What will advertising look like in a post-idea world?

To begin with, this question is applicable not only to advertising. New apps and services are becoming less about the original idea and more about execution–the experience of an idea, rather than the idea itself. The same goes for films and TV formats.

But to brands and ads. Have a look at what Uncommon London has done recently (for British Airways, The Ordinary, B&Q, etc.), as well as what Oatly has been consistently up to for a number of years, or the direction Heinz Ketchup has been heading in lately, thanks to work from both W+K and Rethink. These types of campaigns, brand expressions, design-driven if you will, makes no distinction between social and traditional media. And with a distinct branding element. In some ways it is a throwback to the classic Abbot Mead Vickers Economist ads of the 80’s and 90’s, but in a sense also to the ads of the Bernbach era. Progression by regression, perhaps.

Now, this is not to say that ads shouldn’t have ideas. They should. But we’ve been in an ideas-first world for the past few decades, and in many cases, put expression in the backseat, and I think there’s a shift happening towards a more succinct, expression-led world for brands. I’m a writer so you won’t catch this on my tombstone, but a picture, or to fit my narrative–an expression, is truly worth a thousand words. Then add the right three or four words, and suddenly the execution is worth two thousand words. And in this “fast-moving media landscape,” being able to be that economic, that’s hard currency.