Dom Heinrich | Vice President Global of Product Innovation & LAB13, MRM//McCann

What are the most innovative trends happening in advertising now?

We see a few trends rising at the moment. Many talk about how DARQ technologies will drive the post-digital wave. Distributed ledger technology, Artificial intelligence, extended Reality, and Quantum computing (DARQ) are already having an impact in disparate areas of enterprise. Imagine, 30% of all internet interactions will be non-screen based by 2020 (according to Gartner) … that is next year! Voice will go beyond simple transactional commands as we see them today. It will be able to identify and even predict diseases, like pre-diabetes. Voice can be almost seen as the most natural and invisible way to connect with the world.

I truly believe that when it comes to innovation, the biggest trend will be how we can solve human problems by action-oriented behavior. Meaning that innovation will be more creative than technology driven. From “what if” to a “what else” mindset. This is an area where agencies will outpace all the consultancies in the next years. For me, that’s the most innovative trend in advertising – innovation driven by creativity (not technology).

How do key cultural moments shape your creative decisions? 

While cultural moments always have an impact on creative thinking, they don’t impact the initial creative process for me. It’s similar with technology. I think it’s hitting a core challenge in today’s creative departments and advertising agencies. The methodology of “Inspiration – Motivation – Action” is often used, which leads to (sometimes good) creative concepts driven by cultural or technology inspired solutions. However, I think we need a significant paradigm shift to “Action – Inspiration – Motivation” in this human-centered design age. People’s action should inspire us to creative ideas, which should motivate us to find a solution – no matter if that technology, cultural or design driven.

What are some tips for those early in their careers to stay innovative and bring fresh ideas to the table?

If you are in your early days of your career, let’s talk in 10 years about the failures you made – haha. Frankly, it’s so hard to give any tips about this, but what thing I really learned is to appreciate failure as part of finding solutions. This relentless “not giving up”-attitude and continuously asking of “Why?” and “What else?” is a tough and necessary process to come up not just with fresh, but more important ideas, which are relevant in people’s lives and solving real life challenges. The best advice is – take action, go offline and talk to your target group.