At What’s Next Live, Dentsu Creative Looked to the Future

Last week, Denstu Creative hosted What’s Next Live at London’s Somerset House. It was an afternoon of panel discussions, keynotes, and interactive sessions with industry and brand experts exploring how the interplay of creativity, data, technology, and cultural insights can help brands to connect with audiences and gain competitive advantage in an increasingly complex market.

“What’s Next Live brought together some of the most exciting voices across creativity, entertainment and technology to explore how brands can lead with relevance and impact. From the role of influence to the genAI content studio we are building with Adobe, this was a celebration of transformative creativity and how that is futureproofing our clients' brands,” Jessica Tamsedge, CEO, Dentsu Creative.

The afternoon began with a discussion between Jessica and Akinola Davies, award-winning filmmaker and creative visionary who’s worked with brands like Gucci, Kenzo, Moncler, Guinness, and is represented by Iconoclast. Akinola spoke about how brands, when they serve as platforms for artists, benefit from the relationship in a more authentic way. He also noted the importance for brands to show up in communities outside of London, where their presence is needed and is more rare, and to make regionality a part of the overall brand strategy.

The need to address communities was an omnipresent theme for the afternoon with multiple speakers emphasising the importance of reaching out to and being a part of communities – not merely trying to address them as consumers. The ‘Attention Spans and Superfans’ panel noted that more and more people are now spending time in places where brands can’t pay to play so it’s imperative for them to become authentically connected to those spaces by building long-term presence without chasing short-term ROI.

During the ‘From Prototype To Progress: Tech Innovation For Humanity From Dentsu Lab London’ presentation, Alex Hamilton, innovation director, presented the latest technological innovations that the agency is working on. A crucial point in his discussion was how technology can be used to foster connection while being cognisant that it can also isolate people – finding a way to increase the former and reduce the latter is a long-term focus for the agency. That’s why Dentsu operates under the principle that the best applications of tech ‘will be transparent, intentional, and human’.

The most insightful panel was 'The Future We Really Want: Helping Brands Meet Consumer Expectations’, a brand-new ethnology report featuring in-depth interviews alongside invaluable insights from the Outsiders’ MD, Steve Lacey. The research explored what consumers truly desire by looking in depth at the current political, cultural and economic landscape to diagnose the mood of the nation and the role brands can play in this shifting time.

One trend was the ‘The Great Retreat’ – from news, social platforms, and tech – though this was not about individualism or the ‘I’ but an inward looking exercise that’s helping people connect deeper with their desires and priorities. The discussion also covered how technology needs a human filter and that brands have to deeply understand communities before targeting them. It likewise highlighted that tactile experiences are the new luxury in this current moment.

The afternoon ended with a discussion between Jessica and Channel 4’s chief marketing officer, Katie Jackson. The talk looked at how Channel 4, under its unique public service remit, is continuing to push the boundaries of entertainment while refining its offering through audience feedback. The example used was the channel’s ‘We’re The Superhumans’ campaign for the Paralympics in 2016; hailed as revolutionary at the time, the campaign soon started to draw criticism from a number of people in the disabled community.

Channel 4 listened and dug deeper into what makes people tune into the Paralympics, uncovering misguided motivations. These insights were transformed into a deliberately antagonistic ‘Considering What?’ campaign and film that turned the lens on the viewer. By being daring and provocative, Channel 4 may have made its viewers uncomfortable but by doing so it also lived its values: to challenge with purpose; to represent unheard voices; and to reinvent entertainment.

‘What’s Next’ is an open question. And to answer it simply in a few sentences or a single panel is an impossibility. To Dentsu Creative’s credit, it’s having the needed, nuanced discussions that will help the agency and its brand partners to navigate the rocky terrain of tomorrow.