes Lions festival to discuss creativity in modern advertising and to anoint the campaigns that most effectively captured our imaginations. While the conference was renamed this year to the International Festival of Creativity (previously the International Advertising Festival), it featured an unprecedented amount of participation from blockbuster technology companies such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft.

Over the course of the week, the significant relationship between the powerful new forces in technology and the creative output from the advertising industry became quite clear. As the web increasingly empowers us to choose and share the media we care about, brands genuinely commit to creating content and experiences that thrive in our on-demand culture.

Here are five key themes from the conference that point to major changes in the world of advertising.

1. A New Wave of Experiential Marketing

In one of the opening sessions, brand futurist Martin Lindstrom noted,"It's more effective to feel the brand, not to see it." Experiential marketing was prominent at the conference. A number of brands discussed the ways we will use technologies, such as augmented reality apps and near-field communication (data exchanges with touch), to connect with consumers.

Few brands have committed to experiential marketing more than Nike, which has had a 55% drop in television advertising spending over the past 10 years. They filled the void by sponsoring over 200 club teams, offering revolutionary mobile technology for runners and creating over 10,000 pieces of original content.

2. Content, Not Ads

If this conference is any indication, we are about to see an absolute explosion of new types of content from brands. While this process has already begun (especially with online video), we may just be scratching the surface.

No session was more memorable than Coca Cola's, which delivered a compelling presentation on its "Liquid and Linked" content creation strategy. It emphasizes dynamic storytelling to establish multiple connections with people. Coke is vastly increasing its investment in many varieties of content production to help drive conversation and increase its popular culture relevance.

AOL president Tim Armstrong and Huffington Post founder Ariana Huffington also spoke at length about the vital importance of ad content. Former Googler Tim Armstrong addressed the advertiser audience: "Stop taking orders from Silicon Valley." He referenced the importance of creating unique content rather than simply optimizing traditional ads to perform better against technology algorithms. Throughout the conference, it was consistently noted that today's on-demand media consumption habits require brands to create content that people choose to watch (and share), rather than pushing unwanted commercials on its audience.

3. The Shift from Communities to "Collectives"

The "collective" has now begun to replace the "community. The term refers to the new generation of passionate online groups initiated by brands. This years most buzzworthy collective was Sneakerpedia, a Wikipedia-style site powered by Foot Locker, intended to galvanize "sneakerheads" wo! rldwide to document the history of sneakers. The site has built a ton of buzz, a great example of how a brand can create new collectives around topics people are truly passionate about. Additional collectives included Nokia Push Snowboarding and Lady Gaga's fan group "Little Monsters," created by Interscope Records.

4. The Rise of the "Creative Technologist"

Advertisers are ready to build. As advertising becomes increasingly digital, agencies are looking to bring in more developer talent to help them create new, original products. Jeff Benjamin, VP Interactive Creative Director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, spoke about this transition, calling for "invention" in advertising and noting that "inventors are modern storytellers." The same day, Toronto holding company MDC Partners announced a new $1 million competition for investment in technology-driven projects. Mark Holden, Global Strategy and Planning Director of PHD, noted his future predictions for the advertising industry, that new product development will be essential for the survival of media agencies as media buying becomes increasingly commoditized.

The Dominos Pizza Tracker, a Crispin website for Domino's, tracks the progress of a pizza delivery -- from dough-rolling to delivery.

5. The Gaga Effect

The award for the most overall positive mentions goes to Lady Gaga. The Gaga brand has quickly taken hold globally thanks to the previously listed tactics.

Gaga brand-building tools include the creation of her own collective (dubbed "The Little Monsters, her fans on Twitter number over 11 million), original content (Gagavision video series leading up to her new album release), gaming experiences (Gagaville allowed users to win song tracks by beating game levels) and product development (working with Polaroid on a new product line). In many ways, Gaga is the epitome of the modern brand, deftly leveraging digital tools to distribute her content and broaden her fan base... and other brands are taking note.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alengo

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