Going beyond 'the big idea': Creative leads on 5G's impact on advertising

Singapore is fast on its way to leveraging on 5G as a key digital infrastructure of tomorrow. This comes after Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the National Research Foundation announced plans to set aside SG$40 million to build an open and inclusive 5G Innovation ecosystem.

While it is still in its early stages at the moment, industry players Marketing spoke to, shared insights into how the adoption of 5G will enable immersive experiences. A popular opinion from experts was that personalised customer journeys can be brought through fast data, which is also armed with layers of information about customer behavior and preferences. Ultimately, the possibilities with next-generation technologies are at the moment looking “endless”.

But with creativity at the heart of everything we do, Marketing spoke to creative heads on the new marriage of tech and creativity. Agreeing with the enriched digital experience and ‘endless” possibilities is Joao Flores, head of creative, dentsu X Singapore, who said the improvement of experience between people and content in return allows creatives to expand the boundaries of storytelling with innovation and imagination.

Flores said eventually the speed of upload will improve the experience between people and content, encouraging new behaviors, demanding brands to be up to speed and tell more immersive stories across channels. He added:

There is no denying that the rollout of 5G will change storytelling and the consumer journey.

According to Flores, creatives need to evolve from old habits and stop hiding behind “the big idea”.

“We, as creatives, need to evolve from old habits, stop hiding behind “The Big Idea” and evolve our creative process and creative structures to be based on this new digital reality, to create content based on this new innovative context,” he said.

Taking a different spin on what entails creatives is Mans Tesch, APAC MENA chief strategy officer, GREY Group, who calls 5G a “quiet revolution”. With no downloading issues with the possibility of 5G, Tesch said marketers and creative heads should explore adding another dimension to the brand experience by making it more personal.

“Elements of gaming, shopping, choose your own adventure, reviews, AI assistance can all be integrated into filmed content transforming the brand experience,” he added. The opportunity is vast but according to Tesch, marketers do not have the “cutting edge capabilities” across creativity, media, commerce and technology to succeed. Meanwhile agency partners have yet to tie all these areas together.

However, agencies might have it harder, Tesch said. “What’s needed is access to highly skilled, diverse talent in these various fields able to connect the dots, but marketers’ cost cutting exercises have thinned both their own and agencies’ ranks of that talent,” he added, saying:

For agencies, the opportunity calls for unorthodox alliances to make sure our creativity is the beating heart of this quiet revolution.

Meanwhile, Farrokh Madon, co-chief creative officer, Wunderman Thompson echoed sentiments of content being easily streamed through mobile devices that allows brands can captivate a viewer with even richer content. Madon also added that AR and VR could be adopted by brands with the rollout of 5G for better interaction with people and creation of immersive experience.

Speaking to Marketing earlier, Jeff Cheong, deputy president, DDB Group Singapore and head of Tribal Worldwide Asia and Singapore, said that while 5G promises to be a more superior connection with a “remarkable” latency and bandwidth performance, the focus shouldn’t just be on speed.

Better implementation on this new service is key to the growth of creativity.

According to Cheong, some of the opportunities include emergence of “live reality” which provides content creators wider breadth of opportunities to initiate viewer participation.

“Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) never gained mass adoption. With 5G’s fast data transfer, perhaps it will give content creators more tools to overlay mixed reality on their live content to create a new kind of viewers’ participation,” he said. With the demand for videos, comes the demand for more content. As such, the role of storytellers becomes crucial to better tackle clutter in the online space. Cheong also said the quality of production must also be elevated due to competition from a global stage.